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By Chris Lipscomb

Many people told me that the ORC trip to Japan was going to be the trip of a lifetime. But it didn't really sink in until I made the trip. The Japanese runners made every effort to entertain and help us to enjoy our stay in Urayasu.

The highlight of my trip I would say was the race. Even though I did not have the race I expected (1:24:00), I loved the experience. One thing that stood out different was that the spectators did not cheer. They had small flags with the name of the race on them, in Japanese of course, and would wave them as we ran by. So it was lots of rustling with a few people quietly saying a phrase I couldn't understand but later found out meant, "do your best". Maybe that was because they could tell that I was out of energy and dying fast. Which leads me to food. I don't ordinarily try new things but this trip was different. Most of the food I liked but the best was what the pre race meal. We went to downtown Tokyo to an area that "many young people go". There we had beer (of course, they drink beer all the time) and the main course was similar to an omelet. You cook it on a hot plate set in the table and everyone eats from that. There were no eggs involved, just meats veggies and lots of stuff that I didn't recognize. But it was delicious. Then there was the mayonnaise. It tasted great on top of the omelet thing but was warm and I think therefore the cause of my illness later that evening.

Staying with my host family was an adventure. Asao spoke almost no English and his wife spoke very little. There was a lot of charades followed by much laughing. The first day we went to a park in the middle of Tokyo. Asao had a GPS in his vehicle but that didn't prevent us from getting lost. It seemed unusal to see a fairly large park complete with a lake crammed in between buildings. From what I could understand the land belonged to an imperial type of official many years ago and donated the land to remain a park. Staying with the family gave me a view of what Japanese life was really like far more than what staying in a hotel would allow.

We took so many things in in the short time that we were there that it sometimes doesn't seem real. When I go to Japan again I'd like to stay a bit longer and this time I will learn more of the language. Maybe just some of the basic phrases that will help me when I get lost on my runs.

This trip is definitely one of my lifetime highlights. Through one of the greatest hobbies I have been given a great experience.