Japan Day 68: Okayama

Another day with very few pictures. My sister was running part of the Okayama Marathon today so I woke up early thinking about how I could try to get her a taxi using the Japan Taxi app. Unfortunately everyone takes their own taxi to the start of the marathon and the app did nothing useful. But I got up early to start fiddling with the app. My sister just rode with another random guy who was taking a cab to the start.

I went back to my room and eventually made it downstairs to have breakfast. It was underwhelming. I kept seeing opportunities to buy APA curry, and the curry in the APA hotel wasn’t great. It wasn’t bad either but not good enough to buy more of. 

I got on a train to Senoo, and then caught a cab for our usual cheering spot. The cab driver made the same mistake my friend AJ made and couldn’t make it through the marathon. I told him how to get to where we needed to go (the long way around) and we got there with time to spare. We missed seeing the fastest people, but we did see friends running. I’ve been here enough times during the marathon to meet a bunch of the runners.

My sister bailed out at the 25km mark and I think our cheering spot is at the 26km mark. Instead of taking the bus back she caught a cab with us to the Senoo station and then we took a train and a cab to the end of the marathon so she could pick up her bag of stuff. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering back (eating this lunch below) and shopping.

I spent a lot of money. Another watch and the fancy jean jacket I said I wouldn’t buy.

In the evening we went to the usual after-race party with our friends. I just showed up to eat and drink, of course, not being a runner.