This past weekend, I ran in the 20^th Anniversary Seto-Ohashi Bridge Marathon.  The bridge was completed in 1988 and at 13.1 km long, it ranks as the world's longest two-tiered bridge system.  The Seto-Ohashi Bridge was constructed as a series of double deck bridges connecting Okayama and Kagawa prefectures in Japan across a series of five small islands in the Seto Inland Sea.  It was along these points, where I started my 8 km run along side thousands of Japanese.  Between the 8 km runners and 15 km runners, there were approximately 10,000 people on-hand, including Japanese silver and bronze medalist – Arimori Yuko.  “Arimori competed for Japan in the 1992 Summer Olympics held in Barcelona, Spain in the Marathon where she won the silver medal with a time of 2:32:49, eight seconds behind Russian Valentina Yegorova who ran the race in 2:32:41. This hard-fought race was the closest finishing time in Olympic history for men or women at that time. At the Atlanta Olympics four years later, Arimori returned to the Olympic marathon, where she won the bronze medal and finished behind Valentina Yegorova for a second time. Yegorova ran the race in 2:28:05. Arimori's time was 2:28:39. Although both runners ran four minutes faster than their previous olympic race, they were beaten back by Ethopian runner Fatuma Roba, who completed the race and won the gold medal with a time of 2:26:05.  Arimori is considered to be the first Japanese female “professional” athlete. She was the first woman granted professional status by the Japanese Amateur Athletic Federation (JAAF), the nation’s governing track and field association. She was granted this status in 1996, following her second and final appearance at the Olympic Games in Atlanta” (Wikipedia).  Check out my picture with her below!

 2x Olympic Champion and 6x Tibetan Basketball Champion! 

Last Sunday morning, I participated in my second Tokushima International Charity Fun Run with my co-workers and students. This year's event took place at the beautiful new Tsukimigaoka Park in Matsushige, Tokushima. Located along the beach, this park is ideal for barbecuing and provides a scenic route for running. The annual charity marathon requires each runner to pay a 2000 yen entrance fee (approximately 20.00 USD); the proceeds will be donated to an underprivileged children's school in Vietnam. Participants are able to choose from either a 3, 6, or 10 kilometer run. This year I ran the 10K course (about 6.2 miles) with little improvement in my time from two years ago, a dismal 1-hour and 5 minutes. However... I did barely edge Japan's 2x Gold Medalist at the wire, check out the proof on my video!... Besides being for a good cause, I like this summer "marathon" because it helps my conditioning for the Tibetan basketball tournaments I play in annually. This year my team will be gunning for our 6th Tibetan basketball championship in Seattle! For the information of my friends and family, I will be arriving in Seattle on June 28th and returning to Japan on July 10th. See you all soon!

Note: Check out my video from the Tokushima International Charity Marathon below!  Also, I made the cover of the town newsletter!

Yesterday, Japan won the inaugural 2006 World Baseball Classic (WBC) beating Cuba 10-6 in the final. As an American living in Japan, I was in a unique position to experience both the thrill of victory, as well as the agony of defeat. Watching the Americans lose to Mexico was disappointing to say the least. With an endless number of superstars on the roster, it's hard for me to understand what went wrong for Team USA. Prior to the WBC, I always believed baseball was less of a team sport than basketball and football; I now think differently. I believe it was good teamwork and experience that resulted in Japan and Cuba meeting in the finals. Baseball is a pressure packed sport, where one error can make the difference between winning and losing. Add in a losers out format with your entire country watching, it can be daunting even for a Major League Baseball professional. Every member of Team Japan has played in Japan's intense win or go home High School National Tournament, which generates excitement similar to the NCAA Basketball Tournament in the US. Playing baseball under these conditions is difficult and I believe it was this past experience that was the difference in the end. On another note, it was interesting to see another side to Ichiro Suzuki. Living in Seattle, I've always seen Ichiro play, but new very little about him as a person. The recent quotes in the paper and the emotion he showed during the WBC, I think portray him as truly passionate about the sport of baseball and his country. I also think America is rubbing off on him a little bit. Could he be the Muhammad Ali of Japanese baseball?... you decide. Here are a few Ichiro Suzuki translated quotes that caught my attention recently:

• "We're going to put the Koreans in their place." (before the first game against Korea in the WBC)
• "I don't think Korea will beat Japan for 30 years." (before the first game against Korea in the WBC)
• "This is the worst day of my life." (after losing to Korea for the second time)
• "To lose a 3rd game to the Koreans would be unforgivable." (before the third game against Korea)
• "This is the greatest day of my life." (after winning the WBC championships)

This past Sunday morning was the 7th annual Tokushima International Charity Fun Run (a.k.a. - a marathon). Over 200 residents of Tokushima took part in the event. Although hard core running enthusiasts would never consider 10 kilometers (6.21 miles) a marathon, but for me this was the closest to the real deal as I'm ever going to get. After paying the 2000\ fee to charity (about 20.00 US dollars), we were given an official number and a map of the course. The day's conditions couldn't have been better. Running along side the beautiful Tsukimigaoka seaside in Matsushige town I set off with only one goal, not to stop. I began the race strong and ahead of my peers only to later watch the only other two male ALTs pass me. As these two slowly left my view, I looked for other motivations to keep going. I focused on staying in front of the female ALTs and to keep pace with this little Japanese woman wearing the number 176. It was back and forth between me and 176 the entire race. It was clear to me she was a hard core runner in her youth, probably a university champion or a former Olympian or something. She had all the signs that told me she's been down this excruciating road before, but what really gave it away was she kept looking at her watch, which told me she owned one of those fancy watches with a stop watch feature. As she was clearly out for her best time, I was focused on my getting my first. In the final turn while running on fumes, I kicked in my nitro to finish just ahead of her with a time of 1 hour 4 minutes. There is no greater feeling of accomplishment than running and finishing in an organized running event such as this, it's even more rewarding when you can do it for charity. (and beating that woman who was probably the greatest national athlete of her time... well, that's just icing on the cake).

Note: see Tokushima Sports album for more pictures.

This past weekend I reassembled the Tokushima ALT basketball team in my effort to get back into playing shape by July. Our current team consists of a bunch of great guys, full of inspiring enthusiasm, excellent tenacity, superb work ethic, some can even speak a little Japanese... but NO basketball talent. The combination of an Aussie with a love for rugby, a Brit who prefers a little "footy" on the weekends, add in a Canadian just for the hell of it, then sprinkle in some Americans that have never played the game - you've got a recipe for an international crisis. Now... we do have one player besides myself that has played some organized ball in the past, but after two reconstructive knee surgeries to the same knee - as a concerned friend I've been encouraging him to consider the wheel chair leagues. That's our current team we used against one of the top high school teams in Tokushima City this past weekend. Straggling into the gym this past Saturday morning at 9 something, 10 minutes late we found our competition with their full squad of probably 20 players deep fully warmed-up ready to play... I'm not gonna go into too much detail about what happened after that, but let me just say we weren't ready to play. To make matters worse, that high school team never took their foot of the gas. After being up by over 20 or was it 40, I can't remember - they continued to full court press us, never letting up a bit. This was only our first game back as a team and it was clear we were out of shape... we'll play this team again in June and see how far we've come. But until then, baby steps....