Tokyo - Japan: Gates and Guards everywhere at Shinjuku

Takashimaya Times Square building looming over Shinjuku

Run date: 21/09/2015

I have a confession to make. This blog has been neglected, thanks to the extreme volatility of the financial markets that I have been writing and updating my other blog that I did not spend much time for my running blog. Bad bear has also gotten me back into DOTA 2 which I have been spending an hour or two every evening sending my heroes in an attempt to trash the enemy's fortress. The blog posts have been piling up and I have vowed to clear them in more rapid succession. Better time management and less DOTA 2 is needed!

Now, back to Japan....

Our last stop in our Japan trip, the metropolis of Tokyo which we spend most of our time scouring the shelves of Akihabara, visiting all the new tourist attractions like the Asakusa Skytree which was previously not opened during my last trip here and wondering around the huge exhibition halls of Tokyo Game Show. Although we spent 5 days at Tokyo, we probably spend most of our time walking and standing and by the time we reached our scheduled running morning for our Tokyo run at the last day of our entire Japan trip, the guys were totally exhausted. I tried to rouse Big Boned Guy and Alcoholic to get up and explore Shinjuku on running shoes but they answered me with snores and grunts.

Cursing at their lack of willpower, I decided to explore Shinjuku on my own.

I had high hopes that the running experience around Shinjuku will be fantastic given that the area between Shinjuku and Shibuya has some of the most extensive parks and greenery in central Tokyo and I had visited both places before as a tourist before.

My plan was pretty simple, run south towards Yoyogi Park and check out the Meiji Jingu Shrine  .   

A short 1KM run from my apartment and I have reached the northern entrance of Meiji Shrine. As I ran past the guard post, I was surprised by a loud yell behind me.

"STOPPU!"

"Huh? Me?"

"No run here!"

"You mean I cannot run in the compound?"

"No run! Leave!"

That is certainly new! I did not know that running is prohibited at one of Tokyo's most important shrine. The last time I came as a tourist, I was certainly not warned that running is prohibited. Not willing to be wrestled to the ground by the security officials in the shrine should I decide to persist, I decided to head to another nearby famous park, Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden.

The Street between Shinjuku and Yoyogi

The guard who did his duty too well at Meji Shrine

Heading in an eastward direction, I made my way to the park, only to find the gates of the park blocking my way. It seems like the park has been turned into a tourist attraction which opens from 9am-4pm and requiring 200 yen for admission and it is closed on Monday.

I am starting to appreciate all the parks and gardens in Singapore which requires no admission fee and long opening hours. Even Botanical Garden has no such restrictions and is opened from 5am to 12 midnight.

Blocked by guards and high fences, I decided to entertain myself by running around the circumference of the park, which is surrounded by blend residential apartments and office buildings. Of all the runs we had in Japan for this trip, this is probably my worst experience.

What was interesting was that I observed many signs around the park. I wondered what they meant.....

Closed! and admission fee of 200 Yen!

No dropping of books?

No illegal dumping?

Lots of traffic junctions around Shinjuku

Once I reached the north side of the park where the heart of Shinjuku is, the amount of traffic junctions multiplied quickly and my jog slowed to a walk. The easiest way to navigate this area is probably though the maze of underground tunnel below Shinjuku but I figured that the well dressed pedestrians will not look kindly on a strange sweating guy squeezing past them in the air-conditioned tunnels.

I gave up running and slowly walked back to my apartment after stopping at the 3rd traffic junction.

Readers of Unfit Runners, do you know of a better place to run in Tokyo other than the route which I tried? I will love to hear feedback from you in prep for my next Tokyo trip.

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Osaka - Japan: There is a Surprise at Every Corner!

The Shinsekai District

Date: 15 Sept 2015

Osaka, the food paradise of Japan and the second largest city in Japan. Many tourists spend only few days in Osaka often visiting the usual sites like Osaka Castle, Osaka Aquarium and Universal Studios, before rushing off to visit the nearby cultural cities of Kyoto and Nara. For the Unfit Runners, we are spending a grand total of 5 days at Osaka, intending to visit the sights and sounds that other tourists will usually bypass. Of course, the other objective is to try out all the best gourmet food which Osaka has to offer but that is another story best left to another day and another site, as SG Unfit Runner is after all a running site dedicated to all stuff related to running.

Our Air BnB apartment was conveniently located at the Namba district just beside Den-Den Town.
Den-Den Town is the equivalent of Akihabara of Tokyo and in my opinion, is much less touristy and has much more bargains to be found for those who are into all things geeky. 

A Poster at Den Den Town

Another poster at Den-Den Town

Further south of Den-Den Town, lies another less visited gem of Osaka, Shinsekai with whole streets of famous eateries including Japan's famous fugu (pufferfish) restaurants. As compared to the extremely famous, touristy and expensive Dontonbori, we can find much better deals here.

In close proximity to Shinsekai are another two interesting sights, the Spa World and Tennoji Zoo. Spa World is pretty interesting as it operates like a Spa amusement park right at the heart of the city. They even have an giant Attack of the Titan Colossal Titan at the top of the building to highlight the steamy aspect of the spa. For those who are unfamiliar with the hit Titan series, the Colossal Titan always makes an appearance accompanied by lots and lots of steam. Over at the horizon, the tallest building in Japan, the Abenobashi Terminal Building looms over the horizon.

The Colossal Titan head peeping out from Spa World

Tennoji Zoo

Abenobashi Terminal Building. Tallest building in Japan

The run at Osaka around the Nipponbashi area has been extremely rewarding and interesting. The vehicular traffic during the early morning has been light and there is little trouble running across the traffic junctions around Osaka. There are always something new and interesting to see and I will strongly recommend any visitors to head out on an exploratory run early in the morning, to check out potential eating places and interesting attractions often left out in the tourist guide. There are also many potential running routes around Osaka which I will be keen to explore the next time around. As compared to Tokyo's Shinjuku, which I will touch on in a later post, I prefers the exploratory run around Osaka. 
  

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Geylang - Love Hotels and Narrow Walkways

Sorry for a lack of updates in the past few weeks. I have been busy with launching my Kickstarter project for Wongamania: Banana Economy that I barely have time to eat or sleep! My backlog is so huge that my runs from Japan has not been documented on the blog yet! I will get around it as soon as my life becomes less hectic!

Geylang River. Northern route

This Sunday, we headed to City Hall MRT, thinking to gate crash on the Jubilee Walk. Upon reaching Swiss Hotel, we realized that the Vertical Marathon is in full swing at the hotel. Figuring that our usual breakfast spots will be swamped with participants from both events, we decided to shift our running destination to the New Airport Road Food Center where the food is good and the crowd is thinner. We had tried the route south of Geylang River leading to Stadium and decided to try explore the northern side of the river.

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Mulheim - Germany: Beautiful Parks and Breathtaking River Trails

Running date: 07/10/2015

It has been a crazy month for the month of October. I barely had any rest coming back from Japan and off I flew off again, for another 2 weeks intensive work trip to Germany at Spiel Essen, the world's largest toys and board game convention to show case Wongamania. Although we escaped from the choking haze, we were met with freezing 0 degrees mornings and a flu virus that attacked everybody during the trip. However, I managed to clock in one run during the earlier part of my trip before it has gotten too cold and us too sick to do any morning runs.

I will like to introduce to you Mulheim, a small city at the north-west of Germany, just north of the fashion capital Dusseldorf.

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Japan - Kobe: Lost on Mount Rokko National Park

Once upon a time, there were 3 Unfit Runners who wanted to perform some fat cleansing after feasting on a copious amount of booze, oysters and Kobe beef. Wondering if the holy water of Arima Onsen can cleanse them of their sins, they decided to embark on a journey to the North, via the treacherous slopes of Mt Rokko  via a series of train, bus, ropeway and a cable car with the plan of not walking more than 500 meters during the entire journey.

In preparation of the journey, the heroes decided to gorge themselves silly with Kobe beef, leading to extreme food coma, resulting in them deciding to have a 1 hour Siesta (Afternoon Nap) before venturing into the Holy Lands.

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Japan - Hiroshima : Garden City without the Stress of Tokyo

SG Unfit Runners have been planning to go back to Japan ever since our last trip made in 2009, when we did an ambitious whirlwind tour covering 7 cities within 2 weeks. This time round, we were determined to explore more of the underbelly of Japan, covering Hiroshima, Kobe, Osaka and Tokyo, over a period of 17 days. Our first stop: Hiroshima.

Hiroshima is a place which I am sure everybody will be familiar with. It is the city where the first atomic weapon was unleashed on a populated area. A thriving metropolis and port on the western side of Japan, Hiroshima has almost everything that Tokyo has to offer, but with a lot less crowd. There is little jostling or squeezing even during peak hours in the city, well connected local rail and tram network and it has its fair share of local cuisine that made many of my facebook friends drool with envy when I posted pictures of its famous oyster dishes.

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Hong Kong - Tin Hau: A Haven for Cafe Lovers

Artisan Cafes in abundant along Electric Road

Run on 16 Aug 2015

Every year, I travels to Hong Kong to catch up with some of my good friends, enjoy the good food, do some outlet shopping and most importantly find new places to explore and run in Hong Kong. During the past few trips, I have always stayed around food haven of Hong Kong, Mong Kok (旺角）. This time round, due to my busy schedule developing the new Wongamania edition, Bad Bear did most of the leg work in planning the trip. He chose an extremely nice boutique hotel Victoria Somerset Hotel at Tin Hau (天后) which is nearby to Causeway Bay. Tin Hau is a residential estate with a good mix of commercial and residential buildings. One interesting tidbit which we heard from our Hong Kong friends is that the area is well known to be haunted, especially the residential areas. Personally, I think that this is a pretty nice area, much like Tiong Bahru in Singapore with quite a number of chillax cafes, pubs, eateries and desert shop all around the area. This place comes alive during weekend evenings when the residents hang around their favorite watering hole and chit chat till late night.

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Reebok Spartan Race - Not for you if you are Unfit (Freebies Alert!)

I was recently approached by the organizers of Reebok Spartan Race to give a shout out for their event.

Now I know why it is called the Spartan Race. You literally have to run through fire, crawl through mud, throw a spear and charge half naked into the welcoming arms of King Xerxes

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Photo Diary - SG50 National Day Run

It has been raining hard for the past 3 days and the skies cleared on the morning of 9th August 2015. The day is the 50th Jubilee birthday of the miracle city state Singapore and SG Unfit Runners decided to pay a visit to Marina Bay, where all the action will be later during the evening. We celebrated the nation birthday using different ways. I decided to take photos around the Bay area while Big Boned Guy tried to trace the number "50" on his Nike run app. Fang Tai ran down Orchard Road (I don't see how that's symbolic but it is probably a girl thing) while Lazy Girl overslept and turned up for Breakfast-After-The-Run.

It's 730am in the morning and there is already a crowd at the normally deserted Merlion Park

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Photo Diary - National Day Preparation @ Marina Bay

We are getting really lazy these days in looking for new areas to run and we have settled down to a comfortable routine of going back to Marina Bay area every week. So I am going to start a new section on SG Unfit Runners called Photo Diary, whereby we will present to you some of the interesting sights and scenes while running around the same old places.

This week, we will share with our readers some of the SG50 National Day Parade' set-up around the bay area. Enjoy!

A Countdown of 1 to 50 around the Bay Area.

Why number 20? Because No 18 got a bunch of people resting underneath. So
took photo with 20 instead

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