Japan is someplace I had always wanted to travel, but prioritized other destinations ahead of it. However, when I decided to seek out the best destinations to adventure into the backcountry coupled with making running the World Marathon Majors a priority, Japan became someplace I had to explore. Combining a visit to Hokkaido, with some of the heaviest snowfalls and consequently best skiing on earth and a visit to Tokyo, home to The Tokyo Marathon, one of the 6 World Marathon Majors, seemed obvious. In February – March 2025, I spent 3.5 weeks exploring the snow, history, culture, and food of Japan, and ran a world class marathon in Tokyo.
Hokkaido: Exploring the island and backcountry ski touring
My adventure began with 11 days in Hokkaido, which is the northernmost of Japan’s four major islands. I landed after 20 hours of travel late at night in Sapporo in the middle of one of Hokkaido’s famous snowstorms and drove one hour (while learning how to drive on the left side of the road for the first time) to Noboribetsu, a city in southwest Hokkaido known for its hot springs. I chose that location intentionally since I thought it would be a good place to recover from jetlag and start my exploration of the western side of the island. Norboribetsu is famous throughout Japan for its rejuvenating waters and best known for its onsen (spa), which I had the opportunity to experience on multiple occasions during my stay in the town since it was in the Takimoto-kan luxury hotel, directly across the street from the Adex Inn, where I stayed.
The onsen experience has its rituals, which is something most foreigners have to learn and get used to, particularly being unclothed. During my time in Japan, I made it a point to go to the onsen as least once a day, most of the time twice a day, partaking in 2 x 12 minute hot sauna sessions with a 4 minute cold plunge in between, coupled with relaxing soaks in the hot baths outside in natural settings. It made for an amazing way to start the day as well as finish the day, particularly after a hard day of skiing. Of all the things in Japan, I perhaps miss the onsens (along with amazing food) the most.
The Norboribetsu onsen is the largest I visited while in Hokkaido, being 2 floors and sourcing its sulfur and sodium water from Jingoku-dani (Hell Valley), just above the town. I walked the path through Jingoku-dan, past its hissing and smoking volcanic pools. Unfortunately, longer hikes were cordoned off due to deep snow, which I could not access without snowshoes. The town has playfully erected statues of cartoon demons throughout the town as a nod to its sulfuric-sculpted landscape, and one of the fun things to do was to hunt down each of the statues. The reference to its hellish landscape also carried over into its food, where I not only got to try outstanding spicy miso ramen but also “demon noodles” or enma yakisoba, which are a spicy noodle local speciality.
While in Norboribetsu I also got to experience some history of the Edo period of Japan at Date Jadaimura, a reconstructed period village with dedicated shows to samurai, ninjas and oiran women which brought to life how these different groups lived in operated in Edo Japan.
From Norboribetsu it was a short ride to Lake Toya, which made for a good stop over on the way to Niseko, Japan’s largest ski resort and one of the premier ski resorts in all of Asia. Lake Toya in the winter is a sleepy town since most excursions on the lake and hikes are in hibernation. Nevertheless, it was a picturesque walk on the Toya Gurotto Sculpture Park (at least the part that was manageable in the deep snow) and for great views of Naka-jima island that sits in the middle of the caldera lake.
While I came to Hokkaido for the backcountry skiing, I did want to experience some ski resorts since it was my first time on the island and a good way for me to ski without needing a partner in the backcountry. I was told to avoid Niseko since it was overrun by westerners, particularly partying Australians, but I’m glad I did not take that advice and spent most of the day there. I hit it on a powder day and found the slopes not crowded at all. I relegated myself to the Niseko Village part of the mountain, namely because of limited time but also because the top of the mountain, which connected the 4 different resorts of Niseko United, was closed due to high winds. I was able to get several powder runs and got a great feel for what the mountain was all about, including eating some really great slopeside ramen.
I did a white-knuckle drive in heavy snow from Niseko to Otaru, stopping at Yoichi Nikka Whisky Distillery along the way. I’m not a big whisky drinker and fine whisky is wasted on me, but it made for a good way to stretch the legs and experience Japanese whisky, which is world renown. The story behind Masataka Taketsuru, the “father of Japanese whisky” is a fascinating one, where he traveled alone in the 1800s to Scotland and knocked on the door of a whisky distillery there to ask to be an apprentice. He went on to marry a Scottish woman, Rita, who traveled back to Japan with him and mastered Japanese cooking. They built Nikka into the largest distillery in Japan and single-handedly put Japan on the map for the world of whisky.
A second stop on the way to Otaru included Aigues Vives, an amazing French bakery run by an older Japanese woman. She spent time learning the fine craft of baking and France and brought it back to Japan on a small scale at her bakery. Her diligence paid off since it was one of the best almond croissants and bread I’ve eaten.
Finally I reached Otaru, the former financial powerhouse of Hokkaido in the early 20th century, and now a quaint city known for its historical district that includes the Otaru Canal, Otaru Music Box Museum, Kitaichi Glass and Otaru beer, where I was able to sample some German style beer. I was fortunate that my timing was right where I got to experience the Otaru Snow Light Path Festival, held in February, where snow statues are illuminated for several hundred meters along the canal and in different parts of the city.
The streets of Otaru (and Sapporo) are covered in 2-3 inches of ice and snow making walking in the city a bit tricky. I experienced this first hand during an early morning 5 mile walk around the city, which allowed me to experience the city before anyone was awake and in a very picturesque and peaceful manner. During my walk, I made it a point to visit a mochi shop that is run by a Japanese woman, who has carried on the 150 year tradition of making mochi by hand. I wanted to sample them all, but had to limit myself to a pumpkin mochi and a bean paste one, both of which were outstanding.
After an amazing breakfast of all-you-can eat sashimi and other Japanese breakfast items and an onsen session at the Dormy Inn in Otaru, I headed out to ski Sapporo Teine, home of the Winter Olympic games in 1972. Like most Japanese resorts, the map makes the mountain look small, but in actuality, it’s quite large (Japanese map makers don’t take as many liberties as American and European resort map makers to name every little ribbon of snow a trail, thus bolstering the trail count). Teine provided breathtaking views of Sapporo from its summit and amazing runs, including powder tree runs. The terrain ranged from beginner to advanced, including a 45 degree slope which I finished the day on. Teine is only about a 30 minute drive from Sapporo, where I finished the day with an amazing bowl of spicy miso ramen at a place called Kifuh in Sapporo’s renown ramen alley, a small thorough way littered with amazing ramen shop after ramen shop. I also on another day made a return to ramen alley and tried Haruka, perhaps the most famous ramen restaurant in Sapporo, waiting an hour for arguably the best miso ramen I ever had. I also couldn’t resist trying Sapporo’s vanilla ice cream, which claims to have the highest fat content of any ice cream in the world, giving it a decadent creaminess.
Fortunately, my hotel, the Dormy Inn Sapporo, was in the heart of Susukino, Sapporo’s entertainment district, alive with neon lights (including a famed Nikka Whisky sign in the heart of Susukino Crossing), restaurants, bars, and hordes of people. It made exploring Sapporo easy, where I was able to check out the Nijo Fish market where all sorts of fresh fish, including Hokkaido’s famed king crab, can be found. After downing an amazing sampling of Hokkaido’s renowned seafood, including a sashimi bowl and amazing fresh sushi, I checked out the rest of the city including the Sapporo Clock Tower (whose main clock was manufactured in Boston, my hometown), the Sapporo TV Tower, which gave amazing views of the city from the top and the Odori-koen, a 13 block park in the middle of the city, which had just finished hosting Sapporo’s winter ice sculpture festival. The day finished up by checking out Nakajima Park and then with some sake tasting at the Chitosetsuru Sake Museum and some beer tasting coupled with a tour of the Sapporo Beer Museum. I’ve always been a fan of Sapporo Beer since it pairs so nicely with Japanese food, particularly its pilsner with sushi. The history of the brewery along with brewing across Japan came to life in the Museum, only to be topped by a raucous finish at the Sapporo Beer Garden, where I had the famous Jingisukan or “Genghis Kahn lamb”, a lamb or mutton mixed with vegetables, which you grill on your own table side grill.
To this point, I had been traveling solo, but on day 6, my friend and ski partner, Jeff Barnett arrived from the US, where we immediately set out for Ashahikawa, the second largest city in Hokkaido and the main launching point for ski trips to the wild mountains of central Hokkaido. Before arriving in Ashahikawa, we skied Kamui Ski Links, a mid-sized resort about 30 minutes from Ashahikawa. Kamui is a mountain visited by local Japanese and receives a huge amount of snow annually. We explored the rugged tree skiing as well as groomed slopes, getting a great feel for the mountain from top to bottom. We visited a local onsen before eating at a well known izakaya (Japanese pub), Izakaya Tenzin, in Ashahikawa. The sea urchin, a speciality of Hokkaido was a stand out.
The next day we got an early start to meet Will Carlton, our guide from Third Eye Backcountry, and to tackle Furanodake, one of the major peaks in Daisetzusan National Park, Hokkaido’s largest and wildest national park. Furanodake or Mount Furano, is 6,273 feet high and steeped in famous Japow (Japanese powder). We skinned through a deciduous forest to a ridgeline near the summit, removing our skins and skiing down untouched deep powder. We did more laps, skinning a total of 4,200 feet while getting in amazing turns. This is what we had come for. After a few hours out, we returned to our starting point, where very close by sat a fantastic onsen that had an amazing outdoor area in the open snow, allowing us to enjoy the volcanically heated water in the middle of the Japow. A great dinner at a local sushi restaurant run by a couple in their 80s topped off the night. The chef’s choice menu of fresh sushi was the best sushi I had ever had.
Our ski tour continued the next day as we skinned up Maetokachi, a volcano in the Daisetuszan National Park. It was a bluebird sky day with incredible powder all around. When we were about 300 vertical feet or so from the summit, we got alerts on our mobile phones from the Japanese government, but none of us could reach the message in Japanese. Nearby some snowboarders were screaming at us, telling us to go down. We were confused, but then decided that they were warning us that perhaps the alert had to do with seismic activity with the volcano. The volcano has a giant fumarole coming off the top, which was normal, but I didn’t realize that at the time and thought perhaps there was something to the snowboarders’ alarm. We decided it was best to go down, so we ripped our skins and descended about 1,500 feet, making some beautiful turns along the way. We regrouped, and spoke to some people that were skinning up who said the alert was just a test, which made sense since upon further discussion we agreed that if there was an emergency, seismic activity is noticed well in advance and we would have been notified not to go prior to us even starting, and others would have been prevented as well. Still, it had us thinking – what are the odds that we would have gotten an alert at the exact moment we were skinning up the volcano? Too much of a coincidence or bad luck. Nonetheless, we skinned back up and this time went to the crater at the top, peering into the caldera. It was quite an impressive site to see. We couldn’t get as close as we would have liked since the wind was blowing the gases a bit too close to where we were, so we decided to stay back. The ski down was amazing, with fresh turns the whole way in some of the best skiing I’ve ever done. We finished the day at Kenzo Ramen, a little ramen shop in the middle of nowhere in Hokkaido owned by an older gentleman who decided he had enough of the busy life in Tokyo, and came to Hokkaido to cook up his amazing ramen. We got some delicious gyozas to accompany our salt ramen. A tasty apricot sake complemented the two. The decor of Kenzo’s shop was worth a visit unto itself. Will was friends with the owner Kenzo and as a token of his gratitude for Will bringing him so much business with his clients (Kenzo’s is a frequent stop for Will with ski clients), he gave Will a photo he took of the mountain range that landscapes the front of his shop.
Our final day of touring took us to Ochachadake in the Yaburi range near Furano in central Hokkaido. Snow conditions were good, although a bit of a crust on an underlayer made it more challenging with a steeper grade terrain. The 4000 skin to the summit was a good test that paid off with incredible beauty of the deciduous forest Hokkaido is known for with snow covered trees and incredible views of the jagged surrounding peaks. The ski out took us through a winding pathway on gullies and in between trees. After the ski, we visited a nearby coffeehouse owned by a well-traveled Japanese woman, where we had a tasty sandwich, tea and cake. A visit to an onsen with panoramic views of the mountains we skied the last few days was a fitting end to the ski tour. Back in Asahikawa, we met Will for a pre-dinner beer at a craft beer bar that sampled the best craft beer of Hokkaido and then went to an amazing yakiniku or Japanese barbeque for our wrap up ski meal, where we had fresh lamb, beef and veggies delivered to our table and cooked them on the centerpiece grill.
On my last full day in Hokkaido, Jeff and I had to drive back to Sapporo, where I was catching my flight to Tokyo the next day. Along the drive back, we decided to check out the famous ski resort at Furano, which after Niseko, is considered a top destination in Japan. The skiing was great and the views even greater. The peak has extremely challenging runs along with a good amount of beginner terrain. Furano is a great place to experience Hokkaido and a place to wrap up my eighth day of skiing while there. We wrapped up our time at the onsen at the Dormy Inn in Sapporo and a great bowl of soba at one of Sapporo’s best.
Tokyo: Asakusa, Sumida River, Ueno Park, Marunouchi and Nihombashi
The next day I caught an early flight to Tokyo, where my wife Leslie would be meeting me later in the day when her flight from the US arrived. In the meantime, I had the day to myself and decided to grab an amazing bowl of miso ramen before heading off to explore the Asakusa area of the city, including the Sensoji Temple, the Demboin Temple, Asakura shrine, Hozopoman Gate and the Nitemon Gate, which make up the ancient center of Tokyo. The area is a blend of Buddhist and Shinto with the modern buzz of shops and street food. The labyrinth of streets around the temple area is full of restaurants, posing Japanese couples dressed in traditional garb, exotic street foods (like the takoyaki I got to sample, which is a piece of squid marinated in cream and rolled onto a gooey ball) and teahouses and coffee shops. I finally scored some delicious matcha at one of those shops, including a matcha latte, matcha mochi and a match cream puff.
I then explored Ueno Park, home of Tokyo’s finest museums and some of its most cherished shrines. Standouts included the Tosho-gu temple, built in 1627 and is representative of typical Edo architecture at its finest, as well as Kiyomizu Kannon-do, Shinbazu-Ike, Tsukino-Matsumoto, Kaneiji, Bentndo and Nezu Shine. Worship still happens at the temples with incense and prayers offered by the faithful, alongside the street food vendors and public performances, such as the samurai rock concert I got to listen to. Walking the Asakura and Ueno areas of Tokyo on a gorgeous day was a great start to the second leg of the trip. It was fantastic to see Leslie when she arrived that evening, where we made no haste to get some good sushi, tempura and other tasty Japanese delicacies at a local izakaya.
The next day, Leslie and I had the day to explore Tokyo, where we went back to the Asakusa area. Leslie got a good fortune at the Sensoji Temple and washed her hands with holy water. Then we took a boat ride down the Sumida River, where we got to admire the architecture of Tokyo, ending off at the Hana-rikyu Garden, a garden that formerly belonged to one of Japan’s preeminent shoguns. The confines now are just a beautiful public garden and home to a traditional Japanese teahouse, the Nakajima Teahouse, that serves up delicious ceremonial grade matcha and red bean paste cakes. We got to experience the traditional art of Japanese tea making with green tea with views of the shogun’s garden while sitting on a traditional tatami floor. We ended the day with a 6 mile marathon taper run around the grounds of the Imperial Palace of Tokyo in the Marunouchi and Nihombashi neighborhoods, followed by a relaxing onsen session and soba dinner.
Nagano
We then took a train to Nagano, home of the 1998 Winter Olympics. The city is surrounded by the “Japanese Alps” and some of the best snow in Asia. We didn’t come to ski, however, but rather to explore the ancient temple area, the surrounding towns and a traditional Japanese ryokan. The Zenko-ji temple is a pilgrimage site for Buddhists around the world and is a massive complex with 39 different shrines, temples and even a nunnery. The first Buddha statue ever to arrive in Japan (from Korea in 552 AD) is housed in Zeno-ji, but hidden away with a replica on display every seven years in a special ceremony called a gokaicho.
In the main temple, decorated with elaborate gold-gilded Buddha statues, paintings and other religious symbols, we took a pitch black tour under the altar that seemed to go on forever and meant to show all people are equal, searching for paradise and design to free you from your worldly thoughts. After exploring the massive temple area for 3 hours, we grabbed some oyaki, a steamed wheat flour dumpling filled with vegetables and meat that Nagano is known for, as well as soba, made from buckwheat grown in the hills around Nagano. Our day ended at Kamesei Ryokan in Chikuma, an onsen town about 45 minutes from Nagano. A ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn where you sit and sleep on the floor on a traditional futon, have Japanese tea, a traditional Japanese dinner, enjoy the onsen and simply relax wearing a yukata, a casual version of a kimono or bathrobe. No trip to Japan would be complete without experiencing a ryokan.
The ryokan served up an amazing traditional Japanese breakfast (some of which we weren’t sure what the food was, but enjoyed it nonetheless), before heading off to our next stop, the macaque snow monkeys of Jingokudari Yaen-koen park. The monkeys spend the winters hanging around the warm spots, including soaking in the hot springs in the park, grooming one another and playing in the snow. They are mainly females with their young since the males head off on their own and eventually join other troops. A natural geyser that sprouts off sulfur, calcium and other minerals nearby help feed the monkey onsens with healthy minerals. We also visited Obuse, famous for its Hokusai Museum, which houses the famous works by the late 18th century artist, Hokusai, including The Great Wave Off Kanagawa and Red Fuji (also known as Fine Wind, Clear Morning), arguably the most famous in all of Japan. Obuse is also famous for its sweetened chestnut cakes and confectionaries, which we got to sample and are truly uniquely Japanese.
Tokyo: Obaida and Tokyo Bay
We headed back to Tokyo, where things for the Tokyo 2025 Marathon became real. Packet pick up was at the Tokyo Big Sight, where I picked up my number and then got to experience the massive expo, including paying a visit to Peace Winds Japan, which was the charity I was raising money for. The 2025 fund raise was for the Peace Wanko Project, focused on rescuing dogs targeted for euthanasia, training them and then placing them with loving families in Japan. It was a win-win for the dogs and families and communities of Japan and a cause I was proud to be raising money for. I presented the names of all of the people who donated on my behalf to the representatives of the charity who were at the expo. In typical Japanese style, they were very gracious and happy that so many people donated to help them and happy I stopped by. I’m forever grateful to the 43 amazing humans who helped me raise over my $2100 goal for Peace Winds Japan and make the marathon possible for me.
Packet pick up was in the Obadia waterfront district of Tokyo, which is the high tech center with innovative museums, malls and the giant Unicorn Gundam transformer robot which we got to see transform right before our eyes. We walked the Symbol Promenade park to the Obaida Marine park, where we got sweeping views of the Rainbow Bridge of Tokyo Bay. We were surprised to find a replica of the Statue of Liberty, which sat not far from the France to Japan monument and the giant Divercity Tokyo Mall. No stop to Japan would be complete without a visit to a Hello Kitty store, which we did in the mall in addition to checking out the self-proclaimed best donuts in Japan (donuts are a big thing in Japan). Earlier in the day, we did a run through the Marunouchi and Nihonbashi area that took us around the posh area around Tokyo Station and the Nihonbashi Bridge, where all distances in Tokyo are measured. Wagyu beef for lunch and evening dinner of conveyor belt sushi capped off the night.
Nikko
We had a few days before the marathon, so decided to do an overnight trip to nearby Nikko, a city that dates back more than 1,200 years and has some of the most significant Shinto and Buddhist shrines in Japan. More recently, it became a resort town, got designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was home to the G7 Ministerial Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. We started exploring Lake Chuzenji, including Kegon Waterfall, one of the highest in Japan. The Futarasen-jinga and Chuzenji Temple offered up well preserved Shinto shrines with the lake and mountains as their backdrop.
The main UNESCO temple site showcased the architectural masterpieces of the Tokugawa Shogunate, which built Nikko into the main rival to Kyoto for capital of Japan, and successfully attracted European powers to open their embassies here at one point. The spectacular Toshugu Shrine was the highlight, with gold-guilded buildings that served as Shinto and Buddhist places of worship and honored the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, who ruled in the mid sixteenth century. The Rinnoji Temple boasted the Hall of Three Buddhas, three giant golden Buddha statues, which were very impressive.
Dinner included a local delicacy, yuba, which is a skin that forms on tofu (which sounds nasty but is quite good) along with yakiniku or Japanese barbecue.
The next morning, we caught the majestic Taiyun Temple, a mausoleum to Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third Tokugawa shogun and Futusuran shrine, built to honor the surrounding mountains, at the Nikko UNESCO sight right in the perfect sunlight first thing in the morning with no one there. The history of Japan’s greatest shogunate reverberated in the stone lanterns, golden shrines, and towering pine trees. The peacefulness was only matched by the Narabi Jizo, a line of 74 Buddha statues in a river gorge that stretches 100 meters and seeks to protect the souls of travelers and unprotected children.
The Nikko Imperial Villa, which was the summer residence of Japanese emperors in the early 20th century, gave us a glimpse into western influenced Japanese residential architecture, bedecked with bamboo floors, decorative sliding doors and gorgeous gardens. We had traditional ceremonial matcha tea at the villa before heading back to Tokyo for a pre-race dinner of shabu-shabu and pure Kobe beef, which was one of the best steaks I’ve ever eaten.
Tokyo: The 2025 Tokyo Marathon
I was up early on March 2, 2025, for the start of the 2025 Tokyo Marathon. The start of the event was in the Shinjuku neighborhood of Tokyo, which was about a 20 minute metro ride from my hotel in Ginza. I arrived early for the start, kissed Leslie goodbye once I entered the racers only section of the event and waited nervously for the start of the event. I always get slight butterflies while waiting, but they immediately go away once I start. While waiting, I met athletes from around the world, all of whom were on different journeys in Tokyo. Some were doing their first marathon ever while others were completing their Sixth Star. For me, running Tokyo was about experiencing the city in a very unique way, racing with amazing athletes and getting my Fourth Star.
This year’s event was the warmest day on record for the Tokyo Marathon, with a daytime temp around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. I had been training all winter in near zero temps, so the warm temps were a bit of a concern for me, but would not be a show-stopper. I felt great for most of the race, with things getting challenging around mile 20 or so, when my feet started to bother me, requiring me to remove my shoes several times to massage my feet. This happens since my feet swell at higher miles and even in wide-box shoes, the swelling causes pressure points that cause pain over time. It’s something I haven’t been able to fix and pretty much only occurs on the roads and not on trail, where I do the majority of my running, so I just put up with it on the road.
The race took us from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku to the Lidabashi and Nihonbashi bridges, Asakusa, Koto, Ginza, Shinagawa, Hibiya Park and then to the finish line near Tokyo Station. The race was packed with cheering fans the entire way and the crowded roads with nearly 38,000 runners never let up with a constant stream of runners. I didn’t get the time I was expecting, which was very surprising since I felt really great throughout the event and better than I did in both Chicago and New York City, where I posted slower times. Nonetheless, I was excited to have completed the event, get my finisher’s medal and earn my Fourth Star (with only Berlin and London to go to complete my Six Stars). It was definitely one of the more memorable events I ever did, not only because of the event itself, but also because of all I did exploring Japan leading up to the race and after. Definitely a unique opportunity and unique experience!
At the conclusion of the race, it took me a bit to locate Leslie who brought me my bag with my change of clothes. We walked to the Tokyo Station and headed straight for Ramen Alley, where we indulged in a big bowl of miso ramen, which was the perfect post-race meal.
Tokyo: Shinjuku, Harajuku, Ginza
We had 2 full days left after the marathon before heading home, and we decided to spend that time exploring the many neighborhoods of Tokyo that we hadn’t gotten a chance to see. The day after the marathon was the only bad weather day I had while in Japan, with cold temps, rain and even big frozen flakes of rain coming down – a big contrast to the previous day’s record-setting warmth. We didn’t let the cold and wet weather stop us, so bundled up and headed back to Shinjuku, towards the marathon start, to explore this lively part of Tokyo. Shinjuku is known for its vibrant nightlife, skyscrapers and neon lights. It’s also home to Omoide Yokocho and Golden Gai, two narrow alleyways packed with bars, and dozens of eateries, including ramen, soba, sushi, yakitori and kushiyaki.
Harajuku was the next neighborhood on our list. Takeshita Street is home to shops, boutiques and trendy foot stops while Ometosando offers a tree-lined avenue with famous brand name shops, restaurants and more boutique stores. Meiji-Jungu is Tokyo’s largest Shinto shrine, located in the heart of Yoyogi Park. The park is known as a hot spot for the Japanese cherry blossoms, which were still about a month or so away from blossoming.
Our final day in Tokyo was spent in Ginza, an area known for its high end shopping and lively fish market. We ate our way through the meandering streets of Tsukiji fish market, sampling fresh sashimi, onigiri, udon, ramen, mochi and matcha. The market is a fascinating collection of all sorts of fresh fish, meats, fruit, vegetables and cookware. It was an amazing experience to just walk through the market observing the different items on display, hearing the different sounds and smelling the variety of odors.
We’re not into shopping at all, but it would have been a miss not to visit Hakuhinkin famous toy store, Nissan Crossing, an innovation lab for futuristic Nissan cars, Mitsukoshi, the oldest department store in Tokyo, Ginza Wako, Ginza Six luxury shopping area alongside the stunning buildings of Louis Vuitton and Hermes.
The Kabuki-za temple and Matsuya theater, both built prior to the modern era, complimented the glass, chrome and polished steel of the Ginza bustling metropolis.
Japan: A Return in the Near Future
The trip to Japan wasn’t a month-long climbing expedition, which I typically do, but was a month-long adventure not only in the mountains, but also combining my passion for marathon running with exploring the food, culture and history of the countries I visit. I went to Japan with a lot of excitement and left with even more excitement. The country is a treasure-trove to visit, especially for people from the US and Europe, since the culture is so different. The people are amazingly polite and service-oriented, always looking to please. The cities are clean and organized. The technology, with all the constant sounds, is entertaining. The skiing and powder snow is mind-blowing. The onsens are an incredible tradition that keeps life in perspective. The food is among the best on the planet. And all of it is so affordable.
There’s no doubt I’ll be going back to Japan soon. High on my list is more backcountry skiing in Hokkaido, exploring the eastern side of the island, and visiting Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto and Okinawa. And that’s still just scratching the surface.
To view the full set of photos from this trip, please see my photo album Japan 2025: Hokkaido + Tokyo Marathon