Tokyo .. !! .. we are coming .. !! .. :)
-46 degC outside .. !! .. :s
1hr 43min to go!
Breakfast was served.
Inspiration of Japan.
The BIB Exchange Certificate. Besides your passport, this is the other document you must not forget to bring.
We arrived at Tokyo Haneda Airport at around 0525Hr. After clearing the custom, we met Mohan and Jennifer at the luggage area. We bought tickets to go to their hotel. They are staying at Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel which was the end point of the race.
Inside the bus.
We are not allowed to use our phone in the bus.
Vending machine at the hotel.
As we still had some time before the race expo opens, we decided to have breakfast and go sightseeing at Tsukiji Market.
Figuring out how to buy the train ticket.
The 2 way tickets.
The train passed by Tokyo Big Sight, the race expo area.
We took the train to Shimbashi.
We should learn from the Japanese .. they literally queue up to get into the train.
Breakfast .. yum yum .. :)
The food must surely be nice.
At around 1030Hr, we took the train back to Ariake for the race expo.
We were not supposed to use our phones in the train.
At Ariake station.
Outside the station. There was a guy holding the directional sign to guide people to the Tokyo Big Sight. We just took it and posed for photos .. hahaha .. :)
Looking at this .. we thought there would be little people ..
We were wrong .. !! ..
They were supposed to check our BIB Exchange Certificate with our passport.
Boxes and boxes of BIBs.
Here's mine!
A volunteer volunteered to take this photo for me.
This was the nice fellow.
Testing the BIB.
Collecting our shirts.
Met Alexis from Malaysia.
Ascis compression tights.
This is Malaysia's "Karen Mok"!
Only in my wildest dream can I run such a timing.
The event's trophy.
Next would be the event merchandises.
We spent around 2 hours inside the expo. This was my first time attending such a big scale expo. Its like a fair!
We headed back to the Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel for lunch.
1 last shot of the Big Sight before leaving.
Had Mac for lunch.
I did not book a room at Tokyo Bay Ariake Washington Hotel as the room rate was very expensive. I booked a room at a hostel at Asakusa instead. Azhar and GY were also staying there. I left for Asakusa after having lunch. Moving around with my luggage and stuff and the race expo bag was a little troublesome but I slowly got the hang of it. I took the train to Shimbashi again and transferred to the Asakusa Line, heading towards Asakusa. The whole journey took me around 45min.
The icon of Asakusa. The Kaminarimon, the outer gate of the Sensō-ji Temple.
The inner gate.
The street in between the 1 gates. There were shops on both sides selling snacks and souvenirs. Over the next week days, I would pass by it a lot of times.
The Sensō-ji Temple.
The hostel website gave us instructions on how to find our way there from the temple.
From the temple, we should see the amusement park at the back.
This was a bridge we need to cross. It was very easy to miss this as from the hostel website I thought it would be a very big bridge.
After crossing the bridge, we would come to this.
Walking inwards, we would pass by the amusement park on our right.
Walking further along the road, there was this sharp right turn.
It just in front.
We made it! It was quite a walk.
Sakura Hostel.
The counter at the lobby.
There were flags from many countries pasted on the cupboard doors. I see Singapore!
When I showed the counter staff my reservation, I got a little shock. They told me they did not receive my confirmation and thus cancelled my reservation! However, I did receive their email asking me to go to a website to confirm my reservation. The counter staff said I was supposed to receive an email after the confirmation which I did not. However, I also did send reply to their email saying that my reservation was confirmed.
The guy was sitting there looking through the hostel records trying to see if there were empty rooms available for me while I just stood at the counter hoping (frantically) that he would tell me yes. He suggested me to other hotels at a similar rate or even to their other branches at other parts of Tokyo. I rejected as I wanted to stay here as Azhar and GY were also staying here. He said that there were beds available for me for the night and on Sunday and Monday night. However, there were no empty beds at the moment for Saturday night.
Great! The night before the race.
He suggested that I bunk in together with Azhar and GY for Saturday. At this moment, GY came in through the main door. I felt a sense of relief when I saw her. I explained to her the situation and she agreed to let me bunk in their room. However, the room was very small and thus I would need to sleep on the floor which I did not mind. Just do not ask me to shift location.
After putting down my stuff, we went out for dinner as we were both hungry. Azhar and Florence were still at Shinjuku so GY and I went for dinner straight.
We roamed around the hostel and came to this restaurant. The food looks good.
Curry chicken rice. I had asked for more rice for carbo loading. It was very tasty. The chef could not understand much English so I just pointed to the rice and gave a thumbs up. After I finished the rice, I asked for more rice again. Hahaha .. and the chef was generous enough not to charge me for the extra rice.
We walked around the area after dinner. We came across this small shop by the main road selling bento sets at a real cheap price!
Its only Y250 a box.
There was different variety to choose from. The best thing was it opens 24Hrs! Now we know where to get a cheap meal when we need one.
We went in a convenience store to look around.
Bought this ..
.. and this .. yum yum .. :)
We walked back to the hostel as we finished the little snacks we bought.
Once back at the hostel, I went to my room and unpacked some of my stuff.
I took the lower left hand corner. We were issued bed sheets and pillow case at the lobby counter.
After a short while, GY came to my room and said to go to the lobby and look at the items in the race kit while having a cup of hot milo. Good idea.
There were many things inside the race kit. One of them was this orange gloves from Amino Value .. the official isotonic drink sponsor for Tokyo Marathon this year.
We chatted a while more before going back to our rooms. It has been a long day. The weather was not as cooling as I had thought. It was like in the mid 10s .. could be much colder ..
Lets hope the weather turns "better" as we go closer to race day. Tomorrow would be to recce the race start at Shinjuku.
Goodnight!
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