I had finally done it.

Five weeks of running.

Five weeks of figuring out pacing, heart rate, breathing, recovery, walking breaks, shoes, music, and all the other things I apparently needed to learn before I could just go outside and run like a normal person.

I finished the program walking around during my cooldown with a smile on my face.

I finally had a routine.

Two days later, I got on a plane for Japan.

So much for the routine.

The Longest Couple of Days

We left Spokane on August 2.

August 2 and 3 more or less blended together.

That is one of the strange parts about flying across the Pacific. Between airports, flights, trying to sleep sitting up, and eventually crossing the International Date Line, your body stops caring what the calendar says.

At some point, we finally arrived at Narita.

And one of my first stops in Japan was exactly where you would expect someone fresh off an international flight to go.

7-Eleven.

Not exactly a dramatic arrival.

But this one was in the main lobby at Narita International Airport, and walking into it immediately brought back memories.

I grabbed a pizza-man, a Rainier Caffè Latte, and a Pocari Sweat.

Nothing fancy.

But I had eaten and drank those kinds of things years earlier when I was stationed at Kadena Air Base.

One convenience-store steamed bun and a few familiar drinks later, and suddenly this did not feel entirely like a vacation somewhere foreign.

I had been here before.

For everyone else, we had just arrived in Japan.

For me, part of it felt like coming back.

Walking Instead of Running

I had not planned on running while we were in Japan.

That decision became considerably more annoying once I got there.

Because I wanted to run.

Pretty much every day.

There were mornings where I looked outside and thought about how good it would feel to just go out for a couple of miles. There were actually times when I had enough free time to do it too.

The problem was simple.

I had not brought my running gear.

No running shoes. No setup. Nothing.

So there I was, halfway around the world, finally with a genuine desire to run and no practical way to do it.

A few weeks earlier, convincing myself to go running had been part of the challenge.

Now I was in Japan wishing I had packed for it.

That felt like a pretty significant change.

Luckily, Japan was not exactly allowing me to sit still.

Tokyo made sure of that.

One day we finished with more than 19,000 steps, roughly 9.6 miles, and 24 floors climbed.

Apparently my substitute for running was walking almost ten miles around Tokyo.

By the end of that day, my lower back was letting me know that it had also participated in the sightseeing.

But the walking felt different from training.

We were going places.

Getting on trains.

Walking through neighborhoods.

Finding food.

Then walking some more.

I was not checking pace.

I was not worrying about heart-rate zones.

The movement was just part of the day.

Still, every time I saw a good stretch of road or woke up with a little extra time, the thought was there.

I could really go for a run right now.

I just wished I had brought the shoes.

Cars, Godzilla, and Harry Potter

One of the things I was really looking forward to in Tokyo was the car scene.

And it did not disappoint.

I got to see some of the cars that immediately made me think of Tokyo Drift, along with Mercedes and Rolls-Royces that had been modified to the point where calling them “luxury cars” almost did not cover it anymore.

Some of them were ridiculous.

In the best possible way.

That was one of those things that had absolutely nothing to do with running, recovery, Garmin, or anything else I had been obsessing over for the previous month.

I just thought the cars were cool.

We also went by the hotel with the giant Godzilla head sticking out over the city.

Because apparently Tokyo needed a giant Godzilla watching everyone go about their day.

Naturally.

Then we ended up at a Harry Potter-themed store.

Cars.

Godzilla.

Harry Potter.

Almost ten miles of walking.

Tokyo was covering a lot of ground.

Literally and otherwise.

A Very Important Part of Japanese Culture

Of course, we also needed to participate in an important cultural tradition.

Sushi go-rounds.

A lot of them.

Hama Sushi.

Sushiro.

Then more sushi.

I realize conveyor-belt sushi probably does not make everyone’s list of culturally significant Japanese experiences.

It does on mine.

There is something about sitting down, ordering whatever looks good, grabbing plates, stacking them up, and eventually realizing you have absolutely no idea how much sushi you have eaten.

Salmon.

Tuna.

Scallops.

Whatever else looked good when it came around.

There were plenty of other meals too.

Ramen and gyoza.

Yakiniku.

Cold udon.

Curry and naan.

Mochi.

Gelato.

And enough Pocari Sweat to make it feel like I was back in Okinawa again.

I had spent the previous month paying more attention to hydration, protein, recovery, and what I was eating around runs.

In Japan, I was still aware of those things.

I just was not going to pretend I traveled halfway around the world so I could carefully optimize my macros.

Sometimes the correct nutritional decision is sushi.

An Izakaya on the Way

On the way toward Nagoya, we stopped at an izakaya.

That turned into one of those random parts of a trip that ends up being more memorable than something you actually planned.

Good food.

Drinks.

Everyone sitting around together.

No rush.

No workout waiting afterward.

Just a fun stop along the way.

Those were some of my favorite moments in Japan.

Not necessarily the big attractions.

Just being somewhere, eating something good, and enjoying where we were.

Coming Back to Nagoya

Eventually we made our way to Nagoya.

That part of the trip meant more to me than simply visiting another city.

My wife’s family is there, and the last time I had been in Nagoya was during a completely different chapter of our lives.

We were getting our marriage documents officially taken care of.

Now I was coming back years later with my wife and the kids.

That was a strange feeling in the best possible way.

Japan already held a lot of memories for me from my Kadena days, but Nagoya belonged to a different part of my life.

This time we were not there worrying about paperwork.

We were there to see family.

We also made it up to the Sky Tree and got to see the city from above.

After spending so much of the trip down in the streets, train stations, and neighborhoods, seeing everything from up there gave me a completely different perspective.

Nagoya was not just another stop.

There was history there.

Hamamatsu

After Nagoya, we made our way to Hamamatsu.

That was another place with history attached to it.

The kids were born there.

They are old enough now that going back meant more than simply telling them, “This is where you were born.”

They could actually see it.

That was one of the things I appreciated most about this trip.

Tokyo was exciting.

Nagoya meant family.

Hamamatsu connected the kids to a part of their own story.

And Hamamatsu also gave us one of the most fun nights of the trip.

One of my wife’s friends owns a restaurant there.

The food was delicious.

But the restaurant also had a karaoke bar.

That pretty much divided the family into exactly the roles you would expect.

My wife had karaoke.

The kids had the pool.

And I had free Asahi beers.

Everyone won.

Honestly, some of my favorite time in Hamamatsu was like that.

Good food.

Family and friends.

Nice weather.

Kids in the pool.

Music going.

No schedule.

No running workout.

Nothing I needed to accomplish.

After weeks of thinking about what my body was doing every time I moved, it was nice to have days where movement did not need to accomplish anything.

Even if I was still thinking about running.

Some Days Were Quieter

Not every day involved 19,000 steps.

Some days were closer to 3,000 or 4,000.

And that was fine.

The Japanese bed was not particularly interested in helping my back recover.

Neither was the pillow.

After enough nights, my back was sore enough that I was definitely looking forward to my own bed again.

Toward the end of the trip I also ended up dealing with a migraine.

So there were days where we slowed down.

That was another thing I was getting better at accepting.

I did not need to compensate for a quiet day.

I did not need to turn a vacation into a fitness challenge.

Sometimes we walked all day.

Sometimes we sat around with family.

Sometimes I drank Asahi while my wife sang karaoke.

Sometimes I ate entirely too much sushi.

All of it counted as the trip.

The funny thing was that even on the quiet days, I still wanted to run.

I would have a little time and immediately think about it.

Then I would remember the same problem.

No gear.

At some point, I started realizing this was not just me worrying about losing fitness.

I genuinely missed running.

One More Sushi Go-Round

Naturally, we were not leaving Japan without doing sushi again.

Our last stretch included another fairly ambitious sushi meal.

Salmon.

Tuna.

Scallops.

Beef.

Smoked duck.

Then tempura shrimp udon because apparently the stack of sushi plates had not gotten the message across.

And dessert.

At some point you stop counting.

I regret nothing.

The Longest Day

On August 15, we started flying home.

In Japan.

Many hours, several time zones, and one International Date Line later, we landed back in Spokane.

Still August 15.

Apparently the reward for an extremely long travel day is getting to experience part of the same date twice.

By then I was tired.

My back was sore.

My sleep schedule had absolutely no idea what country it belonged to.

And I had not gone for an actual run in almost two weeks.

The funny part was that I had wanted to run almost the entire time.

I thought about it in Tokyo.

I thought about it in Nagoya.

I thought about it in Hamamatsu.

There were even days when I had enough time.

I just did not have the gear.

Five weeks earlier, part of the challenge had been convincing myself to run.

Now the frustrating part was that I couldn’t.

That might have been the clearest sign yet that something had changed.

So Much for the Routine

Before the trip, I wondered whether taking that much time away would undo what I had spent five weeks building.

It would have been easy to look at almost two weeks without a Runna workout and call it lost training.

But I do not think it was.

I walked all over Tokyo.

I got to geek out over the car scene.

We saw Godzilla hanging over the city and wandered through a Harry Potter store.

We stopped at an izakaya on the way to Nagoya.

I got to see my wife’s family again.

We returned to the place where the kids were born.

I ate food I had missed since my Kadena days.

I drank Pocari Sweat like I had never left Japan.

I drank free Asahi while my wife sang karaoke and the kids played in the pool.

And, yes, I ate an unreasonable amount of sushi.

Running had started becoming part of my life.

The trip reminded me that it did not have to become my whole life.

But it also showed me something I was not expecting.

I wanted it to be there.

I did not feel guilty about the runs I had missed.

I was just ready to run again.

Had I lost anything?

Would two miles still feel like two miles?

Would my breathing still settle in?

Would the 165 BPM music still work?

Would my legs remember what they were doing before I left?

I had no idea.

I just knew that after almost two weeks of wishing I had packed my running shoes, I was finally home.

Now I could find out.