Tokyo and Kyoto. Adding salt to the wound. Part 2

Temple at Asakusa.

Have a good night sleep and hope to wake up with a painless leg. The first thing I wake up I thought the pain on the left leg is not there until I moved my leg. The pain is still there. It is just that if you don't moved it, it is not painful. If I pressed softly against the calf, still painful. Have to try to walk and see what happens. So slowly get out of bed, putting my feet on the ground. Standing up and start to walk. It is no good. The calf is still painful when I walked. I have to walk with my right leg and slowly dragging my left leg. I will have to work two steps and slowly for one step.

Breakfast at Starbucks, Kyoto

It was raining outside and I switched on TV, realising that the weather was bad around the area. Anyway, it is difficult to do any temples visiting in the rain. Better to take more rest and after that going to Starbucks just next to the hotel for breakfast. With the rain and the condition of my leg, visiting temples will be out of the question. Will have a hard time climbing up and down those steps. Decided to go to the Kyoto station earlier and just walk around Isetan Departmental Stores at Kyoto station and do some shopping. Since it is easier to limp around in a shopping complex.



Walk into one of the pharmacy at the Kyoto station. Spoke to the elderly pharmacists, "Sumimasen. I have really bad cramp on my left calf. (Pointing to my calf). Any medications for it?" The elderly pharmacists guided me to right shelves selling all those medications. Looking and deciding, finally decided on a roll-on type and the medications doesn't smell. Immediately, applying it. Hope that it can recover within a day. Forget about thinking of running in Japan. My grand plan of running in Yoyogi park is out of the window. Just hope that the injury doesn't get worsed and I can walk for the rest of the four days in Japan.

Ueno Park, Tokyo

Fresh seafood at Tsukiji

Going back by shinkansen in the afternoon to Tokyo, I have still been able to limp around visiting Ginza and the Shinjuku area where the hotel was. The pain was quite bad when I walk down the stairs. I was trying to use the lift and escalators as much as possible. With a limping left leg, I still managed for  three days to visit Tsukiji, Akibahara, Ueno Park, temples at Asakusa, Tokyo Skytree, Shibuya, Ginza and on last day to Odaiba. Odaiba is actually an artificial island connected by the rainbow bridge at central Tokyo.

Views at Ueno Park

Sakura Boulevard at Ueno Park in Autumn. 1,000 sakura trees with no sakura.

No smoking in public places. Designated smoking zone at Akibahara

I wouldn't wanted to visit a doctor because if it is a muscle tear and it just need time to heal. The cost of visit to the doctor which I know will be expensive since it is in Japan. As I have travel and medical  insurance covered so the cost is not the major problem. What I am afraid most is the doctor will generally advised you not to walk. Which I cannot afford not to walk as I am here to travel. I just have to bear with the pain and limping around. Fortunately, it gets better each day until the day I was schedule to fly back on Friday evening. However, until Friday I still experience pain in the calf and was still limping.

Shibuya. Shopping area for the young

Apple store at Ginza

Temple at Asakusa

No running for so many days and my marathon is less than 3 weeks away. When I am back to Malaysia on Saturday, the pain in the calf is still there. Just have to rest a few more days. I try to rest until Tuesday or Wednesday to see if the pain is still there. Eventually, have to rest until Wednesday. That is 15 days of complete no running. And there is still a slight pain in my calf. Must give it a try on Thursday morning and see if I can run with this pain in the calf which most people will object if you ask. Just worried that it will aggravate the injury.  If I cannot run, I can really say sayonnara to 7 months of training and my first marathon. Even if I can run, can I get my speed and endurance back on time, since it is only 17 days left to the Penang Bridge Marathon and it is 15 days of zero running. Keeping my fingers crossed for the run on Thursday morning.

Sunset view from Tokyo Skytree

Tokyo Skytree at night

Replica of Statute of Liberty and Rainbow Bridge at Odaiba

Tokyo and Kyoto. Adding salt to the wound. Part 1

Tokyo Skytree, the latest landmark of Tokyo. Open to the public on 22 May 2012

My long time dream vacation was finally realised in 2012. My trip to Japan. Honestly, this is more  important to me than running a marathon. Because if I don't run in this November I can still have plenty of races to choose to run in 2013. It will just be the case of when it will happen.

The flight from KLIA to Haneda Airport in Tokyo takes about 7 hours and after you have taken the luggage it was already past midnight on Saturday. The taxi fare to go to Tokyo town at this time of the night will cost you about RM300 so we have earlier booked ourselves in a cabin size hotel room on the domestic terminal. It is a very small room with bed, TV and a small space for you to place your luggage. Most Japanese I saw book into even smaller rooms where it can just accommodate a bed. You only have common bathrooms and toilets.  Just for a night rest, anything will do better than sleeping at the airport.

First Cabin, cabin size hotel room

Taking the subway to Shinjuku the next morning on Sunday is a challenge. Our knowledge of the Japanese language is very very basic. Fortunately we can read Chinese and some Japanese words are written in kanji which is basically chinese characters. The subway system of Tokyo is like spiderweb which is the big challenge when you travelling by yourself in Tokyo. Generally, most of the information counters can speak English or they could understand English. It was not the biggest problem if you can't speak Japanese. Knowing some basic Japanese will make you appear more friendly. Japan is the most polite country I have ever visited and generally the people are just extremely helpful.

Tokyo spiderweb subway map

Tokyo is a highly populated area. The Tokyo marathon is said to be one of the most well organised marathon in Asia. When I was visiting the Imperial Palace in the evening, the runners around the Imperial Palace really caught my attention. There are just so many runners around the Imperial Palace. And a lot of them can run really fast. They are probably preparing for the Osaka Marathon that will be held on 25 November 2012. The loop around the Imperial Palace is such a nice place to run with nice environment and zero traffic. Of course, when you travelling around on your own there is a lot of walking the whole day. You just don't really have the energy to think of running. I was thinking of running in Yoyogi park later in the week when I get familiarise with the place. Eventually, it never crystallise due what happen the next day in Kyoto.

Imperial Palace, Tokyo with runners running around the palace

Woke up at 4.15am the next morning to catch the shinkansen (Nozomi super express) to Kyoto at 6.50am. Lack of sleep again for another night. Kyoto is formerly the imperial capital of Japan where they have retained a lot of the old buildings and temples. It is such a nice place to visit especially during autumn. But the best time to visit is in mid-November where all the leaves have turned red, which they called "koyo". I was there 3 weeks earlier so you only get a bit of red and yellow. But the nice cooling weather with temperature around 18 deg Celcious and the temples are just awesome ! However, you have to keep climbing the steps and walking around the attractions in Kyoto. This really killed my calves and we walked almost non-stop for ten hours until it was dark and was trying to get a bus to check into the hotel in Kyoto.

Mt Fuji, view from shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto

View of  Ginkakuji temple in autumn

Sunlight in the forest of Ginkakuji Temple 

But we was kind of lost taking the bus around and our heels and feet is just hurting from the hill climbing and walking. So we decided to look for the subway instead. As we were going down the steps, we noticed that the train has already arrived.  We rushed to take the train and suddenly I feel the excruciating pain in my calf which is worst than a cramp on the steps leading to the platform. It is like one part of my calf was hit by a hammer. I almost fell on the platform. Fortunately, I still managed to pull myself into the train. The pain was so bad. I was trying to keep my legs straight so it will not cramp again. I have experienced cramps many times before and I know this is worse than a cramp.

Kiyomizudera temple in Kyoto

Street Parade for festival in Kyoto

Sunset view from Kiyomizudera temple

So we got out of train after a few stops and we make a mistake and get off the train one station earlier. Climbing up the stairs to get to the road was most painful and having to walk a station in pain to the hotel. We later managed to get Salonpas ice-cing spray from one of the shops near to the hotel. But it was painful even when I am not walking. So I just spray the Salonpas spray on the calf and take two panadols and go to sleep. I also started to notice some swelling on the calf. Hope that the pain will just go away the next morning ! This is only my 2nd day and I have four more days to go. How am I going to walk if the pain is so bad ? I am already having ankle injury from my last long run and now another muscle strain, this is like adding salt to the wound !

Night View of the Bamboo Forest on the hills in Kyoto

To be continued...