Japan (May 11 - 17, 2019)

I'm a little behind, but slowly getting caught up with my life!

Last month, I took a trip (for work) and tacked on the weekend for travel so I could sightsee ahead of time. Kelvin coincidentally had travel plans for Japan as well, so I found time amidst the back and forth to spend some time with old friends, do research, and work.

Japan was my first trip to Asia since our family trip to China back in 2005. I was excited but knew I'd have to cram everything I wanted to do in 2 days - what to do?

Chie and Takako picked me up from the airport, and it was the cutest thing I could have asked for! I met Chie many years ago via the Disney Tri Team - she was our only member in Japan, and when she came to visit for D23 a few years ago, we got to meet for the first time. I let Chie know that I was heading to Japan, and she graciously offered to pick me up from the airport and take me around to places she thought would be suitable for research and for my tourist-y mind!

I was warned that cash was king in Japan, despite its technological advances. I should have listened! The first thing we did upon arrival was get a Suica card - similar to an Octopus card in Hong Kong - but suitable for all things, including the rail and payment at convenience stores and vending machines . I was so surprised by this (I guess I'm just used to other forms of payment?) but we ended up loading a Suica card for me before taking the rail to the hotel. What an experience!

By now I had been awake for 17 hours - it was a long flight and we knew we had a long road ahead of us. Day one included:

Takeshita Street in Harajuku - the BUSIEST street ever, it felt like! As we walked through it felt like Christmas Day at Disneyland. Instead of strollers, there were hoards of teenage girls giggling, shopping, and snacking .

We stopped by the Hot Toys Avengers Pop Up Cafe, which had smoothies and burgers in addition to display cases full of Hot Toys figurines - a true gold mine for true fans for Marvel!

We made other stops at the Line Friends store, Kiddyland (a multi-level toy store with themed floors) and ended up in Akihabara to walk around quickly before heading out . 

Taka told me I was very lucky, as we got to witness a Kanda Matsuri - a festival that only happens once every 2 years!

They say that during the festival they parade a portable shrine (mikoshi) in the neighorhoods on the Sunday of the parade.

So cool! the streets were closed so I got to see a different side of Japan that night. I also got to meet an owl!!!!

That first night, we had dinner at Tendon Tenya, which is a local tempura restaurant chain. Combined, the three of us paid $18 for a meal! I couldn't believe it! Yummy, delicious, and inexpensive.

I was on the verge of falling asleep at the table as I had been up for so many hours - Chie and Taka took me most of the way home and I made my way back to the hotel to finish up the night in a nice clean bed.

I had a lot ahead of me!


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The next morning, I woke up rather early without an alarm. Chie had gifted me a ticket to a Disney property (many thanks, Chie!!) -

so in my broken japanese and my aversion to public transportation (It's not that I don't like it - it's that I don't understand it!) I made my way to the Tokyo Disney property! I chose Disney Sea as my theme park for the day as I knew I'd see a lot that I normally wouldn't ever see.

I gave myself a few hours to get there (I tend to get lost easily) and arrived at the park at 7:30 am -- the park opened at 9. I got into a line and filed in behind many Japanese locals who seemed accustomed to waiting. They had plastic lined sheets (licensed!) that they sat on, and everyone was polite and kept to themselves. Around 8:45, everyone quietly got up and made the lines a little tighter. I was so surprised by how courteous everyone seemed - nothing like what we have in the states!

At 9, the gates opened, and ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE. Literally, a hoarde of people scanned their tickets and started running. Where, I'm not sure, but castmembers held signs that said "PLEASE DO NOT RUN" and they were definitely disregarded.

No one even noticed that Mickey and Minnie were welcoming them to the park!

I quickly made my way to Tower of Terror - I had read (while in line, obviously) that this ride was different from the ride in California - and it was!

Everything was in Japanese! It sounded so foreign but with the same intonations as the ones in CA, so I assumed it was similar. As it turns out, the ride is different because of the storyline - It isn't based on the Twilight Zone (probably due to lack of familarity) but is instead based on a stolen relic that was taken during an expedition and ultimately haunts the building.

I had a blast!

I spent the rest of the day walking around the park ...

and eating everything up - literally.

I had a turkey leg, which was not abnormally large like in the states - just a regular drumstick that tasted the same!

I got a Fastpass to the park's flagship ride - Journey to the Center of the Earth!

and rode single rider for Indiana Jones - it was great! I've never been to a theme park by myself but I totally recommend it. You get to do everything you want without having to wait for anyone!

I even snuck in an iced treat -

yum!

My favorite meal was a "gyoza dog" = literally a fusion of my favorite asian food and my guilty pleasure - gyozas and hot dogs! Highly recommend .

I walked around the rest of the park before heading back over to a performance of Big Band Beat - a collection of musical acts starring Mickey and Friends! Because of the popularity of the show, lottery tickets were administered and admittance was determined on whether or not you "won the lottery" - luckily I was able to snag a ticket - in the third row!

By 3pm I had walked the whole park and left to meet Chie at TDR. We walked the Disney Store and ended up at Character Street at Tokyo station - a huge mall of sorts featuring (you guessed it!) licensed characters popular to Japan.

Chie took me to try a local dessert called Anmitsu - I will admit: not my kind of dessert, but the ice cream was delicious!

We made our way to Zauo, a fishing restaurant in Shinjuku - where we were able to fish for our own dinner. It was definitely an experience but I'm not sure I would do it again. The food was great, but the fishing part felt a little inhumane to me. I didn't like the idea of "hooking" the fish, but I do see the appeal of being able to "fish" for one's dinner.

Regardless - I had a great time, and I got to see my brother!

The food itself was almost too pretty to eat!

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By now I'm exhausted. Day 3 -

Kelvin and I started the morning by heading to Tsukiji Fish Market.
It . was . delicious .

Gigantic prawns and squid. Overpriced but worth it!

and of course, we topped it off with ice cream and mochi :)

We made our way to Tokyo Skytree and of course, I HAD to see the Studio Ghibli store:

We walked past the Kirby Cafe, which was so cute! Sad we didn't have reservations .

At the top of Tokyo Skytree, we took some pictures and made a stop at the Sanrio pop up cafe - SO MANY pop up shops in Japan!

The glass ceiling seemed like the biggest draw - you could sit on the floor and take a look at Tokyo underneath you!

Kelvin and I left shortly after and made our way to the Sensoji temple:

We got our fortunes told, and I got the best fortune! Looks like my wishes are coming true sometime soon ;)


As we made our way through Tokyo, Kelvin and I headed over to Roppongi, where we partnered with MariCar to ride Go-Karts through the streets of Tokyo!

Clearly they are unrelated to Nintendo. (Sounds like someone got sued!)
We spent 2 hours with MariCar - 1.5 of which I had to pee so badly!
But it was worth it. We got to drive right up to the Shibuya scramble, skirt right by the Olympic Stadium (Tokyo 2020!!)

and ride by Tokyo Tower! I saw more on that ride than I thought I would!

After MariCar (yes, this was a jam packed day), we headed over to...

a hedgehog cafe! They were so cute!!!

The real draw, however, was the meerkat. It was hyperactive and SO ADORABLE . We probably spent most of our time with the meerkat. The hedgehogs, while cute, didn't seem like they wanted to socialize too much .

Next stop?

Bifuteki Kawamura, a Kobe Beef establishment.

It's rumored that Hugh Jackman loves this place - and I did too! Possibly one of the best meals I've ever had in my life .

I loved every minute I spent in there .

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The remainder of the trip I spent working, which doesn't sound as fun as the sightseeing  We went back to Harajuku and to Shibuya - We  comp-shopped at Shibuya 109, saw the Shibuya Scramble from up top -

- and made Okonomiyaki! in addition to walking 8+ miles through the streets of Harajuku and a few other neighboring cities. For a small Country, we walked a lot of Japan.

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The next day was filled with meetings, but included a visit to the Studio Ghibli Museum - a gorgeous venue filled with all things whimsical and Ghilbi related!

We had dinner at Hibiki - where I learned to eat Soba and royally screwed it up :)

All in all, a great week. I can't wait to go back!

Race Report: winja's Ironman 70.3 Indian Wells La Quinta (December 9, 2018)

First and foremost, my advice to anyone asking is that races should always be done in warm weather. Who in their right mind wants to get into 50-degree water in the throes of winter?!

That's hyperbolic. What I really meant was 57-degree water on a weekend in Palm Springs three weeks before winter. Regardless - I am now a 2-time Iron-Lady and a FIVE TIME Half-Ironlady!

This race was a hard one in the sense that I. did. not. train. AT ALL. If there was some sort of training regimen, I was not involved in it. Fortunately, my muscle memory is fantastic and I have the will of some deranged person who always longs for ice cream (true story).

Welcome to my Race Recap for Ironman 70.3 Indian Wells La Quinta!

Pre-Race:

I had full intentions of taking Friday off to pack for the race, but I went into the office to finalize a few things and ended up staying well into the afternoon. When I got home, M surprised me with tickets to the LA Auto Show and I ended up eating away at my precious sleep time to get my face detected by the 2019 Subaru Forester. I blinked and it was 10pm and I still had not packed...

On Saturday morning, I left around 7am to head into Palm Springs. Race Check-In was already under way at Ironman Village and I was NOT looking forward to it. Chris and Trey met up with me right before our orientation (see picture above) and we found out then and there that all of our stuff needed to be dropped off - same day. HOW WERE WE GOING TO PACK AND RE-PACK IF WE HAD TO DROP EVERYTHING OFF?!

I dumped everything out of my car (I wish there was a picture of this).  I'm the kind of packer who packs everything in the order that I plan on wearing it. Because we had to bring our bike and run stuff to the bike and run locations, I had to pull out my swim gear, my sleep gear... essentially the parking spot next to my car was the Winnie Closet for a good 20 minutes.

I said bye to Shadow and tied a red bandana to her aerobars so I could find her easily in the morning. We said bye to the boys and Alice and I left to finally eat (my first time all day!). Internally, I was freaking out, but it wasn't until I cracked my nail trying to put my shoe on that I realized my talons weren't going to cut it on race day. I had to get them done!

Every athlete knows it's "nothing new on race day" but every athlete also knows you should train for a race, soo.....

FLASHBACK TIME!

I didn't tell very many people this, but a few weeks ago, I had an allergic reaction to something. It was FREAK-Y. I developed hundreds of water blisters on my palms, and two weeks later the skin started to peel. It started in my fingertips and kept peeling. My palms peeled, my wrists peeled, my elbows, my toes, and my feet. It was demoralizing and uncomfortable and I was forced to wear gloves everywhere: to work, to weddings, even to SoulCycle! 

It sucked. 

Don't click this link if you don't want to cringe. This was me at urgent care, 4 days after the peeling started. It got worse before it got better. 

Anyway, back to the race. I had hesitations because my skin was super sensitive after all of this happened. My iPhone won't even recognize my fingerprints anymore! My fear was that getting into the water would exacerbate the hand situation - not to mention the cold, etc. 

Fast forward to...

Race Day: 

Let me just say that the sunrises in Palm Springs are beautiful. The water is peaceful, the palm trees are perfect, and if you hold your breath, everything seemingly ceases to move. 

After a whole year, George and I finally got to see each other again! It was so nice to see a familiar face on race day. Since we can never sync up, here are three pictures of us - well - not syncing up!

Grabbed a few pre-race pictures, and then we were off!

Let me just say that no one looks good in a wetsuit. No one. 

We lined up at the swim start, the cannons sounded, and we dove in. I ran into the water expecting some sort of warm barrier between me and the wall of ice, but my face froze the instant the water grazed it and I couldn't feel it for 20 minutes. I could see my arms going through the motions of swimming, but had I closed my eyes, I wouldn't have known. All I could see were people passing me, and my arms just not moving as fast as I wanted them to. 

Time passed so slowly. I counted from 1 to 1,000, and started all over again only to get bored. Quite possibly the longest swim of my life. 

48-minute swim, done. 69.2 miles left to go. 

Thanks to a warm swim cap, some waterproof earplugs, and booties, I was warmer than 90% of the folks out there!

The changing tents didn't provide much comfort, but they were warmer than the air outside. I took my time and watched as others struggled in the tent. One guy would not stop shivering. My heart went out to him. I gave myself one hour total for swim and transition, so I needed to haul ass if I wanted to finish before the cut off time. 

Out the chute, I went to my bike and pulled Shadow from her spot. I had it in a low gear to ensure that I made it up the slight hill getting out of transition. It was go time!

The first few miles felt great. The course was relatively flat, which meant everyone was averaging 23-24mph. It wasn't until mile 25 or so that I hit my wall. The lack of training caught up to me! The headwinds started and my average dropped down to 14-15mph. I felt beat. I wasn't hungry, I wasn't thirsty, and my back had started to hurt. 

I trudged through - surprisingly enough, in a faster time than some of my other half ironmans. There were so many turns!

I was SO GLAD to be done with the bike.

I made my way to the rack, grabbed my bib and my shoes, and started the run. The "run". Oh, man. 2 years ago I developed plantar fasciitis on my left foot, which led to a bone spur, which led to a hairline fracture on my left calf, which ultimately led me to stop running because everything always hurt. 

Surprisingly enough, the run wasn't too bad. When my calf started to hurt, I'd walk a little bit, but I tried to keep the running up as much as possible. Six miles passed very quickly. It wasn't until I had to start the second loop that I got a little sad. I could hear the announcer calling out the names of those who were finishing, and all I wanted to do was be done. 

When I got to mile 10 on the golf course path that would never end, I could hear a man from behind me shout as the man in front of me (who was walking) screamed "oh no" and started running. As it turns out, the guy (Roger) and his brother (Gary) were doing the same race, and Roger's brother was closing in on him! Try as he might, Roger couldn't beat his brother, so he settled on running the rest of the way with me. 

Very fortuitous, indeed. I always find that making a buddy always makes the time go by faster. Roger was great company. I was so happy to be finished, I had a ton of energy left!

I always say this, but I am very lucky to be surrounded by some of the best people there are out there. I had a great support crew, and Jason and Mike not only volunteered, but stayed to watch me finish. Alice, as always, is the kindest person I know. She schlepped all of my bags and my beautiful Shadow back to safety and still made it in time to watch me finish! Thank you all for being the reason I race. 

I got back to the hotel and slept for 13 hours. It was great. 

I still can't believe I'm now a 5-time Half-Ironman and a 2-time Full Ironman. 

It feels great to know that I can do things beyond my wildest imagination. 

Until next time...