I visited America on Saturday

The start of the middle school boys' race.

On Saturday morning we went to America and back. 

Well, at least we went onto the recreational centre of an American base, which meant we needed to give them our passport details and pass through security to get in (no metal detectors or x-ray machines, though).

This retreat area, as it is called, is in the middle of the urban sprawl loosely called Tokyo. We drove about an hour south of here (not too many kms - hundreds of traffic lights though).

Our son is in the middle.

Why? To go to the Kanto Plains International Schools' cross-country finals. Our eldest ran.

He ran well, in fact. Though his place wasn't fantastic, he improved on his personal best by 12 seconds. And he tried his hardest right to the end. Actually he was competing against boys up to two years older than him as the race was a 'middle school' race rather than a specific age group. So, there is heaps of potential for improvement next year.

Running hard for the line

I didn't take many photos, maybe because it took me quite a while to mentally warm-up. Getting up at 5.30 on a Saturday morning is not a common experience for me.

However the site was beautiful. It was very difficult to believe that we were only a short distance from the rest of Tokyo. Lots and lots of trees. There were camping sites, horse trails and even a decrepit building that looked a lot like the sort of place I'd been to for church/youth group weekends away in Australia. 

Another interesting feature was the small on-site shop near the entrance. Complete with American food, the price tags on the products were in American dollars. It did feel like we'd left Japan behind for a moment or two.

That is the end of the cross-country season for this year. He is keen for next year and I am too - if it means I can go and visit this little oasis in the centre of this concrete jungle. If all of America were like this, I might like to go.