Today's athletics meet

We spent today at another inter-school track and field day. It's done differently here to Australia. More like a sport like football or basketball. Athletes are given several opportunities over a season of a couple of months to compete, and especially (for the high schoolers) to qualify for the next level of competition. 

We travelled by train across the city to a Japanese venue and watched our athletes compete all day.

Below is our middle schooler finishing off the 4x100m relay. Unfortunately my reaction time was a little slow and I only just caught him. 

Watching shot put (we weren't allowed in the middle of the track) I was bemused at this unattended pile of stuff at the side of the track. Only in Japan could you leave an iPhone like this?

This athletics venue is out on a created island near Tokyo Bay. It's right next to the stables for the nearby horse racetrack. Smells like it too. (Can you see the hay on the street?)

If we'd stayed on the train a few more stops we'd have ended up at the old Tokyo international airport: Haneda. There were plenty of planes taking off in the background.

On the four-train journey home I spotted this wonderful English. Anyone want to buy a ticket machine?

This is a vending machine we saw on a train platform. You may be aware that vending machines are very common in Japan, especially in cities. There are more than 5 1/2 million in a country which is less than half the size of NSW. Apparently the greatest saturation per kilometre square of any country in the world. (See more about Japan and vending machines here). This one was a bit high-tech, the sort of thing people imagine our lives in Japan is full of. It was a giant touch screen, no actual buttons at all. 

Once again it was super to pass the time with friends. Fewer CAJ parents there than last week, but some of the same families that we did cross-country and wrestling with. Great fun! Renee and I inadvertently twinned up in purple today.