Running in Tokyo

When I began this project, I thought that an update schedule of once a week was appropriate. That would give me enough time, from week to week, to get ideas about what to write about, and then to research them enough so that I can at least appear a little knowledgeable about the subject. But, I've always had it in mind to write more frequently, but not on such long topics as I do on the weekends. Now that I've been doing this for about a month, I've started to find little bits of information that, while interesting, don't necessarily lend themselves to long stories, so I've decided to start posting smaller pieces, during the week, while I work on the longer ones.

Map of common running routes in Tokyo.

Last Saturday, I found myself walking in Federal Hill—on the way to what has become my favorite sushi bar—and decided to stop into a small bookstore that I've walked by a few times. I really just wanted to look, but when I go into bookstore, an impulse buy is never far behind, and this time I found they had a copy of Haruki Murakami's What I Talk about When I Talk about Running. Clearly, I had to buy it. Later that evening, I al --so came across this study, which takes composites of data about where people run in different cities in the world.

"As long as I can run a certain distance, that's all I care about... This is the same sort of tack I find necessary when writing a novel. I stop every day right at the point where I feel I can write more. Do that, and the next day's work goes surprisingly smoothly... To keep on going, you have to keep up a rhythm. This is the important thing for long-term projects." — Haruki Murakami