Rather than the heat, getting to the actual race concerned me. The race’s location, nestled around Numata Town and Showa Village, lay a ways away from Tokyo’s Haneda airport, where I’d be flying into.
After jumping from diesel train to a bus to plane to monorail to electric train to bullettrain, I finally boarded the final leg of my trip from Takasaki to Numata. Thank goodness for the shinkansen, I can’t sing their praises enough. Sure it was pricey, but it was worth every yen because it offered easy boarding, roomy, comfy seating, and most important of all, it significantly cut my travel time from Tokyo Station to Takasaki (about 60min).
When I finally arrived at Numata station (沼田駅- about 50min), I sought a cheap way to Akagi Rin Gakuen (赤城林間学園), the race’s mountain venue. Asking and searching around the station provided no answers. With a heavy heart and light wallet, I settled on taking a taxi.
With a few hours until hotel check-in, I headed to Numata’s historic castle area. There I lucked upon Numata’s tourist center and asked about ways to Akagi Rin Gakuen. As usual, Japan’s customer service proved beyond compare, the clerks looked up bus information, pulled out maps from here and there and informed me of the bus times and bus stop locations.