A Happy New Year 2012 !

Let me send my New Year Greetings to you all.
A New Year is celebrated in Japan in various ways. Here is one of them. It is relaying on the public roads between Tokyo and Hakone, a little more than 100km one way, by ten male students each from 20 selected universities situated in Tokyo and surruounding Prefectures. It is held on two days. On the first day, 2 January, five runners from each team relay from Tokyo to Hakone, each running a little more than 20 km. Hakone is a major mountain range about 800 metres high.
On the second day, 3rd, another five from each relay the same route back to Tokyo. The weather is usually fine on these days, and thousands of people are lining up on the road to welcome the runners. Mount Fuji can be seen from many spots on the way. Students from the participating universities bring their school flags and hundreds of them are flying alomost all the way along the route.
While relaying, a runner hands over a cord made of cloth to the next one, who puts it around his neck and runs. This is a peculiar way of relaying in this country, and is called Ekiden.
The TV shows the run in its entirety from the start to the end. You cannot simply ignore it, for, it is a kind of sports, but is probably the most popular open-air show in the country. It is naturally more popular in the Eastern Japan where Hakone is located. In order to participate in the race, many high school boys good at long-distance running aspire to enter some of the promising universities in the Tokyo region. At the same time it is said that the those universities, at least some of them, invite those prospective runners to come to them. Those runners are known throughout the country by means of various competition on the national level. Anyway, while seeing the Hakone-Ekiden on the TV, we feel that another New Year is come.
The 88th competition is just over. Out of the 20, it was Toyo University which has won, with a new record of 10 hours 51 minutes and 36 seconds. They have shortened the previous record by more than 8 minutes. The last, 20th, runner reached the goal more than 50 minutes behind.
Outstanding in the Toyo team was the captain, Mr.Kashiwabara Ryuji. He is particularly good at going up the hills, and has been given the task of running the fifth and the last section on the first day, the mountain section, for four consecutive years. He has made a record this year, renewing his own. He is known as Yamanokami, literally the god of the mountain, but colloquially meaning 'wife'.
He is from nuclear-affected Fukushima Prefecture. Asked how he came out of the uphill(literally) task, he said, not much, it was only for about an hour.
After four years he is graduating this March. He wants to become a marathon runner, and we wish him well. We also wish to see someone like him running the mountain section the next year.