Things don't taste the same

It's strange. My first Triple-Os burger in months was a bit disappointing - too dry, or not heavy enough on the sauce, or my mind was elsewhere - but the first time I went running in my new compression tights, they smelt like Triple-Os special sauce. And that was before I put them on: it wasn't as if I'd perfumed them with Triple-Os flavoured perspiration.

Today my alarm went off at 8, and I woke up at 11, spending the rest of the day in occasional blind panics whenever I spotted a TV displaying marathon runners. It's a bit cruel to have LIVE in big letters in the top right corner, and only a small subtitle at the bottom to make clear that was live footage when it was filmed. In October 2011. What zany jokers the Japanese are.

I meant to go round Osaka castle today. Well, actually I meant to go to Nara today to see the world's tallest indoor standing wooden Buddha. You know, to compare it with Hong Kong's world's largest outdoor seated Buddha made out of metal, or indeed Singapore's world's largest manmade waterfall in an aviary. But with only half the day left, and meaning to take things easy before the race, I stayed in town and went to Tully's Coffee for breakfast. Because I've got adventurous tastes, right?

Because it's Japan, there's nothing I can eat. Because it all has meat in it. It's like I'm in that Ugly Duckling concept album about meat shakes. Tully's teases and cajoles though: you'll see the Four Cheese Sandwich, rejoice, then realise there's a bonus fifth cheese, ham, stuck in there. Eventually I found some toffee chip cookies, which were very nice, but hardly a suitable diet for an athlete. Or, indeed, for me.

I walked down the street, bought an apple, some pretzels in a plastic pouch, and some sweets. I went into the Mizuno shop by Yodoabashi Bridge and bought a new t-shirt, and broke the door to their changing room (sorry, Mr Mizuno). I walked up to Umeda, unsuccessfully shopped for cameras in Yodobashi Camera, ate a big bowl of pasta, and then went back to the place I'm staying to sleep it off.

I'm like a lion. A rather pathetic, vegetarian lion who eats too much and then has to have a lie down to recover.

When I woke up again, it was with a thick head and the slow realisation that I wouldn't be going to the castle today. I faffed about for a few hours, then took the subway to Namba to look for more food. This time I was adventurous enough to try something Japanese, rather than go for another pizza: a rather good curry with brown rice in a little organic cafe in Namba Parks. (The crowning irony being that Namba Parks is as far from organic as you can get, being a carefully constructed concrete masterpiece of Mallworld. Ah well.)

My nose hasn't been dripping today. To most people that wouldn't be a cause for excitement, but I appear to be allergic to Japan. I thought it was just Tokyo in the springtime, but it turns out that at all times of the year, arrival in Japanese airspace is enough to make all the fluid in my body evacuate through my nose. All yesterday I sneezed and dripped, not little spots but big splashes, apart from when I was out running. I took an allergy pill yesterday which may have kicked in (in which case it took about 12 hours to start working) or it may be that I'm now too dessicated for any dripping to occur.

I've now got just over 13 hours until the start of the race. I've tied my timing chip to my shoe. I've eaten something to keep my belly full til morning. I have to make up my mind whether a t-shirt is too warm or a vest too cold, but apart from that there's very little left until tomorrow now.