Public eye #18

Mariko Oshima, homemaker

Your bag is pretty full. Where are you heading to?
MO: It’s a good day out for running. I run around the Imperial Palace. The azaleas are really pretty at this time of year.

Do you run every day?
MO: There have been times where I used to run regularly. But these days I am pretty slack and I only run at there once a week. One lap is about five kilometres ; I always run one or two laps then call it a day. There are no traffic lights which makes it is a really good place to run. The park near my home is about one kilometre per lap, so if I want to run five kilometres I have to go around five times. That makes my head spin!

So why have you slacked off recently?
MO: At the moment, I am into golf more than I am into running. [Laughs] I go to golf school once a week and I play a round of golf once a month. I’ve been married for two years. My husband is pretty busy and even when he went to play golf I would stay home. This meant that we really didn’t spend much time together. But since taking up golf we now have one common interest and are spending more time together than before.

That’s great.
MO: I am going into a lot of detail here but since I have been keeping up running once a week, I don’t get out of breath whether I am playing golf or mountain climbing. I have gotten to know my body because of running and now I feel that I can’t quit.

I lot of people have taken up running recently.
MO: Yeah. The Imperial Palace is turning into a runner friendly environment with the opening of places like Joglis and Adidas Runbase. Recently, there has been an increase in the number of women in their early twenties running around this area. Before, there were a lot of women in their late twenties or thirties, but I feel like the average age of the runners has gotten younger all of a sudden. You can see groups of women running together especially between six and seven on Wednesday nights – Wednesday being ‘no overtime day’. It seems like a lot of fun to run in a big group.

So what else do you like to do apart from going running and playing golf?
MO: Travel, I guess. I bought this bag here with all my running gear in it, on a trip to Thailand. I went to Shanghai at the end of March just before the Expo began. They had the ‘no pyjama rule’ at the time and the streets looked so clean. While the food in Beijing is a little oily, the food in Shanghai is healthier and tastes lighter. I think it is a great place for women to visit. I would also like to go to the Shanghai Expo.

So does healthy mean that they use a lot of vegetables?
OM: Yep – speaking of which, my friend and I have a vegetable garden. The plot we rent is in Chiba, not in Tokyo. Just the other day, we planted summer vegetables like cucumbers, tomatoes, spinach and carrots. The vegetables are completely organic and I go out there about twice a month. Anyone who helps with the planting of vegetables gets rice in exchange in autumn.

They get rice? I want to get involved. [Laughs]
MO: For sure. [Laughs]

More from Mariko

‘I run in the Naha Marathon every year and this year will be my fifth year. The locals will give you soki soba and stuff from the race sidelines. It is a really great event that has a friendly atmosphere.’

‘I eat vegetables every day. On weekdays I don’t get to eat dinner with my husband so I try to eat breakfast with him as much as I can.’

‘Thinking about it, with running, playing golf and working in the garden, all of the things I like involve getting a tan. [Laugh]’