This parkrun is situated very close to the middle of Miyazaki city centre right on the river. It is always an adventure going to a new parkrun especially in a new country. 
We arrived early and were first there. Then a second tourist arrived from Tokyo. The event team were so happy to see and meet some new people at their small event.
It was also the first day of Spring and they celebrated with a small ceremony that involved throwing small snacks with one hand to make the bad spirit go out of us. Then we threw more of the same small packaged sugary things to welcome the good spirit and its good fortune in.
I had the bad spirit mask. LOL.
At these smaller parkruns it always tempting for me to try and get a first finisher token. While parkrun is not a race there is no "winner" I still like being the first finisher. Unfortunately, the tourist from Tokyo was a really good runner down for a local marathon and took off so fast. So I settled in to run and chat with a local Japanese guy and a Scottish man who had been living in Miyazaki for 20 years. It was great to run and chat with some locals.
The course was three and half laps along the riverside park. We were lucky because two weeks earlier it was cancelled because of the mud and rain. There was still a bit of mud on the course but it was easy just to run around the worst spots.
The earlier spring ceremony meant we started a few minutes late but at least there were lots of lollies to eat afterwards.
This part of Japan seems very flat and the river banks are built very high in order to protect the city from typhoons.
