Skip to main content

Kawauchi Attacked by Bear in Kawauchi Village!?

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20131208-00000056-nksports-spo
http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20131209-OHT1T00063.htm

translated and edited by Brett Larner
click here for a photo of the attack

The civil servant runner has been attacked by a bear.  Marathoner Yuki Kawauchi (26, Saitama Pref. Gov't) appeared as a special guest at a Dec. 8 community event in the town of Kawauchi, Fukushima to help support the village's reconstruction efforts from the 2011 Fukushima disaster.  From 10 a.m. to well into the evening he took part in a series of events one after another.  After running with local children, the main street in town was renamed 'Yuki Kawauchi Commemorative Road.'  The final event of the evening was the planting of a memorial tree.  After the tree was safely planted, up from behind Kawauchi came.....

Also taking part in the event were town mascots from across the country including 2013 National Mascot Grand Prix champion Sanomaru of Sano, Tochigi.  The Melon Bear mascot of Yubari, Hokkaido came up behind Kawauchi and noisily attacked him, biting his head.  Enjoying himself as he was swallowed whole, Kawauchi spent the rest of the time with Sanomaru, enjoying himself and saying, "This was a really fun event."

The entire town of Kawauchi evacuated at the time of the Fukushima Nuclear Plant Number One nuclear accident following the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit eastern Japan in March, 2011.  Amid fears that their village was gone forever, roughly half of its original 2800 residents have returned. After a day of unending laughs and smiles mayor Yuko Endo said, "I'll never forget our local children's joy when they heard the news that Kawauchi had agreed to come to our town.  They were jumping around in an uproar all shouting, 'No way!!!!'"  The happiest of all, however, may have been Kawauchi himself.

Click here for video of Kawauchi taking part in the Kawauchi village event.

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Everything You Need to Know About the 2026 Hakone Ekiden

The Hakone Ekiden is the world's biggest road race, 2 days of road relay action with Japan's 20 best university teams racing 10 half marathon-scale legs from central Tokyo to the mountains east of Mount Fuji and back. The level just keeps going higher and higher , hitting the point this year where there are teams with 10-runner averages of 13:33.10 for 5000 m, 27:55.98 for 10000 m, and 1:01:20 for the half marathon. It's never been better, and with great weather in the forecast it's safe to say this could be one of the best races in Hakone's 102-year history, especially on Day One. If you've seen it then you know NTV's live broadcast is the best sports broadcast in the world, with the pre-race show kicking off at 7:00 a.m. Japan time on the 2nd and 3rd and the race starting at 8:00 a.m. sharp. If you've got a VPN you should be able to watch it on TVer starting at 7:50 a.m. on the 2nd , and again at 7:50 a.m. on the 3rd . There's even a 2-hour high...

Long Time Coming - Akira Akasaki and Haruka Onodera's Road to the 2022 United Airlines NYC Half

Back in pre-pandemic days Akira Akasaki and Haruka Onodera  were still in college, Akasaki at Takushoku University and Onodera at Teikyo University . At the 2019 Ageo City Half Marathon they frontran most of the race together, dead set on finishing in the top two Japanese collegiate spots to win invitations to the 2020 United Airlines NYC Half. For Akasaki it had already been a year and a half wait. Inspired by Kenta Murayama 's 1:00:57 5th place in finish in New York in 2017 and Kei Katanishi 's 7th-place in 2018, Akasaki went for it his junior year in his debut at the 2018 Ageo Half . "Coming up to 10 km I was in the lead pack and feeling good, so I knew I had a shot at going to New York and got pretty excited," he said. But right after the 10 km turnaround point he tripped and fell, and by the time he was back up the lead group was out of range. He finished 20th in 1:03:07, over a minute and a half behind top Japanese university man Ken Nakayama . "I was f...

My Training for 1:00:44

Hi, I'm Ayumu Kobayashi . Today I'm going to write about this year's National Corporate Half Marathon and the training I did for it. I hope other runners will find it even a little bit helpful. At the Corporate Half on Feb. 13 I was 10th in 1:00:44. My goal had been to run 61 minutes, so I hit that target. My Training Menu In January I ran a total of 681 km. Key workouts: Jan. 11: 1000 m x 5 at 2:50/km Jan. 12: 22.5 km Jan. 15: 9 km variable pace Jan. 17: 25 km Jan. 24: 1000 m x 8 at 2:52/km Jan. 27: 1 km + 4 km + 2 km Jan. 30: 16 km at 3:18/km avg. In January I was tired from the New Year Ekiden and had some knee pain after it, so I just jogged for 10 days until I started doing workouts again on the 11th. That's why I only ran 681 km for the month. But even on the jog days I was aware that I had the Corporate Half coming up, so I was doing around 30 km. It's pretty meat and potatoes, but I think it was really important. February (training for the 10 days before...