I enjoyed for participation as a volunteer in the Tokyo Marathon on March 2nd. On the day of the marathon, which was held in beautiful and peaceful spring weather, I was in charge of guiding the runners who had finished to the changing rooms. This internationally major event, with about half of the approximately 38,000 participants being from overseas, really shows that people from all over the world are looking forward to it.

On the day of the race, we supported the runners who had finished the race by guiding them to the place where they could change clothes, so that the runners who had completed the full marathon could change clothes and head home without using too much energy as much as possible. Even though many of the runners were exhausted, they thanked the volunteers and staff who supported them, saying, “Thank you! I had fun today.” It was a day that made me feel glad to be a volunteer.

Every runner shared the use of the changing rooms, which were not particularly spacious, and they also separated their trash before throwing it away. When the activity was over, there was no trash on the ground at all, so the volunteers did not have to collect trash or clean up. I also felt the high quality of the runners who participated (I think that the good manners of Japanese runners partly influenced to foreign runners).

Recently, the problem of overtourism has been pointed out, and the decline in the quality of tourists visiting Japan is often pointed out, but I once again felt that it is important to attract such visitors with a high sense of purpose, and to have them recognize the good points of Japan, and if possible, to lead to raising their awareness.