Its 5:05 pm with the winter solstice just passed and it is ink black outside my office windows which are 15 floors up with a view of Mt Fuji to the West—before 16:43 that is (when the sun set today). This town is great for people that love the night life because they can start early and it lasts pretty much as long as they want. But the flip side is that this is a tremendous city for morning people. For folks that like to start their day early, the sun rises in Tokyo between 4:25 at the summer solstice and 6:47 at its worst on Dec 21. The fact that there is no daylight savings time change makes the difference seem exaggerated in comparison to the U.K. or U.S.
Think about it. At 6:30 in the morning in Winter you already have light here in the darkest days which is great for those of us that run in the morning. And in May and June, just leave your curtains open to let the sun act as a natural alarm clock.
Morning or night, if it is dark, your biggest concern should be reflective clothing to avoid Japan’s statistically high incidence of pedestrian casualties due to auto accidents. Otherwise, another important reason for great running in Tokyo is the relative safety of the environment, particularly if you are running in a neighborhood with lots of people around you. If you are running at around six in the morning, keep your ears tuned for the sound of temple bells being rung. I am usually able to hear bells from Yutenji or Meguro Fudosan. This morning was beautiful by the way. At 5am we had stars and a very mild 8.6 C temperature. By 6am the sky was pink with a bit of baby blue and scattering of small puffy clouds.
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