Relay races reflect the spirit of Japan's youth

It would not be an overstatement to say Japan's New Year begins with the Hakone Ekiden, as an iconic long-distance road relay race is known. The 217.8-kilometer relay marathon sees male runners from more than two dozen college teams in the Tokyo area run from the center of the Japanese capital to the hot-spring resort of Hakone in Kanagawa prefecture in the Fuji foothills on Jan 2. They run all the way back to downtown Tokyo on Jan 3.

The event is one of the highest-rated annual sports broadcasts.

Participants from Aoyama Gakuin University, who for nine decades had not won a single race, won the victor's trophy this year for the fourth time in a row.