chochajin | [Japan Life]: It's fitness time, baby!~

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Utada Hikaru - Traveling

Entry tags:

[Japan Life]: It's fitness time, baby!~

Hello everybody!

As you know things have calmed down, especially down here where not much was going on anyways.

I'm not gonna write anything about the situation as you can read all about it EVERYWHERE anyways.
It seems that A LOT of people have left Japan, though.

Far more than I thought! I was browsing through random LJs yesterday night and the majority has left! It's a little bit sad, but of course I accept their decision and can understand why they would leave as well.

I've seen a LOT of people complaining about having to cancel their trip to Japan that they planned for this year. DON'T!!!!

There's absolutely no reason for that! Of course, please stay away from Fukushima or generally Tohoku!

Furthermore Japan =/= Tokyo! If you planned a trip to Tokyo, fine, go there, but if you feel uncomfortable, then also consider coming further down to the west!

There are so many awesome places here in Japan (if you need inspiration browse through my travel index) and they're so far away from the affected area as well as less prone to earthquakes! You'd definitely help Japan's economy, too!

I suppose quite a lot of tourists are scared now and let's not talk about all the countries out there who've stopped getting imported products from Japan!

Alright, let's not talk about this anymore!

On a happy note, spring vacation is around the corner!

Only a few more days, yay!!!~ And of course I'll stay in Japan ^___^ I already planned my trip before the earthquake and there will be no changes!

I'm a little bit afraid that the cherry blossoms won't be on time this year, though! They're definitely slower than the last few years!

They were in full bloom on March 30th 2009 and March 27th(!) 2010.
It's March 27th and they've not even started to bloom yet!!!

My vacation starts in a few days, oii!!!~ Will this be my first vacation without cherry blossoms? ;o; ..... I planned my trip so that I would visit spots that are famous during the cherry blossom season ....

I wonder why they are so late this year?!
Sure, it's extremely cold this year, but I think it was about the same last year! Hmmmm.
Well, I kind of can understand if they don't wanna come out this year, but ... PLEASE!!!!

Only a few more days, hurry up!!!

*cheering and dancing*

With all that happened time stood still for almost a week - for most of us I guess - as we were too shocked to really do much of anything.
I also wasn't able to buy a tripod, so I'll be without one during my vacation yet again, but it's okay

I'll look into it once I'm back.

Because it became a minor issue during the "catastrophe" I stopped thinking about it for a while, but it's still a huge problem. My facial skin is really getting worse and worse.

I'll finally go and see a dermatologist or at least a doc after spring vacation.
It might be the water. I heard a lot of people got skin problems, even hair loss due to the Japanese water (too much chlorine?!) Then again I've been here for over 3 years already, so why now?! Doesn't make much sense!

On another note (

Twitter readers might already know) I'm finally getting some fitness!!!

For now, as I really haven't done any real sport for many years, I'm just literally hopping and dancing around and stuff in my apartment.

I wanna get into shape again. I don't mean losing weight, that's not an issue, but I easily get out of breath - even if I only jump around with my little ones at school for a while. I do look like the sporty type, but I really am not ... not at the moment at least.
I do have the motivation right now, so NOW'S THE TIME!!!

For now I really only wanna do stuff at home.

I'm gonna get one of those:

I also wanna use a jump rope, but I fear my apartment is too small for that?! It would be a lot of fun and will help me to get into shape again.

As my floor is quite hard, it probably also would make sense to buy some kind of mat. Any suggestions?

Luckily all of these items are not that expensive and small enough to take back home, so it's defnitely not a waste of money!

I used to be quite sporty when I was young. I did many years of Karate until I was 13 or 14, then I did less, but still at least once or twice a week something until I turned 18/19. Ever since then it's been pretty much nothing .....

I was in super shape and also had a flexible body, I was almost able to do a split, I'm soooooooooooooooooooooooooo far from it right now.
I'm a little bit worried about doing stretching, though. I've read quite a few websites about it and some say you harm your body more with it than it would actually help.

I'm a bit afraid that I might make things worse, so if you have any good tips for me or also good instruction videos, websites, books or whatsoever, please let me know!!!

For now I don't want to do anything too complicated. I don't have a specific goal other than getting fitter again, so that I won't get short of breath easily and have a more flexible body in general :3

Oh, I also need to get a new suitcase! It's been a problem for the past 3 years as I only have an extremely huge one and then a hand luggage sized one. One is too big, one is too small for normal travelling within the country.

It's about time to buy a "normal sized" one.

I've seen this one a few times around and it's pink! Yay!!

Ahem. It also rolls in any direction, mine (from Germany) only can roll forward or backwards which gets annoying at times.
It's too late to get one before my spring vacation, though.

Random encounters: The soy milk stuff was yummie

as well as the Starbucks one (though too sweet), but the pumpkin drink was yuck!!

That's all for now.
There'll be another entry before I leave for spring vacation.

Read you again then!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I don't want to sound rude at all but you really can't say that places in the West of Japan are earthquake-safe. There are earthquakes all over Japan, and great earthquakes happen in the South-West as well; it's not been that long since the Hanshin earthquake, which is the second-costliest natural disaster in the world after the M9 we had two weeks ago.

I don't disagree with you at all that there are lots of lovely places in the rest of Japan as a whole (though I understand why people think Tokyo when they think of Japan an why they would therefore want to go there) and even that I noticed less earthquakes when I lived in Kyushu (though just as many in Nagoya) but that's a bit of a misleading thing to say, so I just wanted to say something. :)

I knew that somebody would say something about it. The thing was that I wasn't sure how to express what I meant in English. I've changed it now, though I'm not sure if that's more like it.
It really depends on where you live. We don't have any earthquakes here. I only experienced a few seconds of shaking thus far. That was like a 2 or so.

Thanks for pointing it out, though, I didn't mean to cause any misleading (^-^')

And long time no see on LJ!! :D

There's actually been a lot of really really bad earthquakes in the South-West. Until the one we had recently, the strongest earthquake in Japanese history was actually located in the Kansai region (the Hoei earthquake). I'm not trying to make you feel bad, obviously, just that all of Japan is prone to bad earthquakes and you never experiencing a bad one is very much about luck (and you ARE lucky! :D). I don't want to make Japan sound like a dangerous place, either - it's the best-prepared country in the world for earthquakes so I would say you're probably safer here in an earthquake than in any other earthquake-prone country.

But yes. Enough about scary things. XD

I'm still reading LJ every day! I just don't post any more :) I never posted very many comments, either. I really should :x

I know. However, the area where I live really is not prone to earthquake. At least for about the last 80ish years or so there has been nothing. That's all I can tell you about it really :)
On the other hand, my area has the highest radiation level *giggles* ;P
Things can happen everywhere! There have been people to Japan for the first time, went to Sendai and then were hit by the earthquake whereas we have been here for many years and nothing happened to us. Things like that can always happen anywhere :(
Travel to New Zealand for vacation and get hit by a really strong earthquake, e.g. ;) ....

Wow, I feel kind of happy now that you actually came here to comment! ^___^

Well I hope it goes on for you like that!! I wasn't even in Tohoku and the big quake was the scariest thing ever. I'm sure you could tell from my Twitter feed though, and how much trouble it caused me even here in Tokyo...

But yeah, you're right. One of my American friends in Tokyo said she has no intention of going home, because she was perfectly "safe" there until one day a tornado came and wrecked her house and made her and her family homeless. It can happen anywhere with no warning. That's the power of nature (ﾉ△･｡)

I will try and comment more often in fact! I think I just like Twitter a lot more for keeping in touch. ヽ(￣▽￣)ﾉ

Well, the thing is Japan has always been prone to earthquakes and it's not like it's any more dangerous than before, maybe it's more likely to get another earthquake or aftershock in the Eastern area at the moment, but that's about it - and nobody knows for sure anyways :)
Concerning the radiation it's definitely safer towards the west.

;_____;

Haha, yah it's faster and easier, right?! ^-^

ahh I should exercise more too
-_-

Um, that emoticon you put right after the bit about countries no longer importing Japan food...I get the feeling you think it's unfair/unjustified? I think it may or may not be an overreaction, but other countries have the right and responsibility to protect their own people, especially when Japan hasn't really been completely honest and forthright with their information. It may or may not be that even if the nuclear levels are too low to cause impact to "immediate health", it doesn't mean it may not eventually - with so much uncertainty (added with the part where they tried to lie about the safety of their exports with their so-called "certificates"), people outside Japan don't have a responsibility to eat something potentially harmful just for the sake of helping Japan's economy.

Basically what the world is doing is leaving Japan high and dry. Even container ships don't want to go to Japan anymore (anywhere in Japan not just Tokyo/Yokohama) and companies are considering to move to China or Korea for their production.

Being careful is quite alright, but a lot of what's going on currently is overreaction and harming Japanese economy and therefore its people.

It's a thin line of course, but it's important to try to stay on it.

No, the world isn't leaving Japan high and dry. First off, the international community has been very generous in its donations and help despite Japan being the 2nd richest Asian nation (I doubt places like Haiti and Christchurch or Burma got the same outpour of support). Secondly, if I'm not mistaken, Italy is the only country that banned Japan imports altogether irrespective of whether it was from prefectures not even affected by the nuclear disaster. Other countries banned imports from the 4-5 affected prefectures - especially Singapore and HK doing so after their own tests that showed radiation exceeded safety levels despite Japan "certifying" that the imports were not contaminated. If their government has already asked farmers to take their affected produce to destroy using special methods instead of the traditional method of burning/burying in soil, why have they been trying to send said produce off to other countries? Why should the burden be on other countries to use their own personnel to check every single thing that comes into the country, given that the Japanese government's been withholding information and being vague about things? When the Prime Minister and the royal family show good faith by eating the contaminated foods themselves, then at least they'd have some credibility to tell people it's all "safe" to eat.

Japan's economy isn't the only one being affected. HK's restaurants, supermarkets and fruit-grocery stores have been hard hit because everyone's been too afraid they might accidentally buy something contaminated. In the end, the HK government had to put up a ban because it wouldn't be practical to check every single thing (since we all know how much Japan's "certificates" are worth now), and it would protect the livelihood of our own people.

Even Japan's own people are fleeing the country if they can - HK's hotels are now at its full capacity because of them, and just yesterday a Japanese lady was found sleeping on HK streets because she refused to go back to her own country.

I don't think Japan can really blame anyone but itself for this.

There's a difference between Japan and the Japanese people. Japan might be a rich country, but those that lost their homes and family are not. What you are saying is that everyone who lives in a country which has nuclear reactors is basically at fault when something happens as they did nothing/not enough to have them not build in the first place. That includes pretty much every "rich" country in the world. (Austria might not have nuclear reactors itself, but it imports nuclear energy, so I'll include it as well).

You could pretty much say the same about Haiti as their people did nothing against the corrupt government, so they're basically at fault for having a huge earthquake and being too poor to deal with the consequences on their own.

Shifting blame around does not really help in my opinion. What's necessary is constructive criticism (i.e. how to make it better so it doesn't happen again) and help to deal with the aftermath. It hit Japan this time, but it could have just as well been the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany or any other country that uses nuclear energy.

No, you completely misunderstood what I said. I did not say that the people of the country are at fault just because they have nuclear reactors. I said their government is at fault for failing to keep adequate tabs on their exports to ensure that they are not contaminated. Once they failed to do that and it's caught by other countries they try to export to, you can't blame those countries for putting up a ban, and it would be incredible to expect those countries to put their own people at health risk for the sake of "helping Japan's economy". Other countries also have to protect their own economy and the livelihood of its people - if people aren't willing to dine out because they're afraid of radiation, restaurants here will go out of business. The ordinary restaurant operator is innocent, and I don't see why "helping Japan's economy" should take priority over the equally important interests of the ordinary person who isn't in Japan.

Maybe "unfair" is not the right word, but I think people all over the world are GENERALLY overreacting (not only about the food). I don't think that Japan would send contaminated food to other countries on purpose and even if - it's only a hand full of people, don't blame all Japanese people for it! It's not their fault!

We who decided to stay in Japan are not complaining either although we might have been eating contaminated food.

I understand you're angry, but I think you're a little bit exaggerating :(

I don't blame the japanese people for it - I blame their government for it. It is a fact that they tried to send contaminated food to HK and Singapore, and the actions of government personnel in charge of inspections DO represent the government. It is irrelevant if they made a "mistake" during their checks. That is not good enough.

Japan does not pay for my medical care, in the event that the "safe" contamination is not really all that safe after years of eating contaminated produce. Other countries have a responsibility to take care of its own people and the livelihood of it's people. People operating businesses here are innocent too, not just the Japanese. If you actively choose to eat contaminated produce, then good for you. But please don't say it as though everyone else is contributing to Japan's current situation. Japan's economy was in the drain long before the earthquake even happened

Well, I think a lot of people are angry at the Japanese government right now, but even more we should be angry at TEPCO! :(

Japan's economy was slowly recovering though and this "event" will throw them back drastically.

Anyways, I'm glad you explained one more time what you ment. Now I understand much better! :)

Why don't you just check out some tripods during your spring vacation? Won't you visit some larger cities? It's easier to decide when you can actually look at them and take them in your hands :)

Suitcase-wise I have the same problem as you :) But whenever I leave Japan I really need the large one, I don't know what to do about that. It would be much nicer to travel with a small suitcase. The four wheels are great though, I love them.

About the jumping rope, don't you have a park close by? It's spring now. You should be able to do a bit of sport outside. In Tokyo I saw some sport parcours in parks. You run or walk from station to station and there are instructions what to do there.

As you have a bycicle cycling is also a nice sport to do as long as it's neither too cold nor too hot :)

Yepp, that's what I want to do (same with the suitcase *g*) - it seems that it will be quite rainy anyways and if there are no cherry blossoms then .... shopping time! *sigh*

There's no real park anywhere near and I guess people would stare at me like WOAH! I mean if I were like 5 years old it's okay to use a jump rope outside, but I'm not 5! XD

The time span when it's not too hot and not too cold is unfortunately too short here in Japan ;o;

Ich hörte, dass die Kirschblüte sich wegen des Erdbebens verzögert. Wenn sowas möglich ist. Wir hatten gestern auch Hanami ohne Blüten... XD

Wegen des Erdbebens? Das kann ich mir eigentlich gar nicht vorstellen!! ^^;
Ich kann nur hoffen, dass sie sich innerhalb der nächsten 3 Tage blicken lassen ^^;

I'm glad to hear that everything has calmed down. I think kansai, Kyushuu and Hokkaido are generally quite safe? I'll definitely still be going back to Japan, but be avoiding touhoku and Tokyo for the time being. (Which is a shame because I really wanted to go back to touhoku for spring. TwT)

And that's a very nice luggage bag!!! I've thought of getting one too whenever I went traveling in Japan. Is Japan the only country with luggage bags that can move in all directions?

Lastly, i'm sure your area is very safe from the radiation and aftermath of the earthquake, but still do take care!!! ^^

Well "safe" is relative. Japan is not any more dangerous than it was before "day x" - just that you should avoid the contaminated areas around Fukushima right now, of course :)

I'm not sure. I just can't remember ever seeing a suitcase like that back home :)

Thanks a lot! :)

Have you had Lipton's "Tea Mocha"

I bought it the other day and just tried it.

It's DELICIOUS!! (Well at least I like it)

I just came back from 7Eleven, but they didn't have any "Tea Mocha". Instead I bought Lipton's "Honey Milk Tea" which is quite nice, too! ^-^ Thanks for the recommendation :D

(deleted comment)

I'm glad you like it. I love soy milk a lot! ^-^

I need to get into shape too!!! I've never been considered fit though, so if I do manage it, it'll probably be a shock to everyone I know, haha.

Of course Japan isn't really an earthquake safe country, but you are right that the west of the country (especially Kyushu/Shikoku/the west part of Chugoku) is much less likely to have a huge earthquake than the rest of Japan. If people are worried about earthquakes now, I don't get why they weren't worried before? Also, the earthquake didn't do THAT much damage, it's the tsunami caused by the earthquake which did the real damage - in which case, it's really easy to stay away from the coast, or to at least go to places which are quite sheltered (the north of Shikoku/south of places like Yamaguchi, or Hiroshima or somewhere).

I hope that people will want to come to Japan again soon!!!! We have to show everyone how great Japan still is! Hehe.

I'm sure that people will probably start wanting to come to Japan again in a year or two, it's probably just a bit too fresh in people's minds.

Let's both try hard!!! (^__________________________^)b

Well, Japan isn't more dangerous than it was before all of this happened. And generally you're not safe no matter where you go. In New Zealand there was a huge earthquake, too, just a while ago. Here a tsunami, there a hurricane .... etc.

^-^

Where do you plan to go see the cherry blossoms?

I planned my recent trip to Kumamoto based on the schedule for the last two years when the trees were in bloom by this time, but this year I saw maybe all of 6 trees in bloom. X(

I think I read somewhere that the blossoms aren't late this year, they're actually on time and the past couple years they were early. Hmm...

This time I wanted to travel around in Chuugoku and Shikoku. Kagawa, Okayama, Tottori and Shimane.
I'm considering cancelling and going to Kyushu instead, but I've been to many places in Kyushu already and Miyazaki is probably more interesting in summer (T___T) ... only 2 days left. Cancelling and replanning would be quite stressful.
I just can hope that I will have some cherry blossoms coming out soonish *sigh*

Kumamoto is awesome! Must look great with the castle anyways :D
I've been there only in summer, though.

Really? It's my 4th spring here and the first time they're so late ;___;
And it's cold this year, yes, but it was almost as cold last year as well and yet the cherry blossoms weren't "late" at all :(

Hmmm, I think those places you plan to go will be interesting enough even without cherry blossoms. I think the weather has gotten warmer recently and hopefully you'll have some sunshine. :) The tree near my school looks like it's ready to burst open any day, so maybe the blossoms will open soon.

Kumamoto would have been so much cooler if it wasn't raining both days I was there. My day at Huis Ten Bosch was good and OF COURSE the sun came out the day I left. -__-

I know, but it's so sad that sakura will be in full bloom when I have to be back at work this year :/ ... I alway could do a "weekend trip" to some place near here after my vacation is over and hope that the cherry blossoms are still there then :/
Thinking about changing my plan and going to Oita, Fukui and Wakayama instead, but that would be more chaotic and expensive. And let's not talk about all the hectic that last-minute-planning comes with.

I'm usually not very lucky with the weather and it seems apart from the first two days it will be cold (around 10°) and rainy :(

Well even if you don't get to see the cherry blossoms and the weather is poopy, the original places you plan to go on vacation will probably be awesome anyway. ^__^ Just the word VACATION makes it automatically great (unless something goes horribly, horribly wrong) lol.

Not really. I only have 3 weeks of vacation per year. 1 week, 3 times a year. So I always wanna make it a really good vacation :/
I only have tonight (just came back from work a while ago) to look into alternatives and see if cancelling and booking other hotels is even possible. Stress!!! (x____X'') ....

Aaaaaw. That's about all the vacation days I get too and I use most of mine to go home twice a year. =/

Hmmm, maybe I'm just easily amused? I'm perfectly happy in a hotel room lol. Or riding a new train! Just somewhere that isn't my apartment. ;)

Good luck with your vacation planning! ^___^

TWICE a year???!! O__O; .... Isn't that EXTREMELY expensive??? I have to pay like around 140.000yen per ticket each time, so I can't afford going home every year even if I wanted to ;o;

Thanks ^-^

You do karate??? Wow, impressive. I think karate is chou kakkoi~ and ppl who do it must have super-body reaction sense! which I have none :P Only sport I can do is jogging, seriously ^^"

Japan sure have plenty of cold drink 'n sweet in conbini, many you can't find elsewhere too~ World of sweet-maniac! -but gained you LOT of weight w/o noticed XD

I D.I.D.! Seriously now I can't even go jogging (unless we're talking about a short run of 5 minutes or so ... haha .. ha ...) *sigh*
I wonder if I ever can go back to the fitness from back then :(

A lot of drinks here are TOO sweet, though! I can't get used to it (T___T)

good for you for planning to get more exercise! :P have you already started?

as for earthquakes and people talking about them.. i guess you're never completely safe of earthquakes... (not even in the Netherlands actually). I guess you're right about your area being safer than the rest of Japan.. simply because you're further away from the fault lines. But it's only relative obviously..

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Japan Life]: It's fitness time, baby!~

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject