So. My life...is much the same as whatever it was last time I wrote. I have a couple of adventures. I'll tell you a story.
I run every night. I don’t enjoy it, but I don’t want to be fat because I like cute clothes and it’s hard to find cute clothes in fat people sizes. Simple as that. I do like junk food. Especially sweets and chips and…well, junk food. But cake and ice cream and chocolate is high on my list of happy making necessities. And so. Running. Because dieting is absolutely out of the question.
Oddly enough, I can seem to have a steady running routine and not lose any weight. When I stop I gain weight, but I never seem to lose any. This is a quirk of my body that irritates me greatly, but it does not seem to care about the impact it has on my overall emotional well being. Which is probably also why it hates milk and orange juice. The bitch.
Anyway, I have been running now for about a year and half. I usually do about four and half kilometers, or a couple miles. The running part is actually only a mile and a half, I'm working up to two, and the rest is power walking. Followed by weights when I get back to my apartment. But I never stray too far away from my apartment, mostly because I like to be within easy returning distance should I decide I’m really not in the mood for exercise after all. It happens.
I frequently see other people out and about, some doing their own exercise, some walking their dogs, some just getting home from work or the store. I never have any trouble with them, we nod our heads at each other and offer a polite こんばんは (good evening) and go on our way, barely having paused.
So why then, lately, do people feel the need to interrupt my run to talk to me? Twice now strange Japanese men have stopped me and asked me if I’m free. Do I look free? I’m sweating, because I sweat—a lot. Really, I think my pores are connected to the oceans with how much I can sweat sometimes, it’s disgusting—and I’m redfaced, and my running clothes are usually puffy. It’s not sexy. Seriously. And I’m obviously in the middle of my exercise. They don’t go to the gym and stand in front of people on the treadmill and demand their attention, do they? No. Because it’s rude. Oh but wait, that’s right, I’m not Japanese, so to do it to me isn’t rude.
But that’s different story entirely.
No, I want to talk about the other night. Well. Bitch about it. I went running, as I usually do, and as sometimes happens I drew attention to myself, simply by the fact that I am quite obviously not Japanese and that I run at night because I have a deep aversion to daylight. Mostly the sun’s rays. I’ve attracted strange men before, one guy on bike followed me for half a block until I had to stop at a “Don’t walk” sign before he asked me if I could play with him. Here play can be a lot of things. I took it to mean all of them and pretended I didn’t speak Japanese. The other night though, the guy was an older gentleman and had a car.
He pulled alongside the road I was on and waited for me to catch up at the intersection. I had no idea what he was doing, but I figured he was probably staring at me since that’s what Japanese men in cars do. I nodded my head politely in a sort of non bow and went around his car, on my merry way. He followed me for half a block and then pulled over and called out to me. I figured I’d better just answer him so that he didn’t follow me to the next leg of my run, which would go through a dimly lit wooded area with probably no witnesses should he try to kill me. Though in that case it would have been me with the upper hand, since I would have a better shot at getting away with vengeful justice. Still. I figured better to not risk it.
I stop and say hi, and he asks me to talk to him for a while. He wants me to get in his car. Like that’s gonna happen. Ever. Even in the third safest country in the world I am not that completely stupid. He seemed to be offended by this, but I was adamant. He then wanted to know my phone number and address and where I was going, to which I replied of course, though I totally lied. Then he gave me his number and said I should call him so he could meet me at a restaurant and give me a present.
Yeah.
And he went away. I did not get in the car with a strange man—who didn’t even have candy! What the hell kind of stranger doesn’t even bring candy!?—and I managed to escape unscathed. Though he screwed to hell my usual routine, which pissed me off because it’s hard as hell to keep myself on track normally, I don’t need lonely old businessmen throwing me off my stride too.
Japan is a very friendly country. It really is. It’s full of friendly, polite people. Sometimes more polite than friendly, and sometimes more friendly than polite. It also has quite a few creepy-assed stalker freaks. And I seem to have the unfortunate habit of attracting all of them.
End story 1. Begin story 2.
Went to a small island out near a peninsula sort of near me -ish- with some friends. These people are members of a Facebook group called "Miyagi Outdoor Lovers." They're ALT friends of mine, but as you might guess if you know me, I am not remotely an outdoor lover and avoid nature at all costs. They talked me into this one because I'd been there before and thought it would be all right, plus there's a deserted beach nearby that I wanted to go to.
I had been sick for a week, I should mention. Like, I went to bed as soon as I got home from work sick. Death on a stick. I felt better the Friday before and that morning so thought it would be all right. Was not all right. Trekking uphill with a cough and a sinus headache on top of allergies = deathwish. Seriously. Down was all right. We got totally lost and ended up on an animal trail on the other side of the island, and followed that back to the ferry. It was an adventure, and I felt better at that point because we'd stopped for lunch and medicine.
Then the beach! First day at the beach this summer. Was awesome. Really FREAKING cold, but awesome. Went in shorts and a t-shirt because no swim suit, I always forget it, but meh, was fun. The waves were pretty big, we were sharing the beach with surfers, but they were nice enough to move off to one side and let the crazy gaijin (foreigners) swim around in their underwear. There was a cave too! I like caves. In a small part kind of off to the side, behind some rocks, there was another mini beach with what looked like a totally awesome cave, and I tried to go there. The water got really deep though in the middle and deep ocean water scares me stupid, so I tried to go around that and ended up being smashed into rocks by the huge freaking waves. My hands are nicely shredded, along with my knees and a few toes.
Hahaha I hadn't actually told anyone that I was going to go exploring over there either, so they noticed me missing and thought I had drowned. Started yelling for me. I came back dripping wet and bleeding and got yelled at but good. I feel thwarted though, I really wanted to see that cave.
Anyway, it was an exhausting day, but I actually enjoyed it. Despite the part where nature touched me. ~shudders~
I am excited for summer vacation because I plan to go to Summer Sonic, a huge two day concert event with something like thirty bands in Tokyo. I'm only going for one day, because it's ridiculously expensive, but still excited. I may or may not write about how that goes. I fail at this keeping in touch thing. Hopefully my adventure stories will be enough to make you realize how over Japan I am getting. I am equally excited to be going home for good next April.
Aaaand that's all I got. Japan is getting increasingly creepier the more Japanese people get used to me. Though my students for the most part remain adorable. The end.
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