Sudoriferous Overdrive

Probably my only regret from this trip was not taking a picture of my calves before we left. I severely underestimated the amount of walking and standing that we would be doing to visit each city, and I’m fairly certain I put on at least a little muscle mass in my calf muscles in our time there, which is all the more impressive due to the short duration of the trip. I imagine that people in the States would be much better off if everyone used public transportation and the power of their own legs to get around everywhere. Bad weather isn’t really a viable defense against people walking in the States either – there were people out and about in the early stages of Typhoon #11 that hit Kobe during our first few days there. In comparison, a little bit of rain or humidity here seems obsolete. In fact, given the price of parking and owning cars in Japan, coupled with the extremely busy traffic that seems to be present at all times despite their extensive public transit system, driving one’s own car in that country seems pretty illogical. However, I would caution anyone with major health problems or difficulties with extended exercise to carefully plan their own trip to Japan. Although expensive and more time consuming in many cases, investing in a rental car or paying for taxis might be the safer route.

At any rate, my lower legs are definitely more tone in appearance as a result of our trip. Had I known that touring Japan would be such a workout, I would’ve brought some ankle weights along to really work up a sweat (or rather, more of one), which brings me to my next point – sudoriferous glands. Yowza, do your sweat glands get put into overdrive over there. I’d always thought that I could work up a good sweat without effort here in Arizona under our intense sun. I had no idea that it could be worse. The combination of humidity and heat in Japan are so intense and unique that you’re really only going to be dry when in a well air-conditioned building. Within 30 seconds of stepping outside, your sweat glands will be working in earnest. Hence, my second piece of advice – when traveling to Japan, try to bring clothes that you’re not concerned about possibly ruining with sweat. I made the mistake of bringing brand new shirts to wear, and fretted the whole time about how gross they were getting. What’s more, all of my shirts gained some major fuzzies as a result of the friction between my backpack and my clothing, coupled with the humidity and sweat. I’m not a fan at all of fuzzies on clothing, so I would recommend trying to bring shirts made of fabrics that are resistant to fuzz.