In other news! We recently joined the local gym! I really don’t understand this city we live in some times. There is really nothing here, other than some vending machines and small markets that you might expect to find in Heber, Utah, but then randomly there is an amazing gym facility. It’s huge, and new, and nice, and modern. I would equate it to the U of U’s Steiner Aquatic Center in Salt Lake, but in comparison three times the size. It has two indoor soccer fields, which convert into ping pong courts apparently… An Olympic sized swimming pool, an aerobics room, an Onsen (the traditional Japanese spa where you go in the nude and scrub down in some mineral baths and relax in the saunas… suffice it to say, we are getting over our awkwardness of public nudity…), massage chairs, and it has a whole room with weight machines and treadmills, elipticals… Very classy. We have been loving it. Especially since it’s only a 5 minute bike ride away from the house. And lately it’s been getting a little bit chilly, so it’s nice to be able to run and exercise indoors. Some funny things to note about Japanese Gyms. 1) NO tattoos. This is a problem for Tyler, who has a tattoo the size of Africa. Literally. (It’s an actual tattoo of a map of Africa) In order to swim he is required to wear a t-shirt. This is seemingly opposite from the American stereotype of a gym rat-macho man covered in tattoos. 2) Two piece swim suits are unheard of here. So in order to avoid lots of awkward, gawking looks I bought an actual Speedo one-piece swim suit. Most of the locals are swimming in wet suits. For being so open in the Onsens, they sure cover up in the swimming pool. 3) Over 90% of the people in Japanese gyms are over the age of 40. GO JAPANESE OLDIES! We can’t believe how fit these people are. There is one old man who is always doing laps in the pool. He can out-swim us any day of the week. And when he gets out of the pool he is using a cane. He’s got to be in his 90s. We can’t believe it! 4) No shoes that have been worn outside are allowed in the facility. We have to check our shoes in at the door into a big shoe locker room, and the running shoes we wear inside had to be specially bought brand new. They want to keep the gym in pristine condition, so no old muddy shoes allowed. 5) People wear sweat suits here like they are going out of style. Which…  hopefully, they are. 

All in all though, it’s been great! It give us something fun to do on the weekend, and we’ve been really trying to amp up our swimming skills. It’s also been a great way to meet some of the locals. The gym staff members are very friendly and nice, and will be out of their way helpful, even though we can hardly understand each other. There is one though who had great English and request that we call him Harry, as in Harry Potter. We’ve also become friends with an old woman named Michiyo. She spotted us floundering around in the pool, and offered some friendly advice. Again… another example of how we get showed up by these oldies. But then she invited us to join her in one of the free swim lessons that the gym offers. This lesson was on the butterfly stroke, which is incredibly awkward and difficult if you are uncoordinated, or have zero back flexibility (thanks to some iron rods) I’m sure we looked like a couple of weirdos in the lesson, but luckily everyone in the lesson were all very kind. It was nice to get to meet some more Toyohamans! 

*This photo is from the gyms website. I thought the caption translated quite funny. That’s the facility in the background.