Wasting away

Just when I didn't think it could happen, it did.
I got skinnier.
Yup, I know it's hard to believe but it's true.
I had thought maybe it was happening... my clothes felt a little looser, I had to buckle my belt another notch tighter and then this 90lb. Japanese woman told me I was thin.

But I still was skeptical. I thought maybe it's just in my head. I mean how accurate is our perception of ourselves? Hard to be objective right?

Well yesterday morning, I woke with a start and looked at my watch - damn, slept through my alarm! I got up in a rush and ran to the bathroom to put my contacts in.
In itself, putting contacts in is an odd sensation. Before they are in everything is fuzzy. All the lines are blurred and objects are a bit hazy. It can almost feel like you are in some wierd state between dreaming and conciousness, you don't even really bother looking at things because you know it's no use - you won't be able to see them anyways.
And then you put you finger in your eye with these little gelatinous cups and then all the sudden the world comes into perfect focus. Bing!
So yesterday, I put my contacts in an blinked a couple times to make sure they were in position.
I find I pause right after I put them in too. It's like all the sudden your brain has just been inudated with all this visual information and running off immediatley afterwards seems like sensory overload.
In my moment of hesitation I happened to catch my reflection in the mirror, standing in my boxers on the bathroom floor.
What I saw confirmed the intuition I have been fighting since I got here - I've lost weight.
After my initial 'poor me' reaction, I began to question what would have brought about this change.
Weight loss means I'm not taking in as much as I'm using. So I must not be eating enough right? I've lived mostly on my own for the past 3 years, so I should be relatively adapted to cooking for myself and since coming to Japan I have cooked most days.
The more I analyzed things, the more I realized that even though the quantity of food I consume seems to okay I think the quality of the food is somewhat lacking.
Meat in Japan can be fairly expensive, and trying to be a frugal chef often means building quantity with lots of noodles and rice. Rice and noodles stay with me for about 15 minutes per 250 grams it seems. So to keep myself going between lunch and dinner, that's 6kg of noodles I'd have to eat!
In all seriousness though, I'm going to have to get better at snacking at work or something because if I keep losing weight at this rate, there won't be anything left of me by the time I come home.
There may be hope though! I was talking to some of the other Canadian interns here and they all said in the first couple months after coming here they lost weight as well but that after 3-4 months it all came back.
I just worry that what I'm losing now is muscle, and what I'll gain back later will be fat! I've gotta find some weights to lift.....

Japan from the inside

This past weekend I got a somewhat rare opportunity to take part in Japanese tradition thousands of years old. The town I live in was having their yearly 'Mikoshi Parade' and for the first time they invited gaijin, or foreign residents, to take part.
As an aside, when I first arrived in Japan I thought gaijin was an insult, much like 'gringo' in Central America is used to talk down upon stupid white folk. But I was wrong (it sounds kind of the same... well at least they both start with 'g'). In fact I am now an official card-carrying gaijin! It's got my picture on it and everything! Sadly the only thing I recognize on the card is my face and my name! I can't even read my address because it's all written in Kanji.
Right, back to the story. So I got to take part in this Mikoshi Parade.
The Mikoshi is essentially a semi-portable shrine. I say 'semi' portable because this thing weighs about 1700 kg. And the 'parade' consists of about 40-50 men carrying this thing a couple of kilometers on their shoulders!
I'm still waiting for pics from some friends here since I didn't get my camera until just after this thing.
Carrying this thing actually ended up being waaaaay harder than I would have expected. I guess I assumed since there were so many of us carrying it, the load assigned to each person wouldn't be too bad.
I don't know if the 10 kids that got to ride inside were the fattest in Japan or what, but this thing was f*#kin heavy.
I'm sure it doesn't help that I am a good 15cm taller than the tallest Japanese guy there, and that my scrawny shoulders aren't a very good cushion for this multi-tonne shrine full of chubsters. So I was hurting for a couple days afterwards.
First tenderness, then bruising then muscle stiffness. The best was when you looked really closely you could see all these broken blood vessels just under the skin.

Taking part in this festival was really cool. It's interesting to see what a big role drinking plays in Japanese culture. The Mikoshi event started at 9am.
I was the first gaijin to arrive and as the festival organizer was introducing himself he handed me a beer! I took it reluctantly (well maybe not that reluctantly - I mean come on it's FREE bEEr!), but it did strike me as odd that all these men were drinking prior to hoisting this ridiculously heavy wooden shrine over their heads.
The parade zigged and zagged through the neighbourhood where most of these people live and then ended at this temple.
The best part was that we stopped every 10 minutes and they handed out drinks and snacks for everyone before we headed on. Actually the chanting may have been the best part! The kids in the Mikoshi keep a beat going on a drum and everyone marches and chants along in time. Helps keep your mind off the pain too!
I was blown away with the day though. Everyone was so welcoming. Even the city mayor sat down with the handfull of foreigners that were participating and had lunch with us. And then after all the festivities, this random lady invited us all to her traditional-style Japanese house for some tea and more food!
It was an awesome day. That evening I went to a gyoza party too! I'm not very good at making it, but I'm learning so maybe when i come back I'll have a little gyoza party of my own and wow you with my dumpling making ability.
I'm coming to really appreciate the fine line Japan walks between tradition and progress. I feel like here they have much more emphasis on these cultural festivals or buildings that have been around for centuries. And yet somehow so many things seem extremely modernized and advanced. It seems like a contradiction at first, but some how they figured out how to be both at the same time - definitely makes for an interesting experience.

Tips for Cycling in Japan... with Ted

So I ventured on a ride the other day with my supervisor. I should have known when he suggested we meet before 6am that he meant business.
After all, I knew this guy is hard to the core when it comes to cycling. He has the record for fastest ride across Canada on a tandem (in 14 days, 10 hours!) and in all the years he has taught at SFU he has never once had a parking pass. He won't drive to school in the morning, he rides his bike - EVERY day. No matter what. I was impressed by this already, and then he told me he goes up this mental hill near the top of Burnaby mountain called Cardiac/Max Heart Rate/Heart Attack Hill. You get the idea - this is one biznatch of a hill. The primary objective when climbing this thing is just to keep moving forward!

Anyways, in my naievity (I blame my age), as a half-decent triathlete I figured I'd be able to trail him for a couple hours on the bike without too much trouble. Damn I hate it when I'm wrong!
He worked me so badly I felt like I hadn't trained in months.
But even while he was leaving me in his dust on yet another grueling climb, I was devising a plan for next time so that I wouldn't get so thoroughly done in.
Part of my problem I think, was that I wasn't mentally prepared. I seriously rolled out of bed just in time to put my contacts in, throw on some spandex and get to the meeting spot. I barely got a hello out of him before he was on his bike and ripping down the road toward the mountains.
I feel sorry for this guy's wife - I doubt he has any idea what foreplay is.
No time for any lead up, it's straight to the action.

I don't like making performance excuses, but there are certainly a lot of ways I can improve for next time!

So here's the point form list of thoughts I had while cycling with Ted in Japan. I think I'm going to have to re-read it before I ride with him each time!

-Most crucial - they drive on the left here! That means don't, I repeat DO NOT swerve right to avoid a car because you'll put yourself right in front of it. (Luckily I didn't have to learn this the hard way)

- Always remember - you're not out to sight see. Every time you lose your focus on riding to appreciate the surroundings he's put another 4 revolutions on you.

- Don't expect a social outing either. If you get more than 10 words in the whole time you're ahead of the game. Not everyone enjoys talking as much as you.

-Bring food. And water. You never know where you're going to end up and chances are there won't be a circle K out there when you need it.

- Eat breakfast. Even though those last few minutes of sleep feel so good, you can't boost yourself up any mountains running on last night's gyoza.

- Make sure you're bike is running perfectly the night before a Ted ride. Taking a minute to make even the most minor of adjustments will force you into a sprint for the next 10 minutes to make up the distance he just put on you. Also make sure all your gear is completely on. Trying to get the velcro on your gloves done up takes a long time when you're trying not to lose someone over the horizon

- Use the mirrors. In many of these narrow backroads in Japan the have a convex mirror mounted on the outside of the corner to help you see if any cars are coming - potential lifesavers

- What goes up must soon come down. After a good hour and a half of mostly uphill, you know the downhill must be coming... and boy did it ever. It was the funnest, fastest and most technical decent of my life. The last 45min-an hour of the ride were amazing.

- Watch out for monkeys. Apparently they can gang up on you if you stop for a wee in the woods and steal your bananas

- Be prepared for some crazy views. Even though I was hurting bad, riding through all these small little villages was amazing. The Japanese style architecture against the backdrop of rice fields and mountains first thing in the morning was unreal. Wish I had a camera at that point (and time to take pics!)

All complaining aside, the ride was really quite amazing. I was hurting pretty bad after, but not bad enough to prevent me from running 20k that afternoon.
My biggest problem I think was that I was starting to go hypoglycemic by the end of it (I couldn't find my Powergels in my morning rush).

Damn life is hard! Ha ha. Now I'm just looking forward to the next surprise route.