Where Was I?

 

After a short stay in Seoul towards the end of March, I moved on from Korea and booked the first couple of weeks of April for Japan.  

I had heard great things about visiting this East Asian island country and wanted to try and see as much as I could in the time I had left in Asia. 

This would be my last country on this side of the world before I would return to the U.S. for a brief stint. 

It was also a country where I would finally not be traveling alone or with a tour group.  Instead, I traveled with a couple of my childhood friends, who flew out to meet me in the Land of the Rising Sun.  

 

The Best Thing I Saw in Japan

Cherry Blossoms Everywhere

 

As I mentioned above, because my friends from the U.S. had booked this trip to meet me in Japan months in advance, we had to take our best guess as to when would be the best 10-day period to see the cherry blossoms at their peak. 

Cherry blossoms have a very short life span and depending on the weather, their full bloom can sometimes only last around one week.    

We ended up timing the peak season nearly perfectly as we were able to catch the flowers in near full bloom in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nara.  

This time of year is always a busy time for tourists because of the cherry blossoms and all of the festivals that surround them. 

While in some places there were large crowds to deal with, I’d say the tradeoff to be in Japan during their famed cherry blossom season was well worth it. 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These were just some of the many places we were surrounded by these beautiful flowers.  

The pictures were nice, but it’s definitely an attraction that was infinite times more stunning to see in person. 

 

Other Highlights

Fushimi Inari Taisha (Orange Gates)

 

The Orange Gates, or Fushimi Inari as it’s called in Japanese, is one of Kyoto’s most popular attractions and one that shows up in pictures anytime anyone visits Japan.  

 

 

The Orange Gates is actually an important shrine in Japanese culture and is situated on Mount Inari.  

It took us a couple of hours to hike to the summit, with a majority of the hike moving through these torii gates. 

There were some stands selling merchandise and some nice viewpoints along the way too.  

 

 

 

 

Kiyomizu-dera

 

Not too far from the Orange Gates in Kyoto, was Kiyomizu-dera, a Buddhist temple and a UNESCO World Heritage site. 

This temple had some really amazing views of the city and was a good place to capture photos.   

 

 

 

Meiji Jingu

Meiji Jingu was a Shinto shrine in Tokyo that made for a really serene walk through the forest.  

It was tucked away in a quiet part of the city, which made for a peaceful walk on the morning we visited. 

 

 

Japanese Baseball Game

 

This was my second baseball game of the trip as just a few weeks earlier I was at a KBO game in Seoul.  

After the Korean baseball experience, I was more ready for what to expect here in Japan, as they had similar traditions when it came to baseball games.  

Like Korea, they also had crowds that sang and chanted throughout the game. 

This time, I was at an outdoor stadium, Meiji Jingu Stadium, home to the Tokyo Swallows.  

The game was won 3-1 by the visitors, the Chunichi Dragons, who happened to have a player I knew very well from his time in Boston, Daisuke Matsuzaka. 

Unfortunately, he was injured and we didn’t get to see him pitch, but they were selling his player shirts outside the stadium, so I had to pick one up.  

 

 

Imperial Palace 

 

Another interesting site to see in Tokyo was the famous Imperial Palace complex, which was home to the Emperor of Japan.    

The complex was fairly large and made for a nice walk around the park.   

 

 

Senso-ji

 

The oldest temple in Tokyo was the Senso-Ji, where we spent an afternoon exploring before the rain came down.  

This Buddhist temple was packed with people throughout the grounds, which included a giant market that led up to the temple itself. 

There were a lot of shops and food stands on the grounds and if the weather had cooperated we may have tried to stay even longer.  

 

 

 

Nara

 

We took a day trip via train from Kyoto out to Nara, a popular city for many tourists to visit while in this part of the country. 

Nara was filled with more temples, museums, and a giant park, which was best known for being filled with deer. 

The deer in the park were nothing like the deer I remember seeing back in the States.  These deer were nearly domesticated and would interact with humans, looking to be fed like a dog would.  

Without offending any animal rights activists, I did think it was pretty amazing to see so many deer behave this way.  

 

The Toda-Ji was the famous Buddhist temple in Nara, which held Japan’s largest bronze Buddha statue. 

 

 

 

 

Tokyo Disneyland

 

I did have a few days in Tokyo before my American friends arrived, and on one of my first days in Tokyo I spent the day at Tokyo Disneyland with a Japanese friend I met during my travels.      

As someone who grew up going to Disney World in Florida, I was impressed how similar this was to the park that I knew from my childhood, with some Japanese twists of course.  

The food was a little different, but there were still some staples, like the turkey leg and fried dough.  

The rides were nearly identical, Space Mountain, Small World, and Jungle Cruise were just a few I waited on line for with the crazed local Disney enthusiasts.  

I couldn’t believe how obsessed the Japanese youth were with Disney, as the park was filled with young kids and young adults dressed in Disney garb and wearing Disney hats.  

What a global brand Disney has become over the last 50 years.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Japanese Food

 

Japan might take the award for my favorite food of any one country.  

I loved trying new foods in so many of the countries I visited and as I mentioned in previous blogs, I did food tours in nearly every one.  

In Japan, I ate the best sushi I’ve ever tasted in my life with pieces of fish that were around the size of my hand.   

 

 

Okonomiyaki was something I wasn’t as familiar with, but we went on a tour in Kyoto where our guide brought us to a shop that specialized making this savory Japanese dish.  

 

We ate ramen numerous times and because a few of the days were cool and rainy, ramen was the perfect treatment.  

In one spot, we ate something called ‘fire ramen’, where the guests would sit at the bar and have the entire ramen dish lit on fire just before eating.  It was more of a spectacle than anything else, but the food wasn’t bad either.    

 

 

I could probably eat gyoza every day if I had to and Japan had some of the best. 

 

 

The sushi belt was something I had seen before, but I didn’t know it would be so prevalent throughout the country. 

The idea was pretty simple, the chef made the sushi, put it on a certain color plate, and then the guests took the plates as they moved around a conveyor belt.  At the end, you stacked your different color plates and that’s how you would pay.    

We ate at this style of restaurant a few times and I must admit it was nice being able to pick out as much sushi as I desired.  

 

I tried some new foods at the Japanese food stalls, which were scattered throughout the country.  While Japan took great pride in their fine dining, the street food scene was prevalent and in some cases had some really tasty dishes. 

I couldn’t pass up octopus on a stick, which I had a couple of different times.   

 

 

I went to Japan knowing there would be a ton of sushi and ramen options, but I never knew how many ice cream stands and bakeries were scattered throughout the country.  

We were in some touristy areas, so I can’t make a blanket statement about Japan’s ice cream and bakery scene as a whole, but in Tokyo and Kyoto I don’t know if I had ever seen more of these style shops. 

Every train station had a slew of these to choose from, which we ended up doing almost every day. 

While this was just another 10 days of my year-long trip, for my friends it was vacation, so eating ice cream and pastries every day was acceptable.   

 

 

 

The Sugars

Highest high: 239

Lowest low: 34

Avg Morning: 102

Avg Afternoon: 96

Avg Night: 103

Insulin Pods: 5

Avg Basal Rate: 1.10, 1.00

Emergency sugar supply: Skittles, glucose tablets, energy drinks, M&Ms

 

 

Believe it or not, this picture was taken long before anyone knew what COVID-19 was.   Masks were already being worn by many in Japan, so I thought I would try and fit in with the locals. 

Or I was just a trendsetter a year ahead of my time. 

 

As for my sugars, I actually had some struggles while we were in Tokyo.  I mentioned above how busy we were and that had a pretty big impact on my sugar levels.  We did a ton of walking around Tokyo, and a few of the nights I had severe lows.  On four straight nights I had readings of 55, 35, 34, and 45, which is dangerously low and not something any diabetic wants to get into the habit of seeing.   

I had to go through a lot of Skittles and energy drinks to correct, but eventually I was able to adjust. 

When seeing patterns like this over a couple of days, that’s when I would normally adjust my basal rate, or at least adjust it during the afternoons and nights when it was going low.  I lowered it by 0.1 from 1.10 to 1.00 as we moved to Kyoto and my sugars were in better range over the second part of my Japan trip.    

Between the sushi, the ramen, the gyoza, and the pastries, there were a lot of carbs eaten during my time in Japan.  Balancing all of the carbs with all of the exercise can be difficult, and that’s partially what made things difficult while in Tokyo.  But, with some tweaking and some adjustments, things got better.  

  

 

 

The above highlights are just that, some of the highlights, but there was so much I did in the two weeks time I was in Japan, it was one of my busiest countries to date.  

I really loved Japan and found these parts of their culture to be interesting to observe as a foreigner: 

• The bullet trains, the train stations, the silence on the trains, the efficiency of the trains… Japanese trains could probably have a blog all to themselves.   

• Learning about Geishas and their significance to Japanese culture.
• For having visited many countries where English was not the first language, I was surprised to learn how little English the people of Japan spoke.   

I was fortunate to spend some time there with a friend, a local who could help me with translating, but without her help, I would have certainly had issues communicating.

 

Here are some more photos from Japan:     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And for my food dish, this was eaten on my final night in Japan before returning to the U.S. for a couple of weeks.  

This was about 60g of carbs and needed 8 units of insulin.

 

That was it for Asia.  I would leave this side of the world in mid April, 2019, fly back to the U.S. to restock some supplies and catch my breath, and then move on to a new continent in May.  

 

Keep the sugar levels steady. 

Jeremy

 

 

THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROVIDING MEDICAL ADVICE.  PLEASE CONSULT PROPER MEDICAL PERSONNEL FOR ALL HEALTH RELATED ISSUES