"Barking up the wrong tree"

Back in May of last year, I was working at one of my schools and the sole English teacher was telling me of a recent discovery to her. It was Barking up the wrong tree. (Ken tou chigai.) It was around that time that I started to make a note of how I wanted to maintain, or at least try, some of the healthy lifestyle changes that I did for three years in Japan.

Car Pooling- As the billboard read when I was living in Los Angeles, "Life sucks without a car." No, it just sucks in general in Los Angeles. Anyway, being about to do without a car as we did in Japan was not going to be feasible back in the US. For the first six months back in the US, my wife and I car pooled with my parents helping out when we were in a pinch. Eventually, we will get a second car and I'd like to get a hybrid since there is no end in sight with every week being a record breaking price for gas.

No Cable TV- Prior to moving to Japan, we would enjoy TV courtesy of the rabbit ears which means I had half a dozen channels in English and about as many in Spanish and that was it. In Japan, we had to break down and get Yahoo TV which allowed us to get some American programming through the Internet viewed on our TV. Now, with work and life outside the home, cable TV is a luxury that I can finally afford but don't need and only have the basic 24 channels. I was looking at NHK's package for the US and it looked interesting.

Biking- As the old saying goes, "Give the customer a choice." That was my take on owning and maintaining a bike while living in Japan. If I needed to get to work and the weather was nice, I could bike. This was helpful when I was running late. Since we were not going to get a car, I was able to get a bike for around $80 which I gave to my sister-in-law when we moved back to the US. Unfortunately, biking in the US is more trouble than it is worth since there are few bike paths for commuters to travel for practical uses such as getting to the store or work. Not too long ago, a jogger was killed by a passing motorist. This is an alternative to beating the gas prices continuously spiking every week.

Workout 3-5 times a week-   Back in the summer of 2005, I had six weeks of not eating starchy school lunches and could take full control of my diet. I spent most of that time living like a hermit eating like a health nut and finally figured out a workout routine that was consistent with my goal of losing weight. I jogged for 25 minutes at a slow pace while listing to a old MP3 player and then finished up by using the stationary bike for 20 minutes. In between I gradually worked up to 100 sit-ups. I did this for basically 5-6 days a week while maintaining a strict diet for the first time in my life. The results were successful but it is not realistic to be so strict on a diet and workout routine as I was in 2005. The reason why is in 2005, I was on hiatus from work and if I did not have the goal of loosing weight, I would have been bored to tears. Now, I'm working a full week unlike anything that went on while I was in Japan. Upon my return from Japan and living out of a suitcase for several weeks while we stayed at different people's houses, the workout and diet went out the window but is slowing making its way back. I currently workout 3-4 times a week. My only concern now is that I've became accustomed to the abbreviated workouts and am not getting enough intensity.

Japanese language training- For the better part of three years, I studied Japanese in a structured environment at a local Japanese university. It was a wonderful experience on many levels. Although I wore my wedding ring and had been around the Japanese culture enough to know when somebody was kissing up or just wanting to kiss, it felt good to have women 10 years younger than me find me a stud muffin. The studying aspect will resume on some sort of routine and hopefully in a structured environment.

The Divine Wind Vault http://divinewindvault.blogspot.com (C)2006-10