Healthy Japan

It's 15 days until I leave.

So, you may think I'm preparing via packing, studying Japanese, and figuring out why some of the pictures on my blog are not showing up (which I'll fix tonight.).
Au contraire, I'm... running. And basically over all getting in shape.

I just got back from a 40 minute run. The fact that I was about to die 3 minutes into the run probably is not a good sign.
See I already knew I was out of shape. I havn't done volleyball conditioning since last Fall.

I've been told that Japanese schools have a lot more intense gym/extracurricular activities conditioning then our schools. Yippee.

And as one who strongly believes you should only run when being chased this did not sit well with me.

Now I'm going to educate you:

Japan has the longest life expectancy in the world! Women live on average to be about 85 years old. IN the States it's 78 years old.
This is due to Japanese diet. The eat so much good stuff that they have extremely low cholesterol.

And obesity is definitely not as much as a problem there as it is here in the US. This can be contributed a lot in part to have physically active the kids are.

At my high school in the US, it is only required for us to have two years of gym. And when I say gym, I mean 5 times a week we'd have 40 minutes where we would sit on the floor and gossip with each other and "stretch."
In Japanese schools, gym is required through all of school (high schools only have 3 grades) and when I say they have gym, the actually have gym. Gym in Japan is intense!
And as I said, Japanese schools have things such as races and homeroom relays.
Not to mention the 20 minute to and from school biking trip probably helps.
(That's specific for me. Some of the students take trains.)

But anyways, I'm figuring the more I write in this thing the better I'll get at it. The whole more experience making you better philosophy. That way once I get to Japan my writing skills won't be all out of wack from the long summer break.