Job Discussion Forums

jezebel · Joined: 18 May 2005 Posts: 53

If you're athletic or you like to work out, what do you do to keep in shape in Japan? Are there gyms anywhere? Do people give you weird looks if you go jogging? Or do you just go swimming a lot? Is it possible to take martal arts lessons as a non-Japanese speaker?

AndyH · Joined: 30 Sep 2004 Posts: 417

I ran and had a health club membership, but cancelled the health club membership after my work schedule started to limit my work-out hours too much.
Running was never a problem. MOTIVATION to run was another story!

Quibby84 · Joined: 10 Aug 2006 Posts: 643 Location: Japan

You can jog, it is not weird at all. You can also join a health club, they seem decently common. I know teachers (who speak NO japanese) that go to Judo. My husband went to Kendo for a while and I am sure you could find Karate..the best thing about these sports is that they are pretty stinkin cheap at the community center.
I think you can go swimming, you can join a "swim gym" (we saw a gym only for swimming) and I think that there are local pools that you can pay a fee and swim for the day...
You can also ride your bicycle everywhere (you actually usually dont have a choice) and this is good excersise..
not a problem!

cornishmuppet · Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Posts: 642 Location: Nagano, Japan

As Quibby said, its easy to keep fit in Japan. There are numerous provisions and general outdoor activities like hiking and cycling which keep you fit without costing any money. My anytime, pool/gym/aerobics membership costs about 9200yen a month but there was a joining fee of about two months.

Back when I used to live in Italy, a short jog would cause cars to honk their horns, people to shout things, kids to laugh at you. In nine months I didn't see a single bicycle, single pair of shorts (except on myself) and not one single other jogger. Of course, they had gyms, but there were more mirrors than weights. This was in Brindisi, in the south, where there aren't many foreigners and the whole image thing is at the forefront of everything. I saw bicycles in the north though!

wabisabi365 · Joined: 04 Feb 2007 Posts: 111 Location: japan

As for swimming...

The two gyms I attempted to join had a contract that stipulated "no tattoos". My friend decided to ignore this, even though she had a small (and I do mean small) tattoo of a ying/yang symbol on her shoulder. The first day in the pool, she was spotted by an older woman (in her fifties was the estimate) who promptly alerted the lifeguard, who promptly had my friend leave the pool. The contract was pulled out, the stipulation pointed out, and my friend was asked to leave and not return.

So, if you have a tattoo and plan on swimming, it's quite possible you will not be welcome.

(Yes, it's true, my friend shouldn't have lied... she hadn't lived here long enough to realize the stigma attached to the tattoos, particularly among older folks. It wasn't like it was a yakuza-style ink though... no colours, no ornate drawings, just a small black and white swirl.) She's long gone, and that experience, unfortunately, is the one that stands out the most after a year here.

ws365

kita · Joined: 09 Oct 2007 Posts: 34 Location: Japan

I live in a rather inaka area and even I have a gym close by. It has a swimming pool and even a heated aerobics room for hot yoga/pilates classes. When I go jogging, I do tend to get some weird looks, but I'm pretty sure it's because I'm foreign, not because I'm jogging as I've seen plenty of other joggers around.

benshi · Joined: 16 Feb 2007 Posts: 48

With small enough tats, all you have to do is put a bandaid on them. I, too, know people who have had gym memberships cancelled for wearing tats in the pool. Them's the rules. . .

maya.the.bee · Joined: 23 Sep 2005 Posts: 118 Location: Stgo

markle · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 1316 Location: Out of Japan

chan_konabe · Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 9:03 pm Post subject:

BradS · Joined: 05 Sep 2004 Posts: 173 Location: Tokyo, Japan

I can't recommend http://www.YogaToday.com enough. It's change my life. Seriously. It's also free and gives you a REALLY good workout.

GambateBingBangBOOM · Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 2021 Location: Japan

Here's how I stay healthy in Japan:

1. Don't eat Japanese food. (it'll make you fat and there are no where near enough vegetables in it).
2. Don't drink alcohol- not easy in Japan because most people- Japanese and foreign- are pretty close to closet alcoholics in this country.
3. Exercise at home. There are gyms, but I don't want to be stared at, and almost every foreigner I know who goes to the gym spends most of his (or her) time having the same conversations with people over and over and very rarely get to actually exercise..
4. Take a martial art class (or Yoga).

Tara2117 · Joined: 14 Aug 2006 Posts: 89 Location: Gunma, Japan

I actually see Japanese people jogging every day in my town. As a foreigner, you're gonna attract attention anyway, so you might as well jog. Wink

Quibby84 · Joined: 10 Aug 2006 Posts: 643 Location: Japan

Its true...you might as well just jog naked...you could probably run faster and they are going to stare anyway..hehehe

Apsara · Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 2142 Location: Tokyo, Japan

I'm going to disagree that Japanese food makes you fat- the evidence that proves it doesn't is out there for all to see- Japan still has one of the lowest obesity rates in the world. If you eat beef bowls, ramen and tempura for every meal then you might get fat, but that isn't all there is to Japanese food.

Vegetables are well represented in Japanese home cooking- just not in fast food noodle and gyudon chain shops.

In Tokyo at least you don't have to worry too much about being stared at or questioned in the gym- at Tipness, Gold's Gym, Konami Sports etc. non-Japanese are a dime a dozen. Central Tokyo has a lot of well-established jogging routes and in the parks in the suburb where I live there are also well-used jogging trails.

It obviously depends very much on where in Japan you are, and what restaurants you decide to go to.