You may remember a little while back, that I had decided to go to a community center gym. Well, not too long after I started, I ended up stopping due to the ridiculous distance just to get there. Fortunately, my friend and neighbour told me of a gym that is closer - in fact, it is about 5 minutes away from one of the schools I work at, and decided to go there and work out. I will say that compared to the one near Kamisu City Hall, this particular gym is so much better. The gym itself is bigger, and the equipment itself seems to be newer, if not well maintained at the least. The one difference I noticed is that you have to set up your own weights for the dumbbells, which is a minor inconvenience, but it's still better than the previous gym I went to. Also, my friend has been helping me with developing a workout routine - as I am only going two days a week, each of those days is dedicated to working certain parts of the body (either upper or lower parts). Since my goal has always been about toning my body, rather than building muscle, most of the workouts are centered on control, rather than blasting my way through. I must say, it is certainly effective.
I can definitely see myself coming to this gym on a regular basis for a variety of reasons:
1) It's cheap
2) It's fairly close to the school I work at
3) It's less than a 10 minute drive to get there from my apartment
4) It's close to the supermarket
5) There is a FamilyMart nearby, where I can go study for an hour or two.
Yes, I've been studying at FamilyMarts these days. While going to the library is nice, the nearest library is a bit of a drive, and there are times when the library will be closed for whatever reason. Fortunately, most of the time, very few people turn up to the convenience store at any one time, so I can usually study with low level background noise, and not be bothered. Sometimes, some of my students will see me there and want to say hi, but it's not a big deal. The other thing I like is that unlike the library, I can eat/drink while studying.
Another thing I have done yesterday was go to one my schools' festival. To be honest it was less of a festival, and more of a concert. In any case, it was for the morning, so I did not mind. In fact I was very interested in seeing each of the year groups' performances. I had noticed during my time at this school that they had been practicing regularly for their songs/dance routines, so it was good to finally see the fruits of their labour. Unfortunately, during the few times where there was talking, the parents behind me were talking also, so it was hard to get an idea of what exactly the children/teachers were talking about.
After their performances, rice cakes (mochi) were made. I went back to the teachers' room, and there was mochi ready for me to eat. There were two types - one which was covered in seaweed, and coated in soy sauce (I think); the other was covered in kinako mugi - soy bean flour, and my favourite between the two. In the past, my girlfriend and I made kinako mochi, either for Christmas, or the New Year. Turns out there was plenty left, so the teachers gave me two take away containers full of mochi to eat. I still have them in my fridge right now, but I ate all the kinako mochi from one of the containers, and I'll probably eat more with my next meal.
That is about it for this month. I am still studying for my JLPT, despite the exam being on the 4th of next month. I am struggling with the grammar, but I'm powering through the vocabulary, especially with the textbook I bought in Kyoto before starting my job.
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