Greetings from Japan! May I dare say there is about 4 weeks left in the semester? I know I haven't been updating my blog as much as I would like... no excuses... I just didn't do it...
Today I'm compelled to share my experience going to the swimming pool at the local "sports club" AKA gym. I finally decided to go, and I decided to only use the pool. There is the option to use the community bath house and the pool. I opted to use only the pool. I walked in and there are these tiny lockers, and not a lot of space to change... I thought for a second, am I in the wrong place? Will I end up walking out into the basketball gym instead of the swimming pool? Luckily, it was the pool, and I looked around, and I'm not sure where to go. I tried to ask one of the staff members for help, and of course he explained everything in Japanese, and I smiled and nodded pretending to understand. I caught a few words like "san" and "co-su," which is three and course. So there are three lap swimming lanes, a walking course, and a hot tub. I take my chances of lap swimming with a kick board for about half an hour... Then I decided to swim freestyle. It was great!!! Then I realized, I wanted to leave the pool, but what do I do?? I tried watching people to see what they do as they left the pool. Most people went upstairs to where the shower rooms were... I made a move and went back to the locker room where I originally started. As I made the homestretch to the locker room, there were tons of mothers there waiting for their kids. I realized that the swimming class finished just at that same moment. There were naked little kids running around and mothers waiting patiently for the other kid to come out of class... I'm dripping wet ( I guess I should've taken my towel?) and walked in front of this mother and her kid. I felt so uncomfortable. I quickly grabbed my clothes and towel and go to the only bathroom to change as fast as possible. Some things I won't be able to understand because I don't know the language... sigh...
It was a refreshing experience to go swimming!!!
Gotta keep at it...
