The last time I took my husband to Japan, he was in the middle of training for the New York City marathon. It’s a rather rigorous schedule, involving numerous “short” runs during the week and long runs on the weekend.

I was a little bit nervous about him running around Japan in a pair of shorts. I explained that he wouldn’t exactly see anyone else doing this, and as I tend to worry about what other people are doing when I am in Japan, I didn’t really want him to stand out that much. Of course, when you are 6 foot 2 in Japan, and Caucasian, you are going to stand out, so it was a ridiculous exercise in anxiety.

My mother worried too. She pointed out that there had been kidnappings by North Koreans in recent years and it wasn’t good for my husband to go out by himself like this. He still likes to tell this story because he finds it so amusing.

He did get lost once in Tokyo, and only managed after much running around, to find the hotel. After that, I sent him out with a business card from the hotel and some money, though I wondered if a taxi would really stop to pick him up. He said that every now and then he passed some other jogger, who was very happy to see him–though said jogger was not in shorts. Once he got in trouble at the Meiji Jingu for running. The police even forced him to cross the street far away from the shrine grounds by barking, “Not park!” He got his revenge later when he went for a beautiful run (he says) in Nara, all the way up Wakamiya Jinja and back down past some deer.

So, exercise devotees, how and where do you work out in Japan? It occurs to me that all my exercise goes on hold while I am there, and though I am probably arguably eating very healthy food, I could use a little more cardio in my days.