Last week I went shoe shopping with Anna! We spent an hour trying on shoes and, in the end, I ended up with a pair of black running shoes size 27  4E (that`s a Men`s size 9 2E in Canada and America) and a pair of hiking shoes. The hiking shoes are black, purple and pink! and they are Men`s shoes and, unfortunately, Nike (size 28 4E). I really can`t be picky here, I`m so lucky to find shoes that fit because my feet are so damned wide. lol  So I now have running shoes for when I go out for the day or go jogging and hicking shoes for when I climnb Fuji next month.

I also bought a yoga mat from Peter last Friday.  Now I can do some excercising without killing my knees and back on the hard floor.  I`ve been doing some of the excercises on my bed, but it`s not a great idea to be sweating in my bed, so I`m happy to have the yoga mat.  I`ve been thinking about jogging to build endurance. I can walk for hours, but I can`t run down the length of my street without feeling like I`m going to die.  the_dragon_tor gave me some advice on jogging and also gave me a link to a website for NERD FITNESS.

There are a bunch of different workouts there to fit pretty much anyone`s needs.  If you are really busy and don`t have a lot of time, check out the Angry Bird workout. If you want to lose weight, try the the Beginner Body Weight Workout, and there are more.  Everything is explained and there are videos showing how to do each excercise and a big emphasis on not pushing yourself too hard. If you can`t do it all, do what you can and work your way up.  I spent 2 hours looking at the site and watching videos and not once did I feel like it was something I couldn`t do.  Sometimes I watch Yoga on tv, or I look into the windows of a fitness gym and I feel like I can`t do that.  I feel like I`m not good enough, or that I don`t fit in with that crowd...and I don`t get that feeling from this website.  I feel good and like they just want me to feel comfortable and to feel like it`s something I can do or work up to doing.  It`s a good feeling.  So I`ve decided I`m going to do it!

Take a look if you are interested in doing some excercise, even if it`s only 10 minutes a day. 
http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/workouts/

In other news, I`m slowly getting back into studying Japanese again.  I`m woking on vocab and kanji together as well as grammar.  I still feel kinda burnt out with the studying, but I know if I don`t get going with it, then I probably won`t pass the test in December. I really need to pass this test.

I`ve been going to bed earlier and earlier....well except the last few days. I generally go to bed around 8:30 now since it`s dark by 7pm and the sun is up by 4am. The damn sun keeps waking me up around 4am and by the time I`m ready to go back to sleep, it`s time for me to get up.  I am happy to say that yesterday and today I woke up at 4:45ish instead of 4ish.  But, damn, that`s still earlier than I need to get up.    Last night I went to bed quite late because I got completely grossed out by a freakin cockroach under my blanket.  I went into my room and turned on the light and kicked at my blanket and a HUGE cockroach came running out from under the edge of the blanket!  It got away too. So I compulsively checked my room for any more (I`m pretty sure it`s just the one. It must have come in the from the balcony door area) and then went to bed...and had phantom bugs crawling over my bed for about an hour before I was exhausted enough to go to sleep.  god, that freaked me out. I hate bugs!!!  These things are huge and they fly. yuck!  So, today I bought some cockroach traps and put 2 in each of the main rooms that I use.  I hope it works.

The rainy season has hit. We had 6 times the number of thunderstorms in May this year than last year, so I wonder how typhoon season is going to be this year.  It is raining pretty good now, but it`s no tropical storm.  It`s looking like thunderstorms tomorrow...I wonder if I can get a ride to work if it`s storming. hmmmm.

oh, one more thing...we made it 6 whole weeks with no earthquakes!!! And this past week there have been lots of little ones.  but they are all small and some of them I only noticed because I was sitting still.  So I guess this is good.  A big difference from this time last year!! Things are looking up. *knocks on wood*

Well that`s about it for this update. It`s getting kinda long, so I think this is a good place to stop.  Have a good day/night everyone!