T.G.I.F. (The Gym Is Far)

July 8

Minori-san told me yesterday that she found a gym that is inexpensive and convenient. One of the ladies in the finance department is a member and offered to walk me there after work today.

We left the office around 5:30 with another guy whose name I can’t remember. The finance lady is little, but noisy, with a mouth full of metal. Her English isn’t very good, which actually worked to my advantage for most of our FORTY-FIVE minute walk to the gym. I didn’t realize the gym was so far, so I was still wearing the shoes I’d worn to the office. I didn’t complain, though, because she was wearing 3-inch heels and a dress. It became a test of wills, in my view. Metal Mouth and what’s-his-name were speed walking about 2 paces ahead of me, occasionally glancing back to say, “Colleen-san OK?” I heard MM say “yukkuri” (slow). I tried to catch up. By the time we got to the gym, it was getting dark, I was sweaty and fairly certain we had gone over a bridge at one point. Were we still in Tokyo?

The gym seems to be in a local community center. I say “seems” because I never really figured out where we were and MM wasn’t able to tell me. I felt like a lamb going to slaughter. She helped me buy a pre-paid membership card, which turned out to be just one of three cards needed to gain entrance to the gym training area. To get to the locker room, we had to take off our shoes and put on slippers. I hated putting my gross, sweaty feet into a pair of slippers that undoubtedly recently had someone else’s gross, sweaty feet in them. The Lamisil fungus monster flashed through my mind, but when in Rome…

MM wasn’t going to work out so she left me alone in the locker room to change. I was relieved because being naked at the gym is hard enough. Being naked at the gym in front of the lady from finance is putting salt in the wound. Before I was allowed to work out, I had to go through an orientation which included three questionnaires, a blood pressure test, a demonstration of their security lockers, and two separate computer log-in procedures. (That’s when I got my two other membership cards.) There are so many rules and regs, I’ll never remember them all. Then I’ll be scolded by the health club efficiency officers and probably have my membership revoked.

Finally, I was allowed to get onto a treadmill and MM left me to my own devices. I felt momentarily guilty for all the mean and nasty thoughts I had about her. After all, she had gone out of her way to walk me to the gym and stayed with me through the whole orientation. Then I realized the AC wasn’t working in the gym and I thought, “Fuck her.”