Sports & Recreation in Japan

For the long weekend, I went hiking in the Nagano region with two of my friends. This trip allowed me to explore the hidden beauty that I had yet to discover. Before I came to Japan, I had been told to venture many of the aesthetic attractions while my stay in Japan. Before this hike, I had only seen the scenery from seminar house 4 to Kansai Gaidai and back to seminar house 4. Let’s just say that this panorama did not impress me much. However, I was truly blown away by the natural beauty that I was exposed to while being on this hike. I was mostly amazed by the beauty, calmness, and cleanness. Additionally, I was very impressed by the very little garbage littering. The rule was to carry out whatever one brought and all of the hikers followed this rule very religiously. Furthermore, I noticed that many of the hikers were much older and traveled in large groups. Before coming on this hike, I would have presumed that the youngest people would be into hiking and that older people hiking would be hard to find. However, I was wrong and I was impressed to find these 70 years old women and men hiking. By what I have seen so far, I can conclude that the youth is much more concerned with their looks, being up to date with fashion, doing things that are popular rather than worrying about their health. It seems that with age, Japanese people are much more likely to travel, hike, or do sporty activities. Lastly, I would like to point out our interaction with other Japanese hikers. When we were hiking, every person that we encountered would look at us and greet us. It did not matter how tired, hurt, or hungry they were, they would at least greet us and smile. I think this kind of interaction is very lacking in the everyday life that I have encountered. I know that when I walk to school every day, I try to say hi to other Japanese people but they always seem to be in a rush and have an angry look painted on their faces. It almost seems like it is too much to ask to simply reach out and say hello. The following statement is being drawn from our hike and my everyday walks to school. It seems that when everyone is on the same level/status, it seems very easy to interact and open up to others. However, when class or status is introduced in the picture, everyone seems to change and this is when the interactions no longer follow smoothly and interactions becomes much harder. What I really liked about our hike was the fact that everyone was down to earth, no one was rushing to be somewhere, and there was not anything that divided us because everyone was going through the same experience. Thus, making our short interactions possible and pleasurable.