Blood sugars under the cherry blossom trees
This Japanese train is perfect for sakura season • Hankyū Kōyō Line
Watch on YouTube (19:32)
Today was a lot of walking because I went to see the cherry blossom (“sakura”) trees in full bloom in Nishinomiya, Japan. So, I had to balance the lowering of blood glucose readings from the walking with the glucose and lunch I was eating.
Here’s how it worked out, for better or worse.
First of all, I woke up at 7:30 am and was excellent, 124. And I had been right around 100 all night, according to my CGM.
It didn’t last: an hour later, after breakfast, I was over 200. I had a couple corrective units of Humalog, but still spiked at 261 before going back down.
By 11:40 am, I was back in the land of the living, in the mid-100s. By now I’d ridden the Hankyū Railway’s short little Kōyō Line from Shukugawa to its endpoint, Kōyōen Station, and had begun the walking part of the day, back to the line’s starting point.
The trees along the Shukugawa River were in full bloom, and lots of people were out either walking or having picnics. When I got to the middle of the train line’s three stations, Kurakuenguchi, I was steady at 138.
I decided to find a local bus up into the hills to see one of Japan’s most expensive and exclusive neighborhoods. After wandering the streets up there, looking out as far as Ōsaka City and gawking at the gigantic mansions, I took another bus back down to the station.
Lunch was a picnic on a park bench, with food I got from a local Lawson convenience store. I had been in danger of getting a bit low – 95 and edging downward – so I had a mere two units for my sandwich and potato chips.
And then it was more walking – down the rest of the Kōyō Line, and beyond. I elected to keep walking and admiring the cherry blossoms further down the Shukugawa River.
I ended up at JR’s Sakura-Shukugawa Station (which is where I arrived in the first place this morning, from Ōsaka). BG was 140 by now, and that was as high as the lunch non-spike went today.
By the time I got to Hanshin’s Kōroen station, with its unique balcony actually on the platform, and ended my video, I was 171 due to some glucose I’d had while walking.
All in all, a superb day in Japan’s short sakura-bloom season, and I think the BG handling went pretty well too. Call it a success.
