BG Report: Walking around Shingū, Japan

May 29, 2023

Click to watch or watch on YouTube
(the article below accompanies this video)

My walk around Shingū, a remote city on the far southeastern edge of Wakayama Prefecture in Japan, was a bit haphazard, diabetes-wise.

I’d spent the morning hiking around Nachi Waterfall and the nearby shrine. All that exercise had made me a bit low, understandably. But I took care of it and rode the bus and train back to Shingū, where my hotel was.

I started this walk around 4:30 pm. It felt ok at first, but after about 20 minutes I realized I was low. Didn’t even check. I paused and got the juice bottle out of my backpack. (This was around the point where the nearby building begins playing a song on its loudspeakers, if you’ve seen the video.)

Always carry something for low BG

I had the juice and continued walking around for another half hour – buying a blueberry muffin from a small unmanned shop and continuing to talk to my iPhone on its selfie stick.

But I never felt quite right; sometimes a low feeling takes a while to resolve. Sure enough, at 7 pm, I was still low, 63.

The complicated chart showing how my burger at Magic Pierrot was constructed

For dinner I had a big hamburger and fries (which I very rarely eat) from a local place, plus a beer and the muffin. And I took a lot of insulin for it – I knew it was a lot of carbs. I overdid it though, and was low, 49 around 9:30. Already full, I had to eat some chocolate and a bit of glucose powder. I thought I’d overdone it, but was still only 107 at 11 pm.

I thought that might go up a bit, but when it was 98 an hour later, I had a bit more glucose just in case. (I often get gradually lower overnight.) I woke up to check at 1:30 am – 182. Fine.

Hotel room dinner after a long, busy day

By 6 am, when I awoke for my early bus through the mountains, the burger and fries and chocolate and stuff had exacted a revenge: 295, way too high. I had a big shot and breakfast and went to find the bus.

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