BG Report: Riding the JR Hamakaze train
This unusual diesel train in Japan runs once a day
Watch on YouTube (19:39)
Some train rides are just destined to go well. My ride today on the Hamakaze train was, diabetically, just such an experience.
The Hamakaze is a limited express train I took from the city of Tottori down to Osaka (where I live). It takes 4 hours and goes through some excellent mountain scenery, with big rivers often right outside the window. It also shows you both coasts of this part of Honshū, the Sea of Japan and the Seto Inland Sea.
Green tea doughnut in the hotel room
There’s only one a day though, and it doesn’t take the quickest route to Osaka. It left at 12:57 pm, and so I had lunch on board. I’d actually been a little low when I got up this morning, 66 at 8:30. After taking care of that (with breakfast) I was 74 in Tottori station, waiting for the Hamakaze to leave. I had to take a couple packets of glucose powder because that 74 didn’t feel great (dropping lower).
So I was ready for lunch, and ate my sandwich and chips in my comfortable seat, enjoying the views of the ocean or the rice fields. Later it was snack time, and my BG was 157. Pretty great; I took a bit of Humalog and had some tea and Calorie Mate (kind of cookie snack bar thing).
Lunch
I got home and checked one final time, to see how this whole train ride had ended up for my blood sugar: it was 104. So perfect that it’s often the number that glucose monitor companies use for their product art!
Nothing like riding the Hamakaze through the green mountains of Hyōgo Prefecture, and even better when your blood sugar is A-ok.
