Calisthenics in Japan
In some countries, gyms are rare or expensive to visit. For those traveling to Japan, I want to provide a guide on how to keep up with your training schedule. Strength training is not very popular here yet, so gyms did not yet spread very much. Those which exist are expensive or do not offer entrance without membership.
Luckily, cities provide many small, free workout stations. Those are located in parks and are often used by... older people!? Compared to Europe and NA, elders are significantly more active in Japan and put more effort in maintaining their health.
But how do you find those spots without spending much time wandering off? We turn to the one we always ask: Google! But instead of the regular search, we make use of Google Maps and Street View.
Navigate to the place where you stay and look for parks around you with Maps. If you find a park, check the pictures. If you do not directly see a setup you like, switch to Street View. The coverage is generally decent in Japan so you should not have any issues. Just ‘walk’ around and look out for playgrounds and a bar setup. You often find a setup of two to three bars, but they are maybe not very high and do not allow pull-ups. You can always fallback to the swing for that. I also like to bring rings so I am more flexible on what I can do.
Lets just run through the process by example. Lets assume you stay in Tokyo — Kamata and are looking for a place to train today. You did not see any on the way from the station to your hotel so get your phone and fire up Google Maps.
So check the closest parks around you. Playgrounds are a good indication that the park has some k indof equipment to it. Lets try Nakakamata Park.
There is the playground. But the images of the park might not show any bar setup. Do not move away to fast! Lets move to Street View and check the area.
Bingo! A nice bar setup is next to the playground. You might not find the setup you are looking for in the first park. Or the park might even be to small to show as green area in Google Maps. So make sure to use the Explore function to find parks around you.
Workout ares are not heavily use so no need to worry about the time of the day you go there to avoid scheduling issues with other athletes. You might stumble into a kindergarten class if you train in the morning or someone shows up, does 5 pull-ups and walks away again. Training in many different cities all around Japan I did not have a single bad experience with natives reacting negative towards me. They might not be to much into any strength training but they will respect you nonetheless.
There are some general rules that you should follow when training at those parks. If you have been in Japan before, they are not new to you:
1. Do not train without shirt! Nudity in public is not accepted in any form and you do not want to upset anyone.
2. Avoid open music. Cities in Japan are often super dense, meaning that people live close. Japanese people are very quite and respectful. You should be respectful too and use in-ear headphones instead.
3. Be aware of your surroundings. At one point a kindergarten class showed up, with some boys immediately starting to imitate my back-lever training. Make sure to grantee the safety of everyone or pause your training.
4. Take your trash with with you. Chances are high you will not find a bin close. Just bring you trash back to your accommodation and throw it away there.
