Blood sugar reports from my travel videos

BG Report: Japanese-Indian "bad eyesight" gods at Tsubosaka Temple

In central Nara Prefecture, Japan, there’s an out-of-the-way temple on a lonely mountaintop called Tsubosaka. I went there one day, via an infrequent bus up a short winding road. The temple is dedicated to problems of the eye. Hardly any other people were there on this day, a cold and snowy (but sunny) day in […]

BG Report: Four ferris wheels in Osaka (plus hot sake)

I rode four ferris wheels in one day around Osaka, Japan. Each ferris wheel had unique qualities about it, and the final one, which I rode after dark, was the capper: they served me a can of warm oden (wintertime snack food) and actual hot sake. Blood sugars today were all between 100 and 200, […]

BG Report: Amtrak Texas Eagle 2/2: San Antonio to Los Angeles

In Part 1 of my huge adventure on the Amtrak Texas Eagle, I rode from Chicago nearly to San Antonio, TX overnight. My BGs onboard had all been less than 200, and I was feeling good. The next part of the ride was from San Antonio to Los Angeles, and things again were great… until […]

BG Report: Amtrak Texas Eagle 1/2: Chicago to San Antonio

Amtrak’s Texas Eagle is America’s longest passenger train, and the second longest in all of the Americas. I rode it the entire length, Chicago to Texas to Los Angeles, a trip that took three nights and went over 2,700 miles. And surprisingly, my blood sugars on the first half, from Chicago to San Antonio, were […]

BG Report: Amtrak Southwest Chief in coach for two days

I rode the entire route of Amtrak’s Southwest Chief, from Los Angeles to Chicago. The trip lasts two nights and about 43 hours, and I rode in a coach seat rather than a sleeper. That means that no meals were included, so I ate mine mostly from the on-board cafe. The Amtrak cafe serves microwaved […]

BG Report: Kintetsu Urban Liner train to Osaka

The Kintetsu Railway company has a limited express train called Urban Liner. It runs between the cities of Nagoya and Osaka in central Japan. I rode it one day through the countryside, and I paid extra for a Deluxe seat. Like the similarly-routed Hinotori, the Kintetsu Urban Liner has deluxe seats that aren’t really that […]

BG Report: JR Shirasagi train to Nagoya

The JR Shirasagi is a limited express train that runs between the Japanese cities of Nagoya and Kanazawa. It goes by Lake Biwa and through the mountains of southern Gifu Prefecture. I rode the three-hour train from Kanazawa one morning. And I got lucky with my seat choice – the best views and no sunshine in […]

BG Report: Visiting Kanazawa Phonograph Museum

In the Japanese city of Kanazawa in Ishikawa Prefecture, there is a big brick building that houses the Kanazawa Phonograph Museum. It’s on three floors and features dozens of very old and very well-kept record players from the late 1800s until the late 1920s. And they still work! I visited the museum because I was […]

BG Report: Dinostar train of Fukui, Japan

In summer 2023 I rode a train from the city of Fukui to the city of Kanazawa, Japan. The train was called Dinostar – one of JR’s shortest limited express routes. And it was a service that was coming to an end. As I write this, the Dinostar is scheduled to be discontinued in March […]

BG Report: JR Thunderbird train to Kanazawa

I rode the Thunderbird, a limited express train from Japan Rail (JR) that runs between Osaka and Kanazawa. The train leaves several times a day in each direction, goes through the cities of Kyoto and Fukui, and runs beside Lake Biwa. The trip is a bit under three hours – and mine was a morning ride, […]

BG Report: Keihan cable car up "Man Mountain"

Today was a good example of what exercise (and time) do to a high blood sugar. I rode a cable car up a mountain in southern Kyoto Prefecture, Japan, and spent a while walking around the top. Blood sugar was high when I started; what would it be after walking around? Actually, you aren’t supposed […]

BG Report: Hinotori luxury train to Osaka

The Hinotori train is a limited express train between the cities of Nagoya and Osaka in Japan. I rode Kintetsu’s Hinotori train one morning to Osaka to check out its famous luxury features. I had breakfast around 7:30 am, and at that time my blood sugar was as perfect as it gets, 102. I had […]

BG Report: Capsule hotel room in Nagoya

I finally had one of Japan’s quintessential experiences: I stayed overnight in a “sleep pod” in a capsule hotel. It was the Nine Hours Hotel in Nagoya. The hotel’s name refers to their notion that the shortest possible hotel stay that includes a decent night’s sleep would be nine hours. So, you get one hour […]

BG Report: Ikoma-sanjo Amusement Park

The trip up Japan’s oldest cable car to the top of Ikoma Mountain in Nara Prefecture was quite an experience. Not only was the cable car great, but the amusement park on the mountain top was a lot of fun. Plus, I had an extremely low blood sugar up there – dangerous even. But all’s well […]

BG Report: Riding the JR Hamakaze train

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 […]

BG Report: Walking around Kurayoshi, Japan

Today was spent in the small city of Kurayoshi, in Tottori Prefecture on the northern coast of central Honshū. Not only was the weather perfect for my wanderings along an old, abandoned train line, and seeing the intact white storehouses of old town Kurayoshi, but my blood sugars were well-behaved as well. I didn’t actually […]

BG Report: JR Super Hakuto train from Kyōto to Kurayoshi

I had a good day of blood sugars on my ride aboard the JR Super Hakuto train today. Generally speaking, I’d rather be a bit low than high, and that’s kind of what happened. The Super Hakuto is one of JR’s named limited express train services. I rode it end to end, from Kyōto all […]

BG Report: Japan's longest local bus Yagi-Shingū

Sitting motionless on a bus for seven hours is not a recipe for great blood sugar. And my day started badly, blood sugar-wise, before the ride even began. So I had my diabetic work cut out for me when I boarded the Yagi-Shingū bus. It’s Japan’s longest local bus route. Most local buses in Japan […]

BG Report: Nachi Falls and the shrine/temple complex

In this video I explain that I didn’t sleep well this morning. The stress of that ruined my blood sugar: between 1:30 am and 9:00 am, I went from 175 to 320. Groggy and bleary start to the day at Nachi Waterfall in Wakayama Prefecture. I took insulin and ate a small breakfast in my […]

BG Report: Walking around Shingū, Japan

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 […]

BG Report: Japan's Kuroshio "panda train" from end to end

A pretty excellent day of blood sugars during my ride on the 4.5-hour Kuroshio train, with its panda decorations, from Shin-Osaka to Shingu, Japan. Just after 8:00 am, I woke up at 127, so the day started well. I had breakfast and went to Shin-Osaka station to get Kuroshio tickets and wait for the journey […]

BG Report: Amid the alligators of Big Cypress, Florida

Good times with the frightening, wild gators; bad times with the blood sugar levels today. Analyzing them, if anything, the alligator part made them better. Maybe that’s the secret to good diabetes control: hanging out with the gators of south Florida. This morning, for unknown reasons, I awoke with a terribly high reading of 334 […]

BG Report: Amtrak Auto Train overnight (with a late dinner)

In the video, you’ll see how the Amtrak Auto Train left Lorton, VA a couple hours late, dinner came after midnight, and the cafe car was closed the next day, although the delays pushed the train far past lunch time. A diabetic challenge, to be sure. My blood glucose was 203 in the morning at […]

BG Report: My 3-day trip to Nara, Japan

I spent three days traveling around Nara Prefecture, Japan. To create my schedule, I used ChatGPT, the AI bot from OpenAI. I told it to create a detailed itinerary, with estimated prices, and I printed it out and followed it exactly. Well, where possible. As you can see in the video, the travel plan from […]

BG Report: Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

Driving along the entire Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park was great fun. Definitely nice to see one of America’s few national parks east of the Mississippi River. My blood sugars during the day were all pretty reasonable. Yesterday was chaos in the fog and rain on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and dinner was a […]

BG Report: Blue Ridge Parkway 3/3: Virginia

An amazing day for travel today on the Blue Ridge Parkway. And a so-so day for blood sugar. First of all, today’s drive was the end of the Blue Ridge Parkway for us: from southern Virginia to the northern end, up closer to Washington, DC. Also, this was the day that the strong remnants of […]

BG Report: Blue Ridge Parkway 2/3: NC into VA

Woes from last night’s late Burger King dinner spilled over into this morning. When I woke up in the rented house in Sparta, North Carolina, my BG was high, 219. But breakfast was awesome. We drove into town and ate at Backwoods Bean. I got the oatmeal and a breakfast sandwich, either of which would […]

BG Report: Blue Ridge Parkway 1/3: North Carolina

I drove the entire length of the Blue Ridge Parkway – all 469 miles of it – over a roughly four-day span. My drive, with my travel partner, was from south to north (North Carolina to Virginia). And blood sugars on this first part were not exactly perfect. But as always, they could have been worse, […]

BG Report: Walking around southeastern Stockholm

Today was the final full day in Scandinavia. Over three weeks, we’d seen some of the most amazing things on Earth, especially up in the furthest reaches of northern Norway. Today was a day of gathering our wits and preparing to fly to the United States. I spent much of the morning walking around the […]

BG Report: Arctic Train to Stockholm

I took the Vy Nattåg “Arctic Train” from Narvik, Norway back down to Stockholm, Sweden. It was my second time on the overnight train, after doing the opposite direction three weeks earlier. This time, I was enjoying the scenery and the train as always, but also recording everything on the train to make a video […]

BG Report: Three days in Lapland

When you have to get your rental car from Kirkenes, Norway all the way to Narvik in a couple days, what do you do? Do what I did – plan a quick ‘n’ dirty road trip through northern Scandinavia, a.k.a. Lapland! We gave ourselves two nights and three days to drive the small, obscure, desolate […]

BG Report: Norway-Russia border at Grense Jakobselv

Today was one of the absolute top highlights of this trip, and besides that, a pretty good day of blood sugars. Until the end, anyway. Today we drove along a tiny dirt road in for northeastern Norway that hugs the border with Russia. The road leads to a small, barely-there community called Grense Jakobselv on […]

BG Report: All day in Kirkenes, Norway

The good news was that today I had a bunch of cool experiences in and around the far northeastern Norwegian city of Kirkenes, not far from the borders with Finland and Russia. The even better news was that my blood sugars were pretty good all day, none over 200. It began just under the Mendoza […]

Train to Iga to photograph the Perseid meteor shower

My first trip since the coronavirus happened was in August 2020, to the town of Iga in Mie Prefecture, Japan. My goal: to photograph the Perseid meteor shower.