Two sort of funny things

I'll start with the one that just happened.

As I think I've mentioned, but perhaps not, I'm moving out of my apartment now because it's 1) too expensive and 2) while I enjoy the large size, it's really bigger than I need and costs a lot to heat/cool. And besides, my town is convenient for work and daily life, but not much fun. So I'm looking for something fun.

Two weeks ago a friend took me to an agency to look at some apartments, just to get a feel for what's out there. Today I called the agency to see if I could go look at some places again. The man starts rattling off in Japanese and I can't understand half of what he's saying. This of course irritates me, not because he's doing anything wrong, but because I've now been here almost 10 months and feel I should understand more. I manage to tell him I want to speak to the guy who took me around last time, and I can sort of understand that they'll contact me again. Of course, I know why I couldn't understand what he said: he was speaking keigo. Keigo is the elevated, very polite form of Japanese that people use with others of higher status or, in this case, customers. I don't know any keigo, and believe it or not, the words are very, very different.

When he calls back, he again starts rattling off in keigo, and I had to ask him to speak "normal Japanese." And presto, just like that, I could understand maybe 75% of what he was saying. I shall have to remember to do that from now on. Frickin' keigo.

The other funny thing is the picture below. You may have to click on it to get a larger size so you can read it, but I saw it while walking in Osaka last Monday and was damn happy I had my camera. Why it's there, I haven't the faintest idea...and yes, it's hanging on the side of a building for everyone to see, though most people probably haven't the slightest idea what it says.

The rainy season

but not yet. It's supposed to be now, or about now, but so far we've had a few rainy days and that's it. I'm not complaining, I know it'll come. It's just a matter of time. And while it's not here, the weather's been pretty nice. Last night it cooled down into the mid 60s, and it's hovering around the low 70s now...very pleasant.

I have a friend, Naomi, coming to visit me soon. She'll be here from July 3 to 17. Right now we're planning a trip to the Japan Alps for a bit of hiking and soaking in onsen. I'm hoping that the aforementioned rainy season doesn't hit full swing while we're out hiking. For this little trip, I plan to cancel my classes for a day, forcing me to reschedule them during a late time slot that no one will attend. Oh well... Anyway, it'll be nice to have a friend visit and nice to get into those mountains that I've not yet gotten around to seeing.

The last few weeks have been occupied primarily with:
1) work
2) rock climbing
3) studying Japanese
4) all the other stuff (reading, watching movies, aikido, working out, sleeping, etc)

Rock climbing has become a big hobby of mine. When I recently had a five day break, just after my last post, I climbed three times and found that I going once a week wasn't going to cut it. So I'm now going Wednesdays and Saturdays. And I've gotten some students interested, so it looks like Saturdays will be group days. I've only been climbing a month, so I should be more patient with my progress, I think, but I want to do more difficult routes, and for that I need more strength and more endurance. Patience, Grasshopper, patience...

In other news, I started looking for a new apartment. Last week Sunday a friend took me out with an agency (don't know if you can do it yourself, but I certainly can't with my poor Japanese). We saw a couple of places much closer to the city, none of which I was in love with, but I could certainly appreciate the incredible convenience of living near Osaka (say twenty minutes door to city center) and a major train station. Still, I've not quite decided in what area I want to live, so I need to see more stuff. I'm planning now to put all of my stuff in my office for the month that I'm back in Hawaii so as to save the rent money, then find a place quickly when I get back, or possibly have it already lined up before I leave.

That's it for now. Aloha.