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.

Halfway

Well, we are halfway through the semester. It's strange, as here I don't hear much about midterms and such, and so I actually had to count up the weeks remaining to find out that I've got 8 weeks left. EIGHT! Yeah! And, to sweeten things up just a little, I don't teach the kids this Saturday AND I've got Monday off (school holiday; when the school was founded), which means I've got five days off in a row! Yeah! I think I may visit my friend up in Shizuoka (the prefecture which is home to Mount Fuji), and then spend a few days rock climbing.

The last two weeks have been fine, if very normal. Work, studying Japanese, exercising, reading, watching movies, rock climbing, aikido, and a bit of hanging out with friends........In spite of the majority of that list being made up of leisure activities, I DO work, and it DOES take up quite a bit of time. I just have a lot of time left over...the benefit of being single with no kids.

Short as that is, that's it!

Getting into the swing

It's really a pity that I've got that one class that just hasn't gelled. I'd hoped that they would by now, and there's still a chance they might, but...at least not so many are showing up, which means I don't have to deal with quite such a large group of unruly kids....now they're a slightly smaller group of unruly kids.

My Thursday, Friday, Saturday block is about to begin. It's my busy time, from tomorrow morning until Saturday afternoon. Of course it's not all work, or not work-work. I have my Japanese lesson tomorrow afternoon, then aikido in the evening. Friday I'm swamped with classes, ending with those unruly kids I mentioned. Then on Saturday, of course, I get smacked with the little ones.

Let's talk about those kids. I've got two very different ones this term. One is a demon. On the first day of the term, when I had a sub, he bit the sub's thumb. Last week he was drawing a picture, just scratching his paper with a pencil until it was half black with the graphite. "What's that?" I asked. "Jikoku," he said, which means "hell." The kids either has some issues, or he's Satan's spawn. Another, a little girl of 8, I think is an angel...well, a mischevious angel. She's so quiet and pleasant, does what's she's told, tries hard, plays well with others, and is just plain nice to have. If I could have a classroom full of her, I would be a happy teacher.

In other news...I went rock climbing again today. I decided I like it enough that I should just bite the bullet and buy shoes, because that way I can buy a month-long membership and go whenever I want, whether it's for an hour or two or all day. I'm going to try to go 6 to 8 times a month...we'll see. If I go at least 4, I come out ahead over paying each time, so I'll at least get my money's worth.

Today, though, my elbow started hurting. Strange...I had to stop after a few hours as I just couldn't hold onto anything anymore. I'll go again on the weekend, I think....see how busy it is...

Hope all is well with you folks.

Rock climbing: second time

I got back a while ago from my second day of rock climbing, but went for a short run before blogging it. (On a short side note: I've only done short runs since getting back to it after my cold (which still lingers, though in very small coughing fits).)

I went to a different gym this time, as it's much closer and I wanted to see what it was like. For starters, it's much smaller, almost entirely for a type of climbing called "bouldering." Bouldering differs from regular climbing in that the goals are not so high (no ropes) and instead of routes, you do "problems." (This is what I've read on the internet.) There are hundreds of holds bolted to the wall, most marked with one or more colored strips of tape (I think I mentioned this last time), marking the problem.

For the first hour or hour and a half, I climbed by myself, negotiating laterally across the wall along a kind of route, just above the well-padded floor. Then I ate lunch and came back for another three hours or so. At this point, though, another climber, a Japanese man, started working on the same lateral route, and we began chatting a bit about how to get past one part. (That is, I tried in my poor Japanese to understand what he said and to offer my own suggestions.) Then another climber started working with us, although he was more experienced. It was fun, and a good work out, both for my arms (which are not nearly so sore nor tired as last time) and for my Japanese.

One amazing older woman, maybe 50 or 60 (I'd guess 60ish), was climbing and doing so very, very well. I was very impressed. Very. I hope I'm that strong and agile when I'm her age. She was intrigued by me (being the only white person there) and chatted with me a bit.

I'm definitely going back next week...might even buy a month membership, which will save me a bit if I go at least 4 times.

Fun, fun, fun. In a few months, I hope that my arms will be able to keep up with my legs for endurance...

As I don't have any pics from today, I'll post one from last week: King (there for perspective) and me in a position I actually later sort of got into (difficult to explain).

Golden Week Party!

On Saturday I had another party at my place to celebrate Golden Week...or just to make use of my large apartment. This party was a bit different, however, in that I was able to bring together different groups of friends: from school, from Kyoto, and my former student who just got married.

Altogether, there were twelve people. Back: Miguel & Kayo (Kyoto), Mi Jin (friend of Mike's), Daryl, Yuka, and some guy.
Front: Daniel & Kurara (just married), Mike, Kathy, Brian and Wil (Kathy's son and daughter-in-law)

It was a very fun party and I think everyone got on very well. Mike and Yuka entertained us all as a kind of comedy duo, with Mike spurring on Yuka to disclose information about her love-life, later even adopting the persona of an interviewer on a tv show with a panel audience. Quite funny. Here's a pic from that part.


My apartment really is great for entertaining, but really is too big for just me. So I'll probably be moving this summer, something a bit smaller and definitely cheaper. Maybe closer to Osaka. I'll still be able to host visitors, but just not in so spacious an apartment.





Tomorrow may hold another day of rock climbing for me...there's another gym that's closer that I want to check out, see how it looks. I may go there, but we'll have to see what I feel like, as it's my last day before going back to work on Thursday. (BOO-HOO!!!)

Be well. Aloha.

Golden Week

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we're in the midst of Golden Week, a week wherein 3 national holidays fall roughly together and grant us a nice if a little early respite from classes. This is a HUGE travel season for the Japanese, so ticket prices are crazy and everywhere you go it's crowded. So I try not to go out too much now. That's how I ended up rock climbing yesterday when I should have been in class, and taking a nap today when I would have been teaching. :)

Tomorrow I'm having a little party at my place...should be fun.

Hope you are all enjoying May!

Getting active again...it hurts!

A week after my miserable foray into tennis, I finally went to the gym for the first time in weeks...maybe a month. I'd been running a few times during that hiatus, but not since school had begun and I'd gotten sick. I was surprisingly able to pretty much do my same work out (pull-ups, sit-ups, back extensions, dips, squats), but running was harder...I only did about a mile and a half. So sad. Although I do still (even now) have this cough and so my lungs are still a bit sick... Anyway, went jogging the next day, did 2 miles, felt alright, posted an ok time. But I could feel it in my body the day after, Wednesday...muscle aches like I'd not had in a while. Ouch! My abs still hurt a bit today.

Yesterday, I went rock climbing! That was a lot of fun. I have only done it once, with my brother at an indoor gym in Hawaii about 10 years ago. Yesterday we went to an indoor gym in Osaka. My forearms started getting tired about 30 minutes in...it only got worse. Mine still feel exhausted today. Those pros must have forearms of steel. Anyway, I don't have any pictures of myself climbing, but when I get some from my friends, I'll post them. In the mean time, here's one of the group: King (nickname, student), Kote (student, but also works as my assistant in the kids' program), and Kelsey (colleague).



If you look at the picture, it might seem like there are a lot of holds, and there are...but you might also notice the colored tape next to holds: those mark "routes" that you take up the wall, using only holds with that color/shape marker. MUCH harder when you do this.

I loved it, though, and plan to continue doing it a few times a month...maybe then if I move to Colorado I can climb some real rock! :) Expect to hear more about climbing.

Tennis: I suck

Woo-hoo! Two days in a row!

Well, I'll keep this brief. I played tennis with some colleagues after work today. I'm not a sports-guy, never have been, left that to my brother a long time ago, but damn, I suck at tennis. Seems I remember playing a long time ago and actually being able to get it over the net fairly consistently, but I seem to have lost more hand-eye coordination than I would like to think. Ugh. This is what it was like.


NET. NET. NET. SWISH. NET. NET. SWISH. hit. SWISH. NET. NET....

Yeah, I'm going to go try rock climbing next week.

School begins...I get pissed off. Is there a connection?

So I'm going to TRY to be more diligent here, and post more regularly and cut down on the length. But I think I said that before. Anyway, here's to trying.

I got sick. Came back from the wedding feeling kind of blah, throat a bit sore, but not too bad, and then Monday I woke up and it had gone full-blown. I was SICK. Sore throat, coughing up nasty yellow mucus. YUCK. It sucked. Made it through work on Monday, stayed home that night, stayed home all day Tuesday (in spite of it being a PERFECT spring day), and on Wednesday morning went to the doctor's. I hate the doctor's but I went.

This guy asked me what was wrong (in English), I answered in English and Japanese. He asked if I had asthma, I told him yes. He listened to my chest, then to my back, then he prescribed me medication. The whole took less than five minutes, and I would have been satisfied if he'd given me antibiotics, but he gave me medicine that helped...until my cold morphed and went into my sinuses. So then I had medicine for my cough but not my congestion. I've been dealing with it since, and I think it's about done, but one week is just too long for me to be sick.

I haven't run in a week and am feeling out of shape...I think tomorrow, though, I'm going to play (or try to play) tennis with some friends.

Anyway, back to the title of this post. I have freshmen this term. I had freshmen last term, too, but in much smaller numbers (half) and second semester, so they'd gotten a little used to college. The kids I have still think they're in high school. So I had to give them a wake up call. Last Friday they wouldn't listen...wouldn't quiet down so I could give them instructions, so I hammered them with homework. I know in retrospect that that is a very high school teacher thing to do, but if they're going to act like high schoolers... In any case, I think it worked...they seemed more subdued and ready to cooperate. I hate doing that kind of thing, I really, really do. But sometimes kids leave no choice. The class is too large, over 25 (which is HUGE for a language class), and I just don't have the time or patience to babysit, especially since this class is being taught in sync with other sections and we need to move at a very specific pace.

But my other two classes are good, so I think this will be a good term, once I get these freshmen wised up.

Hope you're all well....Aloha.