In Which I Join A Gym

Because it is too damned cold to run outside any longer, I have joined a gym. I feel bad, because I won't be running with the track team anymore, but I just don't want to freeze while I work out any longer. It makes exercise a not fun thing, and if it's not fun, I won't do it. So I've joined a gym, where my friends Kevin, Beth and Pete have been working out for a while now.

I went last night and signed up for the trial membership, listening to the nice counter girl explain everything to me. Kevin said there is a woman who works there who just got back from living in California for three years and speaks great English, but she wasn't there when I went, but it wasn't difficult to understand anything, and if I didn't understand, she was able to tell me the word I didn't know by using other words that aren't so "gym" or "scientific exercise" oriented. I mean, you don't think about these things really until you start learning another language and then go live in a culture where it's spoken. But it became clear immediately, we learn the most averagely learned vocabulary and grammar the earliest, and then once you get a basic grasp of things, you add these specialized vocabularies and grammars for better articulation as you go along, encountering them on the spot for the first time, usually. Today is my orientation. I worked out last night for two hours, and the man who is going to give me my gym orientation today was there and told me just a few basic rules for the evening, and said he'd give me a more detailed explanation today. It will last an hour, after which I will work out again. I have a feeling I'll be spending a lot of my free time in the gym for the winter, when it's too cold to do much of anything else.

It's really a great place too. Along with the weight rooms, there are a variety of classes you can take in yoga, aerobics, hip hop dancing, etc. And a pool, and tennis courts as well as a sauna, hot tub, cold tub, all three of which I kept going back and forth to after working out last night. Winter will be much more endurable spent in a steam room and hot tub, I think.

After working out, Mona and Nobuo came over to my apartment. I used to work last year with Nobuo at Edosaki, but this year he moved to Miho, where Beth teaches. Mona teaches at Miho's elementary schools, but she went to the junior high for a couple of weeks to help Beth and now Nobuo and her hang out a lot together. Katie came by a bit later and we ended up going to karaoke, and then Nobuo's friend from highschool, Yuya, came to karaoke too. Those guys can really sing "I Just Called To Say I Loved You". The karaoke rooms at Party Party, the karaoke club we go to more often these days (as opposed to last year's place of choice "The Do re mi fa Club", are so cozy. The floors are hard wood and the booths comfortable to sit in, and the lighting makes you feel like there's a fireplace crackling, and it's always nice to duck into a booth after enduring the bitter cold.

But I've decided, along with the karaoke room in my heaven, I want a door that connects to the gym. At least to the shower area where the hot tubs and steam room are. Then everything will be complete.