143. [OOMFH]: Climbing: Finding community at the climbing gym
I’ve been trying to establish a routine for myself as I settle in. I really felt like I haven’t found a consistent climbing partner here… It’s really nice to have a climbing partner, especially someone who is around the same level as you and is able to belay you when you want to do some sport climbing.
Around 2022, I have been steadily becoming a better lead climber. I was hitting around 6a+/6b, but in 2023, I got a bit injured and out of my head (mentally), so I didn't bother to continue lead climbing. Heights terrify me, but I've been working on it, especially when I do sport climbing. I trust my friends in the US to belay me properly. I haven't had an accident (until around late last year when I had an almost oopsie with my harness).
I decided to go climbing on Monday, around 7PM, which gives me 3 hours until closing to get some bouldering in and maybe stretch a bit. Bouldering is a very good activity to do alone. I often go to climbing gyms alone when I travel to different cities. I've realized that solo-traveling opens you up and forces you to do more solo activities, especially when you're often by yourself and don't know anyone in this brand-new city.
When I reached the gym, I stretched a bit and looked around. I went to the back of the gym, where they had a lot of bouldering problems. I attempted a lot of the harder routes. I am about a V3 to V5 level these days and I feel pretty proud of myself. I want to consistently hit all these intermediate to harder routes. I know that I'm not a beginner anymore, so that makes me feel happy about my progress.
I was running out of gas and I sat by a few people that seemed like my age. I watched as a young kid, probably around 10 years old, was attempting to do a more intermediate-level problem with his father. They were speaking Japanese to each other, discussing the beta and gesturing at the holds. I was just listening in, politely nodding to what they were saying.
One guy noticed that I was sitting near them and politely smiled at me. After a few attempts by other people, I decided to jump right in and try to flash it. I got a little stuck at the crux of the problem and jumped down. I looked at the Japanese climbers and smiled at them,
"難しいでしょう?"1 I say to them. They laughed and clapped their hands.
My father had told me an observation he had when he was traveling around by himself as a young man. Japanese people, according to him, have the tendency to look at a person rather inquisitively and curiously when they think that the stranger they are looking at is, in fact, Japanese. I often get this all over Asia when I'm going around, it's not limited to just Japanese people.
Ever since this little comment I made after falling off of the route, it gave me a "she's cool, she's also Japanese and we wanted to make sure she's not weird." hall pass. I slowly integrated into the group of Japanese climbers that live in the area. Every week, a sign up list gets posted, where they state the time: "19:00" and a list of names. I have the only Western name in the list, but my family name is Japanese. As a joke, sometimes I write in my name in Japanese, but I've stopped doing that after everyone writes their name in Latin alphabet...
I've observed that Japanese people take their friendships really slowly, whereas a lot of local Malaysians like to send a WhatsApp invite immediately. I didn't get into the Japanese climbing community WhatsApp group chat until 3 weeks of consistently going to the gym with them on Mondays, until they finally sent me the invite. I was very happy because now I have a chance to practice my Japanese every week. I am not near-fluent, but I am slowly getting there and am practicing my conversation skills. I am trying to get better at listening and producing sentences in every language I know these days.
Every week, I go climbing with the Japanese climbers. I feel so motivated when they shout "がんば, がんば"2 at me when I figure out a problem. I am glad I'm getting a routine built and have some friends in every little activity that I do.
I feel so happy I found way more than one climbing partner now.
~ a genki girl,
<3 K
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