Yes

Been busy these few days,
work and checking out some classes,
which I'll write about later..

***
It rained yesterday,
so obviously I was using an umbrella the moment I stepped out for work.
"Rain's not so heavy," I thought to myslef as I got on the tram.
Drifting off to LaLa Land when I suddenly realised I had left my umbrella,
which costed me a good 6 or 700 yen, on the railings of my station.....
Had to run in the rain to work.

***
Been searching around for classes since the beginning of 2005.
Have only managed to check out 2 places.
Went for a tryout at the 2nd one yesterday.

New place, not well-known, and I'm the 4th person that managed to find it.
I'm not sure if they had asked their staff to be come to the studio,
because when I went there the first time on Tuesday,
there was only a guy who was woken up by my sudden appearance.

This place is run by a the boss(?) of a graphic design company(?).
Well, anyway, I went for a tryout as mentioned.

Painting for 3 hours made me realised I haven't had been able to gather this much concentration for a very very long time. (a few years perhaps)
My mind was free from everything else.
I was finally at peace for that 3 hours.

The 'lesson' ended and I had a chat with the 'principal' and 'v-p'.
I was ready to enrol and just needed to discuss with them what I wanted from this period of time that I will be here.
Then, they told me something unexpected.

'......Do you think the fees are expensive?......'
'er.. yeah... they are a little....'
'......Well, we are operating this place because we want to let the students in this region have somewhere to prepare for their entrance exams to fine arts colleges in Tokyo. It's extremely expensive to spend a year there for preparation. So ultimately, we are not out to profit from this but to support the students who wants to go to a fine arts school......'
'er... oh... I see....'
'......We know it's not easy for a foreigner in Japan, and especially the living standard here is so high. So we will reduce the fees for you. Just pay whatever you can for the fees, we only need the minimum for the rent and bill. Everyone is just helping out with what they can.
You can just pay us whatever you want.
And you can come twice, thrice a week if you want, just give us a call.
.......'
'... wow...'

For a once a week, 3hours/lesson course, it was supposed to be 12000 yen/month.
I ended up taking a twice/week course at 6000yen.
He even waived the 5000 yen entrance fee for me.
What can I say but

Yes.



***
My umbrella was gone.
I actually thought it might be still there since this is Japan.
After more than 12 hours....
Of course it's gone.
****

Now I'm wondering if I should sign up at the other place since they were all very nice people.
Very nice old people.....