First bouldering: wear long trousers

I wore shorts. My shins were scraped raw within half an hour, and nobody at the gym had warned me because to them it's obvious.

The other thing nobody says: your forearms give out long before your legs do. After about an hour I physically could not grip anything. That's not a fitness problem, it just happens to everyone at the start.

Registration takes 15 minutes the first time and you need photo ID. Go a bit early or you'll eat into your session.

The safety briefing is in Japanese at the gym I use. It's mostly about how to land and not walking under someone who's climbing.

Shoes are rented at the desk and they're tight on purpose. They're supposed to feel wrong.