Expect Me When You See Me

I had to say goodbye to my two smart Saturday kids. They lived rather far away and their mum finally conceded the point. I'm still upset over it. There was the customary exchange of presents in which I gave them an I Spy book and a stuffed rabbit. I ended up with some beautiful hand painted Princess and Prince dolls for Girl's Day. No idea how I'll get them home, but they're quite pretty.

It took me forever to talk myself into going to kickboxing today (more from not wanting to be bored with the old rountine). By the time i got there and into my gear (those bandages take forever), the rest had stripped off their gear and decided to do various rolls and such. I joined in rather hesitantly since they were doing the old fashioned head over heels rolls which are a guaranteed way of breaking your neck someday imo. Nevertheless, I participated up until the point where we were doing forward rolls from handstands. I've done them before, but I was too hestitant going into the roll and fell onto my knee which was painful enough that I couldn't stand for several minutes.

It got a little better and I switched over to taijutsu rolls which are easier on the body anyway, and then ended up doing wrestling take downs with Shirtless guy after he showed me some cool pics of Hokkaido. That was fun but probably not the best of ideas with an injury...

Driving, I was fine, but the half hour I spent in the shower was torture - not the standing but when I tried to bend my leg to get out of the tub it was like I was injured all over again. Obviously, bending the knee is the problem so it's either a muscle or a ligament (or possibly a bone bruise). I'm hoping for a muscle cause ligaments take forever to heal. I doubt I'll be walking without a limp tomorrow.

For something completely different, I've been reading the second volume of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and I have to say that while I enjoy the comic, I really hate how it takes me an hour to read a single issue due to the faux book chapter they append to each issue of the comic. Considering I'm an avid book reader, it's kinda strange that I don't like too much text in my comics, but I think it's because you have a medium that's made for showing and yet someone is using it for telling instead. Intellectually, I know that Moore is just cramming as much detail as possible in to satisfy his readers and maybe his need to complete the story, but it's rather annoying as a reader (never mind the time I have to spend reading annotations online to get the references that are beyond the obvious).

I've been doing kanji quizzes here lately. It's kinda fun cause I just work my way up until I don't know any of the kanji. I then play matching until I know them and take the test a few times to solidify the kanji in my mind. I'm not really sure if I'll recognize the kanji later, but there's a much better chance of my doing so. I'm also really happy that I finally found out the little yellow and black sign on the back of most pick up trucks here means dangerous. It was bothering me...

Days like these remind me of how much living in Edinburgh affected me. It was cloudy and rainy when I woke up today and I was so tired I ate breakfast then went back to sleep for awhile before my first class started. I was really cheerful for most of the day because it rained lightly all morning, but it was warm (about 12 degrees Celcius) and then in the evening, it became really windy. Both of which are fixed in my mind as perfect weather. Oh well.

Kickboxing is more interesting on Wendsdays, I've noticed. There was a new guy there who obviously had trained in a different style. His kicks really hurt. I'm not sure what to do about my allergies and/or cold at this point (how do I tell the difference?!). I was using my handkerchief that I use to wipe off the sweat during class as a tissue at one point. It's insane that I can't go an hour without needed to annihilate a tissue. I can't decide if I should be training in this state either. I feel exhausted and coughy but that's not too unusual after a workout like that. The guys who I'm sort of friends with at wendsdays classes think my punches are great. They mean "for a girl" of course, but oh well.

I really wish people would stop classifying a Doctor Who/Torchwood story as a crossover. Every time I see one, I kinda get this feeling like "Eww, there's a Torchwood in my Who." And for the other fandom I'm reading, Sherlock Holmes slash reminds me of Hornblower slash probably because both fandoms go to far too much effort to work through the historical details plus the illegality of the whole business.

On Tuesday, a girl at my nursing school class asked me for advice outside of class on how to become better at English. This made me feel like an actual teacher for once. Today, my Mine kiddies were writing notes about me in class (though why they wrote "Today, sensei is angry" is beyond me (They think I can't read kanji. hah!)) and this also made me feel like a teacher, though it also made me nostalgic for the days when I wrote notes in class. Of course, if I catch them with notes again, I'm going to get their parents to yell at them. I'm kinda annoyed M. let them go on with it for so long.

My student brought me pocky today and I spent twenty minutes trying to convince her that Americans import pocky from Japan (or at least, Asia). "Is pocky the same in America?" Yes. Yes, it is. The pocky was for Valentine's day which was sweet of her. Also got green tea kitkats from N. yay! I gave everybody origami valentine hearts with candy inside to cheer them up (I am highly unromantic and therefore uneffected by this holiday, but some of the others needed hugs, or at least sweets:))

I'm getting really bored with kickboxing. I keep reassuring myself that it's good exercise and good socializing, but to be honest, the classes are nearly uniformly the same. A warm up with shadow boxing, followed by being drilled in a million and one punches, followed by muscle training or sparring (which is the same thing as near as I can figure) and then either stretching, or more drills. There are occasional deviations, but they're rarely interesting.

I'd like to say I'm the kind of person who can dedicate myself to one thing and stick with it, but to be honest, I need both mental and physical stimulation to stay interested in some sort of physical art. This is why I've trained in fencing, judo, jujitsu and karate in addition to taijutsu (and now kickboxing). There are of course, other issues involved (fencing - I disagreed with the rules of fighting and it was seriously messing up my instincts, judo - there was too much forced exercising and not enough variation, jujitsu - the instructor was a nazi and the beginner level was boring and easy, karate - more variation but god do I hate katas), but in the end, it boils down to I got bored with the routine either because I already knew most of the things they were teaching or because I learnt most of the things they were teaching (keep in mind that after less than a month of Judo, I could take down a male brown belt one of two times).

Taijutsu and Bujinkan is rarely if ever boring. Sometimes we'd have to do basics, which, if we were lucky led to me and another black belt horsing around in a corner, but if not was at least only for a class when Sensei Jack wasn't there. Even if something we were being taught was boring (and it almost never was), we never stayed on one technique for more than a class or two and only the first half of class was devoted to hand to hand combat so you were sure to see at least a little variation once we switched over to a weapon (and you never knew when it was going to be "let's attack each other with keys" day or something *g*).

I know I haven't learnt everything at kickboxing, but I've reached a high enough level that the classes are becoming too routine. I know I shouldn't quit - when I took August off, I was practically jumping out of my skin by the end of the month from excess energy, but I also don't know how to make the class more interesting for myself. Not even the prospect of seeing lots of fit Japanese men with their shirts off and covered with sweat moves me much anymore (probably because I have enough imagery to last a lifetime, but still).

I miss Bujinakn.

I have to admit that I'm in favour of any holiday that allows people to shout "Out, demon!" out their windows and doors and throw soybeans at people. I bet most of you didn't know you're supposed to eat as many soybeans as your age, ne?

My arms are trembling and are difficult to move. I'm never training with a middle schooler with excess energy and stress from exams again. I only hope I'll be well enough to drive my stretch of road to Beppu tomorrow. On the amusing, if weird side, one of the guys at kickboxing (he's like a Japanese homeboy...) curtseyed to me tonight. Shirtless Guy thinks he's weird too *L*

Today, at kickboxing, for the first time since I was ten years old, I managed to do a full out sideways split. One of the guys asked me to teach him how to stretch so I took him and his friend through my usual advanced routine (I have to be pretty bored to do it on my own actually). It was after 40 minutes of intensive fighting so I was already pretty lose, and the routine showed that despite the fact that I've only done basic stretches for the past month, I seem to have kept up with everything. It's cool:) The guys were struggling a bit so I told them to stretch like that every day since that's what I started doing years ago (I can't really decide how much my natural flexibility plays into such things.). Though to be fair, the one time I went to a yoga class, I found it extremely easy and was bored. I've met men who can out stretch me easily so it's not like it's impossible.

I've been reading Girl Genius all day. The artist occasionally gets the facial expressions wrong, but the story is interesting and the characters are well developed. I think it could use a bit more exposition, but it's definately worth a read.

Have been catching up on my Naruto manga reading (I'm about two volumes behind at this point). I actually don't have much to say about it other than it kinda feels like reading a fanfic at this point. I'm still reading Snape mentors/is Harry's father stories in the fanfic reading world. I think the irony of the fact that there's enough of these fics to keep me reading for another month or two (and this is excluding the huge number of them I read back when the Severitus challenge first came out) keeps me entertained. The more recent fics that factor in canon facts (while often ignoring the actual canon, thank god) have been pretty entertaining.

Writing wise, I'm going through a "this story is horrible" stage with my book. I think I need some encouragement but I'm not sure how to get it. Meh.

So, yesterday my last class was cancelled so I was able to head to kickboxing a little earlier than usual. When I got there, I thought no one was there but when I looked around the corner, there was the coach sitting there next to all the boxing stuff (apparently he leaves after 30 minutes if no one shows). I went over and sat down and made very basic small talk while we waited. After a few minutes he asked me if I wanted to train so I said sure. It was basically a private lesson *L* At one point he told me my fighting was "erai" (wonderful/praisworthy) which I had to look up in the dictionary *L* We trained for about forty minutes and he took my picture to put on his blog (his entry is basically the same as mine, sadly enough, only he seems to have memorized our entire conversation as well *L* I think he also was quoting poetry near the end there.) I learnt a lot and it was good exercise but not too exhausting. Near the end of the training, Shirtless Guy came in and although he didn't participate, he did wait around until I left then stood outside in the parking lot talking to me for an hour. Dating in Japan is really weird.

Today, I lazed about reading fic, then finally got around to tidying up and vacuuming my apartment since my dust allergies have been giving me trouble this week. I had a long chat with S. who came over, and then I headed to Kirara onsen to soak away my aches. The Kurokawa trip seems to have made me more tolerable of cooler onsens and I was able to stay in much longer. It helped that it was pretty warm today (at least for me). I then invited M. over for dinner since I had already made inari for lunch and I made us a lemon and soy sauce veggie stir fry (to which I added too much lemon) to go with the inari.

Then we watched the new live action Korean Hana Kimi which was so over the top. You can only partially blame it on the manga too though it did follow the plot points rather faithfully. I didn't really like the actress cause she seemed to have gone to the same acting school as Rupert Grint - all funny facial expressions and no actual acting. The boy playing her crush was rather cute and I did think that he and the soccer player guy both fit their characters really well. The director needs to be wacked up side the head a few times to get rid of some of his weird camera angles ("Hmm, what if I put the camera on this box - in a closet! Yes, I'm a genius!") Overall, it wasn't too bad, but I'm not sure how many episodes I can actually sit through.

I just found my kickboxing classes blog so I figured I'd share the eye candy while I search for the pics of me that I know they've taken.

He he. The guys at kickboxing were obviously bored last week. *looks back through blog* Okay. They're always bored.

(Er, there are plenty of pictures of them not shirtless. I'm just not showing them *L*)

Oh look. Shirtless Guy's on the left. *eg*

I think I may have almost had a second date with shirtless guy tonight. He was doing his usual 'cool act' at the end of class, but when I told him I had to go to kindergarten in the morning he looked disappointed and said the Japanese equivalent of "aw man". Of course, he could have just remembered something he forgot or something. Who knows. Men are weird.

I haven't really been updating because all I've been doing is reading fic, writing my book and, er, that's it. I went to a potluck party with my Japanese class on monday that had tons of food and Japanese New Years children's games (like that paddle badmiton game and pin the face on the beautiful woman (like pin the tail on the donkey only with eyes and a mouth and nose and eyebrows). It was fun though more for catching up with people since the holidays than for the cheesy games.

Kickboxing tonight was both difficult and relaxing. They exhausted us in the first forty minutes and then I hung out with a group who were learning basic wrestling take downs which isn't really something I'm interested in but they were easy enough and shirtless guy was teaching so eh.

A copy of Throne of Jade (His Majesty's dragon sequel) arrived yesterday courtesty of the generous siriaeve and since I was blessed with only two lessons today (one at 11 and one at 1:30 lasting an hour each) I spent the entire afternoon and evening reading until kickboxing. It will come as no surprise that I'm nearing the end of the book. It struck me that Lawrence is one of the most honest characters I've ever read and not in a self righteous sort of way. I sort of expected more of the book to take place in China, rather than be a travelogue, but I've been enjoying it.

My book is becoming more in depth character wise and less humourous imo. I'm not sure what to do about that atm since it's meant to be a parody but parodies aren't necessarily funny. I have this weird theory that writing is draining me of my english words. I've been forgetting really regular english vocabulary words, yet I still remember all my Japanese. Noticed today that I understand a lot more words than I can remember these days in Japanese, and the ladies I have early on Saturday were much more comprehensible. They asked me if I could understand them and I told them yes, but I was waiting for the English to come around again (they tend to talk for several minutes in Japanese before condescending to inform me of the topic in English). I really must stop jumping into Japanese conversations with English though...

Off to read more. Ja ne.

I was kinda stunned today when I was teaching the singing lady. We had a great time catching up over new year's, of course and I was showing off pics from my trip. We got to sea turtle and seahorse from Kagoshima aquarium and she couldn't remember the kanji for turtle. I was kinda surprised and tried to explain that it was similar to the kanji for dragon but she didn't get it so I looked it up to show her (since I can recognize it but not write it, or rather, I couldn't earlier today and can now). Since seahorse is "dragon" in Japanese she had to write down that kanji too and saw what I had been getting at. But damn, how weird is it to know the kanji when your Japanese friend doesn't? (Even if I did learn it from Dragonball of all things...)

I've been working on my book a lot recently. It's much easier to write now that I've let the characters solidify though I could have started writing a lot earlier than this so it's only fair I feel guilty about it. Am only managing about half a page a day, but I can't seem to write any faster so it will have to do.

Have also found the perfect site to study Japanese that gives you tons of quizes tailored to common words, animals, common names or even words made up of familar kanji. The kanji tests are the most fun since I just have to guess about half of the time judging by what I know part of the kanji means (since I rarely know the other kanji). I don't remember much of any of these words that I'm aware of, but I figure it'll make a lot more sense when I see the kanji or word again. Repetition, at least for me, is the key and this way it's not so boring. This last trip was definately a boost for me language wise. Having to fend for myself for a week made me a lot less hesitant to speak and I seem to remember a lot more words that I don't remember learning.

Went back to kickboxing tonight even if it took a serious promise to myself that I was going to come home and be allowed to get as warm as possible right afterwards. I worry about the way you lose all feeling in your toes when you train, even on tatami. The training itself was excellent. The kinda, sub coach guy put me through my paces and taught me a lot of new little things. There's this karate black belt (a little old man who fits every martial arts cliche) who thinks it's so cool to have a woman kickboxing. He spent a lot of time cheering me on today (I guess he was bored). He dared me to attack him while he had a bokken and he's really good (I'd feel a bit better if I knew what he was saying though *L*). Anyway, aparently my defense is perfect cause they taught me how to dodge and then the coach couldn't think of any more advice to give me, though I certainly haven't got that weaving thing down right imo. After that, the sub-coach asked me to fight in the next tournament and I said yes before I could chicken out (It's not obvious, but I hate fighting in tests and tournaments. I only keep doing it because... well, I'm a masochist). After that, I had a break and practiced rolling (my side rolls have deteriorated in the past months but everything else is up to par) and then had some nice practice fights with the other guys. Ja ne!

Today was a day of belated Christmas gifts. My packages from havenward (*glomp*) and nentari (thank you!) arrived which was very good since it left me with chocolate and reading material just in time for my period. Miy. also gave me a daruma doll and some sort of gelatinous banana flavoured sweet stuff. I've coloured in my one daruma eye and set my goal.

It's been fun to compare new years fortunes with everyone. Anyone who got a good fortune (including me) has folded theirs up and is carrying it around with them so they can show it around. M. and I were unofficially trying to get New Year's cards from our students too but so far, I only managed one from the singing lady (and she got one from a student today). oh well. I only wanted one actual card to commemorate the new year anyway *L*

Meanwhile, I've watched up to episode 7 of My Boss, My Hero and it continues to remain excellent. It's not funny all the time of course but the moments of hilariousness continue to make me laugh out loud which is kinda rare for me. I'm also surprised to discover that while the main actor's exagerated facial expressions do nothing for me, when he puts his mind to it, he can really act. There's a rather depressing and realistic part in one ep where he realizes that what he does for a living isn't just fun and games and I was in tears watching it, or at least near tears. I still can't figure out whether his brother is good or bad (it can go both ways in the end and depends on what Makki decides to do). Also, the bit with the cow was really really random. Everything is obvious in the series and yet it works and you still laugh even when you know what's coming. Makki's subordinates are hilarious and sweet. And I think I have a small crush on both Makki and his father *L* I'm looking forward to the last three eps.

Meanwhile, it's been windy and cold and rainy all day with the rain turning to snow in the evening. Technically kickboxing started again tonight and I was all prepped to go but a multitude of factors that basically ended in I didn't want to freeze my toes off in the gym again (since there's no heating and the floor is wood). It really would be more practical for me to skip kickboxing until it's warmer again but I also want to exercise so I'm not sure what to do.