Your Japanese word of the week is...

"rensei" 練成 which means training. So it makes sense that Shiramizu's dojo-only tournament is aptly named the Shiramizu Shuyo-kai Karate-do Rensei Taikai (白水修養会空手道練成大会). This time around, however, it was more than just the annual tournament- it was Shiramizu's 10th Anniversary of the event.

Shiramizu's 450+ students get warmed up for the day.

Last year I got to take part both in the adult black belt kata demo and a "fun karate demo" with Richard. This year I was also in the adult kata demo but this time around I was also asked to be in the now-traditional "Karate Man" demo.

Karate Man is essentially a couple Shiramizu guys writing what amounts to a Power Rangers episode. It usually begins with a poor girl being threatened by the strange love-child of The Village People and a Nazi SS soldier. Then the Karate Man team (Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, and Pink- of course) jump in to save the day. It all ends off with lots of acrobatic backflips and such...

No one kills my pet feather boa and gets away with it!!

This year, the foreigners (me, Carl, and Amy) were asked to play the part of the "Dark Karate Team", along with the "Dark General" who was a big guy in kendo gear with Jason's mask from Friday The 13th. Anyway, long story short, we get "tricked" into fighting against the Karate Man team only to be "untricked" and shown the truth at which point we gang up on the baddies.... hey, it's a lunch time show for little kids, so it's all good haha.....

That's me on the left... we were ALL supposed to have sunglasses, but Carl and Amy were given masks anyway... I wasn't jealous >.<

Aside from that, I didn't help judge this year unlike last year since there were enough refs. Instead I just helped out with the rings, mostly lining the kids up and tying their belts and stuff. To be honest, I had more fun doing that since I got to chat with the kids and whatnot.....

The morning was all competition and the afternoon was all demos.

Team Tiger (L) vs Team Dragon (R)

Some really great stuff included kata demos, some yakusoku kumite (pre-arranged examples of applications of techniques), a great team kumite bout, tamashiwari (board breaking), demos from all the Shiramizu instructors, and, finally, Arakawa Sensei's tamashiwari demo.

Arakawa Sensei's No-Inch Punch...

It was awesome to see it in person...

Arakawa Sensei tops it off by smashing 10 tiles...

The day capped off with yet another big party to celebrate the 10th anniversary of this great dojo's tournament.

Par-tay!

With such an active dojo membership, so many quality instructors and students, and many many great people, it's easy to see why this is a big part of the reason why I haven't left Japan yet haha =P.....

I should also say- I didn't have my camera with me so I poached these pictures from the Internship Blog and Arakawa Sensei's blog. Thanks!

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"okashii" おかしい which means "strange". A word of warning though...... it's also often translated as "funny" in dictionaries but this is no means "haha" funny....... more like "weird" funny...... so calling yourself "okashii" does not equate to you saying you have a great sense of humour...... people will laugh though heh.....

Alas, this week has been a bit slow since it's been exam week all week at school. I was making exams all last week and invigilating them this week. I must say, it's much easier than writing exams heh......

But I did find this.....

Indian boys marries dog to ward off tiger attacks.

Yeah........ even though it's illegal in India, many rural villages still do things like these because of illiteracy.......

Why you ask?? The report says it's because the two year old grew a tooth in his upper gum.... and that's bad........ the boy's even allowed to be a polygamist and marry a human bride without divorcing his wife-dog...... joy!

Anyways, I apologize for the rash of news reports lately..... this weekend is the Shiramizu tournament so I'll definitely have something to write then......

Til then.....

*Edit*- No wait!! I found something.....

When people think of hemp, they immediately think of cannabis......

But in reality (and you may know this), there are actually two types of useful cannabis, one of which is used to make the drug and the other to be made into hemp products.

And it turns out that properly woven and processed hemp fibres have material properties similar to that of plastic composites such as CFRP (carbon fibre reinforced plastic) including its high strength and low weight.

So Lotus has turned out this Eco Elise with lots of sustainable, environmentally friendly features.

For instance, the hood, roof panel, and rear spoiler are made out of that hemp composite, with an unpainted "brown" stripe showing off the hemp weave. They even made the seat frames with them, covered in a biodegradable wool.

Other features include a water-based paint and solar panels on the roof.

Best of all, these things actually drop the weight of the car by about 70lbs so the performance and fuel economy are better.

Sadly, it's not for sale...... but who knows, maybe in a few years time...

Other examples include the Corvette Z06 which uses a balsa wood floor on the passenger side of the car. Although that was done purely as a weight saving feature.

Oh.......... my......... god.......

Seriously......... what in God's name is happening in Vancouver?! Everyday I check the news and it's ANOTHER shooting. This is not the city I left....... I'll admit that it would be ignorant for me to say that I left a totally clean city with no gangs or drugs (which is untrue), but them brazenly shooting at each other in broad daylight?! That didn't happen......

I mean, when I read about things like this or this, and then I read about how some of these are gangsters out on bail (for, like, the 8th time!)....... I just don't get it..... It's mind-boggling to think that there are judges granting the possibility of bail after someone's been brought in even more than ONCE on a gun crime....

EIGHT shootings in one week........ EIGHT!!

The worst part was that I always (well...... used to) laugh at Japanese crime news because while there's a lot of it and some really are extreme, it always somehow feels very localized.

Granted, there was a massive stabbing spree in Akihabara or the knife-wielding maniac in Hachioji mid-last year..... but in general, a lot of the crime news are more..... I dunno..... weird than threatening....

Like this one- 27 year old police sergeant arrested for sleeping with a 14 year old girl in a karaoke booth.

Or this- 83 year old farmer exposes himself to junior high school boys; offers 100yen for each boy to do the same.

Apparently the farmer though it would be good for the boys' sexual education......

But, honestly, I'd rather have this stuff going on in Vancouver than shootouts every 15hrs....

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"kogeki-teki" 攻撃的. Kogeki 攻撃 means an attack or criticism (and adding suru after it turns it into a verb) while teki 的 is sort of like the suffix -ly. Or -ish, -like... it basically turns the verb into an adjective... So kogeki-teki can be thought of as "aggressive" or "critical"...

They're still at it...

Indeed they are. The Tokyo Metro system is still going after all the people who are behaving inappropriately on their subways. This month's poster is...

It's just getting more and more ridiculous. Now, the point of the poster is obvious- to give your seat to anyone in more dire need of it than you. And that's fine. I always give my seat up despite the looks of shock and horror the people on the train give me. Giving up a seat?? That's unheard of!!

That's one of the things that still bothers me about Tokyo. Everyone's really polite (as they would have to be for 12 million people to live together), but in reality, there's this constant passive aggressiveness going on, especially on the trains. I personally hate being pushed off the train because I just don't feel it's necessary. The same thing goes with the nabbing seats on the train.

On my commute in the morning at the station where I change trains, there is a guy who lines up right in the front, waiting for the doors to open. And when they do, he dashes on while people are getting off and then sneaks around to the next car to steal a spot in the NEXT CAR'S COURTESY SEATS. It's just pathetic....

So, while I agree with what this poster, I don't really agree with what it says.... Do it at home??

What, like I hog all the seats on my couch and refuse to give them up even if a crippled old man with no neck comes over?? I just don't get what it means....... and it's not a translation thing, because it actually says "Do it at home" in Japanese too =P......

In all fairness, I guess there is no place better to really be "doing" such a thing..... and they do have to keep the theme of the posters going....... it's just.... I highly doubt anyone at home steals the "courtesy seats" from their grandmother..... do people even have courtesy seats at home?!?

Grrr....

This past Sunday (the 8th) was the Kita-Katsushika-Gun Tournament. Kita-Katsushika is a small region that includes a couple of small cities (sort of like how the Tri-Cities would include Coquitlam) but, in reality, was a tournament with competitors from all over Saitama.

As expected with a local tournament, the level was a bit all over the place and despite fighting a cold these past three weeks, I expected to do quite well.

Unfortunately, I ended up losing 3-2 in kata. I think my problem is that I'm still a bit stiff in some movements. And while I'm working on it (and have seen an improvement since, like, 2007), the harder I try, the stiffer the movements become. Arakawa Sensei once told me to never do any movement above 90% power, because the last 10% comes from just tension. And I've yet to consistently find a "competitive zone" where I'm trying just hard enough, but not over-doing it...

Regardless, the person who defeated me went on to take second place so that pulled my ranking into the Top 8, so I got a certificate for it! I do actually feel, however, that I could've won were I matched up against some of the other competitors, but woulda coulda shoulda...

The afternoon was kumite and though I got seeded into the second round, I watched my opponent basically over-power his first round match, including knocking the guy onto the ground. So obviously I was a bit concerned with how the match would go, especially considering he was twice my size.

But going from what I had taken from Olivia Sensei's seminar, I took my time and tried to get good solid counter-punches in. It was pretty hard though and I ended up down 0-2...

Then the timing clicked and I scored two quick counters to even it out at 2-2.

With only a few seconds left, I thought I could manage another one but alas, after the clash, the decision went to him and I was out at 3-2.

To be honest though, I was quite satisfied with the result. I've been trying various ways to fight people who are taller and have a longer reach than me with varying success. But the moves I thought would work worked and I'm starting to seeing the fight a bit better...

Anyway, it's just a lot of speculation and there's not much point unless I'm actually in ring doing it.

I should also mention that I'm no longer doing the grading on March 1st since it's the same day as Seiritsu's graduation ceremony. I've been told there's another grading in June so that's the tentative plan.

Feb 22 is the 10th Annivesary of Shiramizu's annual tournament, so that'll be barrels of fun....

Mar 22 is the Kanto Wadokai Tournament. Kanto includes Tokyo, Chiba, and Saitama so the level will be very high. I'm aiming for Top 8 so we'll see =P...

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"benkyou" 勉強. In noun form, it means "study". In verb form, it means....... well...... "to study". But it can also mean "to learn". And I thought I'd show you a couple of the things I've learned about photography since I've now had my new camera for a bit more than a month now. Feel free to disagree =P...

1. It's 80% Driver, 20% Car

And it totally applies to photography. I can honestly say that out of all the pictures I took with my new SLR, only about 25% are because of something the Sony can do that my regular point-and-shoot can't.

And I really mean that. No manner of insane ISO settings or blazing fast shutter speeds can help if the picture is of no interest. Or framed improperly. Or even post-processed poorly.

Buying a new camera, I found out, stimulated my photo album purely because it stimulated me to go out and take MORE pictures. The novelty of having a new toy helped me see the world in different ways and this is the biggest factor. I mean, people are buying more and more SLR's everyday and most of them would never have thought about walking down the street snapping everything they saw until they bought that new camera.

Both these pictures I took with my point-and-shoot Pentax that's so noisy at ISO400 (its max) that it looks like it's raining sparkles. But still, a few seconds of touching up (in Windows Photo Gallery, no less) and they're not too bad. Well, aside from distorting the Landmark Tower to look like it's bending..... but hey, the camera was handed down to me and the lens can't be changed, so not much I can do about that =P heh.....

Of course, that's not to discount my Sony. I love that I can zoom in and out quickly. I love the fast auto-focus. I love the manual controls and the range of those controls. I love the ability to switch lenses. I even love the clacking of the mirror.

But I learned that the camera was not what generated my photos...

2. Don't Stick Everything In The Middle

Perhaps you may have heard of the rule of thirds. It basically suggests that during composition, dividing the image into nine equal parts (divide it into thirds vertically and thirds horizontally) and sticking the interesting things at the 4 intersections of the lines or somehow along the lines will be a good starting point for making an image that's interesting.

For example, the centre-line of good ol' Kinkaku-ji up there is near the right-hand vertical line. The water line also rests along the bottom horizontal third. The sky takes up the top third of the picture.

But of course, rules are meant to be broken and there certainly are excellent photos that don't follow that rule.

The interesting thing is that my Pentax can overlay the grid onto its live-view screen....... and my Sony can't haha.....

3. I've Seen That Before...

Here's a question. Which picture do you like more?

This?

... or this?

It wouldn't be a stretch to say that the best pictures are of rare things. Or common things in a rare situation/environment. Or a rare perspective. In other words, it has to be visually interesting.

Everyone knows what things look like from a normal eye level. Which is essentially how I took that first picture- standing upright (in the rain) on the edge of the standard walking route around Kinkaku-ji.

The second picture I took from a small side path, crouching and leaning at a rather straining angle (still in the rain). But I think the second angle changes the building from a background distraction into something more interesting. I also think few people lie on the ground to peruse what is otherwise a ski-jump of a tree. Or a sinking battleship with its bow plunging into the abyss. So that's not how most normal people see it..... probably because no sane person crouches like a duck everywhere they go....

It's sort of about trying to see things in a way that they aren't normally seen, whether that be from a new angle, a new position, or a new juxtaposition.

These two shots I took from Tokyo Auto Salon differ only very slightly, but I find the one from a lower, less commonly seen angle much more interesting especially because it emphasizes the car's low-slung stance.

By the way, this is a Mazda RX500, a 240kmh 1970's concept car with the Wankel rotary engine the company popularized. It sat around for 30 years before they restored it lest this part of Mazda's history disappears.

3. A Dab Here, A Touch There

I read somewhere that a good picture should have a meaning; that it should be capturing some moment to be remembered or some statement to be made. I'm not really sure if that's always true since lots of people are taking shots of water dripping off leaves and I like running around snapping pictures of crankshafts and balloons. And some of them turn out great.

But it does help to make a more interesting picture if it tries to say something. You might recognize this picture from my Kyoto post. I wanted to show just how many people were perplexed by the rock garden at Ryoan-ji...

To that end, I editted it so there are less distractions. I cropped out all the stuff in the top and then I took all the colour out because I just found the red hat and all the other people to be visually complicating. It even turned out that it helped to make that lady in pink stand out even more.

And though she looks like she's pointing, she's not really. She's just reaching for the guidebook her husband's holding...... oh well haha....

And even aside from bringing out exactly what you want from the picture, post-processing them helps to draw out the colours and whatever else you want to do with the image (depending on how powerful a program you're using). It's like make-up for your photography...

4. Shoot Everything!

The last, and most important, thing I learned is simply to take lots of photos. I toss about 40% of the pictures I take even before I transfer them onto my computer. Then I throw out probably another half of them.

But some of the pictures I liked were spur of the moment shots that had nothing to do with rules of this or angling that. It was just something I saw and I liked, so I pushed the button. Like this one...

The best part is that all this is subjective. I like these pictures but you may feel otherwise. And that's fine......

Of course, being the hypocrit that I am, I failed to take a picture of the Ferrari F430 Scuderia I saw two weeks ago.

Or the Bentley Continental Flying Spur one week ago (yes, another one).

Or the Aston Martin V8 Vantage... and the Mercedes CL63 AMG... and the Lancia Delta Integrale that I saw tonight.

I (poorly attempt to) substitute those with this green S2000...