Archive for tkd

lab soccer + tkd

2010/07/10 at 00:01 · Filed under japan, lab, tkd

played soccer with the lab again today. ran into the fence again, so now i have two long bruises, one for each side. my left quad is also mysteriously sore – it kinda feels like i pulled it, probably from running into the fence. i also ran into more people – i think i kinda half-ran into 中 and 塩 today, trying to get the ball from them at various points. 永 is pretty freaking good – 永+中 is a pretty scary pair to be against. 今-sensei is really fast. i think he’s the tallest of the people playing, so he has the longest legs. but kinda fails at being goalie.

i go through phases where i do a few things that are pretty awesome fairly close to one another, so people get the false impression that i’m actually decent at soccer. (in actuality, the only reason i haven’t failed too obviously is because of tkd.) but then i miss easy balls, and i feel bad. someone noticed that i’m left-footed, but then everyone was confused when i said that i was left-footed “sometimes.” i think tkd has made me right-footed in certain situations, but i’m definitely more comfortable kicking and stuff with my left leg. i think.

soccer is a lot like basketball, actually. except with feet. i kinda fail at basketball, too. but i fail less at kicking things.

then, i finally made myself to go tkd, two weeks after returning to sendai. it was probably not the best timing (out of shape, playing soccer, being generally sore), but it felt right being there once i got there. near the dojang, i ran into 王-chan. not literally. but it was pretty shocking actually seeing him at tkd again. apparently there’s a few new adults, but none of them were at practice. still, there were quite a few people there, so that was rather happy. until i had to spar. i practiced throwing a few reverse turning kicks, though, even though none of them really came close to landing. i think.

also, 源-chan has a real black belt/uniform! but he didn’t stick around for practice – all the kids had already finished practice when we started. i’m glad he wasn’t around to spar though – i’m already beat up enough, and i usually end up the most beat up after sparring him. even though it’s also the most fun.

a couple of people asked me if i was testing at the next belt test here. i guess there’s a belt test soon? i don’t know how i feel about testing for 2nd dan, much less in japan. i still feel like a baby black belt, especially after being in boston recently (where even the 1st dans – and color belts – are pretty awesome). ironically, i feel like testing for 2nd dan is a bigger step than testing for 1st dan, especially since i tested really fast up to my black belt. i definitely need more time to settle into my tkd before i feel comfortable testing.

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違う場所、違うsnix

2010/06/29 at 10:50 · Filed under atlanta, boston, eww feelings, japan, life, tkd, travel

the past month has really shown me how much a change in location changes how i act. despite all the character building of the past year, i didn’t really act that differently when reintroduced to old, familiar locations.

for example, when i returned to stockbridge, i quickly readopted the unhealthy eating and lack of exercise that marks, well, most of the south, probably. i was almost certainly by far the smallest person i saw in two weeks of georgia, despite being on the large side of normal in japan, and one of the few who weren’t at least overweight, if not obese. (okay, so i did see a high school gymnast – a friend of a sister of a friend – who looked like a stick.) my house was dark and depressing, with the lights off and windows covered in the middle of the day. i tried exercising a couple of times, but the heat and humidity were oppressing, and i had no means to transport myself to any place where exercising wouldn’t be miserable. in the end, i gained at least a few pounds (1-2 kg) in two weeks.

to summarize being in boston: i still have real emotions. i still don’t know how to deal with them responsibly. seriously, i think everytime i return to boston, i experience a year’s worth of emotions in the space of a week. it’s kind of miserable, but keeps me sane for the rest of the year. (probably. hopefully.) also, i really miss doing tkd in boston. only working on sparring all the time is really starting to take its toll. i need an outlet for the side of me that wants to do technical, poomsae, pretty things. maybe this is the time to start shaolin kung fu. or any other martial art that doesn’t cost a lot of money upfront and doesn’t focus solely on beating other people up (i have sensei for that). but i really liked the way that kung fu felt during the one class i took.

in sendai, there are few emotional/social distractions, and i can focus on working and research and studying. what emotions i do have are fairly superficial and simple, and they’re usually pretty easily taken care of. at least, i know how to easily take care of them (whether or not i actually do so is a different matter). つまり、i’m the best snix i can be when i’m in sendai, so that’s why i’m still here. even if i’m secretly really boring.

ps, i really don’t like capital letters. i can deal with them when dispersed from other people, but it just looks weird to me when i use them myself.

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impressions of summer tkd in boston thus far

2010/06/15 at 21:22 · Filed under boston, tkd

I haven’t done poomsae in ages. I probably haven’t done a front kick or side kick since the last time I was in Boston. As good as tkd in Sendai is with respect to sparring, I really miss the well-roundedness of the club. The fact that I think the club is well-rounded kind of proves my point. (at least they do poomsae)

Doing lifting legs is weird, though. Every time I do one, I feel all scrunched up and that I need to open my hips more and that I’m not moving forward enough.

I feel like my kicks aren’t hitting very hard. Maybe it’s because I’ve been wearing shorts to practice. (kicks in shorts look weird)

Doing tkd in English isn’t that weird, but saying things in tkd in English is a little weird. For example, my first instinct is still to count in Japanese.

Ty has a reverse turning kick. I guess this is to be expected, since she’s a black stripe now. Still kind of a shock to see my kouhai with decent advanced kicks.

Sauza’s kicks look really good. I guess this is to be expected, since he’s been doing poomsae training forever now. But his sparring kicks look nicer too, I think.

I was struck by how pretty Rene’s poomsae style was. She just looks so right doing poomsae.

People don’t freaking kiyap. 5 elementary school kids can kiyap louder than the 20-odd people at practice yesterday.

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black belt birthday

2010/05/12 at 22:37 · Filed under tkd

I’ve been a black belt for a year + one day.

o.O

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2010/05/04 at 22:26 · Filed under japan, tkd, 日本語

Sensei, at practice tonight: 一生懸命のやる気があっても、意識がないなら、意味ないよ。Or something like that. At practice, I usually understand the general idea of what sensei says, but can’t ever remember the exact wording. Just like my English, actually. (rough translation: even if you try as hard as you can, if you’re not conscious of what you’re doing, there’s no point. gah, the japanese is much more compact and efficient and carries more of the right feeling.)

由-chan and I did an hour of workout with the kids today, and it ended up being the hardest practice I’ve done while I’ve been in Japan. I probably couldn’t have done another drill after the last one. Still, the kids had an hour of tkd before that and were still going when I left. More respect for the 選手コース kids.

Additional fact: when sensei is in one of these moods, he practically punctuates sentences with ばかやろう. Who would’ve thought that learning insults from anime would come in handy in real life one day?

ちなみに、I think I’m going to start waking up earlier, so I feel justified in going to sleep at 10 pm on tkd nights.

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超笑う

2010/05/01 at 08:58 · Filed under food, japan, tkd, Uncategorized

Yesterday was a good day. I bought a new camera (because my last one mysteriously broke when I wasn’t looking). Practice was really hard and really brought out my best tkd, then 由-chan helped me with a combo in such a way that it suddenly became really easy. After practice, some of the kids’ moms made dinner and I ate so much and it was so tasty (the next day, I’m still full, I ate so much).

And today, I’m going out to see the new Conan movie… with someone from lab. Hopefully today will be a good day too~ :)

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commercial break

2010/03/22 at 01:18 · Filed under japan, lab, tkd

…from planned reports on my interesting life to report that after being kicked in the nose on Tuesday practice, I probably have, well, a broken nose. (hey, it was a surprise to me.) This, I gathered from a Google search after being mystified at my black eye that arrived on Friday, after quite clearly not remembering being punched in the face recently (or ever, really).

The awesome thing is that my lab has two MD/professors, so it’s been decided that I’ll ask one of them to take a look at my nose on Tuesday (holiday on Monday), and once they say that I should go to a hospital or something (Imai-sensei was totally okay with me not going to a hospital until he saw the black eye, then insisted that they’re not going to say 行かなくてもいい – I’ll probably get an 行け.), then I’ll go. Don’t worry, Google says that all should be well as long as I see a doctor in 7-14 days.

Things learned:

  • Imai-sensei and Nakaaki-san are pretty much always in lab. Seriously. I think they live there. (But this means that they know that I go to lab at weird hours – like Sunday afternoons – totally ruining my slacker image. Then again, probably outgrowing the slacker image anyway.)
  • Nakaaki-san is an awesome senpai who will take me to the doctor early in the morning with minimal resistance. (He’s forgiven for the “taking out my back snowboarding” thing –  more on that in the upcoming ski trip post.)
  • I still have almost a kilogram to cut before the tournament (which i’m still going to, probably. shh, don’t tell anyone. even though i don’t have a reason to spar injured anymore. old habits die hard?).

In conclusion, I’m starting up the curry diet = buy cheap vegetables, tofu, and curry sauce and live off curry for unspecified period of time (not including breakfast). This accomplishes goals of last-minute cutting (or, at least, enough to make up for two drinking parties this week) and having enough money to pay for broken nose (while being able to go to two drinking parties this week). No, I’m not an alcoholic; the drinking parties are at least as much about “socializing before almost everyone I like is leaving forever” as the alcohol. Yes, there are that many people I like leaving forever.

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recent running

2010/03/08 at 22:50 · Filed under music, running, tkd

Every now and then (usually when I’m dropping weight divisions), I take up running. It’s never permanent, usually because my schedule changes soon after the goal is reached. For example, classes end, black belt tests are taken, etc.

This time, I’m running to reach featherweight for a tournament at the end of March. I’m not really cutting for the sake of being better off in a better division (I actually spar better against people who are bigger than me), so much as cutting for the sake of having people in my division. Being the largest female in Japan and all. Featherweight isn’t far away – according to the lab scale, I’m almost there as of last week – and I could just cut hard on the last few days, but I’m not really fond of cutting hard. So instead I run.

I knew I wouldn’t keep running unless I made it a mandatory part of my schedule, so I’m running to/from lab on Monday and Thursday, my non-tkd weekdays. Going to lab, I just realized, is about 4 km (and slopes up 100 m in the second half because lab is on a mountain), and it takes me a little less than 30 min. to run one way. (yes, I’m pretty slow.) This is different from past running experiments, when I would run on nice mornings, in that I’m running fewer days, but twice as much per day.

The nice thing about using running, especially this particular arrangement, is that, even when I bike, I go up the mountain on foot anyway, and then I have to drag my bike along, which is rather annoying. This knocks out a good 1000+ calories a week, so it’s easier to cut without having to think about what I’m eating (which I do enough, trying to maximize calorie/yen ratio when I’m running out of money). And, for some reason, I actually enjoy running; at last, I enjoy running more than biking when it’s still winter-like outside. (running in the cold is nice; biking in the cold is painful)

An important part of running, of course, is good running music. Today, I listened to the new B’z album, which I “acquired” after going to the concert. I highly recommend it, to the point that I have every intention of shelling out the ￥3000 necessary once I get paid. (me, paying full price for a CD? in Japan? まさか) The songs, even the slow ones, are just suited for running, somehow. At least a couple fit my pace perfectly (some are a little too fast and threaten to make me run too fast. haha). It’ll probably be my main source of running music for a while.

If I were to make a playlist off the top of my head, though, I’d include: B’z, other albums (what can I say. I like them a lot.); Maximum the Hormone, occasionally (Japanese heavy metal. good in regulated doses); M-Flo (J-hip-hop. upbeat, high energy.); Detective Conan themes (typical upbeat J-pop.); GReeeeN (don’t really have words for them. chill J-pop, maybe.); and 藍坊主 (aobouzu (translation: blue boys? but ao is more indigo, and ‘bouzu’ is more of an insult, like “oi, bouzu, what are you doing??’) – a labmate let me borrow a couple of CDs. kind of remind me of greeeen.).

Looking at my past running playlist, though, I also have stuff like: Muse – Absolution and Black Holes and Revelations (the other stuff is too… I dunno, not my taste), Blink 182, The Matches, The Killers, Linkin Park, and Yellowcard. I think maybe Japanese stuff is less distracting, for some reason; it might be because, while I know the lyrics, I can choose not to think about them too much, whereas I can’t voluntarily not understand English music. Or something. I also have issues singing in English that I don’t have with Japanese, but that’s unrelated.

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long time, no see

2010/02/10 at 13:54 · Filed under tkd, 日本語

夕べの練習の後。

突然久しぶりの顔を見た。

仲間さん。

Nakama-san, of “went drinking with us and came to practice once and disappeared again” fame, came by the newly-renovated dojang last night and announced that he would be coming to practice next week. He seemed disappointed that Ouchan has (also) been skipping for the past couple of months, but I guess if I were the only guy at the dojang who’s hit puberty (and not Sensei), I would be kind of sad too. He’s a red belt and decent at sparring, so I wonder if I’ll get to spar him (preexisting hand injuries notwithstanding).

Speaking of injuries, I did the “land wrong on my ankle and have to sit out for a while” thing on Friday, only it was landing the back leg of a fast kick, which is a pretty ridiculous way to injure oneself, temporary or not. I assumed that since I haven’t had any mishaps with my ankles recently, that they were fine on their own. However, with a tournament looming, maybe it’s time to get more serious about strengthening my ankles. Sigh.

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flashback! boston

2010/02/07 at 19:46 · Filed under boston, nerdy analogy time, tkd, travel

Being in Boston was rather fun, in a manic-depressive way. I don’t want to bore the internetz with my mundane emotional issues more than I have already, so let’s focus on the fun parts!

As expected, the best parts of being in Boston were getting to hang out with people who are normally very far away and doing tkd. I’m normally rather bad about communicating with people who are far away, for whatever reasons, so it was nice to engage in some low-work social interactions. Especially with people who are still in school (which is… most of them), it seems like people I know are always busy, so I don’t really want to bother them unless I have some ulterior motive to contact them. (that sounds so ominous… hahaha)

Of course, since about 90% of my friends in Boston are Chinese, I ate a ton of Chinese food while in Boston. It was amazing. I hadn’t realized how much I missed Chinese food until there was so much in so little time. There was other food in my life, of course, like Miracle of Science with Risu-san and Longhorn Steakhouse (I know, right? I didn’t realize they existed in the north) with the MIT-Tsukuba contingent and California rolls with Carrington. And Anna’s. And boba! (which, I know, is Chinese) It exists in Japan too, I realized recently (mostly in Tokyo), but it’s usually more expensive for maybe half the volume compared to Boston.

On a side note, it was good to see that the Carrington variable in class snix_exes has been set to the pre-dating value. I guess the awkward_ex state can only be populated by up to one person at a time. Maybe this means that the snix_relationship_karma value has been set to zero. /end nerdy analogy

As for tkd… wow. A month of not working out (due to holidays + dojang renovations) left me unprepared for a week of tkd in Boston. It was good, though. I left with a good idea of where I am right now and some thoughts of things to work on. (and some new, painful ab workouts. thanks, master harb. :) <- only half-sarcastic) Here they are, in bullet format:

  • my long off-the-line turning kick is too slow for real-life sparring situations (so i need to work on throwing multiple shorter kicks)
  • i don’t motion unless i’m about to kick (i’m better about this in japan, actually. haha. i just need to keep motioning in the corner of my mind at all times while sparring)
  • i back up too much – usually when i’m thinking about throwing counters (this ties back to the second point)

I also learned that 15 minute sparring sessions with a person of similar level is probably more immediately beneficial for me, personally, than lots of matches with a number of people. Not that the latter isn’t useful. In the former, there’s enough time to experiment and really hammer out one or two moves and get them real-life-sparring-ready. I kinda wish that, in class someday (here or Boston), someone would announce “pair up with someone of a similar level, and for the next 10 minutes, just experiment and have fun in your match with them.” Especially since I don’t have access to the people – well, person – I would do this with, given the chance.

One last thing I took from Boston. At the end of my last class in Boston, on Friday, Master Chuang was addressing the club, especially the new people, and he said something that really stuck with me. I don’t remember the exact wording, but it was something to the extent of: “if you stick with taekwondo, and you work hard, you will improve. this isn’t the case with everything else in your life, but it’s true here.” It reminded me of why I joined the club in the first place. At MIT, it’s so easy to get caught up in the psets and exams and feel like, even if you work hard, you could still fail the next exam. Especially when you’re majoring in something that doesn’t come easily to you, like physics and me (before I stopped taking physics classes). Even I could start tkd, with my slow reflexes and my inability to think on my feet, and become decent at it. I’m continually humbled by my peers, and my senpai, and elementary school kids, but I’ve come a long way since I started 3 years ago. Taekwondo has truly kept me sane these past years, and my life would be completely different – and probably the lesser – without it.

Next part: Tokyo is freaking awesome and so are anime musicals~

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