Level Up

I haven't been the most diligent of bloggers this year. To make up for it, I am going to do a quick blitz of posts that I have been intending to do, but never got around to. The reason for my negligence is that, in one week, I will be taking a 10-day trip to Hawaii for a salsa festival. On top of that, I figured I could kill two birds with one stone and get the GRE out of the way. 

 

So yea, I've been busy.

 

***

Last month, I leveled up to Level 3 in Karate. I'm still the same green belt, but I did get a fancy certificate.

初段

準初段 (black)


１級


２級 (brown)


３級 <-- ME



４級 (green)

５級


６級 (yellow)


７級


８級 (orange)


９級


１０級 (blue)

初級 (white)

 

i英単語 (ieitango)

Last August, I had an idea to develop an iPhone application to help Japanese people with their Eiken (英検) vocabulary. Not having done any programming since graduating college, I had to relearn the basics, then teach myself Objective-C, then learn how to combine it all to create a simple flash card study program.

My app made its iTunes Store debut last week. (sounds of jubilation)

The app is called i英単語 (ieitango), which means English vocabulary, and the website can be found here. There are a couple of Eiken apps on iTunes, but all of them are aimed at the advance level. Mine is the first for the beginner level.

The easiest Eiken level is Grade 5, which is suppose to reflect the English skill of someone in the 7th grade (or 5th grade if you go to MY school). My girlfriend, who speaks excellent English, has passed Grade 2, but based on my experience, the average Japanese student seems to only get up to Grade 3. That is why I decided to start my ieitango series from the beginning.

Only time will tell how many 7th graders carry around iPhones in Japan, though. Based on my sales so far, the answer is: 1.

My sister.

Open House

Last week, Ogimi Elementary had its 村学力向上実践報告会, which is the, uh...village academic improvement practice information session...thing. In America, we just call it 'Open House'. The big difference here is that the parents come to watch an actual class. On a Sunday!

It wasn't just parents who came, but teachers from other schools and important people from the school board. Because of this, the day became a 'big deal', and my teachers spent many hours trying to turn a normal class into a super class.

This year, I was asked to do an English lesson. I didn't think anything of it, because I assumed I would just be doing a normal class in front of an audience. But no, the two months leading up to this had me in meetings with the home room teacher going over every detail with a fine-tooth comb.

The class went off without a hitch, with the exception of my attire. When I am told, "Oh, it's just a normal school day.", I don't think to bring a suit. Yet, 5 minutes before class, the homeroom teacher comes up to me in her newly changed outfit, looks at my track suit, and asks me where my suit was.

Anyway, when the classes were finished, all the visitors headed towards the gym for some English songs the kids performed. After that, there was some 2 hour meeting (that I snuck out of), followed by dinner.

I did some killer piano arrangements for Bingo and If You're Happy and You Know It, and it turns out we made the Okinawa paper (me in casual attire)!

(I got a lot of comments of how 'small' the piano looks with me next to it)

New Year's Resolutions

I'm usually not a person to make resolutions because I never have a reason to. People make resolutions to fix things about their life or themselves they are unhappy with. I am either happy with myself or just don't care enough to be unhappy.

This year is different. Every January, JETs are faced with a re-contracting decision that extends there time in Japan an extra year with the maximum being 5 years. I have already decided to re-contract for my 5th year which will keep me in Ogimi until July 2012. After that, they kick me out.

If the 3.5 years I have already been here have taught me anything, the next 1.5 will go by real fast. I have a couple ideas of what I want to do next, but recently, I have felt I need to hurry up and figure out which one I want to do. As that is turning out to be difficult, I figured I should just be ready for ALL of them.

Therefore, my New Year's resolutions are:

• Pass the JLPT N1 - If I choose to find some job within Japan, having this on my resume will hopefully make me stand out.
• Pass the Foreign Service Officers Exam - If I pass this, it will not only give me major cool points, but also give me the option to live abroad while working for the government.
• Score high on the GRE - Another option is to go to grad school. As I would want the school to pay me to go, I need to do well on this to show that I have smarts.

These are actually resolutions for the next 1.5 years. Staying an extra year on the job will allow me to save money and prepare for what is coming next. Funnily enough, JET actually gives advice on why one should NOT stay in Japan:

Realistic Reasons Not to Accept Reappointment

• Procrastination. Think long and hard about your life path. Do not seek reappointment only to delay a more difficult decision.
• Money. Participating on the JET Programme for the sole purpose of money-making.
• For no particular reason at all.

Ha.

Final Run Log

I'm done with all the running logs, but here are some final statistics:

Total Distance: 733.295 km
Total Duration: 3 days, 6 hours, 28 minutes, 12 seconds
Total Average Pace: 6:25

Running Log: Week 18

Week of Nov. 29 - Dec. 5
11/30: 5k, 24:03
12/01: 6k, 34:54
12/02: 3k, 14:58
12/05: 42.195k (Naha Marathon), 5:23:04

Total: 56.195k, 6:36:59
Average Pace: 07:03

The Naha Marathon is advertised as Japan's largest open marathon. 23,402 people ran on Sunday. 16,845 people finished. I came in 9,311-th place.

(Okinawa Times)

It took me a little over 13 minutes to cross the start line, but once I got through that and the mini-traffic jam of people taking pictures of some famous person, I was on my way.

Well, I was on my way for about 18km, anyway. The race went exactly like my training: I cramped around 18km and then walked for about 10km. By then, the cramp had faded away to where I could actually run, and that lasted until about the 32 or 34km mark. By that point, it was a 'run half a km'-'walk half a km' mixture until the finish line.

But I accomplished my goal: run a full marathon and not injure myself. The next day I was at work with only a little soreness on the soles of my feet. Today, almost nothing. All the training I did got my into the shape I needed to be in, so thanks Hal!

I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed, though. Even though this was my first marathon, I did want to finish under 5 hours. However, I did something even Pheidippides himself couldn't do:

I didn't die!

(My chip time is in the bottom right corner)

Running Log: Week 17

Week of Nov. 22 - Nov. 28
11/23: 6k, 35:33
11/24: 10k, 1:03:33
11/25: 5k, 25:33
11/27: 13k, 1:25:00

Total: 34k, 3:29:39
Average Pace: 06:10

I took it slow at the beginning of the week and decided to speed up my 5k run just for the heck of it. On Saturday, I was in Kyoto, and as I had no idea how far I was running, I just set a time for 1:25. I was imagining myself getting up early and running through parks surrounded by temples, but I somehow couldn't find my way out of the city and was treated with a normal view of concrete.

5 days to marathon.