Watching the footage on CNN from Haiti is really heartbreaking. Haiti was already a very impoverished country and having to deal with the aftermath of a huge quake must be terribly stressful. Living in the comforts of a developed country like Japan, I feel it is each person’s responsibility to prepare for these kinds of situations since we have the economic means to do so. Something tells me that international relief efforts would not be as strong for a country like Japan because there’s a sense that “Japan can handle it on its own”. I’m wondering though… can Japan really handle a big disaster?

Living in Japan, I would be a fool to not expect a big quake to hit at anytime. I’ve already experienced a few smaller quakes and I’ll have to admit swaying in a building was one of the scariest things I’ve ever experienced. The quakes weren’t particularly strong. It’s just that I’m up on the 11th floor and when the building sways, I really feel it. It takes a few minutes before the swaying stops too and by that time, my equilibrium is shot and I feel like I’ve just stepped off of a yacht in choppy waters.

Hearing my students speak about the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995 is always interesting. Everyone has a different story to tell: where were they, what were they doing, how did they react, etc. The commonality is that most peoples’ homes suffered some damage. Most people just had furniture shift around and dishes and cups come crashing down.

I read somewhere that it took 9 days for power and water to be restored in Kobe after the big earthquake. I’m using that as a target. Can I survive for 9 days if power, water, and gas went out and it was impossible to get food at stores? Can I defend myself if people go apeshit and random acts of violence occur?

(If there’s any country where people would be more civil during times of dire stress, I would imagine it would be Japan. People are a lot more passive here and guns are almost non-existent. Phew. My Wing Chun will suffice.)

Assuming I would be able to return to my apartment, I currently have enough food for about a week and I’m looking into storing some dehydrated food. I’m looking at about 3-4 weeks’ worth of food. It wouldn’t just be for the wifey and I. I imagine I’d have to help her family and others. It wouldn’t be much food but it would hopefully last us 9 days. I also have a whole cupboard worth of tea and coffee, some dried pasta, and some canned goods that I cycle through and try to keep stocked.

For heat, we have a small butane stove and I am really trying to find places to store more gas canisters. Having a small apartment really sucks for storage.

I have flashlights and a couple of lighters strategically placed around the house. I’m used to the big Toyoko Inn sign that is literally across the street now. My apartment is never pitch black at night because of this stupid sign. But if the power goes out, I’ll have my darkness once again.

My only worry is water. I have about 18 liters stored in a big tempered glass jar but I don’t imagine it would last long even if we only used it for drinking water. Even though it’s a fairly tough glass jar, it could shatter if someone big fell on it. There’s always the water at the back of the toilet but there isn’t much in there and it always feels gross. I’ll need to look at another source of water.

A nice tip in the event of foreseen disasters (e.g. hurricanes, typhoons, quarantines): fill your bathtub with water as soon as possible. In case water pipes get damaged, you’ll at least have all that water ready.

I think this whole emergency preparation will be stuck in my mind, at least, until the next big news stories grips CNN and the internet news sources.

1. Relaxation
2. Technique Mastery
3. Movement and Energy flow

I am still working on mastering the third step and at the time I didn’t know what might be beyond. I think today Sifu Steve helped me realize what Level 4 is.

I think that Level 4 will be using “ging”. Sifu Samuel Kwok, an internationally known Wing Chun master, wrote a piece explaining what ging is and how it is different to strength. Today Steve focussed on some of these techniques with me and helped me understand the use and effectiveness.

I find it incredible that while I have trained with Sifu Steve for over two years now, he can still “point” something out to me even though he’s been using it all this time. It’s like… someone pointing out that someone has always been wearing a purple polka dotted tie and just realizing, “Oh yeah! You ARE wearing a purple polka dotted tie!”

I know I must attain this skill to continue my progression as a martial artist. Steve was able to once again wipe out everything I knew about Wing Chun and make me feel like I’m taking baby steps again. It couldn’t come at a better time because I’ve been growing a bit stagnant and frustrated with my own training recently. Not anymore!

When I feel more confident with my understanding of “ging”, I’ll write more about it. Until then, train hard.

I don’t foresee any change to my photo gallery in the upcoming while with all that’s going on so I’ll just go ahead and put this really really long write-up about my trip. One warning though – I haven’t really proofread this so there are most likely dozens and dozens of errors. Here we go:

April 7-14, 2009

My latest trip lasted for just seven days and six nights but it proved to be one of the best trips I’ve ever taken. I don’t remember who said it but I absolutely agree that it’s the people and the company that make the trip, not the places, the food, the weather, or anything cultural that you can see. Luckily for me, I experienced wonderful company and excellent places, food, weather, and culture. I am hoping that I’ll be back soon and continue exploring the Philippines.

Manila

The only blotch on my trip was visiting the city of Manila. It was unavoidable since we had to land there. Manila is a big giant city filled with the usual nuisances of noise, traffic, and pollution. The people here were similar to other big cities: a bit standoffish, somewhat rude, and very skilled at blatantly staring at the foreigners walking by. This is something my more visually foreign friends face all the time in Japan but as an Asian person (and you know how all Asians look alike), I fit right in Japan and forget about that feeling of “looking different”. I totally forgot about that feeling until we landed in Manila.

My general impression of Manila is that it’s like Bangkok without the cool temples. I think most people aren’t fans of Bangkok to begin with. I am not looking forward to landing in Manila again next time.

Here are a couple of places we visited in Manila:

Chinatown

We didn’t spend much time in Manila thankfully, except for the second day when we toured Chinatown and then Fort Santiago. Chinatown is scary. I’ve been to my share of Chinatowns (thanks to my very Chinese parents – I personally don’t care about Chinatowns), and I can say without exaggeration this was the most dangerous-feeling Chinatown I’ve ever been to. People just seemed shady. Sifus Bennie and Steve also fueled the fear by telling us to hold on to our bags and keep our heads up. I got the feeling we were being sized up constantly. We stood out in many different ways: we were clearly foreign, we were wearing Kung Fu shirts, we were a lot taller than the locals, and towards the end, we were carrying rattan poles about 6 feet long through the streets.

The one thing I will give credit for is the food. We stopped and had lunch at some random restaurant and the food reminded me very much of fine Chinese restaurants in Vancouver and Mom’s cooking. I was pleasantly surprised to find that a lot of Chinese cooking styles that I love can be found in Filipino cuisines. I would be having some good eating this trip.

As one can expect in Chinatowns around the world, most stores sold the same cheap crap that only tourists buy. I saw mahjong tiles with English written on them, Buddhist statues alongside Catholic statues, all sorts of kitchenware that will probably break in a week or get you sick first. I’ve always wondered how so many stores in Chinatowns over the world compete over the same cheap slippers that sell for what, twenty pairs for a dollar?

Fort Santiago

I have to admit that I didn’t pay much attention to any of the history lessons given by Sifu Bennie’s intelligent wife. My thinking is, if I were truly interested in the history, I would pick up a good history book before or after the trip. I won’t ache my limited cognitive abilities by stuffing random historical facts while I’m already overloading the senses with the sights and sounds of a new environment. Half the time I’m not even that interested in local history but as far as I can tell, this fort was built hundreds of years ago by foreigners and then taken over by other foreigners. This was also a place where Japanese soldiers used to torture and kill Filipinos during WW2. It was quite disturbing to see the many bullet holes along the walls – a shadow of the executions, and the dungeons that flooded when the tide came in, drowning prisoners inside.

The thing that brought the cheerfulness back was the cardboard figures with the faces cut out. We all took turns sticking our faces in and taking silly pictures. That helped me put a smile back after walking through the very negative mood in the area.

Nagcarlan and Liliw, Laguna

Once we left Manila, we spent most of our time in the area around Nagarlan and Liliw, two small areas in the province of Laguna. I’m not really sure if these areas can be classified as towns or cities because they don’t seem very large and there is no clear divide between them. They’re both in the mountains and as such, much cooler than the humid and stinky Manila. Our accommodations were in Nagcarlan and Sifu Bennie resides in Liliw. We made our way to Liliw through the use of jeepnies and “tricycles” every morning at the cost of about 9 peso ~ less than 20 cents one-way.

People in the area are much friendlier and just more laid back than the city folk. I could easily see myself spending extended amounts of time working on my garden or backyard in this area. There were no malls, no McDonalds, no fancy restaurants but instead, there were many small stalls, shops, and family-run businesses instead. It’s definitely not for those who like shopping.

What you get in return for the lack of “amenities” is the lovely weather. While it does get pretty hot during the day, it cools down a lot in the evening and the mountain breeze is a blessing. The fresh air and the starlit sky at night was sorely missed in Osaka. Waking up to the call of many roosters can be annoying at first but I got really used to it by the third day or so. In general, everyone got up pretty early to start their days.

Accommodations

When I think of the word, “hotel”, I immediately get images of nice places like the Hilton, or the Marriot, the Sheraton, and to a lesser extent Holiday Inns and other places. I see breakfast buffets, nicely made beds, a snazzy bar and maybe even a casino or shopping mall. These are the shortcomings of a western traveler I suppose.

We stayed at a place called the Hotel Villa Gregoria and all things considered, it was a very nice place. It cannot compare to the aforementioned establishments in terms of sheer comfort and facilities. It was very cheap though – each of us paid about 5000 yen ($50) for the whole week!

Given what we paid, we got a great deal. The three students: Hamish, Ian, and I shared a room while Sifu Steve got his own private room. It’s good to be the sifu. Our room could easily be a summer camp cabin with a cheap bunk bed, a couple of chairs, and a bathroom. It was painted a lovely lime green color for some reason and it really matched Ian’s shirt on the day we arrived.

The resort itself has several swimming pools. They spared no expense in making a half-sized Olympic pool and a few kiddy pools complete with water slides. The resort was protected by a 12 foot tall tyrannosaur as well. Also, guards stood next to a fake Hummer and the gates were always manned by someone. There was a very small convenience store that provided us with nightly cold drinks and chocolates and chips. I always got the impression that the lady who ran the store didn’t really want our money… she seemed grouchy whenever we came knocking.

Lastly, the “videoke” machines were used once or twice during our stay. “Videoke” is your typical karaoke except they were built into video arcade game boxes and much like the arcades, you put in a couple of coins before you choose your song. During our stay, we heard a lot of videoke and a lot of very off-key singers too. From the very small sample of Filipino singers I heard at various places with these videoke machines, I’ve concluded that very few Filipinos can sing in tune. I heard some pretty awful singing. I’ll give kudos to the people who had to sit through the singing and smile and clap after the songs.

Marketplace

Visiting the marketplace in Nagcarlan was great fun. It reminded me in a way of a very gritty Granville Island Market in Vancouver. The marketplace itself was poorly lit but the morning sun helped a lot. There were just mountains of fruit for sale at incredibly low prices. I remember picking up about 3Kg of mangos for I think less than $5. Compare this with the roughly $4 per mango that I sometimes see in cheap fruit stands in Osaka. There were a few people working with coconuts that I found interesting. The coconut plant is such a useful and versatile plant and the people working with them all did different things. One man was just taking off the husk to be used for other purposes. Another only sold young coconut.

The meat section was just as interesting. Compared to Canada and Japan, the meat here was very fresh – the pork was probably slaughtered that very morning. You can imagine the amount of blood and the smell that was in the air. I’m used to that “butcher shop” smell and honestly, I rather like it. We didn’t pick up any meat so I’m not sure how the prices were.

Aside from meat and produce, there were many different stands and stores that sold daily items. We met and took pictures with a young fellow who worked at a tools stand. He was quite well-built and showed us different blades and swords used for farming but could very well be used in combat. The people here were very friendly and several asked for their picture to be taken!

We had breakfast here a couple of times at a small café on a corner of the market. The coffee was nothing more than instant coffee but the food… forgot the name, but it was basically congee was great. Just like mom used to make. If I had more time I would have visited more cafes and restaurants in the area to sample more of the local specialties.

The School

I was glad to finally see the kung fu school at last and I was very jealous too! The Philippines school is at least twice as big as the Japan school and better equipped with a workout machine, a very solid wooden dummy, and shelves! We would love shelves in our school but probably lack the room for them. Soon enough we’ll be moving across the hall to the big room I hope.

The school was painted black with yellow strategically placed. I have to give credit to the sifus for making the school look great. Even the Chinese characters painted on the walls were done well. The full length mirrors on one of the walls made the school look even bigger.

The school is situated above a grocery store and a small internet café is also in the same building. I think I paid… 20 peso an hour, or maybe 10, whichever the case, it equaled to 40 or 20 cents an hour to use internet there. Ridiculous! It costs me that much to visit a webpage on my stupid Docomo mobile I’m sure.

Training

This was the main purpose of coming here with Sifu Steve. Of the seven days we stayed in the Philippines, we trained for about 5 days. I helped teach Sensei Fidel, a Tae Kwan Do teacher with a fantastic attitude and impressive physical performance to boot. I also got a chance to train with Hamish and Ian on a more detailed level – while we have trained together for a very long time; we have never really focused on the minute aspects. Because of this week of continuous training, I felt the three of us improved vastly. I was able to identify a lot of my own weak areas during my stay in the P.I. It’s amazing what you can pick up by watching others and then taking a look at yourself.

The three of us made a solemn vow to continue our training and when the time comes when we’ll all meet up again, we will be a lot stronger and faster. I know we’ve already made a few solid steps there.

What did suck was I injured my pinky finger around the last day or so of the trip. It’s been well over a month now and it still hurts. I keep spraining it over and over again. I haven’t punched with my right hand in over six weeks. I have though, focused on the left and further refining my techniques.

The Casas Family

I usually avoid speaking about specific people because most of the time, people don’t really interest me and maybe also because I like to keep things private. I will break my own rule this time because I must talk about our host family to the Philippines, the Casas family.

I don’t envy very much in my life but I do envy this family. The Casas family is the model family. Two parents with strong morals, infinite wisdom and patience, and a love for life that shines, and four kids, each by their own right is an amazing story on their own – this family makes every other family I know look dysfunctional.

I’ve never met kids who do chores so routinely and without complaint before but these kids go beyond this and volunteer to do things. As guests, we got to eat first while everyone else talked or watched TV and waited for us to finish. I felt pretty bad eating before the kids. They vehemently refused when I offered them first dibs too.

We were treated like family from day one. All our meals were prepared for us – literally: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We had some fantastic food too – we were shown a great sample of Filipino cuisine. My personal favorite was a barbecued pork – it was tender and had just the right amount of seasoning so that the pork flavor still remained strong. I was really surprised by how similar the soups were to Chinese soups that Mom made back home.

I would love nothing more than to repay the Casas for their hospitality and friendship. Having met them and just knowing that there are people as kind as they are in the world makes up for all the crappy people I have met. All it takes is just one person and I had the honor of meeting a whole family of such wonderful people.

Food

Most of the Filipino food I sampled had a striking resemblance to Chinese food! The tastes and textures were very similar as was most of the seasoning used. Meals mostly included rice, a meat dish, a vegetable dish, and soup, all served on a dinner plate with a fork and spoon. Most meals were fairly simple but very nutritious and tasty.

I had the opportunity to sample some homemade desserts – I don’t remember the Tagalog name for it but the Japanese equivalent would be “pudding”. It’s a rich, creamy pudding with a caramel sauce. The difference was that duck eggs are used instead of chicken eggs. This gave it a slightly different smell but a much thicker, creamier consistency. It was great.

We also had some very nice buko pie – coconut pie. Surprisingly, it was very much like apple pie. It was not too sweet but hits the spot perfectly. Even McDonald’s had something different to offer. Instead of apple pies, they have pineapple pies! I tried some and it is much better than the apple pie. I wish they sold these in Japan.

The food adventure for us (the students Hamish, Ian, and I) was attempting to eat balut – duck eggs. I think many people have seen balut – once you crack the egg open you see a tiny little duck fetus. We were all wary of trying this – my friends of the white persuasion more so than me. I have eaten my share of strange food so I figured balut wouldn’t be that bad. It certainly wasn’t! We all managed to eat the balut without hurling.

Sifus Steve and Bennie made it easy on us though, they got us 3-day old balut. It only contains a very undeveloped fetus. For me, I tasted three separate textures: a hardboiled egg yolk, a small piece of duck meat, and something that reminded me of snail. There’s also a piece of very hard, stone-like thing left over as well. The ultimate challenge would be a 15-day old balut. This would contain a very well-developed fetus, with feathers, tiny duck head, eyes and all. We would “chicken” out of this challenge this time around.

It is my duty to mention how good the produce was. I already had a good inkling that most produce would be very fresh since we were smack in the middle of some farms. The selection at the marketplace in Nagcarlan was great and the prices were just jaw-dropping compared to what I would pay in Osaka. A kilo of mangos (roughly 6 mangos) cost about 200 yen. I would be hard pressed to find a single mango for sale at 200 yen in Japan. The bananas were a lot smaller than the ones sold in Japan and the weird thing was the bananas were sweet. I mean, literally, they were tangy and sweet. I’d never eaten a banana with so much taste before! I swallowed probably a half dozen and could eat a few dozen more. There were also many fruits and things that were practically free because they grew everywhere.

In Liliw, there weren’t many restaurants and they certainly won’t be winning any prestigious awards for their culinary art either. The one “fine” restaurant was called Arabela’s and it was probably the nicest looking restaurant in town. It was built in an old Spanish building and the ceiling was about 5 or 6 inches too short for me. Ian, the resident giant, and even I, at a modest 5’10”, had to stoop inside or have our heads and shoulders go crashing through to the second floor. I had a steak there and it wasn’t the best steak ever but it was good to have something more meaty and substantial.

I forgot which day it was but we had lunch at the Filipino answer to McDonalds: Jollibee. I would say it was as good as McDonalds. We all had “Champ” burgers: a 1/3lb patty similar to a quarter pounder. They were something like 120 peso, about 1/5th of the price of a quarter pounder combo.

Children’s Feeding Program

We were invited to a children’s feeding program run by the church on Easter Weekend. I’ve seen pictures of this event in Osaka but I didn’t really have much idea on what happens here. I’m really glad I went and I was quite touched by the love people shared with these children.

As far as I could tell and from the information I was told, most of the children live around the mountain and belong to very poor families. It seemed there were quite a number of single mothers too. Some kids looked quite malnourished. Children are children however and each one had that bright gleam in his or her eye and several had huge smiles! One group in particular was not shy at all and posed for our cameras at every chance.

The morning started with some warm-up exercise – the exact routine that we do in Wing Chun class. I think we have Steve to thank for that. Then the volunteers run Sunday School (hold Sunday School? I don’t know the proper verb to go with Sunday School). The kids listened to a bible story and did some quick activities coloring things in, answering questions, etc.

Sifu Bennie and several other people prepared food and watching these kids eat was definitely my highlight of this program. It doesn’t cost very much to feed these kids but you can imagine that funding is limited. We did the best we could and donated some money and I was surprised that what little I did donate would help extend the program way more than I could imagine. I will definitely be giving more to help these wee ones in the future.

Trial by Water and The Baptism

We were also invited to attend a baptism in a mountain resort by the same church. I can’t say I’m a religious person so this wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. We all went anyway and while the baptism itself was interesting, we had an unexpected side trek that proved this day’s worth.

First, we got to the mountain on jeepnies, only this time, we climbed onto the roof and hung on for our lives! It was quite exciting. There were no straps or seats, just the metal bars on the top to hang on to. Trees and power lines became deadly obstacles for us to duck and weave around. At times the jeepney must have been going pretty fast but the notion of speed was a bit lost to me since I was too busy not letting go and falling to my death. In a word: FUN!

On the way to Lucban, we were pelted with water balloons by groups of people waiting on the side of the road. Many people were waiting… this was no coincidence. In fact, we were in the midst of some kind of water festival that this town holds. We snuck out of the baptism event and walked around the town.

Waiting for us were crowds of people with buckets and pools of water (literally). They dowsed us, cheered, laughed, clapped, and then offered shots of lambanut (coconut wine). I turned down the drinks but Ian had one. We all got drenched pretty good but in the heat, we dried up quickly. It was, buckets, of fun!

Annoyances

It was at first interesting but after the second or third time, it just became plain annoying. When entering most larger stores, you have to submit your backpack to a ridiculous search for bombs or other terrorist materials. The worst part is that no one really takes the search seriously anyway so it was just a big hassle to take off my heavy backpack, open it up and hope that the contents don’t spill out, and have the person just wave their fingers around and tell me to go through.

You also don’t have to drive around very long near the bigger towns before you spot army “crime watch” teams. How can I describe this? Take half a dozen to a dozen soldiers in full camo outfits, have half of them sitting on plastic lawn chairs looking half asleep, and have the other half walking around toting automatic rifles pretending to be protecting the peace

At some check points, you have to stop your car and let the “inspector” open the driver’s door and have a quick look around the driver’s feet for bombs. Steve, sitting in the back, joked, “The bomb’s in the back.” Once again, another inspection based on appearances. Supposedly this is just some stupid ploy by the government to make the people think they’re protecting the country.

Here’s part 2 of my HK trip write-up. I found myself with very little time so I mainly jotted down notes of my thoughts before I went to bed each night. Here is the summary.

Family

So even though I didn’t happen to do much during my week in Hong Kong, I realize now that I didn’t have much time to do anything. I spent each day with my family and most importantly, spent time with grandma and other relatives. On weekdays, we mostly had a meal together and that was it. On the weekend, I spent the entire day with them. An entire day with family, even my very own, can be very tiring.

My grandmother’s health was not as bad as we were led to believe. She was physically quite weak and her body is unable to produce blood anymore. This means she is constantly getting blood transfusions. She seems to tire easily and she always looked very pale. Also, she is not very mobile anymore and she was hesitant to travel to far to meet people. Luckily one of my uncles has a car and graciously drove her.

Mentally, my grandmother is as sharp as a knife. She was yelling at my father, aunts, and uncles as if they were children. I was surprised to discover that my grandmother’s way of thinking is so similar to my own. I was even more surprised to hear her say the exact same thing to my father as I did just hours ago about him buying a cheap, fake watch. I said it in English but she said the exact same thing in Chinese. I see now that I got my looks from my grandfather and my mind from my grandmother.

I was happy to spend this time with family because during this trip I discovered many things about my family that I had never known. The highlight of my trip was finding a very old picture of my grandma and grandpa in their 20s. My grandfather’s picture immediately caught my eye because I saw so many of my own facial features in his face. It was like an instant connection to a man I met when I was only about a year old and whose face I don’t even know.

We found the picture in a rather strange way. We were at my aunt’s house when she was fumbling about with some photo albums and she dropped one. It split apart and all the photo pages came spilling out. In the process of going through these, I saw the picture on the second or third page. I don’t think it was mere coincidence that she happened to drop this photo album. Maybe my grandfather wanted me to find this picture.

I spent a lot of time at our hotel asking my dad about the family and speaking with my sister too. I find it fascinating that when I see the family together, everyone seems to make sense – everyone has a distinct role and the family would not be complete without each one. I’m glad I just have one sibling because it makes roles much easier to separate.

Food

Dining is probably my favorite part about visiting HK. I had dim sum almost every day and not only is the food ridiculously awesome tasting but it was much cheaper than Japan too. A full course dim sum meal for four cost about 1,500 yen – a tiny fraction of what it would cost for one person in Japan.

For my sister’s birthday, we went to the Shangra-La for their lunch buffet. The food is fantastic and it was very reasonably priced too. It’s never a real vacation unless there’s a buffet somewhere.

Shopping

I didn’t get much shopping done but I did manage to buy a lot of tea for giving away and for my own consumption. Tea is my drink of choice in the evening. Tea is my addiction. I brought a few kinds of leaves and a couple of very convenient tea pots that separates the tea from the leaves with a push of a button.

Aside from tea, I bought a few things here and there – some stuff for myself, a gift for the wife, and a Yip Man DVD! We visited “Lady’s Street” and I always regret going to places like these because all they ever sell is cheap crap that no one really wants. The worst part is the bargaining. My sister bought some useless trinket for $50 when the woman wanted about $100 for it. No matter how much you haggle, I always can’t help but wonder how low the price really is. Anyway, it’s all useless junk that no one should want anyway.

WiFi

People always seem to think Japan is so technologically advanced. While this is true in that Japan produces a lot of cutting edge technology, in reality, technology is adopted at a much slower clip. For one thing, free WiFi is very rare. I have to pay a nominal fee to use Yahoo’s WiFi service at McDonald’s and other places. Most people seem to subscribe to a mobile internet service instead of trying to find free Wifi.

Not so in HK. I found free Wifi everywhere in HK. This was very useful and I was able to check email on my Blackberry and use the internet on my laptop a lot more than I had anticipated.

Traveling

We didn’t go to many places but I got to spend a bit of time on Nathan Road and around the harbor at Tsim Sha Tsui – these two places are my favorite places in HK. They’re both much cleaner and more modern than the rest of the city. The rest of the city seems to be just filled with shopping malls anyway and dirty restaurants anyway.

Summary

So all in all, I had a great time with my family and meeting all my relatives in HK. Because of my grandma’s age and condition, it was good to see her while she was relatively healthy. I’m hoping to visit again soon, perhaps again this year, if my family goes and, well, frankly, if my grandma is still kicking.

I even felt people in HK were more polite this time around! I mean, they weren’t “polite”, but they were less rude compared to the previous experiences I’ve had.

Next time around I would like to have more time to myself so that I can visit some Wing Chun schools and see what they’re doing. I’d also like to have the wifey there so we can spend some time together too.

Dec 28, 2009

I had stopped posting every single word I wrote about my few trips because it became a really boring long post about minute details. I thought, I would summarize everything into one clean(er) post at the end and post pictures. My track record for this is terrible though. I just realized that I haven’t posted anything about my Philippines trip in April this year. So, just to have this all done, I will recommence the posting of every minute detail of the first day of my trip! Enjoy, all two or three of my readers!

Why did I choose the early flight? My 10:00 flight automatically means check-in at 8:00 which means I have to be on the airport shuttle bus at Namba by 7:00. Give my standard hour and a half to leisurely prepare, I woke up at 5:30. Somehow I managed to sleep on the bus and the airplane. Any sleep will let me go that much more today.

I’ll have to admit. I was a bad traveler today. I had my third bout of some cold since Wednesday and I decided to go through with traveling anyway. I don’t have a fever or anything but today marked the “coughing” phase. I had two coughing fits and I think I scared the Japanese lady next to me. She kept leaning away from me. Although, my cold may not be related to that at all, it might just be my natural charm.

The flight was great and Cathay pilots have always landed so smoothly. So here I am at Hong Kong International Airport at 14:00. My family will arrive at 19:00 which probably means they’ll get their bags and go through immigration at around 20:00. That’s just a 6 hour wait. Me being me, I’d rather wait for them for six hours instead of them waiting for me for a few hours. Thankfully, there is awesome free Wifi here.

One of the things that’s always so neat about HK is the international, multicultural flavor. I ordered a gigantic coffee (relative to Japanese sizes) from a Filipina who speaks at the very least English, Cantonese, and Mandarin. I heard her use these languages while waiting in line. Amazing. Also amazing: I forgot to tip. Oops.

While enjoying my coffee, some really strange Aussie bloke grabbed a magazine and sat down. He started making a lot of noise – a big sigh here, some self-mumbling there, then, he addresses me and some dude behind me directly, “Have you guys heard of Doctor Lighting?” No buddy. No. He also stank too. I was just about to get my gear together and move tables when he took off, and I mean took off. He just dropped the magazine and jogged away. I’m thinking his imaginary friends were out to get him perhaps.

If you’ve read so far, then you’re a much stronger person than me. I think I’ll use this to talk about why I’m in Hong Kong suddenly. This was definitely not a carefully planned trip. My sister texts me less than two weeks ago, “When can u go (sic) hk”? I tell her that I probably can’t go until May or late summer during Obon. She replies about my grandmother’s health condition and how it’s recently been. They wanted to fly over to HK as soon as possible to see her. So, for the next week, I was running at hyper tension mode because my parents couldn’t decide when to go – now, next week, a month from now, and I was worried that every day they hesitate meant less chances that I can go and that I can even get tickets. I start a full-time position in March and I really don’t want to be taking time off then. I don’t even want to take time off before that.

In the end, it all worked out like clockwork. We all got airplane tickets for the same day and I don’t have to miss any lessons but I had to sacrifice a lot of my winter holiday and time to spend with The Woman (who couldn’t come). Anyway, that’s why I’m in HK – I’m here to visit my grandmother while she’s in good spirits and alert. This sounds terrible but this will likely be the last time I meet her. It also gave a very fortunate chance to meet my family again so quickly too.

Through Golden Harvest Wing Chun, I was able to travel to the Philippines this year and have a wonderful time meeting Sifu Bennie Casas’ family and training there. I returned to Vancouver for the first time in years and had a great time with my family. Lastly, I will be going to Hong Kong again tomorrow to visit family there. This makes three trips in 2009 with the HK trip being decided on at the last minute.

I’ve been teaching for two companies this year and both have been a great source of experience. My employment status will be changing in the next couple of months because I will be starting a full time position with one of these companies. This will definitely make 2010 much different than this year. This year I did not have a stable schedule and at times had no free time, or all the free time in the world. This let me do a lot of things at home including training kung fu a lot. I’ll have to be more disciplined with set training schedules next year when I start the job if I want to keep up my training level.

One thing I didn’t do this year was study Japanese very much. I feel bad about this because I had made so much progress last year with my studies. I hope to study more next year with a more set study pattern alongside my training. I’d like to learn a new skill as well but I haven’t given too much thought on what this is yet. I think time will be my greatest limitation next year. Still, it will be nice to have a full two-day weekend when the new job starts. I have been teaching on Sundays this year and even though it’s only one lesson, it really kills plans.

Just as I had expected, this year I did not meet many people outside of the usual circles in my life. I didn’t get to meet and hang out with as many people as I had wanted due to to time and scheduling. This too, I hope will improve next year. We need to have more gaming! I was fortunate to spend time with my family this year and everyone welcomed a new member to my wife’s side of the family. Little Ayane was born in April and has been a glowing jewel. She is adorable and it’s fascinating to see how quickly personality is developed. I can’t say for sure how far this “personality” is right now but I definitely see likes, dislikes, and simple communication.

I’m very thankful for this year and all the marvelous experiences. I think 2010 will be just as interesting and I will (nervously) look forward to starting a new decade as a (gulp) thirty year old. Is it ever too early to have a mid-life crisis? I wonder if a Porsche is completely out of my budgeting right now…

How not to be killed by me on a bike

Not getting killed by me on a bike was considered a complicated and near-impossible feat to achieve. Not anymore! If you follow these easy and safe tips, people of all walks of life, all ages, and all abilities will be able to live their lives without getting killed by me on a bike!

Tip 1: always look forward when walking
This is the most important tip to avoid getting killed by me on a bike. When walking outside, it is very important to keep your eyes forward. Scientists now believe that light reflected off objects, for example, me, on a speeding bicycle, passes through the cornea, is focussed on the lens, and is converted into electrical signals by the retina. These signals are then computed by your brain and converted into useful information. In short, you will “see” me on a bike speeding towards you.

What this means is when walking, you should not keep your eyes on your cell phone, you should not stare at the beautiful girl/boy across the street, and possibly most important of all, you should not keep you eyes closed. Look forward! Not only will you spot me on a bike, racing towards you, you will be able to spot other things racing towards you. Like a pickup truck! Or a bulldozer! Or a brick wall hurled by some sort of wall cannon. Avoiding all these things will improve your health!

Tip 2: always look both ways when crossing streets or coming out of a store
This tip is often overlooked with good reason. Not only should you look left, you should also look right. Scientists now believe that this complicated set of maneuvers often results in people forgetting a crucial step.

Astrophysicists and quantum physicists have recently discovered that objects don’t just move towards you head-on, they often move towards you from other vectors too, like from the left, or from the right, or from behind. It’s a complicated physics thing so to simplify, just look both ways before you cross a street or come out of a store.

Not doing this can result in my smashing into you from the left or right because you suddenly popped onto my path of movement. I try to ensure no one is in my path but many people love blindly walking into my bike.

Notice that I didn’t suggest looking behind. While it would be safe to look behind, it is generally acceptable to not do this. I will take it upon myself to not run into you by following Tip #1. I always keep my eyes forward when I’m biking and thus I will be able to avoid running into you.

Loyal reader #516218 has suggested that looking right first, then left, also works. This is true! Looking left first or looking right first – it really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you complete the whole procedure. Left, then right. Or right, then left.

Tip 3: avoid stopping in the path of moving objects
It would be unreasonable to ask anyone to always constantly look out for dangerous moving objects at all times. We’re only human after all and we can’t be on guard all the time! I think it is reasonably safe to assume that when you’re in a convenience store, or in the comforts of your own home, or even standing alongside a wall, you will most likely be safe from moving objects.

However, it is highly advised that you avoid stopping in the path of moving objects. It is very dangerous to your health to suddenly stop in the middle of a highway, or at the top of an escalator, or in the middle of the sidewalk. Most people moving along a path that is always used will want to assume that they can continue moving without fear or running into anyone. It makes it very difficult to avoid hitting you when you suddenly decide to just stop in the middle of the path.

While it maybe easy for a pedestrian to literally, stop in his tracks, I, on a bike, have a much more difficult time because of the bigger mass of the bike and the momentum. It is very detrimental to your health to do this!

Wrapping things up

So there you have it. Following these three easy tips will dramatically lower the risks of being killed by me on a bike. It is time we reduce unnecessary deaths and injuries and possible beatings from me by remembering that you are not the only person on the street and that others share the streets with you.

Until the next public service announcement!

1. Relaxation
2. Technique Mastery
3. Movement and Energy flow
4. ???

1. Relaxation

For most newcomers to wing chun, the most difficult thing seems to be relaxing yourself during training. The “secret” of wing chun is the sensitivity built and used during chi sao. When your body is tense and when you use brute muscular strength, the sensitivity cannot be developed. Without this sensitivity, your wing chun is non-existent. Therefore, the first step is learning how to use the soft to defend against the strong, using the opponent’s force against him, and learning to relax yourself to a level to be able to take in all the information about your opponent’s movements through physical contact – the download, if you will.

2. Technique Mastery

I feel that once the student learns how to truly relax and use the download automatically, the next step is to be able to use the wing chun techniques confidently and with focus and intention. This requires a lot of nitpicking and trying to perfect every single technique from the tan sau, pak sau, and bong sau, and every other block, parry, and attack. This is where an experienced teacher and fellow kung fu brothers and sisters need to give you feedback. Also, you must also monitor your movements yourself. For me, I remember just looking at my tan sau every single time and actually stopping whatever I was doing to examine if my angle was correct, my distance and range were adequate, whether or not the motion was both forward and angled slightly, etc. to a point where I felt my tan sau was near perfect. I did this for every technique. I don’t claim that my movements are perfect, but I do trust my techniques to do what they’re meant to, each and every time.

3. Movement and Energy flow

This is something that I’m just getting the hang of. This is learning how to move with attacks to minimize your energy use and maximize your attack and defense. This is not resisting through strength but flowing with different movements naturally and smoothly. This really makes your opponent work twice as hard as it’s like you’re warping around – your opponent is forced to recalculate and redirect the attack if he wants to hit you. This also helps you set yourself up at better angles to attack. I still catch myself standing ground and resisting, instead of stepping to the side. I’m getting better at it but I haven’t quite mastered this yet.

4. ???

Not sure what to expect next. Once I feel I’ve mastered step 3, maybe I’ll discover what step 4 is. I hope to be able to fill this in soon.

On two separate occasions, I have reflexively defended myself from imminent attack while I was asleep, from my own wife!

The first time, she was rolling over in her sleep and her right arm was coming right towards my face. I don’t know how I sensed it but I knew an elbow or a hand was going to hit me in the face. I shot out my right arm in a biu tze and deflected her attack.

The second time was very similar. She was rolling over in her sleep and her right leg was about to come crashing down onto me. I don’t know how I sensed it but I knew that her knee or maybe just her whole leg would hit me in the gut or worse, in the crotch. I extended my leg out and caught her and gently put her leg back down.

Both times I was completely asleep but I somehow felt her movements and automatically moved. Still, as I was doing this, I was consciously aware of doing it. It was like a log entry was made, “Oh by the way, your wife almost attacked you while you were away, we had to use one of the kung fu moves to safely defend you. Just thought you should know.”

I am very proud of my subconscious defense. It is much stronger than my conscious defense.

Had they chosen me, they would’ve had someone who would’ve stuck it out much longer than two years. I don’t mean to brag but I am smart enough and reliable enough for that job too. I’m confident in my ability to get shit done and I bet I would’ve done a fantastic job. I’m sorry, but you missed out!

Also, compared with two years ago, I speak a lot better Japanese than before and I’ve even worked at a subsidiary of this major company. Working there gave me a lot of insight on how this major company operates and the kind of corporate culture they have. Basically, I’m even better suited for that job now than two years ago.

I truly believe things happen for a reason and looking back now at these two years, it has been very exciting and I’ve grown in many areas. I’m quite glad now that I didn’t get that job. Instead, I went on a different path that is leading me to even more exciting opportunities. Next year is already shaping out to be an interesting year too.