June 19th, 2008 ideru
After conquering naniwa cycling course last saturday with Rose, I proceed to my friends house for pinoy lunch. They just move here in Osaka and wanted to met some old friends from work and school. So we were all Bisaya so no problem with changing one language to another ( so tiring ). Had a sumptious homemade Filipino lunch, ahh yummy, its been so long since eating a Pinoy-bisayan food. Anyway, while eating we played some WII, and yup I fell so in love with yet. Everybody was haggling the controller, that I finally gave up playing, though i was able to play a few tennis , boxing game, and naruto game. After which we played some PS3, now that game was flashy as Kagz would describe yet.
Around 5pm, they left for the indiana movie, i was left with the host since I was not planning to watch the movie. So I have all the controller to meself…. Played the PS3 naruto game, and I can say I was getting the hang of it. Win a couple of times.. then we tried playing all the Mario Cart cup, so that we can open a new game, but failed miserable. So yeah, I definitely want a WII game but first I need a bigger screen. so anybody out there wanting to donate around $1000 ?? :p
on the dragonboat side, got an email from Captain and Shimochi a few weeks ago. But i just could not muster myself to answer them and gave them a proper reason or refusal. Running away again.. It’s almost competition time and here I am still confuse on how to face them.. to email or not to email, that is my dilema, been composing my mail but everytime i tried to put in words it just seem to float away.. oh well , i will give it a try again tonite, hopefully I can give them a proper answer 
Posted in Blog365, Dragonboat, Friends, Fun Stuff, Geeky, Life In Japan, Pinoy.. | 1 Comment »
March 23rd, 2008 ideru
解散 【かいさん】 (n,vs) breakup; dissolution; (P); EP
It does not take a genius to notice that our captain is not much of a captain when it comes to human relations. But she is the captain nevertheless. Then there is the team’s goal. From what I understand, one wants to become Japan’s Number One Female Dragonboat Team, the other is to put “FUN” as the priority.
In my opinion, both goals are good. Can’t we aim being number one while having fun ? I mean there is no hurry being number one, it’s not as we want to be pro or something. We are just doing it for fun. Most members or not most but ALL members joined because they enjoyed it. Take the fun out of it , and I think nobody will last this far. I guess when they talked about this, they did not found the common ground. It’s sad to learn this last night, but I guess this is inevitable.
It’s not official though, but with the current team situation .. ** sigh **
Posted in Blog365, Dragonboat | 1 Comment »
March 16th, 2008 ideru
we started practicing for this season today. half of the members were present so were able to ride the boat. Brings back memory.. water is still cold though, but weather was really great. though i got no more power again hehehe.. oh well. practice only in the morning, then went with lisa to a nearby ramen house and had ramen for lunch. Afterwards walk all the way to her apartment, to get some stuff she does not need.
Posted in Blog365, Dragonboat | No Comments »
November 9th, 2007 ideru
Last Sunday, as promised, I made some simple obento(packed lunched) for the team. I decided to make some Spring Rolls, Cabbage Roll(for the first time), Asparagus Roll ( taken from Ria’s Recipe, but instead of glazing it in the marinate sauce, I just deep fried it, I don’t like to overcooked the Asparagus ), Relyenong Ampalaya ( Stuffed Goya(Bitter Melon/Gourd ) — which I have not made in the last 13 years ).
I’m definitely out of practice. The Asparagus Roll was fine, it was just a simple dish.
The Spring Roll was so-so, the flavor was a bit bland though and I was not able to makethe wrapper crunchy.
The Cabbage Roll, it was really bland. The first time I steamed it, the cabbage turned brownish.. overcooked. After that I timed it about 5 minutes I think, just the time when the leaf turns transparent. But it was the first time I tried making it, so.. but the filling was really bland.. darn..
The Relyenong Ampalaya.. now this was really a failure. The “Goya/Ampalaya” was really bitter. I forgot how my mom did it before, I think she did something to remove the bitter taste of the goya, and used a ripen goya instead of a very fresh one..
Darn, my cooking skill is really out of touched. I never used measuring spoons before, I could always estimate the amount of spices to put, but now I can’t. But oh well cooking is an experiment, i will just have to try it again.. once I got my cooking mode back 
Oh yeah Lisa made some slice cheesecake, it was really yummy as well as very
cute. I love the one with the biscuit soaked in coffee Thanks Lisa ..
Posted in Dragonboat, Life In Japan | 6 Comments »
October 1st, 2007 ideru
Finally, we came in FIRST ( not as overall though ). We had our last dragon boat race for this season, 2007 in Lake Biwa. We only had two races, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. It was raining whole day and really cold. Our starting dash in the morning race did not synchronize, so we lost a little bit of speed there. Thankfully we were able to catch up with Team Kappa but still lost to them by 85 milliseconds. We were not sure where the goal was so we just keep paddling and almost bump into the fence
We have to wait for about 3 hours ++ for the next and final race. This time we know our weak point so we concentrated on that. Yattaaaa.. we did it. We got it right. We went ahead from the start and about 150 meters, Kappa was able to catch up to us, they are really fast. BUTTT.. we beat them by 50 milliseconds YEHEEYYYYYY… Finally we got a first place in one of our races.. Everybody was HAPPY and GIDDY we were jumping up and down. Bachiko cried ( she was not able to join because she was injured and not feeling well ) and almost feel like crying too.. was so happy with our performance..
I was sad cause Bachiko, Tama, Mon and Lisa was not able to paddle with us on this race. It would have been more fun and great if all the members were there and taste the fruit of our labour this whole summer.
In the overall, we still lost to Kappa by a mere 35 milliseconds not seconds but milliseconds…WAHHHHH…. When we went back the platform area, the staff were clapping at us, I do not why though. They were clapping and saying
Congratulations, I guess that was for becoming first in this round
The location of the race was in “Kyotei Center”,a gambling place for water-motor racing ( I think ), so there were lots of monitor all over the place and a very big big TV in the center where we could see our performance after each race cause they always replay it.
On the sad part, Yama-chan is moving back to Hiroshima… wahhhhhh. She is one the strongest paddler in the team. I am so glad to get to know and met her, she is one of the kindest person I know on the team. Life moves on and she has also a Life of her own, so all I could do is pray and hope that she will be safe and happy there. And hopefully, she will come visit in Osaka again for the next dragon boat season. Till we meet again Yama-chan.
I was also able to watch a live performance of a professional cheerleading squad, it just like watching Bring it On the movie. Was able to take a video, but am to sleepy right now, will post the pic video later .. gud nyt..
Raiders Cheering Squad
[kml_flashembed movie="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=1480784122643401925" width="400" height="326" wmode="transparent" /]
Posted in Dragonboat | 2 Comments »
September 23rd, 2007 ideru
We had our last practice today before the Biwako Sprint this coming Sunday in Lake Biwa. My side (upper right rib ) is still tender but I already missed practice last Sunday and I felt like conquering myself to see how far I could endure the pain, that is the masochist in me
Last Sunday, since there were few members present, they did a “gozoru ごぞる”. It’s like a simulation practice. They sit on a chair and use those chibi paddle ( as Lisa calls them ) and Captain would monitor their movement, form and all. There is also a big mirror in the training room, so you can also see how you paddle.
We practice as usual in the morning, it was also the first time I saw the river clean. Not a single garbage floating in the water. Then we went to the training room because everybody wants to do gozoru, but I only want to see what the training
room look like. Lots of cool equipment for rowing training. I love the one called Liferower ( I think ). It’s simulation equipment for rowing and its all in English so I have no problem using it. It was great. I tried a 2 minute rowing, and it says I can row 36/minute and lost 11 calorie ( how do you measure calorie by the way ).
We went back training in the real water around 4pm. The waves got higher, think it was going high tide.. anyways we finished after 40 minutes and have to clean the boat and paddles till around 5pm . Then it was off to Onsen.
Hope we can win this Sunday… ganbarimashou !!!!
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September 2nd, 2007 ideru
as always, we had our dragon boat practice today at hamadera rowing center in sakai city. We usually just left our slippers,sandals or shoes on the platform and we have never lost a single pair till today.
after our morning practice, went back and noticed that my little black sandal was nowhere to be found. we search high and low but to no avail, even tama-san’s sandal was also lost.. thanks also to tama-san for letting me borrow one of her sandals
** sigh** i hope somebody will return it next week ..
Posted in Dragonboat | 2 Comments »
August 28th, 2007 ideru
Finally, our website looks cooler than ever.
RISE WEBSITE
lots of room for improvement though, but we are slowly working on that.
we are also inviting ladies out there who wishes to try this wonderful sports.. come and join the fun
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August 19th, 2007 ideru
Team Kappa and Team rise teamed up for this competition. There were around 14 Kappa members and 8 Rise members. We called ourselves “Hama no Rappa (浜のラッパ)”. Basically it was derived by combining the teams name and our practice location which is in Hamadera.
There were only 3 Teams competing for the womens category: Spirit Club, The Mama’s, and Rappa. We had 3 races, one in morning, noon and afternoon. It was really a close race between Spirit Club and our team. On every race they beat us around 2-3 seconds. We ended up 2nd place, which is actually a great accomplishment.
What’s great about this race is that the 2 teams have not done any practice together. It was more of a trial and error part. The 2 teams rowing technique is totally different, good thing we were able to synchronize somehow.
We won 3kg of meat for yakiniku, a toilet aircon ( i don’t know what it looks like ) and a National Refrigerator ( who wants to buy this ref ?? ).
We had a yakiniku party after. Everybody has gone home already, when the weather turned bad, wind started picking up and there was lightning. It was really scary since the area was so flat and open space. Good thing after about a few minutes the weather went back to normal… so its eating time. Lots of food.. and the girls were bonding
I had a great day, I could not believe that I could do 3 races in one day and its 400 meters per race. The boat was bigger than usual, there were 2 drummers one in front and in the middle. The paddle was also a bit longer . And finally I get
to see Biwako up close and personal.
Pictures:
Team Rappa
To get there:
Biwako can be reached by JR or Kintetsu Line. For JR, from Osaka to Otsu or Zeze cost 950yen(one way).
The place is great for BBQ, biking and other water sports.
Posted in Dragonboat | 3 Comments »
August 17th, 2007 ideru
Location: Kumihama (久美浜）
Date: August 5,2007
Award(s): 7 melons and 3rd Place
Members:
The members for this competition was already decided a month before the actual event. I was not actually one of them yet. But since I went to the Notogawa Competition, I got tagged along which makes me very excited.. yehey another adventure.
Rendezvous:
We have to reach the location by 8am, so it was decided that we will stay at Tama-san’s place except for the Captain and the steerer. We left by 5am in the morning.
The Competition:
What so special about this competition is that the Super Dolphin team is on it. They made 3 separate teams to join the competition. I think everybody was excited to test the teams skill. I was not on the first race ( good thing though , i was not actually feeling well that day ). We ended up 2nd, and the good part was it was really really a close race. Not miles apart from the other team unlike the previous races we had. Everybody was so giddy and happy. After the Elimination round, the team was able to make it to the Semi-final round, I think we ended up 3rd in the over all tally.
The semi-final or the 2nd race was around 2pm. It was so hot, but i fell a little bit cold. My headache was actually blurring my vision already, but i so want to be part of the race that I just ignore it , luckily nothing bad happened to me just lack of stamina though. By the time of the 2nd race, I think the tide just came in so the water was not so clear, lots of wave. We went out of the course during the race, Lisa hit the buoy and almost stumble over, luckily she was alright and was able to get back immediately. We ended up 3rd on that race, and as soon as we arrived at the platform, our steerer started to cry blaming herself and then mika-san started crying too. Me?? i felt like shouting and hitting someone to vent out my frustration and disappointment at my performance. Everybody was so down and disappointed.
After the short meeting, Tama-san went back to our tent to start packing the things. I followed her to help, Lisa and Bachiko went to check the final result and guess whattttt.. We made it to the FINALLLSSSSS….
We ended up 3rd in the overall result… and we received 7 melons too..
Congratulations everyone…
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