Week 5 Done

Just got word that I will get another yearly contract, my third, so that's a relief. Especially considering that there isn't enough work to keep two of us translators busy, let alone four, and the messed up economy. Like I said, I'm glad I'm not in the real world. And next year I will probably be offered a position as a fabled seishain. Is this the last place in the world where you can get a job for life? And do you really want "job for life" job? The Japanese clamour for a seishain position, but for us westerners, bred to be restless, always wondering "is this it?, a "job for life" can be a scary thing. I guess I can always quit anytime I want.
After only a week of Phase 2, I am really starting to feel bigger and stronger. I think that recovery week really set me up for a big month, and it was a great idea to split the 90 days into three phases. I know with P90 Master I got a bit worn down, especially in the knees and back, because there is no rest period, it's just the same thing week in week out. Your body doesn’t get much of a chance to heal the little tears and sprains, or to just generally recover. I thought after a week of basically stretching and yoga and cardio my performance with weights might have suffered a little, but it's the opposite. For example, in week 3 Legs and Back, I did a total of 55 pull-ups, and that was the day I hurt my knee and had to finish the last half of it the next day, so fatigue didn't play much of a role. Yesterday when I did it, two weeks later, I did a total of 62 pull-ups, all during the one hour workout. Tony and the guys in the video do almost 200!
I have dropped a kilo since I started P90X, and now I'm down to 80 kg. I took the 30 day photos, but I won't post them because there's not much difference from the starting photos, except I'm a little thinner around the waist and toned in the gut, but it's hardly noticeable. I expect the big improvements to come in the last month, when I will be busting my ass in the Summer heat and I have lost more fat and put on more muscle.
Surprisingly, I'm really enjoying Footy Classified this year. Last year I thought it was a little too combative, but I think that Grant Thomas has lightened everyone up a bit. On The Couch? Dunno. "Do you think (insert team here) can still make the finals?" You can only ask that question so many times. Different kinds of shows, I guess. I heard Dunstall went apeshit in the MMM booth. Pressure's on Hawthorn, I hope we can pump them again like we did in round 2, not even 3 months ago (weird fixture). Oh yea, and Terry Wallace is gone. Who would want to coach the Tigers? Give Nathan Buckley whatever he wants, whatever it takes to get him to Tigerland. That would be my advice. Give him five million dollars. Do the coaches fall under the salary cap?
So I said in a previous post that I have to do something to make my living here more enjoyable. Probably the most beneficial thing I could do is get better at Japanese. If I were to come home to Australia and have a job interview and present my Japanese qualifications, I would be embarrassed. Ten years, and that's all you could manage?
Every year, or twice a year from this year, the Japanese government holds the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. It's the standard measurement. There are four levels, 4 to 1, 4 being the lowest. I have level 3, which I got in 2002, and I could probably pass level 2 now, but I haven't bothered taking the test for years. My resume says I have my level 2, but it's wrong. Level 2 is hard, and Level 1 is really, really hard. You need level 1 to get an interview at a consulate or major Japanese company these days. So bottom line, I should have it now, and I need to get it soon.
Using the discipline I have been able to apply to my exercise, I want to begin studying Japanese again. I've got a stackload of books, and I'm going to work through them bit by bit. I'll get my Level 2 in December, and then the goal is to get my Level 1 in July next year, and failing that, definitely December next year.
In Japanese, there are three alphabets. Kanji, the Chinese symbols that have meaning, ie. 車 = car. Hiragana, which is phonetic language and largely used for things like in, at, with, on, from, until etc, and Katakana, another phonetic alphabet used for "loan words" or words and concepts from other countries. Coca cola, Jim, communication etc. But the Japanese take these words and change them, usually making them shorter, like restructuring becomes (リストラ) - risutora, or demonstration becomes demo (デモ). Karaoke comes from "kara" meaning empty and "oke" from the Katakana word from "orchestra". They can be pretty inventive. So I thought I'd give a word each post for a laugh, and to get me a little more involved with the language. Today's word is スキンシップ "skinship". It means a close physical friendship, but it also refers to the idea in parenting that physical contact is important in a child's upbringing.