Phase 3 underway

Hey peoples. Well, as the heading suggests, Phase 3 is well under way, and while the numbers aren't significantly better, the intensity is, and I feel a lot stronger. It's getting really hot and humid now, and I'm sweating heaps every workout. Yesterday's yoga was amazing. I have never sweated so much in my life, but I felt great doing it. I had a stiff neck and a little weekend headache, but I felt a lot better afterwards. This morning I got up and did Legs & Back. My alarm went off at 5:10, and I would have slept right through it if Junko hadn't have woken me up. So I laid in bed and the usual bullshit went through my head. If I get up and do it, I'll be glad I did. It will be done for another week. I can enjoy the day (a Monday, mind you) without having the thought that when I went home I would have to squeeze in Legs & Back and Ab Ripper X sometime after dinner. J at work will be getting up and doing it, and then make my day hell by constantly reminding me that I had to do it tonight. But on the other hand, maybe he wouldn't get up, and then I could make his day hell. But if I don't get up and do it, I can sleep another hour. So all this took about 5 minutes before I got up and did it. And I'm glad I did. As a condition of getting up and doing it, I agreed that I would not have to do Ab Ripper X immediately afterwards. I'll do it tonight. I'll take the 60 day photos tonight too.
I went to the doctors on Friday about a mole on my back that I hate and a red patch of skin on my face which comes and goes and looks like acne. I've had it for ages, and it won't go away. Turns out it's rosacea, which is inflammation of blood vessels close to the skin. Can be triggered by excessive drinking, or heat, or exercise. I got some cream for it so hopefully it'll subside a little. Or totally, which would be nice. I got some cream for the mole too, but I'm keeping an eye on it. I told the doctor that 60% of Australian men get skin cancer, but I don't think she believed me. A couple of years ago when I was in Australia I went to the doctor about the same mole, and I swear he looked at it for half a second and said "That's fine." Want to take a closer look, doc? I guess it's kind of what you want to hear, and it hasn't gotten any bigger or become painful since then, but I wish he had spent more time looking at it before he told me it was fine. I probably wouldn't have bothered about it this time if he had.
So Michael Jackson died, hey? What a freak. It's funny how all these celebs pay doctors to kill them with proscription drugs. How are these guys any different than drug dealers, and why aren't they arrested for murder? Probably because half of the population are on the same drugs. Did you know that Macaulay Culkin is the father of one of Jackson's sons? He donated his sperm. That's the rumour. There'll be plenty of them around now. He wasn't much of a man. He could sing and dance, but he also got kids drunk and slept with them, so...
Swans lost another one. Just about all over. Another error by Ted Richards under pressure, and the Crows kick away. Barry Hall punches another guy in the head for no reason. A pretty ordinary season by the Swans. I can't imagine the buildup for the Saints Geelong match. Has to be a Grand Final preview. Saints might choke in the finals though. Man, if Sydney could somehow make the eight and then play the Saints in that first week, I would fancy our chances. Ever since we just absolutely STEAMROLLED them in the prelim in 05, I just feel like we can beat them when it's important. I just hope the Bulldogs don't make the Grand Final. I don't know why, I just don't like them. I think it's Brad Johnson.
Anyway, thanks for reading. Later.

Day 56 Today

Today I've got X Stretch, and then tomorrow I start the last phase, Phase 3. Yoga last night was the best so far. I felt really strong and ready to go. This next month is going to be hard though. It's really humid now, and soon it's going to get hot. The garage is nice and dark, but it's still going to be an issue. I'll just have to be careful to hydrate before and after the exercises.
Rainy season is in full swing. It started raining really heavily last night, and this morning it was still bucketing down. It's stopped for the moment, but it'll rain again this afternoon. It really is amazing how much rain falls in rainy season. I don't know what they did before they covered the country in concrete. It must have been muddy.
We have a malfunctioning unit in our department. He has come to work twice in the last two months, one of those days being today. Apparently he can't handle it. What do you do with a seishain who can't handle it? You can't fire him. Interesting to see what will happen. They will probably just give him a pointless project to do with no deadline and wait till he quits or commits suicide. I happened to run into this guy a couple of months ago at a community leisure centre. I was with Will, he was with his wife and two daughters. This is a transcript of the conversation.
Me: You work in my department, don't you?
Him: Oh. Yes.
Me: These are your two daughters?
Him: Oh. Yes.
Me: They are very cute.
Him: Oh. Thank you.
Then they left without saying goodbye. Nice people. So of course now I don't really care about this guy, I just hope he doesn't take his family with him when he kills himself, like a lot of them do here.
I've tentatively started my Japanese study. I want to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 2 in December. These tests come in four sections: Kanji (the Chinese characters), grammar, reading, and listening. I find that with the Kanji I'm at about 65% when I don't guess what I'm not sure of, so in a test you might bump that up to about 75%, which is an easy pass. The listening and reading should not be a problem because that's what I do all day anyway. The grammar is an issue because there are so many structures that it's just so hard to remember them all. A typical question reads like
"While I understand that not eating breakfast is bad for my health, I didn't have time this morning so I __________." a) did nothing but eat breakfast. b) wanted to eat breakfast. c) was able to eat breakfast. d) couldn't eat breakfast."
I know what you're thinking. That's easy! d! Yea, but it's in another language, idiot! Sorry for calling you an idiot.
Anyway, I've got the 60 day photos next week, and I might post them, or I might leave it until the big finale in July. We'll see how they turn out.

Bring on Phase 3!

I've nearly finished Recovery week, and it feels like I have done nothing even though I have sweated my ass off every day. It's just that I'm not doing any resistance work. This is what Tony calls "Muscle Confusion." My body does feel confused. It's weird. I'm looking forward to doing Chest & Back on Thursday. It's been about a month and a half since I last did it, so I expect to see some improvement.
I feel like I'm on the brink of getting a cold. I have had a small headache for a couple of days, and this morning I woke up and my throat felt a little... not sore, but not perfect. I went about 80% doing Core Synergistics this morning. It's a pretty strenuous workout so I had my ass kicked anyway. I feel ok now. I could take a panadol (or the Japanese equivalent) after lunch if my headache gets any worse, but I'll try to avoid taking it if I can. Just plenty of water, a coffee here and there, and I should be okay.
It's rainy season here in Japan. It's humid (I felt the first bead of sweat roll down my back and into my ass crack this morning while I was standing on the train) and it is wet. In about a month it will stop being wet, the wind will disappear, and the temperate will ramp up another ten degrees to about 36, 37 degrees every day with 100% humidity. Step away from the air conditioner or the fan for a second, and I get a sweat pulse, and my hair is wet and my clothes cling to me. I fucking hate it. I do like the festivals and the sound of the cicadas though.
I told you the Swans would lose. Again, all the stars played amazing, Goodes, Kirk, O'Keefe. But the culprit this time was Ted Richards. Gave Collingwood that goal with two seconds to go in the third quarter to completely strip us of any momentum going to three-quarter time after having just grabbed the lead ourselves, and then gave away that 50 metre penalty that lead to a goal and then another and another and another. He's a good player, but damn. Apparently one more loss and we will be looking towards 2010, ie. losing games on purpose. yey! (sarcastic). Still, like I said last week, good run, have to accept tough times are ahead.
This year's US Open is maybe the worst ever, unless Tiger shoots a 63 in tomorrow's round and wins it. Ricky Barnes cannot win the US Open. He won the US Amateur about ten years ago, and in the 100-odd tournaments he's played as a professional since then, the best finish he's had is tied for 17th. That is very, very ordinary. There should be some major chokage going on tomorrow, with two unknowns so far in front, so tune in and watch the carnage!
Still on golf, I hear Tiger is coming to Melbourne for the Australian Masters! Get a ticket and go see the great man. And for those miserable people who will inevitably complain about the appearance money he's getting, if you practice your golf really hard and get really good and win 14 majors, I'm sure someone will pay you 3 million dollars to play in their tournament too! Good luck.

Yoga X

So this is my recovery week, and after my stretch on Wednesday I went and did the 90 minutes Yoga X, the only part of the P90X series that I don't follow. And now I'm glad I don't, because I don't think I could do this every week. The first 40 minutes had me dripping with sweat, and the little voice in my head was screaming at me to stop. So I did. I had a shower, had some lunch, and regrouped. Then I did the last 50 minutes in the afternoon. If I had to do this every week, I think it was cause such problems in my mind that I would either only do half of it, skip it completely and find a substitute (which is what I have done, effectively), or give up P90X. It is too long. And the last 30 minutes is basically the same as X Stretch anyway. I'm glad that I have experienced it, but I definitely won't be doing it again in a hurry. Tell you one thing though, it did give my ego a check. I thought I was getting there before I saw this, and now I know I have many, many years to go if I want to approach the strength and flexibility of anyone in this video. It is amazing what they can do, and Yoga just destroys any cardio or resistance training workout. For me, in terms of my body's reaction to it, Yoga is the most challenging and difficult workout I have done.
Yesterday I did Cardio X, which is a nice little mix of everything else, and today I did Kenpo X Plus. I have to say, the "plus" doesn't really amount to much. It's more intense, but shorter.
Tomorrow I've got One on One with Tony - Recovery 4 Results which looks nice and cruisy, and then Core Synergistics, which is another ass-kicker. Looking forward to getting stuck into that one on Monday morning.
Till then, have a look at this video.

Australian artist Keith Loutit, and the technique is called Tilt Shift. Looks amazing. I'm sure you're seeing in commercials already back home. First time I've seen it.
Oh yea. Is it good enough?

Indeed it was.

Recovery Week Again

Oh man, so busy at work. I'm being handed report after report and each of them take ages to do, I feel like I'm being raped in the face! (A "Hamlet 2" reference, I wouldn't just say that. Funny movie.) But it's Recovery week and I've got some new stuff to look forward to. Here's the schedule for you schedule wonks out there.
Wednesday (today) - X Stretch.
Thursday - Yoga X. 90 minutes of Yoga. It is time. Hooooly shit.
Friday - Cardio X. I haven't done this one before, and it's not really part of the P90X standard schedule, but I thought I'd try it out.
Saturday - Kenpo X+. Yea baby. +. = more. One of the new videos Tony made for P90X graduates. Actually, it's shorter that Kenpo X, but more intense.
Sunday - One on One with Tony - Recovery 4 results. This is the newest lineup of exercises, and it's from the series I took the 45 minute Yoga workout I've been using. A mix of strecthing, light cardio, and light resistance.
Monday - Core Synergistics.
Tuesday - 45 minute Yoga.
Wednesday - X Stretch again.
This replaces the rather dull Recovery week scheduled. It also exposes me to other workouts that I might consider doing when I'm working out a post-P90X regimen, which, for a few months anyway, will be less intensive, both physically and time-wise. More like maintenance.
From tomorrow until the scheduled end of P90X (28 July), my main priorities will be form and results. I will pay more attention to what I eat, and to getting the absolute most I can out of myself in the workouts.
Anyway, got to do some work or I might have to come in tomorrow (a Thursday. Can you imagine working on a Thursday?! Intolerable!)

Phase 2 Just About Done

No AFL for me this week with the split round, but next week we play Collingwood at ANZ stadium, which means we will lose. If ever there's a certainty in sport, it's that the Swans cannot beat Collingwood at ANZ stadium (that is what the Olympic stadium in Sydney is called, isn't it? It's hard to keep up with all the stadium name changes). So instead of sweating on downloads all weekend, I had a relaxing time keeping away from the computer and just hanging out with Junko and the kids. Will's gotten really clingy in the couple of months Jo Jo has been around. He follows us around everywhere. It's kind of desperate. Just a phase, I guess.
The workouts have been going well too. I'm feeling really lucky with the lack of injuries. A sore back and a sore knee, and a cold way back in October, and that's it. I've only missed a couple of days at the most in more than eight months (touch wood). This morning was Legs & Back, which is the one I hurt my knee doing a month or so ago, but I felt really strong this morning. I have decided to concentrate in particular on my form, especially with the pull-ups, which means the numbers aren't as high as they were last week. Before I was tapping the ground with my foot after each pull-up to stop my body from swaying. It's kind of cheating. This week I've stayed off the ground, and trying to keep my body still and not swaying around. It's really hard, but when I eventually find the right positions, I'll be increasing my reps quicker than if I was touching the ground. It just means that compared to last week, I can't do as many because a lot of my energy is going to keeping my legs still or my back arched or my elbows in the correct positions. I didn't do the Abs this morning, same as last week. I just wanted to finish up and have a big relaxing breakfast. I might do them tonight, or after Kenpo tomorrow.
Tomorrow is the last workout of Phase 2, and then there is a Recovery week. I'm more than half way through already! I reckon there will be some noticeable differences in the before photos and the 60 day photos I'll be taking in a couple of weeks. I just feel bigger and stronger, but it's such a subjective thing I'll need the photos to confirm.
Will and I had a great day at the indoor pool yesterday. He's jumping in from the side into my arms which is a big step. Next is going underwater. When we got there it was "Rest Time," which occurs ten minutes every hour. A whistle blows, and everybody gets out of the pool, and waits for ten minutes. That's it. Everybody just stands around an empty pool, waiting. Then after ten minutes the whistle blows again, and everybody jumps in. I hate it because it is an in-your-face example of the docility of the Japanese and their slavish adherence to stupid rules.

Extreme example of "Rest Time"

Another odd thing. I was in the kid's pool with Will, and there was another man with his son. He called over one of the staff and asked him something, and the staff went off and came back a minute later and said "It is possible to rent them." I didn't think anything of it, until a couple of minutes later when he approached me. "You can rent the goggles if you need," he said in English. For a moment I thought, it is compulsory to wear goggles too? I'm already wearing the compulsory swimming cap, and so is Will. I looked around. Most people had goggles, but some didn't. Then I understood. He thinks because everyone has goggles that I might want to have some too, so I don't feel uncomfortable or stand out (!). "I'm fine, thanks" I said in Japanese. But then I thought, maybe I should get some goggles, if everybody else is... Argggh! No, that's how they think. Buddy, I appreciate the fact that you think you are trying to provide me assistance, but could you leave me alone!
It is a revelation that many foreigners have after a certain amount of time here that all day they are being told what to do and how to do it by Japanese people. When you first get here it is helpful, sure, but after a while it just gets old. Once I was waiting for a train, and when it arrived, a guy grabbed my shirt sleeve and helped me onto the train. He looked shocked when I asked him in Japanese "What the fuck are you doing?" If I make the slightest hesitation at an ATM or ticket machine, an assistant rushes over to help. It can get really annoying.
Once, I was at a train station (I spend a lot of time on trains and in train stations if you hadn't noticed), and I saw a Down's Syndrome kid, maybe 20 years old. I watched him look at the map, get some money out of his wallet, and buy a ticket at the machine. Then he went through the turnstiles and went to the platform to catch his train. Wow, I thought. He's retarded, but he doesn't need anybody's help. He can buy his own ticket and catch a train all by himself. Isn't that wonderful. Good on him. So then I bought my ticket and went through the turnstiles, and just before I got on the escalator to go down to my platform, I happened to look behind me. And I swear, I saw a middle-aged man watching me with the same condescending grin that I must have had a minute earlier when I was watching the Down's Syndrome kid. That put things in perspective for me, I can tell you. I am retarded.
PS There's a guy on my floor whose laugh sounds exactly like Steve Carroll's laugh. It's uncanny. I'm always startled by it. "Steve's here!?"

Week 6 Done

I have calmed down after yesterday's AFL viewing. I've watched On The Couch and Footy Classified, and I've taken the emotion out of it and set the pain aside. The Swans have had a great run, and I have to accept that the next few years might not be successful ones.
Yesterday I finished translating a huge report, and an hour after finishing it I got handed another one. I can't look at it anymore today, so I closed it down and here I am, writing this.
I did Kenpo X and Ab Ripper X last night. Brought it. I felt great the whole way through Kenpo, and then during the abs, I felt like I could actually power through the reps instead of just hanging on for dear life. I think my policy will be to see how I feel during Legs & Back, and if I feel okay, do Ab Ripper X after that as scheduled. But if I feel poorly, put the abs back a day like I did yesterday. I don't think it makes much difference, but I've made a nice little Excel schedule, and changing stuff around makes me uncomfortable, which means I've been here too long.
Today was health check day. We get one every 6 months. We weren't supposed to eat breakfast, but I always do. I hate being hungry. So about 11 o'clock the announcement comes through. "All males in the Information and Documentation Department to the Examination room." Off we go. First, a questionnaire. Do you smoke? Drink? Any history of illness in the family? Do you eat fast, slow, or normal speed? And a lot of other stuff I don't understand that I just ticked "No" to. Then height and weight. 187 cm and 82 kilos. "Is that okay?" asked the nurse who took the measurements. I don't know. I guess so. Can't really do anything about it if it isn't. A funny thing to ask. Then blood test. Needle into the vein like a junky, and pump out three vials of blood. Then eye test, blood pressure, heart check with electrodes or something, doctor checked my breathing and ticked the file, waist measurement, hearing check, piss into a cup, then a chest x-ray. All within about 5 minutes. We get the results in about a month. It's pretty cool how they do this. Unheard of in Australia. I would like to compare these results with the ones from when I first started here and was a sickly smoking weakling. I'll write a post about it when I get the results.
Today's Katakana word: デリバリーヘルス "delibariiherusu" (lit: Delivery health). This means a call girl business. ヘルス (herusu, or "health") is what they call seedy massage parlours, so of course delivery health is having the service delivered to your door.