Trying to stay healthy in two ways: good exercises and good diet.
I work out regularly — jogging, lifting weights and Pilates. I am hoping that I will get back to martial arts (Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do or JKD) when my unfortunate shoulder injury is completely healed.
I cook at least one meal by myself each day. My diet is based on traditional Japanese diet, which is rich in soy, and uses a lot of fish. There are reasons why we enjoy longevity and personally I believe that's why I look way younger than my age. I enjoy cooking, but only when I do not have to do the cleaning. I even sharpen my own cooking knives by myself.
Feel free to check out my past blog articles under the category Food and Restaurants and those under Sports , which include those on martial arts and fitness in general.
I'd like to meet:
Good people, so my life will be enriched. I have been having difficulty meeting people somehow. Some say it is a Seattle thing... is it?
I would like to keep things real, so I do not just add random people to my friends' list. If you would like to be my friend, please send me a message first and let me know why (and it's better be more than just " because you're Asian "); otherwise your request will be silently deleted. I would also like you to check out my blog to take a peek into my personal life. Trust me, it will be good for both of us. There is also a partial list of my past articles sorted by the category . (You are also welcomed to subscribe to my blog . Don't worry about those annoying email notifications .)
For the same reason, I would like to see real photos showing real you on your profile. If you have a legitimate reason you cannot post them there (Some people do), then I will have to ask you to send some to me personally.
I will also look into your friends list, and see how many friends you have and what kind: You cannot realistically keep in regular touch with, say, 200 people ; Some collect "lookers" just like their trophies, and you do not mind being one of them? Those little things say a lot about your personality.
Do you love posting bulletins? With all those interesing questionnaires floating around, such as "repost and such-and-such will happen" type ones, etc., who would not!? Wrong! It's one easy way to suck — at least in my book. See this for why. And please do not fall for those obvious hoaxes .
If you want to learn the Japanese language and looking for someone to practice it with, or learn it from, then I am not the right person for you. I do teach Japanese to some of my friends, but I do not make friends to teach Japanese — unless you are a native speaker of French, Korean, or Italian, in which case we could do language exchange.
Of course, it is a different story if you are willing to compensate for my services — not necessarily financially, but I would certainly not mind that. Make me an offer . This also applies when you want to tap into my knowledge of the Japanese language (e.g., to translate between English and Japanese) or the Japanese culture (e.g., to understand a scene you saw in a Japanese anime).
See A Quick and Dirty Guide to Installing and Using East Asian Languages Under Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP if you want to read or write Japanese on PC running those OS's.
Someone recommended YesJapan.com and Japanese hyphen On line dot com for learning Japanese on line, and MyLangageExchange.com for finding your language exchange partner. I do not have any personal experiences with them. I am listing them just for your reference.
By the way, I have never taught Japanese seriously for an extended period of time. Once I tried to , but it came to a premature end .
However, you are always welcome to subscribe to my blog , and keep abreast with all the latest entries on Japan/Japanese I write in my blog. If you want to have a taste of it, here's the the list of postings on Japan/Japanese in my blog up to the end of February '06 . You can also check out my blog articles under the category Travel and Places , which is the category
that I assign to articles related to the Japanese language and/or
the Japanese culture.
Just so you know, I periodically review my friends' list, and remove those with whom any meaningful interaction has not happened for more than a certain amount of time.
I'd love to do standard social activities, like watching movies, dining, etc., but I'd especially welcome those who can participate in art-related events (esp., artwalks) with me.
I do not get along well with people who are flaky — people who cannot commit to an appointment, or those who generally cannot keep their own words. I speak my mind, so if you cannot take it — because of your fragile or blown-up ego — then we won't get along.
I would also like to see a certain level of self awareness and maturity. Oh, and coherence too. Oh, and a reasonable span of sustained attention too. Boy, do I sound demanding or what!?
I
am interested in what you have to say to me, so
help me understand it .
If you are interested, we can chit chat using one of those IMS's. Unfortunately, I do not have Windows Live Messenger (WLM) — in fact I cannot install it because I use Windows 2000, so I use MSN Messenger version 7.0. If you use WLM, please keep in mind the messages you send while I am off line will
not be belivered to me. You can also leave me a voice message at (206) 855-6674 .
In case you are curious, you can read what I am looking for in a woman as my partner . You can also check out the version a friend kindly rewrote for me .
Music:
I do not listen to much music. But I studied cello for more than several years when I was a kid in Japan (by Suzuki Method , of course!). Recently I have studied classical singing privately with a renowned local soprano singer/composer. I tend to be drawn to songs from the Baroque period, such as so-called Italian art songs, and those by the British composer Henry Purcell, e.g., I Attempt from My Love's Sickness to Fly , Music for A While , etc.
See
my blog articles on Music .
Movies:
Comedies and action thrillers. Don't care very much for serious ones. The Incredibles is one of the recent movies that I enjoyed.
See my blog articles uner the category Movies, TV, Celebrities for more.
Television:
Forensic science shows ( CSI: Miami , Law & Order: Criminal Intent , Crossing Jordan , NCIS , Cold Case ), certain talk shows ( The Ellen DeGeneres Show , The Tonight Show with Jay Leno , Late Night with Conan O'Brien ),
sitcoms (Becker, Seinfeld, M*A*S*H) and a certain Anime ( King of the Hill )... and of course, Saturday morning cartoons!
See my blog articles uner the category Movies, TV, Celebrities for more.
Books:
Books on spirituality by Neale Donald Walsch , esp., Conversations with God, Book I. The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle . Um, does Time Magazine count as books?... I guess not, but I do enjoy reading it every week.Spirituality is one of my major interests, and I write about it in my blog. However, I have not constantly given one specific category to those articles. Consequently, they are scattered over Dreams and the Supernatural , Religion and Philosophy , and Life .
Heroes:
Thunderbirds ! Kamen-no Ninja Akakage (Red Mask The Ninja) in the late 60s Japanese TV show of the same title , which was based on a comic book. Son Goku (Monkey) in a 70s Japanese TV show called Saiyuki (English title: Monkey) . This is based on a famous 16th century Chinese epic called Hsi Yu Chi (Journey to the West), which is then very loosely based on an actual historic journey of a Buddhist priest. BBC showed the English version in the UK and Australia, they say. Yes, the name Goku in Dragonball comes from this story.
