Ever wondered how a turtle eats? My land turtle / tortoise was particularly hungry today so I decided to videotape her/him ^^;  Anybody else with cute pets?

Click here to view the embedded video.

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I’m very pleased to announce the new Author here at Instant Ramen: Alejandra Quirós, aka Rei*. She is currently studying for a Doctorate’s Degree and researching on Computational Vision (kakkoi! ^^) at Tsukuba University in Japan thanks to the MEXT scholarship that I’m currently applying.

Here are some words from Rei* herself about her role around here:

Hi everyone! I’m happy to be an author here at Instant Ramen and will hopefully bring you lots of photos and articles about known and unknown Japan! Hope I share some of my experience with everyone around here — readers, passersby, or J-bloggers. Yoroshiku ne!

Alejandra was also in charge of some programming for Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles including many key parts — security, encryption, and website backend programming. She’s been traveling here and there in Japan and knows some key aspects on studying, how to live, how to rent appartments, and many other tips about Japan.

Her newly purchased hardware is a Canon Kiss X2 and her first J-picture will remain one of my favorites — takoyaki:

Dericious! Not only did she take the picture, she also made the takoyaki (yes, convincing her into writing a “How to make takoyaki” picture guide soon! ^^)

Hope you enjoy her posts and give some stir to my usual topics around here! =) If anyone would like to see something in particular from her point of view be sure to ring some bells! Oh, and don’t forget to add _alechan to Twitter!

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Been thinking about this for a while and now I need your help: This year, I will be applying for a Scholarship in Japan for a Postgraduate degree, still haven’t decided if Masters or Doctorate’s Degree and will explain why below.

Pictured above is Tokyo University (東京大学), usually abbreviated as 東大 (Todai), which will be one of my three choices, along with Keio University and Yokohama or Waseda University. But first…

A couple of girls in my Japanese class (yes cute ^^) wrote this on my hand earlier today. H is for Hao (me) and each S is for each gal’s initial. Just met them last week but they are funny, what do you guys suggest? =)

(Sorry for the interruption!) For those who don’t know, outside of Japan, this scholarship is known as the 文部科学省 (Monbukagakushou) MEXT: Scholarship, and is available in many countries for undergraduate students. In my case, I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering. Requirements are being under 35 years (check), speaking good English and/or Japanese (check), said undergraduate degree (check), and a few more (not available for some careers, but the normal stuff is okay).

Another shot of Todai by contributor Osk ^^; anyway, to apply, you have to choose a topic for your major. The Embassy of Japan holds a copy of all universities and their current majors. Haven’t decided yet but me loves Web Development and other more obscure topics.

Next step is to choose three Universities in Japan — Tokyo Uni (東大/Todai), Kyoto (京大/Kyodai), and Osaka Universities (阪大/Handai) are the three best known in Japan, and usually staff from the Embassy will advise you against choosing them, since admission is very selective. If you’ve seen/read Love Hina, you know that Keitaro and Naru have a very hard time trying to become Todai students:

Tokyo Uni on the background. Another key term here is rounin (浪人) which applies to high school students who haven’t been able to get into college/university. Japanese higher education is not too hard, the hard part is passing admission tests and that’s why cram schools exist everywhere. I’m currently reading the Love Hina manga, but this has nothing to do with my decision of applying for Tokyo University ^^;

After your three choices, you have to write a composition in English or Japanese about your field of study. I’ve helped others apply for this scholarship, and as I did with mine before for the Study Tour, the J-staff usually wants to hear you talk about how you can benefit your own country, how you can teach others of the ninja stuff that you learn in Japan, how you admire Japanese customs like respect, punctuality, etc.. Writing about being an otaku is zettai dame!

After that, it’s choosing how much time you want to be in Japan studying. The first six months will be for studying Japanese (the part I’m most interested in), and after that it’s two years as a research student or for a Master’s degree; or a whopping five years for a PhD degree. Don’t jump in right there and say “it’s Japan, the more the merrier!” In my case, I do love Japan but I’m not too fond of returning to the student’s life. If you think about it the other way, after six years, I’ll be 29, and if I’m unlucky as to not have time left outside of becoming a PhD, it’ll be hard to return to the normal life — doing what you love is great but as Danny Choo mentions here (read the whole article if you can, moving and very inspiring), money is part of the process. My current small video game studio is my passion.

Here’s the good news: it’s possible (though not definite) to apply as a Research student and then beg to continue studying for a Doctorate’s degree, which is what I intend to do. If everything goes well and I’m able to split my time between my degree and my passion/work, then I’ll probably go for it, but I prefer not to condemn my next five years yet.

After applying, you’ll have to make both English and Japanese language exams, both which are very hard but don’t be scared, you only need to be good at any of those two languages, in most cases it will obviously be English. Knowing Japanese is definitely a plus, but don’t be discouraged by that — two of my friends who applied last year didn’t speak a word.

If you do well on these exams, the next step is the dreaded interview. My advise is to speak English even if you speak some Japanese, as you’ll be able to communicate your intentions better, you won’t have to be an ace in Japanese customs and expressions, and near the end of the interview, you may show your Japanese skills. Unfortunately, staff at the Embassy knows me and on my last study tour to Japan interviewed me in Japanese, which was the most cold-blooded interview. Don’t get me wrong, everyone at the Embassy helped me a lot and has been great with me, but their job is to challenge everything you’ve got, and in my case I felt like crap even after being selected.

Talk about fancy names ^^; anyway, suppose that you’re selected (normally, 3-6 candidates are selected). In my case, I’m supposing that I am (would be foolish to not do so ^^), for a few reasons (some mentioned in my About page):

• My English is above average (compared to my rivals)
• My Japanese is way above average (was chosen as the Outstanding Student of the Japanese Language)
• Computer Engineering at the Costa Rica IT is regarded as one of the best careers nationally
• Was elected by Procter & Gamble as one of the Top 20 Undergraduate Students
• Was also chosen by the Ministry of Japan’s Japan Foundation as an Outstanding Student of the Japanese-Learning Language Tour
• Published a Research Paper on the most important Computer-related Latin/ibero-american conference (CLEI)
• English, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese are all okay

Don’t think that I’m just bragging all these stuff — if you’re looking to apply for a scholarship now or in the future, you may grab a few good ideas. Many students from my University have won this scholarship and have a similar background (my partner who coauthored said research paper is now in Japan ^^). If you’re still young and would love to go to Japan, then start trying to add some solid evidence to your résumé — all effort pays off sooner or later! And definitely start studying Japanese now if you aren’t!

Keio University seen from the Tokyo Tower. Not sure at where I’m supposed to be looking though ^^ have tons of pictures of my trip to the Tokyo Tower, will blog about it one of these days.

Now, suppose that you’re selected, yay! The hardest part is yet to come: the scholarship covers your expenses but you won’t be able to live eternally party’ing and touring Japan: apartments are quite expensive at Tokyo and that’s the downside of studying/living near Tokyo. You’ll be spending somewhere between 30-60% of your scholarship on renting alone (dorms are rented too, no exception). Was thinking of choosing Osaka/Kyoto Universities since I’m also more of an Osaka fan, but in the end, for personal and business reasons (will detail later on if I’m accepted), I prefer to stay near the Tokyo area, since commuting in Japan is not only expensive but very time-consuming.

I need to apply before May 29th (won’t forget since it’s my birthday!), and that’s why I need to rush some of my decisions. If anyone around here is studying in Japan would love to hear from you. Results will be available in about a month I think, and I’ll let you know how it goes. Though I am highly confident that I will be chosen, preparing for the worse is still important ^^. Wish me luck!

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Here’s an original animé illustration/drawing by me ^^, dating back  to 2006. As I mentioned before and on my profile page, I love(d) drawing as a hobby, but actually stopped doing it a long long time ago, about ten years ago. As with my piano, I did this particular drawing for a special occasion :) done 100% CG without scanning anything, which is harder to do since I’m not used to graphic pens.

I’ve written about two hobbies these month — weightlifting and piano, the three of them mutually exclusive ^^; I’ll be adding more and more of my drawings as I find them (lost somewhere in my hard drives), and will try to go back to drawing when I have some free time. Maybe a fanart from one of Danny Choo’s mascots? I’m officially playing the piano again and I’m quickly remembering everything from my memories not lost :)

On other news, I’ve been working on a few website upgrades, the first one (mentioned yesterday) is the new Related Articles / Currently Read dynamically loaded news, and also, comments are finally threaded (and more cute)! Used my Engrish post as a test, and fellow English sensei Chris B was there at the right time to help me test it (thanks!). He is an amazing English teacher running his own school in Japan who uses great methods of teaching like money laundering schemes and such to make kids learn — as I was once a tutor for many years, I find his ways very inspiring. If I’m ever back in the industry I’ll probably lend his ideas!

Anyway, anyone around here loves drawing too? ^^

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I’ve mentioned before that one of my hobbies is (was) playing the piano. Well, it’s more like “sitting in front of a piano and slamming the keys to see if something rhymes” ^^; since I’m seriously très terrible at it.

Anyway, wanted to share with you guys my 2005 recording of Clair De Lune from Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque, a masterpiece from the Romantic period.

To play, simply click on the link, a cute embedded player will appear ^o^:

Clair De Lune – by Hao

Initially, was going to share my (sad?) story about how I always wanted to learn how to play the piano but only got one at an old age (17), but it’s a really long story and most of you will get bored =)

Anyway, I got inspiration for this post by fellow Otaku JBlogger Mimi, who is an overly virtuoso piano performer and is currently looking for an axe and reviving Debussy from the dead to chop me into little pieces. Here’s her performance of Beethoven’s Waldstein Sonata, for the Youtube Orchestra Audition:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Not sure if it got selected but I think she’s also trying to apply for Carnegie Mellon, anyway, good luck on that!

Back on track, after studying piano for one year, people thought I was talented — including me. But it wasn’t that way, I just had an unfair advantage against real newbies, because I had been practicing on a small Casio keyboard all my life, and my right hand (I’m left-handed btw) was fast. Anyway, the more I stepped up in the ladder, the more I found out that others had much more talent and I just couldn’t handle it. I’ve learned many times in my life that talent is exponential: The more you improve, the more people you’ll find with much more talent than you.

Here’s a nice piano recording of Utada Hikaru’s First Love, I’m studying it (not too challenging, but fun):

Click here to view the embedded video.

I didn’t care about talent or age, and my motto was “only fear can block the way”. I went from simple Beatles songs to Brahms’ Waltz in A-flat, Mozart’s Rondo Alla Turca, Bach’s Inventions and Canons, and so on, and finally crash-landed in Chopin’s Minute Waltz. After one year of trying seriously hard and stepping through many levels, my hands started to take the toll: my hands are small, and my pinky (5th) finger is particularly small, and it’s bent in an unnatural way (maybe you can spot in in the picture above), probably because of the strength needed to make octave strokes on my hard Hyundai piano (yes, I too was surprised that my piano had a car’s brand on it!).

Initially, I thought I quit because my fingers hurt, but what was actually hurting was my ego. My piano sensei, who was always very supportive,  kept me going and going until one day I decided to go back and play simple and popular songs (I love classic music), because I thought that would make me happy. I learned a few songs from Amélie (great movie!) but quickly got bored, and after a few failed attempts, about one year and a half later, I officially stopped slamming my piano. My Brazilian+German friend who was my piano partner for all that time headed back to Brazil, and left my duets empty, so I didn’t have any motivation left. I miss her ^^;

Anyway, for a special occasion, a year later (2005), I decided to open my piano again and record Clair De Lune. I had been learning it slowly, but one month before the deadline I took the thing seriously. Fortunately, was able to finish it but I couldn’t polish it, I’m practicing it now and sounds a tad better.

Sorry for the blurriness, above picture is NHK’s (Japan’s Public TV and radio broadcaster) Steinway Grand piano. A famous Japanese Jazz pianist was performing live on Japanese TV (forgot her name -_-), and photographs were strictly forbidden, so I couldn’t take a better one. I was lucky enough to touch it (the pian0!), I don’t have words that can explain how it sounded — especially compared to my vertical piano that needs some serious tuning! Probably the most expensive piano I will ever touch in my whole life ^^;

Anyway, I’ve been doing small moves with my piano and looks like we can be friends again. I’m back with Mozart’s Sonata XI, Utada’s First Love, and on the long run, I want to play Brahms’ Hungarian Dance # 5, got through 1/3 of it slowly.

One of my dreams is to buy a Yamaha baby Grand Piano. When I was younger, I thought it would be impossible economic-wise, but it’s not like that at all. However, it would be unfair for a bad performer like me to own such a good piano. Until I can play Brahms’ Hungarian Dance and Chopin’s Minute Waltz, I won’t buy it. Beethoven’s Pathétique would be a plus, too. Don’t think I’ll make it though!

Anyway, sorry for the random rant, I feel a bit better now. Another of my hobbies is drawing and I was also hired as a pixel artist a while back before starting my own video game company, so I’ll dig up through my older stuff and show it to you guys later this week. Weightlifting is also one of my hobbies, wrote about it and video taped me lifting 300 pounds.

Also, I’d prefer to avoid criticism on my piano skills, I’m very aware of my own level and I recorded this song for a special person, not because I thought it was good ^^

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As I’ve mentioned before, one of my favorite hobbies is weightlifting. But not bodybuilding, or machines, I mean the real deal. On the picture above, I’m about to squat 260 pounds (~118 kg), about 65% more than my body weight. video available here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Looks great in YouTube’s HQ ^^; anyway, there are tons of myths regarding weightlifting and gyms. Most people worldwide have no idea what real weightlifting is, including trainers and physical educators. Fortunately, there’s an excellent book called Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe, who has trained a vast number of competent Powerlifters and Olympic lifters too. Anyway, in the last video, my friend and spotter Pnigro helped me get the last rep, but I swear I could do it myself :) and can I prove it?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Anyway, I used to be extremely skinny and weak a few years back. Being a Computer Engineering student and a video-game programmer also took quite a toll on my health (10,000 Lines of Code a week was a killer) — my weight being 55 kilos at that time, 20 kilos less than my current bodyweight. Anyway, I always excercised quite a lot, however, I never saw a real gain neither in my health, physique, or strength, and ultimately stopped going at all. Fast-forward a few years later, and the above mentioned friend introduced me to Rippetoe’s book. After that day, I became a weightlifting geek and started reading, investigating, sutmitting videos for critique to the actual author. And no, I’m not in steroids or any other weird supplements or diet plans ^^

After one year of weightlifting, my strength has increased dramatically, and so has my weight, strength, and physique, if you know what I mean ^^; I’ve dragged a few friends too since they have seen my considerable gains, and anyone who hasn’t seen me in a few months usually tells me good stuff about my back and arms, and size overall. And I’m certainly not gifted, which means that anyone can do it, if you do it right. Actually, I help train a real talented friend of mine — he’s 220 pounds, incredibly strong, and plays rugby for a national team. My squats and deadlift are still stronger though :) but not for long. Anyway, if you have a question about weightlifting, feel free to inquire, I’d be more than glad to help.

The excercise above is called the deadlift — yeah, pretty scary name, huh? It’s my strongest lift, my personal record being 315 pounds (~143 kg), three 45 lbs plates on each side. Today’s deadlift was 310 pounds though:

Click here to view the embedded video.

That’s a little less than twice my body weight, which gets a bit heavy. And for those who think that I’ll end up in a wheelchair in a couple of months, my knee, back, and shoulder pains are long gone. I’ve never felt better before! In fact,  I’m hardly stressed now, and my stomach is 100% healthy, had lots of problems a few years back.

You usually see the gorilla guys doing curls, smith machines, or machine leg presses. The real stuff (the ones I’m doing) will kick you the real deal, and leg pressers who press more than 1000 lbs and weight more than 250 lbs have very hard time squatting a few reps with 225 pounds, which I normally squat 10 reps without much difficulty. It’s not uncommon for trainers and trainees to look at us as kids who don’t know what they’re doing, and after we finish our workout, it’s not uncommon for them to ask us if we compete :) though in reality I’m still hundreds of pounds away from pro power lifters. I don’t mean to criticize anyone who frequents the gym to do typical gym programs, I did one for more than three years. I simply want to try and enlighten you :)

Another friend of mine who loves animé is waiting for the day I look like Full Metal Panic’s Armstrong:

Not gonna happen soon though ^^; but most people still can’t believe that I used to be such a skinny guy — think of the usual stereotypic Chinese guy. Anyway, I’m very excited with my progress and expect much more in my second year as a weightlifter wannabe. Surely the day I get injured may come, but that doesn’t mean I’m doing things wrong or that it cannot be fixed, I stopped playing piano for a while because I almost got tendinitis. If you wanna achieve something in life, you’ll need to make sacrifices and be able to survive through them :)

“The Iron is the best antidepressant I have ever found. There is no better way to fight weakness than with strength. Once the mind and body have been awakened to their true potential, it’s impossible to turn back.

The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you’re a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black.

I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds.” – Henry Rollins

One of my favorite weightlifting quotes (source here). The reason I decided to write about the topic, besides being very happy for my new squat personal records, is that computer engineering otakus like me are usually stereotyped as skinny weak guys, and I surely was one of them. Anyone who wants to call me skinny and weak now can go train with me, I don’t care how much he weights. And if my contender does squat more than me, he probably knows that I’m doing it right and we may become good friends. Still hasn’t happened though!

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