Chill day @ home waiting for Jetamai

Jetamai didn't seem to signal any sign of birth, so mom found an activity for P'Yai and P'JR to do to calm down (particularly for p'JR). She got them to waterpaint some plants in our house.





Then I cooked lunch with P'Tid. (Man... so frustrated... no places to go T_T)

no..no..no.. we are pink shirts ;-)

Later in the afternoon, it was the Wii games that helped us pass the time.




BTW, you've gotta watch this:
British Got Talent: Susan Boyle. She's JUST BRILLIANT!! (got me cry... =P)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk

Miss International in Japan

When N'Bow entered the beauty pageant, I ended up acting (and serving) as the contestant's supporter (พี่เลี้ยงนางงาม). We had to show up at the contest hall around 9.30 a.m. of Sunday, February 22. And my goodness, it took us approximately an hour to get there from where Bow lives. Because of accumulated lack of sleep, I was dead tired when we reached there. The worse part was that there was absolutely nowhere I could have escaped to take a nap. So I had to try to entertain myself walking around to pass some time. =P

For the contest, Bow went up the stage for 4 times with 4 different costumes. Firstly, she had to wear the sponsor t-shirt, except that you can design how to wear it freely. Some people cut it in pieces and resew it into their original pattern. For Bow's case, she had her acquittance who is taking a fashion design course in Paris to help with the design and Bow did the cutting herself!

Opening clothes

Then after a round of walking on stage, she went back to the dressing room and get changed into a dress to use for her talent show. Of course, Bow's talent is singing, so she put on a simple dress for it. My role was to help her with her hair dressing and double check the overall look -- quite easy! ;-)

Talent Show: singing thai song (Dao)

Then it came my challenge when I had to put Bow's super short hair up for Thai national costume. Thanks to my experience in Thai classical dancing. It really helped me deal with Bow's hair satisfactorily. One secret to be revealed is that..... underneath her fluffy hair, there was a bunch of white tissue papers in it. =P It was dang fun to try to cover up the white parts. hee hee.

my hair-do
National Costume
Close-up
Interview: What makes your beauty?

Then, last round was the evening gown.

p.s. the girl behind Bow was the one winning the competition

There were a few titles for this competition: Miss International in Japan, Miss Thailand in Japan, Miss Philippines in Japan, Miss Nepal in Thailand, Miss popular vote #1 and #2, and Miss 0033 (the sponsor company's special prize). I really wished N'Bow get either Miss 0033 or Popular Vote (primarily for the financial reasons), but nope, we ended up getting nothing. But it's ok. A kind of contest like this is really not "our thing" or well, to put in another words, "it's not our place to be". Just totally a different world from where I'm used to!! =P

for example...
All Contestants (Credit: P'Kul)
A portion of Bow's supporters (credit: P'Kul)

At the end of the day, we decided to go to Urayasu Station area (2 stops from Gyotoku station where the contest hall was located) for a nice dinner at MK restaurant. Thanks P'Kul for letting us know there is an MK sukiyaki there. Love it!

N'Maew Tsukuba
Saitama Gang
Waseda Girls + Peung
Another Two Saitama guys
Fortune Telling พ่อหมออกอาละวาด

My first Kyudo Competition

It's a custom at my Kyudo-kai that everyone who plans to take Kyudo examination should enter at least one competition as a trial stage. My examination is coming up in November, so I decided to join Kyoto-City September competition (there is a name for the event, but mind me, I forgot -"-)

The shooting performance for the opening ceremony

I was quite relax as I thought it must have been an individual race I was entering. Only until I found out it was a team race! A team of "three" competes for 3 rounds; 2 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. Each time each of us gets 4 chances to shoot. The team in which gets the highest scores from shooting wins (possible maximum score of 36) . This type of competition cares only if the arrow hits the target, and the distance toward the center of the target does not matter.

setting up the targets
(The target is of 36 cm diameter and placed 28 m away from the shooting spot)

We gathered at 8:30 a.m. of Monday, September 15, 2008, a Japanese national holiday (it's an "entering Autumn day"). I dressed up in my Hakama uniform from home already, so once I reached dojo (a name to call kyudo practicing place) I only had to take care of equipments - yumi (bow), tsuru (bow string), ya (arrow), and kake (kyudo glove).

Our guy team: Mochtsuki sensei, Sakabe-san, and Yoneda-san
The guys' first two shooting

Everything was completely fine until we were lining for our turns to enter the race. Man... my hands started to sweat!!! I guess this is it that my sensei wants newbies to experience before the exam - the excitement and nervousness. Thank goodness we rehearsed our taihai (the way to walk into our position before shooting) awfully a lot before the competition.

Keeping an eye on competitors

I actually found it fun and interesting to learn of a lot of things I've never known about doing kyudo from the competition. Taihai was one. I always thought there was only a sitting form of taihai as I've always seen at the national competitions and examinations. I was wrong. There is this standing type of taihai too. Much more simple than the sitting type, but still... a lot to remember for it.

while watching and waiting

Here is the only VDO that I have of me shooting. Now I know I'm VERY BAD at hikiwake (the lowering of the bow before reaching shooting position). Result? Nope.. no hitting the target! It was not to my surprise though since I never hit the target at practices anyways :) (not counting the very one time I hit the target of the person standing in front of me! =P oops!)


Thanks P'Nha for coming to see and taped this VDO na ka

scorebook
The guy team won 2nd prize after a shoot-off
My team: Watanabe-san and Furuhara-san

Date: 2008.09.15
Place: Budo Center, Kyoto