How fast can you run your 10 km?

How much time will you clock for your 10 km run when you are 80??


After a 19 km run, Stanley came home to read a report on the "121st Kanto 10 mile・10 km Road Race" held in Narita city on 16th December 2007.

In the bitter winter cold wind, the photograph showed most of the runners running in tank top and shorts, and the result of the race??

(10 mile is about 16 km)
10 mile (men): 51 min
10 mile (women): 1 hr 8 min 4 sec

10km run (women):

• category: student: 37 min 37 sec

• others: 38min 15 sec

10km run (men):
category:

• highschool student: 33 min 30 sec
  
• age 30~39: 33 min 19 sec
• age 40~49: 33 min 28 sec
• age 50~59: 36 min 7 sec
• age 60~69: 38 min 11 sec
• age 70~79: 39 min 55 sec
• age 80~89: 54 min 12 sec

Feel inspired? Keep running!!

finding a smile in unexpected places

We are still in November.

But it is not very clear now whether we are still in autumn or have stepped into winter.

The number of Christmas trees and illumination one can see has gone up.
Snow has been falling on a daily basis in several parts of Japan.
Some places have gone below zero degree C.

The cold Siberia wind has brought on the winter front.

But even now, as one of my mixi friend wrote, you can see some plants preparing for Spring.

Summer, with its too hot temperature, ice-shaving desserts & sound of tingling wind chime, seems in the distant past....But!

In our freezer still sit several little pots of ice-cream that sudden realization of the spare around the waistline put a stop to eating.

Just before the winter front came visiting from the North, we tried to finish a little more of those pots.

Vanilla ice-cream with spots of strawberry (sauce?)...
Sounds delicious, but nothing spectacular, no.

But as one digs in and digs on....

A smiley appears.
In the ordinary pot of vanilla ice.
An ice-cream smile...brought a smile to our faces too.
Cold ice, warmed hearts.
Happy.

God blessed us through our smiley ice-cream.

mixi - maxi facebook???

"mixi"
is a huge Japanese internet society.

When I try to explain what mixi is about, I was told several times that the English equivalent is the "facebook".

However, having tried out facebook for a few weeks, the difference is enormous.

Mixi is a lot more work and a much more serious affair.
It doesn't have most of facebook's gadgets and is shockingly simple.

But,
it is an amazing place.
There, firm friendships are formed and mixi friends support one another warmly.

My mixi friends sent me constant encouragement and comfort while I was spending time with my parents in Singapore.

When Stanley was ill, many expressed deep concern and love, saying they are praying for us.

Another friend offered to lend me her precious video tapes and offered to send them to me by post.

We may never have met most of these mixi members, but the love that are exchanged over this internet community is astoundingly real.

And here too, we hope to pass on the love and sense of wonder for our Lord Jesus.

Nowadays almost everyone I speak to would either be part of mixi or at least have heard about it.
In the 21st century, the internet offers a place to meet people that we would never have met in our otherwise limited context.

Praise God for mixi.

And I believe that the success and popularity of mixi is because in a shy and reserve society, mixi becomes a platform to meet people, exchange ideas, air frustrations and express opinions. It offers depth of thoughts and communication, yet the security of being able to withdraw anytime from nuisance relationships. It is ideally suited to the Japanese personality.

It is therefore also an ideal place to offer the love, salvation, freedom and joy of Christ.

See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixi
for more details.

Enjoy Japan!

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Now playing: 久石譲 - -エンディング- 世界の約束 ～人生のメリーゴーランド
via FoxyTunes

Have fun with this website! Typically Japanese - fun and full of surprises!

It reveals the great mystery of how the arrow on your computer screen works when you move your mouse.
If you don't understand how it works....think again!


http://www.1-click.jp/

Please leave your comments after viewing!

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Now playing: smap - DAWN
via FoxyTunes

karaoke

Quiz:

What does "Karaoke" means?

Faces lit up when I mentioned that I was at karaoke a few days before.
"How nice~! I want to go too!" a young man sighed, " in fact, I have also just been recently."
So, what does it matter, he wants to go again!

This afternoon, I was having a series of email exchanges with a high school girl whom I have met only once.
"Let's go out somewhere together!" I wrote, "we can do bowling, go to a game centre, karaoke, go to the movies, rent a DVD, whatever!"

"I want to go to karaoke!" came the reply....

So it's back to this again, singing into a mike...
Not that I don't want to do it, but that I (Lucy, that is) sing so very badly....
Out of tune, out of time, can't hit the high notes, can't catch the key or the melody....

Anyone worse than me out there??

Nonetheless, it is a great way to meet people and build relationship.
And well, if I sing badly, anyone singing with me can only feel encouraged and become more confident! Always a plus.

So if you are good at singing, come join us as a karaoke missionary!!

Answer: "kara"means empty, "oke"is the shortened form for orchestra.

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Now playing: SMAP - Dear WOMAN
via FoxyTunes


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Now playing: smap - DAWN
via FoxyTunes

street live

There are talents like ants - that is, everywhere- in Tokyo.

It all started when JP, a Brazilian hip hop dancer who came to us for 4 days.
He was all ready to perform on the street, for Jesus.

We took him to places where we hope there will be people who would watch, then we talked to those who stopped and watched till the end.

From there, we realised it was so much easier to talk to the other street performers than trying to attract passerby.

These street musicians have excellent voices, great guitar playing, and a lot of passion and courage.

The 2 groups that we spoke to write their own songs. Beautiful, original melodies and moving lyrics.

It makes us want to cry listening to them.

God in heaven too is listening, and he wants them to sing for him too.

Thousand Leaves

"Are there more trees in Chiba than other parts of Japan?"
My sister asked.

"Hmmm...donno."
I answered.
"Maybe last time?" (last time: "in the past" in Singapore English)

Chiba Prefecture, where we have made our new home, is just outside Tokyo city and forms part of the Greater Tokyo area. The Chinese characters for Chiba, 千葉, literary means thousand leaves. A rather poetic name, don't you think?

What's more, the city we now live in is Nagareyama City -流山市; the name suggests flowing mountain streams.

Just writing about it conjures up images of black and white Chinese brush paintings.

In reality of course, it is nothing like that. South Nagareyama, where our apartment is situated, is a quite little suburb, nothing striking, nothing outstanding and slightly sleepy.

But you only need to drive a little distance to come into huge departmental stores and bright neon lights.

At the same time, we are never far from rice and vegetable fields.

It fascinates me that in metropolitan Tokyo, by the side of busy interchanges and expressways, one can suddenly spot somebody's vegetable farm or suddenly drive into what feels like rural Japan.

Wow, how you can talk!!

Coming back to Sapporo, the city where we first started learning our Japanese, and meeting again some of the people we knew after a 3-4 year break can be an interesting experience for both sides.

"Wah~! You can say so much now!"

"Wooo~! You used to be so quiet!"

"How your Japanese has improved!"

Are some common comments.

Suddenly people with whom we had hardly exchanged more than 10 words for a whole year in the past are talking to us like long lost friends.

The laughter, the sudden sense of friendship...starting now with people we knew years ago...

It's as though there's been some sort of a time slip, almost.
It's as though all the friendliness and love that's bottled up for years can finally find release.

What a wonder language is.
When we can speak the same language, love can spread its wings!

DVD technology in Japan

Recently we started researching on DVD recorders in Japan.

The technology is AMAZING.

It's the first time, for instance, that I saw anything with a 1TB hard disk...

Plus a whole lot of interesting features:

The machine displays the TV programme schedule and makes recording super simple.

Some of them have a card reader that can read your memory stick directly allowing you to down load photos, music etc. from and to your mobile phone, camera etc.

You can also edit your photos, make slide shows etc. on the DVD players.

The DVD recorder can be linked to your personal computers.

You can preset the machine to record your programmes by sending an email to it from your mobile phone.

You can set the machine to record a whole series and not have to miss any episode.

You can set the machine to record the first episode of every new season's drama and it will then ask if you want to record the rest of the series after you have watched the first episode.

The machine can automatically detect a delayed telecast or extra-time of a football/baseball match and record accordingly.

You can even key in keyword and the machine will record all programmes with this keyword -e.g. keyword: "Tom Cruise" and all programmes in which Tom Cruise appear will be recorded.

AND...some machines will even analyse the programmes you have been recording and automatically record the programmes that you might like!

What else will appear next? It's exciting to see how human innovation and imagination can come up with all sorts of possibilities we never dreamt of in the past.

Japanese service

I am clearing the snow on the steps of our apartment.

The sound of engine tells me that someone is here, and glancing up I see that it's the postman delivering letters to the downstairs apartment.

He then comes up the stairs I am in the process of clearing.

Is he going to us or the neighbour next door...I think idly to myself as I continue to throw snow from the stairs over the railing to the snow pile below.

He is right outside our door. Ah he will be down in a second. It doesn't take more time than that to slip a couple of letters through the slot in the door. So I am surprised when after a minute or so, he is still not coming down the stairs.

This time I look up and watch more closely. His finger is on our bell. I start to call out to him but Stanley has come to the door.

10 seconds later, the postman is down the stairs and gone.

Registered mail? Parcel delivery? What was that? I ask.

O no, just ordinary mail. Stanley replies. He just wanted to confirm that we are the right recipients since he has never delivered a mail with this name to this address before.

No wonder Japanese service ranks no. 1 in the world.

Of Snow

Even from Singapore, we heard news that Japan is having very little snow over the past winter.

"It hasn't snowed at all!" Everyone told us. Most are grateful for the relatively snow-free winter but some are concerned about what the environment is trying to tell us.

But 2 days after we arrive in Sapporo, it started to snow.

At first only slightly, then heavily and then even all day long for a couple of days.

People started clearing snow again.

Even Tokyo had its first snow this winter - in March, when everyone there is already celebrating the coming of Spring!

We were told it's all our fault, we brought the snow with us from.....Tropical Singapore!

chopping up garlic in winter?

It wasn't quite such a sudden switch from 31 degree C in tropical Singapore to sub-zero in Sapporo in Japan.

After all, we drove up from Narita Airport in the south, so had time to slowly get cold in the car...

And even in Sapporo, the temperature only dropped to below freezing on our third day there.

It was the dryness in the air that got us more. Despite almost drowning in moisturizer, our fingers are still cracking up like desert ground. Long deep lines of flesh peak from beneath the white dry skin. It's painful to wash one's hand or hold an apple, let alone chop up the garlic....

But it's great to be in Japan. Especially when Japanese friends say "Welcome back!"

Yes, we are happy, despite the dry skin and cracks in the fingers!

singapore

One Year Back Home

2006 Chinese New Year to 2007 Chinese New Year has been our one year back in Singapore.

O yes, we missed Japan - the food, the vibrant culture, the TV, movies and music scene and, more than anything else, our Japanese friends who have loved us so generously.

But wow! what a blessing it has been to be back too.

What great friends we have rediscovered, and what great friends have been made - in one short year.

We have enjoyed the informality and family atmosphere of Singapore.

We have enjoyed picking up new things and visiting new places.

We deeply appreciate our time with you -- thank you for receiving us into your midst so unreservedly.

You have made our one year back home flown by in the most enjoyable way!