Happy Japanese New Year!

Hey hey hey all!

First of all I would like to wish all the Japanese happy new year! I'm not sure whether today's a new year for Japanese because the Japan Club Kuala Lumpur (JCKL) held a new year festival today! It was a blast! I've never seen so many Japanese in my life! But the main reason why I went to JCKL is to apply membership for the Shogi club. Now I'm officially a member of the Shogi Club of JCKL and I'm really hoping to play more Shogi and learn new stuffs from them! The Japanese in Shogi Club was surprised that I know how to play Shogi (since I was a chinese and the only non-japanese guy who knows how to play Shogi) and they arrange a few games with me against a kid of about 7 kyu. Amazingly I've obtained victory over the kid for all the four games. The adults felt impressed of me and arrange a game with me against an adult of rank 1-kyu. The game lasted for about an hour and I achieved another victory! WOOHOO! But the thing is I made a few mistakes in the game and I think he purposely go easy against me. I should have copied down the notes so I can research the game now. and learn his and my mistakes. However they said I'm very strong and even asked me to challenge the president of the club, which has a rank of 5-Dan! 5-Dan!? Are you crazy? I'll probably get beaten out of the crap by him! Tired and scared of the challenge, I reject them. To be honest, I really want to test my skills against him but I'll probably do that next time. Anyways it was a great festival in JCKL. I hope to attend more festivals in the future.

Alright, I'm really tired after four Shogi games (against the 7-kyu kid) and one not-too-stressful Shogi game (against 1-kyu adult). I really need to rest now. I'll probably wake up in the middle of the night to learn Shogi again. Until next week, bye!

Regards,

Ryou Takehito