Sorry that I didn't update regularly during my stay in Beijing. This is because I thought I get to use the internet in the hotel. And also I didn't know that the camera I've borrowed from my relative could only take 12 photos! So I didn't take too many photos! =( *Ahem* Anyways are you ready for a very lengthy talk about Shogi? Here goes!
FIRST DAY OF AISEP
On the first day of AISEP, I have to get up around 4.45am so I can took a cab ride at 6.00am. Reached airport around 7am and check myself in. I found myself reaching the airport too early so I've decided to take a few photos about the cool architecture I've seen...
I personally think it's cool that the steel bars are used to surround the trees. Anyways by the time I'm done fascinating at these great architecture it's finally time for me to board my airplane. BTW, look at this very cool TV!
It takes about 6 hours to fly to Beijing from Malaysia. So basically to waste all those 6 hours, I spend the first few hours sleeping. Couldn't get a comfortable sleep I've decided to watch the movie that they aired in the airplane. "Jumper", eventhough I've watched the movie twice I've decided to watched it again to kill the boredom. Thank god the movie last two hours so else I could have start screaming boredom in the airplane like a mad chicken.
Beijing International Airport is weird. After the airplane had landed, it actually circle around the tracks for about 15min! I mean I want to get off the airplane already! Stop driving around the tracks you dumb airplane! Right, as soon as I get off the airplane I actually found someone holding a sign written "AISEP" as I walked past the entrance to retrieve my luggage. I actually giggled because it looked a little silly holding the sign standing there. Without wasting any time I quickly retrieve my luggage and approach the man holding the sign.
He is Stephen, a Beijing guy who can actually speak Japanese! When I first approach me he actually speak English to me. Seeing that he has a lot of difficulty speaking English, I told him he could speak Chinese but he still continue to speak English anyway. ^^
By talking to Stephen, I found out that I was the last person from AISEP who landed in Beijing! We quickly catch a cab and proceed to our destination. It takes about 45 min to reach JingLun Hotel. And can you imagine that there is a traffic jams on the airport highway? And we Malaysians always complain that our traffic jams are terrible. Looks like Beijing bests us.
I found that the architecture in Beijing are really amazing! I wished I could have taken more photos about it! (I couldn't because I can only take 12 photos, remember?) Then we reached JingLun Hotel, drop my stuffs and luggage in the room bla bla bla and then walked to the Japan Foundation to begin our introduction among ourselves.
BTW, this is the photo I've taken before the presentation started. This is the view taken from inside of Japan Foundation...
Great architecture, isn't it? And this is the internal view of Japan Foundation...
Everyone is just chilling out till the presentation could begin. It's really great that there are about 20 people joining AISEP. Let's see.. um... ten Japanese, one Singaporean, one Malaysian (that's me, duh!), one French, one Hong Kong and six Beijing. Wait... maybe I counted wrongly. Nevermind. Presentation went smooth and well and then when everything's done we're off to dinner!
YUM! YUM! Doesn't it look delicious? I hate to admit it but I personally did not enjoy my dinner. Why? Because I'm very picky about food and all these food have some sort of strange taste. But I'm very sure the rest of the people enjoy their dinner alot.
And the ones behind this AISEP guy...
Yup, like I said, there's around 20 people so we occupied two long tables for dinner!
Kazuki and Chen (not sure of the real name) . Kazuki is actually a very cool and cute guy. I bet that a lot of girls would probably go after him. LOL. As for Chen, I think he has been playing Shogi ever since he was seven. But I've never played a game against him so I don't really know how strong he is. Hmm...
After the dinner we went back to the hotel and it's SHOGI TIME! WOOPEE DOO! I actually have four games that night. against Japanese. All I could say is they're really really strong! Obviously they're strong, they're about three or four dan! And I'm even playing against the female amateur Meijin! They sure did beat the crap out of me! And we kept playing Shogi until 3am and we have to wake up at 6.30am...
SECOND DAY OF AISEP
Woke up at 6.30am, bath, eat breakfast in the hotel's restaurant and then we went back to Japan Foundation to do a presentation about Shogi in our own country. Well, they expected me to talk about Shogi in Malaysia and since Shogi is not very well known in Malaysia so I've decided to talk about my encounter with Shogi. I don't think I'm going to mention it again because it's going to be super lengthy if I did. I've already mention about my first encounter with Shogi in my previous journal anyway. =P Then when noon arrives we took a bus and went to a restaurant called "WAHAHA". Yes, I don't know how Chinese could get more and more creative with names. But I have to say that their food was fantastic! I sure help myself to the food alot! After filling our stomach to it's fullest, we once again took a bus and went somewhere near the Olympic Stadium!
Gorgeous isn't it? And a few pictures taken around the Olympic Stadium...
This is a very weird building. Nevertheless a few group photos...
After a few good shots near Olympic Stadium our next destination is Yuan Tan Park to see a bunch of old men playing Xianqi, cards and even Go! Everyone in AISEP is highly interested in them playing Chinese Chess, while I personally find Xianqi boring. So instead I went and have a look at them playing Go. It was quite fun looking at people playing Go. After half an hour later it's time to meet our legendary man -
It's Mr. Habu Yoshiharu! One of the strongest Shogi player in the world and have magnificent strategies up his sleeve! He actually have a small tour around the chess institute. Here's more photos of him:
This picture is a little blur...
It was truly a dream come true to see him AND....
My photo taken with him! OH MY GOD! I sound just like a fangirl. EEEKKKK! He looks so cute and handsome. LOL. After some few photo shoots with Mr. Habu we return back to our hotel for a grand party!
We actually have a lot of Japanese guests at our party and this party was to commemorate the success of AISEP and we have to dress very formal for a very high class party. Here's a picture of me and my friends...
After having my dinner, I once again approach Habu and...
let him signed on my Shogi board! WOOHOO! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! After that we actually get to have a small talk session with Mr. Habu! =D
Below are some questions that I have personally asked Mr. Habu:
Me: Why do you want to become a professional Shogi player and what motivates you to continue playing Shogi?
Habu: Well, I started playing Shogi when I was a little kid and because I love Shogi a lot and without giving too much thoughts and consideration I just became a professional Shogi player by the time I have realised it. So what motivates me to continue playing Shogi is I'm looking forward to see new kinds of tactics or strategies I would discover during my title match. That itself could motivates me to continue playing Shogi alot.
Me: Instead of dreaming to become a professional Shogi player, is there any other dreams that you have ever thought of?
Habu: Well, we all have different sorts of dreams. But if you're talking about recently, about six or seven years ago I've dreamt of becoming a baseball player.
Me: So do you have any dreams that you hope to achieve in the future?
Habu: Well, when I was around 17 years old I was playing against a 60's year old Shogi player. Normally we, as professional players, have to take up some time to make our next move however he could just instantly play a move with accuracy and strength. He doesn't need to waste any time at all to think of how to response to my move. So I really do hope I can achieve capabilities like his in the future which I don't need to waste any time for my next move.
I'm sure I asked more but I couldn't remember. Anyways one more photo taken with him:
Again a photo shoot with him and his weird but cute smile. Awww...
Finally we have a group photo shoot and once again we return back to our rooms only to play Shogi throughout the night again till 3.30am! EHEHEHEHE!
PS: BTW, Beijing roasted duck is FULL OF WIN!
THIRD DAY OF AISEP
Woke up at 6.30am, bath, eat breakfast in the hotel's bla bla bla but this time we have to go to Japan Foundation and set up the chairs for an interview with Mr. Habu. Here's the link about Mr. Habu's talk. You can actually see me in there! ^^ Just click on the button/words just right below the picture.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/k10014965821000.html#
After a few hours of talk from Mr. Habu, we clean up the place, eat our bento lunch and prepare for our final presentation about why chess is interesting. After the presentation and everything we went to a restaurant to celebrate our great success. We have tons of fun and games to play. Kazuki is really great person to lead us to play games together. Without him, we would probably be a bunch of quiet people keeping to ourselves. He's a really great guy. As our last night, do I have to say more? We proceed to play Shogi of course! But this time I did not sleep. We even did some present exchanges.
END OF AISEP
Because Erwann, the french guy who was 1-Dan, couldn't speak chinese and he have a flight around the same time as me, I was asked to guide him to the airport. Before leaving the hotel we give our thanks and gratitude to Mr. Kazuma, the host of this event and left for the airport. We have a lot of chat together and once we check ourselves into the airport I had one last Shogi against one of the members of AISEP - Erwann. I mean he's 1-Dan! How can I possibly defeat him and to make things worst we're not playing handicapped games! But it's alright, I said to myself, all I have to do is try my best. From my experience, the reason for most of my losses is because I'm not very strong in joseki (openings) or how to tackle them so I have decided to destroy his joseki and bring us into unknown territory.Without basic joseki, we have to use our mind to think of good strategic way of defeating each other. I'm very sure I could have lose to him until he exchange his rook with my gold. I even landed a lucky chance to place my bishop into his territory so I can instantly promote my Bishop to a Horse. Eventhough I have a lot of advantages in my hand but it's going to take a lot of luck to strike into his base. So I have decided to wait for him to make a mistake. Since we're playing an unknown opening, it's very hard to decide how to advance our attack. I didn't advance my attack because I don't know how so I just sit back and wait. At the same time I'm very cautious how I should move my piece so my base wouldn't be a weak spot for a rook drop from his hands. Finally he made a mistake and I proceed to checkmate him. It's just me being lucky I guess. So my results of playing Shogi during my stay in Beijing is 1 win and 7 losses? Finally we shook hands with each other and I promise him that someday we'll have a battle against each other in international tournaments.
Because I didn't have any good sleep, I slept through my flight and when I do reach home I actually slept for 18 hours! There you have it. My report on AISEP.
Presents
Below are some of the presents I've received from the members of AISEP...
A calligraphy and a fan from a 7-Dan professional Shogi player. I think I'll cherish the fan alot and will use it when playing Shogi against someone.
A magnetic Chinese Chess from a rather cute and nice lady. Thanks for the prezzie!
Two Shogi magazines given by those kind and nice Japanese people!
A Tsume Shogi book (Mating problems) given by a very very cute Japanese girl. She said that her father was actually the one who wrote Shogi Paradise (the name of this book). Thank you very much!
A magnetic Shogi set given by another cute and beautiful Japanese girl. Thanks to her I don't have to go through the trouble looking for magnetic Shogi set. Now I can play Shogi everywhere! WAHAHAA! THANKS ALOT FOR THIS SET!
Lastly my most prize possession....
A very expensive Shogi pieces given by Mr. Kazuma! If I'm not mistaken this actually cost more than US$100? Anyways it's a really really REALLY good Shogi pieces. I'm going to treasure it alot and hope I won't use it unless for competition. Best present receive ever. I did reject accepting this gift from Mr. Kazuma but he still insist giving it to me. Thanks alot Kazuma! *Huggles Kazuma* Kore wa saiko! saiko = greatest.
After AISEP?
So what am I going to do for the rest of the holidays? Well, the usual. Playing Shogi throughout the night and hope I can achieve 1-Dan in less than half a year. And just now I was asked to promote Shogi on 27th July from Japan Club. I do hope more local Malaysians will be interested in playing Shogi after the Japan Fair on 27th July. I'm also thinking of contacting Japan Shogi Association regarding about the Shogi lessons that they have in Malaysia. For the time being I'm just chilling out and relax!
Anyways I would like to say a few words to all the members of AISEP:
Thanks for all the things and stuffs you have done! I'm really really glad I have met everyone in Beijing. You all are the best! I hope I can get to see you all again next year or sometime later in the future! Anyways I wish you all good luck in life and may angels watch over you while you're lonely or sad! Once again thanks for everything!
Regards,
Ryou Takehito
PS: I'll post more photos about my journey in AISEP as I receive photos from other members of AISEP so look forward to it!
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