Hey all,
Wow. I can't believe it's been more than a year since I've updated my blog! It feels really ashamed that I haven't put any efforts into updating it!
Eventhough I've been hiatus for a long time, all this time I'm still paying attention to Shogi news, play Shogi games in my phone and even practice few tsume problems. Although it still saddens me that I might not have the strength of 2-dan anymore (unless someone's willing to spark the fire in me once again. lol).
To be honest, I'm going to graduate soon and my life will be move into the working society once I graduated. Now that I have a serious love relationship, it's really time for me to think about working hard in my career and create a beautiful family with my girlfriend. lol.
Anyways enough about my personal life. Now let's talk about Shogi. Before I begin, I would like to thank all the readers out there for supporting me and have some faith with me. Now that I'm approaching my "working life", I'm sad and depressed that I had to forsake the dream of becoming a professional (although I am still seriously considering of becoming a teaching professional in my later life. lol). If I were single, I would definitely move to Japan after my studies in Melbourne and try to aim for the top. But as a Chinese (I'm not Japanese, mind you! lol), it is in my nature to be responsible to take care of my family (including potential future family members.). Also as a man, I cannot bear the thought of abandoning my family so I can pursue my dreams in Japan. There are always sacrifices in having a relationship, and I'm sure I won't regret this decision.
To be frank with everyone, I did not create this blog to be famous. The main reason why I created this blog is because I want to express my love and experiences in Shogi. The posts are also created to serve as a self-reflecting journal, so that if one day I looked back at all my past blog entries I would reminisce the good old times and also how I could further improve my skills. The secondary purpose of this blog is to share my experiences with everyone in the world. I want people to feel the joy and love that I've felt from Shogi and hope that others could start playing Shogi to enjoy it. As a normal person, I want to show people the proof that you can improve your skills in Shogi if you worked hard, like I did. I sometimes would get comments from people that I'm a prodigy or I'm a genius that's why I'm so good at Shogi. I was never good at chess (or any other variations) in my whole life! I'm not exactly a bright student either in my studies too (average about 65%). I want people to see that the sole reason why I got strong in Shogi is because of effort, time, hard-work and passion that I've put into learning Shogi and as a result I improved my skills. If a normal average person like me can become a Dan player, I believe you can do it too. It wasn't an exaggeration that I used to spend at least 8 hours per day every single day reading Japanese Shogi books, which I don't understand most of the Japanese words (although I only knew how to read the kifus. lol). Anyways, I am still trying my best to improve my skills (as I really love playing against tough opponents), but not for the sake of becoming a professional. I just want to improve my skills as much as I could.
Shogi definitely has a major impact in my life that I really hope I could return the favor. Therefore, in this post, I would like to discuss that from this post onward, future blog posts will not be solely focusing on my Shogi experiences. I will start interviewing people about their Shogi experiences and how it had impacted their life. I would also review Shogi books (if I have the chance to complete them in a short time), and I 'might' post about my afterthoughts of current professional games. However, I will not post about latest Shogi news as I believe Takodori (http://shogi.typepad.jp/eweblog/) and Yamajunn (http://yamajunnshoginews.blogspot.com.au/) has covered up the news very well. I usually read latest news from their blogs and I certainly do not want to take all their credit and post their news in my blog. I am highly interested in sharing my Shogi friends' experiences, especially Shogi promoters, so that in the future people could easily look for their contact information. I really think that they should take credit for spending alot of time and effort to promote Shogi in their country (or state) and yet does not gain the recognition they deserve.
Here's a summary of the topic I will covered in future blog posts:
1. Personal Shogi experiences
2. Advertisement of Shogi events (depending on where I'm currently located)
3. Interviews of Shogi players (especially promoters, or inspiring players)
4. Shogi book reviews and thoughts
5. Shogi improvement suggestions for beginners (won't be posting much about this)
6. Personal views and thoughts about interesting Shogi articles
7. Personal thoughts about current professional games (not sure I will be doing this or not)
Thanks for reading and I hope to see you again in the next post!
Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu!
Regards,
Ryou Takehito
3 comments:
Dear Ryou,
I think that you should go all out in pursuit of your dreams. Sure, you should take care of your family, but that doesn't mean that you have to let go of your dreams.
DON'T COMPROMISE ON EITHER. You could conceivably take care of your family and fulfill your dreams by not having that beautiful family with your girlfriend, but if you really love her that much, then I suppose that you should be happy wherever you are with her. Just don't regret that you have chosen to stay here in Malaysia when you are older. After all, we move to other countries because we can make a better living there, or the education opportunities there are better for our children (now THAT's commitment on behalf of a parent), etc. However, if you don't want to take the risk, then don't step out of this country. Whatever the case, do remember that you should make such a weighty choice carefully. The country that you live in WILL have a great impact on your future socioeconomic condition, and hence your happiness (unless you are a monk who is satisfied with only sipping mountain dew and chanting mantras. In that case, I have nothing to say. LOL).
Thank You.
Yours Sincerely,
A Young (well, probably younger than you since I'm not even considering a girlfriend) Boy.
Dear Young Boy,
I think you've mistaken what I'm trying to say. I'm staying in Malaysia for the sake of marrying my girlfriend! lol.
And after I retired from working, I do not plan to stay in Malaysia because:
1) There are too little Shogi players in Malaysia
2) There are many strong Shogi players in Japan that I can play with
3) After I retired, I could still become a teaching professional in Japan, which at least has a demand there, unlike Malaysia.
And also, I am a responsible person. I don't want to start my life in Japan with little income just to barely feed myself. Probably because you're a young boy, you haven't realise the heavy responsible that an adult carries.
Anyways, thanks for your support, but I haven't fully let go of my dream. Eventhough I'm not aiming to be a professional, today I made up my mind to be one of the strongest amateur player in the world! Haha. Thanks to that resolve I was able to concentrate ten times better than before! lol.! I'm going to become so strong that no one can even touch my king! =)
PS: I am also half a monk as I am very religious and faithful to my religion that chant mantras at least 4 hours per week. lol! I'm serious.
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