A Good Start to 2014

First of all, sorry that it's been a while since I posted any cool pictures in this blog. Fact is I just haven't really taken any pictures as of late, but since I bought a new Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone the other week, I promise I will put forth an effort to take some pictures around Tokyo to post in this blog.

I blogged about random facts and about my 2014 goals recently, but I haven't really blogged about any specific things I've been doing, so that's what this blog is dedicated to. What the hell I've been up to. If I summed it up in 1 word 'work' it'd be quite accurate, but it wouldn't make for much of an interesting blog, so I'll expand on that 1 word a bit :)

I have definitely been very busy over the past month. I was actually quite bored for most of November and early December and spent a lot of time networking, meeting people, hanging out with friends etc, but middle-December things picked up big time and I've been extremely busy since. The most notable non-work things I've done were a karaoke party around Christmas, falling ill for nearly a week in between Christmas and new year due to a cold and falling ill for another half a week or so in January with an ear infection.

Language Link

The Language Link application's date of expected launch when development began was yesterday, the 21st of January, and we haven't launched yet. However, development completed a while ago and even most of the bug testing has finished. However some bugs remain surrounding certain Android models, which may take a little longer to fix. After all the bugs have been fixed, I will produce a little video, take screenshots and then submit it to the app store. Launch date will mostly depend on how quick we can fix those last few bugs. I don't think we'll make January, but I really hope we'll be able to launch in early February.

My work on Language Link consists partly of testing the application every time there is a new build and sending back feedback to the developer, but most of my time has been spent on the accompanying website. I've sort of soft-launched it and you can take a look around at:

http://www.languagelink.net/

You may notice that there's one bug left(list the articles based on popularity to see what I mean) that I want to get fixed before I start spreading the word about it. It's taken up quite a lot of time this month, but it's reaaaally close now.

On top of the website I've also been brainstorming a little bit about future Language Link products/services and I have a very good one on which I will get started very soon, as well as improvements for the 2nd versions of the website and application.

Qlear Entertainment

The project that I mentioned in my 2014 goals blog post that has the end goal of putting a building in Odaiba(bay area) has been renamed to Qlear Entertainment Project. I'm working together with 4 talented young individuals(and good friends) to make a name for ourselves in the entertainment industry.

This week we've started organizing a valentine's concert. Valentine is very soon and if there are any unforeseen setbacks we will not make it on time, but if that happens we will simply shift it back a little bit and organize an awesome concert in March. If we are able to pull it off for Valentine's though it will be a MASSIVE accomplishment!

After that first relatively small concert to get our feet wet we plan to organize much bigger events in Tokyo, Japan and Asia and plan to eventually become a big player in the market and leverage our position to build a building in Odaiba before the Olympics.

I've taken on the roll of manager, so I'm making sure we meet deadlines, everything runs smoothly, is well organized and so on, and I jump in whenever my help is needed somewhere. Fortunately enough I can rely on my talented friends to do a lot of work as well.

 

Fitness & Japanese

Except for the minor interruptions during the 2 periods where I was ill I've been crushing the gym pretty well. I'm in great shape and as time goes on I will improve and improve even further. This week is the last week of my breathing squat phase, which is a really fucking tough phase with sets of 20 squats with 80+ KG. Toughest exercise I've ever done. Deadlifts are going well too. I'm up to doing sets of 15 reps @ 138.5KG(300+ lbs ^_^ ), but I expect to top 140KG during my last workout of the week.

However, even though it's supposed to be really tough, my workouts are the most relaxing part of my day. There's nights where I don't sleep so well and I wake up really tired, but after I go to the gym I'm SUPER well rested and HYPER relaxed. During my workout it's no different. It's the only moment of the day my mind isn't racing with thoughts and it honestly feels like meditation. Super relaxing and right now I couldn't live without!

Japanese is going decent too. I'm too busy some days, but most days I watch some TV and I am brushing up on kanji knowledge. I want to do more reading though, so I will try and find more reading material soon. However, the fact that most Japanese books use way different (and tougher) vocabulary and kanji from what I'm used to doesn't help to make reading more interesting.

Other Stuff

Last week I got to eat Fugu for the first time and probably the last. I'm really happy I finally got a chance to try it, but to find out why I probably won't eat it again read my other blog here.

I mentioned I bought a new phone, I also bought a 13" Macbook Air, because my other laptop was too heavy and impossible to take with me around Tokyo. Haven't used it much yet, but compared to Windows it seems to have both disadvantages and advantages. Overall it seems a bit worse, but I may change my mind after using it more.

I think that about sums it up. I promise to do my best and take more pictures for my next blog! Hopefully by that time I'll have launched the application!



P.S. Awesome song:

2013 Funny Facts and a look back at 2013

So far 2014 has gone all right. I started off with 1 and a half weeks of insane productivity, but then caught an ear infection which took me 3-5 days to get over(and it still isn't 100%).

I looked forward at 2014 and posted about my goals in my last blog post, but I never really looked back at 2013 to see what I accomplished and at what my highlights were, so here goes. Lots of funny facts and a brief look back at 2013:

Travel

Countries visited: 7
UK, The Netherlands, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore.

Favorite Country(excluding Japan): Hong Kong

Flights: 12
Amsterdam -> Paris
Paris -> Haneda
Kansai -> Seoul
Seoul -> Narita
Narita -> Seoul
Seoul -> Amsterdam
Amsterdam -> Seoul
Seoul -> Narita
Narita -> Seoul
Seoul -> Singapore
Singapore -> Hong Kong
Hong Kong -> Narita

Favorite Airport: Seoul Incheon Airport
Clean, New, Smoothie King!
Worst Airport: Paris
I don't get lost... ever, except for Paris airport and everybody speaks French!
Best Airliner: Korean Air
Seats, Food, Price, Entertainment, Stewardesses, everything!
Worst Airliner: KLM
Food sucks, seats suck, I don't like speaking Dutch with people I don't know!

Food

Favorite Meal: Ukai Tei Yokohama
This meal was siiiiiiiick!
Favorite Meal Honorable Mention: Sushi close to Nagoya station
2nd best sushi ever after Sukiyabashi Jiro. Kind of want to go back to Nagoya in 2014 to eat here again!
Favorite Meal Honorable Mention #2: 37 Steakhouse Roppongi
Best steak of my life. Better than at Ukai Tei Yokohama, but the overall meal was just slightly less. Still epic though.
Worst Meal: In a tower in The Hague(The Netherlands).
The view on the ~40th floor was nice, especially considering it was in Holland, but half the menu being 'unavailable' today and the other half not being very good made this a bad meal I can't forget :(
Favorite Piece of Food: Foie Gras @ Ukai Tei Yokohama
Best piece of food I've EVER eaten. Better than sushi. It made me cry is how good it was... I literally couldn't speak for 1-2 minutes.
Favorite Cuisine: Sushi
No-brainer.
Favorite Cuisine Honorable Mention: Unagi
Always liked it, really got into it in the last 2 months.
Favorite Restaurant: Midori Sushi Ikebukuro Echika Shop
I've been here over 100 times in 2013. I used to go 3-4 times a week when I lived in west Ikebukuro and now that I live a bit farther away in east Ikebukuro I still go 1-2 times a week.

Tokyo

Favorite Area: Ginza
As much as I love Ikebukuro, Ginza has a slight edge. Marunouchi and Yurakucho also woow me every time I go there.
Worst Area: Roppongi
I don't like nightlife, so clearly I don't like Roppongi.
Favorite Cafe: Suzu Cafe #2 Shibuya
I found a better one the other day, but I only found out about it in 2014. This one in Shibuya is pretty awesome.
Favorite Starbucks: Omotesando B-Side Bldg
Good location, cool staff(although best staff is in Ueno station SB), power sockets and the other people who go here!

Other

Best Day: Fireworks in Setagaya!
Out of many awesome days and nights, this one was #1!!
Worst Day(s): The 14th of June, 3rd of October and the 18th of November
Can't pick one. If I had to, maybe the 3rd of October when I was feeling terrible from food poisoning.
Favorite Month: September
May and March were great too and August ranks 4th. But September was #1 with serious gymming, no illnesses, sweet productivity and many fun meetings/events etc.
Funniest moment: My friend sending some pictures to a girl with my cellphone. Unfortunately enough the pictures came from group chats with my Dutch high school friends and were... it's hard to properly describe them, but let's say they are not pictures you want to see when eating. Made for one hell of a laugh though :D
Biggest Pokerhand: The 250k HKD pot in Macau where I ended up splitting AAxx vs AAxx. I flopped a nfd though and the other guy an oesd!
Best Movie I hadn't seen before 2013: Helpless, Strange Circus and A New World.
Although surprisingly enough I didn't see any movies in 2013 that I'd rank in my top 25 all-time, I cannot pick a favorite movie I saw in 2013 out of these 3 absolutely amazing movies.
Best TV: Code Geass 1 & 2
Admittedly this is the only TV I watched in 2013, but this anime is so absolutely freaking fantastic that I rate it higher than all but 1 movie I've ever seen. The deep, complex themes in here are so plentiful it's crazy. It makes you think about the future of the human race, a 3rd world war, weapons of mass destruction, discrimination, friendship, betrayal, various forms of governments and many many more. Best of all, it's all packaged into an amazing series that never slows down, never has dull moments and sometimes multiple plot twists per episode. Even if you don't like anime, I highly recommend this!


Overall 2013 was a pretty good year. I didn't make that much progress in my life as in accomplishing things in poker or business, but I progressed a LOT in Japanese, learned a lot of things about certain social situations/dynamics and learned many other useful life lessons. Looking back at a year ago, it's pretty shocking how much wiser I feel like I am.

Another area that lacked a little bit was fitness. I only gave it my all towards the end of the year once I settled in Japan, but I got interrupted by having to leave Japan for a month and by a few injuries/illnesses, hopefully this will go better in 2014. On top of that I was traveling a lot more than I like to and busy moving to Japan which also explains the lack of progress with regards to poker/business etc. Now that I'm all settled in though that should be different in 2014.


Hopefully next time I update, I will have a launch date or very close estimation of the Language Link mobile application I'm developing! I'm hoping it will be this month, but it may end up being February.

2014 Goals and Motivation

First of all...

Happy new year!!!

I hope you all had very happy holidays and started off your 2014 in awesome ways today! If you need to get motivated to crush 2014, I suggest you watch either this Youtube video:

Or if you have 4 hours to spare, watch my new all-time favorite movie(I've seen well over 1000 movies), Ai no Mukidashi aka Love Exposure:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1128075/

Language Link

Somebody asked me to explain exactly what I'm trying to do with Language Link. On the about page of the website I'm about to launch I'm explaining it as follows:

If you're learning a new language, there are a lot of things you will need on your journey towards fluency. A lot of these needs are fulfilled by great websites, applications, courses and such, but they are scattered across the internet. Some needs however, are not fufilled at all or in a way that can be improved upon.

Our aim at Language Link is to create a central hub for language leaners, fulfill their unfufilled needs and improve existing language learning resources wherever possible. To accomplish this, we will leverage the knowledge of veteran language learners and teachers over the coming years to create innovations that will make learning easier and more fun for students and teaching simpler and more efficient for teachers.

Basically I'm trying to create more clarity in the language learning market. One place where everything is crystal clear and language learners can go to find everything they need. Be it links to great products by other companies or my own products.

For now I'm focussing on creating a community around my company first through the website and through the language exchange application. The language exchange application I believe will fill the need that every language learner has to practice. I'm making that available for free. After I gain traction and get a big user base of language learners, I plan to offer them other products that will help them achieve their language learning goals.

The website should hopefully be done for a soft-launch in about a week or maybe 2. The application is officially scheduled for launch on the 21st, but it could possibly take until early-February.

Odaiba Project

I believe I've mentioned this project before, but never said much about it. Well here goes:

Before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics I and a few others plan to build a building in the Tokyo bay area.

For now, I'll just say that we have a plan involving a number of milestone steps along the way to build a building in Odaiba, the Tokyo bay area, before the 2020 olympics. The building will focus on entertainment. It's a massive project and I'm sure there'll be many challenges along the way, but nothing is impossible and I think we can do it! The first milestone is a valentine's concert planned for February. Exciting stuff!

 2014 Goals

So next up it's time to set some goals for 2014, well actually the time for that was yesterday and so I did, but since I'm updating my blog today, I'm sharing them with the world today. Here's a few of the biggest goals I have for 2014. Some harder than others, but I'm determined to achieve every one of them:

A net worth of 1.000.000$

This will presumably come from Language Link for the most part. So I better work my ass off to build the company as fast as I can over the next year. Application launch in January, market it like crazy, add some extra features and also before mid-2014 have something else ready to start generating revenue for the company. Then in the 2nd half, build upon the momentum I gained in the 1st half and build it big enough to boost my net worth into 7 figures for the first time in my life.

Understand Japanese TV

I live in Japan, but nonetheless I don't use all that much Japanese. I need to make a conscious effort to start using Japanese as much as I can, because I can't improve that much anymore from studying with textbooks. My work is effectively entirely in English, so I will have to get it from non-work activities. I may like Korean movies better, but I'll just have to man up and watch Japanese entertainment and TV instead. By the end of 2014, I want to be able to turn on a Japanese TV and understand 90% of what is going on.

Look like a fitness model

Even if it made me look butt-ugly I may still be going to the gym. I just freaking love it and would be significantly less happy without it. While I'm at it, I may aswell set a goal to motivate myself. This is it. At the end of 2014, I want to look like a fitness model, albeit be it one of the healthy ones and not the unhealthily thin steroid guys.

Complete Sea to Summit in under 15 hours (including the climb down)

I have still not decided 100% I'll do this, but I will decide sometime in the next 3 months. I've always wanted to compete in some insane physical challenge and this seems like a crazy, awesome, over-the-top one that will allow me to try and prove every sane person who will say it can't be done wrong. If I do it, it'll also include running a sub 3:15 marathon as part of training!

Sea to Summit by the way is an event where you go from the sea of Japan to the summit of Mount Fuji in about 24 hours(48km uphill hike and then climbing Fuji). Most people struggle to complete it in 24 hours, I want to complete it in under 13ish hours, so that I have enough time to get back down and get to bed before I start getting too sleepy ;)

Basically... I will simply crush 2014 and make it my best year ever!!

If at any point anyone feels like I'm slacking off even in the slightest, please tell me I'm a lazy bastard and that I need to get back to work!!!

Do you have any goals for 2014? If so, please post them in a comment. I'd love to hear about them and see if you can complete yours before the end of the year!

Little Update

I haven't been taking too many pictures as of late, because I haven't been to that many pictureworthy places, but here's a few from 2 events I went to recently:

Roppongi Hills Tower

These are from an event in the Roppongi Hills Arena where a good friend of mine was a guest speaker.

The guy in front and the one on the far right I met that night. The remaining four are me and three friends with me being the 2nd from the left.

Awesome picture that was taken after a friend did an awesome, superinspirational presentation on the importance of learning English for Japanese people.

Besides these 2 events, I've mostly spent time with friends, met a few cool new people and I recently got a chance to play futsal. I was the only person spending 10+ hours per week in the gym, so it was a little onesided, but I had a ton of fun nonetheless!

Business is still going smooth. The application is being made and should be done in about 5-6 weeks. The accompanying website is nearing completion aswell and will probably be done in about a week or maybe 2 tops. So pretty soon it's time to get the marketing strategy together. It's about time things would get a little busier, because I've been relatively bored as of late.

The gym's still going great aswell except for a week I had to take full rest, because of a shoulder injury. It seems to have fully recovered though so I'm back at it now. Even though I'm doing a very intense 6 days/week 2 hours/workout program, it's pretty relaxing for me. I've noticed that it takes very little mental effort on my part to complete the training, because I've become completely numb to the pain it takes to push my muscles to failure. The only moment that's actually hard is the cardio, where I can push really hard, which is probably why cardio has become my favorite part of my workouts.

I'm also toying with the idea of doing the Sea to Summit challenge in 2014. It's a yearly event where participants go from the Sea in Japan to the top of Mount Fuji in 24 hours. They start at dawn and reach the peak 24 hours later so they can see the sun rise. It's a 48KM hike with an average incline of 5% and at the end you have to climb Fuji to the peak.
The only issue for me is that I don't deal well with not sleeping. On top of that I kind of like a physical challenge so I'm thinking of doing it MUCH faster in like 13-14 hours, so I can get back down and quickly get to a bed and get a good night's sleep. It seems doable... somewhat, but INSANELY hard. Which sounds like fun to me, so I may decide to go for this.
The event is in July so after I finish my gym program in sometime March I may start training like a madman and try to do this. Should allow me to cross of another thing off of my bucket list while I'm at it which is running a marathon. But I'd want to run it in a good time, like sub 3 hours 15 minutes or something sounds like a nice target to aim for. Exciting stuff!

I also spent a lot more time thinking about life and happiness. I've come to understand parts of myself better and learned a few valuable lessons. On top of that I seem to have somehow fixed something that had been bothering me for a long time(maybe too early to tell for certain), although I'm not sure how I did it. However, thinking all of it over... none of the thoughts really seem significant/interesting enough in retrospect to share. I'm sure I'll blog about this subject again at some point in the future though.

Last but not least, I recently ate this delicious Unagi:
Best Unagi I've ever had

短期幸せの研究

This is the Japanese translation of my last blog!

このブログは九月のブログの続きであると言える。九月には何で偶に落ち込んだかを調べてた。
http://frankiestyn.blogspot.jp/2013/09/dissecting-my-own-psyche.html


最近何か気に成って来た。どうすれば将来に幸せに成るかにずっと気を付けてる。どうすれば将来に幸せに成るかそんなに複雑ではない。俺は何を達成したいかゴールにして、そのゴールを遂げる為に頑張る。

最近どうすれば短期で幸せを受けられるかに気を付けて来た。一日中嬉しいっていう事。凄く嬉しくて気合が入ってる期間もちょっと悲しくて気合を持ってない期間もある事に数ヶ月前気付いた。嬉しくて気合が入ってる期間を好むので、原因を調べようとし始めた。
ちなみに最近気付いたにも関わらず最近始まった事である訳ではない。プロポーカープレーヤーとして働いていたとも念がこう振れてた。もっともっと振れてたかも。あの時にポーカーの結果と結構親しく連係されてた。この理由で大体の人にプロポーカープレーヤーに成らないのをおすすめする。自分の幸せは百パーセント管理を出来ない事に依って振れるんだね。
さて何があってるかを調べ始めたら、何か気付いた。栄枯盛衰は世の習い。変わらないって思うくぜに、どうして偶に気が入ってないか原因に対して何かを発見出来ると思った。自分の人生を観察すると全然分からないから。俺の解決は短期幸せの研究！

 最もプライベート部分を除く

毎日の終わりには当日を一から五まで格付けして、この下に書いてある事を記す。

-なんである格付けをした。

-当日の最高の瞬間。

-当日の最低の瞬間。

-し直せるとしたら、何を変えるか？何を別にするか？

発見したことがある：

１）友達に会うとたいてい嬉しい。普通の日と違うし、交流が好きだし。

２）非生産的とか時間を無駄にするのが大嫌い。他の事をしたかった気持ちは良い気持ちではないから。

その上、数回はある事件の所為で数日から一週間位まで嬉しくなくなちゃった。かなり複雑でそんなに多くの事件をまだ書き記してないんだけど、絶対に気を付けて続ける。

一昨日と昨日はなんとか結構面白かった。良い日に成るはずだったけど、気がまあまあだった。理由は良く分からない。この間肩を怪我したので、運動を出来なかったからかもしれない。運動をするのが大好きだし、日課が変わったし。

他の気付いた事は今嬉しいかどうかに気を付け過ぎるのが自分を嬉しくなくする可能性。人生は永世じゃない事を分かってて、全部の瞬間を楽しみたいけど、そんなに気に成ってたらあまり楽しめない。リラックスすべきかな。

ここから人生の目的について説学出来るが、何れまたする。

他の資してる要素もあるかなと思ってるけど、このブログで相談しない。最も親しい友達はちょっと分かるかもしれなく、一人の人は絶対に分かってる。ちょっと複雑で俺もちょっと分からない事だ。

 是非研究をし続ける。どうして将来に幸せに成るかよく分かるんだけど、短期幸せについてもどんどん分かる様に成ると素敵だと思う！

日本語に翻訳出来た！！！ \(^o^)/

Short Term Happiness Research

(This is somewhat of a continuation of a blog I posted in September, where I was trying to figure out why I was feeling a bit down/sluggish sometimes)
http://frankiestyn.blogspot.jp/2013/09/dissecting-my-own-psyche.html


I've been thinking about something as of late. I've always paid a lot of attention to doing things that will lead to an awesome life in the future and thus hopefully longterm happiness. It's not too hard to know what to do to achieve longterm happiness and (although somewhat harder) it's not that hard to actually achieve longterm happiness either. I simply set goals I want to achieve and I work hard to get there.

Something I've been paying more attention to as of late is day-to-day happiness. Being happy right here right now in this moment. A couple of months ago I started to notice and pay more attention than before to the fact that I'd have periods where I was really happy and motivated and periods where I was not as happy and motivated. Prefering the happy and motivated periods, I set out to try and figure out what was going on.
A little footnote is that although I recently starting paying more attention to this, it's certainly not something new. I had swings like this just as much if not way more as a professional poker player where they were closely linked to how well I was doing in poker. Which is why I wouldn't recommend the professional poker lifestyle to all that many people, because your happiness is somewhat dependant on something that is not 100% in your control and it can be REALLY hard to deal with.
Anyway, when trying to figure out what was going on with my moodswings I realised, there'll probably always be ups and downs, that's the way life is. Nonetheless I felt like I should be able to figure out some causes as to why I was feeling a little down sometimes, because when I take a step back and look at my life I don't see why I would ever be down, unless maybe I am ill and in pain. So what I decided to do was, conduct research on my day-to-day happiness. Here's what I did:

 I had to cut out certain extremely private parts

At the end of each day before I go to bed I rate each day a number from 1 to 5 and write down:

-Why I rated it the way I did.

-The very best moment of my day.

-The very worst moment of my day.

-What I'd do differently if I could relive the day.

I've been doing this to try and gain some insight in what makes me happy on a day to day basis and why my moods have been swinging. There's some days missing here and there. A bunch when I fell seriously ill at the start of October and then about a month's worth when I was abroad. I really wish I would've done it during my travels too, because it could've given me valuable insight. A couple others recent ones are missing too. Mostly unproductive and kind of unhappy days where I didn't bother filling it in. The 18th of November(didn't fill it in) is the only day so far I'd rate a 1 in the past 3 months, although being very ill on the 3rd of October came very close aswell.

Overall I definitely think I am seeing some trends:

1) Whenever I meet with friends I generally have a good day. These days stand out from other days. They're not so monotomous and I guess I also just really enjoy socializing.

2) Being unproductive and wasting time pisses me off tremendously. The feeling I'd have liked to have done other things with my precious time is not a happy feeling.

Also I'm not sure yet, but there's been a few events that caused me to be unhappy for a couple of days up to a week. These are too complicated and I don't have enough of them yet to draw any conclusive evidence, but I'll definitely keep on monitoring these, because I think they may be the(or at least a) key to what I'm looking for.

Yesterday and today have also been quite interesting. For the most part they had all the ingredients to be good days, but overall my mood has been so-so. I'm not exactly sure why. One very possible cause is not being able to workout. I still have the muscle in my left shoulder/upper back that needs to rest for a couple of more days. The muscle doesn't bother me much during the day so it's not the cause of unhappiness, but it's not 100% yet so I couldn't go to the gym. This may have caused me to be less happy, because I enjoy the gym and because of a change of routine and maybe slight lack of structure.
Another thing I realised today while I was analyzing my own psyche on the train is that possibly paying so much attention to whether I'm happy or not is not good for my happiness. I guess I realise life is not forever and time is valuable and I want to consciously enjoy as much of it as I can and I don't want it to be over before I realise it. But doing so and focussing too much on enjoying things may make me enjoy those very things less. Just going with the flow and relaxing a bit more may be a good thing here.

I could probably go on a rant about the meaning of life here, but let me save that for some other time.

One other possible contributing factor is one I won't share with you in this blog. Some of the people closest to me may have some sort of clue what I'm talking about and 1 person knows me so well that this person knows without a doubt what I'm talking about. It's a bit complicated and it may or may not be contributing. I'm not sure.

Anyway, I'll keep up the research and hopefully learn even more things about what makes me happy on a day-to-day basis. I feel like I have the long-term happiness thing down quite well, hopefully I can master the short-term, day-to-day happiness aswell!

I was planning on translating this blog into Japanese aswell for practice, but I've already spent a decent bit of time on this. I may translate it tomorrow or something, because it's bound to be a good exercise. May take me quite a while though! But 哲学 is always interesting, so I may give it a shot.

Quicky

This'll be a quick one, because I don't feel like I have that much to talk about. Reason being that I haven't been up to all that much as of late. Especially as far as business goes, I haven't had to do any work on the application. Development is coming along nicely with no hick-ups, so it's just a waiting game. The accompanying website has had hick-ups, the guys doing it have been bug-fixing for over a month now and every time they fix one there's 3 others that pop up. It feels like the coding is absolutely terrible and thus I'm going to have the same team who's building the application build a website. Fortunately enough a fairly small project, so now that it's in the hands of competent people it should be done pretty soon.

The lack of things to do has made me pretty unproductive. I'm not 100% sure, but I think I work more efficiently, harder and am happier in life when I am busy and have a ton of stuff to do. Maybe because I have to work harder to get everything done? Fortunately enough the JLPT N2 test yesterday kicked my butt and made me realise how terrible I still am at Japanese, thus I got motivated again to work my ass off at Japanese and many other things. I refocussed on my goals and what it is I want to accomplish in the next 5-10 years and hopefully that will keep me busy the rest of the year and next year.

Gym's been going fairly well, until sometime last week when I stretched/injured a muscle in my left shoulder/upper back. It's nothing serious, but kind of annoying. I thought it was mostly gone yesterday and completely gone today, so I went to the gym today, but 2/3 of the way through my workout I felt it again, so decided to be safe rather than sorry and skip the rest. I'll take tomorrow off again and maybe Wednesday aswell. Don't like it, but not much else I can do.

Last, but not least I recently visited Tokyo's #14 restaurant and one of Japan's top 50 restaurants and blogged about it in my food blog. Here's the link:

http://tokyofoodjournal.blogspot.jp/2013/11/1-michelin-star-french-food-at-one-of.html

That's it, I hope to get more done in the next few weeks so I have more to blog about next time!

Here's a picture of the first prototype of the mobile app: