Kota Kinabalu water sports

For spring break my family and I went to Kota Kinabalu. Kota Kinabalu is a city in the state of Sabah which is in the country of Malaysia on the island of Borneo. If you don't know where Borneo is then look at the map below.

My favorite part was the water sports the hotel offered. (These all came with life jackets.) This is the order of my favorite to least favorite.

1. Banana Boat 
2. Parasailing/tandem
3.  "Extreme" Kayaking
4.  Jet ski
5. Trampoline  
6. Hydrobike

 My favorite thing was the Banana boat. The first time it was just with my family. I was in the front, my mom in the middle and my dad in the back. This time was fun because I like speed and that stuff. The thing is, I didn't capsize (that means tip over). After that I really wanted to go again because (a.) it was fun and (b.) I wanted to fall over. So then we told the really nice guy at the desk that my dad and I wanted to go again but my mom didn't. (The minimum is three people and my mom said "One time is enough for me." )

So we waited and waited in the Kayak and the guy at the desk (Victor) had two people that wanted to do it. So when we were out in the Kayak he sent a guy out on a jet ski to say "2 people want to do the banana boat. Go!" So we went. There was a couple that wanted to do it. I wanted to try the back, so I was in the back. In the first about 10 seconds the whole boat flipped over. The feeling of flipping is really weird. For me it is like "yes I got to flip" and also "NOOOOOOO" With everyone in the water, the driver brought the boat back. He helped my dad on first, then my dad helped me on. Then the couple (who apparently couldn't swim) got on. Then we rode on. Maybe 5 minutes later we hit a really big wave and the couple fell off again. I was really proud of myself for not falling. So then the driver brought the boat around again and they got on. Then we all fell off one last time and basically the same thing happened as the first time. After that I was mostly like "Ok. Had enough of falling now." Then it was time to bring the boat in because the 15 minuets were up. The Banana boat was really fun. I hope to do it again.

My second favorite activity was parasailing/tandem. My mom chose this activity to do with me because you can do a two person and because of the view. The parasailing is called parasailing when there is one person but is called tandem when two people ride together. You parasail off a speed boat usually. So we get on the boat and there is a takeoff/landing part in the back. You get hooked in to all these clips then you sit down on the takeoff platform. They clip you in once again into a string attached to the parachute and the boat. Then the driver goes really fast and lets out a lot of rope and up you go. At that part I was like "Yay" and my mom was like "Ahhhhhhhh" In the air it is really cool. We went pretty high up. The view is really awesome. I hadn't seen that far beyond the resort. It was cool because you could see a lot of the coast line and we even discovered a "secret" tide pool. Then in the middle of the flight, the captain made the boat go slower and we started losing hight. We were so close to the water we could kick it. Then after 3 minutes he sped up and we went back up. For the remaining 5 minuets we went back to the usual hight. I was trying to look around but it rocked the swing thing and my mom was saying "Stop rocking!" When the time was up the other guy on the boat reeled us in. The parasailing was really awesome and it was cool to fly.

"Extreme" Kayaking was my next favorite water sport. Extreme kayaking is kayaking but with waves. You kayak out far then come back. But you come back with the waves, like surfing. My dad and I were in a double kayak and we did really good. Extreme Kayaking is really fun. I really liked it because it is a lot like surfing and I like surfing. It is also fun to capsize (but try not to hit your head).  We capsized once and I hit my head on the kayak and it hurt. My dad and I did this a lot because it is so fun.

Jet ski, Trampoline and Hydro-bike where my 4th, 5th and 6th favorite activities. The Jet ski was the first thing my dad and I did. I really liked it because it was really fast. My dad was also a really good driver and was a bit risky. The trampoline only comes out at very specific times. This is just a floating trampoline and a slide. The slide was fun to go down like a penguin. Hydro-bike was my least favorite. This was not really fun. It is just a bike in water that floats and is really hard to pedal in the sun for 30 minutes. It is really hard to go fast and I banged my knees like 5 times.

This was fun! I would totally recommend coming to Sabah. It was a great, fun, relaxing vacation that everyone will enjoy.

Big Hero 6 movie review

Have you ever watched the movie Big Hero 6 (Baymax in Japan)? If you haven't and you don't want spoilers you might not want to read this.

This movie is based off of a Japanese comic or manga. The main characters are Hero Hamada, his robot Baymax and his friends. The friends are Fred-zilla, Go Go Tomago, Wasabi no ginger and Honey Lemon. The co-stars are Tadashi (Hero's brother), Aunt Cass (the brothers' aunt), Alestor Criegh and professor Calighan. The story takes place in San Fran-Sokyo in the far future.

If I had to choose a character to be, I would most like to be Fred. I would most like to be him because his power is awesome. Fred is the son of rich parents and lives a life of comic books. In the team he gets a giant super suit. It is in the shape of a monster. There are giant springs in his feet so he can do the "super jump" along with "gravity crush". There is a monster mouth in his suit that can be used as an exit or a flame thrower. The jump sounds cool and who wouldn't want to breathe fire? In college he is actually not a student, just the mascot. His project in the lab is to be able to turn into a fire breathing lizard at will (from a comic book). His famous quote is "I wear them front, I wear them back, I go inside out, front and back". This is a quote about his underpants and how not often he changes them. He calls it "recycling". His personality is really funny. He makes a lot of jokes and you wouldn't guess he is a billionaire.

The main problem in the story is that someone is trying to murder another guy. He is doing this for revenge because the victim's project backfired on his daughter. The project was teleportation. One of the portals broke and the guy's daughter got "killed". So for revenge the guy took the working portal and tried to put the victim through.

This movie is really funny. If you liked the LEGO movie then you should see it. If you are also a fan of funny films then you would like it.

Taiko gathering day

Yesterday I went to the annual taiko gathering day. This is the time that most of the players in the taiko group come together and play in the Yamato beauty college (8 minutes train ride from home). I was there with my friends, Man-chan (who, by the way has a {Mantaro's Blog}), Ryo, Allen and William. The place is really chaotic, even if it is my second time. Because there was so many people, like 200 performers and a lot of audience.


The songs I played where:

ドラゴン　タイガ　(dragon v.s. tiger)
This song is easy/intermediate. This song has 4 parts - Dragon Leader, Dragon Member, and Tiger Leader and Tiger Member. I was a tiger leader. For the members, you basically hear what you have to play right before you play it. So that is pretty easy. But the leaders have to memorize the whole thing. There are parts that the leaders play and the members play, and the leaders memorize which is what. Then the members just repeat it. In the middle section, the dragons do an "attack" and it is the same leader/member pattern. Then, the tigers counter attack, then the dragons counter counter attack etc. Then at the end we turn friends again.

Storm Mountain
In this song you play in rows. There are 2 parts, A and B (though the teacher might add a C part some time in the future) and they are together most of the time as a pair. I was B. Everyone starts with one drum and you play a bit. Then the B goes back and A can use 2 drums at the same time. Then A goes back, same thing. That goes on for about a minute. Then there is taiko train. You play and at the end move to the drum on your right. When you reach the end of the line, you run behind all the drums to the back of the line and start playing again. This song is a bit confusing because the 2 people next to you are doing something totally different.


だじん (Dajin)
This is my favorite song I did. I like it because it is a relatively small group (still 28 people). And because it is challenging. You use 2 drums and go at a fast ish pace. There are 3 parts, two big drums, one big drum, and two small rope drums. I was on the two big drum part. It was confusing because the other parts were off-rhythm to my part. Our teacher was so worried because the guest player (Moriyama-san) was really strict on who could, or couldn't play. So she (the regular teacher) had to do an audition and was really strict. I think I did really well in the piece. Moriyama-san was doing the same part as us... with extra flare.

Taiko gathering day was fun. Yes, it was a bit confusing and yes I was thinking "is it time to go line up for going on the stage?" (because last year I had to run on the stage from the audience) but still fun. Though I don't see why we should only do it once a year...