「後は自分を信じるだけ」

Yesterday was the Mitaka Citizen's Relay Race (三鷹市民駅伝大会). Months ago (October or November) I agreed to be the backup runner for one of the two TouDai Mitaka Dorm teams. One of the main runners, Stephan, however, flaked out and scheduled a trip to China, so since around New Years I've known that I'd be running. In the end, I'm really glad I got to participate, though!
Our team (myself, Yisha, Alden and Ryudo, in that order), the other Mitaka dorm team (consisting mostly of three grad students and one first-year), and some other tutors who came to take photos and cheer met up early in the morning and went together to city hall, where the race was to begin. I was surprised by how big the event was - there were about 200 teams in total, split into a few different categories (though we all ran at once). Like Coming of Age Day, it was really cool to participate as a resident of Mitaka.
Though I'd been regularly jogging a distance that's a bit longer than the length of my portion of the relay (around 4 km), it was really hard. XD This was because everyone ran a lot faster than I expected, and faster than I'd been practicing. Not wanting to lose, I also went a lot faster than my normal, so it was really difficult. But I made it, I think around the middle of the pack (pretty spread out by then), to where I passed off our team sash to Yisha. All along the route were a lot of people shouting things like　「頑張れ！」 (literally "give it your best," but meaning something like "go!") and　「もう少し！」 (just a little more!), which was really great. When you're really fighting hard, it really makes a difference to have people cheering you on, more than I realized before.
In the end, our team didn't do that great, but it was really fun. XD Yet another thing I wish I could do again next year... It definitely made me want to run more (while, at the same time, I'm worried about whether I'll still have the motivation I've had for the last month to keep running regularly, now that it's over...)

Since it was Chinese New Year, afterward most of us went to a Chinese restaurant near the dorm. It was especially good for Alden and Yisha (ethnic Chinese, from Singapore), who were missing home on what is for them the biggest holiday of the year.
For me it was slightly weird to see a Chinese restaurant run by Japanese people, though it took me a moment to realize why. In the US, Chinese restaurants are generally run by Chinese people...

And after that, we went to a semi-famous temple nearby (too lazy to look up the name that I can't remember right now) for "hatsumode" (first prayer of the new year... Which we also did on January 1st XD). I've been past the temple before on my biking adventures to the Tamagawa, but I'd never gone in. It's really impressive, with a bunch of really nice shops lined up... A very good place to get souvenirs, definitely.

Aside from yesterday's miraculously sunny weather, though, it's been pretty bleak and rainy/snowy/slushy. It's rained non-stop, I think, from when I got up around nine this morning until now, some thirteen hours later. This has put a hamper on my plans to explore Tokyo every day possible on bicycle over break... But, it has removed the temptation to go biking without first completing my daily studying, I guess, which isn't all bad.
I've been doing 100 new kanji in Heisig's RTK each day, plus review, which is a ton (I called 40 per day "breakneck speed" last year). It's not fun, but it's good. Must. Finish. This. Textbook.
Bastien loaned me a grammar book he used for JLPT, but I think I'll start into it when I finish RTK, which, if I stay on schedule, will be in eleven more days of study (probably about sixteen total days from now, due to days traveling that I won't be able to study on). That puts a me a couple days behind my goal set last month of finishing RTK by the end of February, but it's not too bad.

Speaking of traveling, Hokkaido is the day after tomorrow! I'm soooo excited! I'm going with such a good group, I'm sure it'll be excellent. That trip is four days long, and I'll probably be offline the whole time. Time to go play in the snow~

I'm really glad I finished my essays early-ish, so that I can have fun and do self-study, but between the cold rain keeping me indoors and all my friends being either out of the country or holed up writing their essays now, it's kind of boring today and the day before yesterday...
I started re-watching Hana Kimi (a Japanese television Drama), without subtitles, since I loved it so much the first time, and for listening practice (it's really hard - most of the characters are high school males, and they speak really improperly... But that makes it all the more valuable practice, I guess). Even though I can't understand all of it, it's still fantastic and touching. I'm such a sap for that stuff.
「後は自分を信じるだけ」
よし！僕も行くぞ！！