Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Message from Miho

Well, year 2008 is almost over so this is would be my last blog in the year 2008. Anyway, Miho said that she went to Dubai at December 23th 2008 and we're gonna miss her. It's gonna be cold there now, I bet she miss the warmth in here. Before her last Body Balance class, I recorded her with my cellphone so she can tell all of her members and fans...lol. Her messages are about Indonesia effort to prevent the flood and traffic jam...and of course global warming....lol...just joking guys. But she did ask me why the malls in Jakarta don't turn down the aircon temperature when raining season....hmmm that has something to do with global warming issue too, right? Oh, one more thing...the videos kinda have technical problems so we're gonna have to tilt our heads to watch it...sorry about that. So check it out, what she's gonna miss here in Jakarta.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Miho's last class at La Piazza

Last Thursday was Miho’s last class at La Piazza. She had celebrity sculpt at 3pm and Body Balance at 5pm. As usual, the older members in Miho’s class at 3pm, talking, chatting and gossiping before the class. I rushed upstairs and they still gossiping when they stepped into the class, one of the member said it with a lot of confidence that Miho will be going to Dubai…*roll eyes*. But they said something that make me feel kind of happy. They said Miho left them something that they can proud of, they can sit on a ball without their legs touching the floor…the point is Miho give them a good balance. Thanks to her, I can do yoga much easier when it comes to balance. One more thing, we got a chance to know other members in her class and I don’t know if I can still meet them in other class. Miho brought us together.Miho didn’t tell about her leaving to her members or should I say her fans…lol. Ike told about Miho’s leaving during launching Body Balance 43. Well, after the class finished...there was a member gave Miho a gift and then took pictures together.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Fashionista

OK, I'm not good at talking about fashion and my choice of fashion is a disaster lol....I'd rather talk about food but I'm gonna try it anyway. I can see someone who has a very good sense of fashion. So when I see Miho's style of fashion, I can say she has a great one. I don't see her much outside the gym but before and after her class I always see her in daily clothing. Her choice of fashion is awesome, between mix and match with a little bit of harajuku style. No matter how cheap or expensive the clothes and her accessories are, you'll think that all of he clothes is very expensive...some might expensive. She said her favorite brand is Bebe and La Senza for lingerie, too bad Indonesia doesn't have Victoria's Secret lingerie, otherwise she'll buy most of them. I'm guessing she likes bright colours like gold and silver. Also she doesn't wear make up too much...oh, I have funny story about a friend of mine who wear too much make up and with her shiny and sparkling eye shadow and her clothes was also shiny and sparkling and when she blink her eyes...I was like "MY EYES, MY EYES, I think I'm going blind!!" ...and my friend went staright to the bathroom trying to wipe the eye shadow...lol! Miho's not like that, she just know how to make it fashionable. The point is that she can take good care of it.

Brunch with Miho

I had brunch with Miho, we talked and checked out my blog because she hasn't read it. She said she's using IM2 just like me but in her apartment the reception is suck ( I hope IM2 read this and the customer service is useless too). Miho's in 20th ++ (means 20 up...lol), I think that higher apartment is the better reception, right? Strangely higher the apartment is blank, zero, none, nil reception *roll eyes* Anyway, she saw the link that I found when I was looking for a reference. When I first saw her picture in that website, my jaw dropped....awww so cute, so young, so innocent and so dark or tanned? Check out the link , we can see Miho's picture ten years ago when she won 1998 Fitness America Pageant National Championship on November 21th at Redondo Beach, California. But I have to pay $7.95 to see all of her 15 pictures in there. I think I know what everybody think about the link so I'm gonna tell you one more time....just because we have to pay to see all the pictures that doesn't mean it's porn website, also it's not pay per view...the big difference is that this website about women's achievement in fitness industry. She didn't know about that website, she was thrilled when she saw the picture. Oh, here's another link about her ranking pretty awesome, isn't it? Check out who's the lucky number seven in 1998 Fitness America Pageant National Championship. And she's the only asian in the competition, no wonder it was her proudest moment.

Gossip Girls

FYI don’t stay in the locker room too long, there's a lot of gossip and rumors and most of them isn't true (that's why I don't like hanging around in the girl's locker room too long...I'd rather not to listen any of them). Most of the gossip about someone I don’t know very well or I don’t know at all so I was thinking why did they insist talking about someone they don’t know well. I was in Miho class on Thursday and I told one of the member about my blog. The truth is I don't know that the member is going to read it or not ( I don’t think she know how to browse the internet….lol) but she asked me a lot about Miho. Anyway this member asked me how old Miho is and I didn't know...and then she said your blog is about Miho, how come you didn't know? I said to her, I wrote Miho a blog not her biography...lol! That question didn't stop there, she asked me whether Miho has children or not, I told her I don't know and then she asked and asked about Miho and I was getting upset. OMG I only told her about my blog and she was like interogating me. Makes me wonder how delicious the gossip in the girl's locker room with everyone spice things up...ugh! Miho's right about it. Do I sound like the gossip girl's narrator now? LOL....xoxo Gossip Girl...LOL!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Describing Miho

I have a lot of words describing her but let's just narrow it down.

  1. Strict : Even though she's kinda quiet but she has this uhm...strong influence among the members. So she doesn't have to say much and her members already know it.
  2. Like to compete : Well, her achievement so far is the proof. I Googled her name and lots of links popped up. One of the link, there're pics of her and I have to pay to download her pics during her Miss Fitness pageant. Read all my blogs and you will find the link...lol!
  3. Likes challange : Miho wants to be great on what she does. In order to be great, she has to believe that she can do it. So to be someone better, we have to challange ourselves or push ourselves to the limit.
  4. Never give up : Just like the song "Try again" by Aaliyah...first you don't succeed, all you have to do is try again...try again...lol. We can't just "poof" and then become great all of the sudden, right? We must earn it. The point is be an optimist no matter what the situation are.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Her passion

The reason why she choose this kind of job because she like fitness and teaching. To share her knowledge. She said that the day she stopped teaching is the day she died. What a commitment!Her motivation is when many people change into somebody they wanna be, they become healthier, stronger, more muscles or gain/loss weight. Believe it or not they change into somebody better because of the training or most importantly her training. I think it's very noble. Well who doesn't admire someone who dedicated her life to make many people feel better about themselves? I hope she knew that our motivation (including me) is to be like her. I know that it's not that easy to be like her, I mean strict diet, can't eat this or that, painful training for hours, checking weight all the time, etc...everything must be in control but the result is awesome...No pain, No gain, right?! Unlike me, I can't control my appetite...lol. But that doesn't mean I can't do what slim people can do, I just have to try twice harder than them but I'm a quick learner. I'll show the pictures if nobody believe me or ask Miho herself...lol! Like Miho always said don't be scared just believe in yourself that you can do it.

In the class

When I’m in Miho’s class, she always adjusting her class, for example when most of the class is older members she will give the exercise not too hard. That’s how understanding she is. Also she’s very strict but in a friendly way and that’s how she earn her respect. Well, you know what…she’s very strict because her coach made her that way. She said she’s not very strict anymore because she’s getting older….oh c’mon, Miho you’re not that old. All I’m saying is that she’s not getting older but she’s getting wiser. Her coach trained and pushed her so hard through the training. That’s why she’s good on what she do now. When she’s teaching almost noone complain but I remembered one member told me that when Miho say breath, that member heard it breast…lol…..hmm I’ve never thought of that before. Well, let’s ignore that member….the important thing is everybody understand her, besides English is our second language.

The day she landed in Jakarta

In 2004 Miho and her husband came to Jakarta to launch Celebrity Fitness Center, the first and only gym of its kind in south east asia. She started to gather foreign and local instructors to teach classes. You know what, I waited for months and finally CF was opened in Kelapa Gading area, La Piazza to be exact. She told me that she almost didn’t survive when they opened CF, she said she even doesn’t have any money for the electricity, ate only pasta&tuna and window shopping because they had to decide whether it’s important to buy or not. Also when she started to teach classes not many members joined, some even looked her with one eyes because she’s Asian not bule. Well, I’m not one of them I was in Gerson’s class at the time. I don’t know about her class then but her class now is always full.

Journey to the past

I remembered read a book that I found near CF’s cafĂ© and I saw CF’s instructors bio. I saw that Miho has many many rap sheet…no no not rap sheet that sounds like criminals (sorry, too much watching CSI). She has won many competitions back in the days *applause*. If she told me what she won one by one, my tiny notebook will have no space to write with, but I’ll bring my Handycam next time…lol. She started classic ballet…women in tutu is fine but men in tights hmmm kinda weird. Then Miho changed into gymnastic and her last decision was Aerobics. Let me tell you about her unforgettable and proudest moment in her life. She went to US and tried to compete for Miss Fitness America in California, not just with her skills but with her pride because she’s the only Asian woman in the competition. In that competition, she began to feel the discrimination, with all the Caucasian girls with big boobs, blonde/brunette/red hair and tall. Most of them looked down on her but she tried to ignore it and did her best. She didn’t do it 100% but she did it 205%...well we can see that from more than 200 competitors, she made it into the Top 20. Started with nobody even know her at all, she became well known because at the end she won with pride and joy…TV stations and magazine was all over her. Most of all she found JJ, the love of her life…they started to go out and decided to tie the knot…awww, that’s so sweet and romantic. She competing and competing again for 8 years and her last winning is Miss Fitness Australia 2003. Hmmm nice motivation, huh?

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Quick interview....er..I'd say chatting


The fact that I don’t know anything about Miho, it bothers me. So I decided to ask from the source. Sunday, November 30th 2008 after her Celebrity Sculpt class I sorta interviewed her. I thought this interview gonna take 15minutes and I also thought that she’s not talkative. I was wrong. She kept going on and on about her life… I was like writing and wirting all over the tiny notebook for pages…I was so excited that she told me all those exciting stories…Gosh I wish I brought my recorder. And when I tried to read my writing, there're some I couldn't read because I was trying to catch up with her...lol.
OK, let’s start, shall we? I always ask this question to all of my foreign friends. I asked her why in the world she choose Indonesia for a workplace? I mean Indonesia according to my foreign friends is a dangerous country…well it’s all because Bali Bombing I&II also disasters like earthquake or tsunami but she came to Indonesia anyway, she said she and her husband JJ took the opportunity because it’s a challange. But they had to build the business from scratch; they almost didn’t survive in Jakarta. I think CF is the first mega gym in Indonesia, we can say that CF is mega gym pioneer.I asked her about her like and dislike about Indonesia and she said she like Indonesian people because they are cheerful, open-minded…she thought that Indonesia will have a lot of people wearing jilbab like in the Middle East so that she was surprised when a lot of girls wearing revealing clothes. Something that I agree with her is that people in the gym like to gossip a lot which sometimes isn’t true at all. Don’t worry, Miho...I feel the same way too, I really hate when people talking about someone I’ve never know. For me..I rather go to the source. Oh yes about the weather, she was asking how come every raining season Jakarta never have the solution for flood? Oh dear I’m not sure I can answer that, Miho….I’m pretty sure that Indonesian government will not have the solution for years so for the next years Indonesian people will have more boats, rafts, even yachts or maybe amphibian cars…lol! She also said about pollution…uhm, well Miho Indonesia at least still under Bangkok in for the most polluted city in the world (fyi….Indonesia is #5) but look at the bright side if you can live in Jakarta for 3 years, you practically can live in any cities…lol. About Indonesian food, she said she doesn’t like sambal, she prefer wasabi…OMG wasabi makes me cry…lol. When she said breads in Indonesia is too sweet and fatty, I don’t know why but one thing that crossed my mind is Breadtalk…lol.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Weeks before her leaving

This is not about promoting one of the megagym in Jakarta but I just want to tell about one of the instructor in that megagym. Anyway, I just heard that one of my favorite instructor is moving to Turkey because CF is open another branch there and I've never got the chance to know her so before her leaving I decided to write a blog for her. OK, let's start...I joined the gym since 2005 but I took her class about a year or two...I think. Her name is Miho and she's from Japan (Nagoya to be exact)...actually I just found out about that. First year I always took Body Pump or RPM but since my knees hurt I changed to Yoga. One day I took her Body Balance class on Thursday, after that I started to take previous class and I love it. Although when I first took her class, she talked but I only understand half of it...I thought it was just me because my English isn't good also but then other members told me the same thing but I get used to her accent...I think it's cute...lol! So every Thursday and Sunday I take her class until now. All those year I don't know a thing about her, I even thought that she's an immigrant who live in Brazil...I know her full name from the CF book and one of CF's member told me that's she's married and her husband works in CF too but still I don't know who he is. And I decided to get to know her by writing this blog.