new year and a hobby reawakening : January 3 2026

this was around 5 pm when the sun finally set, this winter atmosphere just got colder by the minute. we were in this park for around 3 hours just having fun.

this is a badminton racket, not mine but borrowed. housemate c just happened to have 3 rackets and i got to borrow one. let me just share how it unfolded.

this all started at christmas eve when housemate c, js, lv, and i gathered for the eve dinner. 2 other housemates went home to the philippines for the holiday vacation and another one had so many friends over here that he spent the eve with them. that left us 4 to celebrate by ourselves. it was minutes after dessert time when housemate lv shared that he bought a badminton racket; housemate c also chimed in that he also did. these were the quite expensive ones, very lightweight in fact. they bought these as a christmas present for themselves: very valid. they wanted to have a match sometime of which housemate js and i declined for the obvious reason that we have no rackets of our own. it was at that moment when housemate c mentioned that he had an extra racket in the philippines, and he could probably ask our vacationing housemate to bring it back to japan. a bit shy, housemate js did the negotiation for him. the vacationing housemate was back in japan a week ago but there was no news of the badminton deal since the christmas eve dinner.

yesterday, to my surprise, the housemates wanted to go to a park for a badminton and there were 2 extra rackets. so the four of us and the newly arrived housemate all went out to enjoy the chilly winter air for a badminton session.

i am not adept with the sport, but i am also not a beginner. i took the sport for a semester in university back in the day, and i could clearly remember how i and a partner unfortunately had a doubles match with the ace students at the finals practical exam. we had a perfect zero in that match. i guess our teacher factored in how skillful our opponents were: i still passed the class.

i still enjoy the sport but mainly because i wanted to sweat out by actively running around reaching for the shuttlecock. it is such a fun way to be active.

this was how the park looked like early that afternoon. the sun was still up giving us a bit of warmth. and we were not alone enjoying in that park, there were so many in there as well doing some other sports like football and ball catching practices for baseball.

it was such a fun way to spend the remaining days of this yearend break. and i certainly added much to my step count that day.

as always, AMPING KANUNAY!