training fishbone in VR

[llamagix]

Hello,
Last year, I got the chance to challenge the first stage of Sasuke (not TV participant, more like simulator), but I failed at the fishbone 😭
I didn't got the opportunity to train on replica like the one in Matsuda-san park yet and I don't have the space to build one in my apartment, so I created one in mixed reality using oculus quest.

If anyone wants to try, I released the app for free.
More details here :

[m4tt3r0x]

First of all it is awesome to meet you! I recognized your face instantly from the Yamada Gundam once I started up the video.

This is so cool. I have a Playstation VR that somebody gave me, but have never used it. Would it be compatible with this?

I also have so many questions about your experiences at KuroTora. How is it training with Katsumi Yamada? How often does he have the team train? What are your thoughts on Yoshiyuki Yamamoto?

Thank you!

[llamagix]

thanks,
sorry, it's only compatible with the quest. It uses the passthrough cameras to be able to see where I'm walking, I think it would be too dangerous in full VR without seeing the feets and the ground.
Still, the unity project is open source so anyone can try to modify it for another platform.


Training with Kurotora is nice. Before joining them, I was struggling to find people to train with (there are no big open gyms to train here, just small parks owned by participants and it's not easy to get admitted to train unless you already have good level).

Yamada-san is a good leader, he is encouraging and can spot really well the training targets for the team. He pushes everyone to their limits.

Everyone on the team is nice, they are welcoming me even though my japanese is not so good. There is some rivalry to be selected (only 2 or 3 people from the team can participate every year, selected by an internal competition), but the training mood is good, everyone is encouraging each other and trying to do its best.
Full team trainings are around once a month (twice a month before the competition), but personal training (at kurotora set or somewhere else) are nearly every week.

The hardest part of the training is running the slope, it's very steep.
At my first run, I nearly vomit and had to wait 10 minutes before getting rid of the nausea.
Even with more training, you still push as hard as possible and often get nausea after 2~3 runs, especially with the 20kg vest.

For Yoshiyuki-san, he is really strong. Some people in the team are getting closer to reach his level but I think he is still a little bit stronger and also has much more experience.

[m4tt3r0x]

Yes, yes I remember seeing footage of that slope! That looks dreadfully painful with the 20kg vest. I see even Yoshiyuki falling over at the end of it in exhaustion.

Yamada-san does seem like a good trainer. I wish you luck in your training, and maybe we'll see you on the real course some day. The VR game you created is awesome and hopefully gets some good use by the Black Tigers and Yamada-sam even.

[dakohosu]

Hi llamagix, I was directed to this thread by m4tt3r0x. Nice to finally put a face to the name, or rather, SMF profile lol. I also train a lot, not so much on Sasuke replicas anymore, more a lot of calisthenics challenges. Maybe we can give each other some training tips some day, lol...

Most of the questions I was going to ask you have been addressed in your above post, but I have a few nosey ones lol:

- How long have you lived in Japan/what do you do there? I'm asking as I've long wanted to visit Japan, learn the language, and maybe even work there in the future (my job is data/software related so I can work anywhere I want).

- What does Yoshiyuki-san do as a job? His Sasuke profiles have always just referred to him as a 'Black Tiger'. He's a sports coach of sorts right, as he was sparingly referred to as Sensei?

- What is the deal with Hiroshige? Is he still part of the Black Tigers or not? He seems to still hang out with you guys, but in the preliminaries to decide who out of the eight of you get to compete, he isn't a part of that. It seems as though he was just dropped after the issue with a previous member (before you joined), who got done for some harassment claims.

[llamagix]

I have been in Japan for 6 years, I currently works for a computer vision / AI company, working on ADAS and self driving technology.

For the other questions, I'm sorry but if it's personnal information about the members, I can not talk about it publicly.

I also don't know all the details of the things that happened before or after I joined the team because everything is discussed in Japanese and I only have an intermediate level.

[dakohosu]

Sept 19, 2022 23:45:23 GMT -5 llamagix said:

I have been in Japan for 6 years, I currently works for a computer vision / AI company, working on ADAS and self driving technology.

For the other questions, I'm sorry but if it's personnal information about the members, I can not talk about it publicly.

I also don't know all the details of the things that happened before or after I joined the team because everything is discussed in Japanese and I only have an intermediate level.

Oh no way, I work in AI too, not so much computer vision or image classification stuff (I was always s*** at that at uni lol) but I'm currently starting a company in Natural Language Processing and Behavioural Analytics applied to the gaming industry. Mostly Python and HTML.

How have you been finding living in Japan as a foreigner for this long? I have heard that some locals are very welcoming while others less so.....

[llamagix]

Japanese people are relatively welcoming in general.
The biggest trouble of living in Japan is the lack of social life, not so many social events and generally quite expensive. People are busy so it's difficult to plan anything.
Also, most foreigners stay in foreigner groups and don't try to enter in Japanese groups so it doesn't mix much. But personally, I would feel sad to live in Japan and not have a large group of Japanese friends.

I feel the best place to have social life in Japan is when you are in a big university and especially if you join a circle (sport club). Personally, I joined the gymnastic club when I was in Osaka university, I was the only foreigner but got many awesome memories. Then I switched to another (much smaller) university for my phD and there was not much social life there (most people are very busy with research).
When you start working, you also don't have much opportunity to join groups,... because most of the interesting groups are school-related.

But then, I got lucky to join Kurotora that made me meet many interesting people and bring challenge in my life. When I joined the audition, I didn't expect to be accepted, I just joined because there is nothing to loose and even if I was not taken, I could get contacts with interesting people.