A Japanese and Chinese Major

Archive for December, 2008

The Sanyo Building

Not knowing that Sanyo was experiencing any serious type of financial difficulty, I was surprised to see in the news tonight that Panasonic is buying out Sanyo.

The deal creates one of the world’s biggest electronic companies and strengthens the future of green energy, since Sanyo has invested heavily in the technologies.

Credit

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This weekend was so-so. Julie wasn’t too happy about me going out Saturday to hang out at Hongdae with Josh and his friends and Josh wasn’t too happy with me and made fun of me for not making my own decisions. Last Thursday night I went out to eat with Michael, Josh, and the rest of the crew and then went to karoake. Before going there we played some shooting bullseye game, then we went. I sung photograph and it was pretty bad, and then I sung say it ain’t so and that was pretty good. I wanted to stay longer and drink more beers and sing but I had to work the next day, and the girls were already leaving so I tried to catch up with them but I didn’t. So Susan came out to help me and we ate street food for a little while before trying to catch a taxi. It looked like she needed help too so we ended up walking all around looking for a good place to get a taxi. We ended up back in front of work and I finally got a taxi about 40 minutes after waiting.

Friday night I went to Julie’s and we went to eat a chicken hoff place near her house. I had two beers and was relaxed but Julie wasn’t and looked stressed since she had to work in the morning the next day. All of Saturday I spent pretty much laying around and watching tv at her place, since no one was home. I watched some stupid movie where a guy kills people because of a made-up friend that tells him to, it’s the movie of the cover of the Waterworld guy holding a red square box up to his eye or something like that, I started watching Godzilla and realized how crappy the dialogue was and could see how I liked it as a kid though, and I thought about how Godzilla was advertised at Taco Bell and I remember mom taking me to go through Taco Bell and they would be advertising for the movie and I got a Godizilla movie cup and things like that, good times.

Saturday night I took a bus to Mokdong and met Julie to go to Todai’s. We didn’t know where it was so we had to go to a PC room, and I was so surprised to see there were girls playing games there too. We got onto a bus and got into the area around it, but we were walking forever trying to find the place since we got off a stop early and we didn’t know exactly where the place was. While looking I had to experience a non-western style bathroom, but I handled it a lot better than the last time I had to do it which was when I was in Japan years ago. We were walking all around looking for the sign and freezing, we were just about to go into a place to warm up when I spotted the small blue sign. We were looking for a huge place, like as big as a floor or building, and we were surprised to see the little sign. Anyways, we got in and we had to wait since they were full. We first thought they meant that they were booked the whole night and the only way we could get in was if someone cancelled or left early, but that wasn’t the case. We waited for about half an hour and got in. The sushi selection wasn’t as good as the one in Halifax. The other food they served though looked pretty good, but I spent most of my food space on sushi. We discovered the blended kiwi drink and we kept going up to check every once and a while to see if they had made the next batch. We also spent about an hour there just sitting and watching the ice skating show that was going on and played on the tv next to us and on the big screen. After dinner I decided I would go out, so I did.

I tried finding the park to meet Josh, but I took a wrong turn and walked about not knowing where the hell I was and was afraid to ask directions. I eventually started back where I can from, and I found out that I should have taken a right at the gates instead of a left, oh well. I bought one of those wine drinks and waited at the park where there was some show going on. Everybody was really into it but I didn’t look like I cared. When I met Josh and Anne we went to Gogo’s. All the foreign women there are all nice to me and smile at me for no reason when I go to places like that. We waited for Josh’s coat for so long that the night pretty much ended, and we had no choice but to go to Ska once again. I kept going back and forth between the bars, buying drinks at Gogo’s then going to Ska. Some foreign translator guy wanted my number. I got a taxi home but I don’t really remember it, and I woke up with two shot glasses and a half-eaten lemon slice in my pocket. I had trouble opening my door because I had remember my code backwards, and I tried getting help at the front desk for it but gave up when they couldn’t understand me.

Julie was unhappy about seeing my Sunday. I was in the mood for Can More, so we went to the one at Makdong. My goal pretty much of the whole night was to try to make Julie not made at me anymore. We talked about a lot of things, like how we’re not doing what we wanted to do in college and how she isn’t painting or anything like that. The strawberry smoothie was really good. About a half hour ago that one girl on the other side of the hallway, Tina’s friend went by my window. She was talking to Christina, and I wanted to look when she got out to make sure it wasn’t a student Jun Ming (the heavier young girl who I talked about ghosts with) that was absent this morning. But no it was that girl, and I just had the time to catch her with a big smile and waiving at me in front of my door, I had time to waive back.

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People Visiting Japan

There’s a lot of bad articles and misleading information out there in the blogosphere about Japan that makes me cringe when I read it. One of my top annoyances is reading about the way people describe the Japanese as a close-minded society and culture. The articles always use the word always and make generalizations based on unproven examples and situations they have not experienced themselves.

Let’s take for example some of the articles written about how people should expect to be treated when visiting Japan. The article posted on Matadora Abroad recently states that, “If you’re dining [using chopsticks] with a Japanese [person], don’t be surprised if you receive a look of amazement at your ability to eat like a Japanese”. What the author fails to mention is that this most likely happens on only a few occasions, it is not something to be expected every time you pick up a pair of chopsticks like the article may try to insinuate. This may have been a common occurance twenty or more years ago, but with the relatively recent advances in cheap travel and communication it is less likely that it happens as often today.

I would like to emphasize this crucial fact : The Japanese are not a closed-off and secluded society. Japan is not some third-world country that has no access to television and the Internet. The Japanese people do not have their head buried in the ground, and they do not ignore news and events that happen elsewhere around the globe. Japan is a world superpower that has a heavy influence in international affairs, and attracts many different originalities of people to work and visit there. Contrary to the majority of what the Japanese blogosphere would lead you to believe, you will not be the first foreign person a Japanese person meets, and you will not be treated that way. If you’re a person with no crazy hairstyle, outfit, or wacky behavior, it is likely that the average Japanese person won’t even acknowledge your presence.

Bloggers like to play on the idea that if you go to Japan then you’ll be treated like as a king or some kind of wonderous gift from the gods because you’re a rarity. The fact is that many people go there to experience this and are surprised to find twenty other North Americans or Europeans standing next to them at the same crosswalk. So, please, for the sake of your own travels and for the image of Japan itself, stop thinking that Japanese people have never seen anyone from a different country!

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A Japanese Banana

Even Japanese people these days are gaining weight and trying to cut back on their amount of food consumption. The Westernization of the East, complete with the importation of family restaurants like Denny’s and fast-food spots like McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken, have left our
Asian counterparts with a bit of a sagging belly.

The Japanese are turning to diets to fight off those extra pounds they’ve gained over the past couple
years, buy not any old regular diet of lean meats and balanced portions will do. Oh no, not for the Japanese, they have to come up with their own unique and whacky crazy diet, and so they have. The diet is called morning banana, or 朝バナナ(asa banana), and it’s the latest technique to deal with an overhanging stomach.

The Morning Banana diet routine consists of the following:

1. Wake up
2. Eat a banana for breakfest
3. Go about your normal day
4. Go to sleep
5. Repeat

Or put simply, eat a banana everyday for breakfast and you’ll lose weight. Being that it’s based on no scientific evidence, and solely on Mixi and forum rumors, I’m a bit skeptical. I don’t really think it would make much difference to just eat a banana every morning, but it wouldn’t hurt to try it out for a while since it’s cheap and at least a bit nutritious.

Credit

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A Japanese and Chinese Major uses various sources from the Internet, and credits those sources here.

Photos:

Here is a list of users whose photos were used from the website Flickr.com :

Kankan
Mullenkedheim
Ryancordell
Minami

Articles:

http://matadorabroad.com/10-japanese-customs-you-must-know-before-a-trip-to-japan

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Japanese Calligraphy Supplies

You need just four simple supplies to begin practicing calligraphy: paper, ink, a brush, and an inkstone.

Paper:

Not any normal notebook paper will do.  You need a special type of calligraphy paper that usually has to be oredered online, or if your lucky you can pick up a roll of it at your local stationery store.

Ink:

You can buy ink in two forms, solid as a stick or liquid in a bottle.  The ink in the bottle is cheaper, but the ink in stick form keeps better on paper after a long period of time.  It is common for people to practice using the cheap liquid ink and writing professionaly with the ink stick.

Brush:

Brushes are made from a wide variety of materials.  The head of the brush can be made from the hair of many different animals, including rabbits, ducks, and sometimes even tigers and pigs.  The most important thing besides the head is how the brush is held, which is dependent on what calligraphic style is practiced.

Inkstone:

Inkstones are stones that have a depression where the water used to help create the calligraphic ink is formed.  You use the inkstone as a mortar and grind the ink stick against the stone where it collects and mixes with water to form ink.

These are the four basic supplies needed to start Japanese calligraphy.

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I worked this last Saturday, and it really sucked.  First of all, this Chuck guy was scheduled for two classes, the first one of the day and then the third one.  Well he missed the first one, and I was told he wouldn’t make the other one either, which was making the day start off great.  Well, he shows up to the third one and I have a cancellation after teaching him, so Julia the front desk clerk suggests that he take another class with me since I have an absence that block.  Oh I was so pissed.  The rest of the day consisted of people showing up 20 or more minutes late to Christina, making me think that I was going to get a break when I didn’t.  One girl even missed the entire class with Christina, and then she walks over to me and hands me a folder and says, yeah this person didn’t come for me but she’s coming for you… I oh my gosh I was so mad/depressed, and I felt robbed.  I even thought I would later have an absence during the second to last class, I even wrote that in an email to Julie, but sure enough the person shows up late and I have to teach.  Fucking sucked.  So I had 14 out of 16 classes that day.  The other guy Joel had 5 absences and two no-schedules, so he had a 3 and a half hour break.  I’m still very mad/stressed about that, and it’s making a difference in my attitude today and maybe for the rest of the week.

I can’t wait till I’m done with this job, it totally sucks.  I counted and there’s like 40 some more Mondays I have left until I can get out of here.

Julie and I spent the Saturday night at her house pretty much.  We ate at a sam gyap sal restaurant near her house, her and I didn’t think it was that great and when the guy brought out old/weird rice Julie lost her appetite.  Even though we were full we decided to stay out and drink, and that one place that we ate outside in front of when it was cold and ate snail.  We got a pitcher of beer and talked about whatever, I tried to get deep and talk about how we are such a small speck in the vastness of the universe, she was uninmpressed, and we played rounds of rock paper scissors and I tried to guess the opposite of whatever she bluffed.  When we went up to pay the waiters said to her, “this isn’t a bar, next time you gotta order something to eat” and Julie just nodded her head like, whatever, screw you I don’t care.  Which I agree.

Yesterday I talked Julie into going to Yongsan, and we got some Dunkin Donuts cuz she wanted some, and we ate them standing up and looking out the window since the donuts seats were full.  There was another building connected by breezewalk, so we walked over there but there wasn’t anything special over there so we walked back to the main building.  We were asking around for external laptop hard drive enclosures and people kept telling us there were two kinds and we didn’t know what kind it was, but I figured it was the latest one and we had a 50/50 chance so I bought one anyways for $15.  We went up to the top floor to the gamestore and I was tempted to buy an xbox 360 pc monitor cable but they were at least $13 and Julie wanted me to find one on the Internet for cheaper.  Well after that we were really hungry and decided to eat out, Julie said she heard an advertisement for Todai sushi on the bus and we wanted to go to that.  She called her brother and we found out that it was far from where the bus was, we would have to take a taxi to get there and everything.  Since it was too far, and we didn’t want to spend that much money, we decided to walk around the Mokdong bus stop area and look for some restaurant to eat at.  Well when we walked out from part of the subway it was snowing and it looked soooo pretty out, and Julie started snapping pictures.  It was so cool because it was dark besides the street lamps and lights and the snow made it seem very cozy, words can’t describe it.

We ended up ordering a pizza, with a small amount of chicken wings, and started watching Resident Evil Biohazard on my PC.  We watched only half and then I got street food with Julie and I got on the bus to go back home.  When I got back I had to drop off Josh’s bookbag that I borrowed, and I was looking down at the ground while I walked across the side street in front of my apartment, being careful not to slip on any of the slushy snow and minding my own business, when all of a sudden I see a snowball fly past my left side and skid across the street.  I’m surprised at first and ask myself if that could have been by accident and immediately realize it could not.  I’m thinking that it’s either a kid or someone mistaking me for someone else but I turn around and see Ed standing there all smiling and bouncing back and forth.  We say hi for a brief time, explain how I was surprised, and he explains that he was just going home, I ask him I hope he wasn’t looking too long for home or something like that, and then he gave some funny joke about being locked out of his apartment, like he was a couple weeks ago.  Anyways, we say goodbye and he throws a snowball at me again.  I return the bookbag and go back home, and happily find that the hard drive case was the right one.  I was happy and I was sad.  I was happy that it worked, even though I had to figure out how to change permissions at first, but I was said because about five years ago I sold my laptop and didn’t recover the hard drive, so I lost all my information on it.  That really sucks, I had a lot of personal files and information on that from my younger days that I’ll never get back

Anyways, today has been a long Monday.  I got a break just now, a one-hour tutorial, so I’m very happy about that.  When I went out into the lobby to make a copy for my Dairy worker student there were three girls sitting out on the couch, and I think just about all of them were starting at me interestingly and nervously which made me very pleased.  Other than that, hopefully this will just be another smooth Monday night and week.

About the last entry: I didn’t end up drinking with Ed, instead I went to E-Mart.  Sam invited me to go with him, and I told him I had to tell Ed first that I was going.  I stopped by my apartment to tell Ed, he didn’t seem too dissappointed, so I went to E-Mart.  Sam and Josh went without me.  I didn’t buy much this time because I’m tired of buying the same old things, like dumplings, duck bolki, ja jammyung, things like that.  I bought what I thought was a bucket of chicken that looked good when Josh got it last time we went together, but what it really was was fried and marinated chope che dumplings, or something like that.  It was very good, but a little cold so I had to take the pain of frying it to warm it up a little bit, and by the time they all got warm I wasn’t hungry anymore.  I bought and drank alot of a white rice drink and will get it next time too, I finished the last of it today.

Oh, I was really sick friday too.  I ate at Julie’s, we think it was an old yogurt that I drank.  I was feeling really sick, and I even forced myself to puke, and I had to go the bathroom alot.  I was really happy that I didn’t have a bathroom emergency while I was riding the bus or in the train, that’s all I was thinking and worrying about.  I’ve never really gotten food poisioning until I came to Korea, like with the oysters and then with that old yogurt.  Anyways, what made me remember that is because I have out-dated yogurt in my fridge that I’m now scared to drink.  That’s about it.

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Well at the beginning of work tonight Ed invited me to come over to his place to enjoy a couple of beers and snack on some of his famous salsa and chips since he just got a full tub of it.  Last night I went with Josh and Christina to Jonggak and we ate that chicken dish that I like but Julie doesn’t.  It was really good, and I drank a beer with it.  I wanted more but Christina stopped me.  She also talked a lot while we were there, and she talks alot in general.  Josh told me she did, but I didn’t believe him at first.  About halfway done with the dish Josh and I decided to order rice with it and that’s when the food really tasted good, since we could taste the sauce with it.  Josh was hogging the chicken, I realized that I was used to eating that dish with Julie and having a lot of chicken left over, so when I saw there were only two or three pieces left I was surprised and tried to snatch them up.

Yesterday Tina told me that my hairsyle was different and asked how I combed it.  I thought briefly and said, “Well, I wake up…” and then just stopped there.  Michael was standing near by listening to the whole thing and lauged and said “It’s called rolling around in your sleep”, and we got a good laugh out of that.

This morning was nice but kind of boring.  I had only one student, since two cancelled.  I spent the morning trying to figure out my budget and realizing that I have to cut back all extra spending.  What’s more, I find out that the last payment on my American Express account bounced because the savings account I used it with was cancelled, so I was charged a freaking extra $40 for that.  I spent the afternoon talking to Julie on MSN about that and talking about my mom.  That’s pretty much it.  I’ve been so exhaused these last couple of days, I fell asleep in front of the computer last night with the TV on, and when I woke up there was only two hours left until I had to go to work.

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So yesterday morning while I was leaving work I saw my manager coming up the stairs and I asked her for information about the CEO.  To make a long story short we both kind of lost our cool and she accused me of threatening her when I said I would report her if she didn’t tell me the information.  I stayed over longer to talk about it with the other manager, and when I told him that she lied about either them being in a financial crisis or wanting to increase the teacher’s pay he sided with me and looked in astonishment and said to himself, “Why in the world would she say that”, “Why would she say that”, and something like, “I can’t believe she said that”.  After that he was like, OK, I see where you’re coming from now, give me some time to talk about it and figure it out.

When I came back later that day to work, he said I could keep my contract, but since they were changing businesses that I will have to do more things like phone English and even visiting different companies.  I said that’s ok as long as my pay and everything stays the same.  I went in to apologize to my manager, but it was harder than I thought and I was trying to make it sincere even though I think she could see it was not.  I think she was trying to be sincere too and explaining to me why she wanted to fire me, for the company but I still didn’t trust her or care and I don’t think she was truly sincere either.  Anyways, I have my job back for now.

At the end of work yesterday I wanted to wait for Josh to get done but Sam was done and he said he was leaving right at this moment if I wanted to go.  I didn’t want to seem like a dick and be like, “but I want to hang out with Josh and not you”, so I decided to go with him then.  After thinking it over a bit and a bit of convincing from Sam, he convinced me to go with him and Anne to the James Bond movie at the theater even though I wasn’t interested in seeing it.  When we got to whatever part of the city we went to we found the movie theater and bought our tickets and looked around for something quick to eat.  Before that we stopped at family mart and I got a flavored soju wine bottle and Sam a large can of Heineken.  We ate at KFC on the top floor.  I ordered two sandwiches and I was only able to eat one before it was time to go.  I managed to take a couple bites of the second one and was surprised to see that the Stacker sandwich had a potato hash cake thing in it.  On the way back to the theater Sam got us to stop by Krispy Kreme, and asked the confused girl working there for three free donuts.  It looked like she didn’t understand at first but Sam was persistant and like “free”.  She eventually knew what he was talking about and we got out of there with 3 delicious free donuts.  I had to run up and stand in an alley to stuff the remaining sandwich in my coat pocket before going into the movie theater.

While we were walking to the movies I was walking behind Sam and I was like “Sam,” and he turns his head back to the side real quick and says, “Yeah I know, plastic bag”, and I was like OK WTF.  I called him out on it and explained I had no idea what the fuck he was talking about and I was glad I did because that was really funny.  He was drinking his beer from a plastic bag.

When we got to the movie theaters it was only us and a Korean couple to our upper left.  I thought it was kind of cool that you could choose which seats you wanted to sit at on the computer screen before buying the tickets.  But anyways, I started eating my sandwich and was afraid I was being too loud chewing so I would only wait when the sound got loud.  Right at the beginning of the film before the credits, during the opening production studio commercial thing it was silent and a piece of my sandwich or potato or whatever fell into the sandwich bag making a pretty loud sound, I laughed nervously, for I was embarrassed about being a gluton.

Anyways the movie wasn’t what I expected it to be but it was still good.  I expected Bond to save the world from some big laser or missile or something like that, but that just didn’t happen.  I thought the movie was just half way done when it ended, but I kinda got the feeling while I watched the last 15 or so minutes that it would be the end.  When I was like, “that was it?” at the end Sam was like, “Oh, didn’t you know? There taking a new direction with the Bond movies, kinda like how they did with the new Batman, they’re trying to make it more realistic”.  In the taxi back he was like, “yeah, what did you want, a watch with lasers?  Those kind of save the whole world movies just aren’t realistic these days, these days it’s more like Bourne Ultimatum and stuff like that”.

Something I also thought was interesting was that it was the first time I can remember that the US was an enemy and evil.  I was kind of shocked and didn’t realize we looked that bad and evil to the rest of the world, it was kind of a wake-up call about how other people view my country.  I know we are in wars we shouldn’t be, and Bush and Cheney are assholes, but damn I never thought a mainstream movie like James Bond would have the balls to come out and say it and show it in their movie, making the US an enemy just as Russia and China are.  They also had the guts to talk about the dollar, having the bad guy get paid in euros while he says “the dollar isn’t what it used to be”.  If that isn’t a sign of a country that lost its once dominence in the world, I don’t know what is.

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This morning was pretty nice.  Two cancellations, so I’m sitting here in my office and waiting until ten so I could start the hour tutorial with Korean air bus boy.  One of the cute short Korean teachers on the other side of the hall came over and gave us each candy.  She said, “Oh, you’re name is (omitted) right?” and took a very quick glance at my door poster thing to check.  I was like yeah and accepted her candy.  Tina said that when she first saw me in the subway with Josh and Sam that I was gorgeous, and that she wouldn’t stop talking/thinking about me.  She asked me what I thought about it and I said it was scary, but I was just lying and couldn’t come up with a better reaction.  There was also some cute girl, I think a student, that was staring at me while she was sitting down in front of the front desk and while I was walking back from finding out who I had to send articles to.  She kind of reminded me of Ai, and she looked away calmly first after looking at each other for awhile.  Now this is the kind of attention that I’ve been expecting, hehe.

I asked Dora the Explorer this morning about getting the CEO’s information, and she said she couldn’t give it to me without talking to the manager.  I grilled her about it until Michael came in, who said that she only does whatever the manager says.

This morning Christina had me grade some paper and her and Lynn watched with so much curiousity.  I thought that was a bit strange, but welcomed.

Yesterday was my last class with a guy that invested in the stock market, hoping to be a day trader and lost alot of his money.  I wish him luck though.  He is the same one that sometimes beat or pounded on his head during class because he had a headache, and brought some toys to class to return so he could rent more for his overweight baby boy.  While he was saying goodbye he stuck out his hand and when I did so my pen was thrown at him.  I’m not very good with goodbyes.

I’m nervous about keeping my job.  I really want to.

Last night Josh and I went to eat at a “orange” restaurant.  I got kimchi jiggae, which was really good, and now I know what it’s called for the first time and what it is.  He got mandu skins or whatever, and dipped it in a sweet/soury red sauce with cabbage shavings.  While we were there, at around 11pm on a Monday night, two geeks walked in with some scantily clad women that frankly looked like whores.  They didn’t look like they were having a very fun time with them and both stepped out of the restaurant at different times together.  Josh said they were probably prostitues, and I don’t think that would have been hard to believe.   Afterwards I got a beer and wanted to play Halo, but Sam was watching some movie so I decided just to go back to my place.  I drank a beer and was on the Internet until late at night, around 2:30am I think.

I saw that my mom got a cash advance of $700 with a fee of $100 on the credit card I’m helping her to pay.  I think she might be spending her money on the wrong things again.  What’s more, I’m fucking sick and tired of her racking up unneccessary fees on the card, like doing transfers, and paying for a bill, retracting it two days later, and then paying for it again with an additional $35 dollar fee.  I’ve been seriously thinking lately whether I should give up helping her pay it.  I mean, with all wreckless fees she’s racking up, what’s the point of trying to help someone when they’re not even trying to help themselves?

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