Sunday April 13
20:02
It’s Strange The Things That You Miss When You Live Abroad
Of all th thingz u cld ask me 2 bring u over u want me to bring sum collar stiffenerz- weirdo
My family think I’m crazy - but it’s strange the things you miss/need from home when you’re abroad.
My brother is coming over last week. He asked me what I wanted him to bring to Tokyo. My list:
Metal collar stiffeners from Tie-Rack
Non-iron shirts from M&S
A can of Ambrosia tinned rice pudding
The can of rice pudding is for the Japanese who consistently look at me in disbelief when I tell them we have pudding made of rice in the UK. Japanese eat rice every day. They never think about making it into a pudding.
In fairness, the things I really want my brother to bring me, he can’t bring. They are:
Black pudding
British bangers
British bacon
Scottish bread
Scottish rolls
Irish soda bread from M&S
Potato scones
A big juicy yellow mellow
Low-fat hummus from the supermarket
Mr Kipling’s Mince Pies
Not being able to get hummus is one thing that has consistently driven my crazy living in Asia - in Hong Kong, in Korea, and in Japan. In Japan there are a couple of restaurants with hummus, so at least I could get it occasionally. Finally - this month - I found a supermarket that sells it, but it’s not the same.
Mince Pies also are something that I missed. In HK I could get them. In Korea, fat chance. In Japan, I can buy Robertson’s mincemeat and make my own. Except for one thing, Japan is miles better than Korea when it comes to international food - I can even get the English breakfast muffins I so longed for in Korea. What’s the one thing? Sour cream. It’s just thick gloob in Japan. Sour cream in Korea was gorgeous - in big tubs from Hyundae department store in Shinchon.
There is actually a Scottish Pub in Tokyo - or, at least, it claims to be. It’s called Scottish Glamour, which isn’t a good start. In fact, after going and seeing the bar menu, I immediately left. No Scottish beer (which, probably, is a good thing), and a cover charge to enter the bar. Any bar that tried to levy a cover charge in Scotland would be burnt to the ground.
I can’t find the URL for Scottish Glamour - but then since I would never recommend you go there, I didn’t try very hard.
Friday April 11
10:01
Korean Space Priorities
Jon has a piece about the blast off of The First Korean In Space, Yi So-yeong. He comments:
Arirang mentions her plans to introduce her country’s traditional food and beverages such as kimchi specially developed and packaged for space to the crew aboard the ISS.
I once worked as a consultant for a Korean film producer wanting to film in Scotland.
Of all the things he could have been worried about - weather, permission for filming, getting the crew and equipment there, grants - the thing that most concerned him was: How can I get Kimchi for my crew? Koreans need their Kimchi for work.
It made me laugh that the same dialema also faced the organisers of this space mission. I imagine the list of priorities was:
- Kimchi
- Allowing smoking in the toilets
- Soju
- DMB TV reception in the shuttle
- Enabling MSN messenger so that So-yeong can chat when she is supposed to be working
;)
Monday March 17
14:12
Completely Missing The Point
The Register has a piece on Soribada - Korean Napster - now being legal.
The Register seems to have missed a crutial point, however. Everyone has already moved to 당나귀.
I really do wonder how music companies survive in Korea. I don’t know anyone who buys physical music there. No-one. The only music Koreans seem to pay for is background music on their Cyworld homepages and Coloring on their cell phones (the songs that you hear when you call a Korean person, instead of their ringtones). Maybe that’s how the music companies survive?!
When I read articles like The Register’s, I can’t help but cringe. I see it all the time about Korea and Japan - foreign journalists analyse a piece of news without any understanding of what’s really going on within the country. They end up completely missing the point.
It’s like when people write about Japan’s “i-mode” phenomenon and why mobile internet never succeeded in Britain. They completely missed the fact that Japanese companies gave Japanese access to mobile internet early, so locked them in early; that they put on useful content, such as being able to search for train times; and that Japanese dont have a culture of surfing at work. Brits who were used to flash and dynamic sites were asked to downgrade to text sites to see stock reports. It doesn’t take a genius to see why mobile internet failed.
Sunday March 16
22:53
Homesick
Watching the latest episode of Lost tonight, it made me realise how “homesick” I am for Korea. I understand all the Korean, without the English translations. I understand how the Korean people think.
So why am I in Japan?
It is 100% down to work - or the lack of it in Korea.
Given the way life is turning out, I doubt I’ll ever be living in Korea again. That really saddens me.
Tuesday March 11
18:07
The First Korean In Space Will…
…disappear into the toilet for a quick cigarette.
I don’t tend to read newspapers, so I don’t often pick up on what’s topical. Approving Seoul Buffoon for The Korean Blog List, however, I came across this:
Expert comments on Korea’s space lady
It so happens that a 29-year-old female mechanical engineer has replaced Seoul’s original choice as the first South Korean in space…and the reactions on the Internet blogs are amazing!
From The Korea Times:
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology told a news conference that Russia’s Federal Space Agency asked for Ko San’s replacement, as the 31-year-old repeatedly broke training protocol by taking sensitive training material outside of the Russian space center. Back-up candidate Yi So-yeon will take over.
“The main reason for the cut is Ko made two consecutive security violations,” said Lee Sang-mok, the head of the ministry’s space technology bureau, adding that both events appeared unintentional.
He explained that the Russians regard abiding by the rules as critical since even a small and innocent mistake could lead to serious consequences in space.
The authorities have taken a decision for whatever reason… and the experts opinions are out in full flow. It is a free for all on the Korean blogs. Some male chauvinists are upset that it is a woman who will be the first Korean…
My first thought? My deep and insightful comment on Korean society and the implications of this decision?
What are the Russian’s going to say when they find out the Korean is smoking in the toilet of the shuttle in space?
From all the times I’ve been flying, I’ve only ever seen someone trying to smoke in an airplane twice. Both times it was a Korean. No toilet is sacred. No number of no-smoking signs. No number of announcements.
Not even Space may prevent it.
