Warning: Cultural Rant

The more you try to ignore something that bothers you...
It's widely known that it's perfectly polite to loudly slurp your noodles here in Japan. Yakisoba is a favorite, perhaps as common as a peanut butter sandwich in America (at least when I was growing up). They're noodles that are gently fried in a heavy sauce that is perhaps based on soy sauce. It's a strong smell and is often accentuated with pickled ginger, and other garnishes. Now, I love yakisoba when I'm in the mood for it.

Part two of this story is that about 16 teachers share an office about 30 feet by 40 feet. So there's a teacher ever 7.5 x 10 feet in this room. We live with all kinds of intrusions into personal space. It's one of the most difficult daily challenges we have to learn to live with here.

Today, I wanna scream. The slurping and heavy lingering odor of those noodles is about to make me walk over and throw those noodles out the window. I wonder what that Japanese teacher would do?

Thankfully, in the time it took for me to red-line and then script out this poorly written narrative, the offender has finished his noodles that prove to be the "gift-that-keeps-on-givin'". In another hour or so, the smell should dissipate.

C.C.Z. Beach

We took Jayoung out to the beach looking out to the sea between Japan and Korea. I was amazed how different it looked from when I was last there in the summer. Firstly, the sand dunes had migrated up the beach across the concrete walk-way, over the berms, and into the parking lot. They must dedicate a huge working crew to relocate the sand before the droves return in the summer. Secondly, there was litter across the entire length of the beach. I had heard some Japanese folks accuse the Koreans for being responsible for littering in the ocean. Indeed, I found my first proof of Korean litter. There was one squeeze bottle on the beach. The rest however showed signs of Japanese origin and it's no surprise. We see Japanese folks littering in town frequently. The litter goes into the gutters which wash it into large culverts that lead into major rivers. The rivers take the rest of it out to the ocean. I've seen it every step of the way in my travels. It's a sad fact.

Hyunjoo found what looked to be a rat at first glance, but soon realized that it was a dried up blowfish. Within 20 square yards we found about 15 more of its friends washed up and dried out as well. It was kind of sad to see. They have incredibly sharp barbs. I'd hate to be the predator that swallows one only to have it inflate in your mouth.

We launched the kites in the mild wind and had a quick session before heading back to town. I'm hoping the wonderful weather holds. We're dying for the spring to come.

Working at the car wash, baby...

I was never big on automated car washes in the States. I suppose I always had the room to take care of my car where I lived. Lacking space, most people have to make do with what we have and here in Japan, almost every gas station has one of these nifty sliding car washes. You drive into place and the whole machine oscillates around you. It kinda gives you motion sickness, because you feel like you're moving when you're not. Works well enough between hand-waxings.

Japanese Courts/Society = Xenophobia ?

I've gotten tired reading/hearing stories suggesting a much deep, darker underlining to the Japanese.

The Tokyo High Court on Tuesday overturned a lower court ruling and denied Japanese nationality to nine children with Filipino mothers and Japanese fathers who are not married.

The Nationality Law says that a child born out of wedlock to a non-Japanese mother is only recognized as a citizen if the Japanese father admits paternity prior to the child's birth or marries the mother before the child turns 20. In the case of the nine kids, the fathers came forward after they were born but did not wed the mothers.

Presiding Judge Hidetoshi Somiya said the law is justified and does not interfere with the children's constitutional right to equality.

Somiya also said the court does not have the authority to grant the children citizenship.

"The decision to grant nationality is an inherent right of the state," he said. (continued)

This country is facing a crisis as is with its diminishing birthrates. It would seem prudent to begin embracing a new workforce to help provide revenue for their rapidly aging population. Who's going to pay their nationalized healthcare costs in 20-30 years? Let's go folks, robots can't do everything. And getting the "baby-making machines" fired up isn't going to help much either.

Assainate your Cold!

I have no idea what this character is doing on a display of over-the-counter drugs.

Alone in the Car

There are some things you'll never get used living in another county. Perhaps it's the food. Maybe it's the language or a particular custom. One thing for me, that always catches my attention are kids in cars.

I took these pictures while waiting in the parking lot. This little guy, like all children here sit in the front passenger seat. His mom left him alone in the car for about 15 minutes. It was funny to watch him quitely sit there for about 15 seconds trying to figure out what was going on. Then, curiosity got the better of him and he grabbed on to the steering wheel and began to pull on it back and forth. I could hear the car's gears grinding away as he probably yanked on the shifter based on cues he'd most likely seen watching his mom. I realized that he wasn't even wearing his seatbelt.

They are lucky here not to have to worry about kidnapping or accidents to the degree where people can just leave their kids "in the shotgun seat". Heh, he seemed to be having a grand ole time.

Show me da money!

I didn't pick the best day to send cash home, but we're looking at an OK time to send money to the states. I botched the withdrawl form and asked for an equivalent of $115,000. I didn't figure that one out until the teller pointed to my bank book. Of couse I didn't have that much in yen, but how could I tell? There are so many freakin' zeros! It's like Mexico 20 years ago... "4,000,000 pesos - sure! here's your burrito!" Japan should just lop off two zeros from their currency and get with the program! Oh well, I sure did feel rich while I had the cash.

Pain in the Bun!

You'd probably be surprised. It's hard to make a hamburger here in Japan. Buns for hamburgers are very rare in these parts and if you find them, they're often mixed in with other types of buns or have weird things in them. We got lucky!

Happy New Year!

I got to celebrate New Year's Day in a typical Korean fashion. The Lee's celebrate New Year's on January 1st, along with about half of Seoul's residents, from what I could make out. Many folks still observe the Chinese calendar for the New Year.

Our day began with a formal ceremony in front of Hyun-joo's parents. Then we played a game called "Yut-nori" followed by "Go-Stop". There were meals through out the day. In fact I had to sit out the last meal because I just couldn't think of eating any more.



The formal ceremony required the children (and their significant others) to bow before their parents and wish them a Happy New Year, "Sehe-bok-mani-ba-duseyo". It took me about 20 practice run-thru's to get that line straight. Even then I could only say it like a four-year old when the time came. BUT I did it. Hyun-joo's father then said some blessings and gave each of us some money for the New Year!




The game "Yut-nori" was played with four sticks that were thrown to determine how many places game pieces could be moved on a circular game board. You could either move one, two, three, four, five, or back one space depending how the sticks fell. If one of the sticks fell out of the playing area (a towel on the floor), then you lost your turn - a very disgraceful outcome I came to learn. We played in three teams of two with two game pieces each. There was big money to be won - each game profited the winners with 30,000 won, about $30. An interesting thing about this game is that it is only played on New Year's Day.


"Go-stop" was equally profitable to the winners in much smaller increments. This game uses cards that are very similar to Japanese Hana-fuda, but played with different rules. I won't explain them, but it was complicated enough that I needed to rely on Hyun-joo for our winnings.



The rest of the day was spent hanging out with family, much like an American Christmas day with feasting that reminded me of Thanksgiving back home.