English v. Japanese in South Korea

In all of the major tourist places I went, Japanese was much more common than English. In many of the shops I went to, they assumed I was Korean first (I guess I don't wear the kind of doll-like makeup that seems to popular with Japanese girls) but when I indicated that I didn't understand, and said that I am from the U.S. they usually looked troubled. But then if I said I spoke Japanese, all of the shopkeepers spoke at least a few simple Japanese words and some were quite fluent. Particularly in Insadong and Myeong-dong (touristy art street and shopping area). One vendor in Insadong selling handmade candy even had a whole routine complete with small jokes and puns in Japanese demonstrating how the candy is made. They also played up to the Japanese omiyage custom...so many Japanese tourists in Korea!

The top image is from Changdeok-gong, of the Japanese tour I went on (it fit better with my schedule). There must have been a hundred people, and the Korean tours before and after had about ten people apiece.

Also, Snow White is pretty curvy in South Korea, her skirt's also shorter. This is an apple juice pouch.

First Apartment

Living alone has given me a new perspective on certain things, in this case, with regard to furniture. I saw this table and the first thing I thought was what a pain in the butt to clean. It looks cool, certainly different from typical coffee tables, and nice that it's made from scrap blocks of wood with little (in those images at least) in the way of screws or nails but imagine dusting that thing.

My new love: Kokuyo Dotliner

テープのり, think white-out tape dispenser (not liquid white-out) crossed with double-sided scotch tape. So simple, but such a great idea! You can now easily use double sided tape without getting the stickiness on your hands, making hands more, and tape less, sticky.

Japanese version of chunky versus creamy debate

I made peanut-butter jelly sandwiches for a bunch of my students a while back, since none of them had had one before. I added that in the U.S. people often have strong preferences for either chunky or creamy peanut butter. It is, as one student said, like tsubu-an and koshi-an, two types of anko (bean paste). Tsubu-an has bean skins so it is more textured while koshi-an doesn't so it's smoother. At bakeries here, it isn't uncommon to find two types of bean buns at a bakery, tsubu-an ones and koshi-an ones.

I also introduced students to root-beer (Village Vanguard) and microwave popcorn (the stove top kind is much more common, I got my microwave kind at a foreign foods specialty store).

1001 rules for my unborn son

he hasn't quite gotten to 1001 one yet (I think) but I have been reading a great deal of them (all in one sitting of course).

and I particularly liked this one:

310. Make time for your mom on your birthday. It's her special day too.

I never thought of that before.

It's cold.

The olive oil in my kitchen congealed. That's how cold it is in the kitchen. I have begun to appreciate the beauty of heated toilet seats and toto washlets.

By popular request...

(literally one request), I was asked to blog more.

I was up until 5am this morning, struck by an odd and overwhelming urge to marathon asian dramas (I was switching back and forth between two). I don't actually watch it all the way through, I fast forward and skip through bits that are too sickly sweet and ridiculous even for me. Then of course sometimes I miss parts crucial to the story (carton of milk on which the entire love story rests and becomes a recurring motif throughout all 100 hours of the story for example) and I have to go back and rewind. But some of those lines make me cringe too much to sit through so I watch in a back and forth pattern often watching a scene more than once in a span of three minutes as I try to locate some crucial phrase or milk carton. Since I am 100% sure nobody can stand such "technique", I am sure I continue watching by myself, under a blanket, next to my space heater in the near future.

On another note I made duck spaghetti last night!