I know that blog posts that are nothing more than links to other blog posts are somewhere between "lame" and "typical," but this is one we really can't pass up: Japanese Fart Scrolls.
Ultimately, I agree with the author's conclusion that farts are totally funny. However, to offer my own smarty-pants English student twist: it's extremely likely that this stuff is meant to be pornography, protected from detection by being unrecognizable as such to most people. Google James Joyce's letters to Nora Barnacle, for instance. Or don't, actually, if you're planning on eating anything today -- know that the best line (and the cleanest) reads, "I think I would know Nora's fart anywhere. I think I could pick hers out in a roomful of farting women." I think my thesis mentor would agree that Joyce has something in common with the artist of He-Gassen. The fact that Japan produced a lot of porn in its history, especially the weird stuff (tentacles and the like), only confirms this hypothesis, as far as I'm concerned.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Korea Party Three: Gaijin on Parade!
And now, back to your regularly-scheduled (ha ha ha) photos of weird stuff from abroad. In this installment: marvel at the unique and yet eerily familiar sights of Korea!
Eh. Close enough.
Kenny Rogers' official Karaoke Establishment! It was decorated in a faux-Medieval village motif inside, strangely, the walls painted with scenes of cute wooden hamlets and roads winding off into the hills. I believe Kenny Rogers may be from the Shire. Incidentally, there were no Kenny Rogers songs on the karaoke machines.
We can take a hint. This specially designated area for foreign shops was well stocked with knock-off merchandise and what I can only assume was an abundance of brothels staffed by Eastern European women. So...this dude's friendly expression might be a tad inappropriate for the situation, is what I'm saying.
Some of the better graffiti I've seen. Commentary on the club culture and its adherents? Or...dude who thinks rats are cool?
Entry number 6 in my collection of pictures hung above toilets in Asia. This one is evocative if confusing. Personally, I think the warning would be more effective if it acknowledged the dangers of soju.
The Women's Lounge at a subway station in Seoul. As you can see, it offers all the amenities to which women are accustomed to, provided there is no more than one woman waiting for the toilet.
Seen all over the subway in Busan. Your guess is as good as mine.
Eh. Close enough.
Kenny Rogers' official Karaoke Establishment! It was decorated in a faux-Medieval village motif inside, strangely, the walls painted with scenes of cute wooden hamlets and roads winding off into the hills. I believe Kenny Rogers may be from the Shire. Incidentally, there were no Kenny Rogers songs on the karaoke machines.
We can take a hint. This specially designated area for foreign shops was well stocked with knock-off merchandise and what I can only assume was an abundance of brothels staffed by Eastern European women. So...this dude's friendly expression might be a tad inappropriate for the situation, is what I'm saying.
Some of the better graffiti I've seen. Commentary on the club culture and its adherents? Or...dude who thinks rats are cool?
Entry number 6 in my collection of pictures hung above toilets in Asia. This one is evocative if confusing. Personally, I think the warning would be more effective if it acknowledged the dangers of soju.
The Women's Lounge at a subway station in Seoul. As you can see, it offers all the amenities to which women are accustomed to, provided there is no more than one woman waiting for the toilet.
Seen all over the subway in Busan. Your guess is as good as mine.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Korea Part 2: Jenn and Harry and Friends
We've had a fair amount of experience traveling in unfamiliar countries, and over the years we have learned a few inescapable things about traveling that nobody warns you about. For your enlightenment, here are some of Jenn's and Harry's Rules "'O" International Traveling:
RULE ONE: You will get sick.
1a. Daaaaaaaaaaaaaamn.
RULE TWO: You will be freezing cold all the damn time (this may have something to do with our choosing to travel in winter).
RULE THREE: You won't really have much of anything to do after the sun goes down.
In my experience, this third rule is one of the biggest challenges we've faced while traveling: most touristy places close up shop around 5 or 6 in the evening, leaving few options for entertainment in a foreign city save going out to dinner (the way I'd usually get around this dilemma is to go to dinner, then second dinner). Sure, checking out the nightlife in a new place might be fun, but...well, Jenn and I aren't really club rats. As such, our typical daily itinerary in a foreign city goes roughly like this:
8:00 - Wake up
10:30 - Wake up for real this time
11:45 - Leave the hotel to take in a new culture and new experiences
11:50-1:30 - Lunch
1:30 - Try to figure out what we should go see, wrangle with public transportation, get lost
3:30-5:00 - Sightseeing
5:00-6:00 - Wander around, putter
6:00-7:00 - Coffee break
7:00-8:00 - Dinner
8:30 -More puttering, wonder if it's too early to go to sleep
9:00 - Sleep
Nathan, our second Couchsurfing host, seen here at his most Spielbergian. Nathan introduced us to all kinds of sights in Seoul that we never would have found on our own -- such as a multi-story musical instrument market -- as well as things that we probably would have found but never should have (soju: see picture of the results above).
An artist acquaintance of ours, Pang Hyo Sung, at his gallery in Seoul. We ended up meeting him by passing some time in his sister's cafe, a beautiful little place in a neighborhood packed to the gills with galleries and beautiful little cafes. Hers was empty save for us, and we vowed to stay as long as she kept giving us free pots of tea and snacks. This proved to be rather a long time, at least an hour or so, when we were rescued by Pang Hyo and his friends. After starting a friendly conversation with us (an event that shocked us -- such things never happen in Japan), he invited us to check out his gallery down the road, which we did gladly.
While we did not meet her in person, we did encounter some of the Supreme Master's works on this Earth: some truly excellent vegan Korean cooking in her restaurant in Insa-dong. Among Her various paraphernalia in the restaurant, which included Supreme Master Web TV blaring from every corner in 40 languages at once, were numerous copies of Her various books. This was the only one in English, and it contained nothing but pictures of Her with Her Dogs with cute captions under each photo. It was over 200 pages long. If you're unfamiliar with the Supreme Master (as we were), check out her website, which captures all of the unnerving weirdness of Her holy restaurant.
Tyler, our host in Busan, taking us to one of the great marvels of Korea: the soju tents. Soju, as you may have guessed, was a recurring theme on this trip. Soju tents are wonderful little shelters with all the street food you can imagine and little that you can remember the next day.
These ladies, whose names I will never know, ran the soju tent with the mastery of true professionals. They kept giving us plate after plate of spicy chicken, kimchi, and this mystery substance on sticks. They graciously allowed us to buy them a couple of drinks, too.
We met this lady, a Buddhist nun, on the ferry back to Osaka at the very end of our trip. Her English was a bit shaky -- we couldn't tell if she was going to travel the world by train and by sea, visiting monasteries all across the globe...or if she had just finished doing that. From what we understood, though, she visited Buddhist monasteries all over the place and programmed their websites. Probably one of the most interesting people we've ever met, well worth the sea sickness incurred by the ferry ride.
And last, please enjoy this very special Amazing Tales of the Gaijin Patrol Belated New Year's Wish, starring Jenn, Harry, Nathan, Mi Jin, and an extremely tall tech guy at LG named Owen. Owen, surprisingly, is a bit of a lightweight.
Happy Continued 2012!
RULE ONE: You will get sick.
1a. Daaaaaaaaaaaaaamn.
RULE TWO: You will be freezing cold all the damn time (this may have something to do with our choosing to travel in winter).
RULE THREE: You won't really have much of anything to do after the sun goes down.
In my experience, this third rule is one of the biggest challenges we've faced while traveling: most touristy places close up shop around 5 or 6 in the evening, leaving few options for entertainment in a foreign city save going out to dinner (the way I'd usually get around this dilemma is to go to dinner, then second dinner). Sure, checking out the nightlife in a new place might be fun, but...well, Jenn and I aren't really club rats. As such, our typical daily itinerary in a foreign city goes roughly like this:
8:00 - Wake up
10:30 - Wake up for real this time
11:45 - Leave the hotel to take in a new culture and new experiences
11:50-1:30 - Lunch
1:30 - Try to figure out what we should go see, wrangle with public transportation, get lost
3:30-5:00 - Sightseeing
5:00-6:00 - Wander around, putter
6:00-7:00 - Coffee break
7:00-8:00 - Dinner
8:30 -More puttering, wonder if it's too early to go to sleep
9:00 - Sleep
This is all an extremely roundabout way of bringing up Couchsurfing. Simply put, Couchsurfing is a website for getting free lodging. It's a lot more than that, but that's the basic premise, anyway. You make a profile, and when traveling to a new country, you can search for available couches to crash on for free. It's kind of beautiful, really: people who have space and time volunteer it for groovy people in need. You're free to refuse anyone whose profile (or face) you don't really like, no obligations, no pressure, and no money exchanged. We've hosted 15 people now from all over the world; some of them have been like new best friends, kindred spirits who've taught us about travel and cooking and art and all kinds of neat stuff, and some of them have been...tools, I guess. Still, having the opportunity to meet and talk to people from all walks of life with all manner of out-there experiences is definitely worth it.
The best part of traveling by Couchsurfing, though, isn't the free lodging, as we discovered on this trip to Korea. What's really fantastic about it is having access to the knowledge that you can only get by living in a foreign city. Our hosts introduced us to their friends, taught us how to get around, and took us to neighborhoods and restaurants that we wouldn't have found on our own if we had been there for months. Plus, having a host (who, for the time of your visit, is essentially your new best friend) means having plans in the evening...
...Which brings us screaming back to the beginning of this post (barely). Couchsurfing meant seeing a lot of amazing things with some very cool people. It also meant staying out until 4 a.m. and starting the day with a hangover (once or twice, anyway).
The only way to travel!
And now, here are some of the kind-hearted souls who took us in over our trip, along with some of the interesting people we met in Korea:
Nathan, our second Couchsurfing host, seen here at his most Spielbergian. Nathan introduced us to all kinds of sights in Seoul that we never would have found on our own -- such as a multi-story musical instrument market -- as well as things that we probably would have found but never should have (soju: see picture of the results above).
An artist acquaintance of ours, Pang Hyo Sung, at his gallery in Seoul. We ended up meeting him by passing some time in his sister's cafe, a beautiful little place in a neighborhood packed to the gills with galleries and beautiful little cafes. Hers was empty save for us, and we vowed to stay as long as she kept giving us free pots of tea and snacks. This proved to be rather a long time, at least an hour or so, when we were rescued by Pang Hyo and his friends. After starting a friendly conversation with us (an event that shocked us -- such things never happen in Japan), he invited us to check out his gallery down the road, which we did gladly.
While we did not meet her in person, we did encounter some of the Supreme Master's works on this Earth: some truly excellent vegan Korean cooking in her restaurant in Insa-dong. Among Her various paraphernalia in the restaurant, which included Supreme Master Web TV blaring from every corner in 40 languages at once, were numerous copies of Her various books. This was the only one in English, and it contained nothing but pictures of Her with Her Dogs with cute captions under each photo. It was over 200 pages long. If you're unfamiliar with the Supreme Master (as we were), check out her website, which captures all of the unnerving weirdness of Her holy restaurant.
Tyler, our host in Busan, taking us to one of the great marvels of Korea: the soju tents. Soju, as you may have guessed, was a recurring theme on this trip. Soju tents are wonderful little shelters with all the street food you can imagine and little that you can remember the next day.
These ladies, whose names I will never know, ran the soju tent with the mastery of true professionals. They kept giving us plate after plate of spicy chicken, kimchi, and this mystery substance on sticks. They graciously allowed us to buy them a couple of drinks, too.
We met this lady, a Buddhist nun, on the ferry back to Osaka at the very end of our trip. Her English was a bit shaky -- we couldn't tell if she was going to travel the world by train and by sea, visiting monasteries all across the globe...or if she had just finished doing that. From what we understood, though, she visited Buddhist monasteries all over the place and programmed their websites. Probably one of the most interesting people we've ever met, well worth the sea sickness incurred by the ferry ride.
And last, please enjoy this very special Amazing Tales of the Gaijin Patrol Belated New Year's Wish, starring Jenn, Harry, Nathan, Mi Jin, and an extremely tall tech guy at LG named Owen. Owen, surprisingly, is a bit of a lightweight.
Happy Continued 2012!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)