Teresa and Dan Go Nihon!

I finally got visitors!

At long, long last I was reunited with high-school chum (and apple of my eye), Teresa Vigmostad.  Fresh out of the Navy and accompanied by her lushly-bearded beau, Dan Viola, she came prepared to experience the wonders of this great island nation.  Wonders which included three junior high school boys wiping out in the middle of the street while trying to ride one bicycle and lots of guys in short-sleeved white work shirts.  But I digress.

Teresa and I on the train to Miyajima Island.  I had somehow managed to secure a day off, though I'm sure I'll have to pay for it later with my soul.  As a side note, don't we look totally boss in this picture?

Teresa and I on Miyajima Island with the famous Vermillion gate in the background.  I know I've shown you Miyajima pics before, but these ones have Teresa in them and are thus far superior to my previous photos.

Dan, Ryan, Teresa and I outside of an arcade on Hondori (the main drag through downtown Hiroshima) with that eternal titan of Japanese cute-dom, Rilakuma.  That's right, we met the Rilakuma.  He's actually a really down-to-earth guy.

Me, Shiho and Dan gearing up for some serious Print Club action.  Dan was excessively surly about something, but the beard counteracts any negative impact that surliness would have had on this picture.

Print Club Photo the first!  I like Ryan's expression on the right.  I'm still not sure if he was intentionally trying to imitate The Scream or if he just wanted this picture to look as freaky as possible.

Print Club Photo the second!  Just look at Dan's face on the bottom right.  Good luck falling asleep tonight!

Korean Dramas

I've already mentioned multiple times that Korean stuff is huge in Japan.  In fact, Korean culture is enjoying a surge in popularity throughout Asia -- a surge known as "hallyu," or the "Korean wave."  One of the most popular Korean imports?  Dramas. 

Dramas in Asia are more or less the equivalent of soap operas in America, except they aren't as long-running and none of them feature Timmy the Talking Doll (which is a bit of a shame, really).  Japanese dramas are usually twelve episodes long and somewhat less melodramatic than their American counterparts.  Korean dramas, meanwhile, are 16 episodes long and completely insane.

But boy, they sure are popular.  And Ryan and I felt that we would be remiss if we didn't at least try to understand them.  So we did some cursory research on the internet and downloaded the K-drama that allegedly sparked Japan's fascination with the genre: Full House.

No, not that Full House...

This Full House.

Full House is the story of a woman named Ji-eun whose terrible, terrible friends sell her house and pocket the cash after sending her on a bogus trip to Shanghai.  While in China, she meets famous movie star and heart-throb Young Jae.  Through a series of whacky misunderstandings, Ji-eun and Young Jae end up married and living in the very house Ji-eun's stupid friends sold at the beginning of the show.  Turns out they sold it to Young Jae!  Man, what a kooky turn of events!  The madcap, unbridled zaniness is further heightened by the fact that Ji-eun and Young Jae despise each other and only got married so Young Jae could protect the privacy of his childhood friend and Ji-eun could earn her house back by acting as his maid/slave.  Somehow!

If you couldn't follow any of that, don't worry.  I suspect the success of Full House has less to do with its intricate plot and more to do with the guy who plays Young Jae.

SQUEEEEEEEEAAAAAL!

This is Rain, a famous singer/actor in Korea who can pull off a petulant-little-boy pout like nobody's business.  When I worked at the Korean tutoring center in Ann Arbor, I had to read at least three essays about "Why Rain is my Hero."  In short, Korean kids (and middle-aged ladies?) loooooove Rain.

So now for some of the defining features of Korean dramas, as manifested in Full House.

1. Korean dramas are filmed as they air.  From what I understand, this means that lots of time and money are lavished on the first few installments while subsequent episodes have to get pooped out in a hot hurry.  In the case off Full House,  the initial episodes had our heroine traveling around Shanghai, staying in a fancy hotel and visiting various up-scale restaurants.  By the end of the show, though, she and Young Jae just hung out at home a lot and always went to the same empty bar that played the same Bob Dylan song on a constant loop.  It was clear that the crew had run out of time, money, and possibly the ability to care less.

2. Korean dramas are very receptive to audience feedback.  Apparently, the creators of Korean dramas regularly troll the internet in order to suss out fans' opinions.  If the fans don't like a character, the character will suddenly die of a massive heart attack in the next episode.  If fans love a character who is in the final stages of terminal brain cancer, that tumor will suddenly decide to take a hike.  Most bizarrely, if fans enjoyed a particular scene, the writers will throw in a very similar scene later on.  In Full House, this translated to the exact same things happening over and over again without any variation at all.  The writers literally wrote in the same scene eight times.

3. Korean dramas are addictive.  I have to admit, as tiresome as it got hearing Rain emotionally abuse a girl whom he had manipulated into a contract marriage, and as repetitive as it was watching the EXACT SAME SCENE for the ninetieth time, I couldn't just stop watching.  I had to see if they got together in the end.  Unfortunately, the pay-off in the final episode was Young Jae and Ji-eun sitting together (fully-clothed) in a tent and engaging in a "hot kiss."  And I use that term loosely, since I've seen hotter kisses planted on the cheeks of people's grandmothers.


In the final analysis, I don't believe Korean drama is a genre I could get particularly invested in.  But I can see why a lot of people are completely consumed by them.  They are kind of fun.

Plus Rain, you guys.  Rain.

Pictures from my phone, vol. 2 - Engrish Shirt Edition

Hey people! We're pretty terrible at this blogging thing, huh? It's been over a month since our last post. Oops. Things have been both extremely busy and amazingly uneventful around here. With the exception of our friends Teresa and Dan visiting Japan two weekends ago, it's just been work work work with a smidgen of relaxing on the weekends. Also, Joanna's computer is busted, so that makes it even more difficult!

Anyway, here is a post with more pictures from my phone, this time with a theme: Engrish shirts!  You see so many of these in Japan.  It's the equivalent of people wearing shirts with Chinese characters on them in the States.  You don't know what it means, but by golly do you look cool wearing it!  So, without further ado, LET'S SO BRING IT!! ON DOWN.

"Urban Division.  BAD BOY LOS ANGELES.  BAD BOY 1982.  Go ahead.  Challenge the world.  We'll see you out there."  Found in the kids' clothes section of my local mall.  There is nothing I can add that would make this shirt any cooler than it already is.

"SCRUM.  EFFECTIVE AREA HERO.  UNDER 10."  Again from the kid's clothes section.

"HERALDRY LEGEND.  CHOP POINT.  There is never met KING OF FREEWAY."  Another from the same place.  I think this one is talking about Mad Max?

Not really too much Engrish shirt, but I love thinking of Bill Cosby as the PROFESSIONAL'S CHOICE.

"PRIURI.  DREAM ABOUT FANTASIZE.  Being Pleasant.  Believing In Yourself."  From the girls' section of the same store as Bad Boy 1982.  While boys' shirts are all a bunch of words about being cool and tough and effective area heroes, girls' shirts are just a bunch of flowery yet reaffirming messages.  Some are kind of weird though.  Dream about fantasize?  That's some Inception stuff right there!

"Girl going to work in an office."  "I'm Really Really PLEASED."  Found at Uniqlo, a popular and hip yet cheap clothing store.  The irony of the first shirt is that if you really were a girl going to work in an office, you wouldn't be wearing a t-shirt.

"I'M SO VERY UNHAPPY."  "Give me back my zip-up fleece top!"  Again from Uniqlo.  I suppose you can buy both Really Really PLEASED and SO VERY UNHAPPY and let the world know how you're feeling on a particular day.  As for the other shirt, it's kind of a passive-aggressive way of getting your stuff back, isn't it?

"I am enjoy it now!!  DO you enjoy it?"  Not a shirt but a bear backpack.  "Enjoy" is the Engrish word of choice.  You see it EVERYWHERE.

That's all for now. Hopefully more soon! Keep it real, Effective Area Heroes!