Looks Like Kimchee Is Back On The Menu

Well, I heard from my recruiter the other day and it looks like I'm off the waiting list for EPIK. Furthermore, contracts are on their way so hopefully by next week I'll be able to go to the Korean consulate in San Francisco and get my visa processed. Orientation starts on August 18 so there's not a day to spare.

However. I can't feel completely sure about the position just yet. I'm afraid that after another week of waiting I'm going to hear from my recruiter again that EPIK has decided to withdraw my position, or something. There's no specific reason to fear this; I haven't heard of it ever happening. I just won't be able to relax until I have the contract in my hand.

To tide myself over, I've been listening to a mix of field recordings I made on my visit to Korea in 2008. Here it is:

Korea In Sound

Racial Marketing

A while back I wrote about Japan's soft cultural power in Asia. Japan is the cultural leader in things like fashion and music in Asia, and has even taken to "discovering" singers in other countries and presenting them as Japanese like, such as with May, the Thai singer in Sweet Vacation. In my original article I also mentioned a Tibetan singer who had been similarly discovered.

Meet alan (known to her family as Alan Dawa Dolma). She was discovered in China and moved to Japan in 2007 to be groomed for their pop machine, learning the language and getting a makeover.

Here are two of her album covers.

If you saw those out of context, you'd think she was Japanese, right? It's only when you hear her haunting voice that you catch on that something is different.

Here she is on Japanese TV. Towards the end she sings and you can definitely hear the "ethnic" in her voice.



Here's another video, also from Japanese TV, in which she sings a traditional Tibetan song.



But how is alan marketed in her native China?

This is interesting. There's a distinct difference from the Japanese covers. I don't think she's marketed as more "Chinese" here but with the blue contacts there's a definite exoticness happening. Also interesting is that the songs have a world music flavor. Her Japanese music is—aside from her voice—largely indistinguishable from other J-pop but this album mixes traditional instrumentation with modern rhythms.

So does this mean that Japan prefers its outside elements to be made more Japanese, while China doesn't mind a little exotica? I don't want to pass any sweeping judgments, but it sure looks that way based on this one isolated case.

As for me, I prefer the Japanese covers and the Chinese music.

10 Things I Miss About Japan (And 10 Things I Don’t)

There's a lot to miss about living in Japan, but there are some things I absolutely do not miss at all. Here are 10 of each.

Miss

1. Onigiri
This is always on the top of the list of things I miss in Japan. There's just something so perfect about a ball (or triangle) or rice, some dried seaweed and a little salty fish filling. It's been called "Japanese soul food" and I have to agree. And yes, you can buy it here in the States at Japanese grocery stores but it's somehow not the same. Maybe because the plastic wrapping never comes off as elegantly as it does in Japan.

2. Sushi Meijin
This was a low-cost kaiten zushi (conveyer belt sushi) chain in Oita. A dollar a plate. Stuff yourself sick for less than 10 bucks. Brilliant for a student. It was also a family place, with little kids running around and even a kids' play area. I miss this place but I also miss quality and affordable sushi.

3. Japanese Draft Beer
On a hot day, there's nothing better than a frosty mug of cold Japanese draft beer. It's light, refreshing, and served so cold ice crystals form on the head. And there's definitely a head. There has to be.

4. Japanese Sincerity
Here in the West we value irony. Feelings are rarely expressed to friends directly; they're done through jokes and put-downs. You know you've achieved a level of closeness with someone when they start making fun of you a lot. An actual, sincere statement is looked on with bemusement at best and distrust at worst. Not so in Japan. A statement like, "Please do your best" is commonplace, and beautiful in its heartfelt simplicity. I miss that.

5. The Trains
They run on time. They're everywhere and thus extremely convenient. Unless you're way out in the countryside, you just don't need a car. I love riding on trains in Japan.

6. Regional Specialties
Japanese cuisine is rather restricted. It's opened up to accept foreign influences but still, most dishes will contain similar ingredients. Which is why I love the idea of Japanese "regional specialties." It's all the same stuff, just slightly different. Oita, where I lived for a year, has as a specialty tempura-fried chicken. It's different from kara age, regular Japanese fried chicken, in that it's fried in tempura batter. Another place specialized in baked curry rice. The same, yet different.

7. Shinto Shrines
I would live at a Shinto shrine if I could. They give me such a sense of awe, as well as peace. I like Buddhist temples as well but they don't touch me in the same way that Shinto shrines do. Seeing a big torii (shrine gate) just does it for me.

8. Deep Sense of History
I love history and Japan has it in spades. Plus, Japan loves its own history. Castles are constantly being rebuilt, samurai movies and TV shows being produced, and books written. Just take a stroll around your typical small city and you'll find some interesting historical site or other.

9. Being Surrounded By The Language
I really do enjoy learning Japanese, and hearing it spoken on a daily basis is a joy to me. Seeing kanji "in the wild," as it were, is the best way to learn it. I remember making linguistic connections everyday when I lived there.

10. Matsuri
There's nothing like a Japanese festival, or matsuri. And I mean beyond just the food and drinking, which is great. No, a matsuri exists outside of normal society. There's an element of chaos and danger, a feeling hearkening back to pre-civilized man that's all but disappeared in modern society. It's a wonderful feeling that I've only ever experienced otherwise at Burning Man in the mid-90s.

Don't Miss

1. Being Stared At
If you're not Japanese in Japan you're different, and that means you'll get started at. It's not done with animosity (usually), just curiosity and you do get used to it, but you forget how nice anonymity can be once it's gone.

2. Lack of Good Coffee
There are plenty of places to buy a cup of coffee in Japan but few are what I'd call "good." And forget trying to buy any kind of decent coffee at the grocery store for home brewing. Japan still thinks freeze-dried crystals are state of the art.

3. Summer
Oh God, summer is hot and humid in Japan. I'm from the temperate Bay Area, where it's dry and comfortable all summer long. But Japan is like Miami hot. Jamaica hot. After walking around a bit, I would have a V of salt on my back from where I had sweat. I'm not kidding—the salt was visible on my shirt. That's nuts.

4. Drafty Apartments
Japanese apartments are not built for living in, obviously. They're built to hold up the roof and that's all. Hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Useless.

5. Being Excluded
This is part of the whole being different thing. If you're not Japanese then you can never truly fit in. It's one of the prices you have to pay for living there.

6. Mosquitoes
Japanese mosquitoes are sneaky. They attack low, bypassing your head and going straight for your legs. Before you know it, you've been bitten 10 times. And the bites scab over, leaving gross little marks. At least there's no malaria.

7. Expense
Although I've written to the contrary Japan is still an expensive place to live, mainly because there are no budget-priced items. Everything is made in-country and the price strictly controlled by the government. No cheap Chinese imports here. Good for Japanese business, bad for the consumer who has to pay $150 for a rice cooker.

8. Being Illiterate
As much as I love the challenge of learning kanji, it's frustrating and embarrassing to not be able to read at a functional level. Ordering in restaurants often exposed this, with me reduced to pointing at things in the menu I couldn't read.

9. Salty Food
Japanese food is delicious but it's also salty as hell. Here in the US it's recommended we top out at around 2000 mg of sodium a day. A bowl of ramen has like 3 times that amount. Not surprisingly, my blood pressure goes up significantly when I'm in country.

10. Concrete
Japan is a beautiful country, with lush green forests, ample coastlines and rolling hills, but you'd never know it for all the goddamn concrete that covers every inch of natural ground. Tetrapods piled on the coasts, rivers paved over even in the backwoods, and hills encased in concrete. Does Japan even know how beautiful it could be?

Tentacles In My Mouth

Back in 2008, I spent a little time in Korea. One of the things I wanted to do that trip was eat live octopus, known as sannakji in Korean. It's not a particularly exotic dish there. In fact, just wait until the sun goes down and sannakji food carts will magically appear next to subway stations. One night, Mr. Bong, the owner of the hostel where I was staying, took me and another guest to his favorite.



Here's the owner of the stall preparing the octopus. First, it's taken out of the tank, its legs stretched out on a cutting board, and its body cut off. Then the legs are sliced into bite-size pieces.



The octopus has arrived. The tentacle pieces are still moving, much like a chicken with its head cut off. Grab a piece, dip it in sesame oil and then chili sauce. Pop it in your mouth but stat chewing right away. As you can see in the video, the tentacles are still working and the piece of octopus will try to stick to the inside of your mouth.

I recommend drinking soju while you do it.

Size Matters

I can't count how many times I've been told that Japan is a small country. I heard it often enough while living there. But is it really? Japan is roughly the same size as California, and California isn't so small. I thought I'd do a little research look on Wikipedia and see just how Japan sizes up to other countries.

In terms of area, Japan is the 61st largest country on the planet. With a total country count of almost 240, that means that 3/4ths of the countries on the globe are smaller than Japan. Germany? Smaller. England? Smaller. Malaysia, Norway, Italy, and New Zealand—all smaller. Even a unified North and South Korea is significantly smaller. I remember I once told a Japanese person—who had been insisting how small their country was—that it was larger than the UK and she just about freaked out. Japan is also compared to America. "Look how small it is next to mighty America." That's an unfair comparison. Every country except for Russia, Canada and China is small compared to the US and A.

Land mass isn't everything. How about in terms of population? In that respect, Japan comes out even higher, with the 10th largest population in the world. In this respect it's larger than Mexico, the Philippines, Canada, and Australia. You win again, Japan.

Why this insistence on being so small? Japan has a larger landmass than 3/4ths of the countries on the planet, a greater population than just about everyone accept the biggest of the big, and even a population density to be proud of (number 36). And then there's that big ol' economy, number 2 in the world.

So why the low self-esteem, Japan? If size really does matter (and it seems like it does to you) then why not realize how big and strong you really are? I'll bet before you lost the war you didn't go around telling other countries how tiny you were. Have you since made yourself psychologically small?

I'm curious what others think.