A couple of factors combined to make the potential trip to Tokyo that I mentioned here unworkable. (Not the least, a great deal of uncertainty until, well, this morning about whether I’d need this or that or the other thing to get the code number I’m supposed to get in order to do my visa run.) Now I have stuff going on this week, stuff to get done, people to see and places to be — heh, even an orientation tomorrow, which will probably be several hours of incomprehensibility to whatever foreign profs actually make it there — so the …
Tag: expat
Hiking Boots?
I’ll be going to a mountain on Wednesday, as part of a very interesting workshop involving Korean SF writers and astronomers — oh, yes, a listening comprehension test three days long, which I’m already failing, but more about that afterwards — and I’ve been told it would be a good idea to have some hiking boots. I’ll be in Seoul tomorrow, and would be able to pick some up, except I have no idea where such things could be gotten — that is, winter boots, in “large size” (ie. 300, 305, 310, or bigger, depending on the brand). Apparently the …
Visa Run: Tokyo?
Okay, so Tokyo can be expensive, I know. But a guy I know from back in undergrad (yes, you Malcolm) suggested it probably wouldn’t be much more expensive to visit than Fukuoka or Osaka, and there is more to do in and around Tokyo. (And it turns out return flight tickets to Tokyo for mid-late February can still be gotten for about W300,000. Besides, some part of me would rather wander around in Tokyo, and maybe wander off to Kamakura or Minami-Alps (which my friends here have praised highly) or even just or Hakone, than to pass just a few …
You Have Nose Star Calipers? AKA Maybe I Should Practice Korean More?
Today’s fun conversation in Korean: ME: You have a nose star calipers?1. DOLLAR STORE CLERK2.: Huh? Nose star? ME: Yeah, you know. Nose star calipers.3. DSC: You mean a nose hair trimmer? ME: Uh… maybe. Nose hair? DSC: Yeah. Like, this? [Makes snipping motion.] ME: No, no. I mean like this… [Makes a buzzing noise, and spins finger round in a circle quickly.] DSC: Oh! Yeah, right over here. ME: What’s this called? DSC: A nose hair trimmer. ME: Ah. Right. Hair. Stars are in the sky, hair is in my nose. DSC: [With a giddy laugh.] That’s right. Shall …
Homeplus Update
Remember how I said they “fixed their website” to allow foreigners to register? Well, ordering is another matter, as I discovered after spending over an hour trying to get the damned order to go through. It’s not my card, because my card works with other sites. It’s something in the way their site handles cards. I imagine it just assumes the name on the card and the name on the national ID# are identical or something like that. Nobody bothered to think through the rest of the process when they “fixed” the website. So maybe they don’t want our business …