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 …
Tag: Japan
Madness at the Ministry of Bukkake: A Proposal for a New Mockery-Based Dokdo Strategy
For those of you not in Korea, you’ve probably never heard of Dokdo. Wikipedia has the scoop for you, and it’s pretty well balanced, but the bottom line is, Dokdo is a pair of rocks in the middle of the body of water that separates Korea from Japan. Dokdo is the subject of an ongoing territorial dispute with Japan. The issue flares up every so often, like a case of gout, and like gout, dominates life here for a while. Recently, the Japanese department of education announced that in new Japanese textbook guidelines, Dokdo is going to be described as …
Gender Iconography & Transformations in Korean Pop Culture: What Can We Learn From Japanese Women’s SF?
A lot of attention has been paid to Wonder Girls, to sexual imagery in advertising, but what about images of men an masculinity in Korean pop culture? This picture-laden post looks at both through the lens of a paper on SFnal treatments and transformations of gender in women’s SF in Japan by scholar Miri Nakamura. It’s long, it’s big, it’s one of those posts. Hence the excerpt.
Why Can’t Korean Pop Culture Be This Bizarre?
I like the guy, and his writing, but the_flea_king is evil. Not as evil as some people, but still evil, for having done this to me (LJers, just click here instead, and then, if you’re still note satisfied, here): UPDATE: slightly less odd, but still bizarre, video for the same song:
Her Japanese Nurse Friend’s Favorite “Character”
Yes, my girlfriend actually has a friend who is a Japanese nurse. (Get your minds out of the gutter, all you naughty people.) The real question that came to my mind is this: what the heck is a “Miffy”? Calls out from the wilderness to Google, the Keeper of All Knowledge. Oh, that. Okay. Pan-Asian Cartoony cutesy character thingamadoodle. That was what I thought when I googled Miffy. That gave me pause. Why are these things so popular in Asia? I can understand a cultural difference in which people came to like “cute” things much more unabashedly here — I …