Arboreal Clothes

It's so cold in Korea in the winter time that they have to insulate some trees to keep them warm, or they will die.

Looks like a neuron.

Bek suggested these resemble coral.



Handle-less mops and brooms.

Korean Sights

Korea was really cold, zero in the day time, negative at night. We had to rug Alice up a lot. It's kind of fun to dress for the cold, it seems more functional than other dressing.




This truck never seemed to go anywhere or sell anything. At least, we never saw the owner the few times we passed it.

A weird strawberry headed figure. We found it in a courtyard in Insadong street.

More stuck together fruit heads.

Koreans take their national treasures seriously. Look at the size of this pagoda shelter. From Tapgol park.

I took a picture of this inscription because I can almost read it. It says, big small people something down horse something. Loosely translated it means whether you are of high birth or low, please get off your horse in respect of this place.

Christmas decorations were out in force in the streets of Seoul, probably because there are many more Christians in Korea than in Japan. These singers have grass growing all over them, and more cabbages. I'm starting to appreciate the cabbages, although, as in the grocery department, there are only red and white kinds.

Here is the Post Tower. It looks like a big zip, complete with zipper.

I don't know what this building has inside it but the outside looks like a green Pacman. The sun wasn't where I would have liked it to be in this picture.

I was quite happy to guess the purpose of these raised spikes on telegraph poles. They're to prevent the posting of bills.

Korean English

We had to get our business visas recently, so we flew to Seoul where we could get them the next day. The same service in Japan takes quite a few weeks. Bek still had to work so Alice and I walked around all day in the freezing cold.


This sounds nice, but also meaningless.

I can appreciate the niche marketing approach to fashion. Just what us skinny guys need.

I have no idea what's in these boxes. It says, 'Soup Performance Feminism Fashion, Sweet Soup so lovely so pretty.' So it's fashionable soup for feminists, right.



Japan also seems to like the idea of riding horses inside in the name of fitness. Imagining ways to exercise which require little to no movement is an unending supply of revenue for quite a lot of companies. The ads for these contraptions are quite good, featuring nubile young women 'riding'.

Slow

This little guy replaces those road workers who hold the 'slow' signs in Japan. You can see he even waves his left arm.

Akihabara

Akihabara is where the freaks hang out in Tokyo, like this ball balancer. Some freaks look normal and are only freaky on the inside, and others like to show it off. So there is a lot of cosplay and maids and stuff everywhere, but I still am too self conscious to just take a picture of anyone from the front. So this post will be cosplayless.

Electric Town is the main drag of Akihabara. They sell lots of nice things, and have quite specialised shops like this light globe shop. In fact, there was almost a light globe shop alley.

This mispelling in Thai is just appalling. How much trouble would it have been to ask just one Thai person to check it before engraving it in stone. I mean, come on, there are millions of Thais around.

I liked these chairs outside a fetish lingerie shop. They look quite handy.

We couldn't help but think what a fabulous view this hotel furnished with it's inward facing windows.

Functional English

Now that is what I call authentic English.

I'm not sure how effective this technique is for language learning. I can't usually remember anything after watching girls in bikinis.

If you don't think these are real you can find a lot more of them here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheSkillfulAbbot

Confused

The guy with a picture of the Madonna on his back seems to be praying at this temple.

Jindaiji

Last weekend we visited with Yamamoto-san and his family, who took us to Jindaiji temple . Jindaiji is the second oldest temple in Tokyo and is dedicated to the water god, Jinja Daio. The grounds are filled with beautiful gardens and trees, as well as traditional pebbled spaces.

This temple is a Buddhist temple, which you can tell because there are no large red wooden gates, or torii. Buddhist and Shinto temples are, of course, different, however they are not so different as to be obvious to outsiders, and the religions are not really mutually exclusive anyway.

However, the same sorts of things are done at all temples, the standard procedure being to approach the front, make a donation, bow two times, clap two times to get Buddha's attention and then you can bow again or pray.

Before you approach the main hall, it's quite common to perform some ablutions to purify yourself. This ritual also has a special method, you pick up the ladle with your right hand, then pour water onto your left hand, pass the ladle to your left hand, wash your right, pass it to your right hand again, cup your left hand to hold some water and take a sip to rinse your mouth, and finally rinse the left hand again.

Another hall on the grounds. There are always multiple halls and shrines at temples.

Here are some prayer papers which are neatly folded and tied.

We had a nice lunch with the family at a bakery restaurant. With your set meal you could have unlimited small fancy rolls which had been freshly baked. Alice and Noa got friendly and showed each other their toys before snatching them back quickly. We also went to a discount baby store to buy some more warm baby clothes, including beanies, gloves, scarves and boots. Alice was so tired by then, having not slept the entire day that she promptly fell asleep in the trolley.

Then we were invited to Yamamoto-san's mother-in-law's house for a delicious impromptu dinner. The kids slept while we drank beer and talked.

?

A subway information desk. Quite poetic.

Calorie Mate

I love buying weird food here. This was irresistible because it seems to be all in English. Maybe it's some American 'food'. Well, as it says it's a food replacement which you can perhaps diet on. It's got energy in it apparently, good-o.

I can't say much for the taste. Mainly because I'm gagging at the moment. I thought it smelt a little like blue cheese, unfortunately it doesn't taste as nice as that. I suppose it's a plus for dieters, makes you want to eat as little as possible of the stuff. I gave some to Alice. She's like a dog in her ability to beg for any food being eaten at a given time.

She threw it on the ground after the first bite.

No Time For Flowers

Decorative cabbages are all the rage in the Winter months.

21 + 3

Without this juice, Alice would die of malnutrition. It contains 21 vegetables and 3 fruits in, what would have to be, tiny proportions. It tastes awful but babies don't know anything, so she drinks it. Listen to the grossness.

Carrot, some leafy thing, asparagus, capsicum, some other leafy thing, kureson(?), pumpkin, cabbage, broccoli, third leafy thing, beetroot, purple thing, celery, lettuce, hokusai(??), keeru(?), parsley, eggplant, dunno, radish, another sort of cabbage, apple, orange and lemon.

It really hard trying to guess what English word the Japanese are using when it's written in katakana. Anyway, it's terrible, but I've seen many girls drink it on the subway. Maybe it's a diet food.

Travel Agent

The other weekend we went to a travel agent to ask about some options for the coming Christmas break. She didn't seem too keen to help or suggest anything, but she did give us a few ideas about prices and destinations.

However at the end of our little discussion she tells us that they do not accept credit cards at all. We would have to pay for our whole trip in cash! She said it like it was the most normal thing in the world to withdraw thousands of dollars from the bank, take it across to their office and just count it out.

Another example of Japan's juxtaposition of the super modern and highly primitive.

The Writing is on the Wall

Apparently Spada is a shortening of Super Daddy, and also a car.

This sums up some Japanese people's attitudes quite nicely.

Oi, you, men, get in here and buy some expensive yet fashionable clothing.

Fanta Ads

I think these Japanese commercials are quite hilarious. I've never found all these Fanta flavours, though.

Dad Meal

Another dad meal, pasta and strawberries.

Giant Tongues

Giant tongues are the way they sell toothbrushes in Japan. This is in a tunnel at Omote-sando subway station. I was alone (with Alice) at the time so couldn't get a photo of myself getting a full body licking.

Kurumi

This is Alice at Ito-san's picnic. She's trying to walk Kurumi, or maybe Kurumi is trying to walk her. It's hard to tell.

Warning

Crabs will bite your fingers in this elevator.

Beware

This is a detail from one of the street side maps found at major intersections and outside subway stations so people can find where the hell they are.

There is a whole building to process bicycle parking violations. Just parking. Amazing.

Potty Training

Well, Alice has discovered poo. She can say poo, kind of, and she likes to see the poo in her nappies. So the time has come to get a potty, which we eventually found at Toys R Us in Sunshine city. We totally avoided buying any which had digital flushing noises, or some Japanese anime character shouting "masterful achievement!!" after every sitting.


Not sure what this thing is yet.

So versatile. Bek told me not to force her to sit down on the potty, as it's really bad if they come to fear it. However, after half an hour of her running around with it on her head we surmised that she was pretty okay with the whole idea. Now if only she would keep still for five seconds at a time.

Choice Phrases

They're struggling for decent cafe names lately. However this is not a cafe.

Grass Tiara actually brings to mind a nice image. Too bad the store namers probably had no idea what it meant.

Hard to tell the meaning of this. They were next to a kid's stand full of hats.