Wally Nes’ Blog

In Korea, the risks part I I told you of Kimchi.

I am pleased to report that should I for some reason be overcome by my revulsion of the stuff, if I can no longer stand it on the breath of everyone I interact with, if the woman I love’s kiss becomes shear terror through the consumption of the stuff there is now a way out.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8530836.stm

South Korea has opened what officials say is the world’s first purpose-built prison for foreign convicts.

The prison offers Western food and satellite TV programmes in English, Chinese, Russian and Arabic.
The number of foreigners in South Korean jails has more than doubled in the past four years to about 1,500.

The prison’s director said the inmates would still be able to pursue the “Korean dream” that had led them to the country in the first place.

The prison is about 100km (62 miles) south of the capital, Seoul, in Cheonan.
Inmates are given classes in Korean culture but can also view satellite TV from around the world and eat non-Korean meals.

Sweet, sweet release will never be outside of my reach.

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Row! You incomprehensible, horizontal-eyed, Western trouser-wearers! Eurgh! You all look the same to me! How I despise your lack of subtlety and your joined-up writing! You, who have never committed ritual suicide in your lives! SILENCE! Unceremonious rice-pudding eaters! How I abominate your milk-drinking and your lack of ancestor-worship and your failure to eat your lunch out of little boxes!

- Tsutomu Sekine

I started this blog some time ago when I was prepping to go to Japan. Covering some of the things I had to go through to get there, some cultural oddities and the like. Then, in Japan, I continued covering what was happening, to me, to others, to Japanese society covering more cultural oddities, TV weirdness, cultural conversions and you continued to read.

Now I’ve been back in Europe for over a year and a half and this just hasn’t been too much fun to read. Let’s face it, posts like this, this and this just haven’t been as funny as this, as amusing a read as this and as interesting a read as this. And I haven’t said much at all about Japanese Cultural stuff in a long while.

Well . . . that’s about to change(Well, not the Japanese bit, but KOREA!). With all my coursework handed in(though not passed yet, who knows what headaches that will bring yet) I can now focus on my final thesis. And my final thesis will include moving to South Korea. So I can now seriously start prepping for it. Starting to read up on what life is like there at different places in the blogosphere (I read scientific papers full-time now, I’m not going to actually read something like that about the South Korea sociological-somethingorother, dear lord, are you kidding?) and getting my first glimps of Cultural oddities.

It’s odd that because Korea actually is a lot like Japan in a lot of aspects not everything strikes me as odd as it would some of my readers.

BUT

Let me start you off with . . . .

Dun

Dun

DUUUUUUUUUUUUN

FAN OF  DEATH

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“Pffft, English. Who needs that? I’m never going to England.”

- Homer Simpson

Conflicting with the Japan theme I had starting off, the Korean theme I hope this will evolve to and the European theme this blog has now that I’m sorta stuck in the middle I would like to use this blogpost to take you on a journey to a place I lived and traveled in 9 years ago. Australia

If I ever find myself with too much time on my hands (which isn’t a realistic prospect just now) I will have some of the pictures scanned, but anyone who has been at my place has seen them on the wall. The big A4-prints illustrating some feature of Australia.

In the fall of 2001 (Southern hemisphere: March) I crossed the Nullarbor plain. Nullarbor means No (Null) trees (arbor), and is a misleading name. There’s at least 5. Which I suppose is , for a 1200 km stretch, close enough to no trees after all.
The actual plain is 1200 km from east to west at its longest but the highway that travels through it doesn’t become any more interesting after exiting the highway. In reality it is more of a 3k drive between stuff. Sure, there’s the bits and pieces of skylab to see in different roadhouses to keep you distracted on the 2 day long drive but for some people this is not enough.

I was lucky enough to encounter people with car trouble underway and we were able to keep busy helping them along and snickering behind their backs. Rani got a ticket for sleeping on the backseat without a seatbelt.
It was still pretty boring.

BUT NO MORE!

Australian businessmen have banded together and are building A GOLF COURSE.

Read the article here.

This is the route it takes. And just so you know, this is what it looks like now

And this is how natural it will look

What can I say . . . . I quite like it. Can’t be much worse than it was before.

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Quote of the day:

As some of you may know I’m looking to move to South Korea. Things are still a bit tricky as Raphaelle’s Visa issues need to get worked out and I don’t currently know where in South Korea I am trying to go to.

In the midst of all the tension between North and South Korea one can see how I keep up with current affairs. Mostly it’s been within my acceptable parameters, but something happened this week which makes me reconsider. I’ll get back to you how that goes.

Original article (Dutch)

Elephant charged with Assault

An elephant in South Korea is charged by a woman of public assault. The women charged the animal after he allegedly threw a rock at her

The elephant was said to have lifted a rock with its truck and threw it at the woman. The woman said the animal consciously aimed at her head.

South Korean Police is looking into the charges. Sources say it can not just be assumed the elephant is guilty.

A spokesperson said: “No cameras or passers-by witnessed the incident.”

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I know life isn’t fair, but why isn’t it ever unfair in my favor

- Calvin (Bill Watterson)

Another weekend of LARPing happened in the weekend of 7-10 august.

Due to exams I was only able to attend the saturday and sunday. But as a bonus I got to bring someone along this time.

I haven’t made a personal album of other people’s photos this time, but you can find the photos at:

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Quote of the day:

well, what’s worse, ppl thinking my boyfriend beats me or that I’m a big nerd?

- Raphaëlle regarding her LARP induced bruises

This will be in a little while.

According to different numerology belief systems this means different things

1. Individual. Aggressor. Yang.
2. Balance. Union. Receptive. Yin.
3. Communication/interaction. Neutrality.
4. Creation.
5. Action. Restlessness.
6. Reaction/flux. Responsibility.
7. Thought/consciousness.
8. Power/sacrifice.
9. Highest level of change.

1. 一(yat) — sure
2. 二(yi) — easy (易/yi)
3. 三(saam) — live (生/saang)
4. 四(sei) — considered unlucky since the pronunciation of 4 is a homonym with the word for death or suffering (死/sei).
5. 五(ng) — the self, me, myself (吾/ng), nothing, never (唔/ng, m)
6. 六(luk) — easy and smooth, all the way
7. 七(chat) — a slang/vulgar word in Cantonese.
8. 八(baat) — sudden fortune, prosperity
9. 九(gau) — long in time (久/gau), a slang/vulgar word in Cantonese

What will you be doing at 12:34:56 today?

I’ll be having lunch, hence the early post. I’m not staying put for such nonsense

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Quote of the day:

“And I began to question everything around me: the houses, the shop signs, the clouds in the sky, and the engravings in the library, asking them to tell me not their superficial story but another, deeper story, which they surely were hiding–but finally would reveal thanks to the principle of mystic resemblances.”

“Taken literally, these texts were a pile of absurdities, riddles, contradictions.”

- Umberto Eco, Foucault’s Pendulum
(There’s a passage in this book regarding a lotto booth and the illuminate influence which I may look up another day)