Yesterday marked the beginning of a new year according to the Lunar Calendar: The year of the tiger. Asians all across the globe gathered with their families to celebrate this joyous event. President Obama gave his best wishes via YouTube to everyone out there celebrating. More »

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Kitaro’s Impressions West Lake was nominated at the Grammys in the Best New Age Album category. Jane Zhang, who sang the theme song, was there at the Grammys. Unfortunately, Kitaro didn’t win. More »

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If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s what they all say right? Back in 2007, Son Dam Bi released her first single entitled “Cry Eye.” This song, in my opinion, was the apex of her career… Musically, that is. More »

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Believe it or not, it’s fairly common for film companies to buy scripts and ideas from foreign movies. A prime example of this phenomena is the United States and its obsession with remaking Japanese horror films. The three films that will be analyzed in this post will be The Ring, The Grudge, and One Missed Call. More »

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The Wonder Girls held a press conference in Gangnam, Seoul to talk about their activities in the US. After being away from Korea for several months, the 5-member Korean idol group, Wonder Girls (Ye Eun, Yoobin, Sun Ye, Sunmi, and So Hee) told the press about the challenges they faced in the US and how much they had missed Korea. More »

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More Korean singers debuting in the United States! Like Se7en, BoA, and the Wonder Girls, Wheesung will also debut in the states on October 8th. More »

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In 2001, Keiichi Iwasaki left his home in Japan to travel across 37 countries with only 160 yen (~$2) in his pocket. More »

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Couple of days ago, I left my bedroom and headed for the computer room, where I had to pass my mother who was watching the Korean news. Before I entered the computer room, my mother suddenly asked, “Do you go to these places on the Internet to talk about suicide?” I scowled at her and said, “Mum, I don’t bother to go to those sites, much less search for them!” Right after that, I had an inkling that suicides must be popping up all over Korea again, but I didn’t really pay attention to it until I saw this article. More »

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Let’s get one thing straight first: Yes, I live in South Korea, but I’m affiliated with the US military bases scattered around the peninsula, and so I have access to American moola.

With that said, I am now a proud and happy owner of a $2 bill, and I type this with a big smile on my face. See, the military bases do not use pennies except at post offices (thank goodness, I suppose), and $2 are something of a rarity to many people here. Including me. My mother has one, but she refuses to let me have hers. Ever since her blunt refusal, I’ve been dying to have a $2 of my own. More »

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Finally, “This Is The One” comes out in the US today via digital download. We’ll still have to wait until May 12 to buy the hard copy CD. Don’t ask me why. I mean, the CD has already been released in Japan! While we wonder, you can download the sultry “Come Back To Me” video for free in the iTunes Store right here. (It’s like an arty version of “Easy Breezy”… is that good or bad? Download and decide!)

I’ve had the album in heavy rotation in my iPod and my conclusions are as follows: More »

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One thing I notice about South Korea — or at least in Seoul — is that it’s not handicap-friendly. Compared to ten years ago, I’d say South Korea came a long way in trying to be more friendly for disabled and handicapped citizens, but I still think they need a bit more work. More »

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Chinese and Vietnamese celebrate Lunar New Year with firecrackers, games, red envelopes, and food. Koreans celebrate Seollal with saebae, games, and tteokgook, and other food. The similarities and the differences amuse me greatly.

I always liked living in South Korea because along with the American holidays, the military also lets us recognise two major Korean holidays, and Seollal is one of them. To me, Seollal always symbolised money, a day off, and tteokgook! I love tteokgook! Even though I eat it more than one time a year, my mum makes it special on Seollal.

Anyway, I hope everyone have a fantastic Seollal or Lunar New Year. 새해 복 많이 받으세요 (Saehae bok manhi badusaeyo = Happy New Year)!

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It’s the Seollal (Korean Lunar New Year) weekend! That means Seoul’s streets are empty! And it’s all because of this. Because it’s a major holiday, all the people in the city are going back to the country to visit their kins to celebrate one of the two biggest holidays in South Korea.

My daddy drove me to work today, and there were practically no cars today. He then remarked how it’s his favourite holiday because traffic is non-existent! He also joked that by tomorrow, you could take a nap in the middle of the street. My dad cracks me up. More »

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Gyakuten Kenji, also known as Perfect Prosecutor, will be a spin-off from Capcom’s popular Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) series. As a fan of the series, when I heard that the new spin-off game for the DS was going to be featuring Mitsurugi Reiji (Miles Edgeworth), I nearly cracked my skull at the news. Obviously, I’m a fan of his.

Well, according to this site, there’s a release date, and it’s for May 28, 2009. WHAAAAT. That is a long way off, and with that being the Japanese release date . . . if Capcom USA ever localizes this, it will be a long time before we English gamers see this. Unless the Japanese one comes with an English option like the couple of the GS games had. Then I’d gladly import the game!

. . . But seriously, May 28?! Aigoos. Oh well. At least we have a release date now.

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I don’t want to sound like I’m being xenophobic towards China or anything, but is it okay to say that I’m not surprised at how Chinese media censored President Obama’s inauguration speech? As someone who hates censorship in any forms, it’s ironic that I can sort of see why they did it, but at the same time I do not agree with it.

Censorship is a mean to hide or prevent information from being known to the common public. However, it just seems odd that the Chinese translation of the speeches are changed, but they left the speech alone in English — but then again, the English speech is already all over the internet, so I guess they can’t do much about it. Nonetheless, I guess the Chinese officials are hoping that most of their people do not access English website or know English to understand the original speech. I do hope they realize that there are multilingual citizens in China, so to censor the information around like that is pretty pointless.

On a more positive note, yay for President Obama! Woo hoo!

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Within the last several months, new images and videos have been released on the net. These images showcase Korean War from 1950 to 1953. Amongst images of combat, people, rubbles, and even celebrities like Bob Hope and Marilyn Monroe, seeing these pictures seem to make the war more real than surreal.

Pictures and videos are all here.

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No, not Minerva McGonagall from Harry Potter, but rather a man named Park Dae Sung, who has been arrested on charges of spreading lies over the Internet by blogging. Lies about the South Korean government. Lies where he somehow “predicted” economic situations and whatnot. It sounds more like he wrote many articles that criticized the government and their policies, but I guess the South Korean government doesn’t like to be trashed, so they decided to arrest this blogger to tell the rest of the country to STFU? More »

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More or less, it is true that South Korea’s a homogeneous society. However, with globalization on the run, how many decades or centuries will it take for that “fact” to disappear? I don’t know the answer to that, but I hope that more South Koreans will stop being prejudiced against people of African and South Asian origins. Actually, I hope South Koreans will just stop being prejudiced to anyone, but that’s asking far too much for any society to overcome.

This article generalizes how South Koreans have more biases against people from Africa and South Asia (along with Caucasians to an extent). First of all, I’m actually very surprised that this article was even written up in the first place. My shock alone should be an indicator of how prejudiced South Koreans can be towards these people because of their origins and their skin colours. I see, hear, and feel South Korean views on different races here, so the results of the survey aren’t surprising at all. More »

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Hong Seok Cheon’s Chinese restaurant catches on fire in Itaewon. Apparently, the suspect is a U.S. military soldier named “Corporal G.”

What a way to start the new year. At least, it looks like the fire wasn’t started with a homophobic agenda. Instead, an intoxicated G.I. decided he had some warming up to do. Well, that’s one way to start the year with a bang.

I’m glad there weren’t any casualties. Hong doesn’t need any more stress like that!

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This article is about how the US State Department considers Hongdae and Sinchon, two famous clubbing and bar hopping districts in Seoul, “dangerous areas”. This article brings out two clashing viewpoints from me. One is bewilderment and the other is anger.

I am trying to see why the US State Department would even consider those two areas dangerous. For a city where crime isn’t huge as some major cities, I just cannot fathom what could be listed as dangerous. I mean, yes, since it is a bar district, running into drunkards is not my idea of safe, but it just makes me wonder what they mean by “dangerous”. Yes, crime will always exist, but is it really high in those two areas or is it just another way to prevent Americans from going there? And by Americans I mean those who are affiliated with the US military. More »

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