http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqtgJ5TJi8M

This is just a fantastic story.  I’m really not a fan of Japanese (or Korean or Taiwanese) pop music, but I really enjoy enka quite a bit.  Enka is a postwar form of Japanese music in ballad style that has a very traditional and soulful feel to it, and is at times associated with Japanese [...]

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The Boston Herald’s Michael Silverman brings news that Boston’s Matsuzaka Daisuke finds himself in hot water after publicly criticizing his throwing rehab program. He reportedly vented his frustration with not being able to throw as much as he wants, and claimed Japanese pitchers require different conditioning programs due to “ethnic, racial and physiological differences”.
Manager Terry [...]

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A comic in Taiwan meant to explain the ECFA (Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement) with China has caused an uproar and drawn cries of racism.  The comic-depicting two characters, one called “Yi-ge” (一哥), a “45-year old Hoklo-speaking man from Tainan City”, and Fa-Sao (發嫂), a “40-year old Hakka from Hsinchu”–is said to evoke ethnic stereotypes in order [...]

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“In ancient China, the standard for unification included standardized wheel width for carts and a standardized script. Today, Ma is promoting simplified Chinese without receiving any goodwill from Beijing. This is not far from unification as seen by ancient Chinese — how can we not be worried?” – Li Kuen-long, Taipei Times
President Ma Ying-jeou [...]

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Funny blog I found via Brian’s site — apparently some English teachers brought over to South Korea for a little jaunt have been quarantined because of them was found to have swine flu. Oops. Anyway, the blog is an entertaining read, and is mostly about them sitting around and trying to find cigarettes and get [...]

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Great translation on Korea Beat of a story published in the Dong-A Ilbo, written by columnist Ju Seong-ha, about the verandas of Pyongyang apartments. Not riveted? Check your pulse, this seemingly odd focus is a great insight into a culture most know nothing about.
This is a typical apartment veranda of the type that can be [...]

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In recent weeks in Taiwan there has been a big to do about a disgraced Taiwan Government Information Office (GIO) employee getting sacked over a series of bigoted blog comments written under a pseudonym directed at Taiwanese people.
Kuo Kuan-ming–an employee of a Toronto TECO office (which serves as an embassy-like service abroad for Taiwan)–was [...]

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We now interrupt your daily WBC coverage to bring you a classic Pink Tentacle post titled Monster mummies of Japan, which includes details about sokushinbutsu, the practice of self-mummification carried out by ascetic monks who willingly mummified themselves in the quest for nirvana.
From the post:
Step 1: For 1,000 days, the monks would eat a special [...]

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I’m not a fan nor a hater of the Wondergirls, so I’m not about to get bent out of shape when they make complete asses of themselves on recorded media. But from a general perspective of humanity, I cringed when I saw this video of them being interviewed in English at an art exhibit called [...]

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What a bummer. It’s not that Kang Ho-dong gets me seething at the TV like some Korean personalities do, but it sometimes does bother me how ubiquitous certain entertainers are once they’ve become popular. You can find Kang pretty much doing exactly what he’s doing in the photo above on three or four Korean TV [...]

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I’ve debated posting this since I saw it yesterday. Debated because the photo is funny, but the issue at hand is not — even in my own apartment. The Korea Beat story is titled Kindergarten Fire Escapes “As Dangerous as Ever.”  That’s right. That’s a fire escape at a Korean Kindergarten. If the angle was just [...]

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Pretty much totally unrelated to anything going on here, but a few weeks ago I listened to an Economist obituary about Studs Terkel. I’ve heard the name over the years, and I had some idea that he did interviews, but I never really knew much about him.
The Economist obit calls him “recorder of America’s voices,” [...]

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Odd little item I just found on Brian’s site, a new gas station in Seoul aimed at female drivers. Looks, um, girly. According to the item it also features a saloon  providing nail care, cooking lessons and other services. I was wondering what other services, so I did a search in Korean and turned up [...]

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The title of this NYT story, A Culture Clash for South Korean Players on the L.P.G.A. Tour, is a bit of a misnomer, because mostly the writer is talking about how swimmingly things are going since the LPGA Tour’s commissioner, Carolyn Bivens, dropped the plan to require foreign-born players to speak English. But anyway, there’s [...]

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Great, even must-read, article/diary here  in The Economist, by a correspondent working in the paper’s Tokyo bureau. Essentially he’s taking us through his week, starting with the premise that news in the country doesn’t “break,” but “creeps, slinks and whispers,” and then taking the reader to informal meals, cafes and even a language lesson, where [...]

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The name Aya Sugimoto might ring a bell for a few — she’s a fascinating woman. She was well-known as a entertainer (mostly a pop singer), but she really blew up in 2003, when she went through a high-profile divorce from her husband of 11 years, claiming there wasn’t enough sex in her marriage. [...]

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I want to recomend this excellent documentary on North Korea I had a chance to download and watch a couple years ago, called “A Day in the Life.”. Korea Beat posted a link to an excerpt, edited down and broadcast (and oddly, not credited to filmmaker Pieter Fleury) on Al-Jazeera TV.
However, thankfully one of the [...]

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Pink Tentacle has a report on a Japanese man, who after his relationship with a silicone doll had run its course after several years, tried to dispose of the body in a wooded area. I guess he never saw Shallow Grave.
On August 21, the 60-year-old unemployed resident of Izu (Shizuoka prefecture) wrapped his 1.7-meter tall, [...]

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The Korean Chusok  runs for three days (usually) during the fall months and today (Monday) puts an end to the holiday. It’s essentially a thanksgiving holiday and is believed to have its origins in ancient shamanistic celebrations of the harvest moon. Almost on cue there was a gastly  (and I mean that in the [...]

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You might remember I enjoyed VBS.TV’s Vice Guide to North Korea. If you haven’t already watched it I recommend it. CNN has an interview with Shane Smith, the fun-loving, bearded fellow who was in NK doing the reporting.
The interview is kind of interesting on it’s own because he goes into some detail about what [...]

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