He is according to Waseda University professor Toshimitsu Shigemura who’s written a book called “The True Character of Kim Jong Il.” One of the assertions in the book is that the Dear Leader is dead.
From Japan Today:
If true, the implications are potentially vast. Among them: former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s summit partner during one or […]

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We’re a year old and I feel I ought to say something profound. Not because anyone particularly cares and needs to know that we’ve been doing this for a year, but mostly because it occupies a decent portion of my life on certain days through certain hours.
East Windup Chronicle was hatched on July 27, 2007 on […]

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Not sure if you noticed, but the site was down for about 18 hours from early Saturday morning to Sunday. It was apparently a server problem, but it’s been solved and there shouldn’t be any more problems until the next time it happens. If you’ve ever worked on a blog you know how scary that […]

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Two men from Tokyo flew into San Francisco and entered a contest unannounced. Amazingly they won with the aid of a new invention they brought from Japan. Even more amazing — they set a new world record in the process.
After 8 hours and 40 minutes, when both had broken the world record, Taneichi finally gave […]

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Considering it was a priority in my life for a bunch of years, I’ve done relatively little travelling in Korea. Prior to working in scouting I’d been to Seoul exactly three times. I’ve been there six times since March. With my then girlfriend in grad school, or, I should say, a grad school in Korea, […]

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There’s an interview/article about me in today’s JoongAng Daily. Read it at your risk. I spent most of the interview talking sh*t about the readers of this site.
Naw. Mostly it’s about my (limited) experiences scouting in Korea and about this here East Windup Chronicle.
Actually, after making a joke about the readers I’d like to now […]

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Just a note to readers…it’ll be a little quiet for another day or so. I’ve been in Seoul taking in the 42nd annual President’s Cup over the past five days. I’ll have plenty to report once I go home, but in the meantime I’m struggling to even make it through my reader and email in the […]

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Excuse me while I completely rip into someone who’s likely going through a tough time, but I’m guessing any native English-speaker living abroad or doing international business travelling, that has had to rely on the shoddy, elitist, CNN International for any semblance of TV news in English – is familiar with this smarmy twerp:

I’ve disliked Richard Quest for […]

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Glad to report after scanning East Windup Chronicle through the Blog-Cuss-O-Meter that the site is absent (lacking?) in swear content.
Truth be known, I once wrote a swear word in the title of a KBO-related post. Westbay-san of Japanesebaseball.com always links my Korean Baseball related posts at his site, but I noticed he didn’t link to […]

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Pikachu (Pokemon) saves the day again…

(Via: Japundit)

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I don’t normally feel all that affected by the passings of people I don’t know, or that I hear via news reports, but my heart sank when I read about the passing of Bill Kapoun.
There was a considerable effort made throughout the Korean blog community to raise money for Kapoun and his family during last […]

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An English teacher named William Kapoun working in Seoul was badly injured in a fire that raged through his apartment on Sunday, leaving him with third-degree burns over 70% of his body. Sadly, the school Bill worked for — Bulam Elementary School — will not cover his medical expenses, which are estimated to be about […]

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Ladies and gentlemen, it’s been a while since I posted.   So I thought it get back on track by offering you this gem of a video of Jake E. Lee shredding on his axe.  Enjoy. [devil fingers required].  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JBzWZq4fXg

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Damn the modern age. Here’s just one more example that robots are stealing jobs away from humans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jcstZbBTVA

I give you the Breast Massage Robot, developed by Beijing’s BUBBY Robot Technologies Co. The company is currently looking for investors by the way, citing the following attainable health benefits for women who purchase (or have one purchased — […]

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I’m still in California, so I’m not making my regular checks of Korea-based sites, which is why I’m way behind on this one. But there’s no way I can miss the chance to pass this along.
This is the final paragraph of a Korea Beat translation of a Joongang Ilbo story concerning the tourism surrounding the […]

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Allah be praised, contributing writer Iron Chef has taken time off from his New Year’s holiday in sunny Vancouver to tip us off to some new ingenious modern art pieces and cartoons inspired by the continually unfolding Edison Scandal in Hong Kong.The scene has now grown into even more of a fiasco and engendered a […]

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A few FYIs to shuffle and deal here. One, is I have food poisoning. Could impact future samgyupsal eating or it might be the end of crumb cakes left on the kitchen counter throughout the day.
Worse, in a few hours I’m getting on a plane and flying to the United States. I’ll be there through […]

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Forget Global Warming, the 2008 Beijing Olympics, or the economy. For the last 7 days, media in China and the territories has been focused on one event only-a mega sex scandal of epic proportions featuring several of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong’s biggest celebrities.
Apparently wannabe rapper Edison, who makes some of the world’s most atrocious […]

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Unfortunately, stories about athletes getting into trouble are so commonplace they no longer have the effect they ought to. In a sense we expect these things to happen, but in the process of becoming numb to them we also become complicit – indirectly allowing them to happen again.
But this is an extraordinary story brought to you […]

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Tired of women on the Tokyo subway looking in your direction every time they’re groped? Well, worry no more my friend, just pick up this handy-dandy portable subway strap and let everyone know your hands are occupied at all times.

Order here. Cost is about $5.

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