Funny Translations

Today I came across this and felt the need to share. It has a list of bad English translations of Japanese "Adult Video" titles. If this kind of thing might offend you, perhaps you shouldn't click the link. For everyone else...it's quite funny.

Kabuki

On Saturday I went to a performance of a type of traditional Japanese theater. From what I could tell, the main act was about a down-and-out sumo wrestler who goes on some sort of mission and fights off some other guys. Basically, I watched a play that I didn’t understand a single word of. (The physical comedy parts of it were quite fun). Attending theater productions in languages I don’t understand are not a usual hobby of mine. In this case I went entirely for the opening act.

The opening act was a short kabuki production done by five foreigners. A few of these guys are my friends, so I came out to cheer them on/laugh at them. Their performance was fantastic. They all wore pretty purple kimono, geta (traditional wooden shoes that are very hard to walk in, tons of make-up, and wigs. After the show, they posed for funny/scary pictures.

And just for fun, you can watch a couple minutes of the main play. I don't understand a word of it except when the little girl cries "Mother Mother". Also, her mother is played by a man.

Lanterns and a Happy Buddha Birthday

I lucked out because I happened to be in Seoul while the city was having festivities in honor of Buddha’s birthday, which I guess is this week. The celebrations involve thousands, perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands of lanterns all over the city. The lanterns are in the shape of lotus flowers. In the afternoon I participated in an event where they taught foreigners how to make lanterns. It was lots of fun and I won a prize because my lantern rocked. In the evening there was a parade of lotus lanterns. It was possibly the longest parade I have ever seen. It consisted almost entirely of people carrying lanterns. People in traditional Korean dress carrying lanterns. Buddhist monks carrying lanterns. Small children carrying lanterns. College students carrying lanterns. Elderly people being pushed in wheelchairs carrying lanterns. Very small children being pushed in strollers carrying lanterns. More people in traditional dress. More monks. You get the idea. Occasionally a cool lit up statue of Buddha or a dragon or something similar would come by. I watched the parade for 2 hours and there were still lanterns as far back as the eye could see. There was no sign that it would end any time soon. People also passed out little lanterns to the people watching the parade, so that even the sidelines had a neat effect of lots of lights. I took lots of parade pictures, so here are a few of them, along with my own lantern and other lanterns around town.

Random Mountains with Random Friends

In Seoul I set out to have a little walking tour recommended by Lonely Planet. While trying to figure out where to go from the subway station, I made friends with a random guy who was clearly also attempting the same walking tour, so we set out together. After a few wrong turns, we finally made it up the spiritual mountain we were trying to see. However, we took some back trail because we only saw the temple, which should have been the first sight, on the way down. In South Korea they have random parks with exercise equipment set up on the mountainsides (because hiking up a steep mountain isn’t enough exercise). In addition to scrambling up some rocks, seeing cool carvings, and taking funny photos, we goofed around on this exercise equipment.

In Busan I set out for a more serious hike with another random traveler. We were aiming to see a famous mountain temple. However, we probably took the wrong path because there was no temple. And we were told there would be people selling food and drinks along the way. But there weren’t any of them either. (Except the woman selling kale juice—but we decided to pass on that). Despite the lack of a temple, I think we had a very successful hike. The peak was 615 m—there was a large marker saying so. And the views were amazing. We also took random breaks to play on the exercise equipment we encountered. When we returned from the trail and into town, we stopped at the first shop we saw and bought a bucket of oranges. We sat down and immediately devoured 3 each. Then we went out for bibimbap.

When I returned to Seoul, I walked up Mt. Namsan, which was quite small and not too nature-y, but it gave great views of the city.

Korea: So Close Yet So Different

For Golden Week, I went across the East Sea to South Korea. The Korean Peninsula is just a hop, skip and jump away from Japan. Just a super-short flight from Sendai (I think Seoul is the only international destination from that airport) and I was in a land of spicy food, loud noises, and dirty cities. It was a fantastic trip. I spent some time in Seoul and Busan (also written Pusan). There wasn’t too much of the historical type stuff to see because the Japanese destroyed most of it over the centuries (just like in Japan there isn’t too much non-reconstructed stuff to see because the Americans destroyed it). Also, South Korea’s number 1 national treasure was destroyed in a fire in February of this year. However, I saw a palace, and came in time to see the changing of the guards, who were all wearing fantastically colored outfits and fake beards. I also went on a few hikes and celebrated Buddha’s birthday with lotus-flower lanterns.