If this were only the least of my problems

Ok, now I'm mad.
Really irked.

I'm finally about to escape this trashy shopping mecca and the local Dunkin Donuts {current haunt of choice} finally starts selling the original brew again!?

I walk in Wednesday morning and there are boxes, nay CRATES, stacked high in the entranceway mostly blocking it, all snuggly stuffed with the ambrosia of modern man.

WHAT THE HELL!?!

This whole time I was being generous thinking the coffee machine was broken or something when the reality was they were just sitting around waiting for the next shipment!?

I see them deliver fresh donuts there EVERY day. They couldn't have thrown a box or two of coffee in with them? Considering there's some kind of coffee shop every block and sometimes even several in one block, I find it unfathomable that Dunkin D's only ships its coffee once a month, but there you have it.

It goes without saying:
Even aside from the current economic conditions, you might want to fire the logistics guy if you want to compete with the Krispy Kreme and Starbucks next door because he's obviously not examing his spreadsheets very closely.


Cheers! (^_-)-☆

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Good riddance to bad Rubbish!

Literally.

As much as I love the shopping in Seoul, it still does not quite make up for the fact that Seoul is a stinking, flighty, trash-filled warren of spit-hacking snobs. {Service here even gives the hideously low quality of service in America a run for its $$ .}

The air quality is so bad I've had breathing difficulties, a prepetually stuffed nose, and frequent fevers since the day I stepped the plane. I thought it was because the city itself was like a garabge dump - a bacterial pathologists dream {nightmare?} - but a mere 6 hours in Japan cleared up all my symptoms. And that's when I knew it was past time to move on.

So, so long and thanks for nothing to all of that!!!!!

Here's where I'm headed next!!



Pretty, yes?
Ulsan. Slightly North of Pusan and its 3-hour ferry to Japan.

Let's see that again.



I don't necessarily expect the work conditions to be that much better but as long as there isn't a hysterical, incompetant, insecure b1tc4 running the office, I'm good. And no more Elementary students. So to Seoul I can only say THANK YOU

And GOOD RIDDANCE.

Cheers! (^_-)-☆

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MichiKusa {道草を食う}: hiddey (donut) holes

My current territory that I've acquired as my personal lair is the local Dunkin Donuts.


Complete with balcony and a view.
The view from MY chair: (Always the purple one by the window. Although if I'm lucky I get the orange set by the trees.)





Of course, much like Japan it's not just a donut shop, it's an EXPERIENCE complete with chocolate mousse desserts and NY Cheesecake.



Does that just not bring tears to your eyes?
And I assure you that it DOES taste as good as you think it does.

But standing out even more than that for me was an incident that took place in front of my eyes only and one that surely you can only see in a Seoul Dunkin Donuts...

Sitting in one of the second floor cushy purple chairs sipping an iced cafe latte and reading Murakami Haruki's AFTER DARK in Japanese while a Korean girl across from you pulls her Stephen novel in English.


Cheers! (^_-)-☆

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MichiKusa {道草を食う}:Japanese books

As the clock swings towards midnight again I am left wondering...

The Japanese have managed to master four writing systems without breaking a sweat.
Yet how is it that after TWO THOUSAND YEARS they can still NOT master the art of indexing books??

And only six more days to produce research results.
...
...

Cheers! (^_-)-☆

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DO YOU SEA WHAT I HEAR?

Finders keepers!

So who found it first?

The eternal question of ownership between Japan and Korea.
Is the island Takeshima {Japan} or Dokutou {Korea}?
Is the tiny waterway the Japan sea or the East sea?

Apparently, it depends on what country you live in.

In the daily radio news about the military movements I heard an interesting word pop up that caught my attention immediately. It slipped by at first and then I tripped on it when it was repeated again almost immediately and thought ???. And just as quickly a wry smile appeared on my lips. I was hit with - “Oh, it's T-H-A-T.”

It's hard to describe the sensation of hearing something in a situation that is totally unexpected much less out of place. Yet, simultaneously you wonder, is it really out of place?

In describing the repositioning if the Igeuos warships the Korean news broadcaster used the word Toukai – the Korean name for the Japan sea since the Koreans argue that they own it.
That may not sound out of place – this was a broadcast by the largest Korean news company KBS (think of USA's ABC or NBC). - Except for one thing:
This was a broadcast IN the JAPANESE language SPECIFICALLY FOR the JAPANESE citizens.

Admittedly any time is a good time for government propaganda, but how many Japanese citizens just happen to know that the East sea is the same as the Japan sea?

I only know because I'm enthralled with the multitudenous versions of history that they battle about over here. It's like a love triangle between Japan, South Korea, and China minus the love. More like a hate triangle.

Toukai.
It was an outter limits moment and I hadn't even started my Friday drinking yet.

奇妙な感じだった。


Cheers! (^_-)-☆

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