Japan calls it Takeshima. Wikipedia lists it as the Liancourt Rocks. To the South Koreans, it’s Dokdo. I had never heard of these little boulders sticking out of the Sea of Japan/East Sea until recently, when Japan decided to claim sovereignty over it.

This has the South Koreans pretty pissed. Everywhere I went during my recent trip to South Korea I saw posters about Dokdo (in Korean so I couldn’t read it, but the picture of the “island” was always the same). I even saw a seafood restaurant called Dokdo. OK, so the restaurant predates the recent fracas but that only goes to show how the Koreans feel about the rocks.

I even spotted this shirt:

I probably would have bought it but the store was closed.

I just got back from two weeks in South Korea (not actually Japan-related, I know, but it’s close). While in Korea I made a number of field recordings with my portable audio recorder. It’s a nice way to remember the trip, an additional sense memory to complement pictures.

I made an “album” of them, and have uploaded it here:

Download korea_in_sound.zip (38.5 MB)

It’s about 30 minutes long. I put it together like a continuous mix, arranged chronologically as I went through the country, but broke up the tracks so you don’t always have to listen to the whole thing.

For those of you interested in such things, I recorded it with an Edirol R-09 recorder at 24 bits. I assembled it in Logic and added just a touch of normalization and EQ, where necessary, and bounced it down to 16 bits. The final editing I did in Peak. I then converted the files to MP3 at 160 kbps for Web distribution. (If you’d like the full, CD-quality tracks, let me know. kemekthedopecomputer[at]hotmail[dot]com)

Enjoy!

Just in case you missed it over at Japan News Junkie, you might want to check out Natasha’s Story, which is the saga of a U.S. photographer’s efforts to get young girl of mixed Korean and American blood to American in line with here dead grandmother’s wishes.

The U.S. Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) has announced a new policy that will require its golfers to learn and speak English for face suspension of their membership.

“Why now? Athletes now have more responsibilities and we want to help their professional development,” deputy commissioner Libba Galloway told The Associated Press. “There are more fans, more media and more sponsors. We want to help our athletes as best we can succeed off the golf course as well as on it.”

Players were told by LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens that by the end of 2009, all players who have been on the tour for two years must pass an oral evaluation of their English skills or face a membership suspension. A written explanation of the policy was not given to players, according to the report.

Though the new rule applies to all players regardless of national origin, Korean players on the LPGA feel as if the new rule is aimed squarely at them.

“The LPGA could come out and say they only want 10 Koreans, but they’re not,” [said Angela Park, a Korean-American who was born in Brazil], according to Golfweek. “A lot of Korean players think they are being targeted, but it’s just because there are so many of them.”

My wife is hooked on Kandora, short for Kankoku dorama or South Korean soap operas, and it seems every time I walk through the living room she’s got another one on the TV.

When I ask her what’s so interesting about the shows, she gets very animated. “Oh, they’re nothing like Japanese dramas,” she says. “They’re more intense, and the stories are much more involved and interesting. The characters really change and grow.”

It struck me that she sounded like me back in the 80s, describing why Japanese animation was so superior to whatever else was on TV back then for people to watch (I actually can’t remember at this point).

It seems to me that the human brain is wired to appreciate things that are fresh and new, and when a concept comes along that is totally unique, people are drawn to it irresistibly, which goes a long way towards explaining the revolution that Japanese animation has brought to the world over the past 20 years. My wife is finding that Korean series like Time Between Dog and Wolf, Spring Waltz and Something Happened in Bali are offering her a higher level of drama and depth, sometimes moving her to tears with their (often sad) stories.

The Japanese soaps, with their lighter and more formulaic stories that you can usually guess ahead of time, don’t seem to be doing it for her.

We reported on this story the other day over at Japan News Junkie, but here is a follow up by the good folks over at ROK Drop who actually went out to check on the report on their own.

It seems that Dunkin Donuts in Korea is running a publicity campaign in which they are offereing Dokdo t-shirts to customers.

The publicity campaign was right in front of the store and could not be missed. If the store is trying to reach a western audience with these Dokdo shirts they are going to fail miserably in my opinion because these shirts are just plain dumb.

I think Koreans agree with this assessment because I sat in the shop for about 30 minutes and did not see one person pick up one of these shirts. I have yet to see anyone in Korea even wearing one of the shirts. Has anyone else seen anyone wearing these shirts?

To me it seems like a pretty dumb move for an international chain like Dunkin Donut to take a position on such a sensitive issue.

Click here to read a first-hand account of a blogger who was on hand during some of the demonstrations currently going on in South Korea against the importation of U.S. beef. Fascinating stuff.

Found via The Marmot’s Hole.

The New York Times recently reported on a new trend in Japanese tourism, both those visiting Japan and Japanese going abroad. While fewer Japanese are traveling outside the country, more foreigners are visiting; most of whom are coming from Asian countries.

Once prohibitively expensive, Japan is suddenly drawing soaring numbers of Asian tourists who splurge at the nation’s department stores, lounge in its hot spring resorts or explore remote corners, like this stretch of pristine mountains and forests on Japan’s northernmost tip.

Japan itself was once known for its free-spending tourists, who flocked to boutiques from Hong Kong to Fifth Avenue. But as Japan’s economy stalled for the last dozen or so years, rapid development in countries like China and South Korea raised living standards there.

At the same time, there has been a decline in the number of people going abroad from Japan. The number of Japanese traveling abroad has fallen 3 percent from the peak in 2000 of 17.8 million, the government-run Japan National Tourist Organization said.

By contrast, the number of visitors to Japan from South Korea, Taiwan, China and Hong Kong almost doubled last year from five years earlier, to 5.36 million, according to the tourist group. Those four regions alone accounted for nearly two-thirds of all foreign visitors to Japan last year, the organization said.

Many Asian tourists interviewed said they liked to shop here because Japan has the latest fashions first, and at prices way below those in many other Asian countries, where tariffs are steep. They also said they liked visiting Japan because it was close, safe and cleaner than much of the rest of Asia.

During the 1980s, Americans were the largest group of overseas visitors to Japan, but have now fallen to fourth behind South Korea, Taiwan and China. Surveys also showed Asian tourists came to Japan for different reasons than Westerners. While Americans said they came to see cultural attractions like temples, Asians cited shopping, followed by hot springs and nature. Visits to factories are also popular, he said.

Koreans will not be seeing any Japanese condoms as they slip into the tube each morning now that Seoul Metro has decided to pull prophylactic posters for Okamoto condoms from its subway carriages.

The ads, 54 by 39 centimeters, were placed next to the train doors – one of the most eye-catching spots. They did not have a picture related to a condom, but had phrases such as “No. 1 in Japan.”

The subway operator, however, removed all the ads Tuesday even though the contract had not run out, saying they may be against “public sentiment.”

“Apart from the inappropriateness of condom ads inside subway cars, we thought it could run counter to public sentiment following the eruption of a fresh dispute over Dokdo,” a Seoul Metro official said.

She said the breach of contract and possible indemnity is a matter between Okamoto and the subway operator’s subcontractor in charge of ad management.