Happy Halloween from Japan!

Happy Halloween, Japanese style!

Allow me to skip backwards (since we are no longer in Japan) and forwards (since I still have another post planned for South Korea) in time to wish you Happy Halloween. Someone in Japan told us that Halloween is mostly a Western holiday not celebrated by the Japanese, but judging by the Halloween sights on the streets, I don’t think that’s true. Plus it makes sense that the Japanese would love Halloween; they certainly have a sweet tooth, and the day we spotted the costumes below was in the same neighborhood as where the Japanese teenagers dress up in cos-play all year long.

Hope you have a great Halloween; eat extra candy for me!

Spotted on someone's doorstep in Kyoto's Arashiyama neighborhood

Spotted in a Toyko Krispy Kreme

Spotted in Ueno Park

Spotted at a Tokyo flower shop

Spotted on Takeshita Dori in Tokyo's Harajuku neighborhood

Takeshita Dori in Harajuku again

Where's Waldo? On Takeshita Dori.

Where else? Takeshita Dori. (There was a Halloween parade going on).

Also spotted on Takeshita Dori! (Along with his friend, above).

Merry Christmas! Oh wait, wrong holiday. Spotted in Tokyo's wholesale district, in October. Unfortunately jumping the gun on Christmas must be an international problem.

15 Important Cultural Lessons That You Can Learn From Just One Week in Changwon

We didn’t originally plan to travel to South Korea.  But then our friend Kevin ended up in Changwon, a city in southwest South Korea, for four months for work.  The timing worked out that we could make a quick trip to South Korea to visit Kevin before we travelled to Japan.  We always jump at the chance to visit friends and more important, mooch off them as much as possible (Kevin is actually the brother of our friend Matt, who we visited in Paris when he was sent there for work early in our trip).

Changwon isn’t necessarily a place you would visit as a tourist.  Next to the American navy base, Changwon was planned to take over as the capital if something happened to Seoul.  There are a fair amount of expats and visiting Americans living in Changwon, due to the high concentration of industry present.  If you are American and you are in Changwon, you are either in the military, an English-as-a-second-language teacher or an engineer sent over by an American company for work.

Kevin fell into the latter category.  Staying with friends who are travelling on the man’s dime isn’t half bad; Kevin’s employer was putting him up in an enormous three bedroom, two bath apartment, so we not only got our own room (complete with pink fluffiness and stuffed animals) but also our own bathroom.

Kevin and Sean in the pimp digs

You know you are jealous of our sweet pink room.

The apartment was rather pimped out, with laundry (yay!), a huge television, crystal chandelier, massage chair, and a bedazzled refrigerator.  Yes, you read that correctly.  The refrigerator was bedazzled.

See?

We spent Chuseok, the Korean thanksgiving holiday, in Changwon.  Kevin had off from work all week, so we spent lots of time lazing around Kevin’s apartment, watching NCIS (apparently Koreans love this show, because it was on in an endless loop), eating Mr. Pizza (a Korean pizza company located nearby who has love for women), and periodically venturing outside to go to Lotte Mart (a Korean grocery/department store).

Lest you think we didn’t learn about South Korean culture during our lazy week in Changwon, I present to you the following fun facts about South Korea:

1. South Korean couples are so matchy-matchy and lovey-dovey, they even coordinate their underwear.



2. Flavored soju, a South Korean rice wine, tastes much, much better when it is Kool-Aid flavored.
3. There are call buttons at tables in Korean restaurants.  When you press the button, if you call out “so-ju” in a sing-songy voice, soju will arrive on demand.
4. At Korean barbeque restaurants, it is possible to receive and give a massage from your waitress, as long as you share your soju with her.
5. Koreans love gadgets.  Every taxi driver has a GPS that is probably bigger than your television set.
6. Changwon might be the brightest place on earth.



7. When receiving a drink or filling the glass of your elders, you must use two hands.  You cannot fill up your drink glass, but don’t worry, as soon as it is empty someone will fill it back up.  If you don’t want to get drunk, you better nurse your drink.


Such good form

8. If you can’t find a bar, look up.  Bars are located in second or third floors in dingy office buildings, complete with squat toilets in the bathroom.
9. If you request American rock’n’roll at a bar playing music videos, they will play Thunderstruck by AC/DC, complete with clips of war footage and fighter jets that would make Maverick proud.
10. No matter where you order pizza from in South Korea, it comes wrapped in a bow.
11. It is perfectly acceptable to blow through a red light, but don’t you dare turn left unless you have a green arrow.
12. The workers at the Changwon Cold Stone like it, love it, and gotta have it more than their American counterparts.



13. If you shop at Lotte Mart around closing on Choesok, they will blare classical music at top volume to get you out of the store.
14. It may not be possible to find turkey for your Choesok feast, but Lotte Mart does carry chicken (although, as it turns out, ones with orifices too small to insert a can of Hite for beer-can-chicken).


Sean and Kevin's co-worker Ryan look on as Kevin carves the Chuseok bird

15. The peace sign is alive and well in Changwon, and being taught to the South Koreans at a young age.


Sean, Kevin, Kevin's co-workers Ryan and Luke, and some drunk Koreans on the streets of Changwon



This is third or fourth picture in a row this girl was subjected to appear in thanks to the insistence of her father.

Let’s Go to the Mall!

We ended up with layovers in the United Arab Emirates on our way to and from Jordan. Considering we only spent about 24 hours total in the country, and the first visit was pretty much spent sleeping, the UAE would hardly warrant its own post.  Except our second visit – the one we spent awake during a long 12 hour layover – gave us a brief introduction to the over-the-top excess that the UAE is famous for.

We inquired at the tourist office to see what they suggested we see during our 12 hour layover. The woman behind the desk said, why, go to the Dubai Mall, of course. It is what everyone does!

She was right. The mall was packed. And quite a sight. Picture every upscale and luxury brand in the United States and Europe, and put them in the same mall with air conditioning blasting to make you forget you are in the steaming desert.   Add a bunch of men and women in traditional Muslim garb shopping for said luxury brands. Throw in all of the restaurant chains you can think of. Don’t forget a giant aquarium, the grandest music-and-light show possible, and an ice rink in the center of it all. And, naturally, the world’s current tallest building built specifically with extra tallness thrown on top just because they could.

Fun, no doubt, but the most conspicuous display of spending money just to spend money I’ve ever seen.

Sean in front of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world

There were even more women wearing the full hijab in the UAE than in Jordan. Sometimes the men they were with were in Muslim garb, but very frequently, their companions were in casual clothes - jeans, t-shirts, even a sleeveless shirt and shorts.

Scenes from the mall

And another

Sparkle, sparkle

The courtyard at the Dubai Mall in the setting sun

The aquarium

View of Dubai from the top of the Burj Khalifa

Light show

Why do I despise chains at home but are drawn to them like a magnet on the road? Just like the Chili's at home, but add a giant aquarium and subtract alcohol.

Arabic sports center

Hard to get a good picture of the ice rink with the glare, but you get the gist. Note the pools of melting ice, which made sense considering it was at least 100 degrees outside.

Just your ordinary mall rules.

More Jordan, in Pictures

To wrap-up Jordan, here are some pictures of places that didn’t really make it into other posts.

Red Sea

Jerash, an ancient Roman city

Mt. Nebo, from where, according to the Bible, Moses saw the Holy Land

Picture of King Abdullah II of Jordan in Amman

Crumbling walls in Madaba

Arabic salad from the best restaurant at which we ate in Jordan: Haret Jdoudna in Madaba

Tile floor map of the Holy Land from 6 AD in St. George Church in Madaba

Amman during the Golden Hour

Jordan Beyond the Sites

Going to Jordan was Sean’s pick; to be honest, I felt very little enthusiasm towards travelling there.  I mostly wanted to get it over with to get on to the Asia part of our trip.  But as things usually turn out on this trip, even if I couldn’t say it was always fun to travel there, it certainly was fascinating.

I knew very little about Jordan before we travelled there.  I knew it is in the Middle East; it is mainly Muslim; and they have a very pretty Queen (who I once saw on 60 Minutes).

Looking at Jordan on a map, it doesn’t seem like it is very safe place to travel.  It shares borders with Israel, Palestine, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.  Despite its position in an area of turmoil, Jordan has managed to maintain good relations with both its Middle Eastern neighbors and the Western world.  Jordan’s permissive policies towards accepting Palestinian and Iraqi refugees have left it struggling to figure out how to bear the burden of the additional people it let inside its borders.   There are actually more Palestinians living in Jordan than native Jordanians.

Although Islam is the country’s official religion, Jordan is tolerant of other religions and generally keeps religion and government at arm’s length.  Jordan has one of the largest Christian populations in the Middle East.  Most of the Christians live in Madaba, a small city just south of Amman that we visited for a few days.  We arrived in Jordan during the tail end of Ramadan, a Muslim holiday that involves fasting between sunup and sundown for a month.  It is one of those holidays that never have a set date, so we asked the owner of the hotel we were staying at in Madaba when Ramadan was ending.  Um, I don’t know, I’m not sure when it finishes.  Hmm, I thought to myself, is he a heathen or something?  How does he not know when it ends? After rifling through the calendar, he responded, Yeah, I think they finish celebrating on Thursday. After a pause, he continued, I’m Christian, so I get to eat, drink and smoke whatever I want! I felt ashamed for automatically assuming he was Muslim just because he spoke Arabic and was from a Middle Eastern country.  The first of many lessons I learned during our 10 days in Jordan.

Like many developing countries, Jordan has the usual frustrations and curiosities: busses that do not leave until they are completely full; cities that look like they are either perpetually unfinished or falling apart due to empty lots filled with crumbling rubble, giant holes in any paved surface, and steel rebar sticking up from buildings; an ever-present layer of dust and litter; constant exhaust fumes filling the air; and accommodations that make you cringe if you look too closely.  Noticeably absent were aggressive people looking to make a buck at your expense.  Unlike Morocco, no one hassled us, no one followed us, no one tried to scam us.

Noticeably present, however, were the differences in the way that men and women are treated.  Jordan does have a more liberal attitude towards women, but more liberal is relative, of course, to the Muslim countries that don’t give women any rights.  I was never uncomfortable travelling through Jordan, but certain things stood out to me.  I refrained from wearing my shorts, dress or tank-top for the most part, and do not consider my v-neck shirts to be particularly low-cut, but I could feel eyes gravitating toward what little skin I showed and often chose to wear a scarf around my neck just to avoid any extra attention.  Time and time again, we were warmly greeted by Jordanians, with a welcome, welcome.  But sometimes, it seemed I was more welcome than Sean, because the phrase and their eyes would be directed at me as if Sean wasn’t there.

Early on in our trip, a well-travelled Jordanian man told us that he was embarrassed by the way that Jordanian men acted because they didn’t know how to act around women.  Other than the porn display in the desert, we saw this most clearly when we went snorkeling in the Red Sea.  Taking a break from snorkeling, we watched all of eyes of the Jordanian guys sitting under the shelter near us follow a French girl wearing a bikini walk to the shelter from the water.  While the rest of them stared, one of them struck up a conversation with her.  You have great skin, one of them said, never removing his eyes from her.  Um, thanks, she mumbled.  Need help with your suntan lotion?  The whole scene was awkward, to say the least.

I was curious what exactly people wore to the beach in a country where most of the women still wore at least a head covering.  I wouldn’t get my answer at this beach, which was located outside the city close to a cluster of dive centers.  At the public beaches close to downtown Aqaba, however, women went in the sea with the same attire they wore on land, while the men wore swim trunks or perhaps a sleeveless t-shirt as well.

Frolicking in the Red Sea in Aqaba

This reminds me of that song, Long Black Veil

There are lots of young children in Jordan, almost always being cared for in public by women

Perhaps this is why it struck me as odd, later, when a woman who was essentially covered from head-to-toe pulled out her breast to breast-feed her child on a public bus.  Her child was wailing at the top of his lungs, and everyone on the bus – mostly men – glared in disapproval.  I took a chance and turned around in my seat to play peek-a-boo with the child.  His cries turned to laughter.  The woman smiled at me, and I smiled back.  A few minutes later, when I turned around again, I noticed her breastfeeding.  Perhaps Jordan views this activity as something that is necessary for a child’s well-being – I see that they have breast-feeding laws protecting working mothers – but this didn’t seem to mesh with the sight of woman after woman completely covered up, some head to toe.

I know the women’s dress in Muslim countries is a complicated subject, and I don’t even present to understand the intricacies behind wardrobe decisions.  It was continually jarring for me to see how much most women covered up even in a supposedly liberal country like Jordan.

A women in a hijab at Petra

Women smoking the shisha; a rare site except occasionally in Amman

For its small size, Jordan has lots of interesting and beautiful sites. But even beyond the sites, it is a fascinating country with a distinctly Middle-Eastern culture.  In the end, I was glad we made a foray into the Middle East and got to know Jordan more than we did at the beginning.