catching up
I swear I've spent most of my evenings this week just sleeping, which is really not at all like me. Though I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that I started reading The Da Vinci Code on the plane to Osaka on Tuesday and have stayed up late every night since then pouring through page after page. Because of that I have needed to come home after work and take a nap every day since then. Bad Jen... But it's cool cause tonight I finished the book...and how awesome it was! If you haven't read it I suggest you get off your butt and hop to it, cause it is just that good...really!
So yes, tonight I came home from work, got something to eat and then proceeded to take a nap that I only just now woke up from. Good thing too since I hadn't set my alarm yet tonight. Woops. I hate spending all this time sleeping though, it makes me feel like I'm wasting such precious moments that I could be out doing other things.
Anyway, the trip to Osaka on Tuesday went perfectly. I didn't have any problems whatsoever, especially since I met up with some other foreigners at the airport who were on the exact same mission. We all banded together and got the job done without incident. Osaka is cool though and I definitely wanna take another trip to Japan whenever I am afforded the time and money to do so. And of course I took a lot of pics too, so here they are... :)
the udon I ate for breakfast/lunch at the airport
a pedestrian crosswalk in Osaka
those Japanese people love their bikes...
some side streets in Osaka
a mall we came across in our wandering
Ooooo...pretty!
what looked like a canal running through downtown Osaka
the train station
views from the train
a Pocky vending machine!
a view of the mountains from the airport terminal
my fellow foreigners
posted by Jen at
10:35 PM
2 Comments:
Yah I have found that also... you revert back to kindergarden in Korea... I can't function without a nap anymore!
Don't hibernate for too long... as we def still have to get togather again!
Korea.net kimchi stew
Contrary to a cool reception at home in the wake of a recent ruckus of its tarnished image, kimchi is gaining popularity with Americans and other places abroad following a spate of news reports to the effect that the traditional Korean dish has an inherent preventative effect on bird flu, the fear of which is now gripping the world.
It was last March that kimchi's curative effect on avian influenza began to be known well outside of the country, when the British public broadcaster BBC aired the results of a research team led by Seoul National University professor Kang Sa-wook.
Quoting the team's test results, BBC said of the 13 chickens stricken with the influenza, 11 had shown telling curative effects after being administered kimchi extracts.
Back in 2003, when the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) broke out in Asia, there was a ‘kimchi rage' in China and Southeast Asia on the strength of reports that the Korea-originated pickle was working in heading off the epidemic.
In recent weeks, the American media were into handling kimchi's efficacy in treating avian flu.
The ABC network, South Carolina's largest state newspaper, the Murtle Beach Sun News, Centre Daily Times of Pennsylvania, and some 100 media outlets across the United States reported kimchi's curative effects on the epidemic.
The ABC reported on Tuesday that with the interest in kimchi growing in America, sauerkraut, the U.S. version of kimchi, is also enjoying a boom. Sauerkraut, a pickle of German origin made from shredded cabbage fermented in brine, is normally inserted into hot dogs or sandwiches.
Journal Times, a publication from Racine, Wisconsin, reported scientists speculated that the bacteria which were detected in kimchi, help cure avian influenza, adding that the same strains were also discovered in sauerkraut.
Kim Jae-soo, the agricultural attaché to the Korean embassy in Washington, D.C., said that contrary to the perception of misgivings Koreans have at home, the American press has given an intense coverage of kimchi's curative effects on the poultry epidemic.
He noted that although the U.S. media had not paid significant attention to kimchi when it gained popularity as a curative to SARS in Southeast Asia, it is watching carefully this time around.
Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Korea Agro-Trade Corp. on Thursday (Nov. 10), despite the recent unsavory episode involving tainted kimchi, Korea's exports of the item amounted to 26,275 tons in the first 10 months of the year, up 81 tons from a year earlier.
In particular, shipments to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia have surged partly due to Hallyu, or the Korean cultural wave, prompted by Daejanggeum, a Korean TV drama aired in those countries. In the January-October period, exports to Taiwan totaled 561 tons, up 72 percent from a year before. Hong Kong and Malaysia saw their imports increase by 15 and 150 percent respectively.
Besides, prospects for suspended kimchi shipments to Japan to resume were bright as the Japanese authorities were about to end their investigation into the Korean products soon. About 93 percent of Korea's total exports of 34,827 tons last year went to Japan.
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