22/10 Food adventures with the D class: Korean food

"So how about having some Korean food together next week?"

We had somehow started talking about food in the middle of our writing class a couple of weeks ago, so after sharing our food stories with eachother, H-sensei came with the suggestion as quoted above. It was really spontaneous and we all agreed that it was a great idea. :D

Tokyo (sort of?) has a Korea Town, which is located in Ookubo. Going there, I was quite surprised to see that lots of signs and such were written not only in Japanese, but in Korean as well! You rarely see any other languages on ads and the like except for Japanese and some random Engrish, so this was really interesting.

1. Softbank (mobilabonnemangsprovider) ad with Korean text written on it.
2. Not really related but spotting this gave way to a lengthy conversation about fanatic Christians. What do they mean by 'world revival' anyway? Shouldn't it be something about the doomsday?
3. This mural was just right by the station. Er... It looks kind of nationalistic, so does this have any undertones of racial discrimination? Considering that Ookubo has a large percent of Korean inhabitants.

We went to a restaurant not far away from the station and made ourselves comfortable. We got there before the lunch rush so it was really peaceful and quiet. I haven't actually tried Korean food until now, and let's say that, after this food adventure, I'm left longing for more!

I've already forgotten the name of the dish I had, but tasted good. Soft, soft layer of half-minced meat (kinda like yakiniku?) on top of glass noodles. Topped with onion and leek. Mmm!

We had our own little booth, sitting by a low table enjoying our meal. :D Clockwise starting from the left: I-san, who works at the reception in the annex where we study. C-kun, who's already on his second or third year in university even though he's only 18 years old. Exactly how many grades did he jump?! Next, the always smiling H-sensei, she's so kind and lovely! And then Sv, who seems to be a real gourmet. Knows a lot about fonts and was the guy who I discussed Yokaj Studio's choice of font with a couple of weeks ago. I should ask him more about it some time. Lastly, O, fellow SU:er!

Yay, I actually show up on pictures once in a while!

The second best thing about this food adventure (first is the delicious food) was that H-sensei treated us to it! Woah! She's so kind. I hoped I didn't order anything too expensive and I also hope that it's actually the school paying for it and that H-sensei didn't use her own money. >_< That'd be so nice and thoughtful of her.

On the train back to school, I heard people speaking Korean on the train! Now why would this be surprising? I hear English now and then in the train as well, so what's the big deal? The thing is, there's still a bit of discrimination going on in Japan when it comes to other Asian ethinicities, particularily against Korean. There are several reasons for this but I do not intend to go into details. Some events which have led to this has to do with the World Wars, Japan's colonization of Korea and North Korea randomly kidnapping Japanese people on the streets. Even though there have been Koreans living in Japan, for more than four generations, most of them can't get Japanese citizenship. It's crazy and unfair, especially for the later generations of Koreans who've been living in Japan for all their lives, who identify the Japanese culture and customs as their own. So this is why I was surprised to hear Korean spoken on the train, because I've heard that a lot of Koreans hide the fact that they're not Japanese so that they won't be shunned by society. And the guys who were speaking it didn't look like tourists either. It might be a bit silly but I really liked hearing it, I kind of felt proud of them as well.
In case this is sounding overly-negative against the Japanese, I'm not trying to throw dirt at any country or anything like that! I just want to bring up these issues as well. In fact, I think I'm gradually starting to fall in love with Tokyo (but not the trains! Never!) but I want to keep myself aware that problems do exist too.

Anyway, since I'm actually still catching up, this was last Wednesday. Tomorrow, we're going out to eat together again! This time at a French restaurant to celebrate Sv's birthday. Should I pay for myself even if H-sensei offers to treat us again? I don't know what to do! @_@

In M-sensei's Japanese Studies later the same day, we got to try swinging a Kendo sword! An important aspect of this sport is, among other things of course, the yelling. It sort of works like a technique to intimidate your opponent with, and also gives yourself some mental power up. I had never thought of it before, but another JLSP:er drew a parallell to all the screaming you see in shounen manga where people always yell when doing their techniques to the yelling in Kendo. Makes sense!

M-sensei instructing one of the girls on how to swing the sword. Check out the salary man in the background.

Most of the people who walked by stopped to take a look. If more people had passed by I bet we'd form quite a formidable crowd! Japanese people seem to tend to line up and form crowds for everything. If someone starts lining up or if a crowd seems to form, it's not that strange if people who just happened to cross ways line up or join the crowd too. But I think it's quite a natural reaction, it happens a lot everywhere else.

I'm almost up to date! Two or three more entries and I should've caught up. :D Look forward to my next post!