About dpkworldwide

Native Californian, water rabbit, aries, lover of travel, trains, history, music, wrestling, anime, minimalism, stoicism, objectivism and things Japanese.

안녕하세요 (ahn-nyong-ha-se-yo)

Posted on 2008-04-16 by dpkworldwide

Which is Korean for hello…

Why Korean all of a sudden? It’s a rather short story: I was thinking about what I would like to do after I finish my month in Japan this summer, and it struck me that I could take a ferry over to Korea and spend a couple of days there before returning to finish out my week then fly home. I started investigating things on the internet which piqued my curiosity even more, which of course led to all kinds of interesting stuff and ultimately a desire to learn at least a little bit of the language so I could get by during a short stay.

I bought a couple basic “learning Korean” books and was ready to dive in when I made a trip down to the Korean Center of Los Angeles in the mid-Wilshire district on Monday. I had gone to see what kind of tourist information I could pick up, but tucked into he stack of fliers, brochures and maps I grabbed was a little flyer about the Sejong Institute—the Korean language teaching program there at the center. And it just so happened that the next term’s classes were starting the next evening—I drove down last night and signed up!

What a great deal, I might add! A 10-week class—two hours every Tuesday night—in basic Korean for only $50.00, including the textbook. That will coincide perfectly with my timetable too: the last class will be two days before I leave for Japan. By then I should be able to decipher the Hangeul writing system (which seems a lot more straightforward than it looks) and know enough phrases to at least get by. I just hope that I don’t A) get confused with my Japanese, and B) forget everything before I finally get to Korea on July 19th or so. If I want to keep studying when I get back home, they have six levels of classes for the same bargain rate.

So there you have it—I can now add yet another notch in my language learning belt: this is number seven.

Got my tickets, now the REAL planning starts…

Posted on 2008-04-11 by dpkworldwide

Today I took the train to Little Tokyo, had a nice lunch at Mako Sushi, then purchased my plane tickets at H.I.S. Travel. I opted for the most expensive itinerary on United Airlines flying directly into Kansai on June 19 and back home again from Tokyo Narita on July 29. I say “most expensive”, but it was only $133 more than the Northwest itinerary I was thinking of purchasing that would have brought me to Nagoya. I figured an overnight stay and train trip would work out to be about the same, so chickened out and took the no-hassle option.

Now I’m going to put my trip planning into full swing. The KSU portion is, of course, pretty much all set except for the free weekends—but I’ll probably leave those for spur-of-the-moment trips, though I already have a few ideas like a definite day trip to Osaka and one to the Sekigahara battlefield that I never got to in ’06. I’m sure there are other nearby things I will want to see and will be researching that shortly. There’s also plenty to see in Kyoto itself and I’ll certainly want to make another pilgrimage to Kurama—one of the most beautiful, peaceful and spiritual places I’ve ever been.

So the real work is my 10 day post-school vacation, beginning when I depart the I-house dorms on Saturday, July 19. Right now, believe it or not, I’ve been thinking very seriously of taking the first three days, hopping the “Beetle” hydrofoil from Hakata to Busan and spending three days in South Korea. It’s so close—and will add to the collection of “Red Dots” on my world map! It seems less expensive than Japan and quite interesting in its own right. A 3-day train pass is only about $75, and will get me all around the country. I’d definitely visit Seoul and as many interesting places as I can.

Of course, there seems to have been a recent outbreak of Bird Flu there, and a strain that easily transfers to humans to boot—so the whole trip may be a “no thanks”. If that happens, another option would be a night train from Osaka to Hokkaido for a few days in Japan’s unspoiled wilds with visits to Sapporo and Hakodate. I don’t actually need to confirm any of this until I’m already there, so we’ll see how it goes. Just in case, I’ve bought a book/CD on Korean for Beginners (!!!) and a couple of guidebooks.

Finally, I’ll once again rent that same apartment in Tokyo like I did in ’06 and use it as my secret base from which to explore the city and day trip to other places for the final week of my stay. I definitely have Hakone and Nikko on the itinerary and would also like to see Matsumoto and its castle and probably also spend more time in Nagano—maybe even get to the Kawanakajima battlefield which I unwittingly passed right through last time. So many places, so little time…

This is gonna be GREAT and I can’t wait!

I’m Going Back to Japan!

Posted on 2008-04-02 by dpkworldwide

I’ve taken my placement test, submitted my application and mailed in my deposit check.

I’m going!

Yes, I’m very excited to have made this decision and am totally looking forward to another wonderful experience in the land of the rising sun. I certainly can use all the practice I can get at speaking Japanese.

The one BIG pain, though, is that there are NO available flights in June that I can get for free using my Virgin Atlantic frequent flyer miles. That means forking out around $1k for plane tickets that I would have liked to use for other purposes. I won’t be letting something like that hold me back, however.

I’ll probably make a few entries here and there as I get ready for the trip. But I will certainly be keeping my faithful daily journal as I did in 2006—so stay tuned!

Meanwhile, it’s off to Little Tokyo tomorrow to find out about discount tickets and a Japan Rail pass..

2008 AT&T Champions Classic Golf Tournament

Posted on 2008-03-17 by dpkworldwide

Last spring my friend Mike E. managed to get us some deluxe tickets to watch the AT&T Champions Classic golf tournament, complete with luxury lunch buffet in the clubhouse. It’s part of the Seniors PGA Tour and was the first time I had ever been to see a golf tourney in real life.

Well, when I spoke with some of the volunteers then, I became excited to also volunteer. I’d been thinking about it, but never got around to actually doing anything about it until this past Monday when I realized it was going to be this week! I went up to the Valencia Country Club, located the proper people and signed up.

I ended up working four days and spectating for one, having a great time. I spent most of my shifts working on the fairway of the 10th—which was really exciting during the Pro-Am tournament when the wind kicked up. It was very lucky that we had a tree to hide behind!

On Saturday, Mike and I walked around following the action. No deluxe buffet for us this time, but we still saw great golf. When we arrived around 10:30, it was an absolutely perfect day for golf: gorgeous sunny weather, only a very light breeze. But by the time we walked back to my place around 2:30, it was actually raining on us! Kinda put a crimp in the festivities…

On Sunday, I worked the green on the 14th (which is where the photos are from). As you can see, Valencia CC is an absolutely beautiful course. The exciting bit is that—since I was a hard-working volunteer—I will actually get to play the course in August. That’s pretty cool since there’s no way I could ever afford to join. But it’s also pretty scary considering I watched the pros play and know just how tough a course it is! Denis Watson ended up winning the tournament after 3 playoff rounds.

In the evening, I went from marshaling to transportation. I drove Curtis Strange and his wife down to their hotel near LAX—such nice people. My second and final trip was fun too: I drove Brad Bryant to LAX for a late night flight. It was funny because he had one special request before we left: he wanted to go eat dinner at In & Out Burger! So he treated me to dinner, which was really nice. He says that In & Out is always a must-visit site for the PGA tour folks, since they’re only in California. I said it was the same for me when I visit the South and have to go to the Waffle House since the nearest one is in Phoenix, Arizona. He also gave me an autographed visor which was really cool.

I had so much fun that I hope to do it again next year if I’m still around.

Hanami, So Cal Style

Posted on 2008-03-11 by dpkworldwide

Today I had to drive to the valley to my old place and pick up a couple of things. As I was zooming down the 405 freeway, it occurred to me to get off and drive by Lake Balboa to see if the cherry trees were blooming. As you can see, it was a good idea and they were certainly in bloom. It was an absolutely glorious day and the exact reason why I live in Southern California—while parts of the rest of the country are languishing under piles of snow from record, late-winter storms.

In Spring of 2006 before I went to Japan, the Japanese Club at Pierce College went to see the cherry blossoms and have a picnic. It was really my first time and it was indeed a lot of fun. I can only imagine what the trees must look like in Japan in the spring, and can totally understand why Hanami, or flower viewing, is such a popular traditional activity there. One of these days I’ll be there to see it for myself.

In the meantime, I’ll settle for what I have here locally. No picnic for me today, but there were a lot of people out enjoying the blossoms and taking photos—many more than I thought would be out on a workday. There was even a group of what looked like Japanese pre-school or kindergarten kids who were dressed just like in Japan, complete with the little yellow hats out sitting under the trees eating lunch (but I stupidly didn’t get their photo).

I’m once again also extremely pleased with how these photos turned out, taken with my iPhone (and cleaned up a bit in iPhoto). Click on them to view full-size.

EeePC and the Lunacy of Windows

Posted on 2008-02-26 by dpkworldwide

I’ve really been enjoying using and playing with my new EeePC. More than I thought I would, really.
But I’m fast coming to the conclusion that I’m not geeky enough to put up with Linux much longer. It’s really quirky and confusing for a non-techy type like myself. I mean, I had to go online to eeeuser.com, read the wiki and do some experiments before I could figure out how to simply format a SDHC card. That’s just too inconvenient for me.

I never thought I’d ever actually say this—but I want to install Windows XP on it. Which brings me to the “lunacy” part.

So I go online to Amazon.com figuring I could order it for a discount, not pay sales tax and get it here in a couple days with my Amazon Prime 2-day shipping benefit. But then I saw the price: $199.00 (okay, $191.49 with the exciting 4% discount…whoopee)! In order to do the install you must have the full version with SP2—OEM discs won’t work.

But that’s a price that’s extremely hard to stomach. That’s 50% of what I paid to buy the danged computer! It’s more than what I paid for my new Sam Hecht-designed 320GB portable USB Hard Drive from LaCie I just received today. It’s not quite double the cost of the much superior MacOS X Leopard.

As if I really needed any further evidence against the Evil Empire, this really makes it strike home just how much Micro$oft has been gouging the world with its overcharging for inferior product.

Sigh.

Amgen Tour of California

Posted on 2008-02-23 by dpkworldwide

Just thought you might like to see a couple photos of the peloton going past my place. The Amgen Tour of California professional cycling race has made its second appearance in Valencia, and it’s even bigger this year than last. They’ll actually be starting the next stage from here tomorrow—last year, they actually packed up and went someplace else for the next stage (Long Beach, I think).

Of course, I’m home sick today and really can’t be bothered to do much more than stick my head out on the balcony for a few photos. It certainly does make things lively around here, though!