Are Korean more realistic than Japanese?

Annyeonghaseyo! This is Atsushi!
Annyeonghaseyo is "hello" in Korean.

We visited South Korean Football Association (KFA) office.
It's located in a quite residential area, which is 2-3 km away from Myongdon.

I think Japanese are familiar with this place.

There is a display storing historical jersey of national Korean soccer teams.

As unusual ,we made an appointment before we visited here, because we're refused to enter South African Football Association.

The guy I'm talking to is Mr. Park who is in charge of media publication.

I gave a Japanese traditional craft called "Manekineko" as a souvenir.

Look at the Korean flag painted on its face!

They are available on the following website.

http://spazioincontro.jp/go2010/

Then, we started asking him about Korean soccer.

If you are not a soccer fan, just skip it.

What impressed me the most was the story about how Korean national team is preparing for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

He told me that KFA coaching staffs made a visit to South Africa during the Confederations Cup and conducted an inspection to choose training camp by checking its location or altitude.Then, they selected Rustenburg out of 10 host cities as the training camp.

Mr. Park made an interesting comment on Korean national team.

I asked him, "Japanese national team is aiming at making it to the semi final. How about Korea?"

He already knew about the Japanese ambition and replied, "Our goal is to advance to knock-out round."

This goal was set by the Korean national team headcoach Hun Jung-Moo and is regarded as "realistic" by public.

I'm not talking about which is smart, Japan or Korea.

Additionally, Mr. Park told me that Korean soccer players' slogan is always "Never give till the end."

By the way, I asked why Korean jersey is colored "shocking pink". 

He did't like the way it sounds. 

He collected it as "hot reds" which is a common way of calling it in Korea.

I'm sorry.

It is said that this hot red has been used as a team color since the World Cup 1954 in Switzerland. 


I also asked him about the influence of military-draft system on Korean soccer.
Did you know that one of the K League teams is military-based team?
The team is Gwangju Sangmu FC.


Sangmu's playing staff is made up of young Korean professional footballers serving their two year military duty. That means the squad is completely replaced in 3 yeas. It's unusual. 


This must be a big disadvantage in that the players are required to go through military training, comparing to other K League teams. But Sangmu FC finished their 2009 season at higher position on the ladder. 

I asked him if the military draft have something to do with the spirit of "Never give up till the end." But Mr. Park kept silent.

In the meantime, I had to wrap up the interview. 

I hope I can get to the point next time.

Check it our the K League movie!

Follow us on Twitter!! 
http://twitter.com/2010Libero 


 We appreciate if you would publicize our blog and Twitter within your circle of your soccer friends or acquaintances.

Why I came to Vietnam

Shinchao! It’s Yomoken.

※ = Shinchao, in this case it’s not “new bridge” in Chinese, but “Hello!" in Vietnamese.


Yesterday, we came to the city of Hanoi in Vietnam, all the way from Dalian in northeast of China.

Incidentally, we flew on China Southern Airlines from Dalian to Hanoi, stopped over Beijing and Guangzhou. 

It took 11 long hours to get to Hanoi and checked into the hotel after we left Guangzhou around noon.

They are a member of Sky Team.・ ・ ・ quality is so so.

Eventually, I was to leave China from Guangzhou, and during the passage of immigration there, a woman officer, flipping through my passport, was frozen at the page of Mongolia visa.

And she whispered to the officer nearby.

Then sadly I was restrained Σ (゚ ゚ д;)

and I was taken to the airport police.

It was nothing happened after about 15 minutes of checkups through my luggage, but I was truly wimped out when looked at jail like bars at the police station….


After leaving Guangzhou in China, our flight went quite smoothly to Hanoi which took about 2.5 hours.

We were so hungry after checked in at the hotel, although it was after midnight we immediately went to look for “Pho” noodle.

This rather fancy restaurant, the noodle cost 25000 Don (150 yen), which is higher than average.

The main purpose of this visit to Vietnam is to meet up with my former boss in the past I worked for.

Like me in a way, this guy has retired from a consulting firm in Japan, then came all the way to Vietnam, determine to run the businesses.

I wanted to see such “live images of succession” with my own eyes.


In fact, the hotel, where I stayed, is a part of his businesses.

Two-shot with the Japanese hotel manager

This is Little Hanoi, a mini-hotel. There are five hotels in this hotel chain, including "Little Hanoi DX" where I stayed.

“DX” in particular, their services included Japanese speaking reception, a 24 hours help desk and Japanese language PC. 

It’s the hotel’s unique selling point and for any Japanese people not fluent in English that they can stay here safe and inexpensively.


Apart from hotel operation they also have restaurant business to support. They offered to take me to restaurants.

The first shot was in this restaurant, the famous Vietnamese cuisine.


This is the owner’s suggestion, “soft crab”. The crab is so soft you can eat it just like that.

The best garlic seasoning

After that, we headed to the currency exchange.

A jeweler is doing exchanging business!

 I suspect they make more money than as a jeweler.

This is me, exchanging from China Yuan to Vietnamese Dong.

 Who do you think I am??


And again at dinner time, I was taken to a recently opened sushi bar called “SAKURA”.

It opened on August 1. A real bar atmosphere there is.

It reminded me that there were plenty of restaurants called SAKURA in Mongolia and China. Fine, "Sakura" is synonymous with Japan, I think, and the wording is kept a good brand image of Japan in overseas.

Here is the link to their website. Click. 

Menus are with French twist for some reason – Yummy.

Whoops, we haven’t been to sightseeing yet, other than seeing restaurants.

Oh well, this is my 3rd visit in Hanoi after all. I guess the last time was at Asian Cup in 2007.

Talking and listening to local people and local businesses people in the world is by far more interesting than usual sightseeing I suppose.

After we returned to the hotel and took a shower, I wrote this. Outside is a collaboration of torrential rain and violent thunder storm.


In a clear sunny day, you feel like being in the sauna after 30seconds walk here in Hanoi, I still hope for a clear sunny sky tomorrow. Good night.

Beauties in Dalian International Beer Festival

Ni-hao, this is Yomoken.

I went to Dalian International Beer Festival last weekend.

It is held every year in Xinghai squar, which is known as the largest

park in Asia.

In the festival, a number of beer companies advertise their latest products by sponsoring different programs such as disco performances, exhibitions related

to beer culture, beer drinking contests, photography contests, artwork displays and various other festival events.

Also, there are many costume-clad girls...

This is a slide show of pics I took there.

The shot was taken in the enterance with Maio,

who is my old friend from my past Dalian days.

The first one is from Germany. It was really cheap.

A Bergen beer besides German beers

Beer Festival beautiful women competition, entry 1.

Dalian-taste Aya Ueto? (Ueto is a famous Japanese actless)

FIFA sponsor Budweiser.

The most popular display from Munich. Entrance fee was

exceptionally high (US＄10) and it's too crowded to get in!

Anyway, we are looking forward to seeing "Oktoberfest" held in Germany

in this October.

Another presentation of brand-new product from German.

Entry #2 was a salesperson.

Chinese local beer Harbin located in north part of China.

The night-view in the back was so beautiful.

Might be for billionaires.

The booth for Chinese tobacco. I like the sexy girls.

Food stalls serve even Tako-Yaki! (Japanese traditional food)

Bizarre food. Yucky..

Freaky food.

How would you eat this shark?

Russian products.

One of the best Japanese corporation Aoshima-kun.

They sponsor NBA.

Don't drink too much!

The only Japanese beer I saw was Asahi.

What about Kirin or Santory?

A famous Japanese food company 'Gyoza-no-Osho".

There are 6 branches of them in Dalian.

Dalian police officers. Thank you for your patrolling.

They were sober! hahaha.

This is Korean beer. Hite-related brand.

Entry #3 is Rina. She is studying Japanese.

That's all for today.

Did you enjoy it?

It was a sunday's night and there were a lot of heavy drinkers.

The public toilets were messed up.

But there is no fighting anf it was a peaceful festival!

So as it is, it is a perpetual event.

The festival will be on untill 10th of August.

By the way, Dalian is also known for many beatiful girls.

There is a famous vocational school for models in suburb area.

Some talented students are reqruited to the city transport police official

and become arm signalizer in front of the city counsil as a symbol of Dalian.

I can't believe it.

Having drunk lots of beer to my heart's content, I went to my friend's house

by taxi to find a girls bar next to his house.

A girls bar is a Japanese very popular pub where women work

as hostess or dancers in bars to provide company to patrons.

The trend is that fashionable things in Japan are likely to be exported to other Asian countries like this.

See you again!

China's new breeds [80hou] rescue the Japanese economy!

Ninhao, this is Yomoken.

※ = a little more polite than Ni hao ma.


Dalian has also got energy of young people.

From the morning, shopping centers, department stores and the stalls are busy with many roaming young people.

By the way, do you know much about [80hou]?

In Chinese, it’s pronounced “Parinhou" which literally means "after 80".

It refers to the people born after 1980, and they are in the limelight at the moment as “China’s new breed”, whose sense is completely different to the generations before.

After the Cultural Revolution in 1970s, this generation has enjoyed the full benefits of economic openness, and there seem to be a border line between them and the older generations with the educational and ideological background gap.

※ By the way I was born in 1979 so I am "after 70 (Chirinhou)", which means rather old-fashioned for them. Similar difference between the Baby boomer and generation X, in a way.

These 80s (Parinhou) is now in their late 20s and the city-dwelling 80s who have more income and power has become opinion leaders, and has created some of the "epidemic" in China.


Similarly in Japan, there used to be a time when a new generation called “new people or new breed”, the generation with new thought. In China, there is 80hou, and even 90hou and 00hou are following them in recent years, in the background of dramatic social and economic growth.

A provocative title alright, this is the book my friend has written and published about this 80hou.

Published by Hakuhodoho, Yohei Harada + 余蓮　著（洋泉社） 

Amazon／Rakuten Books

In the book, the authors have been analyzing 80hou’s behavior patterns with individual thoughts in mind. They have had detailed interviews with young people around China and then divide them into four major categories.

They also mentioned about how Japan and Japanese produces are being reflected and regarded among those young people, it is a must-read book for those who are already doing marketing in China or even to those considering entering into Chinese market.

Imagine, this country has dramatic size of populations and the purchasing power of this new generation has no comparison to the other countries. Therefore Japanese companies should be more serious about the Chinese market, moreover with the new generation market. Why not can Japanese economy be blessed with its benefits as a result? I absolutely agree.

I think it's a valuable book all in all. It will be interesting for those who have never been to China, one could imagine many interesting facts, or even for Chinese people themselves who could understand it systematically.
I suggest you buying the book if interested. (Amazon／Rakuten Books）


And from Mr. Harada, the author, I got this comment.

"Actually, this book has been attacked by a bunch of people so called “Net Right Wing” on the internet. It is obvious if you look at it, that it’s only a shallow criticism, they just don’t like the title "the savior of China". It is ignorant, emotional and nothing is really worth taking notice.

If you are a true patriot, what is bad about having ideas to favor Japanese economy by seriously marketing and selling Japanese products in China? Or else they have other idea? How could anyone serve the nation by just saying bad things about China?

I want Japanese young people to have wider global vision, like Yomoken, and to extend our stage (of business activities) in the world lively and proudly.


Well, I'm not doing anything so special, however, both Mr Harada and I eventually want to contribute to the nation. And I hope to be able to see the world from many different angles through different ways to experiences it or through different point of views, and want to show it to everyone.

※By the way, this is related to what Mr Harada said about internet, China Blogs run by Sear china is quite interesting. It’s mainly blogging of impression of Japan by Chinese people. It is translated into Japanese and up and running about 10 blogs per day.


Oh no, I wrote the thing so seriously today (laugh).


Ok, I'm going to play tennis with friends in Dalian now. Oh yeah, my tennis history started dating back to my high school age, I was not from football field, to tell you the truth.  

Ｗｅ paid a courtesy visit on JFA

안녕하세요? This is Ashishi！

"안녕하세요?" means "Hello" in Korean.

Now， I'm staying at my Korean friend's room．

Anyway, visiting football associations without appointment is one of our eye-catchers as you know.

Our first attempt was made on June in Uzbekistan.

We succeeded in getting a special info

at Uzbekistan Football Federation．

Second，we tried South African Football Association but in vain.

But we never give up.

And this time，on our brief return to Japan，

we visited JFA (Japan Football Association)．

But that's not definitely an officialｌy call ．

We met a staff of JFA at Confederations Cup 2009.

Then，we asked him to see each other in Japan．

So，we did it．

But we were not permitted to take photos & videos in JFA building．

They have severer regulations than UFF．

We had a great chat with him.

But most of the topics are confidential.

He gave us a message as in following;

"It's so interesting that you are planning to visit the 32 countries playing in the World Cup．Why don't you give us match reports on each country's domestic leagues via your blog．

I'm interested in the different stadiums designs or the way of supporters' cheer-style across countries.

I hope your traveling attracts the interests of many people in football．I'm counting on you．

By the way，please remember that you should be polite on your visit not to give them any bad impressionson Japan!!!

He strictly made it clear to us that we mustn't do so・・・．

We were talking with him for about one hour．

After that，we went to "Soccer Museum" which is in the same building with JFA．

I have been there once so far．

I recommend all supporters of our national team to visit there！

That's why you can watch edited games of our national team on huge screen and see a lot of displays regarding "2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan".

If you love football，you'll feel like you're dreaming more than a few hours．

There are exhibitions both toll and free．

However， you can only pay JPY 500 for toll exhibitions．

Pls enjoy the influx of pictures below as usual！

The successive uniforms of our national team are displayed．

The members of 2002 are forming a circle．

You can join it and take pictures with them！

This uniform imaged flame makes us feel nostalgic．

Many trophies of Fair Play Award are displayed．

A imitation of World Cup torphy is there．

In the official shop, you can get a T shirt

commemorating our nation's entry in 2010.

We both got it．

This T-shirt is available only at this shop because other shops have no stock now．

So， it's a good idea to come to Ocha-no-mizu only for the sake of this T-shirt，Ｉ guess．

At the end of our visit，we took a picture outside．

While we were traveling in other countries, we handed the following jersey to a person engaged in soccer business and asked him to get an autograph from Mr. Inugai, who is the boss of JFA.