Koreans Vacuuming Grass

Life abroad can be one filled with excitement, new discoveries and often, things that make you raise an eyebrow. In different cultures, people often do things in a very different way than you might in yours. It may not be culturally acceptable to spit in one country, but perfectly fine in another.

Different cultures also have different standards and definitions for things such as beauty and cleanliness. We eat our food in different ways. We behave at concerts in different ways. We create in different ways.

Cultures are different and the following photos are no exception to this. I lived in South Korea for more than five years, but never came across something this weird. While surfing around a former colleague's Facebook page, I came across these pictures of Korean cleaning staff outside of a store in Mokpo, Korea. I almost couldn't believe what I saw. I had to email him for clarification and then permission to use these pictures.

These are pictures of Korean cleaning staff at a store vacuuming the grass! That's right! They are actually cleaning the real grass on the lawn with a vacuum cleaner.

Bizarre as it may seem to me, this sort of thing apparently happens in Korea.







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oshogatsu 正月, Big Burgers and World Wide Features

It's another weekend and the New Year is quickly approaching. This will be my first "oshogatsu" 正月 (New Year season) in Japan and I'm excited. We'll visit a local shrine with family in the Japanese tradition, but won't be downtown for the countdown. Watching it on TV from home with some bubbly and suds is always the best way for me!

Lots of craziness around town this week.

McDonald's has finally unleashed the Quater Pounder hamburger on Japan. McDonald's is VERY popular in Japan and now this will be their biggest hamburger. Thousands of people stood in line in Osaka this week to get one. Funny thing was; it was leaked to the news that more than 1000 of the people standing in line were indeed PLANTS! Yep, they were actually paid by MacDonald's to stand in line and make it look like more of a spectacle. Funny stuff. You can see some pictures and read more about it here.


In less "burgerish" news. Congrats must go out to Japan-based You Tube vlogger Fatblueman. His original song and video "Christmas in Japan", just got featured worldwide on the You Tube front page. Yesterday he had less than 90,000 hits (which is damn good anyway) and when I last checked a few minutes ago, he was pushing 320,000 hits! AWESOME. Of course I'm really partial to this cause I have a small part in the video.

Tomorrow will be a day of cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. One Japanese tradition, "oosouji" sees people all over the land doing a MASSIVE and hardcore house cleaning just before the new year. Well, my lovely wife informed me today that tomorrow will indeed be the day. I'm by no means looking forward to it, especially since I've been on vacation for the past 2 weeks and have grown lazier by the minute. BUT, I will of course do my best to clean and help out.