Sneer like Psy

A gift from my co-worker Karen.

It's a facemask and a facemask. Swank.

Thank You Gifts

These were distributed by Alex as thank yous and what-nots for attending her wedding.
I'll admit that I (and some others) had a fearful moment where we weren't sure if it was a yet un-encountered variety of rice cake.

It's a soap. Thank you very much indeed. :)

Kyoto Tour - Manga Museum

Go to Kyoto and not see the Manga Museum?! NEVER!

This was a lot of fun. It shed a single crystal tear of regret for the fantasttic library I could not read and strutted off to explore the museum.

They had an enormous collection of bound graphic novels and the upper walls were shelved with issues of manga magazines from all sorts of decades.

You are encouraged to take titles off the shelf and read them as you please. The collection is impressively extensive.

The manga are seperated by Shojo, Shonen, Seinen and International. They are arranged by author.
On the ground floor, they keep a collection of foreign language manga. (Which is where I enscounced myself for a while with some Osama Tezuka.) The floors above are for strictly japanese language. (Engrish aside)

There are signs and guides in several languages to help understand the displays. It's interesting to see the fashions in manga change throughout the decades.

They break down, production, technique, character goods and (most importantly) where the money goes!
In short, the more you sell, the more money reaches the artist/writer after the publishers/editors/magazine etc have siphoned off their share.

I rather enjoyed the handy-dandy guide to target audiences above. It was interesting to see exactly who certain series are written for. (And yes, there are magazines for people over the age of 25.)


I wasn't actually meant to take pictures (Oops!) but in fairness they really should have posted clearly visible signs.

There are also casts from the hands of visiting manga-ka, a gallery of maiko illustrations and various other things.

Here, have some images of the illustrious Lord Canti

And Some Gurren Lagann.

Can't forget Diebuster now can we?



In all seriousness, they were showing a Gainax film special there but seeing as I have no real japanese I couldn't go see it. Hence the specific statues shown here. (Not that epic is ever a bad thing.)

I do think they need to expand their shop but that is a thought for another day. I did get a few pieces of Studio Ghibli but most of that was gifts.

Even more gifts...

 

After the misadventures  in Everland we returned to the school and collected our Chuseok gifts from the company.

 

You know what? I ahev no problems with this at all. I mean, I'm actually going to use this now! These were things on my shopping list that I was intending to buy and I can hardly fault practicality. :D Now I shall have cleaner and shinier teeth.

 

 

I will say this though. A part of my soul deeply feared we would have gotten the spam giftset instead.

 

 

Am I supposed to give thank you notes....?

Today I had an influx of gifts. Yay. It's not the done thing at home but here it's practically expected.

So first is a lovely gift box from the mothers of one of my kindergarden classes.

The brown envelope on top is a gift card for Shinsegae to a generous sum.

The box contained an assortment of rice cakes.

Behold my lunch in the background. (Oh, and a fancy assortment of ricecakes)

Unfortunately I am leaving in two days and do not know the expiry of these confections. So I scooped up a handful and left the rest for my co-workers.

Then in the afternoon I received a nicely packaged bottle of wine!

 Obviously too good for the likes of me but I'll still drink some of it.

I sense irony....

I fly half-way around the world and end up sitting in Starbucks.... =_=

 

Granted I had a gift card to test the limits of but still...

 

At least green tea frappuccinos are quite tasty. (Is that cream on tops?! Ooh, I really shouldn't)



 

 

For me? Why, thank you.

 

So gifts are a novel thing. The other day *Annie* from my U.C. Berkeley class dashed off to her schoolbag and proudly presented me with this.

 

I nearly die of cute. Oh kids, why do you pout so before showering me with stickers and aodrable triangles.


Today, on another note, Alex and I each recieved one of these.

 

I'm always befuddled when this happens. I sort of go: "Wait, what?" each time. >_<
I don't actually know how much is on the card so it could either be lunch or coffee for all!

It's thataway!!!.............or not

When Helen passed a Tourist booth the other week she picked up a rake of maps and paraphenali for us and became my girl!hero for doing so. (There are pressies coming for this heroic act, surely!)

One's a guidebook and the other is a big-ass map but that's not important. What's important is the subway maps in the back of the book.

Brandishing like I weapon I navigated our way (Karen indulged me that I wanted to do it all) and found us our way there and back again. (hooray!)

I also learned that it's true that most places don't seem to have a toilet and it can be impossible to find one in Seoul sometimes. D:>

Yes, those are tags and annotations poking out of the guidebook. I am that kind of a nerd.

Text me, whatever.

So I returned from afternoon classes to find a delightful gift awaiting my return. I. E -My delivery had arrived early. C:

So after hapy squealing I tore the box to ribbons in order to investigate.

So I received - already set up- a Galaxy S III. To be perfectly honest I thought I was getting the SII but as there's precisely 2'000Won in difference I'm not too fussed.

It's really far too good for me though, I'm fumbling through each step of the way. D:

As for the plastic cover - everyone and their mother puts one on their phones. It's slightly scandalous NOT to protect your investment in such a way.


....................Plus my phone was delivered with one enclosed so I might as well us it no matter how much it "ruins the sleek lines of the design"


EDIT: [ For interest: Here is the relevant site. Apparantly I couldn't get a contract in store]

Blatant Bribery

So, although I haven't seen too much of it yet, gifts are a pretty big thing here. (My cultural education is being neglected!! Quick, someone give me something!!)

Eh, wait, erm thank you......................................?

Note the pretty packaging sitting on top of the report book I am industriously working on.

(Your child is a delight except for the unfortunate tendency to gnaw on the nearest visible appendage. Enclosed are the medical bills for all of their teachers and seatmates.)

U.C. Berkeley are one of my homeroom classes and the mother of *name censored to protect myself* sent in a gift for myself and Alex-Teacher (The Korean co-teacher)

It earned them my best 'Wait, what?' face for their troubles but still, a lovely gift is a lovely gift and much appreciated.

It's not, as many assumed, chocolates but instead a rather nice brand of fragance free, dermatologist SPF 50 Daily Uv Defense.

It's a good job Ben is gone. He simply would not appreciate it like I do. XD