November | 2012 | Guy Portman's Blog

Hyper Japan 2012

Nov 30 2012

Last weekend I went to Hyper Japan at The Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London, an event that celebrates J-culture. There were numerous stalls, contemporary and traditional exhibitors and many people dressed up in cosplay.

さいたまチェーンソー少女
Saitama chainsaw girl

Saitama Chainsaw Girl was an ordinary school girl by the name of Kirisaki Fumio, who after finding out that the boy she liked was interested in someone else went on a killing rampage, culminating with the taking of her own life, harakiri style with a chainsaw. Did I mention she’s a fictional Manga character.

Below is The Fat Princess, eyeing the food items in front of her lustfully. At least I assumed it was the Playstation game character by that name, but thought it best not to ask her.

Here are some other characters present at the event.

There were numerous Japanese culinary delights on sale, including Takoyaki (see below), which have octopus (Tako) in the middle.

(Courtesy of http://recipe4you.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/takoyaki-cute-balls-from-japan.html)

To date eighty different flavours of KitKats have been created in Japan. Personally I am of the opinion that the original version would have sufficed.

Below is a photo of a shelf of KitKats from one of the stalls.

Each variety of KitKat represent different prefectures.

Top Row (left to right) is Azuki beans (Tokai), Blueberry Cheesecake (Koshin) & Sweet Potato (Okinawa).
Bottom Row (left to right) is Wasabi (Shizuoka & Kanto), Apple (Shinshu) and Strawberry Cheesecake (Yokohama).

La Pandilla Basura

Nov 23 2012

Having written 38 blog posts (this is my 39^th), I was interested to find out how often each post had been viewed, where the visitors were coming from and why. Fortunately my advanced data skills were not required as Word Press kindly provide a range of statistics. As anyone who reads my blog will know, posts are about everything from social media to travel, book reviews, London 2012 and random stuff such as crabs (not those kind of crabs) and even Justin Bieber. Considering my original intention was to use the blog to market my book, Charles Middleworth, it appears that I may have got a little side tracked.

These are the three most viewed posts to date and the number of page views they have received:

1). Garbage Pail Kids 673

2). Wenlock & Mandeville 336

3). Twitter Viruses 270

Amazed that a nostalgic trip back to a childhood experience about Garbage Pail Kids stickers could have garnered so many views, I was intrigued as to where the visitors were coming from. Total visitors to the blog have come from 71 countries to date, though evidently no one has told WordPress that The Isle of Man and Guernsey are not countries.

Bizarrely however the majority of viewers of the Garbage Pail Kids related post have been originating from Colombia. By the middle of October, it appeared the whole nation had gone Garbage Pail Kids ‘loco’ as the phenomenon spread like wildfire through Latin America with considerable Garbage Pail Kids related traffic coming from neighbouring Venezuela, Mexico, Ecuador and Peru, though the Brazilians remained largely unaffected.

With the quantitative analysis now complete it is time for the qualitative, to gain an understanding as to the reasons for Latin America particularly Colombia’s 1980’s nostalgia for all things Garbage Pail Kids or La Pandilla Basura (The Garbage Gang)/Bandistas (Trashlings) as they are known in Spanish speaking Latin America.

Relations between Colombia and Reagan’s America became increasingly strained over the course of the 1980’s, as Colombian cocaina or yeyo (the term made famous by Scarface) flooded the U.S. In the other direction, in addition to American political and military interference in Colombian affairs came La Pandilla Basura. By the mid-eighties the ‘American Product’ had become an epidemic, surging through schools and barrios from Barranquilla to Bogota and Cali to Cartagena. In this Latin American melting pot the ensuing buying and dealing in all things La Pandilla Basura reached a crescendo rarely witnessed even in its American homeland.

Perhaps this plague can be understood as a reflection of the era, as Colombian society at large mirrored the sinister, rebellious and unpredictable nature of La Pandilla Basura’s parody of the ‘saccharine cuddliness’ of The Cabbage Patch Dolls, which had been their inspiration.

This might explain why these adults now desire a nostalgic trip back to their childhoods and are scouring the net for all things La Pandilla Basura.

Or perhaps not.

Books about North Korea

Nov 16 2012

Information relating to North Korea fascinates us. Take the country’s deceased leader, the despotic platform shoe wearing midget Kim Jong-il’s obsession with films, to having live lobsters airlifted to his private train and his alleged golfing prowess. The Dear Leader once completed a round of Pyongyang’s eighteen-hole golf course in thirty-eight under par, an incredible feat that included eleven holes-in-one. Even golfing greats such as Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods have never come close to achieving such a score.

(The Dear Leader Kim Jong-il in his prime)

On a more sombre note there is the suffering of the country’s population, particularly during the famine of the 90’s and for the many thousands of people estimated today to be imprisoned in the country’s vast network of prison camps; whose whereabouts are now being revealed to the world by Google Earth.

I have read several fascinating and revealing firsthand accounts of life in this secretive country, including the widely acclaimed book Nothing To Envy by Barbara Demerick and Escape from Camp 14, which I recently reviewed. This week I read The Aquariums of Pyongyang. Please find my review of it below.

The Aquariums of Pyongyang by Kang Chol-Hwan & Pierre Rigoulot

In the preface for this the revised edition, the author Kang Chol-Hwan is living in relative obscurity in South Korea when he is invited to the Oval Office to meet with President George W. Bush to discuss the plight of the North Korean people. The author’s belief is that George W. acted as a divine tool in bringing the plight of North Koreans to the World’s attention. Whilst some of us may have a rather different opinion of George W., there is no doubt that the then president’s influence was of great assistance in bringing this book to international prominence.
After an introduction outlining the recent history of the Korean peninsula, Chol-Hwan begins his life story. Though born in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, his family had previously been living in Japan, as ‘zainichi’, Japanese residents of Korean heritage. The family had flourished in their adopted country, accumulating significant wealth. However the author’s grandmother’s communist ideals had eventually led to the family emigrating from Japan and moving to North Korea. A decision they were to later deeply regret.
Chol Hwan reminisces on his early years living in an upmarket city apartment with his family and an assortment of aquariums as a contented time. However this period in his life comes to an abrupt end when aged nine his grandfather allegedly provokes the ire of the authorities and is removed to a prison camp, never to be seen again. A short while later the police arrive at the apartment and as is the custom in North Korea, the immediate family of the political prisoner, though in this case with the exception of the mother, are taken away. After a lengthy journey, the vehicle eventually draws to a halt and the young boy clasping his last remaining aquarium is deposited in his new home, Yodok, a vast, squalid and unsanitary prison camp, surrounded by an electrified fence. A world characterised by relentless hunger, bestial conditions, guard cruelty and the omnipresent threat of punishment and even public execution, an event the author is to later witness.
Despite the punitive working schedule and never ending struggle for survival in this bleak environment, the narrative is interspersed with numerous anecdotes from the author’s time spent at the camp school and interactions with other prisoners.
Ten years after the family’s incarceration, they are informed unexpectedly that they are to be freed, presumably due to the grandfather’s death in another camp. After a period spent working in the provinces, Chol-Hwan escapes and flees across the border, before making the hazardous journey to South Korea and a new life in the capitalist metropolis that is Seoul.
It is unfortunate that a book with such a fascinating subject matter is so poorly narrated. One can only presume the blame lies with the co-author and the translator, as the prose is often awkward, whilst the incessant overuse of commas is intrusive. The reader is left with no emotional attachment to any of the book’s numerous characters and it is as if they are devoid of the emotions, characteristics and habits that make us individuals. The book purports to serve as an account of Chol Hwan’s life, yet it contains the passing of moral judgement on virtually every event and decision that takes place when the facts alone would have sufficed. Nevertheless The Aquariums of Pyongyang serves as a valuable account of life in North Korea, though I would argue considerably inferior to the other two books I have read on the subject; Nothing to Envy and Escape from Camp14.

Blog Post 37

Nov 09 2012

What an eventful week its been. No sooner was Bonfire Night over than The American Elections were underway and the excitement didn’t end there, for on Thursday it was announced that a former oil executive by the name of Justin Welby would be the next Archbishop of Canterbury. However for me the most interesting thing that happened this week was that I read Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell. Please find my review of it below.

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell

George Orwell’s first published novel, Down and Out in Paris and London, is an account of the author’s time spent living in abject poverty, first in Paris and later in London. Having spent his savings and with tutoring work having come to an end, Orwell is nearing destitution. Teaming up with a resourceful and resolutely proud Russian ex army officer, by the name of Boris; the famished duo struggle ceaselessly to find work, finally gaining employment in the kitchens of the upmarket Hotel Lotti on the Rue de Rivoli. Plunged into its foul, fetid and hectic kitchens, Orwell outlines in intricate detail the workings of the hotel, the hierarchy of its staff; chefs, waiters and the lowest of all, the dish washers or plongeurs as they are known in French, the position in which he himself is employed.

The second part of the novel sees the author returned to his native land, existing in squalid conditions, reduced to the status of a tramp. An existence spent travelling from one bug infested doss house to another, whilst surviving on the diet of London’s poor at that time, the ubiquitous tea and two-slices. Orwell’s compassion, understanding and empathy towards his fellow man is in evidence throughout, both in his observations and the relationships that he forms with a number of poverty stricken characters, including Paddy, a continually complaining yet generous Irish itinerant, and Bozo, a street artist, who despite calamitous circumstances has retained a positivity in his outlook on life. This compassion for the plight of the poor is enduring and there is never even the slightest hint of derision or disdain for the unfortunate people that he comes across.

The captivating prose and vivid descriptions allows the reader an appreciation of the nature of urban poverty during the early twentieth century, as the evolving young author successfully demonstrates the skills that would later be refined, most notably in his best known works, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Fireworks

Nov 02 2012

Last night having grown weary of watching the build up to The American Elections, my thoughts turned to fireworks. Not surprisingly perhaps as we are now merely days away from November 5^th, when we English celebrate Guy Fawkes’s failed attempt to blow up The Houses of Parliament in 1605. The celebrations traditionally take the form of the burning of ‘the guy’, accompanied by fireworks.

The following blog post is devoted to fireworks, so look away now if you have no interest in fireworks or indeed find them disagreeable. Fireworks are after all incredibly noisy, potentially injurious and a fire risk, in addition to being an environmental pollutant.

Yesterday I discovered that:

1). The World’s Largest Firework display was in Madeira on the 31^st December in 1996. It lasted for about ten minutes and cost approximately 1 million Euros. No doubt it was a contributing factor in Portugal’s current debt crisis. This year Madeira might consider celebrating with sparklers or even using less expensive mini fireworks (see below).

(Courtesy of ww.pyrosociety.org.uk)

2). The World’s Largest Firework Rocket was unveiled at The 12^th International Symposium on Fireworks, at yet another Portuguese location, Oporto. This behemoth weighed an improbable 13.4kg, was 7m metres in length and had a maximum range of 98.37m. We can only hope the Iranians never get their hands on it.

(Courtesy of www.msnbc.msn.com)

Below is a picture of the Gizmotrix, the World’s largest firework shell. It has a 48 inch diameter and weighs an enormous 930lbs. It is launched every September in the town of Katakai town, Ojiya city, as a dedication to the god of the local shrine.

(Courtesy of www.gizmotrix.com)

And below is a picture of what is purportedly the largest Catherine Wheel ever. It has a diameter of 105 feet and was ignited in Malta on June 18^th 2011.

(Courtesy of www.guinnesworldrecords.com)

That’s probably quite enough about fireworks records for one day, so I’ll bid farewell with some well known fireworks related trivia that you can test your family and friends with on Bonfire Night.

Fireworks originate in China.
Fireworks date back to the 10^th Century.
Fireworks first came to Europe in the 13^th Century.
Black powder is the most common fuel found in fireworks.

Click on the link to find out more about my book, Charles Middleworth, a humorous tale of the unexpected. The first two chapters can be read for free, by clicking on the link below.

CharlesMiddleworth(ch 1-2)