Whew
For a scary half an hour I thought I had lost my power cord. It would have been hard to replace.
There's a vicious cycle
Apple has low market-share in Korea --------|
|---------------------- Hangul versions of Apple software are not developed.
As a result, the nearest Apple store is in Japan, and the nearest
service provider which is not iPod-specific is probably the one in Kwangju.
Oh, that's interesting. Check out the Google Maps results for Kwangju!
If you click through to the Wikipedia article, you'll see three things. First, the "correct" romanization of the name of this city
(광주) is "Gwangju." The explanation, I think, is that the character ㄱ, which is the first character in this name
(ㄱ + ㅘ + ㅇ = 광) is sometimes pronounced like "g" other times "k." The rule is to always romanize it as "g," reserving "k" for the other k, (the aspirated one) which is ㅋ. So, I reckon if it starts with ㄱ and it's sometimes romanized as g and others as k that means it's pronounced k. And if that seemed interesting, all of this was learned from
this online tutorial. (Though of course all mistakes are my own.)
Second, there's a second "Gwangju" near Seoul, which is why I say "probably" above.
Third, the larger one in the south was the site of one of the darker episodes of recent Korean history. More on that
here. (Standard disclaimers about material found on the internet.)
Returning to the topic of Apple Stores in Japan (ok. Now I am just wasting time!) Here is a map, with the prefectures numbered. There are apple stores in 23, 27, 40, 46, and of course 13 (that one being Tokyo). But what I wanted to remark on is that in Tokyo, there's one in Ginza and one in Shibuya, and that's it. Now, if I recall correctly, this is kind of significant as a sign of the changing times. Unfortunately I am unable to find anything in Wikipedia to augment my vague memory of what I read in my Lonely Planet Tokyo in 2002, but ... As I recall what I read was that when the city was established, it was organized into wards based on profession. So that there was "Blacksmithtown" where all the blacksmiths lived and "Tailortown" where all the tailors lived, etc., and that this approach to city organization had carried over somewhat into the modern day, with each of the modern wards having a distinct character which in to some extent reflected its earlier incarnation. In particular, there was a big electronics district. I couldn't remember the name, but I think this is what I was thinking of. It was, until fairly recently, still the case that if you wanted to buy any sort of electronics in Tokyo, you had to go to Akihabara. Whereas Ginza is where you went to buy Prada shoes and Shibuya is where you went to dance to the musical stylings of DJ Kebi. But, as the guidebook told me in 2002, the times they were a-changing. And so they are...
Being dragged even further afield, I see that "otaku" just means "nerd." When I encountered it the other day among the Urban Dictionary results for "Gackt" I thought it might mean something like "foreigner."
And that really is enough about Japan. This is supposed to be a Korea Journal!
Ok. I know what I just said, but I love gacktard and agree with Tegan, though I think the usage should be "that outfit is Gack't. What were you thinking?" "I can't play this week. My knee is still Gack't."
There's a vicious cycle
Apple has low market-share in Korea --------|
|---------------------- Hangul versions of Apple software are not developed.
As a result, the nearest Apple store is in Japan, and the nearest
service provider which is not iPod-specific is probably the one in Kwangju.
Oh, that's interesting. Check out the Google Maps results for Kwangju!
If you click through to the Wikipedia article, you'll see three things. First, the "correct" romanization of the name of this city
(광주) is "Gwangju." The explanation, I think, is that the character ㄱ, which is the first character in this name
(ㄱ + ㅘ + ㅇ = 광) is sometimes pronounced like "g" other times "k." The rule is to always romanize it as "g," reserving "k" for the other k, (the aspirated one) which is ㅋ. So, I reckon if it starts with ㄱ and it's sometimes romanized as g and others as k that means it's pronounced k. And if that seemed interesting, all of this was learned from
this online tutorial. (Though of course all mistakes are my own.)
Second, there's a second "Gwangju" near Seoul, which is why I say "probably" above.
Third, the larger one in the south was the site of one of the darker episodes of recent Korean history. More on that
here. (Standard disclaimers about material found on the internet.)
Returning to the topic of Apple Stores in Japan (ok. Now I am just wasting time!) Here is a map, with the prefectures numbered. There are apple stores in 23, 27, 40, 46, and of course 13 (that one being Tokyo). But what I wanted to remark on is that in Tokyo, there's one in Ginza and one in Shibuya, and that's it. Now, if I recall correctly, this is kind of significant as a sign of the changing times. Unfortunately I am unable to find anything in Wikipedia to augment my vague memory of what I read in my Lonely Planet Tokyo in 2002, but ... As I recall what I read was that when the city was established, it was organized into wards based on profession. So that there was "Blacksmithtown" where all the blacksmiths lived and "Tailortown" where all the tailors lived, etc., and that this approach to city organization had carried over somewhat into the modern day, with each of the modern wards having a distinct character which in to some extent reflected its earlier incarnation. In particular, there was a big electronics district. I couldn't remember the name, but I think this is what I was thinking of. It was, until fairly recently, still the case that if you wanted to buy any sort of electronics in Tokyo, you had to go to Akihabara. Whereas Ginza is where you went to buy Prada shoes and Shibuya is where you went to dance to the musical stylings of DJ Kebi. But, as the guidebook told me in 2002, the times they were a-changing. And so they are...
Being dragged even further afield, I see that "otaku" just means "nerd." When I encountered it the other day among the Urban Dictionary results for "Gackt" I thought it might mean something like "foreigner."
And that really is enough about Japan. This is supposed to be a Korea Journal!
Ok. I know what I just said, but I love gacktard and agree with Tegan, though I think the usage should be "that outfit is Gack't. What were you thinking?" "I can't play this week. My knee is still Gack't."
posted by GB at 5:43 PM
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