Hiroko's Hitokoto

It's getting chillier and chillier, and the season of food and reading is on its way. In case you haven't been watching the calendar, we will have a national holiday "Cultural Day" on Friday, Nov 3. I am eagerly looking forward to this 3-day weekend -- where I'll curl up with a good book and eat some delicacies that my husband Ren (are you reading this?) will make for me!

There have been several Korean movies showing in the theaters lately, and I noticed the recent boom compared to a situation 2-3 years ago, where we never saw a Korean movie. In 1998, the Korean gov't decided to deregulate Japanese movies, videos, and publications: gradually allowing the Japanese pop culture back into that country after 50 years. Korea is close geographically, but it's very far from us mentally. Of course, WWII is the biggest and the worst reason why the two countries have taken so long to come closer together, but still, it's surprising that we haven't even exchanged pop culture until recently. My hope is that this kind of cultural exchange will it help people to develop a better understanding of each other's countries so that we get past the stereotype of Korean people eating Yakiniku everyday, and start a meaningful interaction between our two very unique nations.

Do any of you have a JPY2,000 bill? I've seen one, but never owned or used one. When I was on the bus, I saw a notice saying "This bus does not accept JPY2,000 bills" stuck to the ticket machine. I remember that the media made a big fuss when the MOF decided to release the new JPY2,000 bills with the picture of Okinawa, but it turned out that they're not that popular. The MOF Printing office printed 270m notes through to the end of August, but information sources say that only 120m notes were actually transferred to public banks. The remaining 150m notes are in the Bank of Japan vaults gathering dust. Amazingly, the MOF Printing office still plans to print another 10 billion notes by the end of next March. So now everyone has to make new machines which can read JPY2,000 bills, including: ATMs, vending machines, etc. Or maybe not. Apparently, a lot of key players have said that they'll just ignore the bill's existence altogether. When Japan's ex-prime minis

The other day, I did a personal experiment of how housewives spend their time during weekdays. I had a compensation holiday during Terrie's business trip. I did laundry, cleaning, washing dishes, fixing my bicycle, buying groceries and consumables, and cooking meals. Many of you might think that housekeeping is not a professional job, but I can tell you that it's a lot of work. It's easy to imagine that the more family members you have, the more work you have to do everyday. A few months ago, a book that bashes housewives was published, and I read that a lot of housewives strongly reacted to the ideas covered in the book, such as that they are: lazy, have no motivation, get 3 square meals and a nap everyday (Sanshoku Hiru-ne tsuki). I believe it's their choice to stay home and do housework, just like the other people working in the office choose their jobs. But this doesn't give others the right to accuse housewives of having it easy. I guess that housekeeping is an