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Stay hopeful my friends.

Growing Up

Growing up is...well...a part of life, and an important one at that. Cultures around the world have built festivals around "growing up". I guess in the States we also celebrate adulthood through things such as sweet 16's or going to 7/11 and buying your first Lotto ticket, but I've never really been a part of that culture. I usually spend my birthdays unannounced and occasionally on airplanes and I've never been big on the Lotto (gambling in general for that matter).

I graduate from college in less than 100 days. It's a terrifying idea and come to think of it, the title of this blog will soon become inapplicable. Graduating from college will mean a couple of things....like getting a job, moving out of my parent's house...getting a job...getting an apartment...getting a job....most of which deals with "growing up".

I still have a good chunk of the semester left though so i decided to do something today to signify that I was ready to "grow up". I took all of the stickers off of my caps.

Whether you're in the "they look stupid camp" or the "I can't believe you took them off camp" I thought a lot about this and I'm ok with what I've got left. The stickers are nice. Most people can't come up with an answer as to why they keep them (I've heard everything from "it's to signify that they're 'fresh' and like new" to "You're supposed to handle the hats with the sticker so your fingers don't make them dirty". The second one sounds ridiculous but it's actually proven useful.) I usually kept them on because...well...it's hard to say no to something that's gold and shiny.

It is what it is though, and keeping the sticker on the cap is in the end a fad. So I decided to take off the sticker for a number of reasons:

1. For the health of the hat. The sticker will eventually peel off, and when it does....I will be left with a giant unfaded spot glaring back at me (this has occurred before in the past).

2. Because I'm "growing up". Fads are for kids and let's be honest: I'm gonna look like a fool in a couple of years with a sticker on my hat. I will technically be a functioning adult post graduation and it just doesn't seem right.

I also realized this: The cap does not have the ability to make someone cool. Rather, it is the wearer of the hat that makes the hat look cool. This is true. Wearing a fitted cap with a sticker on it does not make anyone look cool. If you can't pull it off you end up looking like a tool. It's plain and simple. On the other hand, if you are confident in yourself, you can make anything, sticker or no sticker, look stylish.

Ok so long story short I took'em off no regrets.

KBO Fitteds Finally Getting Some Love

Korean Baseball Organization caps are finally getting some attention state side with strictlyfitteds.com's article. Although I have to say, the featured Doosan Bear's logo is not my favorite.

New Era made a deal with the KBO in 2008 to start producing caps for their players and at first it looked kind of grim (Koreans generally tend to gravitate toward bigger sporting goods suppliers such as Nike and generally haven't been too keen on the flat brims), but with a growing interest in "hip hop culture" in Korea and the popularity of groups like Big Bang and 2NE1, fitteds are starting to find a niche in Korean fashion.

At first the hats were kind of bland, but they seem to have stepped up marketing a bit and I hope that they'll start catching on soon.

Here are my favorite on-fields (The Kia Tigers are sadly absent from this list because although they are this year's KBO champs and have the most championships in the history of the league...their cap is woefully aesthetically displeasing and I am shallow):

Lotte Giants (Busan)

As I've explained before, baseball teams in Korea are generally much more affiliated with their sponsor companies (in this case Lotte) than with their cities (Busan for the Giants). What's interesting about Lotte is that it is originally a Japanese company founded by Zainichi Koreans. As of today, there are two companies (from what I understand): Lotte Japan and Lotte Korea, with the latter belonging to the son of the founder of the former. As a result, the Giants have a sort of sister team in Japan, the Chiba Lotte Marines, which is sponsored by Lotte Japan.

Samsung Lions (Daegu)

LG Twins (Seoul)

They've also started to come out with a couple of custom caps:

Lotte Giants Retro

Samsung Lions Custom

I think the potential for customs here is stupendous, considering that many of these franchises have gone through numerous name changes with former teams including the Pintos, the Dolphins, the Blue Dragons, and like I've mentioned before (and still cannot get over) the Hyundai Unicorns.

Pure Frickn' Gold

2. Good Eats

Ddeokguk, the must eat food for Koreans on the New Year.

365 Project (Honoring the Dead) 1

In a bid to make my blog more interesting (and to also make me update it), I have decided to try posting a picture a day for 365 days.

This would be yesterday's picture:

"Honoring the Dead"

Some goals

1. Eat healthy, exercise, lose some weight.

2. Survive this semester.

3. Find my way to Berkeley...

Oh procrastination...

Some pleasant hats

San Jose Sharks

Los Angeles Kings

Toronto Blue Jays
Arizona Diamondbacks

Anaheim Angels
Hanshin Tigers

Taeyang's new single. He rocks at white Hanshin fitted somewhere near the middle.

An actual use for autotune?

There seems to be a trend lately on Youtube of taking people simply speaking (absurd or not) and transforming it into "musical works" of some sort. Hilarious if not anything else.

Also, these are simply beautiful:

I Worry Too Much

Amazing! Amazing!

Today I went to:

Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles!

It was pretty darn amazing.

Almost Back to School

Flying back to the 'Herst in a couple of days so I'm pretty excited. I've pretty much decided to start saving up for a Hanshin Tigers cap for once I go back to Japan in the spring. I'm also hoping that post graduation will bring a move to San Francisco or somewhere else in The Bay, which in turn will mean I'll just have to pick up a Giants cap (what can you do eh?).

Spent a large part of the day lazing around and looking through various uniforms from the Korean and Taiwanese baseball leagues and came across the fact that New Era is now producing fitteds for the Korean Baseball Organization. Very Cool. Sadly, none of the hats are particularly...how should I say this...endearing?

*Note: Korean teams, as their counterparts in Japan and Taiwan, tend to be named for their sponsor company rather than the city they represent.

LG Twins

(This is probably my favorite out of all of the KBO caps and it's starting to grow on me a little. I'm actually thinking about seeing if I can find one somewhere... [They're based in Seoul]).

KIA Tigers

Doosan Bears

Lotte Giants

Samsung Lions

Hanwha Eagles
SK Wyverns

Woori Heroes

(I remember the last time I was in Korea, someone was nice enough to take me to a baseball game (If I remember correctly it was a match between the LG Twins and the Hyundai Unicorns [Now the Woori Heroes] and I just remember being tickled to death that anyone would name their team the "Unicorns". I was consequently dissapointed at the lack of utterly hilarious merchandise and now I guess the opportunity has since passed as they've changed their name.)

Goodbye Unicorns :[

Also found this picture of an old Samsung Lions uniform floating around the internet...I have to say that I'm quite fond of it.

All in all, the summer's been quite kind to me. Home, DC, Tokyo, San Francisco...I'd say I had a pretty satisfying run.

It all comes to an end...

Long time not substantial post.

Let's have a go at this now then...shall we?

There's a little over six days until I officially get on a plane back to school. Should be very exciting to see faces I haven't seen in what seems like ages and quite frankly (although this sentence may in the end prove to be a run on) my life here at home has been somewhat less than satisfactory although ultimately I am probably the main root of that complication (it doesn't help though that I've been relegated to living in the guest room).

Overall the summer's been pretty amazing. It's had its ups and downs, and I've done some things that I'm less than proud of, but the experience in general has been fantastic.

I'm quite happy with the state of things.

The Royal Tenembaums

huh?

Oh hello! :]

Returning for the cure

Went back to Tokyo for a week this summer...did some fun things.


Got to see this guy, a giant Gundam statue they erected up over at Odaiba...emits steam and moves its head and everything. Pretty cool.


I also visited a hat store...or course right? They had some interesting pieces that I guess you'd only find in Japan...likeee this funny little guy here.

Pretty much did the standard temple hopping too:

The great Buddha of Kamakura

Over at Hasedera, part of the temple was filled with these amazingly cute little statues...

Not quite sure what they were, but I'm assuming monks?

Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu...apparently a fairly important Shinto shrine. We happened to stumble upon it in the middle of the Bonburi festival. They had all these nice paper lanterns up...there was also some sort of prayer or ceremony going on...I had no idea. Perhaps it was linked to the festival?

Here's a view of Yokohama from the Yokohama Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan.

We also went to two AMAZING baseball games:

Chunichi Dragons vs. the Yokohama Baystars:

Yoimuri Giants vs. Yakult Swallows. (Both teams are Tokyo based)

It's a bit different in Asia as a lot of times teams will sport the names of their sponsors instead of or before the cities that the represent.

Some of the logos were pretty similar to what teams in the U.S. have...I guess you can only warp letters in so many ways huh?

Take for instance, the Chunichi Dragons' cap:

Is it just me or is this basically the Padres' cap with a C?



Haha, kind of amusing.

The Yomiuri Giants cap also looks like the NY Yankees and SF Giants logos had a love child.




My favorite cap definitely has to be that of the Hanshin Tigers...which also seems to have quite the interesting history...



Anyways, time to shirk off this jetlag. Farewell.

花盆 - 로브홀릭

멀리서 멀리서 멀리서
그대가 오네요
이 떨리는 마음을 어떻게 말해야 하나요

그댄 처음부터 나의 마음을 빼앗고
나을 수 없는 病을 내게 주었죠
花盆이 될래요나는 늘 祈禱 하죠

난 그대 작은 窓가에
花盆이 될께요
아무 말 못해도 바랄 수 없어도

가끔 그대의 微笑와 손길을 받으며
잠든 그대 얼굴 限없이 볼 수 있겠죠

멀리도 멀리도 멀리도
그대가 가네요.
떨어지는 눈물을 어떻게 달래야 하나요

그댄 처음부터 나의 마음을 가졌고
나을 수 없는 病을 앓게 한 거죠
花盆이 되고픈 나는 늘 祈禱하죠

난 그대 작은 窓가에
花盆이 될께요
아무 말 못해도 바랄 수 없어도

가끔 그대의 微笑와 손길을 받으며
잠든 그대의 얼굴
限없이 볼 수 있겠죠

난 그대 작은 窓가에
花盆이 될께요
아무 말 못해도 바랄 수 없어도

가끔 그대의 微笑와 손길을 받으며
잠든 그대 얼굴 限없이 바라 볼 테죠

난 그대 작은 窓가에
花盆이 될께요
아무 말 못해도 바랄 수 없어도

가끔 그대의 微笑와 손길을 받으며
잠든 그대 얼굴 限없이 바라 볼 테죠

東京

東京に帰りました!

I'm back in Tokyo pursuing my trivial (aka shallow) pursuits...which mostly means I'll be hopping from hospital to hospital hoping that some (preferably English speaking) doctor will prescribe me my medicine (which I can confidently say is starting to work in ways that I never expected it to...perhaps as the result of low expectations?...or perhaps as the result of my mother's zealous cycles through her rosary.)

On the side I hope to do terribly inconsequential things such as check out the giant Gundam statue they've just built up at Odaiba and maybe check out some of the fitted stores they have 'round here.

Let's see how much of this language I even remember.

Someday:

Jump

I took a big leap today and bought myself a v-neck t-shirt. I've always been a bit wary about these things because they show chest, and therefore my skin condition, but I decided to just go for it...and I'm pretty happy with the shirt.

Trees Striped V-Neck from Urban

I'm also starting to get over this thing about only rocking hats from places that I'm from or have been to for extended periods of time...

Like for instance, I just picked up one of these Florida Marlins hats. I've never been to Florida in my life, but I just could not resist the color on this thing.

Florida Marlins MLB Coop

I had a coupon, so I also got one of these sick LA hats:
Sales are the devil.