A few months ago, as I was planning my Japan trip, one of my aunts (who had recently visited Japan the previous year) shared her experiences in Japan with me. Basically, she broke them down for me into these bite-sized pieces of information:

1) Portions of restaurant food in Japan are significantly smaller than the one's you'd find in Korea.
2) Japanese people are so short! (Her words exactly ~ and then I lol'd)
3) Most of the Japanese people she saw were really ugly.

And after my 5 days in Osaka, I guess I have my own observations about her observations.

1 - Compared to what you'd call a Korean meal, yes, Japan food is pretty fucking weak in terms of quantity. The side dish is very important to almost every Korean meal and Korea likes to pile those on and on. Japan, though, had some great singular meals that didn't really need any additional sides. Okonomiayki, for example, basically had all the staples of a Korean meal inside of it in one convenient pancake (the starch part, or rice, meat, veggies and a lot of fish sauce). But I'm guessing that Japanese people don't eat that Oko~ stuff on a daily basis.

2. I would love to do a simple research survey into what this Korean and Japanese generation's teenage/child group eats these days. Short, you say? Every man and woman visibly under 30 was nearly as tall as I am (I'm about 5'11''). Stereotype or simple physical observation, whatever it is, it's no longer true for Korea or Japan these days....

3. This was a nice reminder of the definition of 'beauty' can be so universal in some ways.

~~Korea's standard of beauty is different on a physical level (a good example is how some people think I'm remotely 'handsome' while back at home I am that asian dude who is way too pale) but its superficiality is all the same. Rigid and unrealistic body measurements (America's barbie-ish hip/bust measurements that are still prevalent and Korea's similar 'S-curve' waist line and the 'V-face'), fascination with whitening up the human face (the infamous double-eyelid surgery, made to make your eyes bigger, is a procedure done often to teenage girls here and back at home) and the same stupid sexploitation of women in various media outlets.
~~With that in mind, it's my opinion that the most 'mainstream' image of a beautiful woman (in Korea) is something that is limited to just one type of body, one type of face, one type of make-up design and like, four types of hairstyles. To summarize - it's kinda like this quote I overheard once - "Man, all the women in Korea look ALL ALIKE." Slightly racist hurrdurr 'All Asians Look Alike' comment aside, I can't help but think that there is an air of truth to it - until you remove all the makeup and muss their hair. Please call me out on this if this is not really what is/if you think this is bullshit.
~~Oh, right. "Japanese people are so ugly." Naw, not really ugly, just very different. All very diverse. I loved 'people watching' while I was there - so many awesome fashion styles. Wish I could emulate it myself but it's not something I can pull off.




~Anyway, I wanted to ask your opinion about this whole...women being sexy and not being afraid of it. I understand how sexual expression is important to a woman's identity and empowerment but where are the boundaries of 'free sexual expression' and 'NSFW'?
~Korea has a well-known censorship panel which prohibits most of the 17+ music videos or commercials from airing before 10 pm on basic cable. These sorts of MV's come in flavors such as:


and basically, almost every other commercial with Lee Hyori:


Ok so, that's just...stupid reinforcement of sexual norms, right? Just because they're raunchier videos released in a slightly stronger conservative atmosphere doesn't make it progressive change, does it? Is this fucking 'empowerment'? Or am I missing the whole 'if you've got IT, flaunt IT' idea of sexual empowerment and expression? But then....aren't they just reinforcing what 'IT' is while alienating all the other women who flaunt their version of 'it'? But 'it' isn't 'IT' and when they start flaunting their 'it' all the smart lil' heterosexual male "sociologists" start gagging privately at 'it' and make fun of 'it'?

This has been on my mind lately - how men and women should let their bodies be portrayed and how they should express themselves sexually AND publically. Please let me know what you think about it all.