Fukuoka Airport on March 9th, 2020

I am not busy these days as everyone around is. I wouldn't mention why. Everyone knows why.

2019 was quite tough. The diplomatic tension between South Korea and Japan accompanied with Japanese administration's decision to exclude South Korea from the so-called 'White List' and civil boycott movement, the long and violent demonstration in Hong Kong and so on.  But I got through them all. I made good sales. 

You can read my blog related geopolitics in East Asia and sales. I just scribbled thoughts that I came up with while running.

https://eastasiaseminar.blogspot.com/2020/03/international-politics-and-sales-of.html

For now, I feel helpless.
It feels weird I don't get by any overseas tourists chatting on the streets. 
It feels I am isolated in a place I am not sure I belong or not. 

The only thing I thought I could was trying to figuring out what happened and is happening.

2020. 3. 5.
Abe administration announced that it would stop visa exemption program for short-term(90 days) Korean visitors and cancel most of the visa issued to Chinese visitors.  

2020. 3. 6.
Korean government took a counteraction stopping visa exemption program for short term(90 days) Japanese visitors.

I was curious what the Japanese public reaction was like because I had felt something different from  the situation of 2019  of the diplomatic disputes such as GSOMIA.

Honestly speaking, people didn't asked me what's wrong with the Korean government and President Moon like they had. 

I bought two newspapers: Nishnihon shinbun(西日本新聞社) and The Japan Times.

The overall sentiment: why now?

The situation already proceeded to 'Pandemic' which can't be controlled by shutting down the border.

Moreover, the announcement took place abruptly. ( I wouldn't mention the diplomatic arguments between Korea and Japan. As far as I know, there was no inner consultation among the professionals, government officers, and the Diet in advance. If I am wrong, let me know.)

A Japanese living in Hong Kong interviewed said considering the situation in Hong Kong being stabilized currently, the decision doesn't make sense and gives only discomfort  to both the public in both Japan and Hong Kong.

I went to Fukuoka International Airport. I felt doing so (additionally, when I would figure out something especially social science thing, I always tried to do web or paper research and field research inspired by Jim Rogers).


Not related to this blog, though, I read a few books of Jim Rogers and watched his interview on Youtube. One of the interviews held in Tokyo was quite interesting. It is about the future of Japan. You had better watch it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm1II6DGK4Q&t=68s

I roamed around the airport.

The airport was just empty.

The parking lot was empty. The arrival was empty. The departure was empty.

Most flights from and to Korea and China including Hong Kong were cancelled. I could see a couple of flights left ready.

I don't know when it would go calm down. Writing the blog, I saw a series of news from BBC about the quick spreading out of Corona Virus in Europe. What's next? North America?

I found a proverb reading news with my smartphone.

No man is an island.

We should help each other.

Not rhetoric.

We should help each other to survive.

The 5th vlog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOqfs4Zn8b0

2020年3月8日の福岡国際空港

最近，僕は全然忙しくないです。なぜかは皆知っていると思います。

2019はすごく厳しかったです。日本の政府が韓国をホウイトリスト(White List)から引きたり韓国国民が反発して日本の商品とサービスをボイコット(boycott)したり大変でした。更に、香港で行われたデモンストレーションもけっこう長かったし暴力的でした。でも、全部乗り越えて売り上げは前年より上がりました。

 去年、東アジアの地理政治学と営業の関係についてブログを書きました。興味があると下のリンクをクリックしてください。

https://eastasiaseminar.blogspot.com/2020/03/international-politics-and-sales-of.html

今の気持ち？

無力感。

出勤する時に外国人の観光客が全然見えないのでおかしい。

僕の場所ではない所でいるみたいな感じ。

今、僕ができるのは何の事が行われたのかと行っているのかだけです。

2020. 3. 5.

阿倍総理は短期間日本を訪ねる韓国国民に適用されるビザ免除を中止しましたし中国人に発給したビザも取り消しました。

2020. 3. 6.

韓国政府は日本政府の措置に対応して同じように短期間韓国を訪ねる日本国民のビザ免除を中止しました。

周りの日本人の同僚の方の反応がGSOMIAなどの2019のことと結構違って日本国民の一般的な意見とか反応はどんな感じか気になりました。

 正直話すと今回は韓国政府って大丈夫ですかとかムン大統領が問題だねと全然言われないのでちょっとびっくりしました。

先、西日本新聞とThe Japan Timesを買って読みました。

全般的な反応は？

なせ今？

状況がもうパンダミック(pandemic)みたいな様子なので今全面的に国境を閉じるのが役に立てるのかと言う意見が多かったです。

その上、決定も電撃的に決められたそうです。（韓国と日本の外交関係に関することは話し出したくないですが、僕が分かる限り、内閣と専門家と政府官僚の間に事前協議がなかったそうです。間違ったら知らせってください）

ある香港で住んでいる日本人の方は良くなっている香港の状況を見ると内閣の決定が納得できないとインタビューで話しました。

 僕は福岡国際空港に行きました。そうしたかったです。(別に話すと社会化学的なことを調べると僕は先インタネットとか本とかのものを調べて後現場に行ってみます。Jim Rogersと言う投資家は何かをよく分かるためには現場を大切にすることだと言いました。)

今回のブログとは関係ないですが、僕はJim Rogersと言う投資家の本を何本も読みましたし彼のYouTubeもよくみました。別に彼が東京で外信記者たちとインタビューしたYouTubeは印象的でした。日本の未来と関するインタビューでした。おすすめです。

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm1II6DGK4Q&t=68s

空港を回りました。

空港は空いている。

駐車場も空いている。到着する所も空いている。出発する所も空いている。

韓国と中国からの飛行機はほとんどキャンセルになりました。

いつ状況がよくなるかわかりません。ブログを書いている今、BBCからのニュースをみるとヨロパの状況が深刻。次はアメリカとカナダですかな？

スマホでニュースを見ながらある名言を見つけました。

 誰も島ではない。

No man is an island.

お互いに手伝うことです。

本当に。

五番目のvlogです！

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOqfs4Zn8b0

International Politics and Sales of Kawashou

I work in a sushi restaurant downtown called “Kawashou” in Fukuoka. My job is serving customers, more specifically ones from overseas. Working in the restaurant, I was reminded a lesson that everything is intertwined and affects each other. Fukuoka is not a big city with population of just a bit more than 1.5 million. It is quite far from Tokyo and doesn’t seem to be related to the international politics.

Looking back the year of 2019, I saw even Fukuoka can’t be a loner from the world.

Until July the streets downtown in Fukuoka was bustled with Korean tourists. They were frenzy looking for a good spot for motsunabe (a kind of gut stew), yakitori (grilled chicken stick) and so on. Looking at a long queue of people waiting for their turn in front of a gyukatsu (beef cutlet) restaurant in Tenjin, I found many of them were chit-chatting in Korean.

Entering the muggy summer in August, I could see few Koreans on the street. What happened? The Supreme Court of South Korea made a verdict that Japanese companies which had abused a number of Korean migrant workers during the Colonization Era such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries compensate for the old survivors, which Japanese government rebuked arguing that the verdict is against the old agreement signed in 1962 between South Korea and Japan for the sake of recovery of diplomatic relationship after the World War Second and the recent compromise between Park’s administration of South Korea and Abe’s of Japan that the dispute over the issues of official apologies and compensation of comfort women survivors who had been forced to work as sex slaves during the World War Second be finalized with founding a civil institution funded by Japanese government. As a counteraction, Japanese government decided to exclude South Korea from so-called ‘White List’ in which the countries get a series of advantages and convenience in the process of exporting goods to Japan. Koreans got furious over Abe’s Administration’s reaction and voluntarily boycotted Japanese goods and services. One of the services was tourism. They stopped visiting Japan.

On the other side of East Asia, Hong Kong, huge population took to the street protesting the administration’s proposal to implement a law that allows it to transfer fugitives to Mainland China. The clashes between the police and the protesters were significantly violent and the demonstration spiraled huge and widespread enough to affect everyone’s life in Hong Kong.

From fall to winter, I could see more and more customers from Hong Kong. Until the summer, approximately 30% of overseas customers were from Korean and the rests are from other countries. But from fall to winter, the 30% of overseas customers were from Hong Kong.

I happened to get a chance to talk with a couple of customers from Hong Kong. As a matter of fact, they gave questions that typical tourists do not give. The questions were like living conditions of foreigners in Fukuoka, price rates, Japanese general attitudes towards foreign residents, prices of apartments, visa issuing system and so on. In the end of the conversation, they confessed that they were so fatigued with long lasting demonstrations and the violent disputes between the public and the police. They were just tired and felt like escaping even for a while and forgetting things in their home country. Through the conversation, I could get a clue over the increase of the number of customers from Hong Kong.

What do the outflow of Korean tourist and inflow of Hong Kong tourists imply? The turbulent changes in international relations could seriously affect sales even of a small restaurant. In making decisions, dynamics of international politics should be monitored and reflected in order to avoid the related risks and promote the sales.

Overall, Kawashou achieved more sales than the year before. Without doubt, overseas customers contributed to the increase. Holding royal local customers is crucial in maintaining stable sales volume. However, to raise up the volume, overseas customers should not be ignored.

Additionally, I want to introduce an episode that I participated in a regional conference of hotel managers and marketing staffs. The conference was held in August when the tension between the two governments of South Korea and Japan was escalating sharply. A senior member was giving a speech before the commencement of the dinner. He said.

“Foreign customers are just like bonus. Bonus is just temporary. It can’t be the source of stable income. From now on, we have to focus on domestic customers from Osaka and Tokyo appealing our unique culture of Kyushu.

Listening to his speech, I couldn’t help but mumble myself Former U. S. President Bill Clinton’s campaign slogan when he was running for the presidency as the Democratic candidate.

‘It's overseas customers, stupid!’ (Clinton’s slogan was “It is economy, stupid!’)

いいレストランを探して

僕は日曜日には色々なことをしながら走ります。例えば、電気代をコンビニで払ったりレストランの予約をしたりしながらはしります。。月曜日から土曜日までは時間が全然ないからです。

先週の水曜日に友たちと夜ご飯の約束がありました。だって、先の日曜日に市内を走って回りながらいいレストランを探してみました。

ダメな料理を決めたので韓国、中国そして、日本料理でした。

日本料理:　毎日食べるのが日本料理です。日本で住んでいますし寿司屋で働いていますし外食としては食べたくなかったです。

韓国料理:　二月頭で韓国に帰って美味しい韓国料理をいっぱい食べました。もう欲しくなかったです。

中華料理:　一緒に夜ご飯を食べるつもりの一人の友たちが中国人でした。僕の共感覚を活かして考えてみました。結論は中国の料理はダメ。でも、僕は福岡の中華料理が本当に好きです。

三個のランドマークを決めてそのランドマークの隣りの店を探そうとしました。

ポイントはお客様が長く待っている列。長い列はその店の人気を象徴していること。人気がある店の食べ物はもちろんおいしい。単純なんですが、同時に合理的。

#1

中央公園

博多明太重

http://www.mentaiju.com/?wovn=en

 博多明太中って良く知っている。河庄からけっこう近くにある。中央公園の周りにある店の間で一番人気がある所だと思います。 

ただ、どのくらいのお客様が待っているかな興味があって訪ねてビデオを撮りました。料理が日本料理なので夜ご飯の所として全然興味なかったです。

でも、みんなに質問があって明太子って最初はどこで作られ始まったでしょうか？韓国でも明太子って昔からすごく愛されてきた料理です。韓国の明太子は色とか味とか日本の明太子とあまり差がないです。両国で愛されている料理を見ると由来した所がどちらの国かないつも気になります。

博多明太中って英語のサイトもある。びっくり！

福岡での生活ほとんど一年なりましたが、アクロスの天井にある展望台に行ったことがない。上がってみました。景色が素晴らしかったです。山から海まで全部見える。エレベーターもなかったので運動にもなりました。

#2

天神

コロナウイルスのせいか、街があまり忙しくなかったです。でも、うどん屋とかからあげ屋とか簡単に食事できる所は忙しかったです。気になる店は見つからなかったです。

#3

大濠公園

教会の礼拝が終わると僕はももち浜まで走ります。らるきいと言う店は大濠公園とももち浜の間にある所なので毎日曜日過ぎるようになります。なぜか分からないですが、いつも多い客様が長く立っています。イタリア料理店です。グーグル(Google)で検索して見ると評判は別に良くないですが、いつも外で待っているお客様が見えます。

決定

天神に戻りました。ある店からいいジャズの音楽が聞こえて外で聞きながら隣にあるイタリア料理店を見つけました。イタリアの旗も見えました。入ってみました。誰もいなかったです。雰囲気も良かったしシェフさんも親切でした。夜ご飯の所として決まり！

La Coccinella

http://lacoccinella-daimyo.jp/ 

料理:三種類のピザを食べました。全部美味しい！

ホスピタリティ:マネージャーさんが文化差について良く知っていました。僕たちが外国人なので小鉢が要るか要らないから聞いてくれました。嬉しかったです。

雰囲気：テーブルも綺麗だったし音楽も良かったです。

料金:今からは焼き鳥屋には行かないです。La Coccinellaの料理がもっと安い感じでした。

友達との良い時間でした。

La Coccinella，　おすすめ！

#4 Fukuoka vlog: looking for a good restaurant!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTI8IUWeN7w

3/4

P.S.
僕の日本人の友達がブログを読んでフィードバックしてくれました。

パクさん、らくきいではなく、ラルキーです！日本人の有名芸人まっちゃんや、野球の王さんなんかも行ったことがあるので有名になりました！

Looking for a good restaurant in Fukuoka City

One of the things a bit uniqueness of my running is that I do other things at the same time such as paying electricity bills and making a reservation for a restaurant. 

Last Wednesday I had an appointment for dinner. So Sunday before the Wednesday I ran around the center of Fukuoka City looking for a nice restaurant.

I had excluded three kinds of restaurants: Japanese, Korean, and Chinese.

Japanese: I eat Japanese dishes everyday. You know why. 

Korean: I ate good Korean dishes back home in Korea a week before. I didn't have much expectation over Korean dishes in Fukuoka. 

Chinese: one of the friends who was supposed to join the dinner was Chinese. I tried to be more sympathetic than usual. The conclusion was it would be better not to go to a Chinese restaurant(but I really like Chinese restaurants in Fukuoka).

I chose three landmarks and tried to find a good restaurant near them.

A long queue: my original plan was to make a reservation for a restaurant with a long queue. A long queue means popularity and popularity means yummy. Rational but quite simple. 

#1

Central Park

Hakata Mentaiju

http://www.mentaiju.com/?wovn=en

I am used to the park. It is located right next to Kawashou.  I think Hakata Mentaiju is the most popular restaurant near Central Park. It always has a long queue of customers. 

I just tried taking video of the restaurant to figure out how many customers were waiting. The dishes were Japanese. 

But I have a question. Where did spicy cod  roe or Mentaiko come from?  Even in Korea, Mentaiko is so popular and I do not see any difference in shape, color, tastes and so on in both countries. I see more and more similarities as I see more more differences in the culinary culture between the two living in Fukuoka, which gives me more questions.

It has an English site! 

Additionally, I tried climbing up to the rooftop of Acros. I haven't been yet to Fukuoka Tower, so I can't compare the views. But even from the rooftop of Across, I could see almost all around the city including the mountain side in the back and sea in the front. Comparing the view down Central Park climbing up was another joy. Moreover, it was free. No elevator and good exercise. I took almost one year to try the rooftop.  

#2

Tenjin

It was not that bustling maybe because of the concern for Corona Virus. But I could see some restaurants having queues with customers. But they were mostly ramenya, udongya and so on, which are basically for simple and quick lunch. I just roamed around failing a restaurant meeting my standards.

#3

Ohori Park

After the service on Sunday, I typically run to Momochi Beach. On the way, I run by a restaurant with the longest queue in Fukuoka. It was always during the lunch hours, maybe between 1:30 pm and 2:30. It is Raruki(らるきい). It is an Italian restaurants. Its uniqueness is that it is decorated with the baseball things of Fukuoka Hawks. Its reputation online was a bit plain. But the day I was quite late and the restaurant was closed. It was 4:00 pm.

Decision

I went back to Tenjin. I happened to Jazz music being played in a small restaurant.  I stopped by the outside and enjoyed the music a little bit and found an Italian restaurant. It had Italian flag on the side. I got in and there was no customers yet. I booked a table. 

La Coccinella

http://lacoccinella-daimyo.jp/ 

Dishes: great. We ate three kinds of pizza, all of which were so delicious.

Hospitality: The manager or the chef has a sense of cultural differences. He asked me whether we neede a Japanese kind of appetizers which is typically served in Japanese restaurants. He was dedicated and sophisticated.

Atmosphere: The seats were comfortable and the music was plainly good.

Prices: I wouldn't go to a yakitoriya for a drink anymore. The prices of La Coccinella are much more reasonable. 

I had a great time with friends.

I recommend La Coccinella.

#4 Fukuoka vlog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTI8IUWeN7w

3/4

P.S.
One of my Japanese friends gave me some feedback for Rarukii(らるきい) And he said it became popular after a legendary baseball player Wang and a few famous entertainers visited it. He added he is not sure about the tastes.