Chindogu Makes the World a Better Place

This weekend, I was introduced to the world of Chindogu. One of my friends has a book that everyone should read, The Big Bento Box of Unuseless Japanese Inventions. Chindogu is the Japanese art of making the most useless and embarrassing inventions known to man. Here are a few of my favorites...

It's magic!

I got a Japanese Magic Straight perm yesterday, and I love it!!! I'm way too lazy to use my CHI straightener everyday, plus I'm constantly running late, so Magic Straight is perfect for me. Perhaps, I should call it "Korean" Magic Straight, since Koreans have such a srrong hatred of Japan, but it was indeed developed in Japan. Sorry, Korea. My loyalty is still to you. (Let's hug it out!)

Anyway, prior to coming to Korea, I wanted to get Magic Straight at my salon in California, but was going to cost approximately 800 dollars!!! Here in Korea? It was only 60,000 won, which is 48 bucks! Raise your hand if you love Asian beauty products! Let's see those hands, people!

Also, my hair is so much straighter than my 200 dollar CHI could ever hope to accomplish. And, Darcie, I can hear you cursing me out from across the globe! Don't hate! I'll mail you my CHI;)

I was a bit worried about damage, since the chemicals used to straighten hair are so harsh, but, let's face it. My hair is already fried from my changing its color every time I get a wild "hair." Plus, using the heat of a hair straightener everyday, even if it is ceramic and ionic, is not great for one's hair, so I decided a permanent straightening would be the lesser of two evils.

The result???? My hair feels silky smooth! I hope it stays this way. There are great Korean conditioning treatments with squid ink about which my friend, Juliet, raves. I will probably starting getting them on a regular basis to keep my luscious locks as healthy as possible.

So what is Magic Straight and how does it work?

Japanese Magic Straight is a new hairstyle treatment, which uses heat to restructure the bonds in your hair to create permanent straight hairstyle that will last from six to eight months. The popularity of this treatment is growing daily with many featured articles in magazines such as Vogue, Lucky and In Style, just to name a few, and the trend setting of the fashion industry. Born in Japan, launched in the US just a few years ago, Japanese Magic Straight is taking the hairstyle world by storm. It is also known as Thermal Reconstruction, Ionic Re-texturizing and Magic Perm. And it is truly a magic for those who struggled with blow dryer every morning to achieve the straight hair look.

The process is a complicated one: Hair is treated first with a specialized foamer to protect the hair, then the straightening solution, which breaks the shaft’s cystine bonds and has the same potent smell as regular perm solution. Hair is then coated in plastic and left under a heater for up to 40 minutes, depending on its texture and wave. After a washout and blow dry, specialized flat irons (which can adjust heat between 150 to 220 degrees) are used on one-inch sections of hair. The ironing process can take up to an hour and a half, sometimes employing two stylists at once. The irons permanently lock in the straightness.
Like regular perms, neutralizer is then applied and left in, which stabilizes the pH balance. Hair is then rinsed, treated and blown dry.
As with perms, clients must not shampoo their hair for two days. During this period, they also must leave their hair perfectly still — no barrettes, pins or bands. Some even warn against tucking your hair behind your ear for fear of bending the hair permanently before the shaft has completely stabilized. (http://www.londonkoreanlinks.net/)

A Very Windy Country

I am most definitely not a fan of toilet humor. In fact, I find it extremely obnoxious. So I apologize in advance for the following blog entry, but I feel it might as well be included in my Korean memoir, so here goes.

Justin, one of my co-teachers discovered a cartoon DVD in our office entitled The Daughter-in-Law With Thunder Farts. It took a total of 3.5 seconds for most of the foreigners in our office to gather around Justin's computer, baffled. It was basically Terrance and Phillip meets Cinderella. And it was a genuine educational DVD! Maybe I am just jumping to conclusions, but would showing a movie about a farting (I really hate that word.) milkmaid fly in an American school district?

So let's look a bit at culture at Korean culture...

The following is a Korean folk tale I found whilst surfing the net. Enjoy.

GENERAL PUMPKIN

Long, long ago there lived a rich man who had an only son. This boy had an enormous appetite and was particularly fond of pumpkins. His parents got all the pumpkins they could for him. They sowed all their fields with pumpkins, and bought them in vast quantities from the neighbors and in the market. They made pumpkin cakes, pumpkin puddings, pumpkin soup, pumpkin porridge for their son, and he ate nothing else. He would eat a big straw bagful at a sitting, and yet he always complained that he was hungry.

His parents spent so much money to feed him that in the end they were ruined. And to make matters worse, the gluttonous eater of pumpkins used to break wind so often and so violently that in the end the villagers refused to put up with him any longer, so fed up were they with the smell and thunderous rumblings. Finally they drove him away from the village.

So he wandered from village to village begging pumpkins. People who had not heard of him often gave him work, for he looked very big and strong, and he did not ask for money, but only pumpkins as reward for his labor. But he lost every job in a few days when his employers found what an extraordinarily filthy glutton he was.

One day he came to a big Buddhist temple in the mountains. It was a very rich and famous temple, with many priests, but often fell victim to a band of robbers, under their chief, Hairy Zang. Zang used to disguise himself as an ordinary wayfarer and go to the temple to spy out the land. Then at night he would lead his band against it and carry off all the valuables they could lay hands on.

When the Abbot saw the enormous frame of the pumpkin eater standing before the gate of the temple he went and welcomed him warmly, for he thought that this gigantic stranger would be a match for the robbers. He led him into the temple and, bowing humbly before him, asked him what his favorite food was. "You do look a strong man indeed, sir," he said. "What do you like to eat, and how much?"

"I eat nothing but pumpkins," answered the glutton. "You had better cook as many as you can for me, say a whole kettle full."

So the priests of the temple entertained him with a whole kettleful of pumpkin porridge, and then brought him another kettleful of pumpkin cakes. Then they asked him to help them if the robbers should attack the temple.

That evening the robber chief came to the temple. When he saw the feast of pumpkins being made ready he asked a priest, "Have you a party tonight?"

"Yes, General Pumpkin is here," was the answer.

"How many soldiers has he?"

"He has come alone, and will eat them all himself."

The robber chief was astounded to hear this, and decided to stay the night in the temple so that he might take a closer look at the terrible general. Some of the priests recognized him and went and told the Abbot. Then the Abbot went and told General Pumpkin that the robber chief was staying in the next room. So General Pumpkin told the priests to take drums and hide in every corner of the temple at midnight, and put out all the lights. Meanwhile all the followers of the robber chief gathered outside the temple and tried to break in.

Suddenly in the stillness of the night there came a deafening rumble like thunder, and the air was filled with an unbearable stench. General Pumpkin had broken wind. Then a violent gale blew down the high brick wall surrounding the temple. The robber chief tried to run away in his alarm, but whichever way he turned he was confronted with the roll of drums from every dark corner. In the end he was killed, and all his men were crushed under the falling bricks of the wall.

The Abbot thanked General Pumpkin for his services, and invited him to stay in the temple as long as he lived. He lived there for many years, and had all the pumpkins he wanted. To supply him the priests planted a large area of the temple fields with pumpkins every year.

When he grew old the three sons of a rich family that lived near the temple came to him and asked him to help them fight a white tiger which had killed their father. He went to their house one day and they entertained him with pumpkin delicacies of every kind. All they wanted him to do was to break wind just once.

So in the afternoon the three sons of the family donned their armor and shouted, "Come out and fight, white tiger." Immediately there appeared a tiny tiger, no bigger than a rat, and completely white. They all leapt in the air to fight.

General Pumpkin peeped through a chink in the window-paper to see what was going on, and, horrified by what he saw, fell down in a faint. As he fell he broke wind violently, and a deafening roar filled the air. The white tiger was paralyzed with terror at this sudden explosion and the evil stench that followed. Then a bamboo stake from the fence pierced its body, and it fell down dead.

When the three young men came inside again they found the old man lying dead in the room surrounded with excrement. They were very sorry to see it, and provided him with a fitting funeral. And for three years they mourned for him as they did for their father.

Friends, I couldn't make this up if I tried.

Next, we have a popular children's program:

GENERAL FART

Again, I apologize for the crude topic, just trying to bring a little culture into as many lives as possible.

Until next time, have a very Dalki day!

LUSH!

I recently discovered LUSH Cosmetics, of which I had never heard until venturing into a store in Gangnam (Did I mention I love it there???)

Not to get off track, but Gangnam has the ninth most expensive shopping street in the world. It's like crack to me. I can't stay away!!!! Now let me attempt to get back on the topic at hand.

Ummm...Oh yes! LUSH Cosmetics rock! It is not a Korean company. The products are made in the UK, and the best part is that they are environmentally and ethically conscious products. The products are handmade with no animal testing and as little packaging as possible. The company has also rid its products of palm oil, which comes from trees in orangatan habitats. It's so hard to find reasonably priced ethical companies, so I'm excited about my new discovery!!!
My favorite product thus far is LUSH's solid shampoo. No packaging or preservatives, and it lasts as long as three bottles of shampoo. I reccomend "Godiva." It is jasmine scented and is a shampoo and conditioner in one.



STOLEN FROM LUSH.COM
Lady Godiva was married to a rich Lord in the town of Coventry in England. The people of the town loved her as she looked after them. Her husband was not so nice. He wanted to put up the taxes on his people. His wife asked him not to, and he said only if she rode through the town in the day completely naked! She agreed and asked the people of the town to stay in their houses and not look out, to keep her modesty. Luckily she had very, very long hair, which she let hang over her body. The people did as she asked, all bar one man called Tom, who peeped out and since then we have two names in the UK to describe people. "Lady Godiva" someone who parades naked and has beautiful long hair, and "Peeping Tom" someone who spies on others and looks when they should not be.

www.lush.com

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