This is Megan Greene with another Postcard from Asia from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

Picture this: Japanese parents meeting other Japanese parents to discuss marriage for their sons and daughters. A scene out of 17th Century Tokyo? Afraid not. It’s a scene out of 21st Century Tokyo where parents are, once again, playing Cupid for their kids. Armed with photos and profiles, parents with career-oriented single older children are meeting to exchange phone numbers and email addresses with other parents of same: object: matrimony. Sort of like speed dating only it’s speed matchmaking. In a country where marriage is falling by the way side, where reproductive rates have dropped and where the population is graying fast, these mothers and fathers are taking things into their own hands. Arranged marriage has come full circle.

With thanks to Joshua Saied for this text, from the KU Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Megan Greene. Wish you were here.

This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Asia from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

Do you karaoke? Japan does. In fact, karaoke was invented here. Sadly, however, kids under 18 sometimes find themselves barred from bars that offer karaoke because these places serve alcohol. Well, toymaker Takara Tomy has created a new product especially for these disenfranchised youths: The Hi-kara, a very small carry along karaoke machine. Songs can be downloaded from the internet or a special music cartridge and lyrics are displayed on a 2.4 inch screen. This means that would-be warblers can belt out their favorite numbers anywhere and everywhere: on a bus, in the airport, in a waiting room, right next to you. Move over, cell phones: The Hi-kara is poised to make you only the second most annoying tiny personal portable electronic device in the world.

From the KU Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.

This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Asia from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

Rice and Asia. Rice and Asia. Go together like…like…well, I can’t really think of a rhyme at the moment but rice and Asia are as intertwined as conjoined twins. The history of the rice culture in Asia covers millennia and has shaped everything from demography to topography. And now it’s shaping running shoes. Specifically racing flats for champions. Hitoshi Makamura, master craftsman for Asics, the Japanese sporting goods company, has put ground rice husks into the soles of custom made shoes for Olympic marathon runners. He claims they provide cushioning and excellent traction on wet smooth surfaces of the type that will be found along the Beijing marathon route. And if they get hungry along the 26.2 miles way, well, they can always make…shoe-shee.

From the KU Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.

This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Asia from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

Remember when President Reagan blamed trees for air pollution? Well now the Japanese are blaming cows for global warming. Apparently, the methane emissions from burping cows account for 5% of all global greenhouse gases. Simple subtraction would seem to indicate that 95% of all global greenhouse gases, therefore, is produced by something other than dyspeptic cows. Human activity perhaps? Still Japanese scientists are working on a dietary supplement to reduce the methane in cow burps having concluded that a digestive aid for Bessie is the roundhouse punch in the fight against global warming. So, does TKO in this case stand for “technical knock out” or “That’s kinda out there.” Our vote goes with the latter.

From the KU Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.

This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Asia from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

It’s hot in Tokyo in the summer. And when the heat closes in, young Japanese men’s fancies turn to thoughts of…eels. Hence eel-eating days here in Japan. An honored tradition that was first mentioned in the Manyoshu, a collection of 8th Century poems, eel-eating is believed to restore lost energy – to say nothing of lost manhood – in the mid-summer doldrums. Don’t want to eat your eels? No worries. You can drink ‘em. The Japan Tobacco Company has released the first mass produced eel energy drink. Unagi Nobori contains extracts of eel bones and head and is fortified with vitamins A, B1, B2, D and E. Never mind Red Bull. Forget Jolt. Unagi Nobori is the “eel” thing.

From the KU Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.

This is Megan Greene with another Postcard from Asia from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

They’re tasty. They’re popular. And they’re a marketing nightmare. China’s well-loved goubuli steamed buns are the pride of Tianjin, but their name translates literally to “a dog would ignore it.” According to legend, the buns were invented by a poor village boy nicknamed gouzi, or puppy, who did not speak to his customers. Worried that foreigners will turn up their noses at this unfortunately named delicacy, the Tianjin Goubuli Group Corporation has tweaked the 150-year-old name to “Go Believe,” a perplexing sort-of transliteration of the Chinese sound. The company says the buns will now be “better understood and trusted.” Perhaps. Or perhaps as with American hot dogs, “Go Believe” bun eaters are being encouraged to simply go on faith.

With thanks to Leslie vonHolten for this text, from the KU Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Megan Greene. Wish you were here.

This is Megan Greene with another Postcard from Asia from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

American educators, take heart: US students are not the only ones in the world with a shaky grasp of their own country’s history. Students in South Korea are alarmingly in the dark about circumstances of the Korean War. A poll taken by a monthly magazine revealed that over half the students had no idea when the war began – 14th century? 12th? 10th? – while about 20 percent believed that the Americans or, possibly, the Japanese started the whole thing. Fewer than 50% correctly identified North Korea as the aggressor making a move to unify the peninsula by force. Educators blame the confusion on unification-oriented textbooks. In striving not to encourage hostile feelings against the North, feelings about the West and East have gone south.

With thanks to Randi Hacker for this text, from the KU Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Megan Greene. Wish you were here.

This is Megan Greene with another Postcard from Asia from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger. Confucius said that.

And fifty years ago, kong zi, as he is known in China, was vilified by an oppressive government led by Chairman Mao. Criticized as being bourgeois and, what’s worse, traditional, Confucius was banned. But today, amidst the chaos and confusion of capitalism and change, Chinese people are turning once again to their preeminent ancient scholar for moral and ethical guidance. Several private weekend schools have popped up nationwide to educate small children in Confucian thought. Confucian ideas may be 2500 years old but can the way of virtue, filial piety and courtesy ever really go out of fashion? That is, as the Master himself once said, "Truly a good question!

With thanks to Randi Hacker for this text, from the KU Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Megan Greene. Wish you were here.

This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Asia from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

It’s autumn in Japan and in autumn men’s fancies turn to...bashing each other with large portable shrines. At least here in Himeji they do. Really. I’m not kidding. From October 14th through the 15th , the people here celebrate Nada no Kenka Matsuri or the Fighting Shrines Festival. Groups of men wearing different colored head bands (to denote their ages) hoist portable shrines that can weigh up to 4 tons onto their shoulders and attack other groups of shrine-toting men. As you can imagine, this creates a lot of noise which, it is said, pleases Hachiman who is known as the god of war. This festival often gets so rough, people die. The winners are, presumably, those supporting the last shrine standing. Here’s my question: When, oh when, will this be an Olympic event?

From the KU Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.

This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Asia from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

Cha, or tea, has a long and splendid history in Japan. Imported by a monk in the 8th Century, introduced to the samurai in the 12th, embraced by the common people in the 14th, ritualized in the chado, the way of tea, ceremony in the 16th and, finally, deployed by a young mother in the 21st. A woman in Tokyo recently saved herself and her six-month old baby from a knife-wielding attacker by serving tea. The man barged into her apartment demanding money. She made him a cup of tea over which he told her the story of his life. She then gave him 10,000 yen and ran outside to call the police who failed to apprehend him. And so, to chado’s traditional four core ideas of harmony, respect, purity and tranquility a fifth more contemporary one has now been added: self-defense.

From the KU Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.