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

Chinese is a tonal language. That means the tones are semantic markers. That means the way you say a word affects its meaning. Thus if you say “ma” it means mother but if you say “ma” it means horse. Many people claim that this is what makes Chinese so difficult for speakers of English to learn. English, they say, is not a tonal language. But is this true? Maybe not entirely. Let’s take the words “yes” and “no” for example. If we say “yes!” it means “Yes!” but if we say “Yes…” it could mean “maybe” or even “no.” And if we say “No!” it means “No!” but if we say “No” it could mean “well” or even “yes”. These tones are much used in boardrooms and pre-schools. Our advice? Practice these two tones: you don’t want to get caught saying “Yes…” when you mean “No.”

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

The Japanese have serious thrill issues, dude. For hundreds of years, they’ve eaten fugu, a type of puffer fish whose liver is the seat of a poison called tetrodotoxin that causes paralysis then death even while your mind stays sharp and alert. Fugu chefs never know if they've completely removed all the poison and diners never know if they're going to survive the meal. There are no known antidotes. Fugu has left quite a few Japanese dead over the years and was even banned briefly back in the 16th century. Basho, the famous Edo era poet, wrote a haiku about it: Oh, nothing’s happened to me! Yesterday has passed. Fugu soup. Even Homer Simpson had his own near death fugu-experience! Which proves the slightly-altered saying: one man’s fish is another man’s poison.

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

Fugu Part II: In the last Postcard, we talked about fugu, the poisonous poisson that has been a favorite in Japan for centuries. Well, it seems that a fish farm has recently raised fugu that are poison-free. A non-toxic fugu? Can this be kosher? Naturally, this has spawned a couple of huge debates. One among distributors who wonder whether this will compromise the rather handsome price this toxic tidbit commands on the open market and a second among gourmets who wonder if this will compromise its status as a deadly delicacy. Whatever. The main point, as I see it, is in the choices. The harmless new version gives Japanese diners a menu item hitherto unavailable. And it remains to be seen whether they will order fugu …or faux gu.

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.

So you want to be a eunuch – and why not? In Imperial China, eunuchs were among the most powerful of the courtiers: It was the eunuch Zheng He, don’t forget, who convinced the emperor to let him sail to Africa many centuries ago. What’s more, eunuchs were the only men allowed in the women’s quarters. Regrettably, career opportunities for professional eunuchs in this century are limited. But only if you are operating in real reality. Virtual reality is bringing the eunuch back. IBM and the Chinese government have launched a Forbidden City website where visitors can adopt a Qing dynasty avatar and wander around the imperial complex interacting with other visitors in real time. So go ahead and get your eunuch on! No surgery necessary…

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.

From Seoul comes the story of a financial advisor who appeared on a TV talk show and said that people were making unwise investment decisions because they were too greedy. As a result, he was fired. The company justified his termination by saying that his words were ‘out of line with [the institution’s] original purpose and caused concern to investors” meaning, of course, that his words might cause investors to stop investing and maybe even withdraw some funds. South Korea is not only the most Christian country in East Asia but also the most Confucian. Both the Bible and Confucius are clear on the badness of Greed. But in today’s global marketplace, economics rules which means that greed is only bad if it interferes with the bottom line.

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.

Is there a human on earth who doesn’t enjoy popping bubble wrap? The satisfaction of the squish and the snap of a bubble breaking between your fingers transcends cultural borders. The problem is then you have bubble wrap without the bubbles making it just garbage and no longer even an environmentally questionable packing product. Leave it to the Japanese to create a chotchka that gives you the satisfaction of the snap without wasting the bubble wrap itself. Puchi puchi is a small plastic box that clips on to your backpack. Rows of little buttons are set into one side. When you press these, they snap and crack just like bubble wrap. So goodbye bubble economy. Hello bubble wrap economy.

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.

It’s New Year in Japan which means…it’s time to sing about fireflies. The song Hotaru no Hikari (HOE TAH ROO no HEE KAH REE) or light of the fireflies is as well known and beloved as Auld Lang Syne is in the West; in fact, it’s sung to the same tune. The Japanese: firefly connection goes back to the 8th Century when poets used them to represent human passions. But pollution and development have depleted the number of fireflies. So what’s a New Year’s reveler to do? Buy Denshi Hotaru, (DEN SHEE HOE TAH ROO) life-sized, electronic lightning bugs housed in the traditional bamboo cage. All you need’s a couple of double A batteries and the flick of a switch. Oh yeah. And eighty dollars. Happy New Year.

With thanks to Mindy Varner 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.

If you build a luxury hotel in a city that discourages tourists from visiting, who’ll stay there? It’s like a bad Zen koan, isn’t it? But it’s not hypothetical: it refers to the Ryugyong Hotel aka The Hotel of Doom in Pyongyang, North Korea. Called "the worst building in the history of mankind" by Esquire Magazine, work was halted on it in 1992 when Russia cut off the funding. So now the building, once a symbol of the greatness of the Communist state, once pictured on postage stamps, was suddenly being airbrushed out of photographs. For the past 16 years, its empty shell has been a symbol of the country's decline. Now, however, there’s talk of finishing it to the tune of two billion dollars. Reservations anybody? I can think of a few.

From the Center for East Asian Studies, this is Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.

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

Old age, as Bette Davis once said, ain’t no place for sissies. Frailty. Loss of independence. Accidents. It’s into this last category that this Postcard falls…with “falls” being the operative word. Japan is a country known for its ingenuity as well as its respect for elders. So it should come as no surprise that the Japanese have come up with wearable airbags and safety diapers to cushion the inevitable spills of old age. If elders should lose their balance and pitch over backward, the airbags inflate to protect the vulnerable hip area and back of the head. At the moment, no airbag deploys in front. This is, perhaps, a future market niche. Meanwhile, the question is: Would you buy one for YOUR grandmother?

From the Center for East Asian Studies, this is Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.