Ouch!

Well...after about a month of not going to the gym due to Korean Festival preparation, working late, and LAZINESS...I finally went back yesterday and today to try and get back to my regular workout schedule. After that month of inactivity, I knew I was gonna be hurtin' and yep! I'm sore!

Before I hit the weights, I always do a warm up run between 1-2 miles, depending how I feel that day and how my creaky knees hold up. Surprisingly, I was able to run just as I did before my absence, even with doing no cardio during that time and having the occasional cigarette here and there. Hey, maybe I'm not as bad off as I thought!

Well, when I hit the weight room, that's when it hit me. Weights I used to warm up with now became my max weights! Especially on the flat bench press....it was like my chest was saying to me, "Hey! WTF! I thought you were just gonna let us hang! What's with the exertion all of a sudden!?" Suffice it to say, I will be slowly getting back to where I was before.

But I have to admit that it feels really great to get a good sweat going again. Sometimes you just have to sweat the bad crap out of your body, whether it be toxins, fat cells, or mental stress. You always end up feeling better after a hard workout.

Now...if I can just find a decent taekwondo gym to join....I've visited two in the past 2 days and neither appealed to me. There's gotta be a good one somewhere!

Korean Celebrity in Hawaii

By the way...there's been a Hwang Jung Min sighting here in Hawaii. Who's Hwang Jung Min? Only one of Korea's finest leading actors in movies today! Black House, You Are My Sunshine, and A Bittersweet Life are some of his most recent hits. I first found out about 2 weeks ago that he'd be coming here with his family. Then...my mom told me that she saw him in Waikiki this past weekend with who she assumes is his wife. I guess that confirms it! So if ya see this rugged but sweet looking Korean guy walking around...that's me! Just kidding! Nah, it's probably big movie star Hwang Jung Min!

Dinner at Seoul Jung

Had dinner at Seoul Jung in the Waikiki Resort Hotel last week. Actually, I didn't go there for the food, but for an ulterior motive at the hotel which proved to be fruitless because the opportunity I was looking for never presented itself. But since I was there anyway, had to eat, right?

First of all...sorry, but no pics. I actually had my dica on me but was so hungry that I forgot to take pix and just started grinding when the food came! I know! What the hell kinda blogger am I?

I was with 2 friends and we ordered 2 orders of kalbi and 2 orders of deung shim. But I messed up when cooking the meats. I ordered the kalbi seasoned and the deung shim unseasoned and you're supposed to cook the unseasoned meat first. But the waitress brought out the seasoned kalbi first and we were so hungry that we just started cooking the meat before the deung shim ever reached the table. Oops! Oh well!

Both meats were pretty good and very filling! I think we were all hungry and we put it all away! We also ordered a kimchee jjigae. Now here is my problem with Seoul Jung. Well, for one thing...their prices are high. But being in a hotel is their excuse for that. The main problem I have, however, is that they don't give the jjigae free with the meat orders! I hate that! I thought Sorabol was the only restaurant here that did that but I guess not! And on top of that...the kimchee jjigae was a little bland and not that great.

So I probably won't be going back unless I feel the need to explore that avenue again...

New Miss Korea Winner

Lee Ji Sun, a 24 year old aspiring fashion designer was just crowned the new Miss Korea and will represent Korea in the next Miss Universe pageant. Not bad...but can't hold a candle to Honey Lee!

Like the outfit here!
1st Runner up Cho Eun Joo will represent Korea in the Miss World pageant.

2nd Runner up Park Ga Won will represent Korea in the Miss International pageant.

3rd Runner up Lee Jin will represent Korea in the Miss Earth pageant.

4th Runner up Yu Ji Eun will represent Korea in the Miss Asia Pacific International pageant. Out of these pics, she looks the prettiest to me.
And....one more picture of Honey Lee!

Korea Gets 3rd Place in Asian Cup

Talk about pressure!!!

The Korean national team beat Japan yesterday in the 3rd place match of the 2007 Asian Cup. The match against Japan was their 3rd straight game in which the game ended in a 0-0 tie and had to be settled by PK shootout. In the Japan game, all 5 of the initial shooters scored their PKs. Then Korea's Kim Ji Woo scored Korea's 6th PK goal and then it was veteran goalkeeper Lee Woon Jae who blocked Japan's final PK attempt and secured the victory. Korea also survived playing 1 man down after the 56th minute when Kang Min Soo got ejected, along with the head coach and 2 of his assistants. This victory means that Korea gets an automatice berth in the 2011 Asian Cup as the top 3 teams in this year's tournament automatically qualify.

But man...why can't this team score? In 6 matches in the Asian Cup, they only scored a total of 3 goals! What's going on? Coach Verbeek will have a lot of questions to answer as to why they can't put the ball in the net. He even changed his strategy in the Japan match by putting in more strikers to try and instill more offense but it didn't work. Thank goodness for Lee Woon Jae who only gave up 3 goals in their 6 games. We'll have to wait and see. Korean hero Coach Hiddink also had a similar start and they ended up in the Top 4 in the World Cup. Of course, it would've helped if they had veterans Park Ji Sung, Seol Ki Hyun, and Lee Young Pyo on the team. They all play for the Premier League but couldn't play due to injuries.

In any case...congratulations to the Korean national team on a good showing!

2007 Asian Cup Match History:

Korea - Saudi Arabia: 1-1
Korea - Indonesia: 1-0
Korea - Bahrain: 1-2
Korea - Iran: 0-0 (4-2 PK) (Quarterfinal)
Korea - Iraq: 0-0 (3-4 PK) (Semifinal)
Korea - Japan: 0-0 (6-5 PK) (3rd place game)

Finally! Michelle Wie Under Par!

Michelle Wie finally shot a round under par today in the 2nd round of the Evian Masters tournament in France. This was her first round under par in I think 24 rounds, during which her average score was something like 76, and doesn't even count the times she withdrew.

Yeah, it was only 1-under par, but still, hopefully a breakthrough in the confidence in her golf game? Let's hope so. She's doing okay in the tournament, at 7 shots behind the leader. Maybe 2 strong final rounds will get her in the Top 10.

I still have issues with her attitude and demeanor, but I still root for her. You just gotta!

Ping Pong! Watch It!

I've always been a big big fan of Asian cinema but for one reason or another, I haven't been watching too many Asian films of late. I got a huge backlog of Korean films to watch, not to mention a bunch of Celestial remastered Shaw Brothers classics I need to get my hands on. But tonight, I was finally in the mood to catch up on some of my unwatched DVDs so I popped in Ping Pong, a Japanese film from 2002.

I have to admit....I'm not the biggest Japanese film fan. I've found a lot of them to be disappointing after reading lots of the hype. Versus was fun for a while, then just stupid. I didn't find Audition entertaining at all and the famous torture scene left me thinking..."that's it?!" Brother? Boring. Juon - Okay...but a little slow. The only one I've really enjoyed so far was Battle Royale, which I found to be fresh and fun.Well...add another movie to the "I like this Japanese movie" list, cuz I really liked Ping Pong! It's a movie based on a manga (comic book) and I just really dug the whole movie. Smile and Peco are 2 best friends in high school who play ping pong. Smile plays reluctantly, only to kill time, while Peco has ambitions of being the best player in the world. Of course, there are rival players from rival schools, including Sam Lee as a transfer from China who's quite intimidating.
Ping Pong is a traditional sports movie, with the cliched ups and downs but the story is well written. Even the "villains" are written as 3-dimensional people with complete stories, rather than cardboard cutout badguys. And of course...you gotta love a movie with training sequences! Rocky, Rudy, Karate Kid, all have awesome training sequences and so does Ping Pong. And Yosuke Kubozuka is so charming as Peco. I wanna be that guy!

Overall, it's a very entertaining film and I recommend it to everyone. Check it out if ya can!

Kims of Comedy Concert

So....went to check out the Kims of Comedy concert Saturday night at the Hawaii Theatre. Got there a little early, and just so happens as my friend and I are walking toward the theatre, a limo pulls up and out pops Bobby Lee, the guy from MadTV. So I talked story with him for about a minute or 2, as he smoked his cig and pounded his Red Bull drink. He said it was his first time in Oahu (he's been to Maui before) and that he was having a great time. Also said that they're gonna be releasing a 2nd Kims of Comedy DVD soon too.

2 Funny Lookin' Koreans!
As for the crowd, it was pretty mixed. Asian, for the most part, but a solid mix of locals, Japanese, Philipino, Korean, etc. But there were probably more Koreans than any other race present.

Walk into the theatre and it was at about 85% - 90% capacity, which I thought was pretty good!

As for the concert itself...the opening act was this white woman named...I forget...but she wasn't that funny. I couldn't wait for her to leave.

The first "Kim" to perform was Kevin Shea, and after watching their DVD, he was my 2nd favorite "Kim" after Bobby Lee and he didn't disappoint. I just dig his comedic style. Raunchy, dirty sex jokes, the F-word...my kind of humor! He even started talking to this 15 year old girl in the front row who came with her parents and made a comment about what great parents they were. I wonder if they knew coming in how adult oriented the concert would be? In any case, I think all of the comedians talked to the girl after that and she essentially became a part of the show. Poor girl! LOL

2nd up was Steve Byrne. And yeah....I still don't think he's that funny. He does a lot of physical humor and I wasn't quite feeling it.

3rd up was Dr. Ken, who is a real life doctor in his day job. He wasn't bad...but he recycled a lot of his material from the DVD so I had heard a lot of the jokes before. But there was this one heckler who started going at it when Dr. Ken came on stage and Dr. Ken did a good job of dealing with him and turning him into a joke. Funny on the fly stuff.

Last up was the headliner Bobby Lee. This guy is just so off the wall that you have to laugh. Some of his jokes were recycled from the DVD as well, but he still provided enough fresh material to please. He was even funny when he had to adlib a little when his mike broke and had to be replaced halfway during his act. Then he did an "interactive" thing where he brought some people on stage as props as he stripped down to a G-string and acted like a stripper giving a lap dance. He brought the heckler from Dr. Ken's act on stage and this guy was a total ass. One of those guys that thinks he's funny but is actually obnoxious. He was wearing his shades on stage, put a cig in his mouth, trying to be "cool", made some stupid jokes about North/South Korea which Bobby Lee rightfully ignored and the heckler came off looking like a real tool.

Overall, the concert lasted about 2 hours and I had a great time. The audience was totally into it and cracking up left and right with even some standing ovations. I'll definitely buy their 2nd DVD whenever its released!

Gonna Go Watch Kims of Comedy Tonight!

I'm gonna catch the 8pm Kims of Comedy concert at the Hawaii Theatre tonight. Gotta support my boys! I just hope they do new material from their DVD, which I bought and watched last year.

Uncle's Fish Market and Grill - Delicious!

When I ate at one of my favorite lunch places Nico's at Pier 38 a few weeks ago, I noticed that there was some construction activity happening right across the street. So I walked over and noticed that it looked like a new restaurant was opening up, promising fresh fish! So I told myself that I had to go check it out and soon!

So a few co-workers and I went to lunch there this past Wednesday. I showed up a little early so I took a few photos of a few of the fishing boats in the area.
The interior was very nice, with fishing paraphenelia all over the walls as well as flat panel TVs showing fishing DVDs.
You could watch them prepare your food in the open kitchen
A display case selling fresh fish, seafood, and salad for take home
They use the buzzer system just like Nico's to let you know when your food is ready
The menu is pretty diverse, but mostly fish based. The fish selections change day to day. They have plate lunches featuring fishes prepared by your choice of method (charbroiled, sauteed, blackened cajun style, and Uncle's style). They also have sandwiches, soups, salads, and even a few pasta dishes. Not to mention, they have the ever popular batter fried seafood and chips combos like shrimp and chips, fish and chips, oysters and chips, and calamari and chips.

We split an order of calamari and fries as an appetizer ($11.95)
Look how huge it is! And so ono!
I had the teriyaki hamachi steak ($12.95)
I gotta say, this dish was so good. The hamachi was so tender and the teriyaki sauce was just right. Not too sweet...not too rancid...but jus' right, ah!

One co-worker ordered the ahi, blackened Cajun style ($12.95). I had a piece of this and it was very good as well.
My other co-worker ordered the crab and avocado salad ($12.95). I'm not a big salad guy (obviously) so it tasted just okay for me.
Overall, I was very pleased with my lunch here and walked away super full. Uncle's Fish Market promises only fresh, no frozen seafood and you can tell when you eat it. The fish is super fresh. It may cost a little more than Nico's but I think I may be going here more often now. Of course, if I'm ever craving a really good burger or furikake ahi, Nico's is still the place. But if you're ever in the mood for really fresh fish, go check out Uncle's!

Son Dam Bi

So I have a new favorite female Korean singer....her name is Son Dam Bi. She debuted just a few weeks ago and already I'm hooked. She's 24 years old and her first single is titled "Cry Eye", which is an R&B dance type song. I'm lovin' it!

She's already a big hit all over the Korean internet and has been dubbed the "female Bi". She's not the strongest vocally, but just the combination of her looks, her dancing, and her style is really appealing. I'm digging her tank top and sweat pants motif for her appearances. Sporty and sexy! And you're gonna think I'm weird but...I really like her shoulders. Okay...enough of my madness!!!

Anyways...here's some pics for ya!





And here's a clip from her performance on the show Inki Gayo:

Big 4 Concert

There's a terrific concert featuring 4 of Korea's top performing artists that will take place in New York and Las Vegas. The 4 featured acts are Lee Hyori, SG Wannabe, Epik High, and SeeYa. Ticket prices are VERY reasonable considering the talent, ranging from $60 - $120. There are not too many Korean singers that I'd pay to see but I'm a fan of all 4 acts and would love to see this concert!

In fact, I would love to bring a concert like this to Hawaii! Maybe next year...after I learn more about these kinds of things and get more experience. Can you imagine these 4 acts coming to Hawaii? That'd be awesome!

Gaining It All Back...And Then Some!

In the week prior to the Korean Festival, I lost about 5 pounds. Don't really know how but I guess it was all the running around and not eating too much. Another theory is that it was probably 5 pounds of muscle I lost cuz I haven't been to the gym for like a month now. But it felt good! My pants were loose and I felt lighter.

Well...seeya weight loss! Although I haven't weighed myself in the last couple of days, I know I've already gained it back. Including today's lunch, I've eaten at 5 buffets in the last week. That's ridicurous! I ate 3 buffets with the singers from Korea and their staff (although 1 was a lunch and 1 was a breakfast) while they were in town, and then a buffet Monday night at Seoul Jung at a post-Festival event and then lunch at Makino Chaya today for a co-worker's birthday. Damn....that's some eatin'! Talk about temporary weight loss!

Okay...definitely gotta hit the gym again next week....

I Am Getting Old!

I can't believe it....but I am still tired from the Festival! I think I am anyway. It's been 4 days since the event and I'm still pooped! Monday night and Tuesday night, as I was cruzing watching TV after dinner...my eyes started drooping already at around 9pm. That still didn't stop me from going to bed at around midnight (my usual bedtime) but still...I just feel fatigued all day! Yesterday my co-worker in the space next to mine told me - "you better learn to sleep without snoring!" LOL

It's not that my body is sore or anything like that...just tired. Of course, it didn't help that I stayed out till practically 6am the night of the festival after working there from 7am. Damn....I was out for almost 24 hours! No wonder I was all shtank when I got home! I guess I deserve to suffer now.

By the way...2 people (random strangers) came up to me at the Festival and said stuff like "Hey! I like your blog!" and "You're the guy with the blog!" People I had never seen before. Scary! But not in a bad way...but just kind of weird I guess. I don't mean to offend you if you were one of those people who approached me, but I was just a little taken aback. First of all, that anyone even reads this nonsense that I spew out, but secondly, that anyone would recognize me. I guess I should expect that since I post a lot of pics of myself here (as well as video). So the next time one of you approach me in public, I promise not to be so shocked and I won't call the police to come over with their billy clubs again. Kidding! Nah, I'll be more gracious and nice next time, I promise! ^__^

6th Annual Korean Festival

Highlights from the Korean Festival yesterday - Sorry, not too many pics as I was busy running the delivery carts and then making sure everything went right with the sound guys and the singers for the featured concert. But I made sure to make at least a few rounds around the place to check things out.

View of the early food crowd. See the umbrellas? Yeah, weather was not too great for the 2nd year in a row, with off and on drizzle all day.
This year we put in a Dining Village where people could sit at tables and relax and enjoy their food. Glad to see one of my suggestions from last year being implemented!
And it was usually full!
Kids dressed in hanbok. Ho da cute!
Miss Korea contestants
Then I took a walk around in the Products Tent.

Korean knicknacks
Yummy snacks!
All of our T-shirts for sale sold out before 1PM, except for 1. Take a look at the pic and take a guess which one! LOL
Kids doing calligraphy
Then I took a walk down to the Cultural Tent, which to be honest, I've never really explored before.

Some kind of stuff on the ground. Farmer stuff?
Hanbok
Wedding hanbok
Baby hanbok
Korean masks...
Hallyu stuff...
Ancient armor...
Xtreme Fun Rides. Looked fun!
Description of the "kimchee burrito". Wanted to try one but didn't have time. And what the hell? KHON's coverage of the festival started with a description of the kimchee hotdog and they don't even show a pic of it? Yeah...it's still confirmed. KHON sucks.
The concert featuring Lee Ki Chan and Wax started at around 6:45pm. And I thought the reaction to the concert was great. The crowd was really into it!

The crowd during the concert. Sure, they look nice and sedated now. You shoulda seen them about 30 minutes later!
Lee Ki Chan performed first, then he did a duet with Wax, and then she did her 5 song set. Then as a surprise which even I wasn't aware of, they did a duet of Wax's hit song "Opba" together! Cool! I would like to say that they were amazing, but truth be told, I spent most of the concert either downstairs in the dressing room or backstage trying to assist in prepping the police escort for their departure. And I sure am glad we got them involved!

After LKC's set, he went down to the dressing room downstairs. All of a sudden there were about 30 young girls and guys, waiting by the stairway for LKC to come back out for autographs or photo ops. It was nuts. Funny story...I went down to talk to LKC and when I came back up the stairs, the crowd could see my shadow against the stairway wall so they thought it was LKC. They started screaming like crazy! Then when they saw that it was me, that was the loudest "AWWWW!!!!" I've ever heard in my life. Gee, thanks! ^^ There was even this one older man who claimed to be LKC's seonbae or "senior" and asked me to tell him that he was here. But when I asked LKC about it, he said he barely knew the guy and didn't feel comfortable seeing him, especially since he had to prep for his finale. So I had to BS the guy and try to let him down easy. Talk about people coming out of the woodwork!

But thank goodness for the police. When it finally came time for LKC to reappear, the policemen had to literally shove away all of these rabid teens to make room for him to walk. It was pretty surreal. After it was all said and done, I was talking story with the cops, thanking them for their help and they were all like, "Who was that?" and "They're that famous?" They were trippin'!

After the concert was over, I finally was able to relax a little and eat something. I don't even remember from what food vendor I got this from but it sure was tasty!
Sorry I didn't take any pictures of food, but as I said, I didn't even have the time or the desire to eat until after the concert was over. But this blog has some good photos. What's really funny about that blog is that the caption for the 3rd photo says that the guy in the photo is "K-pop sensation Lee Ki Chan." Yeah...I don't think so. That's one of the participants in the song contest! LOL The blog writer probably thought it was LKC because the program said the concert was at 5pm (but it got pushed back) and this guy just happened to be on stage a little after 5. I thought that was so hilarious!

Overall, I'd say the Festival was a great success. All the feedback I heard was extremely positive. I really like the variety we had in the food this year and also all of the cultural exhibitions were really cool. And of course, I really liked the fact that we were able to pull off a "mini-concert" of that scale during our little event. I hope people realize that they had the opportunity to see 2 of Korea's top singers performing a total of 12 songs....for free! Can't beat that for value!

Of course, there are still areas where we can improve and we will work on them for future Festivals. We are still young and learning. Please feel free to share all of your comments with me, both good and bad so that we can improve on next year.

Hope you all had a great time for those who went!