MEPPI Japan Lecture Series – Obento: Japanese Culture in a Box, March 26.

The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania and Mitsubishi Electric Power Products, Inc. will present "Obento: Japanese Culture in a Box" on March 26 as the next installment of the MEPPI Japan Lecture Series. An introduction, by the JASP:

Do you enjoy Japanese cuisine?

Learn to make a Japanese lunch box with Boston Globe food writer and cookbook author Debra Samuels. Participants will have an opportunity to learn the cultural background of obento, a Japanese term for box lunch, through a presentation by Ms. Samuels and a hands-on workshop. Ms. Samuels will illustrate common differences in value, presentation, and nutritional balance between typical American and Japanese lunches. Under Ms. Samuels' guidance, everyone will have the opportunity to make their own bento.

The talk will be held at the Marshall Twp Municipal Building in Wexford (map) from 5:30 to 7:00 pm. Registration is required and can be done via the JASP website.

Korean movie The Attorney (변호인) at Northland Public Library, April 8.

Northland Public Library in the North Hills will show the Korean movie The Attorney (변호인) on April 8 as next month's installment of the Foreign Film Series. The Washington Post summarizes the 2013 movie starring Song Kang-ho (JSA, The Host, Secret Sunshine):

The recent South Korean box-office hit observes the progress, beginning in 1978, of a lawyer with few credentials but much ambition. Song Woo-seok (Song Kang-ho) is snubbed by other lawyers because he passed the bar exam without attending law school, or even college. These cohorts are further scandalized when Song begins registering real-estate transactions, a task previously restricted to notaries.

His most inexcusable offense? Song makes a lot of money while doing work other attorneys thought was beneath them.

. . .

Fictionalized from actual events, “The Attorney” shows the transformation of a character based on the late Roh Moo-hyun, who became a human-rights advocate and later South Korea’s president.

The movie will play at Northland from 1:30 pm, and the library is located off of McKnight Road and Rt. 19 in McCandless Township (map). The Attorney will also play at the University of Pittsburgh as part of this year's Korean Film Series.

Free Japanese language class at East Liberty Carnegie Library, March and April.

The East Liberty branch of the Carnegie Library periodically holds free Japanese classes, and the latest session will run on Wednesdays in March and April.

Learn Japanese in a comfortable and relaxed setting among native speakers. All are welcome.

The classes run from 6:30 to 7:30 pm, and the library is located at 130 S. Whitfield St. (map). A reminder that the Oakland branch holds Japanese for Beginners, Japanese II, and a Japanese Conversation Club on biweekly schedules each month. Each class is suited for a different level, so check the course descriptions for more information.

Miss Granny (수상한 그녀), The Attorney (변호인) at Pitt in March for 12th annual Korean Film Festival.

Today the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Pittsburgh announced the lineup for the 12th annual Korean Film Festival. The 2014 film Miss Granny (수상한 그녀) will play on March 18, and the 2013 movie The Attorney (변호인) will plan on March 25.

Han Cinema summarizes the former:

Oh Mal-Soon (Nah Moon-hee) is a 74-year-old widow that realizes she is becoming a burden on her family. As she is roaming the streets, she comes across a photo studio and decides to dress up for a self- portrait. When she walks out of the photo studio, she mysteriously turns back into her twenty year old self. Making the most out of this one in a lifetime opportunity, she changes her name to Oh Doo-Ri (Sim Eun-kyeong) and decides to make the most out of her youth.

And the Washington Post summarizes the latter:

The recent South Korean box-office hit observes the progress, beginning in 1978, of a lawyer with few credentials but much ambition. Song Woo-seok (Song Kang-ho) is snubbed by other lawyers because he passed the bar exam without attending law school, or even college. These cohorts are further scandalized when Song begins registering real-estate transactions, a task previously restricted to notaries.

His most inexcusable offense? Song makes a lot of money while doing work other attorneys thought was beneath them.

. . .

Fictionalized from actual events, “The Attorney” shows the transformation of a character based on the late Roh Moo-hyun, who became a human-rights advocate and later South Korea’s president.

Miss Granny will play from 6:00 to 8:00 pm on the 18th, and The Attorney from 4:00 to 7:00 pm on the 25th. Both will play in 4130 Posvar Hall (campus map), and both are free and open to the public.

Pittsburgh City-Paper: "[T]he opening of Nak Won Garden marks the full-fledged arrival of Korean cuisine in Pittsburgh."

The March 11 issue of the Pittsburgh City-Paper contains a review of Nak Won Garden, which opened in Shadyside in November. Food critics Angelique Bamberg and Jason Roth write of it:

But there is a difference, we think, in the way that smaller, tighter communities like ours adopt foreign cuisines. Instead of becoming fluent in them through full immersion, we tend to hold dear one or two iconic, gateway dishes, like Mexican tacos, Japanese sushi and Vietnamese pho. Once these have become established, often after several years, we are primed to explore and embrace a broader, more authentic menu.

If this theory holds, then the opening of Nak Won Garden marks the full-fledged arrival of Korean cuisine in Pittsburgh after a decade or more of enthusiasm for Korean barbecue. Open since November on busy Centre Avenue, at the seam of Shadyside and Bloomfield, Nak Won Garden is Pittsburgh's most ambitious Korean restaurant to date.

5th annual Matsuri at CMU, March 27.

The Japanese Student Association at Carnegie Mellon University will present its 5th annual Matsuri on Friday, March 27. The spring matsuri (meaning festival in Japanese) benefits Minato Middle School in Ishinomaki city, which was destroyed by the March 11, 2011 tsunami. More information, from the CMU JSA:

Join us in celebrating aspects of Japanese food, culture and society. We will be hosting the event at Merson Courtyard outside of the Cohon University Center on Friday March 27th, from 3:30 to 8:30 PM. While you enjoy these acts, traditional Japanese decorations and festival games, feel free to eat a variety of foods from our Food Booths such as Takoyaki, Yakisoba, Okonomiyaki, Onigiri and a variety of other Japanese foods! Small carnival games will be available, and J@CMU's origami and cooking groups will also be in attendance to further promote Japanese culture at CMU.

All profits go to recovery efforts for the Minato Middle School in Japan which is still suffering from the earthquake and tsunami three years ago. Your contribution is valuable and we hope to send a sizable amount of supplies this year, as we did last year. For more information regarding donations please go to this site: http://matsuri.cmu-jsa.com/cause.html.

Admission is free and the event is open to the public.

Peking Acrobats at Byham Theater, April 2.

Tickets went on sale in November for the Peking Acrobats at the Byham Theater on April 2, 2015. Prices run from $15 to $35.

이재은 scores Jung-ho Kang autograph, Clint Hurdle scores Jung-ho Kang shirt.

MBC TV personality Jae-eun Lee (이재은) scores a Jung-ho Kang autograph at Pirates Spring Training. For the first time, Korean media are covering the Pirates and Kang remains one of the top sports stories in South Korea this winter.



She caught up with manager Clint Hurdle in his new Kang t-shirt:



Meanwhile, a local writer objects to the attention Kang is getting.

Seoul's PPG Place: Immanuel Methodist Church (임마누엘교회)

Across from Olympic Park in Seoul's Bangi-dong is Immanuel Methodist Church (임마누엘교회), shaped like a large glass castle.




Churches in Korea tend to be large and ostentatious---more often than not they're capped by neon crosses---but this one first caught my eye back in 2006 because it looks almost exactly like PPG Place, perhaps the most distinctive building in Pittsburgh.




PPG Place opened in 1983 and 1984, Wikipedia says, and the new church building ten years later. The church's website doesn't acknowledge the resemblence or the inspiration. Here are a few pictures from my visit in 2010.





PPG Place consists of six builidngs, the largest being 40 stories. The church has two buildings, a 16-story education center and a four-story church, and doesn't enclose a courtyard like its Pittsburgh counterpart. Behind the church is an alley full of motels and singing rooms, and across the street is the park that held the 1988 Summer Olympic Games.

Originally published elsewhere in 2010.

Jung-ho Kang making friends.

Alen Hanson and Jung-ho Kang. "Hanson, my friend."

New Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Jung-ho Kang is one of the biggest stories in Korean sports so far this spring. Daum, the second-largest internet portal in South Korea, has a short video on Kang, cobbled together from various Korean-language interviews. He also introduces viewers to teammates Andrew Lambo, Alen Hanson, and Jose Tabata; he introduces Tabata as the teammate who wants to visit Korea.