November 2025

Season's Greetings!

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Whether you’re celebrating Thanksgiving, the cool air, the leaves changing, or anything else, there’s plenty to be thankful for this season! This month’s edition of the maga(ZINE) highlights all the things we’re grateful for both in Japan and back home. So, we sat down with CIRs Stephen, Bobo, and Jimin to discuss what makes this time of year special for them. We also delve into the unique blessings and challenges of being an international CIR. The ZINEs are written in English, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean – so come check it out!

Meet the ALTs

Stephen Moore (he/him)

Ireland —> Matsuyama

โ€œNo man ever steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.โ€

HeYuBobo (any/all)ย 

China —> Matsuyama

“But you want to remember that below the sea of clouds lies eternity” – Antoine de Saint-Exupรจry, Wind Sand And Stars

Jimin Seo (she/her)

Korea —> Matsuyama

“You only get three chances (on JET) to see the cherry blossoms, three autumn foliage seasons, three summers by the sea.
So work reasonablyโ€ฆ and spend the rest of your energy exploring and having fun!”

Emerald Isles and Rising Suns - Stephen

If you're away from home during holidays like Thanksgiving, how do you stay connected to your family traditions?

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Growing up my family placed a lot of emphasis on what I would regard as the big three national holidays in Ireland, those being Christmas, St. Patrickโ€™s Day and Easter. During Easter and Christmas, I would always come back home from Dublin and London (where I was for my Bachelorโ€™s and Masterโ€™s respectively) to celebrate with my family, eat good food and usually exchange some kinds of gifts. St.Patrickโ€™s Day is special for me because my parents would always take me to see the local townโ€™s terrible parade, which I loved. I still keep the love of these holidays with me to this day.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  In my last year abroad to Japan I spent Christmas with friends at an AirBnB on Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture. We were all various nationalities so we made German glรผhwein, ate French food, drank Korean alcohol and at the end of it all, went for a Christmas Day swim in the freezing cold water (as is Irish tradition). Nowadays,ย  Easter and St. Patrickโ€™s day usually results in me calling my parents just to say hello and ask what theyโ€™re doing to celebrate, and treating myself to some good food, an overflow of national pride and time with friends. I hear they have a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Tokyo which I would love to attend one day.

๐Ÿฅ”What are some of your favorite traditional foods from your home country that you think everyone should try at least once?๐Ÿฅ”

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  The obvious answer is Guinness. And I mean a real Guinness with a thick, creamy head which you drink on a winter evening in Dublin within the confines of a dimly-lit pub whose doors have seen every salaryman, farmer and exchange student in a 100 mile radius stumble out at the end of the night. And if that’s not possible, one from the local bar in Matsuyama is probably fine too I guess ยฏ\_(ใƒ„)_/. The real traditional foods are soda bread, Irish stew and crisps like Taytoโ€™s, most of these you can eat at pubs around the country and arenโ€™t tough to find.ย  ย  ย  ย ย 

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  The beauty of Irish food comes from the quality of our ingredients. Ireland has been a mainly agricultural nation for a long time, so in my opinion thereโ€™s some things we just canโ€™t be beat at (milk, meat, potatoes to be precise!). I would also recommend a spice bag. It’s less a โ€œtraditionalโ€ dish (it has only existed since 2000) and more one with a cult following in Ireland. I guess you could call it Irish, Chinese, Indian fusion? It’s essentially chips (fries for the Americans), chicken, peppers and onions mixed with a metric shit ton of spices in a paper bag, often with curry sauce on the side. Itโ€™s a hangover staple food, but if youโ€™re pulling an all-nighter in the university library it’s not unusual to take a break to get one too.

๐Ÿ‹๏ธWhat has your experience been like working as a CIR in the JET Program?๐Ÿ‹๏ธ

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Working as a CIR has been a really fun, challenging experience. I have only been in this position for around two months, but Iโ€™ve learned a lot about how I can improve myself both inside and outside of work. I get some really fun opportunities like representing Ehime at the Osaka Expo and introducing local Matsuyama people to life in Ireland through different presentations. It’s also a good chance to improve/use my translation and interpreting skills that I studied in university. I think if you like translation/interpreting and also working a lot with people in the community, then this is the perfect job. Iโ€™m looking forward to what the rest of my time as a CIR holds, and hopefully I can collaborate with lots of other JETโ€™s along the way!

๐ŸšฃWhat advice would you give to someone just starting out as a CIR or moving abroad for the first time?๐Ÿšฃ

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  For moving abroad I think two things are important: First, OUTSIDE your home, say yes to literally everything you can, even if you have little experience, think it might be difficult, or are just not in the mood for it, I think you should always give new opportunities a shot when they come your way.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Secondly, make INSIDE your home as comfortable and homely as possible. This space is nobody elseโ€™s but yours and at the end of your time abroad it’s probably where youโ€™re going to have accumulated the most hours, so make sure you enjoy being there. Feel free to fill it with home comforts, if sleeping on a futon on the floor feels the same as sleeping on a coffin ship, then simply donโ€™t do it! When it comes to starting out as a CIR, Iโ€™ve only been in this position for around two months so I suppose time will tell, but I guess the most important thing Iโ€™ve learned is never underestimate how little you actually know.

๐Ÿง˜How do you balance staying connected to your cultural identity while integrating into Japanese society?๐Ÿง˜

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Although Japanese and Irish culture are definitely different, I donโ€™t necessarily feel that they conflict. In this way, I donโ€™t feel I ever rub up against a Japanese custom that I canโ€™t just adapt to. However, that doesnโ€™t stop me from missing aspects of Ireland sometimes. One thing that reminds me of home are Irish pubs, a staple industry which seems to exist in every country around the world. Even if itโ€™s not the real thing, no matter which you enter you will almost always find an Irish person sitting at the counter.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Also, as of writing this, this month is Irelandโ€™s presidential election and keeping up with the countryโ€™s politics has been hugely important to keeping up with what my friends and family are talking about. Although I canโ€™t vote from here, I still feel I can contribute to the conversation.

๐Ÿฝ๏ธHow do you usually celebrate family dinners or gatherings back in your home country?๐Ÿฝ๏ธ

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Growing up in my household, every dinner was a family dinner. It was a time for us to just sit together, eat and talk without phones or the TV on in the background, and every Sunday was roast dinner night where my mum would make roast chicken, potatoes and vegetables for us. It might sound really simple, but when I look back, those Sundayโ€™s act as markers for the different phases of not only my life, but my families.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  From dreading the Monday morning classes the next day at 13 years old, to my final meal before heading off to Kyoto to start my Year Abroad at 21, all major events had that wooden dining table at their center. I was also lucky in that the majority of my Irish extended family all lived within a 15 minute drive of my house, so we made a point to have a family reunion every year to get family photos, eat and just catch up. We also do the same on my Nanaโ€™s birthday every year (95 years going strong lets hit that big 100 girlie).

Bobo Ehime

Your Chinese CIR in her 3rd year

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  As a CIR, I understand that it can be a bit of a mystery for ALTs to figure out what we actually do, and thatโ€™s why Dillon asked us to spell it out here. We donโ€™t get the fun part of being surrounded by kids, being the strict or lovable teacher, or enjoying tasty kyuushoku on workdays. And to be honest, I donโ€™t really speak English, so hanging out with you guys is always a painful job.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Ehime CIRs work at the Prefectural Office three days a week and at EPIC (Ehime Prefectural International Center) two days a week. Iโ€™m especially assigned to work at EPIC on Saturdays, just because there are more residents need me there, which also means my weekend is Sunday and Monday. CIRs take turns hosting an Oshaberi Culture Salon at EPIC every month for Japanese residents, which is a great chance to give a little culture shock back. Anyway, EPIC is like an oasis for us foreigners, so feel free to drop by and chat with me on a Saturday, Iโ€™ll at least serve you a cup of tea.ย 

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Apart from that, each CIRโ€™s work can be quite different. Depending on the relationships that English-speaking countries, Korea, and China have with Ehime, there are different kinds of movements, secrets, and occasionally a bit of trouble. I wonโ€™t go into detail, but if you know some history and follow the news, you can probably understand my situation. Itโ€™s both exciting and a little scary sometimes.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  So obviously, being a Chinese CIR here has been a lot of fun. Iโ€™ve definitely grown a lot over these two and a half years. Apart from work, even with a Masterโ€™s degree in Japanese Literature, I still get confused and struggle with daily life sometimes. From now on, Iโ€™ll try to express myself more in my other two (and probably better) languages. You can use DeepL, ChatGPT, or worse, automatic website translation anyway.

็งใฎไบŒ้ข็”Ÿๆดป

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ็งใฏๆ„›ๅช›ใซไฝใ‚“ใงใ€ใ‚‚ใ†3ๅนด็›ฎใซใชใ‚Šใพใ™ใ€‚ไป•ไบ‹ใ‚„็ซ‹ๅ ดใฎ้–ขไฟ‚ใ‚‚ใ‚ใ‚Šใ€่ซธๅ›ใจ ๆฏ”ในใ‚‹ใจใ€ใ‚ˆใ‚Š็ฅž็ง˜็š„ใช็”Ÿๆดปใ‚’้€ใฃใฆใ„ใ‚‹ใ‹ใ‚‚ใ—ใ‚Œใพใ›ใ‚“ใ€‚ใ›ใฃใ‹ใใ“ใฎ Mikan Zineใซ็™ปๅ ดใงใใ‚‹ๆฉŸไผšใ‚’ใ„ใŸใ ใ„ใŸใฎใงใ€ใ“ใ‚Œใพใง่ชฐใซใ‚‚่ฉฑใ—ใŸใ“ใจใฎใชใ„ใ€็ง ใฎใ€Œไธก้ข็”Ÿๆดปใ€ใ‚’ๆ€ใ„ๅˆ‡ใฃใฆใŠ่ฉฑใ—ใ—ใŸใ„ใจๆ€ใ„ใพใ™.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ใพใšใ€CIR๏ผˆๅ›ฝ้š›ไบคๆตๅ“ก๏ผ‰ใฎไป•ไบ‹ใซใฏใ€ๅ…ฌ็š„ใชๅด้ขใจ็ง็š„ใชๅด้ขใŒใ‚ใ‚Šใพใ™ใ€‚ๅ…ฌ็š„ใชไป•ไบ‹ใงใฏใ€ไธญๅ›ฝๆ”ฟๅบœใซๅ‘ใๅˆใ„ใชใŒใ‚‰ๆ„›ๅช›ใฎ้ญ…ๅŠ›ใ‚’็™บไฟกใ—ใŸใ‚Šใ€่บซๆŒฏใ‚Šๆ‰‹ ๆŒฏใ‚Šใงไธ–็•Œๅนณๅ’ŒใฎใŸใ‚ใซๅฅ”่ตฐใ—ใŸใ‚Šใ™ใ‚‹ใ“ใจใ‚‚ใ‚ใ‚Šใพใ™ใ€‚ไธ€ๆ–นใ€็ง็š„ใชๅด้ขใจใ—ใฆใฏใ€ๆ„›ๅช›ใซๆšฎใ‚‰ใ™ๅค–ๅ›ฝไบบไฝๆฐ‘ใฎ็›ธ่ซ‡ใซ่€ณใ‚’ๅ‚พใ‘ใ€ๆ—ฅๆœฌ่ชžใ‚’ๅญฆใณใŸใ„ใ€ๆ—ฅๆœฌ็คพไผšใซใ‚‚ใฃใจๆบถใ‘่พผใฟใŸใ„ใจ้ก˜ใ†ไบบใ€…ใ‚’ๆ”ฏใˆใ‚‹ใ“ใจใŒใ‚ใ‚Šใพใ™ใ€‚ใฉใกใ‚‰ใ‚‚ๅคงๅˆ‡ใชไป•ไบ‹ใงใ™ใŒใ€ๆ™‚ใซใฏไธกๆ–นใŒๅŒๆ™‚ใซๆŠผใ—ๅฏ„ใ›ใฆใ€้ ญใŒๆททไนฑใ—ใฆใ—ใพใ†ใ“ใจใ‚‚ใ‚ใ‚Šใพใ™ใ€‚

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ไพ‹ใˆใฐใ€ใ‚ใ‚‹ๆ—ฅใฎ EPIC ๅ‹คๅ‹™ไธญใฎใ“ใจใงใ™ใ€‚ไธญๅ›ฝๆ”ฟๅบœใฎ่ทๅ“กใ‹ใ‚‰็ช็„ถ้›ป่ฉฑใŒๅ…ฅใ‚Šใ€ๆฅ้€ฑไบˆๅฎšใ•ใ‚Œใฆใ„ใ‚‹ใƒˆใƒƒใƒ—่จชๅ•ใฎๆ—ฅ็จ‹ใ‚’็ทŠๆ€ฅใง่ชฟๆ•ดใ—ใฆใ„ใ‚‹ๆœ€ไธญใซใ€็ช“ๅฃใซใฏไธญๅ›ฝ่ชž็›ธ่ซ‡ใฎไบˆ็ด„ใฎๆ–นใŒๆฅใ‚‰ใ‚Œใพใ—ใŸใ€‚ๆฉŸๅฏ†ๅ†…ๅฎนใฎ้›ป่ฉฑใ‚’็ต‚ใˆใ‚‹ใจใ€ใใฎใพใพ๏ผ‘ๆ™‚้–“ใฎๅคซๅฉฆๅ•้กŒใฎ็›ธ่ซ‡ๅฏพๅฟœใซ็งปใ‚‹ใ“ใจใซใชใ‚Šใ€ใพใ‚‹ใงๆ›ผ่ผ็พ…ใฎใ‚ˆใ†ใซๆฌกใ€…ใจๅ›žใ•ใ‚Œใฆใ„ใ‚‹ๆ„Ÿ่ฆšใงใ—ใŸใ€‚

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ใใ—ใฆไป•ไบ‹ไปฅๅค–ใฎ็งใฏใ€ๅ’Œๆด‹ๆŠ˜่กทใฎๆ—ฅๅธธใ‚’้€ใฃใฆใ„ใพใ™ใ€‚ใ€Œ็งใฏไธญๅ›ฝไบบใงใ™ใŒโ€ฆใ€ใจๆ™‚ใ€…ๅฎฃ่จ€ใ—ใŸใใชใ‚‹ใ“ใจใ‚‚ใ‚ใ‚Šใพใ™ใŒใ€ไปŠใฎ็”Ÿๆดปใงใฏๅพใ€…ใซไธญๅ›ฝไบบใจใ—ใฆใฎไธ€้ขใŒ่–„ใ‚Œใ€ๅ’Œใจๆด‹ใฎ่ฆ็ด ใŒใพใ™ใพใ™ๆททใ–ใ‚Šๅˆใ†ใ‚ˆใ†ใซใชใฃใฆใ„ใพใ™ใ€‚ๆ—ฅๆœฌใซๆฅใฆใ€ๆ€ใ„ใ‚„ใ‚Šใ‚„ๆฐ—้ฃใ„ใชใฉใ€ๆ—ฅๆœฌไบบใฃใฝใ„ๆ…Žใพใ—ใ•ใ‚„ๅ„ชใ—ใ•ใ‚’ๅญฆใ‚“ใงใใพใ—ใŸใŒใ€ใจใใซใฏใใฎ็ฉใฟ้‡ใญใŒใ‚นใƒˆใƒฌใ‚นใจใชใ‚Šใ€ๅค–ๅ›ฝไบบใฃใฝใ่‡ช็”ฑใซๆŒฏใ‚‹่ˆžใ„ใŸใ„ใจๆ€ใ†ใ“ใจใ‚‚ใ‚ใ‚Šใพใ™ใ€‚

ใ€€ย  ย  ย  ย  ใใ‚“ใชๆ™‚ใ€ALTใฎ็š†ใ•ใ‚“ใจ้ฃฒใ‚“ใ ใ‚Š้Šใ‚“ใ ใ‚Šใ™ใ‚‹ใฎใŒไธ€็•ชใฎๅนธใ›ใงใ™ใ€‚ใ—ใ‹ใ‚‚ใ€้Šใ‚“ใงใ„ใ‚‹ใ ใ‘ใง่‹ฑ่ชžๅŠ›ใ‚‚ใฉใ‚“ใฉใ‚“ไธŠ้”ใ—ใ€ใ€Œใ“ใ‚ŒไปฅไธŠใฎใ„ใ„ใ“ใจใฃใฆใ‚ใ‚‹๏ผŸใ€ใจๆ€ใ†ใใ‚‰ใ„ใงใ™ใ€‚ใจใ“ใ‚ใŒใ€่‹ฑ่ชžใŒไธŠๆ‰‹ใซใชใ‚Šใ™ใŽใฆใ€ใคใ„ใซ่ทๅ ดใซใ‚‚็Ÿฅใ‚‰ใ‚Œใฆใ—ใพใ„ใ€ๆœ€่ฟ‘ใชใ‚“ใจ่‹ฑ่ชžใฎ้€š่จณใพใง้ ผใพใ‚Œใ‚‹ใ‚ˆใ†ใซใชใ‚Šใพใ—ใŸใ€‚ใ‚ใ‚ใ€ไบบ้–“ไธ‡ไบ‹ๅกž็ฟใŒ้ฆฌใ€‚

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ๆ„›ๅช›ใซไฝใ‚€็งใฏใ€ไปŠใ€ใ€Œๆ„›ๅช›ใ‚’ๆ”ฏใˆใ‚‹ๅค–ๅ›ฝไบบใ€ใจใ€Œๆ„›ๅช›ใงๆšฎใ‚‰ใ™ๅค–ๅ›ฝไบบใ€ใจใ„ใ†ไบŒใคใฎ็ซ‹ๅ ดใ‚’ๆŒใฃใฆใ„ใพใ™ใ€‚ๅค–ๅ›ฝไบบใจใ—ใฆใฎ่ฆ–็‚นใ‚„ๅŠ›ใ‚’็”Ÿใ‹ใ—ใฆใ€ๆ„›ๅช›ใฎใ™ในใฆใฎไฝๆฐ‘ใฎใ‚ˆใ‚Š่‰ฏใ„ๆœชๆฅใ‚’ๆ”ฏใˆใ‚‹ไธ€ๆ–นใงใ€ๆ„›ๅช›ใงๆšฎใ‚‰ใ™ไธญใงๆ„Ÿใ˜ใŸๅญค็‹ฌใ‚„็„กๅŠ›ใ•ใŒใ‚ใ‚‹ใ‹ใ‚‰ใ“ใใ€ไป–ใฎไบบใฎๆ‚ฉใฟใซใ‚‚ๅฏ„ใ‚Šๆทปใ†ใ“ใจใŒใงใใพใ™ใ€‚

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ใ•ใพใ–ใพใชๅ›ฐ้›ฃใ‚„ๅˆบๆฟ€ใ‚’ไน—ใ‚Š่ถŠใˆใ‚‹ใ†ใกใซใ€ๆ„›ๅช›ใงใฎ็”Ÿๆดปใซใ‚‚ใ™ใฃใ‹ใ‚Šๆ…ฃใ‚Œใ€ไปŠใงใฏใ“ใฎๅœŸๅœฐใธใฎๆ‰€ๅฑžๆ„Ÿใ‚’่ฆšใˆใ€ๆ„›ๆƒ…ใ‚‚ๆทฑใพใฃใฆใ„ใพใ™ใ€‚่ฟ‘้ ƒใฏๅค–ๅ›ฝไบบใ‚’ใ‚ใใ‚‹่ฉฑ้กŒใŒใƒ‹ใƒฅใƒผใ‚นใงๅ–ใ‚ŠไธŠใ’ใ‚‰ใ‚Œใ€ๆ”ฟๆฒป็š„ใช่ญฐ่ซ–ใฎๅฏพ่ฑกใซใชใ‚‹ใ“ใจใ‚‚ใ‚ใ‚Šใพใ™ใŒใ€็งใŸใกใฏใ“ใฎๆ„›ใ™ใ‚‹ๅœฐๅ…ƒใงๆšฎใ‚‰ใ—ใฆใ„ใ‚‹้™ใ‚Šใ€ๅค–ๅ›ฝไบบใจใ—ใฆๆ—ฅๆœฌ็คพไผšใซๅฐ‘ใ—ใงใ‚‚ๆบถใ‘่พผใฟใ€ใ‚ˆใ‚Š่‰ฏใ„้–ขไฟ‚ใ‚’็ฏ‰ใ„ใฆใ„ใๅŠชๅŠ›ใ‚’็ถšใ‘ใฆใ„ใใŸใ„ใจๆ€ใ„ใพใ™ใ€‚

ๅœจ็ˆฑๅช›็š„ๅค–ๅ›ฝไบบ

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ๆˆ‘ๆ›พ็ปไน ๆƒฏๅฝ“โ€œ้•ฟๅฏฟๅฑ…ๆฐ‘โ€๏ผŒๅœจๅŒไธ€ๆ‰€ไธญๅญฆๅพ…8ๅนด๏ผŒๅœจๅŒไธ€ๅบงๅคงๅญฆๅพ…8ๅนด๏ผŒ็จณ็จณๅฝ“ๅฝ“ๅฎ‰ๅ…จๅฎ‰ๅฟƒใ€‚2ๅนดๅ‰็ช็„ถๆฅๅˆฐ็ˆฑๅช›๏ผŒๅƒๆ˜ฏ่ขซไปŽ็ป“ไธๆˆ่Œง็š„่ˆ’้€‚ๅœˆ็กฌ็”Ÿ็”Ÿๅœฐๆ‹‰ๆ‰ฏๅ‡บๆฅ๏ผŒไธ€ไธ‹ๆ‰ฏๆ–ญๅฅฝๅคš็บฟใ€‚ไธบไป€ไนˆๆฅ็ˆฑๅช›๏ผŸๅ…จ้ ๅคฉๆณจๅฎšใ€‚

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ๆฅไบ†็ˆฑๅช›ๆ‰็Ÿฅ้“๏ผŒไป€ไนˆๅซไบบๅœจๅผ‚ไนกไธบๅผ‚ๅฎข๏ผŒๆตทๅค–ๅŽไบบๅ€ๆ€ไบฒใ€‚ๅ‘จๅ›ดๅ…จๆ˜ฏๅค–ๅ›ฝไบบ๏ผŒๅ“ฆไธ๏ผŒๆˆ‘ๆ‰ๆ˜ฏ้‚ฃไธชๅค–ๅ›ฝไบบใ€‚่ฟ™้‡Œไธๅƒไธœไบฌๅคง้˜ช๏ผŒไธญๅ›ฝไบบๆœฌๆฅไนŸๆฒกๅคšๅฐ‘๏ผŒๅ†ๅŠ ไธŠๆˆ‘็š„ๅฒ—ไฝๆ€ง่ดจ๏ผŒ่ƒฝๆ‰“ไบค้“็š„ไธญๅ›ฝไบบ่™ฝ็„ถ้ƒฝๅพˆไผ˜็ง€๏ผŒไฝ†ๆ›ดๆ˜ฏๅฑˆๆŒ‡ๅฏๆ•ฐใ€‚ๅ่€Œๆ˜ฏๅ’ŒJET้กน็›ฎไธ€่ตทๆฅ็š„่‹ฑ่ฏญๅœˆๅค–ๅ›ฝไบบๆ›ด่ƒฝๅฝ“ๆœ‹ๅ‹ใ€‚ไบŽๆ˜ฏๆˆ‘ๅœจ่ฟ™้‡Œ่ฟ‡ไธŠไบ†ไธ€็งๅฅ‡ๅฆ™็š„็”Ÿๆดป๏ผšไธŠ็ญ่ฎฒๆ—ฅ่ฏญ๏ผŒไธ‹็ญ่ฎฒ่‹ฑ่ฏญใ€‚ๆฅๆ—ฅๆœฌไปฅๅŽ๏ผŒ่‹ฑ่ฏญ่ƒฝๅŠ›่นญ่นญ่งๆถจ๏ผŒไปฅ่‡ณไบŽ่ฟ˜ๅผ€ๅง‹่ขซๅง”ๆ‰˜่‹ฑๆ–‡ๅทฅไฝœใ€‚

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ๆˆไธบๅค–ๅ›ฝไบบๆ˜ฏๅพˆๅฅ‡ๅฆ™็š„ใ€‚็œ‹ไบ‹ๆƒ…็š„่ง’ๅบฆๅ˜ไบ†๏ผŒ็œ‹ๅˆฐ็š„ไบ‹ๆƒ…ไนŸไผšๅ˜ๅŒ–ใ€‚ๆฅๆ—ฅๆœฌไปฅๅŽ๏ผŒๆœ€ๅคง็š„ๅ˜ๅŒ–ๅบ”่ฏฅๆ˜ฏๅพ…ไบบๆ›ดๆธฉๆŸ”ไบ†ใ€‚ๅค–ๅ›ฝไบบๅฏน็Žฐไปฃๆ—ฅๆœฌไบบๆœ€ๅคง็š„ๅˆปๆฟๅฐ่ฑก๏ผŒๅฐฑๆ˜ฏๅพˆๆœ‰็คผ่ฒŒ๏ผŒ็ปๅธธ้ž ่บฌใ€‚ๅฎž้™…ไธŠ๏ผŒ่ฟ˜ๆœ‰ๅฏนๅ‘จๅ›ดไบบๅ’Œๅ‘จๅ›ด็Žฏๅขƒ็š„ๆณจๆ„๏ผŒ้šๆ—ถ็”จไฝ™ๅ…‰่ฏป็ฉบๆฐ”ๅ’Œ่žๅ…ฅ็Žฏๅขƒ็š„่ƒฝๅŠ›ใ€‚ๆˆ‘ๆœ€ๅผ€ๅง‹ๆ˜ฏๅพˆไธไน ๆƒฏ่ฟ™ไนˆๅ…ณๆณจไป–ไบบ็š„ใ€‚ๅœจ็†™็†™ๆ”˜ๆ”˜็š„ๅŸŽๅธ‚้•ฟๅคง๏ผŒๅ‘จๅ›ด็š„ไบบๅฝขๅฝข่‰ฒ่‰ฒ๏ผŒๅœจๅค–็”Ÿๅญ˜ๆœ€ๅฅฝ็š„ๅŠžๆณ•ๆ˜ฏ็›ฎไธญๆ— ไบบๅฟซ้€Ÿ่กŒ่ตฐ๏ผŒๅฏนไป–ไบบ่ฟ‡ๅคšๅ…ณๆณจๆ—ขไธๆ•ˆ็އไนŸไธ็คผ่ฒŒใ€‚ไฝ†ๅŽๆฅ็ปๅކๅ‡ ๆฌกๅฐๅœฐ้œ‡๏ผŒๆ„่ฏ†ๅˆฐ้šๆ—ถ้šๅœฐ้ƒฝๆœ‰ๅฏ่ƒฝๅ’Œๅ‘จๅ›ด็š„้™Œ็”Ÿไบบๆˆไธบ็”Ÿๆญปไน‹ไบค๏ผŒไบŽๆ˜ฏๆˆ‘ๅผ€ๅง‹็†่งฃไบ†ๆ—ฅๆœฌไบบ็š„่กŒไธบๆ–นๅผ๏ผšไฝ ้œ€่ฆ่ฅ้€ ไธ€็ง้™ทๅ…ฅๅ›ฐๅขƒๆ—ถๅ‘จๅ›ดไบบๆ„ฟๆ„ๆ•‘ไฝ ็š„ๆฐ›ๅ›ด๏ผŒไธบๆญคไฝ ่ฆๅฏนๅ‘จๅ›ดไบบๆธฉๆŸ”๏ผŒ่ฆ้šๆ—ถ่ง‚ๅฏŸ็Žฏๅขƒใ€‚

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ๅฆๅค–ไธ€ไธชๅ˜ๅŒ–๏ผŒๅฐฑๆ˜ฏๆˆไธบไบ†ๅฐ‘ๆ•ฐๆ—็พคใ€‚ๅœจๆ—ฅๆœฌ๏ผŒๅพˆๅฎนๆ˜“ๅ› ไธบไธๅคŸ่žๅ…ฅ็Žฏๅขƒ่€Œ่ขซๆญง่ง†๏ผŒไฝ†ๅฆ‚ๆžœไฝ ๆ˜ฏไธ€ไธชไฝฟ็”จ่‹ฑ่ฏญ๏ผŒ่กŒไบ‹ๅฎŒๅ…จไธๅŒ็š„ๅฎŒๅฎŒๅ…จๅ…จ็š„ๅค–ๅ›ฝไบบ๏ผŒๅ่€Œไผšๅพ—ๅˆฐ็‰นๅˆซ็š„ๅฎฝๅฎน๏ผŒไนŸๅฐฑๆ˜ฏ่Žทๅพ—ๆ‰€่ฐ“็š„โ€œๅค–ไบบPassโ€ใ€‚ๆˆ‘ๅ’Œๆ—ฅๆœฌๅŒไบ‹่กŒๅŠจๆ—ถ๏ผŒๅƒ้ฃŸๅ ‚้ƒฝๅช ่ตฐไพง่พนๆฅผๆขฏ๏ผ›ไฝ†ๅฝ“ๅ’Œๅค–ๅ›ฝๆœ‹ๅ‹่กŒๅŠจๆ—ถ๏ผŒๅœจๆป‘้›ชๅœบๆ‰“้›ชไป—ๆ‰“ๆžถ๏ผŒ็œ‹็ฏฎ็ƒ่ต›ๅฐฝๅ…ดๆ—ถ่ตท็ซ‹ๅคงๅ–Š๏ผŒไธ็ฎกๆฒกๆœ‰่ขซๅ‘จๅ›ดๅซŒๅผƒ๏ผŒๅ่€Œ่ฟ˜ๆ”ถๅˆฐไธๅฐ‘ๅ–„ๆ„็š„ๅพฎ็ฌ‘ใ€‚ๆˆ‘ๅœจๆ—ฅๆœฌไฝœไธบไธ€ไธชๅค–่ง‚ไธŠโ€œไธๅฎŒๅ…จโ€็š„ๅค–ๅ›ฝไบบ๏ผŒๅพˆๅ–œๆฌขๅ’Œๆˆ‘็š„ๅค–ๅ›ฝๆœ‹ๅ‹ไธ€่ตท็Žฉ่€ใ€‚

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ้€š่ฟ‡JET้กน็›ฎ๏ผŒๆˆ‘็ช็„ถไปŽๅพ…ไบ†ๅ…ซๅนด็š„ไธŠๆตทๆฅๅˆฐ็ˆฑๅช›ๅทฅไฝœ๏ผŒๅฆ‚ไปŠไนŸ้€ๆธ้€‚ๅบ”ๅ’Œๅ–œ็ˆฑไธŠไบ†่ฟ™้‡Œ็š„็”Ÿๆดปใ€‚็บต็„ถๅฏนไบŽๅค–ๅ›ฝไบบๆฅ่ฏด๏ผŒ่ฟ˜ๆœ‰ๅพˆๅคš่ฏธๅฆ‚้“ถ่กŒ่ดฆๆˆทๅŠž็†็ญ‰ๅˆถๅบฆๆ–น้ข็š„ไธไพฟ๏ผŒไฝ†ๆˆ‘ไนŸๅƒๆ˜ฏๅผ€่พŸๆ–ฐ็š„ๆธธๆˆๅœฐๅ›พไธ€ๆ ท๏ผŒ้€ๆธๅœจ่ฟ™้‡Œๅปบ็ซ‹ไบ†่‡ชๅทฑ็š„็คพ็พคๅ’Œๅฝ’ๅฑžใ€‚ๅœจๆœชๆฅ๏ผŒๆˆ‘ไนŸๅธŒๆœ›่ƒฝไธบๅœจๆ—ฅๆœฌ๏ผŒๅœจ็ˆฑๅช›็š„ๅค–ๅ›ฝไบบๆไพ›ๆ›ดๅคšๅธฎๅŠฉ๏ผŒๅธฎๅŠฉๅคงๅฎถๆ›ดๅฅฝๅœฐ้€‚ๅบ”ๅ’Œ่žๅ…ฅ่ฟ™้‡Œ็š„็”Ÿๆดปใ€‚


What does โ€œhomeโ€ mean to you now, after living abroad?

If you could invite three peopleโ€”living or deadโ€”to a family-style dinner, who would they be and what would you serve?

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  I started living apart from my parents when I was 12 and have never really wanted to go back. Also, โ€œto be like the universal waveโ€ is literally the meaning of my Chinese name, Yubo (ๅฎ‡ๆณข). I think even if I lived in the Moon or Mars, my parents wouldnโ€™t feel much difference.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  So, for my family, the concept of โ€œhomeโ€ means being physically apart but still staying connected online โ€” like a mother planet to its satellite. My parents send me about ten times as many messages as I send back, transfer me red envelopes during Spring Festival, and can still manage to annoy me sometimes just by words.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Of course, I love my parents and wish to stay with them as long as I can, but my momโ€™s biggest wish these years is for me to establish my own home as soon as possible. For now, my home is in Ehime, with all my besties who have become like family to me.

Mao, Lu Xun, and Li Bai

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  One of the most famous politicians and revolutionaries in the modern world, who shares the same hometown as me; one of the most famous cultural revolutionaries and my favorite writer in modern China, who also lived in Japan; and one of the most famous poets of ancient China, often called a god-level drinker.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  I would serve baijiu (the strong Chinese alcohol that Li Bai would love) and spicy chili dishes, like hot beef stew and chili pork (both would be loved by Mao, who was from the spicy place Hunan, and Lu Xun, who ate raw red peppers to stay awake while writing at midnight.)

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  I want to drink and talk with them, show them how many of their dreams have been realized today, and ask them to write some good pieces for me to sell ๐Ÿ˜€

Jimin

Do you celebrate Thanksgiving or a similar holiday that focuses on gratitude and togetherness? How?

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ๋ฌผ๋ก ์ด์ฃ !

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ํ•œ๊ตญ์—๋„ โ€˜์ถ”์„โ€™์ด๋ผ๋Š” ๋น„์Šทํ•œ ๋ช…์ ˆ์ด ์žˆ์–ด์š”. ํ•œ์ž๋กœ๋Š” โ€˜็ง‹ๅค•โ€™์ด๋ผ๊ณ  ์“ฐ๊ณ , ์Œ๋ ฅ 8์›” ๋ณด๋ฆ„๋‚ ์ด์—์š”. ํ•œ๊ตญ๋งŒ์˜ ๋ช…์ ˆ์ฒ˜๋Ÿผ ์ƒ๊ฐ๋˜์ง€๋งŒ, ์ค‘๊ตญยท๋ฒ ํŠธ๋‚จยท๋Œ€๋งŒ ๋“ฑ ๋‹ค๋ฅธ ์•„์‹œ์•„ ๊ตญ๊ฐ€์—์„œ๋„ ์ด ์‹œ๊ธฐ์— ๋ฉฐ์น  ์‰ฌ๋ฉด์„œ ๊ฐ€์กฑ๊ณผ ์‹œ๊ฐ„์„ ๋ณด๋‚ด๊ณค ํ•˜์ฃ .

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ํ•œ๊ตญ์€ ์˜ˆ๋กœ๋ถ€ํ„ฐ ํšจ๋ฅผ ์ค‘์š”ํ•˜๊ฒŒ ์ƒ๊ฐํ–ˆ๊ณ  ๋†๊ฒฝ์‚ฌํšŒ์˜€๊ธฐ ๋•Œ๋ฌธ์—, ์ถ”์„์—๋Š” ๊ฐ€์กฑ์ด ๋ชจ๋‘ ๋ชจ์—ฌ ์กฐ์ƒ๋‹˜๊ป˜ ํ’๋…„์„ ๋‚ด๋ ค์ฃผ์‹  ๊ฒƒ์— ๊ฐ์‚ฌ๋“œ๋ฆฌ๊ณ , ๋‚ด๋…„์—๋„ ํ’์ž‘์„ ๊ธฐ์›ํ–ˆ์–ด์š”. ๊ฐ€์กฑ๋ผ๋ฆฌ ์Œ์‹์„ ๋งŒ๋“ค์–ด ๋‚˜๋ˆ  ๋จน๋Š”๋‹ค๋Š” ์ ์€ ๋ฏธ๊ตญ์˜ Thanksgiving๊ณผ ๋‹ฎ์•˜์ง€๋งŒ, ์กฐ์ƒ๋‹˜๊ป˜ ์ฐจ๋ก€๋ฅผ ์ง€๋‚ธ๋‹ค๋Š” ๋ถ€๋ถ„์€ ์กฐ๊ธˆ ๋‹ค๋ฅด์ฃ . ๋˜ ์ด๋‚ ์€ ์œ ๋… ๋ฐ๊ณ  ๋‘ฅ๊ทผ ๋ณด๋ฆ„๋‹ฌ์ด ๋– ์„œ, ๋‹ฌ์„ ๋ณด๋ฉฐ ์†Œ์›์„ ๋น„๋Š” ๋ฌธํ™”๋„ ์žˆ์–ด์š”.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ์ •๋ฆฌํ•˜์ž๋ฉด, ์˜จ ๊ฐ€์กฑ์ด ๋ชจ์—ฌ ์„œ๋กœ ์•ˆ๋ถ€๋ฅผ ์ „ํ•˜๊ณ , ๋ช…์ ˆ์—๋งŒ ๋งŒ๋“œ๋Š” ์ „ํ†ต ์Œ์‹์„ ์ž”๋œฉ ๋งŒ๋“ค๊ณ  ๋จน๊ณ , ๊ณผ์ผ๊ณผ ์Œ์‹์œผ๋กœ ์ฐจ๋ก€๋ฅผ ์ง€๋‚ด๊ณ , ์„ฑ๋ฌ˜๋„ ๊ฐ€๊ณ โ€ฆ ๊ทธ๋Ÿฌ๋‹ค ๋ณด๋ฉด ์ž์—ฐ์Šค๋Ÿฝ๊ฒŒ ์‚ด๋„ ์ฐŒ๋Š” ๊ทธ๋Ÿฐ ๋‚ ์ž…๋‹ˆ๋‹ค. ๐Ÿ˜„


ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ์š”์ฆ˜์€ ์ฐจ๋ก€ ์ค€๋น„๊ฐ€ ๋„ˆ๋ฌด ํž˜๋“ค๋‹ค๋Š” ์ด์œ ๋กœ ๊ฐ€์กฑ ์—ฌํ–‰์„ ๊ฐ€๊ฑฐ๋‚˜, ์ถ”์„ ๋‹น์ผ์—” ๋”ฐ๋กœ ๋ชจ์ด์ง€ ์•Š๊ณ  ๋‹ค๋ฅธ ๋‚ ์— ๋งŒ๋‚˜๋Š” ๋“ฑ, ๊ฐ์ž ์Šคํƒ€์ผ๋Œ€๋กœ ๋ณด๋‚ด๋Š” ๋ชจ์Šต๋„ ์ ์  ๋Š˜๊ณ  ์žˆ์–ด์š”.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Absolutely!

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  In Korea, we have a very similar holiday called Chuseok, written as โ€œ็ง‹ๅค•โ€ in Chinese characters. It falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. Although it feels very โ€œKorean,โ€ people in countries like China, Vietnam, and Taiwan also celebrate mid-autumn holidays around the same time, spending a few days with their families.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Traditionally, because Korea valued filial piety and was an agricultural society, Chuseok was a time when families gathered to thank their ancestors for a good harvest and to pray for another plentiful year. Sharing special holiday foods with family feels a bit like American Thanksgiving, but the ritual of offering those foods to oneโ€™s ancestors is something unique.
Itโ€™s also the night of the brightest full moon of the year, so many people go out to admire it and make a wish.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  In short: everyone gathers, shares updates on life, cooks tons of traditional holiday dishes, performs ancestral rites with beautifully arranged fruit and food, visits ancestral gravesโ€ฆ and inevitably gains a little weight in the process. ๐Ÿ˜„
ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  These days, more families are choosing to travel instead of preparing the elaborate ancestral table, or meeting on a different day if schedules are difficultโ€”so the ways people celebrate are becoming more flexible.

Chuseokโ€™s Rites & Visiting Ancestral Graves

What are some of your favorite traditional foods from your home country that you think everyone should try at least once?

๊น€๋ฐฅ๊ณผ ๋น„๋น”๋ฐฅ, ๊ทธ๋ฆฌ๊ณ  ์žก์ฑ„!

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ์ด ์„ธ ๊ฐ€์ง€๋Š” ์ •๋ง ๋ˆ„๊ตฌ์—๊ฒŒ๋‚˜ ์ถ”์ฒœํ•  ์ˆ˜ ์žˆ๋Š” ํ•œ๊ตญ ์Œ์‹์ด์—์š”.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ๊น€๋ฐฅ๊ณผ ๋น„๋น”๋ฐฅ์€ ์žฌ๋ฃŒ ์„ ํƒ์˜ ์ž์œ ๋„๊ฐ€ ์—„์ฒญ ๋†’์•„์„œ, ์ข‹์•„ํ•˜๋Š” ๊ฑด ๋„ฃ๊ณ  ์‹ซ์–ดํ•˜๋Š” ๊ฑด ๋บ„ ์ˆ˜ ์žˆ๊ฑฐ๋“ ์š”. ์ฑ„์‹์ฃผ์˜์ž๋„, ์•Œ๋ ˆ๋ฅด๊ธฐ๊ฐ€ ์žˆ๋Š” ์‚ฌ๋žŒ๋„, ๋ˆ„๊ตฌ๋‚˜ ์ž๊ธฐ ์Šคํƒ€์ผ๋กœ ์กฐ์ ˆํ•ด์„œ ๋ง›์žˆ๊ฒŒ ๋จน์„ ์ˆ˜ ์žˆ๋Š” โ€˜์œ ์—ฐํ•œ ์Œ์‹โ€™์ด์ฃ .
์žก์ฑ„๋Š”โ€ฆ ์ง€๊ธˆ๊นŒ์ง€ ์‹ซ์–ดํ•˜๋Š” ์‚ฌ๋žŒ์„ ๋ณธ ์ ์ด ์—†์–ด์š”. ๊ทธ๋ž˜์„œ ๊ฐ•๋ ฅํ•˜๊ฒŒ ์ถ”์ฒœํ•ฉ๋‹ˆ๋‹ค.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ๊ทธ๋ฆฌ๊ณ  ํ˜น์‹œ ์ฑ„์‹์ฃผ์˜์ž๊ฐ€ ์•„๋‹ˆ๋ผ๋ฉด ์–‘๋… ๊ฐˆ๋น„ ๊ผญ ๋“œ์…”๋ณด์„ธ์š”. ๋‹ฌ๊ณ  ์งญ์งคํ•œ ์–‘๋…์ด ๊ณ ๊ธฐ์— ์ด‰์ด‰ํ•˜๊ฒŒ ๋ฐด ๊ทธ ๋ง›์€โ€ฆ ๋งํ•˜๋‹ค ๋ณด๋‹ˆ ์ €๋„ ๊ฐ‘์ž๊ธฐ ๋จน๊ณ  ์‹ถ์–ด์กŒ๋„ค์š”. ์ฑ…์ž„์ง€์„ธ์š”. ๐Ÿ˜‹

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Gimbap, Bibimbap, and Japchae!
ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Theyโ€™re the safest, most universally loved dishes I can recommend.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Gimbap and Bibimbap are incredibly customizableโ€”you can add what you like and skip what you donโ€™t. They work for vegetarians, people with allergies, picky eatersโ€ฆ basically anyone. Theyโ€™re โ€œflexible foods,โ€ which is part of their charm.
And Japchae? Iโ€™ve never met anyone who disliked it. So that one is a must-try.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  And if youโ€™re not vegetarianโ€ฆ you have to try marinated Korean short ribs, yangnyeom galbi. Sweet, savory, tenderโ€”just thinking about it is making me hungry. This is on you now. ๐Ÿ˜‹

Have you introduced any of your favorite dishes to your Japanese colleagues or friends? What was their reaction?

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ๋„ค! ๊ฐœ์ธ์ ์œผ๋กœ๋„ ๋‚˜๋ˆ ์ค€ ์  ์žˆ๊ณ , ์ˆ˜์—…์—์„œ๋„ ์†Œ๊ฐœํ•ด ๋ณธ ์  ์žˆ์–ด์š”.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ์š”๋ฆฌ๋ฅผ ์ข‹์•„ํ•ด์„œ ์ผ๋ณธ์— ์˜จ ์ฒซํ•ด์—” ์ด๊ฒƒ์ €๊ฒƒ ์ž์ฃผ ํ•ด ๋จน์—ˆ๋Š”๋ฐ, ์†์ด ์›Œ๋‚™ ์ปค์„œ ๋Š˜ 4์ธ๋ถ„ ์ด์ƒ์„ ๋งŒ๋“ค๋”๋ผ๊ณ ์š” ๐Ÿ˜‚ ๊ทธ๋ž˜์„œ ์ค‘๊ตญ ๊ตญ์ œ๊ต๋ฅ˜์›์ธ ๋ณด๋ณด์—๊ฒŒ ๋‚˜๋ˆ ์ฃผ๊ธฐ๋„ ํ•˜๊ณ , ์นœํ•ด์ง„ ์ผ๋ณธ ์นœ๊ตฌ์—๊ฒŒ๋„ ๊ฑด๋„ค๊ณค ํ–ˆ์ฃ . ์ง์žฅ์—์„œ ํฌํŠธ๋Ÿญ ํŒŒํ‹ฐ๋ฅผ ์—ด์–ด ํ•œ๊ตญ ์Œ์‹์„ ์†Œ๊ฐœํ•˜๊ธฐ๋„ ํ–ˆ๊ณ ์š”.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ์—ํžˆ๋ฉ”ํ˜„์ฒญ CIR์€ ํ˜„์ฒญ๊ณผ EPIC(์—ํžˆ๋ฉ”ํ˜„ ๊ตญ์ œ๊ต๋ฅ˜ํ˜‘ํšŒ), ๋‘ ๊ณณ์—์„œ ๊ทผ๋ฌดํ•˜๋Š”๋ฐ, EPIC์—์„œ ๋งˆ์Œ์ด ์ž˜ ๋งž๋Š” ์ง์›๊ณผ ํ•จ๊ป˜ ๋ช‡ ์ฐจ๋ก€ ํฌํŠธ๋Ÿญ ํŒŒํ‹ฐ๋ฅผ ์—ด์—ˆ์–ด์š”. ์žก์ฑ„, ๋น„๋น”๊ตญ์ˆ˜, ๊ฐ€์ง€๋ฌด์นจ ๊ฐ™์€ ์ „ํ†ต ์Œ์‹๋„ ๋งŒ๋“ค๊ณ , ๋“ค๊ธฐ๋ฆ„ ํŒŒ์Šคํƒ€์ฒ˜๋Ÿผ ์กฐ๊ธˆ์€ ํ“จ์ „์ธ ์š”๋ฆฌ๋„ ๊ฐ€์ ธ๊ฐ€ ๋ดค์ฃ . ๋˜ EPIC์—์„œ ๋งค๋…„ ์—ด๋ฆฌ๋Š” โ€˜์˜ค์ƒค๋ฒ ๋ฆฌ ๋ฌธํ™” ์‚ด๋กฑ ์š”๋ฆฌ ๊ต์‹คโ€™์—์„œ๋„ ํ•œ๊ตญ ์Œ์‹์„ ์†Œ๊ฐœํ•˜๊ณ  ๊ฐ™์ด ๋งŒ๋“ค์–ด ๋ณด๊ธฐ๋„ ํ–ˆ์–ด์š”.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ์‚ฌ๋žŒ๋“ค ๋ฐ˜์‘์€ ๋Œ€์ฒด์ ์œผ๋กœ ์ •๋ง ์ข‹์•„ํ•ด์คฌ์–ด์š”. ๋„ˆ๋ฌด ๋งค์›Œ์„œ ๋ชป ๋จน์„ ๊ฒƒ ๊ฐ™์€๋ฐ ๊ดœ์ฐฎ์„์ง€ ๊ณ ๋ฏผํ–ˆ๋˜ ๋ฉ”๋‰ด๋ฅผ ์ œ ์˜ˆ์ƒ๊ณผ ๋‹ค๋ฅด๊ฒŒ ์˜คํžˆ๋ ค ํ›จ์”ฌ ๋” ์ข‹์•„ํ•˜๊ธฐ๋„ ํ–ˆ๊ณ ์š”. ํ•œ๊ตญ ์Œ์‹์„ ๋ง›์žˆ๊ฒŒ ๋จน๊ณ  ์ฆ๊ฑฐ์›Œํ•˜๋Š” ๋ชจ์Šต์„ ๋ณด๋Š” ๊ฒŒ ๋„ˆ๋ฌด ๋ฟŒ๋“ฏํ•ด์„œ, ์ €๋„ ๋” ์—ด์‹ฌํžˆ ํ–ˆ๋˜ ๊ฒƒ ๊ฐ™์•„์š”. ์˜ฌํ•ด๋Š” ๋„ˆ๋ฌด ๋ฐ”๋น ์„œ ํฌํŠธ๋Ÿญ์€์ปค๋…• ์ œ ๋ฐฅ ์ฑ™๊ฒจ ๋จน๊ธฐ๋„ ์ข€ ํž˜๋“ค์ง€๋งŒโ€ฆ ์–ธ์  ๊ฐ€ ๋‹ค์‹œ ์—ฌ์œ ๊ฐ€ ์ƒ๊ธฐ๋ฉด ๋˜ ์ž”๋œฉ ๋งŒ๋“ค์–ด ๋‚˜๋ˆ„์–ด ๋จน๊ณ  ์‹ถ๋„ค์š”!

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Yes! Both personally and through classes.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  I love cooking, so during my first year in Japan I was constantly making foodโ€”but because I always cook in huge batches, I ended up with four servings at a time ๐Ÿ˜‚. So Iโ€™d share some with Bobo, a Chinese CIR who lived nearby, and with my Japanese friends. I even hosted potluck parties at work to introduce Korean dishes.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  As a CIR in Ehime, I work both at the prefectural office and at EPIC (Ehime Prefectural International Center). At EPIC, I clicked really well with one of the staff members, and we held several potluck gatherings together. Iโ€™d bring dishes like japchae, bibim-guksu, and seasoned eggplant, and sometimes fusion dishes like perilla-oil pasta. I also teach Korean cuisine at EPICโ€™s annual โ€œOshaberi Culture Salon Cooking Class,โ€ where we cook together and talk about Korean culture.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Peopleโ€™s reactions were varied, but overall very positive. Sometimes they surprised me by loving dishes I thought would be too spicy! Seeing people enjoy the foodโ€”and look genuinely happy about itโ€”motivated me to cook even more.
This year Iโ€™ve been too busy for potlucks (or even proper meals for myselfโ€ฆ), but once life calms down, Iโ€™d love to start cooking and sharing again!

Sharing Korean Food Via Potluck

Have you introduced any of your favorite dishes to your Japanese colleagues or friends? What was their reaction?

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ํ•œ ๋งˆ๋””๋กœ ๋งํ•˜์ž๋ฉด~ ์žฌ๋ฐŒ์–ด์š”! ์ œ ์ „๊ณต์€ ์ „ํ˜€ ๋‹ค๋ฅธ ๋ถ„์•ผ์˜€๊ธฐ ๋•Œ๋ฌธ์—, ์ทจ๋ฏธ์˜€๋˜ ์ผ๋ณธ์–ด๋ฅผ ์‚ด๋ ค์„œ ์ผํ•  ์ˆ˜ ์žˆ๊ฒŒ ๋œ ๊ฒƒ์— ๋งค์šฐ ๊ฐ์‚ฌํ•˜๋ฉฐ ์ผํ•˜๊ณ  ์žˆ์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค. ๋˜, ์—ํžˆ๋ฉ”์˜ ํ•œ๊ตญ ๊ตญ์ œ๊ต๋ฅ˜์›์€ ์ถœ์žฅ์ด ๋งŽ์€ ํŽธ์ธ๋ฐ, ์—ฌํ–‰์„ ์ข‹์•„ํ•˜๋Š” ์ €์—๊ฒŒ๋Š” ์—ฌ๋Ÿฌ ์ง€์—ญ์„ ๋Œ์•„๋‹ค๋‹ˆ๋ฉฐ ๋‹ค์–‘ํ•œ ์ผ์„ ๊ฒฝํ—˜ํ•  ์ˆ˜ ์žˆ๋‹ค๋Š” ์ ์—์„œ๋„ ์•„์ฃผ ๋งŒ์กฑํ•˜๊ณ  ์žˆ๊ณ ์š”. ๋Š˜ ์ด์šฉ์ž๋กœ์„œ๋งŒ ์ ‘ํ•ด์™”๋˜ ๊ด€๊ด‘ยท์—ฌํ–‰์„ ๊ณ ๊ฐ์œผ๋กœ์„œ๊ฐ€ ์•„๋‹Œ ์„œ๋น„์Šค ์ œ๊ณต์ž์˜ ์ž…์žฅ์—์„œ ๋ฐ”๋ผ๋ณด๋Š” ๊ฒฝํ—˜๋„ ์ƒˆ๋กญ๊ณ ์š”. ๋•๋ถ„์— ๋‚ด๊ฐ€ ์–ด๋–ค ์ผ์„ ๋” ์ข‹์•„ํ•˜๊ณ  ์–ด๋–ค ์ผ์€ ์•ˆ ๋งž๋Š”์ง€, ์•ž์œผ๋กœ ์–ด๋–ค ๊ธธ์„ ๊ฐ€๊ณ  ์‹ถ์€์ง€ ์ƒ๊ฐํ•  ๊ธฐํšŒ๋„ ๋งŽ์ด ์–ป์—ˆ์–ด์š”. ๋ฌผ๋ก  ์ตœ๋Œ€ 3๋…„~5๋…„๊นŒ์ง€๋ฐ–์— ํ•  ์ˆ˜ ์—†๋Š” ์ผ์ธ ๋งŒํผ ๋‹น์žฅ ์ด ์ผ์˜ ์ž„๊ธฐ๊ฐ€ ๋๋‚˜๊ฒŒ ๋˜๋ฉด ๋ฏธ๋ž˜์— ์–ด๋–ค ์ผ์„ ํ•  ์ˆ˜ ์žˆ์„์ง€ ๊ณ ๋ฏผ๋„ ๋งŽ๊ณ  ๊ฑฑ์ •๋„ ๋งŽ์ง€๋งŒ, ์šฐ์„ ์€ ํ˜„์žฌ์— ๋งŒ์กฑํ•˜๋ฉด์„œ ๋งค์ผ์„ ์—ด์‹ฌํžˆ ์‚ฌ๋Š” ์ค‘!

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  In one wordโ€”fun!
ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  My academic background is in a completely different field, so being able to work using Japanese, which started as just a hobby, feels like such a gift. In Ehime, CIRs often travel for work, and since I love traveling, Iโ€™ve really enjoyed visiting different places while working on various projects.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Experiencing tourism not as a customer but as someone providing the service has been eye-opening, too. It helped me understand what kind of work I enjoy, what doesnโ€™t suit me, and what kind of future I want to build for myself.
Of course, since this job is limited to three to five years, I worry sometimes about what Iโ€™ll do afterward. But for now, Iโ€™m trying to focus on the present and enjoy each day.

Korea-Japan Fair, Sports Games Masters, Interpretation, and More!

Have you introduced any of your favorite dishes to your Japanese colleagues or friends? What was their reaction?

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ๋‹น์‹ ์ด ์‚ด๊ฒŒ ๋  ๊ณณ์„ ์‚ฌ๋ž‘ํ•˜๋ ค๊ณ  ๋…ธ๋ ฅํ•ด ๋ณด์„ธ์š”. ์นœ๊ตฌ์™€ ํ•จ๊ป˜์—ฌ๋„ ์ข‹๊ณ , ํ˜ผ์ž์—ฌ๋„ ์ข‹์œผ๋‹ˆ ๋งŽ์€ ๊ณณ์„ ๋Œ์•„๋‹ค๋‹ˆ๊ณ  ๊ฒฝํ—˜ํ•˜๋ฉด์„œ ์ข‹์•„ํ•˜๋Š” ์žฅ์†Œ์™€ ํ™œ๋™, ์‚ฌ๋žŒ ๋“ฑ๊ณผ ํ•จ๊ป˜ ์• ์ฐฉ์„ ๊ฐ€์งˆ ์ˆ˜ ์žˆ๋„๋ก ๋…ธ๋ ฅํ•˜๋Š” ๊ฑธ ์ถ”์ฒœํ•ด์š”.ย 

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  3๋…„์—์„œ ์ตœ๋Œ€ 5๋…„์ด๋ผ๋Š” ๊ธฐ๊ฐ„์€ ์ƒ๊ฐ๋ณด๋‹ค ํ›จ์”ฌ ๋” ์งง์•„์š”. ๊ทธ๋Ÿฌ๋‹ˆ โ€˜๋‚ด๊ฐ€ ์™œ ์ด๋Ÿฐ ์‹œ๊ณจ์— ์˜ค๊ฒŒ ๋˜์—ˆ์ง€โ€ฆโ€™ ํ•˜๊ณ  ํ›„ํšŒํ•˜๊ฑฐ๋‚˜ โ€˜์ดํ›„์— ๋ญ˜ ํ•ด์•ผ ํ•˜์ง€โ€ฆโ€™ ๋ผ๊ณ  ๊ฑฑ์ •ํ•˜๊ณ  ๋ถˆ์•ˆํ•ดํ•˜๊ธฐ๋ณด๋‹ค๋Š”, ๊ทธ ์‹œ๊ฐ„ ๋™์•ˆ ํ•ด๋ณผ ์ˆ˜ ์žˆ๋Š” ๋ชจ๋“  ๊ฒฝํ—˜์„ ์ตœ๋Œ€ํ•œ ๋‹ค ํ•ด๋ณด๊ธธ ๋ฐ”๋ผ์š”. ์†”์งํžˆ ๋งํ•˜๋ฉด, ์ด ์ผ์ด ์•„๋‹ˆ๋ฉด ์–ธ์ œ ๊ทธ ์‹œ๊ณจ์— ์‚ด์•„๋ณด๊ฒ ์–ด์š”? ๐Ÿ˜‚

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ๋ฒš๊ฝƒ์„ ๋ณผ ๊ธฐํšŒ๋„, ๋‹จํ’์„ ๋ณผ ์ˆ˜ ์žˆ๋Š” ๊ฒƒ๋„, ๋ฐ”๋‹ค์— ๊ฐˆ ์ˆ˜ ์žˆ๋Š” ๊ฒƒ๋„, ์ „๋ถ€ ๊ธฐํšŒ๋Š” 3๋ฒˆ๋ฐ–์— ์—†์–ด์š”. ๊ทธ๋Ÿฌ๋‹ˆ, ์ผ์€ ์ ๋‹นํžˆ ํ•˜๊ณ  ๋ฌด๋ฆฌํ•ด์„œ ๋†€๋Ÿฌ๋‹ค๋‹ˆ์„ธ์š”~!

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Try to fall in love with the place youโ€™re going. Explore a lotโ€”alone or with friendsโ€”and find places, activities, and people that make you feel connected to your new home.

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  Three to five years sound long, but they go by so fast. So instead of regretting โ€œWhy did I move to this countryside townโ€ฆ?โ€ or stressing about โ€œWhat will I do after thisโ€ฆ?โ€ I hope youโ€™ll fill your limited time with as many experiences as you can. Honestly, when else in your life will you ever get the chance to live in that countryside town? ๐Ÿ˜‚

ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  You only get three chances to see the cherry blossoms, three autumn foliage seasons, three summers by the sea.
So work reasonablyโ€ฆ and spend the rest of your energy exploring and having fun!

Dillon Flores, Creator
Justin Dobbs, Editor

Hey, Mikans!

We hope you’re enjoying this month’s ZINE. If you have a story to tell, an idea to share, or just want to contribute we’d love to hear from you!ย 

Weโ€™ll have a new maga(ZINE) post for you on the first of each month, so keep an eye out!

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