Punchline Comedy Club, Tokyo

The Punchline Comedy club is presenting another line up of three stand up comedians on Friday 18th April.


I'll be going along for sure. Tickets sold out for the previous show in Februrary, so book your tickets soon and don't miss out!

I exchanged emails with John Moorhead, the promoter, about running a show in Seoul and he was definitely interested, but he has no contacts there at the moment. If you are in Seoul and would like to get a chance to see stand-up comedy, please contact John directly from the contact pages on Punchline.com. The greater the response the more likely he is to put on a show.

Akihabara, Mobile Phones and Rabbits

I went to Akihabara this weekend. My original intention had been to visit the transport museum that I had seen direction signs for on a previous visit. Foolishly I had not checked further into this institution, so when I followed the signs I was dismayed to see a large "Closed" sign and an explanation (in English) that the museum had shut in 2006. It has moved to a brand new site in Omiya, and it's the museum I'd already visited!

The day was not wasted as there a street festival on. The main road was blocked off to allow various artistes to perform. Hanger Man was very entertaining juggling on a unicycle and doing tricks with a tennis racket :


I've just discovered he's was at the Seoul Buskers Festival in 2007 and he was popular at the Edinburgh Fringe festival.

This gentleman wasn't part of the entertainment, as far as I could tell, but I had to take a second glance to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Man and rabbit moved as one :

It's still not as good as Mike's Lady with an Iguana on her head though.

Akihabara is full of boys and men interested in all the technology available, so what better way of getting their attention than some scantily clad girls:


As you can see they were very popular, but I've got no idea what they were promoting. Does anyone recognise the figure in the middle?

There were a lot of small groups singing and dancing, but in general the quality of the entertainment was not as good as last week in Yoyogi park.

The Rock Bands of Yoyogi Park

Spring has finally arrived in Tokyo and the parks are now very popular places to be. On Sunday while walking round Yoyogi park, the sounds of loud music caught my attention. Along the path from Shibuya gate there were plenty of bands playing some really great music.

This group Majellyca were cranking out some heavy rock tracks.

H.U.T. were playing their heart out just a few meters further up the path:

This was my favourite band. The Chocolate Chip Cookies . I couldn't understand the lyrics, but the tunes were very catchy.
Benchmark Cafe put their heart and soul into their performance.
This is Hyper Kitty Hyper:
All the bands put on some great performances for those passing by. If you are interested in live Rock music, I recommend a walk along this path on a Sunday afternoon.

New features at the Korean Blog List

As long time readers will know, I am a big fan of Alan's Korean Blog List. Alan lives in Tokyo these days, but he still maintains the list very diligently. I went out for drinks with him, not that long ago, and he mentioned that he hoped to put some improvements in place on his site.

I got an email from him yesterday to let me know that he has implemented the first of the new features on his website. If you have a blog on his list you can now go to the site and change your blog listing. You can also declare your nationality and location. In the future, when enough bloggers have updated their details, this will become a searchable attribute. He promises other features are coming soon.

I took a quick look at some of the new blogs on the list and there are, as always, plenty of new and interesting blogs on Korea out there. The total number listed stands at 399 this evening.

These are some I liked, in no particular order :

Your Daily Shot of Soju An ESL teacher in Seoul with some amusing observations on life.

That One Moment Some high quality pictures from a lady photographer based in Seoul.

The Constant Crafter Becky has some amusing photos and stories of life in Suwon.

Lemon Soju Alan's own blog. Lots of advice on losing weight.

Mr. Glenn, Memoirs of a Geezer tag line : "0 hours : 0 mins : 0 secs until now". Glenn has just completed six months of Life in "The EnglishZone" in Incheon and seems to be surviving OK. (excellent photo there.)

Seen in Jeonju Dedicated to Korean Movies.

Gyopo Wife A recently married gyopo, who has moved to Seoul from LA, shares her tales.

Egg Bop "Exchanging thoughts about Korean food, craft, art, and culture".

Any many, many more.

Win $50 cash at Japan Photo Guide Blog

I've had Blogs on Japan on my blogroll for several months now, but it was only yesterday that I discovered the man behind it, Evan Pike, has two other blogs. He runs Japan Photo Guide which, as you might expect, is a site dedicated to giving you advice on where, when and how to take great photos in Japan.

Another of his blogs is Japan Daily Photo. Subscribe to his RSS feed and get images like this or this every day in your feed reader.

To promote his photography and his blogs, he has started a contest, the prize is $50 to your PayPal account. There are several ways to enter the contest: writing a blog entry to promote the contest, mentioning his blogs or buying his photos.

So, go on over to Japan Photo Guide and check out some of his photos.

Get Seoul into The Monopoly World Edition

Quick, tell all the Koreans you know. They can get Seoul on to the forthcoming board game "Monopoly Here and Now World Edition", just by voting for it.

Just go to Hasbro's Monopoly Here and Now World Edition site, register your email address and vote for your favourite city.

The 20 pre-selected cities with the highest worldwide votes will make it onto the board. Plus, you will have from February 29 to March 9 2008 to vote on the most nominated Wildcard cities. Only the top two will make it on the board.

Hurry folks, voting ends 28th Feb. They have disabled the leader board, so you are running blind until the results are announced.

Tokyo Players: NY Style Comedy

I just got back from the Punchline comedy night at Pizza Express that I mentioned before. It was an excellent night of stand-up comedy at its best. Mandy Night was wickedly abusive to many members of the audience. The lawyer in the front row certainly got a lot of attention from her and I wish I could have seen the expression on the young lad who was with his parents when she was trying to embarass him with her desire for young men. Tommy Campbell had me spilling my drink with his story about the dog and a condom. Carey (from the Dairy) Marx, with his teddy bear named Parsnip, told some cracking jokes and stories of a seriously non PC nature.

It's only now, after I revisited their website, that I notice that it is run in association with The Comedy Store London which explains why it felt so much like being back in England. That, and the fact that 99% of the audience were expats.

The Japan Times this morning was advertising some more comedy, this time with more of an American flavour. The Tokyo Players are presenting a comedy play entitled "The Plaza Suite" which sounds very good. The newspaper is running a lottery to win a pair of tickets. Just go to this page and use the password "comedy" before Feb 22nd. The shows are on Feb 29th, March 1st and March 2nd at the Akasaka V Theater which is a 3-minute walk from Akasaka Station on the Chiyoda Line. Tickets are ¥4,000 for adults. For more information and bookings, go to www.tokyoplayers.org.

Meanwhile in Korea, not comedy but music, I spotted Mark Russell of Korea Pop Wars has started the Korea Gig Guide so that you can find out what's going on in the Korean live music scene. Well done Mark, it looks as if it's off to a great start with plenty of gigs on the calendar.

He's based the idea on the Tokyo Gig Guide which I had not heard of until now. Another two links to add to the blogroll.

Everyday Koreans

Stafford at the Chosun Bimbo was delighted to have one of his many photos from the Changing of the Guard ceremony accepted by Seoul Selection for inclusion in the 'Everyday Koreans' photo section of their regular newsletter.

Last year I tried for several months taking photos everywhere I could to try to get a great shot for Everyday Koreans. I was happy with this one I took in Yeouido park one lunchtime:


but I was disappointed it was not selected.

Seoul Selection are always looking for new photos, so why not submit you favourite photo of everyday scenes in Korea. Send them to Hank Kim at Seoul Selection with a caption and a brief, one line bio.

Dog delays trains in Japan

This story gave me a great laugh. From Mainichi

Dog strolling along railway tracks brings train to a crawl in Yamanashi

TSURU, Yamanashi -- A dog trotting leisurely along the tracks of the Fuji Kyuko Line here caused a train to slow down to a crawl and delayed services by 15 minutes, much to the amusement of passengers, railway officials said.

Officials said the mixed-bred dog, which resembled a Shiba Ken, appeared on the tracks between Kasei and Akasaka stations on Sunday, and kept walking along the line, even when the train sounded its horn.

The incident caused delays to two trains, but the passengers on board who witnessed the incident did not complain, and appeared amused by the unusual happening.

Officials said that the dog wandered onto the tracks at about 11:20 a.m. on Sunday before the train had reached Kasei Station. The driver sounded the train's horn, but the small canine continued to walk along the tracks leisurely, sparking laughter from passengers.

The dog, which was wearing a collar, walked about 1.2 kilometers from Kasei Station before finally disappearing from the tracks, officials said. The dog's owner remains unknown.

About 150 passengers were on the train at the time, but the railway did not receive a single complaint. Officials said they had to apologize nevertheless.

"It remains a fact that the trains were delayed, and so we have to politely apologize," a railway official said.

Only in Japan. In England you'd be lucky if the driver noticed the dog let alone slowed the train for it.

Comedy in Tokyo and Seoul

As regular readers will know, I enjoy stand up comedy shows, so I am delighted to discover a show on in Tokyo this week, and for Korean readers there is also comedy on in Seoul coming up soon.

Tokyo first :

TOKYO PUNCHLINE COMEDY - FEBRUARY SHOW.

ONE NIGHT ONLY! THREE COMEDIANS
CAREY MARX (UK):

"Excellent"
- The Guardian

"Hilariously demented"
- Edinburgh Evening News

MANDY KNIGHT (UK):

"Superb, the best"
- Time Out

"Had us in stitches all night"
- The Times

"Naughty but funny"
- The Mail

TOMMY CAMPBELL (CANADA):

"Never less than a good solid act!"
- The Times

"Campbell was cocky and brilliantly funny and his confidence will surely win him fans at home and in the UK"
- The Daily Mail

Date: Friday 15th February 2008

TICKETS: Y8,500 Includes all you can eat buffet. Or Y6,500 for show only.

VENUE: PIZZA EXPRESS, HARAJUKU. SHOW STARTS 9:00PM. PIZZA EXPRESS, : 3F,
4-30-3 JINGUMAE (ABOVE THE GAP), SHIBUYA KU, TOKYO.

Dinner served from 7:30PM and buffet closes at 8:30PM

For Tickets Call: 03 5775 3894.

ADULTS ONLY

You can also book direct from web site: www.punchlinecomedy.com


And in Seoul, another British Comedienne :

Professional Stand Up Comedy! Sunday 17th February
Doors open 5:30pm, Show starts at 7:00pm
Kabinett Wine Bar, Itaewon
Happy Hour from 5:30-7:00, all drinks 50% off.

Don't miss British comedian Erica Skeete and American comedian Jimmie Roulette for an outstanding night of comedy. Organised and hosted by BH Productions, Erica Skeete and Jimmie Roulette are being brought over to Korea for a one night only show in Itaewon.

Erica Skeete
Erica Skeete talks about what she encounters and imagines; from being a black, British female in NY, arguing with a blind man, cultural differences, her British and Caribbean heritage, dating, paranoia, to her super helping himself to food in her apartment. Erica’s likeable stage presence allows her to speak the unspeakable in a playful, unpredictable style.
Erica has performed in London's renowned Comedy Store and the Comedy Café. Erica has also opened for Patrice O’Neal at the famous Caroline’s on Broadway and recorded with Missy Elliot for Bad Boy Entertainment.

Jimmie Roulette
When you mention the name Jimmie Roulette, words come to mind such as charismatic, fast paced, energetic—all can be summed up as impressive. He is not a standard comedian, using stereotypical, bottom dollar jokes to get laughs. Roulette's comedy crosses all boundaries—age, race, gender, it has no limits. Whether he’s working with polished material or living in the moment, he is a definite crowd pleaser.

Jimmie has performed on Comedy Central’s Premium Blend and the prestigious HBO Comedy Festival in Las Vegas. He has worked with many of comedy’s favorites like Wanda Sykes, Larry the Cable Guy, Dave Chappelle, and Ron White. He has actually proven that it doesn’t have to make sense…sometimes it’s just funny.

Venue: Kabinett Wine Bar, Itaewon, line 6, exit 2. Go out exit 2, walk for approx. 5 minutes. Kabinett Wine Bar is on your left, on the second floor, next to the Itaewon Hotel and across from the Cheil Building. (Go to www.kabinett.co.kr for detailed map. Parking available.)

Time: Doors open at 5:30pm, Show starts at 7:00pm. Happy Hour from 5:30-7:00pm, all drinks 50% off. Plus order a small cheese platter and get upgraded to large platter for free. Dinner menu also available.

Tickets: 35,000 won, includes one free drink.

Reservations: by email only at thebhpcompany {AT} yahoo.com

Reservations are recommended. For more information, call 016-695-4624 or 019-802-2474. (No telephone bookings.)

Romanization of Hanguel

Thanks to a comment on Gdogs Daily Kimchi I found Jin Park's blog. The Winter Sunlight. He is doing research into the Romanization of the Korean alphabet (Hanguel). It's a subject I'm sure a lot of westerners are interested in, so if you'd like to help Mr Park out, check out his blog.

My comment was that one thing the government should do is focus on getting everyone to use the same romanization system everywhere.

It's no good the Korea Herald writing Pusan, while everyone else is calling it Busan.

I understand it took a while to change over to the "new system" released a few years ago, but now you have a system please stick with just the one. Any debate about changing it will just confuse everyone.

Korean is difficult to pronounce because westerners are not familiar with it. The romanization is not the problem, because however we say "Bang" or "Pang" (as in "PC Bang") it never sounds correct to Koreans because the sound of the first syllabale is somewhere between the two.

Go over to his blog more discussion on Romanization.

Travel Journalist required to go to Korea

I just got this in a newsletter from Seoul Selection which may be of interest:

The Magazine Seoul Selection is looking for reporters and writers who can contribute pieces on Seoul's travel and culture scene to major global media.

Seoul Selection is currently bidding for a Seoul Metropolitan Government program to help foreign media cover the city, and we welcome any story suggestions from foreign journalists, regardless of nationality and language.

Selected journalists will come to Seoul for a one-week stay, and be provided with any and all support they require, including airfare, accommodation and interpreters.

Please send your story idea, name of your media company, resume and a story sample to hank < at > seoulselection.com, preferably by Jan 21. Even if we fail to win the bid, we will convey your ideas to the city. If you'd like some assistance with story ideas, please ask by email.

I wish them luck in their presentation.

Naked Korean News and Comedy too

The Japan Times today carries the news that Naked News (NSFW) is launching a Korean version of its popular service. ( The story does not seem to be on their website, and their advanced search option has not been updated to include 2008 so here's the story from Foxnews.com )

In my last post on Korean blogs I mentioned The Yangpa blog without having visited it recently. When I got around to checking it, I discovered that blog has stopped posting, but The Original Yangpa Blog has started posting again. So, update your bookmarks, blog links and news readers to point to the new site to read more about how the new trans Korea canal will sponsored by Chanel:

The previously unnamed canal will be named Le Chanel de Asia OR Chanel no.1,2,3,4, or 6…..pending negotiations.

and the extra E2 visa requirements demanded by some Korean provinces for teachers, including the One minute breath holding requirement.

Another update is that Joe Mondello, previously at Paintroller, has returned to Korea to study and moved his blog from blogger.com to wordpress Joshing Gnome

Another piece of good news for those with Apple MACs is that News Net Wire, the RSS reader, is now available for free. I switched to using Google News reader when my license ran out after the first year because I was planning to use a PC, but moving back to News Net Wire is a big improvement on Google.

Korean Blog Nominations for Bloggies 2008

I got a reminder, a request for nomination actually, from another blogger recently that nominations for the Bloggies 2008 have opened.

I duly nominated them, however you have to submit at least three blogs in total. There is a category for Best Asian Blog, so I had a difficult choice picking my top 3 blogs from Asia.

Should I chose the Marmots Hole probably the best known Korea blog? What about Matt at Gusts of Popular Feeling and James at The Grand Narrative? Mike the MetroPolitician writes strong and impassioned posts trying to get Korea to like foreigners more. He also runs FeetMan Seoul which could certainly be nominated in Best Fashion blog. While RokDrop , DPRK Studies, One Free Korea and Korea Law Blog provide the serious Korean news stories of the day.

Daeguowl at Kimchi for Breakfast continues to amuse with his skiing antics and lets not forget the lady bloggers : Sara at SaraDevil ,Expat Jane and Cat at SeoulLife.

Busan Mike, Stafford the Chosun Bimbo, Kevin the Big Hominid, TorgoDevil the Geek, David Mr Staypuff , Gdog DailyKimchi and Aaron at Idiot's collective have all provided so much details on their lives thoughout the year.

There's several possible candidates for Best Humorous Weblog : Beloved Leader Blog , The YANGPA, Weird Asia News and Asian Off Beat all provide plenty of light relief.

ZenKimchi's food journal would be a possible for the best food weblog, as would Mary Eats who continues to blog about food and Korean things from San Francisco.

Phil at London Korea Links lists so many things relating to Korea going on in England I sometimes think there's more going on there than in Seoul itself.

Web 2.0 Asia and Techno Kimchi are two good blogs written by Koreans on Technology in Asia that I dip into occasionally. They would be candidates for Best Technology blog.

Some recent new K-Bloggers Seoul Buffoon and Kiss My Kimchi would be good candidates for Best New blog.

And then there are the Japanese blogs : Japundit, JapanProbe and Japanbloglist.com are all worthy candidates.

Lost Nomad has sadly stopped posting, we'll miss his fishing stories and caustic comments, but he was never one for these types of competitions anyway.

For the award for Lifetime achievement I feel there can be only nominee Diamond Geezer. Everyday he posts, without fail, a well written, interesting and engaging item on a variety of subjects mostly concerning life in London. Definitely worth a read, even if you know nothing about London.

Who would you nominate?

Nominations close at 10pm EST on Friday Jan 11th 2008, so you don't have much time to get your nomination in. Once the finalists have been chosen voting starts on Jan 22nd and ends on Jan 31st. The winners will not be announced until March 9th.

Just a small bit of advice if you choose to use the nomination webpage: I almost gave up on the form. It kept coming back saying "Please revise your vote and resubmit". It was only after the fifth time that I noticed that the small red box at the bottom was a "re-captcha" and you have to type in the two textually distorted words. My eyes had completely skipped over the box, I had automatically assumed it was an advert.

Googlegangers for Jon Allen

I've been meaning to write about this topic for a while now, and today's news story on the front page of the Japan Times that Googleganger has been chosen as the Most Creative Word of the Year, gives me a lead in.

The American Dialect Society describes Googleganger as "A person who shows up when you google yourself." An activity commonly known as Vanity surfing or Ego Surfing.

I noticed that 10 of visitors to this blog on Dec 25th had arrived as a result of a search for Jon Allen, so I decided to do a bit of vanity surfing myself and I discovered I was the 5th result in the list. I've just repeated the experiment and I'm down to 11th in the list today. So, just to try and increase my Search Engine rating, here's what some of the other Jon Allens do:

Jon Allen The Close Up magician who "Creates astonishment, excitement and powerful memories."

Jon Allen A Singer from Winchester, England.

Jon Allen Professor of Psychiatry at the The Menninger Clinic in Kansas.

Jonathan O. Allen Assistant Professor in the Chemical Engineering Dept at Arizona State University.

Jon Allen Perl Documentation expert.

John Allen Paulos Professor of mathematics at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Jon Allen Canadian diplomat. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Israel since June 14, 2006.

Jon Allen A blogger who says "I’m an Artist and a Writer and a Musician with a healthily unhealthy obsession with music of almost all kinds." from Cambridge England.

Jon Allen Marine Laboratory Director at Bowdoin, undergraduate liberal arts institution in Brunswick, Maine.

And me: Jon Allen Blogger and Banking Application support programmer in Tokyo.

Luckily my googlegangers do not star in adult movies or have other unusual professions! Do you have a Googleganger and what do they do?

Diving in Yap, Micronesia

We've recently come back from a holiday on the tiny island of Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia. It was a three hour flight from Tokyo to Guam, we then had to pass through US Customs and Immigration to make the transfer to the next flight which was only an hour in duration.

This is the traditional Men's House


This Hermit crab found the perfect house


This is another land crab.


The island is famous for Stone Money, infact they have this as their motto on their car numberplates. These huge stones became highly prized objects around the 1800s and were originally transported to Yap over 300 miles by canoe from the island of Palau.



The Island is also famous for Manta Rays. We stayed at a small diving centre on the island called Yap Rize Diving and thanks to the patience and skill of the dive master, Daisuke, we both passed our PADI open water diving certificate. This picture was taken by him and shows two of the many enormous mantas that congregrate at one particular channel just off the coast for cleaning by small fish. During two of our dives we were lucky enough to get close to many of these creatures some over 2m from tip to tip.


To finish, here is a photo of the sunset from the island.

Blogging in Japan

The Japan Times often features bloggers. Today's item was on Brent Warner at Konbini Life blog.

Brent has been writing about some of the interesting and unusual items he's found in Japanese convenience stores (Konbini) since June 2006. Some of his recent finds have been Kiwi Flavoured Kit-Kats, the Moist Smoked Cheese Bar and Bikkle which he describes as "Maybe something like TUMS crushed into liquid form and made drinkable. A bit like drinking bones, in a good way."

According to the Japan Visitor blog there are between 40,000-50,000 konbini stores nationwide. They are renowned for selling all manner of easy to eat items, being open 24hrs, customers browsing the "adult" magazines and being able to pay utility bills . We have one at each end of the road, both are less than three minutes walk away. But we have something even better than that. Almost directly outside our house is a small grocery store run by a very elderly couple. They sell real food, they are always pleased to see us and their prices are no higher than the konbini. They are so sweet, their English is getting better thanks to our frequent purchases, in sharp contrast to our still non existent Japanese language skills.

Saturday's Japan Times item was on how Japanese is the number one language of blogs. A story they also covered before, back in April. Technorati calculated that 37% of the 70 million blogs they monitor are in Japanese and 33% are in English. The newspaper article described one lady who has been blogging every day about what she ate for lunch for three years. She blogs anonymously but she would never dream dream of giving a bad review to a restaurant she had eaten at.

Some previous interviews were with What Japan Thinks and Japan Probe.

In other blogging news : I left a comment on Annie's London Underground blog, which was about sleeping passengers on London's trains needing stickers saying "Wake me at station X". I said :

They need some here in Japan too.
I felt really guilty this week when I saw someone fast asleep on the train coming into Shibuya (the terminal station on my line). Everyone else streamed off after arrival, and then we all streamed on.

He didn't wake up, and no one else who got on, bothered to wake him up, so after 4 minutes the train set off again out of town. He was still blissfully unaware 10 mins later when I got off. I wonder how long before he woke up, poor chap.

I have resolved to always wake up any sleeping passengers at Shibuya from now on.

Someone in Washington DC noticed my comment and it was published in the local free newspaper the Washington Express. Thanks to Heather for spotting that and passing it on.

Seven Natural Wonders of the world

There was lots of publicity about the New Seven wonders of the world recently. Over 100 million people voted for their favorite landmark.

The New Seven Wonders Foundation that ran the poll have just started accepting nominations for their next project The New Seven Wonders of the Natural world.

I've nominated The Grand Tsingy of Bamara in Madagascar. We visited this most incredible rock formation of thousands of limestone pinnacles in 2004. This photo does not do justice to the awesome spectacle.



I also nominated Japan's most revered mountain: Fuji-san, which I have the pleasure of seeing from my office window when the weather is clear.

Nominations must be for a clearly defined natural site or natural monument that was NOT created or significantly altered by humans for aesthetic reasons. Physical or natural phenomena like the northern lights, the gulf stream or shooting stars are not eligible.

The nominees must be one of the following: natural site, natural monument,landscape. There are 15 different categories to select from. If you are very keen, you can organise an official supporting committee to make sure your nomination is able to enter the final round of voting by the world at large.

Since voting, which will commence in 2009, will only be available on the internet or by telephone, this is one competition the Koreans will be very keen to enter. What natural wonder of the world in South Korea or Japan would you nominate?

Seoul on the Jubilee line?

As you may remember, one of my interests is the London Underground, so this map caught my eye:



Thanks to a blog called Strangemaps.The caption reads“This playful diagram shows all the cities which have, are building or are planning to construct an urban rail system. It is the opening page of a new book about the graphic design of subway, metro, underground and U-Bahn system maps and diagrams.”

I like the way the six cities in South Korea with subway systems have been represented as stations on what is the Jubilee line on the London Underground Map and Tokyo is shown at the end of the Central line.

Credit for the map goes to Mark Ovenden, author of the book Transit Maps of the World which was published recently by Penguin USA.

Here's the real London Underground map to compare it with :



Geoff used to have a great collection of spoof London Underground maps, until TFL got the lawyers on to him. Luckily there are plenty of mirror sites of the collection. I wonder what TFL lawyers will have to say about this one?

Update: Thanks to a commenter who said:
The "Urban Rail systems" map was produced with the full support of TfL for the "Transit Maps of the World" book, which is why it was sanctioned to use the official "New Johnston" font (one of only a handful of non London Transport sources ever permitted to use it).

And if you want to hear a great story about what a good bloke Mark the author is, read this story at House of Jules about how much trouble he went to, to get a signed copy of the book to one keen fan.

Update 2: Thanks to Annie at Going Underground Mark Ovenden has a special offer for the first 50 people who buy a new copy of the book through amazon (.co.uk or .com) - a signed copy of the World Metro Map promotional poster for the book.
To qualify for the signed poster simply email a copy of your amazon sales confirmation to poster@markovenden.com and remember to give your postal address.

IT Job with Top Investment Bank in Seoul

I work for a prestigious investment bank that is recruiting IT support staff for the equities trading floor in the heart of Seoul's business district. There are two positions open, they require hands-on support of a wide range of business-critical applications and leading-edge technologies. The roles are varied and dynamic, with the opportunity to manage projects and to be directly involved in IT procurement.

Both roles require good technical skills in a Windows desktop environment. Knowledge of Market Data Systems and Linux experience would be an advantage.
The candidates are also expected to be fluent in English and Korean and to have a good education to at least university degree level.

Please submit your resume here. I guarantee a response within 48 hours.
All applications will be treated with complete confidentiality.
Update: These positions are still available.