Things I Learned This Week
So, rather than preparing to jet off on a holiday of a lifetime to Japan, this week I am nursing an ankle injury that will prevent said holiday. 2 years of meditation and reading untold amounts of books about non-attachment and the likes are furiously being put to the test to quell my rage. Alas, it’ll be ok. Japan isn’t going anywhere. I think.
As I’ve sat here, immobile, taking in copious amounts of World Cup and Wimbledon, I’ve learned a number of important lessons:
- Get Travel Insurance
- R.I.C.E.
- Japanese people are impossibly polite about hotel cancellations.
In between the sports and the seering pain, I have also discovered a number of fascinating things:
- People in Iceland do not take their surnames from their parents surnames, rather they take their fathers first name, then affix -sson or -dóttir (for son or daughter), so for instance, Jónsson literally means “son of Jon”. (via Wikipedia)
- In Korea, and other East Asian countries, new borns begin at age 1, and age is incremented on the Lunar New Years Day. It’s called the East Asian Age Reckoning system.
- There is a dating agency for married people who want to have affairs. (via Kottke)
I have also reacquainted myself with the adventures of Bergerac, and discovered the health-promoting neon lunacy that is Children’s TV favourite LazyTown.