I LOVE SOUTH KOREA, REALLY

Yesterday, UniqueDaily.com picked up my recent post called "My Life in Frosting." I got a kick out of seeing a thumbnail image of my sister and I at age six alongside pictures of subjects such as Snoop Dogg getting high, Bob Saget, and a woman with a leopard skin fetish. (Here's what I'm talking about.)
Shortly thereafter, web behemoth eBaum's World followed suit with a tiny link...

(close up. third one down.)

..that has yielded a huge spike in traffic. (I estimate 25,000 unique visitors by the end of today). Obviously, eBaum's gets visitors from everywhere, including Japan. Thus a Japanese blog picked up the post...

Once again I found it interesting to see my four-year-old self being blogged about in such a distant culture. A true internet moment. So out of curiosity I used babbelfish to get a rough translation of the post. Note the part that I highlighted..

"From 1 year old of a certain home the birthday cake up to 22 years old the picture of home and the friend who surround that. (15 - Because the fact that it is not 21 up to year old perhaps was adolescence kana w) Very the happy scenery. It is what, the bosom oak ��ou remember the time of your own child. The true happy �� lever it is the kana which is feeling.
The cake of 14 years old being too radical why.
Properly, the mother the �� �� speaking lastly, thank you �� is what, it can cry. You wanted to appreciate it cannot appreciate in the parent. "

The overall gist of the comment seems to be a favorable one, but my heart sank a little when I remembered my "radical" 14 year photo...

It's a group of American teens taking aim at a South Korean flag of course. (see the original post for an explanation.) Ah, it's both amusing and disturbing to think about this ridiculous 20-year-old photo that was taken in my mom's kitchen being pondered by a Japanese blogger; especially considering the historically troubled relationship between the two countries.

So to set the record straight I offer this simple message to South Korea..

나는 남한 및 일본을 사랑한다
(I love South Korea and Japan.)

And here's one for you Japan...

私は日本及び南朝鮮を愛する
(I love Japan and South Korea.)

Well, I think that takes care of everything for now. Disaster averted. Man, if only those toy guns would have had little orange barrel caps.