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Comics compilation by Kazuhide Ichigawa(市川和秀). Various affairs were portrayed in this book: those of between sports team mates, between colleagues and so on.

Original title is "同性パートナー生活読本―同居・税金・保険から介護・死別・相続まで", which means "Same sex partner life handbook : from living together, tax and insurance to care, bereavement and inheritance". I bought this book while I was visiting Tokyo two years ago. The book is written by a Japanese gay activist, I suppose. I hope for a Korean version of this book, 'cause laws are different per countries.

Recently, I had a chance to visit Japan briefly. During the stay, I took very very short time off to visit Convoy , one of the Japanese rainbow shops, which sells new goods and used goods. Below are the books I found. I can't say that I bought them at very cheap price. At Amazon market place, they sell these books at extremely low price. But they usually don't ship used goods to other countries. I am not sure if Japanese seller are not familiar with selling goods overseas or they are just reluctant because they think that they have to use English when to sell things overseas. Not like sellers in Japan, there are many sellers who are willing to ship things overseas. For example I have bought several times from the sellers of Amazon UK or Amazon US. Anyway, it's not easy for me to buy these used goods from Japanese sellers. They usually don't ship items overseas. I am not sure if proxy shipping service companies would dispatch these gay-related items , ...

Project Woong, group of Korean gay comic writers, released their 6th compilation recently. The book is also called "Project Woong". Woong means 'bear'. This book is filled with gay bear comics and illustrations and one novel. There are many BL comics and novels. But these are usually done by woman writers and for woman readers. Realistic comics and novels are so hard to find. So it means a lot this talented group keeps on releasing its work annually.

Like a Virgin(Chun-ha-jang-sa Madonna, which means "Madonna, the champion of Korean Wrestling") will be released soon as Bluray Disc. Chun-ha-jang-sa means the most powerful man under the sky. But in Korea, it also means the champion of Korean wrestling, Ssirem(see the painting above). The main character is a high school boy who wants to be a woman. He secretly loves his Japanese teacher(played by one of the most famous Japanese Idol stars, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi), has to deal with his troubled father and earn the money to become a woman. He hears the news that the prize money for the Ssireum championship for high school students is big enough to cover the money for surgery to become a woman. And he enlists himself as the newest member of Ssirem team in his high school. When I watched the movie in the theater, I got so moved the way the directors portrayed the main character. All the episodes seemed so real. Good to hear that they release this good piece of work as ...

Suk-chun Hong is the first out Korean celebrity. After his coming out in 2000, he was banned from TV for 3 years. But he survived it and became owner of many famous restaurant in Itaewon(one strict of Seoul where there are many gay places), father to his nephew and niece(he adopted his sister's siblings after she got divorced) and iconic figure in Korean queer community. He appeared one of the famous talk shows, Healing Camp recently and shared his love story, the reason of coming out and how he dealt with the result. He got emotional several times during the show but he also shared his experiences which many Korean gay people can relate to, I suppose.

Queer shotfilms cumming soon??? Gae-bong-bak-du(開封迫頭) means "coming soon" in Korean(chinese). Gay-bong-bak-du is Korean short queer films which were filmed by non-professional gay directors who used smart phones or DSLR cameras in filming. Last Saturday, I had a chance to watch the films at Korea University. I can't say that the movies are well-crafted but they're inspiring and lovable. After the films, some of the directors gathered to answer to the questions from the crowd. One of the directors was Byun-chun who is also a famous comic writer (see ansgel*crazy). It was a very rare chance to watch these kinds of short films. I hope there will be more and more chances and more films from now on.