the gallery
Yonotsune Gallery is an online creative space which aims to share, inspire, and provide a venue for people to showcase their creative output. All exhibits are curated by a.m. cortez and collaborated on with the people involved.
yo no tsu ne
Yo-no-tsu-ne is a Japanese term meaning daily life; way of the world; law of averages; run-of-the-mill; usual; customs of the world; ordinary. Yo means the world, society, or human beings in the relationships between them while tsune means both infinity and ordinariness.
spaces in nonplaces
Given my love for photography, this actually started out as an idea to set up an online photography gallery to showcase my work and that of inspiring people around me. However, the idea of an online photography gallery later branched out to cover all forms of creative output. On the internet, space is not a problem. The lack of physical space is not a problem either - instead the fluidity and convenience it offers only works to our advantage.
This is not a place to debate about what is and what is not art. Instead, we are here to dwell on creativity and communicate through images and sound. This is a place where blank spaces are just as important as the filled up ones, and where geography is the least of our worries. So many wonderful things are going on in different parts of the world, we can only hope to witness a fraction of it.
- amc
Coming soon.
You know when you wake up in the morning, you stay 30 minutes more in bed and when there’s no meaning to sleeping more you take your phone or prop your laptop up on your chest and check your e-mail and every other social networking media… Then you finally decide to get up.
You boil a pot of water and wash your face. While lathering bubbles on you realise… What’s the rush? It’s the weekend. So you go back over to where the pot is, bubbles still on your face, and wait for it to boil. Steam comes out, you go back to the toilet to finish rinse the soap off. You make yourself a pot of tea, feeling brand new and clean. Now, this is Japanese green tea you’re making so you cool down the water a bit, pour it into the pot, count for 40 seconds, swirl the pot around six times, then pour the tea out. You put on nice morning music while sipping your tea.
But the music stops just after one song and only your freshly washed face feels brand new – no big realisations today, it’s just another Saturday morning.
Isn’t it kind of weird how we can completely identify with a particular brand? Clothes brands in particular which sell an array of items from underpants to sparkly tops. (Or should I say ‘lifestyle’ brands.) Consumerism is sickening but at the same time, the idea that someone out there (who wants to make money) ‘gets’ you is rather comforting. Muji did it and they did it so well that not a lot of people even bitch about how they’re actually on the pricey side. The Gap was more of a fad, an icon of a generation that seemed to have matured on to more recent brands – or something like a quintessential *phase*. You know, the quintessential preppy girl or guy in American culture perhaps. Or, something that I can personally attest to: the quintessential freshman university student from an East Asian country at Waseda University’s SILS. (This is a story I’ll save for later.)
I suddenly started talking about (The) Gap because I was there today – in between trying to figure out what to get my mum for Christmas and watching sales associates folding clothes. It suddenly dawned on me that I must be entering a ‘Gap’ phase of my life. Not that I own a lot of things from the Gap (I used to, back when it was the only place my aunt went to to shop for gifts.) In fact, I only own one trusty black shirt from them. (It’s of rather good quality, I must say.)
Somehow, the denim shirts and khaki pants, textured cotton tank tops and silk shorts made me feel warm and fuzzy. Now, isn’t it even more weird how you can identify with a brand but not really own a lot from them? Nah, it’s not really that odd. I guess, above all, it just shows that there are hundreds of other people in the world who try to live their life like you do.
Friday nights are for partying, Saturdays for relaxing, and Sundays for being lonely. I do recommend this as it’s simple and makes for a logical progression of emotions – which sounds silly but if you think about it, it makes sense as well. Although you’d pretty much tire of this pattern after a month and perhaps swap it with Friday night with relaxing, Saturdays for lazing around, and Sundays…
Sundays are always lonely. I used to fight this back all the time and go for walks, hang out with a good friend, or go shopping – which is the most detrimental out of all the “cures” I’ve tried so far. Either fight it back or make myself even more sad just to see if it can get any worse. However, last weekend, I seem to have given up and just kept it at that. A steady level of sadness which wasn’t overwhelming nor annoyingly trickling down my spine in the littlest doses.
So this went on throughout the day until I found myself sitting in the living room – where I normally can be found living, quite literally, in an eat-study-eat-doze-eat-sleep pattern. I was sitting there trying to decide where to go for my holidays. It was a choice between a rendezvous with old friends in Korea, a nostalgia trip to Japan to meet up with exchange year friends, or somewhere nearby but totally new like Fiji or Papua New Guinea. I would convince myself from one day to the next that one plan is better than the other and that particular night I was convinced I should just go to Papua New Guinea.
I haven’t travelled to a new place in the last 5 years. Instead, I kept going back to Japan or Korea. Korea was understandable but now I don’t really have to go back there. But Japan. I lived in Japan for nearly 6 years, went back for exchange, and have gone back and forth for vacation. If I go there again, nothing would probably happen except for temporary joy in meeting friends. Yes, it would recharge me but in a different kind of way – no new stimulus, nothing new to see, the same old haunts. And then I decided, as abrupt as when a pressure cooker top spins and whistles off, to spring clean my life. How thematic, spring just started over here.
By deciding for myself that I’ve been in a rather unhealthy love affair with Japan for too long, I felt like I was – beware this is quite cheesy – turning a new leaf. It will always be home given how I spent a significant part of my life there but at this stage I should have my mind made up already. Either I take that big leap and move my life there or let go and explore new places, find out about other things… and all those romantic notions about life and a delayed coming-of-age in the midst of a quarter-life crisis.
So that’s about it for spring cleaning my life. It’s just one swift move, but a big one at that. We can’t just absorb every new thing, we have to learn to make room for new things. 
Wow this site is nearly a year old. Time to back up files because I might be closing it down… hmm it depends.
Life has been good and bad lately. I think my biggest challenge is managing my phone bill and stop using the internet on it. (I obviously wanted to say managing my finances but I don’t really have any problems managing my finances apart from paying for my mobile phone bill.) I don’t even want to think about how much I’ve spent on excess fees so far because with that money I could’ve gotten an ipad2 instead or something. FML.
Apologies for such a brainless post but yes just showing that I’m still alive!
Photo courtesy of Remika who saw this panda in Hong Kong and said it reminded her of me.
I am heaps sorry for not being able to update. But then again, I’m not sure I really do have regular readers apart from friends (who I have to threaten into reading/subscribing to my blog). I’ve been in panda mode with regards to updating the website and this blog but have been incredibly busy (in a fulfilling way!) with real life. First off, my family moved houses sometime last month and we now have a beautiful backyard that I can roll around in while watching the sky. I kid you not, it feels like lying under a sky in a Ghibli movie.
No those are not my (hairy) feet.
I’ve pretty much adjusted to life in Sydney as well. I no longer find it lonely, mainly because I’ve found partners in crime (read: getting Korean food in the middle of the night, for the most part.) Volunteering at the Korean Cultural Office is also heaps of fun! Come every Thursday night for free movie screenings and munchies after the movie. I’ll give you an extra pack of cookies to bring home if you come by and say hello hohoho. (Of course, I am in no position to give away extra packs of whatever but since I am a self-proclaimed guardian of the tea and cookies…. Yeah.)
My roomie in BBQ City. Every impulse dinner out ends in gluttonous regret and home work out videos of desperation.
I’ve also been working for one of the best, if not THE best, boss ever. Gone are the days of part-time jobs just to occupy my time. I’ve finally managed to step up and find a job that will challenge me, push me to do better, and teach me a lot of things about business and the real world. I promise I’m not writing this just because I’m afraid my boss might suddenly decide to check out my blog (hahaha HELLO! 
) and see what I’ve been saying.
Quite coincidentally, getting this job makes me think that I might be meant to go into business. First off, my family has always been into running its own business, my dad also happens to be a frustrated entrepreneur, and recently, getting into Vibewire has inspired me to start my own enterprise while I’m still young… or young-ish. Well we’ll see what happens. Yesterday I was so sure I’m meant to marry a vineyard owner’s son go into the wine industry, and today I think I should run my own shop similar to Rag Tag. Tomorrow I might decide to illegally export exotic parrots out of the Philippines. (Ha ha I know it’s not funny, kids, illegal animal import/export is despicable… If you suspect your neighbout has one, report it to authorities.)
Lunch with friends who came down from Newy + me after a night of drinks and watching football in a pub + no sleep. Next time you see me wearing a hoodie two days in a row, it only means one thing...
WAIT…. WHY HAVE I BEEN UPDATING ABOUT MY LIFE.
Because there is nothing else worth updating about 
I do have exciting news though! Let’s congratulate RJ and his baby, In An Instax, for breaking the 10,000 hits/visits barrier in such a short amount of time!!! Woohoo. Stay tuned to his website for more instaxed pretties from the Philippine Fashion Week. He’s now on vacation in Seoul though, harassing the Korean population to pose for him so he can instax them.
Even divas eat street food. RJ on a break from harassing people for photos <3 (Photo from RJ's friend)
So I’ll end this post with this lovely photo above. Please don’t forget to check out the latest exhibit up on Yonotsune, Keith Kong comes back with a diptych collaboration with Kuma! Hopefully a fun and sort-of-interactive exhibit will come this June 
PS
I just realised that this post has too much Korea in it. I feel sorry but I assurey ou that my next post will be more culturally balanced haha.