St. Patrick's Day

March 17 is known as "St. Patrick's Day." For the traditions, you can figure out on History Channel.

St. Patrick's Day (from History Channel)
http://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day/videos

Originally, this tradition is related to Irish culture, but St. Patrick was not from Ireland.

By the way, what kind of green products do you wear? In the United States, some major league baseball teams wears green caps on their games.

Here is a list for "Green" that you can try on the streets:

Comic Heroes:
There are some comic heroes specialized for Green such as Green Lantern and Green Arrow. Maybe these are not related to St. Patrick, but it's effective as a fun.

Green Beer:
This is a tradition in the world. Especially, in the Irish bar, they provide green beer. The Irish Pubs are maybe crazy from this Saturday to Sunday.

If you want to try Homemade Green Beer, Check this:
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Green-Beer
(Is it healthy?)


Conned Beef & Cabbage
This is the traditional dish. The recipe is different from families.
http://www.history.com/videos/corned-beef-and-cabbage#corned-beef-and-cabbage
http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/corned-beef-and-cabbage/50090.html

I remember Heinz released "EZ Squirt" years ago. It had some colors. One of the colors is "Green." In fact, EZ Squirt is a tomato ketchup. (Update: EZ Squirt is discontinued in 2006.)

"American Idiot" (2004)

By Green Day

"Green Day" is not related to this St. Patrick day. However, like this song, when many Irish people come across the Atlantic Ocean centuries ago, they were a kind of pioneers. They might have a little similarity with this song.

Now Irish people have big communities in the United States. In 5th Avenue in New York, there is the big parade near the St. Patrick Cathedral. In Chicago, Chicago river becomes green every year.

In 2013, this St. Patrick's Day is on the weekend. Maybe there are lot of crazy guys on the street.

Travel Tips: Context

Have you ever heard about "Context?" Context is one of the most important elements when we communicate with people. This also works on the business situations.

"Context" indicates the way of communication between people. People believe American people are openly talk to everyone. However, Japanese people tend not to talk everything, but keep their thought on their mind. People in Europe tend directly to talk and make their original network, but Asian people tend to make a group to stay, act, and follow the own rules in the group.

These are very significant differences when people walk around the world. For many people, they don't stay for a long time. They only face the honeymoon phase. They accept all the happening as the culture gap, enjoy with the new culture, and come back to their daily lives. However, on business, people go to other countries for a long time, this can be a fatal problem. In the worst case, they become a kind of mental illness.

Here is an interesting homepage about "context." You can test yours, and figure out what do you tend to behave.

Context of Cultures: High and Low

Here is one song related to strangers.

"Englishman in New York" (1987)

By Sting

Here is one more for Jamaican "Jamaican in New York" by Shinehead. Both songs indicate the culture gaps between countries very much. 

Personally, I don't believe this kind of knowledge is important before you travel because knowing this makes your impression of the world a little small. However, if you feel something a trouble on your way, possibly, this is one of the solution.