The DMZ and some lighter stuff

I have a new phrase in Korean!  It’s a phrase I try to learn in every language right after, “It’s all good” and “Hello”.  “I don’t speak Korean” is “Nanen Hangugmal mot hamnida”.  Translating is a challenge so I have to Romanize it to remember phrases. I don’t have a Korean keyboard option but I am trying to learn to read it.  It is really not so hard.  I actually read a sign today to find out where we were and figured it out!  Problem was that even though I read it I still had no idea where we were.  I went to the DMZ yesterday, and no matter what they say on the news, it wasn’t my fault. I followed the instructions to the T and didn’t talk to, gesture toward, make eye contact with or break anything on the list of rules toward the KPA soldiers.  What had happened was, while I was standing there on the North Korea side of the zone taking pictures of the soldiers per se and of South Korea, my glasses slipped down a little so I pushed them back up with my finger.  Apparently the use of my middle finger for glasses pushing was misconstrued as a threat.  Can you believe it?  Well to make matters worse a gnat flew into my eye and I blinked that one eye right into the surveillance camera and that got everybody’s attention!  Fortunately South Korea was not too far to run back across, but those Northerners, in my estimation, are wa-a-a-ay too uptight.  Needless to say I am no longer welcome in North Korea.  That’s okay though because their attitude sucks anyway.  After I get back home, I might just send their leader a bottle of Jack Daniels, a handful of Xanax and a  friendly card telling him to chill the heck out. The South Korean (ROK) and American soldiers, were awesome to watch.  They did not flinch a muscle and were very disciplined and professional.  I had to sign wavers that said blah blah… death or injury… hostile territory… hold harmless in the event of… blah blah. In spite of the wavers though I felt very safe and well guarded.  My hat’s off not only to the brave US troops who guard that tense border, but also to the ROK soldiers who stand their post staring the enemy in the eye from a distance of only 2-3 meters.  The position they stand in is called ROK Ready and they look it; that’s a modified Taekwondo stance.  A black belt in martial arts, mainly Taekwondo, is one of the requirements for this job. Well after all that I needed something to eat and took off to a little restaurant for some more of that awesome SamYeTang (Ginseng Chicken Soup) and soju followed by a long walk in a steady rain the one time I didn’t take my umbrella, capping off a great day. Today I had planned to go to one of those doctor fish pedicure places and have the rough spots nibbled off my feet by miniature piranhas, but as it turns out I couldn’t get a recommendation to good one. Most of the people I talked to, both American and Korean, convinced me that any place around here is probably not very sanitary and therefore not a very good idea.  Maybe in Seoul or Daegu they said.  Maybe I will pass.  Thing is that here it costs less than a beer and in the States it costs a little more than an iPad.  So I went shopping and walking instead and found a red shirt and a great hat that says boldly across the front REEP. That made my day!  Hopefully next weekend will be something to write about too.  I am spending it in Seoul (not for a fish pedicure)…again. So far it’s been worth it everytime.
These pictures in order from top to bottom, right to left are The DMZ conference room with North Koreans pointing and signaling to us (note the ROK Ready stance, one with only half of his body exposed beyond the wall), a KPA soldier standing outside the window behind a ROK soldier, Paradise/Propoganda Village (a mock village set up to "show" the South Koreans the beauty of living in the north with their 600 pound, 160 meter high flag which cannot wave except in typhoon winds.  The village is empty buildings without floors or walls.  The flag was erected because they were mad when South Korea erected a flag 100 meters tall), me and some statues at a park outside the 3rd tunnel dug by the North in an effort to penetrate into the South, my new hat!, and me playing too close

추석 weekend

So I was thinking a few days ago how the time goes by so fast and I had a moment of feeling sad that my time here will come to an end. I didn’t let it bother me for more than a few minutes because there is so much yet to do while I am still here. This weekend is the beginning of the Korean holiday of Chuseok (that’s phonetic or something; it’s pronounced Chew-Sock). The holiday actually is Monday and Tuesday, and we Americans get the day off on Monday. A sweet 3-day weekend twice in a row. I went into Seoul again on Saturday and visited Gyeongbokgung. ‘Gung’ means palace so I didn’t say it twice, although it would have saved the space of my explanation if I had, but since I am not paying for this space, 괜찮아요. Translating from English to Korean language is tough because a lot doesn’t translate perfectly and all of our colloquialisms get seriously lost in translation. Back to the point: The palace area was HUGE with big pavilions and buildings and a museum scattered across a large landscape in downtown Seoul.  I wandered from there to an area called Insadong which was rife with nice shops mixed with souvenir shops and craft kiosks.  It was also very crowded but not as much as the tourist targeted Namdaemun Market. Such a throng! I met up with my new awesome friend SangYeop and went to the N Seoul Tower.  The N is kind of a mystery thing although it stands for Namsan which is the name of the hill it stands on.  We got there after sunset so it was all lit up and by the time we went up to the observation deck the city was all lit up in all directions. Amazing to see the sprawl of such a big city, bigger even than Pensacola; over 10 million in the city proper and over 24 million in the greater metro area. For reference purposes Pensacola has about 53K. Seoul is about 20 times the population of Atlanta and is bigger than New York and Tokyo by a couple million each. We ate a side street diner and then had beers after wandering the labyrinthine alleys.  I still don’t have a good grip on the chopsticks here (pun intended) because they are metal so when they are wet it is kind of hard to pick stuff up, especially if it is also wet.  I look drunk trying to eat with them falling out of my hands, dropping food in my lap and poking myself in the eye, but fortunately I had a deft artisan of metal chopstick manipulation who coached me and kept me from hurting myself. The next day I went to the Korean War Memorial which is a pretty impressive and expansive museum of Korean War history (not just the one the USA was involved in). After coffee and market exploration, I finally forced myself onto the train to my homestead an hour back upstream. Despite the overcast sky and the extensive walking, it was a great weekend.  Today I chill, iron clothes for the workweek and spend a little me-time reading and vegging out, thinking about life, love and renaissance and looking forward to my next adventure to the DMZ and the doctor fish. 



The 한국 adventure begins...

It's been a long time since my last post, but then again I was home in Pcola and working at NAS so there was not much of particular interest to write about except that I did remodel another room replacing carpet with tile, lost a few pounds, turned 50, blah, blah, blah. So now I am in to the Korea experience by about 10 days and not to sound redundant, but I love it. It is always a huge culture shock to go somewhere that expects manners, where stealing is just rude and everyone is so darn helpful and outgoing. As with every place I have been I have been treated great. The first weekend I went to Soyosan (Soyo Mountain) and hiked up with Jessica, the consultant I replaced. It started off easy enough but then came the steps climbing and more climbing, then the steps were replaced by rocks to climb over with intermittent steps, a little more grueling than my Nikes were ready to handle. The view from the top though, made the climb worthwhile, even if I set my water down and somebody grabbed it to pour on their head to cool off. Later somebody else made up for it by giving me and Jessica a Snickers bar. Supposedly there is a monastery farther up and down and back up where the successful climbers may be treated to a nice veggie lunch. So that is on my itinerary for another day. I have been to Seoul twice, staying this weekend overnight with my friend Loren from Pensacola. He speaks Korean and introduced me to some of his friends. Starting with the Photography Club we went to the Namsangol Hanok Village, a traditional Korean heritage center where Loren and I dressed up like Emperors and took pictures around the park…two separate activites. After a coffee break we went to his apartment and got ready for a night out. Sparing the details I can sum it up with soju, food, excellent company, more food and beverage and then an early morning Karaoke party. Staying out til the sun came up was not part of the plan, then again we really didn’t have a plan. Of course with Korean friends now I kind of have to start learning Korean – yet another language for me to slaughter to the amusement of the locals. Next weekend is the Korean holiday of Chuseok, which everybody have pretty much summed up as a Korean Thanksgiving. Actually it is their own holiday and has to do with everyone going home and playing traditional games and eating traditional food while honoring their ancestors. I guess the thing that makes it like Thanksgiving is that there’s a lot of food and everybody is on the road for the long weekend. We Americans get to have a long weekend too which is pretty awesome. I will most likely be in Seoul again.

The pictures are Soyosan, a restaurant serving food in the cold creek, squid (your choice) for dinner, taekwondo exhibition, Namsangol Hanok, and me and Loren throwing hands.

地震！

I am kind of at a loss for appropriate words for my final Japan blog entry. It was an awesome experience for 8 weeks. I got to indulge the full scope of what Japan has to offer. Of course I couldn’t hit all the must see zones, but I think I did pretty well. As I looked through my tourist book, I guess the biggest thing that is not in the guide books is the 5^th biggest earthquake in history! I thought it was well advised there that they encourage people to put together an “Oh Shit Kit” in case of a disaster. I put one together and fortunately was not in a position to need it when the big one rolled in. I spent my last couple of weeks in and around Tokyo and a day at Enoshima, down on the coast. I spent a day with my mom who came to visit with friends, the Anzai family, from 45 years ago. We got to hang out with the family, including all of their “kids” who are around my age. I thought it might be hard to connect or find things to talk about, but it came as naturally as it did all those years ago. It was very generous of them to take time off from work responsibilities in the middle of the greatest crisis Japan has had in a long time, to visit me. I won’t go on about that. I have posted here a few hilarious signs that I had to photograph ( I never thought of McDonald’s as a dining bar). What a country to put a liquor shop in a vending machine. As you can tell, I love Udon, especially when they throw in tempura veggies and serve a bottle of sake. This is also a picture of the Anzai Family, plus me and mom (we are the white ones). Also a picture of Mt. Fugi from Tokyo with the sun setting behind it – the picture is nowhere near as breath-taking as actually being there. So I finished Japan and I will miss it, in many ways. Now home for while with probably nothing interesting to blog about. At least I hope so. Between the blizzards, volcanoes, traffic accidents, tea with HRM the Queen, earthquake and tsunami, I need a break.

Kyoto, not Tokyo

Time definitely flies when you’re having fun. I have been here for a little over 6 weeks and only have 2 more to go. It is nice to have that extra couple of weeks to get in a little more sightseeing and cultural exposure. Last weekend I went to Kyoto from Saturday through Monday to hang out with my tomodachi Shelley from Hawaii. I started off with the 15 minute predawn power-walk to the train station and station hopping to Yokohama where I caught the bullet train (shinkansen) to Kyoto. It is amazing how smooth a 200 mph train ride can be. The city is chock full of castles, shrines and temples. You can literally run into them at almost every corner. Winding our way through a massive cemetery we came across a small but ornate wooden shrine with no people around. It was awesome. So was wandering through the Gion area and seeing the occasional maiko (geisha). I almost tripped over one of them too. We had an excellent weekend of hiking, eating, exploring. It helps a lot to be in a place where the bus and train timetable actually means something. If the train is arriving at 0646 and leaving at 0648 you can pretty much set your watch by it. The only real complaint I have about Japan is the stress of driving. It seems to be the one part of Japanese life that is random, haphazard and dangerous. As a driver you are pretty much at fault in every situation. If a shopper darts out into the street and gets hit, it’s the driver’s fault. If a moped gets knocked over while passing you on the left in the two-foot wide space between car and curb as you execute a left turn, it’s the driver’s fault. If some kid in a miniskirt and stiletto heels rides her bike through an intersection in the rain with headphones on, an umbrella in one hand, one hand on the wheel and her cell phone pinched between her shoulder and cheek and runs into you, it’s the driver’s fault. Drivers have to stop at the stop line a good 10-15 feet before an intersection, even though the corner is a blind corner due to the building that stretches up from 2 feet off the street and has a tree planted in the remaining 2 feet. You have to stop at the line and hope that nobody pulls up to the other blind corner at the same time, otherwise you have to wait for the police and then as the foreigner, it’s your fault. If anyone is hurt, the driver is expected to pay a condolence visit with cash money (yen) in enough hand to apologize adequately and act so humble as to convince the victim not to sue you (aka: a bribe). Yeah driving is kind of tense. Thank goodness for sa-ke and massages.

Of Samurai, Soba and T-Shirts

Okay, I don’t normally do two blog posts in one day, but I am compelled to on this day. I saw Mt. Fuji today for the first time since I have been here. The tallest mountain in Japan, it is breath-taking even from a great distance. Fuji-san in Japanese, the san is not honorific, but I think it should be. Today was clear as any day I can remember, especially considering yesterday was practically a whiteout. I went to Odawara Castle today. I thought, “castles in Japan?” Sure, and with the long history of ninjas and shoguns and samurai, why not? It strikes an interesting nerve in my American heart when I see Ninja throwing stars in a museum instead of at Spencer’s in the mall and samurai swords preserved on the grounds of a castle instead of as somebody’s living room décor. I am used to seeing it as dramatic theatrical hype, not as a long and illustrious history. Wow. Japan. Here I am. Nihon. 日本. The highest number of vending machines per capita in the world. The hot coffee is almost as good as Starbucks and ¼ the price. Seriously, I walked out of the onsen last night and smack into a machine offering me beer, water or sports drinks. I selected a sports drink after having spent 2 hours getting steamed, and walked out onto the street to see two machines begging me to having a cigarette for ½ the price of the U.S. Today, it was a tough choice between espresso or tomato basil soup, but in the end I chose the espresso (even though I heard the soup is a-ma-zing). This has nothing to do with vending machines, but I ordered Sukiyaki at a restaurant and got a gas grill with a bowl on top. Then they lit the grill and brought me all the stuff to cook on it, plus rice, plus soup, plus salad. It was crowded on that little table and the sake made everything kinda get in the way AND I had to cook it myself. What a concept! That’s twice I have paid well for a meal and had to cook it myself. Whatever. I am not complaining, but I am once again struck by cultural differences and things we all take for granted. I see little, little kids handling chopsticks like I never will. They use chop sticks at KFC for Pete’s sake! I haven’t even looked into the McDonald’s but I imagine McUdon and McKatsu (I have seen McShwarma and McTurca, so there must be). It took me 2 hours to eat a bowl of soba kare nandan today with chopsticks, and those were soba. Imagine my experience eating rice noodles in sukiyaki with chopsticks. Maybe I am talking about very foreign things, but I find myself asking, “What the…” a lot. I am not dismayed or disgruntled at all. I am awed! And I love it that I am in a place where everytime I do something wrong like dropping my washcloth into the onsen bath, bending over to pick it up, walking through the wrong stile at the train station, or not slurping my udon with enough enthusiasm, there are people standing by, smiling and bowing, trying to help me feel at home. And T-shirts! Damn! All that and a dancing monkey. Sorry, I just had a little rant in me.

赤ちゃんは、それが外に寒い

I guess I have gotten off kind of lucky as far as weather. We have had some cold days, but not as cold as my friends in the States. Days mostly in the 40s and nights dipping into the 20s. This past weekend we got some snow here in Zama, about 2” although it snowed heavily for about 12 straight hours. I went to Hakone, near Mt. Fuji and in the higher elevations like Gora and Owakudani there was 8” and it fell all day long. So much for the weather report. I feel like I am not taking as many pictures these days, but maybe I am starting to realize that a gigabyte of photos don’t really tell the story. Maybe if I was “press” or a professional photographer staging photo shoots, they would be more interesting. I enjoy looking back at pix but I know everybody else doesn’t enjoy looking at 700 pictures of a place they haven’t been. I went shopping last weekend at the 100 Yen store (Everything’s A Dollar) and that was fun. Then there are the Department Stores. Every department is a separate store, like a vertical mall. Restaurants are stacked on top of one another, several stories high, but I ended up eating at a Sushi-Go-Round. The picture explains it all. What it doesn’t show is the baby octopus, the various roe and the stuff that is indiscernible and most unattractive to my Floridian eyes. I will leave it at that, but it was cold outside the tea was hot and the salmon, tuna and other odds and ends were delicious. This weekend I went to Hakone, famous for the volcanic hot springs. I rode the cable car to Gora Park and the ropeway to Owakudani (Hell Valley – a hot and steamy volcanic crater). I ate black eggs cooked in the thermal springs that are supposed to add 7 years to your life. I ate five. Then after taking the bus back to Hakone I went to my first onsen, a Japanese experience which I intend to repeat, and sat in the hot springs with occasional strolls in the cold night air in between soaks. Nice and minerally. I had to locate it using Kanji script (Japanese writing) and that was kind of fun too. Here are a some pics. I did take a few at the onsen, but as you might guess the steam made the pictures very steamy. Interestingly a lot of people wear surgical masks here. I thought it was to keep from catching the flu, but learned that it’s also to keep from spreading germs which would be rude behavior. I kind of enjoy the polite culture here, and will miss it when I go home.

...thinking about Japan

Sometimes life throws some pretty interesting curves at you. In the last few years I learned the value of real friendship. I learned valuable lessons about people and character. I saw my son become a Marine, deploy to Afghanistan, and return. I have seen my family and two friends make great sacrifice for their country for a return that may not make up for the losses. I have been to Georgia, Oklahoma, Washington DC, North Carolina and Hawaii. I have been to Jordan, Israel, Germany, England, Turkey and now Japan. I have been stranded by blizzards and volcanoes. I can say “Hello” and “Where is the bathroom?” in 6 languages. I am not sure why I write this except that it dawns on me from time to time how small we are and how little we know. I can recall some of those breath-taking moments over the last few years and although people ask me where is your favorite place of all you have visited; I have to say I don’t know. How do you compare the Kamakura Daibutsu (pictured here) with Julius Caesar at Stratford-Upon-Avon? Or Petra with Masada? Or Canterbury Cathedral with St Peter’s Church in Antioch? I don’t think you can. So here I find myself reflecting on my day at Kamakura with a glass of Suntory in hand (yes it’s real- not just made for the movies). I had lunch at a tiny self-hibachi style restaurant. They brought the veggies and noodles and I cooked ‘em on the table where I was sitting. That and a bottle of Kamakura Beer…mm-mmm! I went wandering through the former capital of Japan finding the oldest (800 year old) Zen Temple in Japan and assorted Shinto Shrines. I even said to Doreen, my traveling partner for the day, “We are in JAPAN!” She didn’t seem to appreciate the hard slap on the back when I said it but I think she echoed the sentiment. Even the words Toilet or Smoking Area seem pretty cool when I see them written in Japanese. Anyway here are a few pix for your entertainment. From the top: a couple posing for formal pictures at Meijijingu Shrine; Kencho-ji the oldest Zen Temple; Hachi-mangu Shinto shrine in Kamakura; Kamakura Giant Buddha (second largest in Japan and hollow inside. I went in); these ladies were stopping in front of and praying for every business in Kamakura. The video should speak for itself.