동대문, 한우, 그리고 긴 밤

I have become a little bit spoiled I suppose. I had Loren in Seoul to hang out with and show me around, introducing me to new people and experiences. Before that, in Tokyo there were the Anzai’s and Fran and Dennis. Now thinking ahead to Misawa, I don’t know what I am going to do. Maybe just go back to old fashioned way of meeting people. I have been fortunate though. It’s pretty cool to have friends all over the world, especially the ones I have. This was my last real weekend in Korea and although a little sad, and despite the torrential rains, I managed to have a great time. After a very wet Friday, I thought it was going to clear up, but after meeting Ann
and Francie for coffee in Myeongdong, the skies started to darken and it was like 6 p.m. at noon. The skies let us wander around for awhile shopping and having fun but when we finally stopped in a tea shop, the bottom fell out and it rained hard. We quick-walked across the street to a café and drank more coffee, stalling there as long as we could. We decided (for some reason) to take a taxi to Dongdaemun and walked in ankle deep water to the street corner. Apparently we were the last three people waiting for the last available taxi in Seoul, because we waited and waited dangling our hands out everytime we saw a taxi coming. Finally, the last available taxi in Seoul showed up, and took us out of what was now a river, formerly a major street, and dropped us off into another river a few miles down the road. We were just glad to have a warm and dry ride. So, umbrellas up and wet from the waist down, we careened and collided with other umbrella-armed citizens for a short eternity until after having not stopped and not spoken a word, Ann finally stopped and said what we were all thinking: “This is ridiculous!” We decided that food was in order so we slushed on in silence and soaking wet. The restaurant we found was a quaint looking place in an alley and on arrival the owner met us at the door stating, “Only beef!” like three times. I was trying to contain my hunger because I was going to dinner with Loren in a couple of hours, but the guy simply didn’t want to allow me to not eat a full meal. I kept saying two and pointing to Ann and Francie and counting them for him. As if he thought I was an idiot and didn’t know how to count myself, he repeated one two, three, emphasizing that I was number three. He even translated it into Korean for me, hana, tul, set, as if that would clear it up. Finally, I gave in, weary of yet another circular conversation. At that point I would have eaten leaves and grass. This is not a sea story but, this is no shit: the servers brought out grass soup, and a pile of leaves. Then assorted other things and a big pile of beef. We looked at each other helplessly because we really had no idea what to do with this stuff. Then the owner person brought a bucket of fiery coals and put them in the middle of the table with a grill on top. We still kind of looked at each other for a minute and the servers, I guess, felt sorry for us and proceeded to show us how to place the beef, mushrooms and garlic on the grill, mix up other stuff, put it on a leaf and then add the cooked meat, wrap it up in a neat little bundle and eat it. It was sooooo good. Feeling empowered by this great knowledge we ate a hot meal and warmed ourselves by the fire. After a hearty meal we decided that slopping along in a foot of water in single file, not speaking a word to eat other and shivering from the cold was not a great way to spend the remaining hours of the day and said our goodbyes. I went to Loren’s house, purged and went out for another steak dinner. Would you believe it was exactly the same meal as I had just eaten? The difference was that the beef was Hanu or Hanwoo beef, raised in Korea and considered a Korean cultural icon, is so tasty, tender and succulent. We ate again and I enjoyed it immensely, but I did confess to Loren about my earlier meal. Apparently in Korean restaurants, you can eat, drink, smoke, burp and fart, but it is not proper to say, “wow this tastes just like Kobe beef (Japanese beef).” Everybody stopped talking and dropped their metal chopsticks with a loud collective crash. Quickly realizing I had created yet another cultural snafu (in a long line of many), I added, “but sooooo much better!” Everyone resumed their meal but kept an eye on me. After dinner and another good purge, we hit the road, met up with Hunter, Sang Yeop, and a gathering entourage for a night on the town with So-Maek, Karaoke, and, yes, another meal at around 2 a.m. Fortunately the ongoing rain drove away many of the sugar plums for fear of melting, so we had the streets to ourselves, finally wrapping it all up at 5 a.m. What a great finale for my Seoul experience! After a few more days of work I pass the torch to a new MFLC and head back to the city for a final night before catching a flight outta here on Monday. Again, I like Korea very much and hope to come back, maybe at Christmas. We shall see. My pictures are Ann and Francie, Sandy and her Happy KORever coffee cup, an Ice Cream Corn stand, and Karma performers in Insadong.

Lanterns, Conversations and Dobongsan

Columbus Day weekend was another good one. A lot of milestones here. I went Saturday to the Jinju Lantern Festival in South South Korea. Loren called me with the idea Friday night and he told me his friend Hunter was coming too. So after my 2 hour commute to Loren’s apartment we got on a bus to travel another 4 ½ hours. The festival had millions of lights and at least a thousand lanterns all along the river banks and floating in the river. All sorts and sizes in so much detail that it was hard to imagine the hours that went into making one. We put paper pieces on a lantern, ate rotisserie chicken from the back of a truck that tasted awesome but would probably not meet USDA and OSHA standards. The lady brought it to our table and proceeded to rip it apart with her hands causing juice and steam to go everywhere, gave us chopsticks and a roll of toilet paper. That and the cigarette hanging out of her mouth and the whooping cough gave me pause but I was starving. After we ate and had a beverage, we shot roman candles off the bridge, walked the city wall, ate some interesting chewy candy and set about finding a place to sleep since it was 11 o’clock and we were homeless in Jinju. Well, nothing was available and after “Bang isoyo”-ing every hotel we could find, we opted to go to another town close-by where, rumor had it, there were rooms available. So at 1230 a.m. we checked in at the charming Diamond Hotel in Sacheon, a real love hotel! For a cheap price we got our room and went out for Soju, beer and the most interesting fruit plate I have ever seen with food I have no idea what they were or how to explain them. There was watermelon and grapes so at least something was recognizable. I learned you can drink Soju from little shot glasses or you can mix it with beer and as it turns out, it will make you sing with conviction at a norebang and dance on a rooftop at 4 in the morning. Who knew? Soju and Maekju (beer) is So-maek. The things I learn. Got up this morning to hike up Dobongsan, a cool granite mountain where you can climb up and stand on the cold, naked and windy peak and see for miles and miles. My cohort Sandy went too making for good conversation on the long and sometimes grueling climb. It had rocks to clamber over, steps built in at some spots, and ropes to pull yourself up on the steep or slick spots. I did obtain a major life threatening injury when my foot slipped while rappelling off the top and cracked into the cliff face. Maybe not life threatening but it did hurt especially since I had a long return to the bottom of the hill ahead, but it looked cool and made people gasp when they saw me slip and then crash into the wall. Through this flooding experience, I think I am cured of my debilitating fear of falling. I felt a little heroic. We got back into town as night fell and were very happy we weren’t still trying to make our way in the dark. So I bought a puffy coat, a couple of gimbaps for dinner and some maekju and came back to the hacienda. The guy at the front desk asked what I did today and I told him and made the awful mistake of adding that my legs felt like rubber bands. He responded, “you broke them?’; “No I just climbed Dobongsan”; “So your legs feel bad?”; “Yes, they are tired”: “Oh really, Why”; I just climbed Dobongsan”; “ So you are feeling tired?” “AAAAAHHHHHH!” I think he was messing with me, but I can’t be sure…damn language barrier has been my downfall in Korea. I feel sad to be leaving, but having a normal conversation will be refreshing.

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.