Korea: Part 2

On Thursday, we chose to go to the Ice Gallery as our "cultural activity." Granted, an ice gallery isn't very cultural but it doesn't really matter because it's AWESOME.


The ice gallery was a room filled with tons of ice sculptures including ice people, ice animals, ice Eiffel Tower/ Statue of Liberty/ Korean palace, igloo, an ice house, ice slide,

AND ICE TOILET!

Because we were "foreign guests," the people who ran the ice gallery let us do ice carving for free. We were able to compete against each other and carve ice cups/mugs/chalices.

Following that, we went to Insadong, the cultural district. There they sell traditional Korean crafts and a lot of touristy things. About a billion Korean school girls stopped us to give us interviews about "appearances in our country," and we stopped to answer them all cuz we had nothing better to do. In all, it was neat to check out the shops and we also browsed around a cute shopping complex. It was a really artsy place :



Later on, we went checked out Korean malls. From what I've seen so far, malls in Korea are way different from malls in the US because the stores aren't separated by walls. Rather, the malls that I've seen in Asia are separated by displays and it looks really cute. I ended up finally buying a vest. I've been looking for one since I came to Japan. woohoo.

Being really hungry, WE FINALLY WENT TO A BEER TENT. We got really ripped off for food and drinks but anybody who goes to Korea has to try one (it was awesome), so it was totally worth it to go.


Today, Friday, was our last day here and we ran out of things we wanted to do for "cultural activity" so we basically decided to go to the place that sounded the coolest. Obviously we settled on "Dream Forest," and the three of us bused to the park.

This says something in Korean. Probably "Dream Forest," but I honestly don't know.

Real-ish looking model of Seoul they had at the Visitor Center.

SUGOI!

The park supposedly has all these attractions you can look at including a mirror pond and seven waterfalls-something-or-other. It turned out that a lot of the water attractions were all dried up for the winter. There was also a botanical garden somewhere but we didn't look at that because it was probably already dried-up and crusty. Although, even though it was winter, the park still looked pretty :

There was an observatory that was used in the Korean drama, Iris (no I've never heard of it either), at the edge of the park. We took a tram up to the top and got a good view of the city :



Tonight we went out shopping to use up the rest of our won, which is useless in Japan. We stopped once more at Uniqlo and Julia and Martin bought coats and I got another vest. We also bought "circles," which are this Korean deserts they sell on the streets. We have no idea what the name of them is so Julia and Martin just call them Circles. I dripped my circle all down the front of my new coat but then I cleaned it off, so now things are OK.

Shopping in Seoul is a lot different than shopping in Kyoto. For one, there are street hawkers and booths, bright lights, and they sell stuff late into the night. The shops in Kyoto, on the other hand, shut down around 8PM and then everybody goes home around midnight. I bought so many clothes.

For our last night in Seoul, the three of us went out for boneless chicken wings at place in Hongik near our hostel. Then, Julia and Martin went to go check out club night at Hongik and I met up with Ben and hung out.

SEOUL RAWKZ.

Korea: Part 1

It's Fall Break right now and so me and 3 of my friends came to Korea together. Mike, one of our friends, left for Seoul on Saturday and Julia, Martin and I followed on Monday. Before coming here, I spent the weekend in Kyoto going to the Toji flea market and seeing HARRY POTTER #7 (!!).

On Monday we traveled from Kyoto to Osaka by train and then took a plane to Seoul. It's a lot colder here in Korea so when we got here we were freezing. We met up with Mike who showed us the way to our Hostel: Seoulwise Guesthouse. The place is really nice. Here's a pic of us being roommies :


The first night we arrived, We went to Seoul Tower. I've only ever been to Kyoto Tower, and Seoul Tower was a lot better. We took a scary bus ride up the side of a mountain where the tower was built. You can see all of Seoul (the city is HUGE) from up there.


Tuesday, my friends and I met up with my friend Ben who's studying abroad in Korea for the semester. He agreed to show us around some parts of the city and it was also helpful that he knows some Korean. The first thing we did when we met up was go to a palace near City Hall. Ben says that once you see one Korean palace, you've seen them all :


After the palace, we looked around for a place to get food. For me it was SUPER SPICY but also it was cheap and delicious :


Because he had class, Ben left for school after lunch, and so the four of us AKPers took a hike up "Mystical Mountain." Obviously that's not the real name. Martin may have just made it up. Anyways, it was super mystical and slightly confusing. We didn't understand the directions about how to get there and so we ended up walking through this huge apartment complex and then up this hill. Eventually, we reached a Buddhist-like complex place that may or may not have been people's private residences (?). At one point we tried to walk into this gate towards a building when a dog started to bark at us so that we got freaked out and turned around.

After that, we kept climbing up and up. There were about 2934723749 stairs and they went on forever. Eventually the stairs ended at this rock that supposedly makes you pregnant if you pray to it. Here's a view of the rock from farther away. You can see Seoul Tower in the distance :

Eventually we reached this rock that we could climb up. There were tiny slits in the side of the rock face for us to climb but besides that there were no stairs or path or anything. There was a super-stellar view of Seoul from the top.

That night we met back up with Ben and three of his friends who are also studying abroad on his program. Everybody was really nice and we went shopping downtown. That's when we found out that North Korea had bombed South Korea. People weren't really making a big deal out of it though. Later on, the 8 of us went for dinner at a Korean BBQ place that was really inexpensive but yummy. You cook the meat by yourself on a grill set in the table :

That night I decided that we needed some roommate-friendship-bonding and so we stopped by the drug store on the way home and got face masks:

Becoming Beautiful

Wednesday was Mike's last full day in Korea because he planned to spend the rest of break in Tokyo. Every day we've been doing a cultural activity. Since Tuesday we went to a palace, we decided that for Wednesday's activity we would go to The Village, which has traditional Korean houses and games you can try.

When we got to the place where The Village was supposed to be, all we saw was a sort of park and a big hole and tunnels where Seoul buried a time capsule in 1994. We were a bit confused and couldn't find The Village, but we did find a cafe. The cafe had this thing where you could dress up in traditional outfits and drink tea and even though that sounds like the most super-lamest-touristy thing ever, we decided to do it:

BEST DECISION OF OUR LIVES. The whole dressing-up thing turned out to be amazingly fun and funny. We also looked great.

Eventually we ended up finding The Village (it was right next door to the cafe), but it was kind of lame and we didn't stay long. Dressing up was 324793847x awesomer.

Later that night we went shopping for omiyage (souvenirs) to bring back for our host families. We browsed around and I bought about a billion pairs of $1 socks and some scarves. There's a TON of street shopping in Seoul, and the funny thing is that all the booths sell the same thing. There's also a lot of really neat street food and these things called "Beer Tents," where you can go in and order food and drinks. The ice cream they sell on the street are about 10 inches tall :


Around 8:30PM, when we got tired of shopping, the four of us hit up this Western-style hair salon. Before then, nobody had gotten their hair cut for the three months we've been in Japan. It was a bit of a problem. We were lucky that the people at the salon knew a bit of English and they were really nice. They gave us Korean Hairstyles.

Korean Hairstyles: (For Girls) The salon people cut our hair dry and then spent 1/2 an hour styling it really nicely for us. (For Guys) The salon people cut their hair into faux-hawks, washed it, and then spend 1/2 an hour styling it. Dudes in Korea take really good care of their hair and always have it looking perfect. To be honest, it took the guys longer to get their hair cut than it took us.

Finally, on our way back to Hon-dae, the area where our hostel is, we passed by all these pretty lights and Christmas decorations. Korea's a really Christian place and so right now everything looks so festive. We decided to show off our new hair with celebratory pictures :



Once back in Hon-dae we celebrated Mike's last night in Korea at a bar. We ordered way too much food and shared it all. The platter that I chose was a bit spicy and had some seafood in it including squid. It also had something called "sundae" which--I found out later--is actually made of noodles and pig intestines and pig's blood. When I was eating it I had a feeling that it was something that would gross me out.

Eiga Mura, Yakiniku, Tako-Pa

Last Monday, one week ago, our 'Otherness in Japanese Cinema' class took a field trip to Toei Studio Park, aka Eiga Mura. I was really psyched to go because they have film sets from famous movies, including a set used in the currently released film, Ooku. When I was there I found out that the sets at the place are used in over 200 movies a year.

Another weird fact I found out before I went is that my host brother used to go to acting classes at Toei Studio Park. I guess he was in a drama or something. I really didn't understand everything Okaasan was telling me..

Anyways, here are some pictures from the park, and a video:

When we first got to the park, they were putting on a sword fighting show. After it was over, the actors asked for audience members to go up on stage and display their skills. Hannah and Rachael both volunteered to go up and pretend to slice guys open with katanas.

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This past Friday, a bunch of people from Joint Seminar (my class that combines Japanese and AKP students) went for nomi/tabe hodai (all you can eat/drink) at a yakiniku place on Shijo near Daimaru. I had never done yakiniku before but it was good to try it before I go to Korea, which is famous for having awesome yakiniku.

There was a brazier-type thing with a grill set in front of us to cook thin slices of meat on. One of the boys sitting at our table was Korean so we joked that he's a yakiniku expert, and we had him cook all the meat.




Yesterday, Sunday, DESA (an English-speaking club on campus) threw us AKP students a takoyaki party, aka 'tako-pa.' Takoyaki are octopus balls. But not really balls of an octopus, rather they're balls of dough with bits of octopus tenticals inside. You can also put other stuff in them too. At the party we filled them with things like cheese and chocolate. I ate too much.. probably at least 12 pieces + other snacks heh heh.




One week till Korea ! :D

Halloween, School Festival and Ginkaku-ji

Halloween in Japan is a lot lamer/ different from Halloween in America, but that makes sense since it's a Western holiday. Anyways, AKP set us up with a 'Halloween Parade' and the office staff dressed up in costumes. They even came to lunch dressed up!

AKPers also dressed up and everybody looked super-rad. Becca was a dinosaur:

Katie, Kaitlin and Chris were witches and Audrey was a dog. heh heh. After everybody got dressed up, they went outside around campus to pass out candy to our fellow Doshisha gakusei. I didn't do this cuz I had to go to track circle, but from what I heard the whole thing was slightly embarrassing but fun.

Later in the night, we went to a bar where one of the Joint Seminar students works. Its at Kyoto Eki and its called something like 'Man in the Moon.' It's a Irish-style pub, I think. Anyways, there were a lot of old, white drunk dudes acting really raucous but there were also some young and trendier Japanese students there too.

We had a good time hanging out. There was even dancing that started at 11pm. The place was small and the old white dudes were getting drunker and creepier and so we left around 11:10 to catch our last trains home.

On real Halloween (Sunday), I went with Katie and Audrey to Tanabe campus (about an hour away by train) for the School Festival. There, Katie and I met with our track circle-mates to play volleyball. The volleyball was supposed to be really chill, but the game ended up being super-unfair since we were paired against the volleyball circle. We lost 15 to 0.

After the game, Katie and I taught the members of track circle about the joys of PB&J. Since we couldn't find REAL peanut butter and jelly, we had to use peanut cream and jam, but it got the point across. I don't know how the circle felt about the food, but they ate it. PB&J isn't a bit thing here and I guess Japanese people think it's kinda a weird combo. In return for the PB&J, the track circle made us try 'ochazuke,' which is basically rice submerged in salty tea. Since they had forgotten to buy ingredients before hand, they ran around to make it from stuff they found at the convenience store. For example, the rice was from pre-made onigiri (rice balls) and the bowls we ate it in were emptied instant-noodle cups. Daha. It was still good, though. It tasted a little like Campbell's chicken rice soup.

The following Wednesday, classes were canceled for 'Cultural Day.' Instead of doing culture-y things, though, I went and hung out with my friends and went shopping...

Since the kouyou (fall colors) are just beginning to appear, on Saturday, Katie, Kate and I took a trip to Ginkaku-ji (The Golden Pavilion). The weather was stellar and it was my first time at the pavilion when the sun is actually shining. The structure is decorated in gold leaf and so it's really bright and pretty in the sun: