Wow, so I realised I haven't updated this in a while - to be honest, I have just been really really lazy, and actually doing stuff (rather than sitting in my apartment as I did for the first 6 months).
Basically, as the weather has been pretty sweet I have been at the beach whenever I have some time and a bit of sun. Now I am no longer pale and deathly looking, but pretty tanned (like Whoopi Goldberg!). I'm pretty excited to have my buddy Court come into South Korea on September 17th, and am really looking forward to the China trip. Just paid the full amount for both Court and I today, so thats all set. We're also going to try to hit Japan for a couple of days right after the China trip (Fukokwa).
Other than that things are pretty much the same - we've been on a 10-6 school schedule which is changing back in a few days to 2-8, uh, several people I know are finishing their contracts and leaving which is sad, uh - uh - did I mention that I am pretty tanned already? (yeah mom, I am wearing sunscreen so cancel the reminder email).
I'll write more about Japan when I can get the chance - hope everyone is well
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Saturday, August 11, 2007
9 days in Japan, a story of Love.- Day 1 and 2
These blogs are going to take a while, so I'll just post one every so often that contains a couple of days.
DAY #1 and #2
So I left work on Friday July 27th happy as a clam since I was officially on vacation and sweating like a Russian due to the humidity slowing digesting Busan. For some reason I believed that aside from Japans history and beauty, it would also have much milder weather. I was wrong - but thats ok, because its Japan!
I was a little apprehensive about going on this big 9-day trip for a couple of reasons. One, I heard through a bunch of people that Japan was prohibitively expensive (I don't really know what 'prohibitively' means but I'm experimenting) so I had prepared myself for the worst by exchanging 1.2 million won into roughly 154,000 Japanese yen (100 yen would equal about $1). Another thing I was a little worried about was that I would be traveling with 3 girls I'd only met once or twice (one girl Liz I would only run into at the bar where I'd already be reeling and slurring - would she like the 'real' Ken!?). Finally, I was angry at myself for not doing a lot of research on Japan - phrases that may come in handy, places to eat in particular cities, must-see tourist sites, the location of the infamous 'dirty school-girl panties' machine...and if there is one thing that this 27-year old with acne treasures it's a pair of not-so-fresh vending machine panties!
Preparation
One thing I did prepare for in Japan was booking the hostels we'd be staying at weeks in advance. As I've said before, Japan may be a beautiful country but theres no way in hell I was prepared to pay $100+ a night for a room - regardless if a geisha tucked me in nightly after playing an exotic instrument (if I could be called exotic!). The real problem was that everyone in Korea basically had this time off and many Japanese as well (the Obon week is their real vacation time and that would be a week after I'd returned to Korea). Long story short - all of the hostels had basically been booked. We didn't really have any detailed itinerary of what cities we were going to hit and when - the only real plan was Hiroshima, Kyoto, and for a couple of us - Mt. Fuji! (more on that later). I also had to book around the 2 other friends who'd be arriving later in the week and already booked themselves at a popular hostel in Kyoto (and booked Liz in with them for the remainder of the week). Anywhoo - hostel booking does not an exciting blog make - but I managed to find us 'reasonably-priced' accommodation for the week except for Wednesday when I declared that would be when we summited Mt. Fuji (in the night-time) and Saturday evening (since we had a flight out early Sunday morning from Osaka.
The only supplies I really needed was a hat (didn't get), sunscreen (didn't bother), sunglasses (looked too stupid in everything I tried), hiking shoes (went with old running shoes instead), a thermos (nope), a head-lamp for Mt. Fuji (yes) and a new bag ($110 from $220).
I finished packing late that night and was shocked by how much my bag weighed and the 'extras' I brought - did I really need to bring a whole roll of toilet paper to a 1st world country? Did I unpack anything? Nope!
____________________________________________________________________________________
DAY #1 - Flying in, train, and Hiroshima
Our flight was scheduled to leave Gimhae international airport in Busan at around 11'ish and would arrive an hour later in Osaka. I met the girls in front of our building in the stifling heat and was relieved to see that I wasn't the only one who had packed a significant chunk of their lives into huge knapsacks (except for Liz who only packed a t-shirt and one shoe). We hopped in a cab after complaining for a bit about the heat and took a nauseating 20 minute cab ride to the airport. During check-in Leah was asked to come into a special area as security had found something suspicious in her luggage - since she had to climb over the baggage area it was quite a scene so I made fun of her aloud until she disappeared. Then I suddenly got pulled back to and promptly shat myself. What the hell had I packed that could possibly endanger the lives of hundreds of passengers? A lighter. They took it away, I was baffled. But an hour later we were on the plane and eating delicious food! Sure, I would have appreciated burning my little sandwiches a bit with my lighter - but whatever - beggars can't be choosers.
I played Tetris for the entire flight, had a little panic attack during take-off and was shocked that upon emerging from our flight (and getting through immigration) that Japan was more humid than its jealous and pushy playmate to the west. After getting our Japan Rail Passes - we took a short train ride to the main Shin-Osaka station and hopped on a Shinkasen bullet train to Hiroshima (we got put in one where you could smoke since they had no room - it was like the 80's all over again!). 2 hours shot by and we were in Hiroshima, late afternoon.
Naively I had expected Hiroshima to be full of rice fields and severely deformed children turning tricks but was delighted to discover a bustling little city (filled with tourists). We eventually hopped on a tram (an older looking streetcar and relatively cheap - compared to a certain city I know) and made our way towards our hostel about 25 minutes away. An old Japanese woman beckoned us to follow her (fearing that she was possibly a sexual deviant I warily refused) until I decided to listen to her and walked several meters behind her - right to our hostel! We were in the 8-bunk dorm and as luck would have it, I was the only male. Giggity Giggity!
We grabbed a beer from one of the hundreds of beer vending machines and decided to look for some food - sweating the whole time. Hours later we were still walking around as had taken the tram in the wrong direction once or twice (whoops!) and refused to just walk into any restaurant that didn't have at least some picture where we could identify what we would eat and how much it cost. And whoever is sitting there reading and thinking, "I would have tried anything! Just pointed and said 'give me whatever this is" its not that simple. I won't even bother trying to explain why - you just come and try to do it (Ken says defensively). We finally stumbled into a little Japanese sushi place (few seats = pricey but they had little plastic models of their meals outside!) where we then accidentally ordered $30 sushi plates for the each of us (rather than 1 for the 4 of us which they would have laughed at before cutting us up and serving us fresh to the next customers). Expensive, and not really tasty - but authentic Japanese on our first night nonetheless. Poor Liz left most of her sushi and I don't blame her (the hundreds of fish eggs on one piece literally exploded into your mouth with fish amniotic fluid) and as hungry as I was I didn't eat any of hers.
We walked around for a bit afterwards before making our way home, as we were all pretty tired. The air conditioning wasn't great so I had a hard time sleeping. According to Liz the next morning I snored (until she hit me in the head), moaned little happy grunts and sang for a bit ("la la la" was apparently my selection). At least I didn't let rip-roaring farts go - my usual night-time accompaniment.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Day #2- Biking around Hiroshima, smelling like crap.
The next day we had all slept in (Jenn made it quite clear that she wouldn't be up before 10am - and she kept to that everyday, like me wearing no shirt constantly). We rented 4 bikes from our hostel (all with cool little bells that constantly annoyed the Japanese we rode by). Hiroshima -like Kyoto and I assume the majority of Japan - loves bicycles and gives them great priority (unlike Korea where bikers are seen as abusive mens wives on wheels). Our hostel was pretty close to the Peace Dome but that would have to wait - as our first stop was McDonalds breakfast before the international 11am stop-time. A la Michael Douglas in the movie Falling Down when he arrives just a few minutes too late we were informed by the 'establishment' that in Japan - breakfast stops being served at 10:30. I was ready to scarf down a couple of Big Macs but the group wanted real breakfast. Since when is McDonalds 'real' food?! I cried pitifully.
So we ate some expensive breakfasty stuff and headed off to the Peace Dome. This was the building I'd seen in many photos through school but really had no idea what it was all about.
It is an UNESCO World Heritage Site and the first stop for every tourist. A brief description: "The Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome) was the only structure left standing in the area where the first atomic bomb exploded on 6 August 1945. Through the efforts of many people, including those of the city of Hiroshima, it has been preserved in the same state as immediately after the bombing. Not only is it a stark and powerful symbol of the most destructive force ever created by humankind; it also expresses the hope for world peace and the ultimate elimination of all nuclear weapons."
The bomb basically exploded a couple hundred meters right above it and wiped out everything else. The area by the river and the T-bridge (the intended target) is now the huge Peace Park.
The view from the reconstructed T-Bridge facing out to Peace Park.
This photo doesn't do the sheer size of this area justice - in front of these huge 'peace' murals are thousands of colored paper bags that children have made throughout the year that are then lit up by candle and sent down the nearby river every year in commemoration of the victims of the bombing. We just missed this huge event by a few days.
These photos were taken from the exact same spot between 2 different 'Before' and 'After' models in the Hiroshima Peace Museum.
As the late Steve Irwin would have said, "Crikey! That was a BIG one!"
Tasteless. I know that.
It was an excruciatingly hot day in Hiroshima that afternoon (I could make a comment about the heat but I won't) so everyone was dripping with sweat. I was wearing a t-shirt that always seems to emit a foul poo-smelling odor whenever it gets wet so I wasn't the best person to hang around. Splitting up for a bit I promptly lost everyone and spent the next 2 hours frantically looking for everyone. A search party was sent out, and I was safely returned to their unworried clutches. With a huge wet spot on my butt (from sweat) we spent the next few hours in the very informative Hiroshima Peace Museum. Aside from relics they had horrible accounts from the families of 'survivors' and some graphic stuff (a guys fingernails). They also had a few very familiar things (like the cement step where a shadow was burned into it from a woman who'd been sitting there when the bomb exploded). People around me audibly gasped as they had their noses plunged into these scented hankerchiefs (Leah commented that she could smell me from a couple feet away so I assume I added to the general disgust in the air).
We looked for some restaurants afterwards but ended up at a crappy Subway before we made our way to this old style castle. Liz and I refused to pay the entry fee (I'd heard it wasn't worth it before coming). The other girls went and agreed that it sucked (and no air conditioning!, what kind of a castle doesn't have that!?).
The moat went all around the castles grounds. Don't ask how we managed to get over.
Still dripping with sweat we made our way back to the hostel and after showering (I accidentally put my poo shirt deep into Liz's bag which she would discover soon after) had a couple of beers on the roof chatting with an older man and his young family. Later in the evening we found a great (somewhat pricey) place where we could get a big fat hamburger and a beer - we walked home pretty satisfied. Well, I could have eaten more.
We got back to the hostel and pretty much crashed. Knowing how much we love to sleep in I made sure I was ready to go in the morning before check-out. I got a bed near the air conditioner as well so I was content - but still concerned about possible farts though - which surprisingly would plague us for the remainder of the trip, and no, they didn't come from me.
DAY #1 and #2
So I left work on Friday July 27th happy as a clam since I was officially on vacation and sweating like a Russian due to the humidity slowing digesting Busan. For some reason I believed that aside from Japans history and beauty, it would also have much milder weather. I was wrong - but thats ok, because its Japan!
I was a little apprehensive about going on this big 9-day trip for a couple of reasons. One, I heard through a bunch of people that Japan was prohibitively expensive (I don't really know what 'prohibitively' means but I'm experimenting) so I had prepared myself for the worst by exchanging 1.2 million won into roughly 154,000 Japanese yen (100 yen would equal about $1). Another thing I was a little worried about was that I would be traveling with 3 girls I'd only met once or twice (one girl Liz I would only run into at the bar where I'd already be reeling and slurring - would she like the 'real' Ken!?). Finally, I was angry at myself for not doing a lot of research on Japan - phrases that may come in handy, places to eat in particular cities, must-see tourist sites, the location of the infamous 'dirty school-girl panties' machine...and if there is one thing that this 27-year old with acne treasures it's a pair of not-so-fresh vending machine panties!
Preparation
One thing I did prepare for in Japan was booking the hostels we'd be staying at weeks in advance. As I've said before, Japan may be a beautiful country but theres no way in hell I was prepared to pay $100+ a night for a room - regardless if a geisha tucked me in nightly after playing an exotic instrument (if I could be called exotic!). The real problem was that everyone in Korea basically had this time off and many Japanese as well (the Obon week is their real vacation time and that would be a week after I'd returned to Korea). Long story short - all of the hostels had basically been booked. We didn't really have any detailed itinerary of what cities we were going to hit and when - the only real plan was Hiroshima, Kyoto, and for a couple of us - Mt. Fuji! (more on that later). I also had to book around the 2 other friends who'd be arriving later in the week and already booked themselves at a popular hostel in Kyoto (and booked Liz in with them for the remainder of the week). Anywhoo - hostel booking does not an exciting blog make - but I managed to find us 'reasonably-priced' accommodation for the week except for Wednesday when I declared that would be when we summited Mt. Fuji (in the night-time) and Saturday evening (since we had a flight out early Sunday morning from Osaka.
The only supplies I really needed was a hat (didn't get), sunscreen (didn't bother), sunglasses (looked too stupid in everything I tried), hiking shoes (went with old running shoes instead), a thermos (nope), a head-lamp for Mt. Fuji (yes) and a new bag ($110 from $220).
I finished packing late that night and was shocked by how much my bag weighed and the 'extras' I brought - did I really need to bring a whole roll of toilet paper to a 1st world country? Did I unpack anything? Nope!
____________________________________________________________________________________
DAY #1 - Flying in, train, and Hiroshima
Our flight was scheduled to leave Gimhae international airport in Busan at around 11'ish and would arrive an hour later in Osaka. I met the girls in front of our building in the stifling heat and was relieved to see that I wasn't the only one who had packed a significant chunk of their lives into huge knapsacks (except for Liz who only packed a t-shirt and one shoe). We hopped in a cab after complaining for a bit about the heat and took a nauseating 20 minute cab ride to the airport. During check-in Leah was asked to come into a special area as security had found something suspicious in her luggage - since she had to climb over the baggage area it was quite a scene so I made fun of her aloud until she disappeared. Then I suddenly got pulled back to and promptly shat myself. What the hell had I packed that could possibly endanger the lives of hundreds of passengers? A lighter. They took it away, I was baffled. But an hour later we were on the plane and eating delicious food! Sure, I would have appreciated burning my little sandwiches a bit with my lighter - but whatever - beggars can't be choosers.
I played Tetris for the entire flight, had a little panic attack during take-off and was shocked that upon emerging from our flight (and getting through immigration) that Japan was more humid than its jealous and pushy playmate to the west. After getting our Japan Rail Passes - we took a short train ride to the main Shin-Osaka station and hopped on a Shinkasen bullet train to Hiroshima (we got put in one where you could smoke since they had no room - it was like the 80's all over again!). 2 hours shot by and we were in Hiroshima, late afternoon.
Naively I had expected Hiroshima to be full of rice fields and severely deformed children turning tricks but was delighted to discover a bustling little city (filled with tourists). We eventually hopped on a tram (an older looking streetcar and relatively cheap - compared to a certain city I know) and made our way towards our hostel about 25 minutes away. An old Japanese woman beckoned us to follow her (fearing that she was possibly a sexual deviant I warily refused) until I decided to listen to her and walked several meters behind her - right to our hostel! We were in the 8-bunk dorm and as luck would have it, I was the only male. Giggity Giggity!
We grabbed a beer from one of the hundreds of beer vending machines and decided to look for some food - sweating the whole time. Hours later we were still walking around as had taken the tram in the wrong direction once or twice (whoops!) and refused to just walk into any restaurant that didn't have at least some picture where we could identify what we would eat and how much it cost. And whoever is sitting there reading and thinking, "I would have tried anything! Just pointed and said 'give me whatever this is" its not that simple. I won't even bother trying to explain why - you just come and try to do it (Ken says defensively). We finally stumbled into a little Japanese sushi place (few seats = pricey but they had little plastic models of their meals outside!) where we then accidentally ordered $30 sushi plates for the each of us (rather than 1 for the 4 of us which they would have laughed at before cutting us up and serving us fresh to the next customers). Expensive, and not really tasty - but authentic Japanese on our first night nonetheless. Poor Liz left most of her sushi and I don't blame her (the hundreds of fish eggs on one piece literally exploded into your mouth with fish amniotic fluid) and as hungry as I was I didn't eat any of hers.
We walked around for a bit afterwards before making our way home, as we were all pretty tired. The air conditioning wasn't great so I had a hard time sleeping. According to Liz the next morning I snored (until she hit me in the head), moaned little happy grunts and sang for a bit ("la la la" was apparently my selection). At least I didn't let rip-roaring farts go - my usual night-time accompaniment.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Day #2- Biking around Hiroshima, smelling like crap.
The next day we had all slept in (Jenn made it quite clear that she wouldn't be up before 10am - and she kept to that everyday, like me wearing no shirt constantly). We rented 4 bikes from our hostel (all with cool little bells that constantly annoyed the Japanese we rode by). Hiroshima -like Kyoto and I assume the majority of Japan - loves bicycles and gives them great priority (unlike Korea where bikers are seen as abusive mens wives on wheels). Our hostel was pretty close to the Peace Dome but that would have to wait - as our first stop was McDonalds breakfast before the international 11am stop-time. A la Michael Douglas in the movie Falling Down when he arrives just a few minutes too late we were informed by the 'establishment' that in Japan - breakfast stops being served at 10:30. I was ready to scarf down a couple of Big Macs but the group wanted real breakfast. Since when is McDonalds 'real' food?! I cried pitifully.
So we ate some expensive breakfasty stuff and headed off to the Peace Dome. This was the building I'd seen in many photos through school but really had no idea what it was all about.
It is an UNESCO World Heritage Site and the first stop for every tourist. A brief description: "The Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome) was the only structure left standing in the area where the first atomic bomb exploded on 6 August 1945. Through the efforts of many people, including those of the city of Hiroshima, it has been preserved in the same state as immediately after the bombing. Not only is it a stark and powerful symbol of the most destructive force ever created by humankind; it also expresses the hope for world peace and the ultimate elimination of all nuclear weapons."
The bomb basically exploded a couple hundred meters right above it and wiped out everything else. The area by the river and the T-bridge (the intended target) is now the huge Peace Park.
The view from the reconstructed T-Bridge facing out to Peace Park.
This photo doesn't do the sheer size of this area justice - in front of these huge 'peace' murals are thousands of colored paper bags that children have made throughout the year that are then lit up by candle and sent down the nearby river every year in commemoration of the victims of the bombing. We just missed this huge event by a few days.
These photos were taken from the exact same spot between 2 different 'Before' and 'After' models in the Hiroshima Peace Museum.
As the late Steve Irwin would have said, "Crikey! That was a BIG one!"
Tasteless. I know that.
It was an excruciatingly hot day in Hiroshima that afternoon (I could make a comment about the heat but I won't) so everyone was dripping with sweat. I was wearing a t-shirt that always seems to emit a foul poo-smelling odor whenever it gets wet so I wasn't the best person to hang around. Splitting up for a bit I promptly lost everyone and spent the next 2 hours frantically looking for everyone. A search party was sent out, and I was safely returned to their unworried clutches. With a huge wet spot on my butt (from sweat) we spent the next few hours in the very informative Hiroshima Peace Museum. Aside from relics they had horrible accounts from the families of 'survivors' and some graphic stuff (a guys fingernails). They also had a few very familiar things (like the cement step where a shadow was burned into it from a woman who'd been sitting there when the bomb exploded). People around me audibly gasped as they had their noses plunged into these scented hankerchiefs (Leah commented that she could smell me from a couple feet away so I assume I added to the general disgust in the air).
We looked for some restaurants afterwards but ended up at a crappy Subway before we made our way to this old style castle. Liz and I refused to pay the entry fee (I'd heard it wasn't worth it before coming). The other girls went and agreed that it sucked (and no air conditioning!, what kind of a castle doesn't have that!?).
The moat went all around the castles grounds. Don't ask how we managed to get over.
Still dripping with sweat we made our way back to the hostel and after showering (I accidentally put my poo shirt deep into Liz's bag which she would discover soon after) had a couple of beers on the roof chatting with an older man and his young family. Later in the evening we found a great (somewhat pricey) place where we could get a big fat hamburger and a beer - we walked home pretty satisfied. Well, I could have eaten more.
We got back to the hostel and pretty much crashed. Knowing how much we love to sleep in I made sure I was ready to go in the morning before check-out. I got a bed near the air conditioner as well so I was content - but still concerned about possible farts though - which surprisingly would plague us for the remainder of the trip, and no, they didn't come from me.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Flickr Link
Here is a link to the website Flickr that I've tried to put some of the Japan pictures on - I had a hard time getting it to work - so I suggest you click on one of the 3 sets off to the right and don't use the slideshow option, so you can see the comments I've written about each picture.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11029110@N06/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11029110@N06/
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Back in Korea
Hi all,
So I got back from Japan (sadly) today and go back to work tomorrow. I've got a bunch of pictures so I figure I'll just try to put them on flikr.com or some photo sharing website within the next few days and a big fat synopsis on my trip to the land of the rising sun - from biking around swelteringly hot Hiroshima (no double meaning intended) to my 2 friends, a Japanese guy, and myself being the ONLY climbers on Mt. Fuji because of horrible weather conditions to seeing Geisha in the Gion area of Kyoto to eating ovary of pollack and octopus guts.
but now, ken need sleep.
These 2 Geishas, though extremely pleased to see me, regularly have to put up with hordes and hordes of people trying to get their photos taken with them. These 2 couldn't go 3 feet without having people begging for a quick photo - the Japanese go bananas when they see them - I saw many Geisha paparazzi with huge cameras just waiting for a glance.
So I got back from Japan (sadly) today and go back to work tomorrow. I've got a bunch of pictures so I figure I'll just try to put them on flikr.com or some photo sharing website within the next few days and a big fat synopsis on my trip to the land of the rising sun - from biking around swelteringly hot Hiroshima (no double meaning intended) to my 2 friends, a Japanese guy, and myself being the ONLY climbers on Mt. Fuji because of horrible weather conditions to seeing Geisha in the Gion area of Kyoto to eating ovary of pollack and octopus guts.
but now, ken need sleep.
These 2 Geishas, though extremely pleased to see me, regularly have to put up with hordes and hordes of people trying to get their photos taken with them. These 2 couldn't go 3 feet without having people begging for a quick photo - the Japanese go bananas when they see them - I saw many Geisha paparazzi with huge cameras just waiting for a glance.
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