Just Another Day at the Beach

Last Saturday we went to the beach.  With rainy season here and our nice, sunny days limited, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weekend.  I was able to cross two items off of my bucket list: go to Aoshima one last time and take the 219 there.  The ten of us piled into two cars and left Yunomae at 9:30. 

As promised, the 219 was a beautiful drive.  from Yunomae, it winds up into the mountains.  It’s a VERY remote drive, only hitting one little village, Nishimera, for about half of the drive.  For part of the mountain drive the road followed a beautiful cerulean blue river and lake.  It was gorgeous!  We joked and said that we should just stop and swim there.  What excited us even more was when we passed by a zip line over the water.  We said that we should DEFINITELY come back and do that at some point in time, but who knows if we ever will.  It was only an hour or so down the road, but with just two months left, I feel like time might just get away from us. 

We made good time, only stopping twice for breaks.  While the 219 is a gorgeous drive, it also takes a little bit longer to get to the destination since it’s a little mountain road.  Once we finally got to the beach, I’m pretty sure that all of us were READY to get out of the car and hit the beach hard.  Aoshima is my favorite beach in Japan.  I love the long strip of natural sand beach, the nearby island of Aoshima to walk around and explore, the tidal pools, and Aoshima shrine.  For me, it’s the PERFECT amount of adventure and relax time rolled into one. 

When we first got there, the tide was really low, so we made camp closer to the water.  This ended up being a bad thing because as the tide rolled in as the afternoon progressed, we kept having to pull our stuff further and further up the shore.  Our first order of business was charging into the water like little kids.  We ran full blast into the water only to get to stomach deep water before screaming “IT’S COLD!  IT’S COLD!!”  While we did swim out and play for a bit, a few of us got freaked out by…..something touching the bottoms of our feet.  I’m sure it was just a fish, but I felt something slimy touch my foot, and then it felt like it tried to burrow into the sand.  I’m sure the critter was more scared of me than I of it, but it was still a little freaky!!

 

We decided to walk toward the island of Aoshima and explore some of the tidal pools while it was still low tide.  Being from the land-locked state of Kentucky, I don’t know a lot about the ocean or ocean critters, so others who have more beach experience told me things.  I learned what sea cabbage and sea cucumbers look like, Ian found a sea urchin, and we even saw the poisonous blow fish briskly swimming around in the pools.  I LOVE exploring tidal pools!  They’re so full of life!  With the natural rock formations surrounding Aoshima, there are plenty of little tidal pools to explore….another reason why Aoshima is my favorite beach in Japan!

 

After our tidal pool exploring finished, we walked back through the shallow water to Camp America where we ate lunch, snacks, and celebrated a birthday.  Krista’s birthday was on Sunday, but we celebrated it a day early at the beach because why not?  I had made brownies, brought a princess crown, tried my hardest to light the candles on her birthday brownie, (as it turns out, the windy beach is NOT an ideal spot to light candles….) and sang happy birthday.  Hurray!

Most of us were interested in walking over to the island of Aoshima, so we left those who didn’t want to behind.  At first we visited the shrine. (one of the coolest I’ve been to…literally.  It’s in the middle of the dense jungle island, and you can feel the temperature change once you enter the shade of the shrine’s pathway.)  One of my favorite things about that shrine is the prayers.  Visitors can buy little wooden plaques and write and hang their prayers along the pathway.  It’s something that really fascinates me about Japanese culture.  While I can’t read most of them, occasionally there would be a few English ones wishing for safe travels or a healthy life, the same things everyone wishes for. 

  

After the shrine, we were going to walk around the tiny island, but we got distracted with picture-taking instead.  With the natural rock formations surrounding Aoshima, picture opportunities are incredible.  Capturing that PERFECT picture of sitting on a rock with the waves crashing upon it is totally possible.  We did it last year and HAD to do it again this year.  I like to call it the “Little Mermaid” pose……except Ariel made it look SO.  MUCH.  EASIER. 

When Ian told me to swim out to the rock where waves were gently rolling over it, I said “No problem” and promptly made my way out.  After slipping and nearly biffing it a couple of times, I got to the water and doggy paddled out only to realize that things aren’t always as they seem.  The not-so-shallow water swirled me around in it, banging my legs and feet into the sides of other rocks.  When I finally climbed up on the desire rock, it was slippery and covered in barnacles which cut my skin.  I still have a few scrapes today!  Those gentle waves that washed over the rocks from the distance were terrifying up close.  I had to brace myself against the rock each time the waves washed over for fear of being drug over the side.  Ian (from the safety of another rock) shouted “QUIT LOOKING LIKE YOU’RE TERRIFIED!  NONE OF THESE PICTURES ARE TURNING OUT!”  Right.  Remember to smile as the frightening waves scrape me against the rock and try to tumble me over the edge.  Smile.

 

Whenever we got back to the beach, we realized how lucky we were that Krista and Mollee had stayed behind.  Had we all walked over to the island, our beach gear would have easily been under several feet of water!  We stayed on the beach for as long as we could before we needed to head home.  We watched the sun sink low in the sky before packing it up and heading back to the car.

We debated what to do for dinner, and several ideas were thrown around, but we’re a very indecisive group and couldn’t reach a consensus.  I remembered that there was a Pizza Hut in nearby Miyazaki City, and everyone agreed that would be a great option.  Although the pizza was great and we enjoyed it, there were a few problems with it.  The Pizza Hut store was a delivery only shop, so we had to go inside to order and then sit outside at the lone table and wait for our pizza.  Not only that but the price of pizza in Japan is quite expensive.  For an American medium (Japanese large) Hawaiian pizza that Krista and I split, it cost about $30.  I’m not sure of the price in the States, but I’m going to venture out on a limb and say that it’s about half that price.  Sometimes you just have to spend a little more to get quality western food, though!  

And on a random note that has nothing to do with the beach, I got caught staring today.  I was absolutely surprised and amazed when the teacher who sits right across from me caught a fly in his hand.  He went to the open window and opened his clenched fist, releasing the fly.  I was absolutely amazed that he had caught the fly with nothing more than his bare hands, so when he turned around and saw me sitting there, still looking dumbfounded with bugged eyes and an open mouth, he laughed.  He’s a really cool guy, so we laughed about it.

In other news, it’s the weekend!  YIPPEEEEEEE!  However, it’s supposed to rain THE. ENTIRE. WEEKEND.  No worries, though!  I’ve already queued up a couple of movies in our Netflix account, going to do a bit of house organizing, and maybe pack up another box of stuff to ship home.  Enjoy the weekend, y’all!

El Soloter

When I was in Mexico, I had a friend who liked to have his alone time.  He called it going “El Soloter” despite the fact that we laughed at him and told him that “El soloter” isn’t actually Spanish nor does it mean anything.  However, I can’t get his “El soloter” phrase out of my mind because this week, I’ve been having “El soloter” time.

Ian surprised me on Sunday when he said that he would be in Kumamoto City until Wednesday this week.  He apparently told me a while ago (or so he says….).  I knew that he was going to the city the second week of June for work (as in during our anniversary…..sad day!  Can we catch a break on romantic days this year?  First we missed Valentine’s Day, now our anniversary….) but I don’t remember him saying that he was going this week.  Regardless…..I’m “El soloter” until Thursday and realizing how lonely it is to live alone.  (I salute you, fellow ALTs for being able to live alone!  You guys are amazing!)  I came home on Monday afternoon to a TOO quiet house.  All evening, I expected him to pop in the door as if he had just run to the grocery or something.

Cooking for one is also crappy.  While I don’t have any whining from anyone else if what I made is slightly overcooked or not seasoned to expectations, I also don’t have anyone there to tell me that grilled eggplant and sliced tomatoes served on a piece of toast isn’t a meal.  I also don’t have anyone to go to sleep with.  On Monday night, I was watching a few episodes of TV in bed before I went to sleep.  My eyes were getting heavy, and I remember closing my eyes, thinking I’ll wake up in a few minutes when the episode is over, and there aren’t any voices anymore.  Since I’m not a heavy sleeper, changes in sound, temperature, and light generally wake me up.  Fast forward to 3:38 AM when I actually did wake up, glasses still on and computer still perched on the edge of my bed.  I pulled my glasses off and tucked the computer in my backpack before rolling over and falling back asleep, knowing that had Ian been there, he would have taken my glasses off for me.

My final whine about living the “El soloter” lifestyle is a whine/praise of thanksgiving.  I knew that it was supposed to rain on Tuesday.  Every Tuesday, I go to the Board of Education for 20 minutes, my first nursery school for 30 minutes, and my second nursery school for 30 minutes before going to the JHS for the rest of the day.  On nice days I ride my bike, but since it was calling for rain, I sure would have driven a car……if I had one.  Since Ian had it, I was forced to ride my bike.  As soon as I woke up, I opened the window to see the weather.  While it wasn’t currently raining, the gray ominous skies promised to open up at any time, and the wet road told me that it HAD been raining.  I packed a couple of plastic bags in my backpack to wrap up my computer in case I got caught in a downpour, put on my rain jacket, packed an umbrella, and headed to the BOE.  In bouncing back and forth from building to building, the only time that it rained on me was a gentle sprinkle between the BOE and first nursery school.  However, not twenty minutes after I got to the JHS, the heavens opened up, and the rain poured down upon Yunomae.  I said a quiet prayer to God because CLEARLY he was watching out for me! 

The rest of this blog is a little scatterbrained, and I apologize.  I’m just writing out the thoughts as they come to me.  I mentioned God in the previous paragraph.  Speaking of the guy upstairs, do you want to know how I know that he exists (other than saving me from torrential downpours)?  Because there is justice in the world!  On Monday night, there was a fly buzzing around the house annoying the crap out of me.  I tried to swat it a few times, but it was just too smart.  When I woke up the next morning, I found its dead body by the window.  Justice served.

I don’t know why this bothers me so much, but it does.  Japanese teachers won’t drink out of a bottle.  I watch them almost everyday, and my JHS teachers who bring in bottles of tea won’t drink from them.  Instead they pour the tea into a mug and drink from the mug.  Actually, they look at me weird when I drink from my water bottle.  I don’t get it.  They’re dirtying up more dishes to wash!  Why not cut out the middle man (the mug) and move on from there?  I also don’t understand why this is such a pet peeve of mine.  Why do I care so much about this?!?

Ian and I enjoy watching Gordon Ramsey’s shows.  Our favorite is Hell’s Kitchen, in which chefs from around the country compete to win the position of head chef in one of Gordon Ramsey’s many restaurants.  Those chefs could definitely cook circles around the best cook I know, but Gordon Ramsey has a way of making them look like incompetent fools in the kitchen.  After Ian or I cook dinner, we always like to play a game called “What Would Gordon Ramsey Say?”  Usually it’s only poor things about my cooking, but occasionally I’ll make something that will stun Ian (cheese filled hamburgers or taco salad, thank you) and ask Ian what Gordon Ramsey would say about it.  “He’d probably say ‘that doesn’t suck,’” Ian told me once.  If Gordon Ramsey told me that, I would take it as the BEST compliment ANYONE has ever given me regarding my cooking abilities.  Not only is taste graded, but so is presentation, which has made me pay closer attention instead of just slopping something down on a plate and serving it.  Playing “What Would Gordon Ramsey Say?” certainly makes dinner time a lot more entertaining!!     

Today at recess I thought that I was being really cool by making clover chains for my 2nd grade girls.  At first they seemed to be impressed and lined up to receive a bracelet or necklace.  HOWEVER, then a couple of girls had to go and outdo me.  They made me an incredible bracelet wreath of clover.  It was thick, beautiful, and definitely cuter than the lowly chain bracelet I had made.  In the picture below, mine is the one on bottom.  Although the bracelet made by the kids broke, it was still a LOT cooler than my simple chain could have ever been.  When will I cease to be amazed at Japanese children’s art and craft projects??  Once the kids tired of making clover jewelry, they decided to decorate my hair.  I was wearing a Katniss Everdeen braid, so there were plenty of places to tuck clover in my hair, and the kids SEIZED that opportunity.  I probably had more flowers in my hair than there were on the ground.  A couple of boys grabbed handfuls of clover leaves and tried to dump that in my hair, but I pulled away and said “No!  Hana dake!”  I’ll wear flowers in my hair, but I’m not about to put other crap in my hair just because you want to.  I wish that I had my camera with me at the time to take a picture of my hair, but alas, you’ll just have to imagine how awesome it looked.

Rabu

This is a short blog, but I wanted to write a quick post before lunch.

I’m not a creeper…..I promise.  However, I enjoy watching our neighbors.  My kitchen window looks right out at their house, so I see them often as I cook or wash the dishes.  I think that they are absolutely precious.  They are a married couple maybe a little older than Ian and I and have a toddler.  The baby cries a lot, (and with thin Japanese walls, we hear it A LOT) but she is a cutie.  We’ve never really talked to our neighbors other than the occasional “Konnichiwa” when we see them outside. 

What makes me really like them is that I think they are really in love.  A LOT of Japanese married couples are together because they know their societal duty is to get married and have kids.  I’ve seen/heard of more loveless Japanese relationships than I can count.  What’s even worse is that NO ONE gets divorced in Japan, so they stay in these miserable relationships just going through the motions for the rest of their lives.  Therefore, I’m happy for my neighbors who actually found love.  I know that they love each other because they do cute things for one another.  I’ve seen the wife greet the husband at the door when he comes home from work with the baby.  (Not in the HERE!  TAKE HER! kind of way but more like DADDY’S HOME!!)  Or when the dad leaves to run errands or something, she’ll stand at the door and wave bye-bye with the baby.  Precious!  Yesterday, I saw the husband open and hold the front door for the wife to go through first.  Awwwww!  I think that they are the cutest! 

Which got me thinking…..do people watch us and comment on how cute Ian and I are as a couple?  I had to think about this question for about three seconds before I realized the answer…..YES.  Just because we are foreign, different, and already married, people (especially teen girls) think that we are just the cutest together.  I’m pretty sure that I could throw a clod of dirt at Ian’s head, and people would still think “Awwwwww!  Look at the cute foreigners!”  ;)

That’s all for now!

Bucket List

Since our time is getting short here, Ian and I decided to write down achievable goals before we leave.  (I say “achievable” because there’s no use in putting “go to Hokkaido” on the list.  There’s no way that we’ll make it to Hokkaido in the short time we have left, and we don’t want to fail at items on the list.)  Without further introduction, here’s the list (in no particular order);

1) Visit Aoshima one last time.  Aoshima was my FAVORITE Japanese beach that I visited, and it’s only a mere 2.5 hours from us.  The beach is natural—not a short man made strip of sand like what many Japanese beaches are like.  It’s gorgeous and has the island of Aoshima with some crazy rock formations to explore.  When the tide rolls out, there are TONS of fun tidal pools to explore.

2) Take the 219 to Miyazaki.  I’ve never been past Yunomae in a car on the 219.  It’s supposed to be a beautiful drive that winds through the mountains to Miyazaki City, and I’d like to drive it….just once.

3) Take the Hitoyoshi looped bridge to Ebino.  This is also supposed to be a rather beautiful drive.  If it’s one weak spot that I have here, it’s a gorgeous mountain drive.  I want to soak up all of the pretty mountain views before returning to flat Kentucky.

4) Hike in Ebino one more time.  The Ebino highlands were a fantastic place to hike, and I wouldn’t mind returning there for one last hike.  Plus, it’s not terribly far from Hitoyoshi.

5) Beach camping.  With rainy season approaching, I feel like this goal might be a little more on the difficult side to achieve, but we’re certainly going to try!  The night we camped on the beach was one without much sleep but still one heck of an experience!

6) All day picnic by the river.  I enjoy spending lazy days by the Kumagawa, and as long as we have a couple of nice weather days, we can eat, drink, and be merry for a whole day.

7) Swim in our swimming hole at the pretty bridge place.  We’ve had countless fun times at the swimming hole, and I want to spend at least one more day there.  The water is probably beginning to be warm enough for swimming, and even if it’s not, who cares??

8) Find One Tree Hill.  Ian and I have a nickname for one of the hills that we pass by on the Fruity Road, One Tree Hill.  As you might imagine, it looks like a pasture with only one tree on it.  From a distance, it looks easy to find.  However, the road twists and turns to the point where it seems impossible to actually locate it.  However, this is our goal!

9) Rainy season rafting.  This one is Ian’s idea.  We rafted the Kumagawa before, and that was enough for me.  What’s exciting about rafting it during rainy season is that the river is swollen and currents are stronger, so it’s much more of an adventure.  While it was a fun adventure when we did it, it’s rather pricey, coming in at nearly $200 for the both of us. 

10) Eat at Everest.  Dare I call it our favorite restaurant?  I can’t count the number of times we’ve eaten at Everest in the past two years.  The Nepalese food is delicious, cheap, and the owners are always so happy to see us in there!  Currently it’s closed for renovations, but it’ll open up again at the end of June.  We must go at least one more time!

I’m almost certain that this list isn’t complete, but these activities will definitely keep us busy for a while.  We’re crossing off the first two items on the list this weekend when we go to the beach, so I feel like we’re making great headway!  

The Stain

Warning: a funny story follows.

Since our bed is the one piece of elevated furniture in the house, we tend to use it….A LOT.  While we normally eat dinner at our floor table, if we’re feeling especially lazy, we’ll eat in bed.  We drink tea in bed.  We watch movies in bed.  We Skype in bed.  We do a lot of things in bed.  Now on to the story….

I noticed a large brown stain on our bed sheet the other day as I was getting ready for work.  My mind immediately jumped to tea.  I couldn’t remember when it happened, but I was confident that I had accidently spilled tea in the bed.  I didn’t say anything to Ian and went on about my day.  When I came home from work that day, Ian said, “You want to hear a funny story?”  YES, PLEASE!!

He asked if I had noticed the stain on our bed sheet.  I said yes and confessed that at some point in time I had probably spilled tea.  He said, “Yeah, that’s was I thought, too, so I text you earlier to tell you about it.”  I was confused.  I knew that I hadn’t received any text messages from Ian that day and told him so.  “Exactly,” he said.

He said that he text me the following message:  “What’s that big brown stain in the bed?” ……..only he didn’t text it to my Japanese cell phone.  For whatever reason, he sent it to my American phone, a number that I no longer have and haven’t had for a year.  Apparently the new owner of my number is a jilted ex because he/she responded back with: “Leave me alone!  You think I don’t recognize a fake number?  That’s pretty low, even for you.”  Ian quickly realized his mistake and responded with: “I’m sorry….wrong number.”  The number replied with, “Whatever.  I know a fake number when I see one.”

This story is funny for two reasons:

1) Ian asked him/her about the big, brown stain in the bed.  Given the wrong context that comes off as level 1 creeper. 

2) Receiving a text from an international number COULD look like a fake number, so I feel like no matter how much Ian would have tried to wiggle his way out of this one, he/she wouldn’t have believed him. 

In other random news….I met up with Mollee and Shara Tuesday night at Joyfull (Yes, it’s spelled with two l’s in Japan.) to have writing time in which we work on our drafts for our upcoming workshop.  Usually we procrastinate or put off writing until the last minute, but Mollee and I discovered that if we go to a certain place and dedicate THAT time to writing, we actually get work done.  I had an enjoyable bike ride there.  However, once we got there, we did nothing but talk!  We had the best of intentions of working on our stories, but alas!  Nothing ever came of it as we were having too good of a time chatting.

Ian gave himself a summer haircut.  I’m not a big fan of it.  While his hair was getting…..”big,” (his word, not mine) I liked it a little fluffier.  He said that it was starting to get hot (OK, I understand) and the longer pieces in the back were starting to touch his neck and make his neck hot.  At that comment I immediately glared at him and said, “The FEW pieces of hair touching your neck are making it hot?  Seriously?”  Then he said, “Yeah, but your hair is really fine and thin.  Mine’s thick, and I can’t even feel a breeze blowing through it.”  Still…I protested him cutting his hair, so he waited until I left the house to cut it.  When I got home on Tuesday night, his hair was so short that I could see his scalp!  UGH!  I hate whenever he cuts it that short, but he loves it because it’s nice and cool.  When I went to take out my contacts, I couldn’t because the mop off his head was still in the sink.  “Ian Reed!” I shouted.  “Why does it look like there’s a furry animal in our sink?”  He laughed and said that if I wanted something to be done about it, I could clean it out myself.  Um…..no.  Disgusting!

And in the final random story of the day….tis the time for snakes!  UUUUGGGHHHH!  Since more and more farmers are planting and flooding their rice fields, the snakes are being driven out of their homes.  We ran over a big one on our way to Hitoyoshi on Monday.  Then on Tuesday I saw one slithering across the road on my way back from nursery school.  I saw another snake later that day while I was riding my bike.  It was a small 1.5 foot one, but it was enough to scare the living crap out of me!!  *shudder* I’m actually starting to get afraid of going too far into my back yard for fear of stepping on one or seeing one slither away, and for that reason I made Ian cut the grass.  There is honestly no animal that I despise more than a snake…. 

Anyway….that’s all for now!  I’m counting down the days (just one more!) until our beach day on Saturday!  Hurray!

Burnt Out

Someone recently told me that they had to explain the meaning of “burnt out” to their students.  There is a similar Japanese saying that means “only the ashes left.”  Ever since they told me that, I’ve thought about being burnt out more and more, and I think I’m burnt out here in Japan. 

Not so long ago I was second guessing my decision to leave, but now I couldn’t imagine staying for a third year.  While I still enjoy my life here, with my days being numbered things are starting to irritate me.  Things that I used to brush off my shoulders easily feel like they are continuously crushing me down.  After a class that didn’t go according to plan, I take it to heart.  When a typical jerky JHS boy laughs at me, I feel like a failure at life and want to retreat in a dark hole.  When Sunday night rolls around, I dread going to school the following morning and start planning things to do for the next weekend.  (Some days it seriously feels like I’m living for the weekends!)  After a completely silent lunch in which not ONE kid uttered ONE word, I wonder what my purpose is here.  When a co-worker tries to tell me something in Japanese and I have NO idea what he/she is talking about, I think just two more months of this.  In fact, I’ve already counted and know that there are only eight more weeks of school.  I’ve felt this way for the past couple of weeks and not really sure if it’s a normal reaction to leaving or if I really am just burnt out with Japan.  I don’t want to leave with the mentality of “I’m so glad this is over”…………

In other happier news, I went to my recently remodeled nursery school yesterday.  The new building has been under construction since November, and when I pulled up into the parking lot, the construction workers were tearing down the old building….the building I was JUST in last week!  It actually came as a big shock to me because last week when I was there, there were no hints of packing.  No books in boxes, bare walls, or anything to make me think the end was coming.  The new building is GORGEOUS.  It’s light, airy, and everything smells NEW.  Since it was a new place, I’m not sure who was ADD’ing more, my kids or me.  I kept looking around and seeing new mats, boards, games, toys, everything!  Plus with bulldozers shoving down concrete walls and that giant crawl thing ripping steel from concrete, it might have been easier to just cancel class and watch that instead of focusing the attention of twenty pre-schoolers on learning colors.

At my second nursery school, I only had to teach for fifteen minutes because they were having a birthday party for all of the kids with May birthdays.  It was cute.  Each of the kids had to come forward and sit in the chairs at the front of the room.  Teachers spoke for the kids who were too young to talk, saying what food they liked, their “hobbies,” (honestly though, does a three-year-old have “hobbies”?) and what day their birthday was.  The younger kids looked terrified to be sitting in the seats in front of everyone, but they were so well behaved and didn’t cry or anything!  I didn’t get to stay for the whole ceremony, but it was still really precious, and I’m glad I saw some of it!

Today was my elementary day, and I had the best recess that I’ve had in a while.  As soon as I walked outside, I saw a group of about a dozen kids clustered near the bushes.  They screamed for me to walk over, and I started to until a couple of kids said “Snake!  Snake!”  NOPE!  When they saw me walk away, a couple of the girls ran over to me and said, “Melissa-sensei, snake!  Snake!” and pulled on my hand to get me to come over.  OH HECK NO!  I told them that I didn’t like snakes AT ALL.  I believe that the only good snake is a DEAD snake, but I actually felt BAD for that snake because those kids just WOULDN’T leave it alone.  There were kids on either side of the bush taunting it and splashing it with water.  They did that the ENTIRE recess time.  Poor guy!

I played tag with some of the other kids, and we had a great time.  It was one of those days when there was no wind, and it was just too dang muggy.  When we tired, I sat down and started making clover chains, which resulted in a dozen kids swarming me and asking for a necklace, bracelet, ring, etc.  I love clover chains!!  A couple of kids started pinching my arm flab where muscles should be and telling me how good and squishy it feels.  Nothing like a couple of elementary school students to make you feel bad about yourself!

That’s all for now! 

Beach Time and the Lost Ring

Last Korean post….I promise!

On our last day in South Korea, we decided to head to the beach.  After a week of walking, hiking, and generally being on the move, we decided that it would be worth it to just sit in one spot and enjoy the day!  After waking up early for most of the week, we decided to sleep in and met each other around 11 AM to make our way to Haeundae Beach.  Busan is well known throughout Korea and even all of Asia for its beautiful beaches, and it definitely didn’t disappoint.  The day was cloudless, and the white sand beaches reached out and touched the blue waves rolling in.  Out of all the beaches I’ve been to in the last two years, it was that beach that reminded me the most of the Gulf Coast. 

While the water was waaaaaaay too cold to actually go swimming, that didn’t stop us from having a great day at the beach!  While Melissa and I found a spot and made camp, Ian and Mollee went off and bought drinks/snacks for the day.  There was plenty of entertainment for us to watch.  For example, there was a couple who brought their cute little Pomeranians to the beach.  The dogs were terrified/intrigued by the surf.  They wanted to investigate it, but each time it touched their paws, they ran away in fear.  At one point in time, the girl lifted one of the dogs over the surf.  We could tell that he was NOT happy to be over the water!  The other Pomeranian tried to save his friend by rushing toward him, but as soon as the surf touched his paws, he decided that it was every dog for himself!

Later that afternoon we had a rowdy group of high school boys near us.  They were funny to watch because one by one, they would suddenly grab one of unaware members, drag him to the water’s edge, and toss him in.  I’ve never seen boys jump so high or fast out of water before!

 

We talked about EVERYTHING.  I’m not sure too many subjects were skimmed over as we lazed on the beach.  As sunset grew near, we decided to pack it up and say goodbye to the beach.  Since it was our last night in Korea, we decided we wanted something unusual, but all of the restaurants that were near the beach were either super crowded or expensive.  We wandered along the streets until we stumbled upon an Irish pub.  If there’s one thing that Ian Reed enjoys, it’s an Irish pub.  He voted to stop there for dinner, and the three of us were too hungry to put up a fight.  I’m actually really glad that we did go there, though.  As soon as we opened the door to the second story restaurant, we weren’t sure if we were still in Asia.  There was a sea of white people drinking, smoking, eating, and having a good time.  Someone had even brought their baby to the pub, and he was sitting on the bar while patrons played with him!  Honestly….it felt like we were in Ireland!!  After a hearty dinner of shepherd's pie and a few drinks, we went to our last stop of the night before heading back to the hotel to pack up….Gwalligi Beach to see the Diamond Bridge lit up at night.

The Gwalligi area is a trendy little area of Busan that centers around the beach.  Across the bay is the Diamond Bridge, which is known for being lit up at night, and the light reflecting off the water looks like diamonds, giving it its name.  It was a beautiful area.  The surrounding sky scrapers were lit up with neon flashing signs, shooting those brilliant colors out across the water.  A million pictures couldn’t do it justice!  It’s one of those things that you have to see for yourself.  Vendors were selling bottle rockets to beach goers, and with the lights shining and fireworks being shot off, it was a truly magical moment.

 

We were enjoying our time and taking pictures when it happened.  It was a complete freak accident.  Ian stood up and was brushing the sand off of his bum when his wedding ring slid off and flew across the beach.  It’s not like he’s had problems with it being loose…..it just….happened.  “Um….guys…” he said.  “My ring just fell off.”  I didn’t believe him at first and thought he was joking, but then a mass panic ensued in an attempt to find the ring.  We have the BEST friends because Melissa and Mollee were down on their hands and knees with us sifting sand through their fingertips in an attempt to find the ring.  We looked and looked and looked for a good hour or more, but we really weren’t sure exactly where the ring landed.  It was dark, and people were walking around the area.  We weren’t certain if it had already been pounded into the sand by either our sifting efforts or someone walking by.  Either way, we gave up efforts of finding it.  Ian and I were both stunned and sad at first.  It wasn’t just any ring….it was his WEDDING ring.  However, we realized that it’s just a thing…a thing that can be replaced.  Granted, it’s a rather symbolic thing, but it’s not like we lost each other or an arm or something.  The ring could be replaced.  If nothing else, it makes for a great story to say that Ian lost his wedding ring on a Korean beach!

After such a wonderfully relaxing day, it was a rather crappy way to end it, but that’s the way it happened.  Since we spent so long looking for the dang ring, we had to quickly rush back to the subway station to avoid missing the last train.  I think we made it just in the nick of time.  I’m pretty sure the train we were on was the last train of the night because it was PACKED.  It was so crowded that Ian got separated from us.  However, we all made it back to our hotel safe and sound.

………..and that concludes our trip to Korea!  While it ended on a rather dismal and disappointing note, we had an amazing trip, and I’m so glad that we got to do it!  That was the last big trip we’ll take until we go home in August.  Then it’s Fuji, Tokyo, and Hawaii before we head home.  EXCITEMENT!!!!

Lost in the Korean Mountains…part 2

On our second to last day in Korea, we took the train to Daegu and then a bus to get to the national park area there.  Mollee had read about it, and it was supposed to be a really great hike to this temple on the top of a mountain.  We all agreed that it would be fun.  Mollee had researched it and said that it was a simple 1.5-2 hour hike.  Yeah….that short hike turned into a seven hour/multiple peak/about 8 kilometers hike.  Before I get ahead of myself, let’s start at the beginning…..

We started off so fresh and genki!  After touring another temple that was at the base of the mountain, (once again with the beautiful paper lanterns) we started our hike.  The lady at the information counter pointed us in the direction of the temple that we wanted to go to.  While the roadway up was paved and easy to walk on, it was STRAIGHT UP.  The grade was so steep that every couple hundred of meters we had to break….or rather Ian and I had to ask the mountain goats Melissa and Mollee to stop so that Ian and I could break before dying. 

 

We made it to another temple, and from there we could see the cliff that we needed to go to….only it seemed a LOOOOOOOOONG way up.  From there we had two options: the steeper, rockier path or the flatter dirt path.  Melissa even asked a guy if the flatter, dirt path led to the same place.  She said that he kind of laughed (Remember this!  You’ll understand later…) and said yes.  So the easier path we took!  After the ridiculously steep road we came up on, the path was nice and much more like a nature walk than a hike. 

…..until we came to the ropes.  The first one wasn’t a big deal.  It was a steeper incline with a rope to grab onto for support.  We didn’t think anything of it because there are places on Ichifusa’s trail that requires you to do the same.  However, the ropes became increasingly challenging until we were at a solid slab of rock, and the only way up was to use the rope.  It was a little too late to back out because that would require us to go DOWN the ropes.  It would be possible but not easy and pretty dangerous.  We knew that the only way was up. 

 

Ian went first, followed by Melissa, myself, and Mollee.  I was terrified the entire time because I don’t have the upper body strength to pull myself up!  Doing stuff like that in the safety of a gym where there are mats and harnesses is no big deal, but doing it on the side of a mountain when one wrong error could send you a long, long, long, long way down is another thing.  One slip and I’d be injured…on the side of a mountain…several hours away from civilization.  I kept telling myself Hugo’s words, “You’re body is capable of almost anything.  It’s your mind that gets in the way.”  When I made it up, I sighed a breath of relief!  I think we were all a little shaken up after literally climbing to the top because we didn’t stay long to enjoy the view.  It was a breathtaking view, but I think Mollee was the only one to capture an image from the very top (below) because we were too focused on finding a different way down the mountain.

Getting out our handy map again, we realized that there was a trail behind us and the “trail” that we came up on wasn’t even marked on the map.  The trail was better and had significantly less ropes.  Although there was one spot in which we had to rappel down a 10 foot drop.  (The only other time I’ve been rappelling was once during our senior year of high school.  Not only was I in a harness and gear, but that was a LONG time ago.)  Ian went down the drop first, followed by me, Mollee, and Melissa.  I knew that it was only a ten foot drop, and if I did fall it wouldn’t kill me, BUT it was terrifying.  I took the first step off the ledge and completely froze.  I couldn’t do it.  I had to get back on the ledge, shake the nerves from my system, and try again.  When my feet hit solid ground, I said “NEXT!” I was done….done, done, done, done, done, done, DONE with it and so grateful to be!  Both Mollee and Melissa had difficult times getting down as well due to nerves, but we all made it!

At this time, we had a decision to make.  We could either head back down to the village where we started or continue hiking along the ridge to the temple.  Since we got lost, it was already pushing mid-afternoon, but we assumed that the hike would only last for another two hours…..in plenty of time before darkness.  My vote was to head back down to the village and catch the bus back to town, but I was outvoted.  The temple was another six kilometers and several peaks away, and I was already worn out, but to the temple we went!

 

I lost track of how many peaks we crossed while walking along the ridge.  I was too concerned with putting one exhausted foot in front of the other.  Both Mollee and Melissa were still hyper and excited, which made me want to push them off the dang mountain.  Since it was cloudy, we were loosing daylight quicker, and there were a couple of times when we wanted to stop and break, but we just didn’t have the time.  We got lost only one more time before arriving at the temple. 

I’m not going to lie….seeing civilization again was a beautiful, beautiful moment of that day.  We turned around and looked across the peaks to see where we had started.  I could hardly believe how far away it was!!  The four of us weary hikers climbed the last few sets of steps to the top of temple where the giant Buddha dating back to HUNDREDS of years ago rested for us.  At the very top of the mountain and temple was an area where people could pray.  The Buddhist mantra (prayers) played on a loop.  Standing there under the colorful paper lanterns, looking at the gorgeous Korean mountains and giant stone Buddha as the mantra was chanted, it was such an enlightening experience.  I’m not Buddhist nor do I ever plan of being, but it felt religious and spiritual.  I think after a looooooong day of hiking, all we needed/wanted was a little love from the great Buddha!

 

I hate how catching up from Korea has taken me almost three weeks, but I promise that I only have one more to go, and then I’ll be ready to move onto more fun things…like my current life back in Japan!!   

Lost in the Korean Mountains…part 1

On Thursday and Friday of our vacation, we hiked.  As we hiked, we had a nasty little habit of getting lost……okay so maybe “lost” is too strong of a term.  We wandered around the mountains without knowing the exact destination. 

On Thursday we stayed in Busan and went to a temple on one of the mountainsides.  (I was actually surprised at how chopped up Busan was.  It’s a huge city, but it’s scattered around the sides of mountains.  On one side of the mountain is a city with skyscrapers, behind that mountain is the beach, and behind the mountain to the right is rural Korea.  It was weird.)  I’m not going to lie….when Mollee suggested going to a temple, I wasn’t that thrilled about it.  I feel like seen one East Asian temple, seen them all.  However, I’m really glad that we went because it was beautiful!  The view down on the city was great.  Busan was so close to us, yet up on the peaceful mountain, there were no loud city sounds or hustle-and-bustle.  I saw a sign that tourists could choose to stay a day or so at the temple and learn what it was like to be a Buddhist monk.  I think that could have been a cool experience, but there’s no way we had time to do that. 

One thing that was super cool about the temple was that we got to walk around and see people doing the Buddhist prayers/chants. (UGH!  There’s a word for it, but for the life of me I can’t remember it right now!)  With the incense burning and the prayers being chanted, it was a rather cool experience to have.  Another thing that I liked about the temple was the paper lanterns.  There were thousands of colorful lanterns hung up over the walkways, and walking under them made me feel like I had been transported back in time to a magical kingdom. 

 

After our time at the temple, we headed to the old fortress wall.  Way back when the fortress wall surrounded the highest peak of Busan and was darn near impossible to penetrate.  Thanks to reconstruction, part of it still remains.  We knew that the trail up to the fortress wall began outside the temple, and after a short break, we hiked up the rocky path toward it.  Since it was steep and rocky, we paced ourselves and took frequent breaks.  We met a couple of other hikers along the way, and all of them wanted pictures with us….mostly we didn’t understand them, but we got the message of “not many foreigners come up this way, so we’re pretty surprised to see you here.”  It was cold and windy on the plateau where the fortress wall was, so we didn’t stay there for very long. 

 

We thought about hiking to the top of the mountain, but without packing a lunch or bringing enough water the decision was no.  Instead we decided hike to the other end of the wall to see that gate.  However, we somehow got turned around and never found it and ended up in a village on the other side of the mountains from Busan.  It was around 4 PM at this time, and without eating lunch, the four of us were starving.  We found a small restaurant.  However, since we were far enough away from the main drag of town, there were no English menus, and none of us had the slightest ability to read Korean.  We literally had to point at an item on the menu and cross our fingers that it wasn’t something crazy.  Thank God that it turned out well!  There were a few items that were just too spicy for me to eat, but Ian, Mollee, and Melissa gladly ate those. 

 

After lunch, we took another bus drove by another crazy swerving bus driver back into the main part of the city.  We were all quite exhausted and agreed to rest a while in a coffee shop before heading back to our hotel.  While there are no shortages of coffee shops in Korea, we found a Starbucks and stopped there.  I’m not sure how long we stayed there, but it was a lovely amount of time to sit, relax, and enjoy one another’s company while it started raining outside.  Plus…bonus!  I’m not sure if the employees had old cheesecake to get rid of or what, but after our first hour there, they came around giving everyone in the store free samples of cheesecake.  YUM! 

I originally was going to blog about this day and the following one since we hiked both days, but I feel like this blog is long enough to stand alone.  So continue reading for the rest of the story!

To Busan We Go!

The day after our DMZ tour was our travel day from Seoul to Busan.  Since it was only a three hour train ride from one city to the other and the trains ran ridiculously frequently, we spent the morning and early afternoon in Seoul.  After three straight days of waking early, walking around and being on our feet all day, and late nights, we decided to sleep in a little on our final Seoul day.  We ate our final breakfast in the basement breakfast room, and once again Lars was there but this time with his family.  We met his wife, daughter, son-in-law, and grandson.  Since it was later in the morning and we had to share tables with other people, we sat at a table with a middle-aged guy.  While I don’t even remember his name, we started talking and found out that he was from Nashville…our neck of the woods!  He was taking a year of his life off to travel around Asia.

After we gathered our things and checked out of our hotel, we headed to the palace that was close by.  While it was a little lame and basically just reconstructed old buildings that showed how people lived way back when, my favorite part was dressing up.  We wandered into one building where a lady was waiting with the traditional Korean clothing, hanbok, and for about $3 we could dress up in those clothes.  I eagerly agreed, followed by Mollee and Melissa.  I was basically a rag doll as the lady lifted my arms, twisted me around, and did whatever she needed to in order to put the hanbok on me.  After we were dressed, she gave us fifteen minutes to wander around the palace area to take pictures.  I felt like a lovely Korean princess (minus the whole me not being Asian thing)!! 

 

Before we left Seoul, we decided to have lunch at the Pizza Hut in the train station.  We were impressed with the amount of chain restaurants in Seoul—Taco Bell, Starbucks, Burger King, Smoothie King—but the place that we absolutely said that we had to go before leaving was PIZZA HUT.  It was like being back in A-murr-ica…..thick bready crust, greasy cheese, and best of all: no mayo, corn, or shrimp on the pizza!

On the train ride to Busan, we slept, chatted, and read until we arrived around 5 PM.  From there, our first goal was to find our hotel.  We asked the information desk, and they told us that it was very close and gave us maps of Busan and several touristy things to do while there.  While the hotel had a phenomenal location so close to the train station, it was also very, very shady.  We thought that we had already paid for the room with our credit card, but once we got there, the lady at the front desk (who spoke no English) wouldn’t let us have the keys until we paid in cash.  She kept holding a pre-printed sign out for us that said “I like cash.”  Great, lady.  I like cash, too!  Ian quickly got online to look at our credit card statement, and for some reason, the payment never actually went through, so she was in the right.  We paid for our rooms and went upstairs to check them out.

I remember thinking as I first walked in the lobby and seeing the fish tank and thinking that it was a classy place.  After the whole “I like cash” situation, we rounded the corner and very, VERY soon realized that it was anything BUT a classy place.  There was a bed sheet covering….something on the staircase, and our rooms were a joke.  While I will admit that they were spacious, that was about all they had going for them.  Our room was in desperate need of remodeling.  The dingy wallpaper and bed sheets screamed pre-war, the dull carnation pink decorated bathroom was….different, the mirror had a giant rust patch in the middle, there was a mysterious water puddle between the toilet and tub (that NEVER went away in our entire time there), the floor was hot to the touch in certain places (probably due to faulty wiring), the headboard was cracked (and suspiciously in the shape of a head), and the “free PC in the room” advertised online was an ancient monitor that probably still ran Windows 95.  Our room also came with complimentary items.  For example, we had half a tube of toothpaste waiting for our use laying by the bathroom sink or lotion and tissues, both conveniently located on the night stand.  Despite how icky our room was, Melissa and Mollee’s was even ickier.  They could overlook the creepy paintings hanging on the wall, but the blood Melissa found on her bed sheet was gross.  Even worse was when she looked under the bed and found a collection….a bra, Vaseline, and a couple of dirty tissues.  UUUGGGGHHHH!!!

That night we went out to explore the city.  Chinatown was only a block or two from our hotel, so we wandered down those streets for a while.  They eventually ran into Little Russia.  There are a TON of Russians in Busan, and the stereotype of “mafia drug lord” kinda still holds true.  In Busan they aren’t thought of too kindly and run a pretty big prostitution ring.  We learned from our friend, Erin, that if someone approaches you in Korea and asks if you are Russian, you need to say “No.”  By asking that seemingly innocent question, the person was actually asking how much….as in prostitution.  *gasp*  The more we walked around, the more Russian we saw on store signs and even saw Russian prostitutes hanging around outside a club.  We decided to walk out of that part of town and find a nice dinner spot.

After another delicious dinner of Korean BBQ, we grabbed a few drinks and desserts to take back to the room and enjoy.  We ended up staying up to midnight laughing and talking in Melissa and Mollee’s room.        

The World’s Most Dangerous Place

It has been said that the DMZ is the world’s most dangerous place.  I don’t really believe this, (I feel like the wrong side of Memphis or areas of the Congo are worse) but it does make a cool story to say that I’ve been to the world’s most dangerous place!

On Tuesday of our vacation we woke up again at 6:45 for our tour.  We ate breakfast again in the breakfast room, talked to Lars (I think that was his name!) again, and waited outside our hotel for the pick up.  At 7:35, a 15-passenger silver van pulled up, and we got in it along with a few other people.  It took us to a drop off point where we joined a bigger crowd on a tour bus.  The DMZ was only a short forty-five minute ride from Seoul, which really intrigued me.  Both capitals of North and South Korea, Pyongyang and Seoul, are less than an hour from the DMZ on either side of the border.  In fact, at the beginning of the Korean War, North Korean troops were able to invade and capture Seoul within three days since it is so close. 

Our tour guide spoke fluent English, and she was absolutely amazing.  On our way to the DMZ, she explained how the day would be organized, what the DMZ was like, (It’s actually a 4 kilometer stretch of land with three different checkpoints.  I was thinking that it was basically one line with a huge concrete wall between the two nations or something.) when it was OK to take pictures and when it wasn’t, and other fun facts about the DMZ and surrounding land.  For example, did you know that people can live within the borders of the DMZ?  It’s not very many people, but if they do, they don’t have to pay Korean taxes.  Another thing that she said was that most South Koreans want to reunify with the North.  I was surprised by this!  I thought that South Koreans wanted nothing to do with the North since the country has no economy and hardly any infrastructure.  She said that many South Koreans, despite the differences, still see themselves as one united nation since the North and South is the same race, speaks the same language, etc.  (Also, here’s a fun fact for you.  South Koreans are the largest Asians.  Compared to Americans, they are normal sized.  However, North Koreans are the smallest of Asians.  Compared to Americans, they are midgets.) 

Our first stop was Imjingak Park, where you can see the ONLY train bridge (Freedom Bridge) still standing over the river that connects North and South Korea.  As soon as we pulled up into the parking lot, I was overwhelmed with how touristy the area was.  Tour buses crowded the parking lot, venders had set up shops selling cheap souvenirs, coffee shops and snack shops lined the perimeter, but the worst thing was the crowd.  I’m not lying when I say that there were HORDES of people.  Everywhere I went I was being pushed or shoved.  Any pictures that I took had at least a few people in them, and I was even grabbed by random Asians to get out of their pictures.  I didn’t like it at all!  Once we regrouped on the bus and were on our way to the next stop, our tour guide said that this was the busiest she had ever seen the DMZ.  She said that on Sunday when she came, there was hardly anyone at all and that for the past couple of weeks business had been very slow because many people were afraid of traveling to Korea due to the North’s errant claims of death and destruction to everyone. 

 

At first I thought, great!  The ONE day that we’re at the DMZ and it’s the busiest dang day ever.  With all of these crowds, how will we ever get to enjoy it?   However, we soon realized why it was such a busy day.  That was the LAST day that North Korea was allowing the South Korean workers to come and work in its factories.  There were only a handful of workers left, but that was the FINAL day for them to be employed.  Tons of news crews were there, set up and ready to capture images, and security was heightened even more than normal at the DMZ since no one knew if North Korea would try to start something that day.  That was basically the last day that North and South Korea had any ties to one another.  After that, all ties were severed.  It was actually a really cool day in history to be there! 

We had to go through the first checkpoint of the DMZ to get to our next stop on the tour.  The checkpoint consisted of our tour guide explaining that we were a tour group, the soldier checking passport numbers, and then him coming onboard with his huge gun clutched tightly in his hands, looking for any suspicious activity.  All of the soldiers were very serious and didn’t smile a lot.  However when we passed through the checkpoint, Ian and I were staring out the window, and one of the soldiers smiled and waved at us!  It was such a random and unforeseen act that we could do nothing but smile and wave back.

 

Our next stop on the tour was the 3rd Infiltration Tunnel.  After a truce had been agreed upon when the war fighting stopped, North Korea secretly dug a tunnel in order to invade South Korean.  Luckily someone leaked the information, and the invasion was thwarted.  Our tour guide told us that since the day was rushed, we only had twenty minutes to see the tunnel.  It’s quite a rush to do it in only twenty minutes!!  It’s a 200 meter walk down a steep incline and then another 200 walk to the end of it.  Add in the crowds, and we had quite a challenge!  It felt like we were rushing through it.  We literally had to run UP the steep incline in order to meet back at the bus in time.  I was sweating by the time we made it to our next stop, the theater across the way for a quick documentary about the Korean War.

In one day at the DMZ I learned more about the Korean War than I did in any of my history classes.  I feel like the Korean War is kind of skipped over in history as “that war after WWII but before Vietnam.”  For example, I had no idea that the Korean War was kind of a surprise.  North Korea, with the help of the Soviet Union, basically blindsided South Korea.  Unprepared and outmanned, the South Korean forces were forced to retreat further and further away.  Residents in the capital of Seoul were given a day’s warning to evacuate.  At it’s worst, the entire Korean peninsula was overtaken except for a small circle in the south around Busan.  That’s when the UN troops, led by the Americans, charged in. 

Enough about history……our next stop was the observatory in which we could look across the border and into North Korea.  Even at the observatory, the DMZ stretches probably another kilometer before the actual North Korean border takes over.  It was a hazy day, but we could still see into North Korea.  There are a couple of villages dotting the border, and one of them has a giant North Korean flagpole.  Our tour guide told us the significance behind it.  South Korea put up a flag pole on the hills beside the border.  Then North Korea put up a slightly taller flag pole in the nearest village.  South Korea put a slightly taller flag pole.  North Korea put up a slightly taller one.  The silly contest continued until South Korea finally said (and I’m paraphrasing here) “Fine!  You win!  You have a bigger flag pole, but we have running water and electricity.  Enjoy that flag pole.”  It was pretty cool to look over and see North Korea, but honestly the country looked like a barren wasteland of nothing.  Our tour guide told us that if we were there at night, you could look out to North Korea and see complete darkness because those villages don’t have electricity. 

 

Our final stop on the DMZ tour was to the Dorasan Station, the cleanest and nicest train station I’ve ever seen.  The reason for this is that it’s the end of the line in South Korea.  When relations with North Korea were a little better, the train station was the last stop in South Korea before crossing the border, and the train station is actually a little bitter pill to swallow because it was this big, beautiful building constructed to bring better relations and more travelers between the two countries.  However, when North Korea closed the border to South Korea in the mid-2000s, that station became a rarely used building.  Plus, it cost a TON of money, and South Korean tax payers are still paying for it today.  (Fun fact: Our tour guide told us that foreigners are still allowed into North Korea today.  Hardly any countries actually fly into the country, so you have to fly through China first.  The visa process isn’t difficult, but it does cost $3,000 because they want your money.  I’m not sure WHY anyone would want to go to North Korea, but it is possible.)

After our tour, we decided to re-try visiting the War Monument/Museum.  I’m really glad that we were finally able to see it because it was phenomenal.  I wished we could have skipped over the first couple of exhibits about ancient Korean history and moved onto the Korean War and more recent history because we ran out of time.  Ian, Mollee, and I actually didn’t even get to the 3rd floor because we ran out of time! 

 

That night we met up with a friend, Erin, who teaches outside of Seoul.  She asked what food we’d like to eat, and knowing that it’s not something we readily get in Japan, we said Mexican.  She said that she knew of a taco place that got good reviews, but she hadn’t been there yet.  To the taco stand we went!  It was a great choice, too.  Everything is fresh and handmade by the owner, a guy from California.  After dinner, we wandered around that area of town, eventually grabbing some street food.  Ian got a 911 spicy chicken stick, and I got a “no spicy” chicken stick.  To explain just how hot Korean food is, Ian’s 911 chicken made him cry, and my not spicy stick was still spicy.        

  

This whole blogging about South Korea thing is quite time consuming, but I swear that I’ll eventually get caught up!!

Seoul’d Out

Okay, okay, okay.  Enough with the Seoul puns….but believe me they were rampant during our three days in Seoul. 

We had our alarms set for 6:45 AM on our first day in Seoul because I thought I had scheduled our DMZ tour for that day.  We woke up to rain pouring down outside.  …..not exactly the type of weather that you want to see when you plan to be outside the whole day.  Although we got a good night’s sleep, it still didn’t seem long enough after the previous day’s abridged sleep and all day travel.  Our hotel offered free breakfast, so we went downstairs to grab it before leaving for the day, and we ended up meeting a very fascinating gentleman, Lars (…I think that was his name….).  He was born in the Philippines, had family in Sweden, and married a woman from New Jersey, where he lives.  Each morning that we went down to breakfast, he was there and pleasant to talk to.  (side note: Every time we encountered someone on the street who wanted to talk with us, I immediately thought that they were trying to scam us and hugged my purse a little closer.  I’m not sure why I felt this way since we were still in the safety net of Asia.  If anyone did that to me in Japan, I know that their intentions are pure, but anywhere else I’m not exactly sure, so I revert back to the pre-Japan Melissa in which I can’t trust anyone.)

I knew that the reservation that I made for the DMZ said to be in front of our hotel at 7:30 AM for pickup.  We gathered our umbrellas and waited outside.  7:30 came and went, but no one came.  We waited until 7:50, and I decided to double check my paper to make sure that I had gotten the times right.  I had.  Only….. I had gotten the days mixed up.  Whoops!  Our DMZ tour was actually scheduled for Tuesday, not Monday.  We all had a good laugh about it and regrouped in our room to figure out what to do the rest of the day.  After a bit of research, we decided to hit up the War Monument/Museum.  Luckily for us the rain stopped.  Yay!  Before we even went in the building, there were lots of old army tanks, machine guns, and aircraft sitting around, so like the big dumb idiots that we are, we played around on those.

 

Another thing that was really cool about the War Monument/Museum were the giant plaques hung up outside with the names of the soldiers who had died.  On one side was Koreans, and on the other side were UN soldiers.  The American names were listed state by state, and I searched the names under “Kentucky,” but none of them seemed familiar. 

 

When we finally decided to actually go in the museum, we realized a bad thing.  The museum was closed on Mondays!  NOOOOOOOOOO!  However, we rearranged plans and decided to wander down the street to Itaewon, the foreign part of town.  It was actually a really cool place to be with trendy little tourist shops and LOTS of foreign food to try.  We ate lunch at a kebab place and then decided to break up into groups of two so that we could better explore the area.  Something that surprised me about South Korean business owners is that they are AGRESSIVE.  They want you to spend money in their shops and won’t stop bothering you until you have.  I’m accustomed to passive Japan and the States where if you want to just enter the shop and look at things, that’s fine.  However, as soon as we entered shops in Korea, a clerk made his/her way to us and showed us this and that, trinkets, post cards, dolls, and other shiny objects.  We tried to lose the clerks a couple of times, but they all were so insistent!  I hated it, and it made our shopping experience really uncomfortable.  I don’t want to feel forced to buy something just by walking in your store!

Ian and I met back up with Mollee and Melissa at a local coffee shop.  One good thing about Korea is that they LOVE coffee shops, and there is absolutely NO shortage of them.  It’s like being in the Pacific Northwest!  I don’t like coffee, but I love the coffee shop atmosphere and will enjoy a tea as I sit and relax with friends. 

 

Our next stop on our Seoul Train (Ha!  Sorry….couldn’t help myself…) was to the nearby park for a relaxing picnic.  However, we ended up playing and goofing around and decided to hike up the mountain to Seoul Tower for a great view of the city.  Ian wanted to go up the actual tower, but it cost about $20/person, and I couldn’t justify spending that money just to see a view that would be only slightly better than the view I already had.  We wandered around the Seoul Tower area for a bit before heading back down the hill and making our way to Gangnam.  No trip to Seoul is complete these days without a trip to Gangnam to get the super touristy picture of yourself dancing in front of the neon “Gangnam Style” light stage.

 

We knew that the light stage was near the subway exit, but we went out the wrong exit and decided to get dinner instead.  Korean BBQ is supposed to be really popular and famous throughout Asia, so we decided to try it that night.  It was indeed a feast!  It was similar to Japanese yakiniku in which we ordered a couple of plates of meat to BBQ (Asian BBQ is nothing like BBQ in the States.  It’s more like grilling.), and they brought us sides of vegetables, kimchi, salads, soups, tofu, and all kinds of things to go along with the meat.  We ate until we were literally stuffed silly before heading out to find the Gangnam Style sign.  Once we did, we took the obligatory tourist pictures and began to stroll the crowded and bright streets of Gangnam, which is a very trendy part of town. 

 

Melissa and I were very tired after a long day walking around town and decided to head back to the hotel.  It was already 9:30, and by the time we got back it would be 10-10:30.  By the time we took showers and got in bed, we’d barely get eight hours before waking up the next morning for our DMZ tour.  Ian and Mollee were fine with that plan because they wanted to stay out and explore a little longer.  However, making our way back wasn’t as easy as we thought.  We got turned around in the Gangnam subway stop, and it didn’t help that our map was printed with a font size of 5.  As we squinted at the tiny print trying to figure out where exactly we were in Seoul’s spaghetti-like subway system, we finally got it and took the right way to our subway stop. 

There were multiple exits out of our subway stop, and in hindsight, we should have been a bit more careful about that.  However, we knew that our hotel was close to the palace, so we followed signs toward the palace exit.  When we surfaced, nothing looked very familiar.  However, we brushed it off saying that in the darkness of night things look different.  We continued following signs to palace, not recognizing anything.  As we twisted and turned onto different streets, both of us were doubting the direction we were going.  When we finally hit the stone wall of the palace, it dawned on us…..there was more than one palace, and we were at the wrong one.  We were lost in the heart of Seoul without a map or functioning phone to call and tell Ian and Mollee.  We walked toward the main road, and thank God that I had the address of our hotel in my bag.  We noticed a couple of cabs on the curb and decided that whatever the price would be, we’d pay it just to get back to our hotel safe and sound.  I showed the cabbie our hotel address (which was written in Korean), and he handed it back to me, basically saying sorry, but he had no idea where that was at.  I think at this point in time Melissa and I both had that sinking feeling in our stomachs of OMG-WHAT-ARE-WE-GOING-TO-DO?????  I said that we should just find our subway stop and figure out what went wrong from there.  Unfortunately this was late at night, and hardly any shops were opened, but finally we found someone to ask.  He pointed us in the right direction of the subway stop, and we made it back.

As soon as we were underground and looking at a map, we realized the error.  There isn’t just one or two palaces in Seoul but FIVE, and we had gone toward the wrong one.  After double checking to make sure that we were going in the right direction, we left the subway station, and immediately things were looking familiar.  By this time it was 11:30.  TWO HOURS after we had left Ian and Mollee.  Since Melissa and I had the only keys to our rooms, we said that Ian and Mollee were probably wondering how they had beat us back and worried about us.  Once we arrived at the hotel neither Mollee nor Ian was waiting in the lobby.  We assumed that they had gotten new keys from the front desk, but neither of them were in the room either.  Melissa asked if they would have gone out looking for us, but I knew Ian would have been smarter than that.  He would know to stay in one place.  I decided to check the hotel for them.  I looked on the rooftop garden, the basement breakfast room, and even asked the front desk staff if a guy with a beard and a blonde girl had come in.  No one had seen them.  Melissa and I frantically tried contacting them in any means possible—Skype, Facebook, LINE, email, etc in case they had wifi were they were. 

It was a little after midnight when they walked in the door.  I immediately questioned Ian.  “Where the heck have you been??  I thought you guys were only going to stay out a little longer!”  He laughed and told me that they had some problems getting home.  They knew it was getting late and weren’t sure what time the subway closed, so they hopped on the train at 10:30.  They got to Seoul Station and had to transfer.  As soon as they got on, a message in Korean played over the intercom.  He said the only other lady in their car got up and left, but they didn’t think anything about it until the train started moving….slowly….much slower than usual and gradually stopped in the middle of a dark tunnel.  Apparently, that train was going through a cleaning cycle because a team of workers came onboard to sweep, mop, and wash while Ian and Mollee awkwardly sat and watched.  Eventually the train started running again, but by the time they got to the next stop, the subway system had closed for the night.  Too far away to walk, they hopped in a taxi, prepared to pay whatever the fee might be.  (However, it turned out to be only $8!  I love cheap South Korea!)

As soon as he told that story, I laughed and told him ours.  As it turns out, the four of us should have stuck together!  By the time Ian and I showered and got in bed, it was after 1 AM, and we had to be up the following morning at 6:45 for our DMZ tour (for real this time!).