Konichiwa, Japan

Ahh, the vacation was in full swing with the parents and little sis in Korea, and after a few days that meant it was time to hit up Japan, noted rival and sometimes hated enemy of Korea. Japan: the land of the rising sun, bullet trains, tasty sushi, giant sumo wrestlers, and pokemon (unfortunately). Here's a song to get you in the right mood while reading this post:

We had an early afternoon flight, and with Japan being Korea's neighbor, we were in Japan by mid afternoon. My sister and her husband were on a plane just a few hours behind us so we decided to kick it around the airport until they got there. Unfortunately, Tokyo Narita airport is vulnerable to some ridiculous bottlenecks (my trip back!) and we spent a great deal of time at the aiport. This did leave me a generous time period to stare at my newly acquired yen:

It's pretty cool money actually. The center oval is a solid creme color, until you hold it up to the light and then another image of face to the right of the oval appears. The money is, however really wide so it doesn't fit right into western wallets.

After Amber and Dave finally arrived, we were on our way to the series of train rides that would take us to our hotel. Here's a picture of the family together at last at the train stop. Kelsey's checking out the strange Japanese candy she bought. I bought some orange flavored M&Ms at the same shop.

After a switch to Japan rail from the airport line, we arrived in the district which contained our hotel, called Shinjuku. It's home to a nice electronics and shopping district, plenty of bright lights, and the busiest subway stop in the world. This is one of the first pictures I took of the scenery in Japan:

Luckily for us, Amber married a man with a great interest in all things Japanese. Dave did some careful studying of various maps, including Google maps to find our hotel. He served as somewhat of a navigator for our entire trip. Thanks Dave!

He lead us almost directly to our Hotel, the fabulous hotel NUTS. This picture was not taken the first night but rather on a different day.

Why is it called hotel NUTS, you ask? The place IS NUTS. Or maybe the rooms are so tiny that you feel like a squirrel storing nuts in a small tree. There are many schools of thought on this top....oh wait:

Of course! The hotel is a new urban time and space. It was definitely something. It turns out it was converted from a love motel, meaning the type that was once rented by the hour. I liked it actually, it had a soda fountain where you can bath in the luxury of three complimentary beverages each day. The rooms are tiny, but the bathrooms are huge. And bonus, the toilets are sanitarized:

So nothing to worry about there. The TV was huge, and so was the remote:

Yep, thats got all of the buttons I'm used to. A 1, a 7.....wait....um, a 10, 11, and a 12? I've never seen that one before.

Once settled in, we ventured out into Shinjuku to find a restaurant for our first Japanese dinner. We settle on a place that had nice pictures on the menu. We each ordered a good looking meal. The meals were for the most part OK, but my little sister ended up ordering a dish with chicken gizzards, and my mom was served a dish which included the parts of the chicken that are a little chewy/crunchy. This was somehow the main part of her dish. It was literally that part of the chicken that is crunchy and chewy which was breaded, deep fried, and served with peanuts. She hated it. I somehow got myself to like it. This part of the chicken usually makes me gag/lose my appetite, but when I was expecting it I thought it was actually kind of good. The other dishes were at least edible, so there was one Japanese meal down.

Next was another small Christmas in which a few holiday cookies were eaten which Amber had managed to smuggle overseas, and gifts were exchanged between Amber, Kelsey, Dave, and I. It was a cozy Christmas to say the least. Amber and Dave did get me one of the best possible gifts for a Brewers Fan, this Bratwurst racing sausage bobblehead doll. Thanks Amber and Dave.

See you tomorrow for more Japan fun!

The Folks Came to Korea

As I mentioned last time, this is the first of my series of posts where I describe when my parents and little sister came to Korea, and then we all went and met my older sister and her husband in Japan. I figure I'll wipe out all of the Korea stuff in one post so I can get to the Japan posts quickly. It was actually a really good time spent in Korea, though.

My parents and sister, Kelsey, ended up leaving the states on Christmas eve, and then flew for about 12 hours while experiencing a time change of 13 hours. This meant that they basically flew for the entire time it was Christmas. How nice of them.

It was just a simple matter of hailing a semi-shady taxi to my town from the airport in Incheon, well known for shady taxis. This guy seemed like he didn't like silence and kept talking about the long bridges he was going over. Except by talking about, I mean that the only words he know about long bridges were 'long bridge,' so he just said that over and over. After paying a fair price, we arrived safe and sound at my somewhat tiny apartment where we all were staying and celebrated Christmas with the help of my 12" Christmas tree I bought for about $8. It was nice.

The next day was a full day to spend in my town of Seosan, Korea, so I tried to make it worth while. The morning included a small tour of the town around where my school was and to a nearby temple. It's a really beautiful temple, called Sogwang-sa, and I'm planning to write a post about it sometime soon. See picture:

We had a nice lunch of sushi, and then toured the market nearby my home which has a pretty impressive amount of sea food. That night was definitely the most exciting one in Korea, and one of my favorites of the time that I spent with my family. For dinner we had what is called Korean barbecue, where meat is cooked on a grill at the center of the table and wrapped in a lettuce leaf along with toppings, as I had mentioned before. The dinner was complete with some soju and a few beers bought by the guy at the table next to us. We then went to norebang (singing room) and cranked out two hours of well sung favorites. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I don't have any photos of this part. That was nearly the end of a great day, which was eventually capped off with Dok Bokki (what my sister calls Korean fire noodles) and some ice cream.

The next day was off to Seoul by bus. We left late morning and had a small hangup at the Bus terminal in Seoul where the taxi drivers didn't know where the hotel was and also didn't want to take us because it was in a really close neighborhood. We eventually got a taxi to take us to a nearby hotel where a desk worker called our hotel to bring the manager to walk over and get us. No problem. This hotel ended up being top-notch for what the price was, so If you are ever in Seoul looking for a cheap stay look no further than the Cello Hotel. The manager speaks great English and will go to great lengths to make the stay enjoyable.

This is a photo walking back to the hotel that night.

That day, Sunday, was spend eating Thai food at my favorite Thai place outside of Thailand, called Thai Orchid, located in Itaewon. They pretty much lived up to my promises of great food so I was happy. We spent the rest of the day exploring a part of Seoul called Insadong which is in some ways like a giant souvenier store. There are just dozens of shops, museums, and souvenier stores for virtually any Korea related gift. I also saw this robot:

A few stands had this traditional Korean candy made from stretching sugar strings into hundreds of strands and wrapping them around assorted nuts all while doing this chant about how great the candy is. It was definitely worth a photo and the candy ended up tasting OK.

An outdoor mall building had this directory of stores, and my dad noticed something interesting top-center:

Yeah, so no comment on that one. That capped off what I thought was a really enjoyable experience in Korea. I think Kelsey and my parents had a favorable impression of the country, even if the amount of snow we got on Sunday in Seoul made things a little difficult. Actually there was only one restaurant open when we were trying to get food delivered to the hotel, but the manager there was excellent enough to find it and order us some delicious chicken. See you tomorrow for a Japan post!

Happy Hollidays, Ho Ho Ho, Etc.

So things have been barren around here, I know. The last few weeks have been extremely busy with preparing for my family to come to Korea, and then the trip to Japan. I expect to write upwards of 7 posts about the trip, so make sure to check back often.

Before I get to my Japan trip, I have another exciting story to share. This is the tale of when I dressed up as Santa Claus. Oh what a day!

First, all of the kids wore these corny hats with tinsel on them. These types of celebrations are a lot about good photo opps with the kids to please the parents.

I peeked into the room a few times, but then I had to dress up in my costume and hide so that the kids couldn't see me until it was time for Santa to arrive. This meant that I had to miss the kids' performances of the Christmas songs which I had helped them learn. Luckily the other foreign teacher was able to take some photos for me. This is a class I don't teach but they are really cute kids:

The next photo is of my group of 6 year olds (American 5) who had to learn 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town.' My tactic to help them learn it was to first sing the song as a class, then have each one sing it individually and give them a sticker if they did, repeating everyday for two weeks. It worked pretty well.

Then, all of the lights were turned out and the kids were given candles. They had to cheer out for Santa Claus to arrive (I was just hiding out in an office).

I came out in full getup, my boss is right behind me but his eyes are cut off. If you look closely you can see that my jacket and pants are just a little too short.

I had to give a present to each of the Kindergarteners, 50 in all. Each came up to get their present and had to listen to one of the Korean teachers and promise that they were going to be a good little boy or girl for the next year. At least that's what I think it was because I don't understand Korean. The deal was sealed with a pinky swear and a nice photo.

Last, just a matter of a photo with each class and I was out of the costume for at least another year.

Well, happy late holidays and make sure to check back daily for the next week or so because I plan to do a post a day or so until I finish with the trip. If there isn't a post for a day just assume that the game Grand Theft Auto: China Town Wars for Nintendo DS is a really good game (it was one of my Christmas presents).

Mixed Signals

A few weeks ago, I received an interesting gift. One of my students painted and rolled up this picture:

So okay, it's a nice abstract semi-incomprehensible painting done by a four year old kid. Inside was this:

Ahhh, isn't that sweet? My student, Iris, wants me to go to her church.

But it was a few short weeks before that that another student gave me a gift:

This is actually a bible, but the pages were wetted so that they rolled up and formed this kind of huge crazy cylinder. It's pretty cool actually. If you look closely you can see that it has both English and Korean versions of the bible.

So are the odds that one student would give me an invitation to her Christian church, while another would spend some time desecrating a bible and then give it to me? Well, let's take a look at the religious makeup of Korea. According to Wikipedia, it is as follows:

Christian: 29%

Buddhists: 23%

Pretty much nuthin': 46%

Hmm, so that pretty much makes sense, although I'm slightly more likely to be given the blasphemous bible by one of my students if you go by straight percentages. One thing though, this bible ended up making a sweet paint brush holder.

Mmmm, sacrelicious.

I'm at It Again

I mentioned before about my love of finding great second hand furniture on street corners, in dumpsters, etc. This time I definitely outdid myself. Anyway, I found this really great china cabinet outside of an apartment building on my way to work and had to have it. Why would I need a china cabinet? I'm not really sure, but it's great.

I saw this cabinet thing on my way to work about 4 days in a row and thought it possible that someone was keeping it out there during a move or something. I mean it's in top condition and seems barely used if at all. So I waited these 4 days and then last night when it was snowing hard I decided that whoever owned this thing is not coming back for it. A night of snow would most likely ruin it.

So that was it, I decided this thing was mine. Then was the task of getting up to my apartment, about two blocks away and four stories up. Good god this thing was heavy, though. I lifted it over this foot and a half high fence which was no small feat. I managed to carry it back the two blocks to my building by tilting it and just bear hugging it to pick it up. My forearms got such a workout I think they expanded to Popeye proportions.

It was finally to my building, and then was just the small task of carrying it up three flights of stairs. I figured I could just just bear hug it upright and lift it up step by step, but it wouldn't fit into the initial door. It's really tall. Then, I called my friend Steven who agreed to come out and help me with it. Bam. Brand new china hutch.

We did end up getting a lot of snow in our town that night, I estimate about three inches. I think it's great because it reminds me of home and it was really packy for good snowball fights. It was definitely a nice pickup, even if my arms are sore as I'm typing this. Now I just need to find something to put inside the cabinet.

What's In a Name?

I have one-on-one English lessons with one of my students, and just happened to be browsing through the pages of the book I teach out of. My eye caught upon this little gem:

Mm hmm, there's a school in Korea called Yoo-Suck Elementary. Welcome to Yoo-Suck Elementary. We proudly display Yoo-Suck on our walls. Enroll your child at Yoo-Suck and let him or her wear the name Yoo-Suck on their shirt. Come to our soccer games and root on "Yoo-Suck Yoo-Suck Yoo-Suck."

The man at the school is credited with helping to write this English book, so he would obviously know that Yoo-Suck has a meaning other than just a man's name. That's right, they know and they just don't care.

The Kimchi Museum, Oh God The Kimchi Museum

Straight up warning to start this one out, this will be the most boring post of all time. It's hard to not make the most boring post of all time when it's about the most boring museum of all time.

Anyway, I made my way to Seoul with my friend Michael to visit the Kimchi Museum, buy some books, and go out drinking with some Irish people. A little more about the fun stuff later.

The Kimchi Museum is located in this giant mall called COEX. It's a really sweet mall because it has my favorite book store and Mexican food restaurant in Seoul. I was mildly stoked about the museum because I figured there would at least be a lot of free kimchi as well as interesting information about it's history.

As for the history of kimchi, it's been made for centuries. They never even had really good spicy kimchi until someone started importing Mexican chili peppers. That's pretty interesting I guess.

The storage of kimchi is mildly interesting. It has to be kept at a somewhat constant temperature, so they used to bury it underground in the winter under a teepee.

A teepee like this one. Woo hoo.

There's a lot of different types of kimchi, too. Look at them all. There's probably a lot more than this in fact.

There was a nice photo opp with an old Korean woman made out of wax. Kimchi is so popular here that instead of saying cheese to get the kids to smile for a photograph, they say kimchi. Kimchi!

It turns out when you eat kimchi, you eat this little guy with a green hat and he kicks the crap out of germs or whatever that is pictured here.

It also keeps cancer inside of a tiny cage.

Kimchi is pretty popular, despite the boringness of the museum. Koreans are so attached to their kimchi, in fact, that they will usually pack some with them while on vacation. They never want to go even a day without precious kimchi.

Here's the comment sheet about kimchi:

So after leaving the museum, we went to meet up with some of Michael's Irish friends in Hondae to eat some Vietnamese food and do some drinking. It was a pretty ridiculous time while we went to this bar called Ho Bar III. We were ordering rounds of beer ten at a time and each person would buy a round. When my turn came up I was like "goody, a round of ten." It turned out the beer was only 1900 won apiece, so each round came to 19,000 won, which is $16.50 in USD. Pretty awesome. We drank them out of at least three different types of beer. Good Night.

This is Not Right

It's an understatement to say that pencil cases are huge in Korea. every student has at least one, in some cases it can help one's social status, and they never stop playing with them. I've seen some pretty cool ones, the girl I have one on one classes with has one in the shape of a bus and you can pull a string on the back of it to make the bus roll on it's own. Another kid had a pencil case that was two which were tied together like nun chucks. Yeah, great idea.

Today I saw one that went too far. Way too far.

That's right, this pencil case is a dog. It has a zipper on it's back for storage, but more importantly there is a secondary storage area located in the dog's bum hole. You can put pencils in and out of this dog's bum hole. I spent a few seconds with my finger inside of this dog's bum hole. It's very disturbing.