Christmas in Korea, 2008

Well, I survived my first Christmas away from home... and oh how far away from home I was. My friend (also an M.F.A. photo grad from ASU now teaching English in Japan) made the trip to South Korea for the holiday season. We took a boat called "The Beetle" from Fukuoka, Japan to Busan, Korea. Korea is very close to where I live; only 3 hours by boat.

(Oh, and yes, that thing above is the UGLIEST Christmas decoration I've ever seen too; downtown, Seoul, Korea)


The Beetle


First sight; Korea


All of the exits are clearly labeled with "WAY OUT!!" It was helpful to find the "WAY OUT!!" of places.


Here is Brad after he found the "WAY OUT!!"
The exchange rate between the Japanese yen and Korean wan was GREAT to say the least!


Busan


Yay! They love Christmas too!!!


hite beer seemed to be the theme of both Korean life and my trip in general.


Yes, apparently they have Papa John's in Korea.


Me juggling on the roof in Busan.


This area was designed specifically for foreigners and they are proud of that. But on the last night I was solicited by Russian prostitutes, so perhaps their idea of "shopping area for foreigners" is different than mine.


Aboard the KTX, Korea's high speed rail system.


I never figured out what this was all about...


The countryside was quite odd. It seemed impoverished, but there were HUGE high-rises everywhere.

That toast did.


Another thing I never quite figured out...


Coolest nightlife in Seoul, Hyehwa.


They are just as obsessed with "Christmas Cakes" as the Japanese... maybe it's an Asian thing.


Hite beer and video games made for good times.


W Bar was the coolest bar in Korea, or the world... and I'm not kidding. This was Christmas eve


We stayed in the cheapest hostel in the city. It ended up costing $12 US Dollars per night, but was pretty terrible. If you're into "comfort" don't sleep here. For us, it was perfect. We dubbed it "the orphanage." The picture below was taken Christmas morning. I felt like poor little Timmy waking up on Christmas morning.


The food was amazingly cheap and mostly kimchi flavored. I liked it.


On the last day in Seoul we visited the De-militarized Zone, the border between North and South Korea. It was a crazy experience.


Juggling at the wall that lines the border.


The hostility between the north and the south runs very deep. Visiting this area was a powerful experience to say the least. One example of the tension takes form in one (of many) childish squibbles between the two...
Interesting fact: Did you know that North Korea is home to the highest flag pole in the world? Yes, North Korea has a 160 meter tall flag pole. On the border between the two (some years ago) South Korea decided to make its flagpole higher than the north's. This, in turn, caused the north to retaliate and raise their flagpole. This went on and on until present when the north's flag topped off at 160 meters. South Korea's only measures 100 meters. Please enlarge the images to see the poles. I couldn't get a good shot of it because cameras weren't allowed past a yellow line on the site. One lady took a picture past the line and an officer came and erased the photos off the camera.

FOLLOW THIS LINK TO SEE THE FLAGS ON GOOGLE MAPS. YOU CAN SEE N. KOREA'S FLAG'S SHADOW WELL.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=flag+south+korea&sll=37.811954,127.034912&sspn=1.293234,2.329102&ie=UTF8&ll=37.945314,126.66642&spn=0.019358,0.036392&t=h&z=15

In the de-militarized zone there are about 3 million land mines that were dropped after the space was created. In the videos, this DMZ area was referred to as now being a "sanctuary for wildlife and natural beauty." Our guide also referred to the city with N. Korea's tall flag as "Propaganda Village" and their own city with its flag as "Freedom Village." I know there's probably truth to this, but the names are strange and highlight a certain form of propaganda on both ends.


So, I'm not sure if you know this, but soon after the de-militarized zone was created (a 10km landmass between the two countries to keep them from killing each other), North Korea decided that instead of sticking to this agreement to keep their distance, they would instead tunnel underneath the DMZ with the intention of attacking the south. Here is an image at tunnel 3, which was 1 of 4 discovered by the south. There are 8 total, but the other four have not yet been found.

When the tour guide was describing these tunnels she mentioned one tunnel that was "the most dangerous." I thought she was referring to the possibility of collapse. However, she was referring to the fact that "the most dangerous tunnel" is located only 56 km from Seoul and was designed to move 30,000 troops from one side to the other every hour.

Really... this place is insane to visit and really makes you realize first-hand the real tension that still exists between the two countries. Planes cannot fly over the DMZ or they will be immediately shot down. People cannot cross it and it is packed with millions of landmines. Additionally, North Koreans must serve a compulsory 10 years in the army (women too, though I'm not sure how long). In South Korea, men must serve 2 years in the army.

It is a scary place, but was really eye opening to see these places first-hand.



This trip sparked my interest in North Korea. I think this videos illustrate just how terrible life in N. Korea must be. I encourage you to check it out and do your own research on this area of the world. I must say, the border of N. Korea is the craziest place I've ever visited.

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=VKvf7AGTQQ0

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=RsrBBJTXnsU

Despite the craziness of the border, I feel that the Korean people are very friendly and I made several friends during the trip that I hope to see again someday. It was truly an amazing trip and a great place to spend Christmas. I only hope that I get to go back someday.




Last sight of Korea... until we meet again, kom-bay!!

Three Cheers for Kimono Contests and Beer Vending Machines!!

This weekend I competed in a kimono wearing contest in Fukuoka City. I had been practicing wearing a kimono every week for the past three months in a nearby village. It's been pretty fun but Sunday (Dec. 14, 2008) the contest was still definitely nerve racking.

I competed on stage (in front of a packed audience and 12 judges!) in the foreigner category with about 12 other people from around Kyushu. I finished in a very fast 3 minutes 33 seconds. And that's pretty fast even by Japanese standards! Unfortunately, this also meant that I had to wait in the front of the stage for another minute and a half while the others finished. This would be fine if it meant just standing there looking pretty, but no... it instead meant that I would be interviewed for 1 1/2 minutes by the Japanese host (picture below).


If you don't know already, you might be interested to know that Japanese kimono contest hosts do not speak English... go figure! Shocking, right?! Well, let's just say that it was interesting and I understood the majority of the questions (where are you from? what's the hardest part of wearing a kimono? etc.), however, the questions I didn't understand I just responded to what I thought she asked. Turns out that at least one answer was different from the question. Oh well, whatever. I got the audience to laugh and it was pretty fun, actually. I think that people thought it was kind of interesting that I could wear a kimono so well but barely speak the language and have only lived here for about 5 months.


Anyway, I ended up winning third place (men and women are judged together in the foreigner category) and I was the only male entry to win. Winning 3rd place means I will now be going to Tokyo in April to compete in the national competition. It should be fun and I am glad to have a reason to visit Tokyo.
so, YAY!!

Just thought I would share the news that I am the top 3
foreigner-wearing a kimono-champion of 2009 in Kyushu!

Oh, also...
my time was 3:33
the fastest Japanese men's time was 3:40
yay!

backstage!


My lovely, beautiful and hilarious kimono teacher, Mori Sensei. Speaks no English but is one of the few people who gets my humor and laughs at my bad jokes in broken Japanese.

Saori san. Nice girl

Oh, let's not forget about Christmas cakes!!


I would say that my favorite part of Japan is the abundance of beer vending machines. Great invention!

My village, a $1500 puppy, spaghetti you probably shouldn't eat on a date and delicious corn

In case you were wondering what the middle of nowhere looks like, this is it. This is a picture of Ubuyama- where I live. The school is off the the right. Not much happening, so I'll let the picture describe life here. But I do try to get out as much as possible. Here are a few random pictures that I like. As the title of this post suggested, the puppy conked out there costs $1500. (No, I will NOT send it to you) The black spaghetti (which I only half ate) is spaghetti with squid ink sauce. It is like eating a ball point pen (or many pens) and basically it turns your mouth black. It was good, but I'm sure if I saw myself eat it, I wouldn't like me anymore. Lastly is a picture of corn. Notice the mountain in the background of the corn picture (oh, and yes the corn was DELICIOUS!). It is getting very cold here and now you can see snow on the mountains.

(belated) Thanksgiving!!!

OK...

So, I'm not stupid...

Wait, maybe that's not true...

Anyway, I know that I am posting this "Thanksgiving" post AFTER my Christmas post, but you must remember that Christmas started here well before Thanksgiving (since they don't celebrate Thanksgiving). Regardless and nonetheless, I was able to find a pretty kick ass Thanksgiving celebration over here. And, I only had to drive an hour and 15 minutes to get there! But, it was well worth it. In a land of fish, rice and seaweed, turkey is a rare commodity. My friend had to drive 2 hours to Fukuoka's Costco to buy it!

I love turkey and gravy!!!!!!!!!!

The party was held in a very nice restaurant, creatively named "Restaurant." Oh, how I love the Japanese people!


A classic image of what it's like to be a foreigner in Japan. Truly...

"Oh wow! Look at the gaijin carving the turkey!!! Quick. Take a picture!"


Yay! Turkey and pumpkin pie! I DO have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!

My First Earthquake...

Last night I experienced my first earthquake ever. It hit Kumamoto city at about 1:10 a.m. Sunday (Dec. 7). I was at my friend Yuko's house exiting the bathroom when all of the buildings in the neighborhood started making a lot of noise and rattling. The quake was a 3.1 which is not so small, but nothing that I know of happened aside from scaring me. The scary part is something I never really thought of before until Yuko mentioned it. In an earthquake you might feel something little and it might seem like nothing, but it could be much worse somewhere else near the center. So, it was weird to think that the little rattling I felt could have just destroyed a city somewhere else. In Japan, usually about 5 minutes after an earthquake you can watch TV and see what happened. Luckily it was fine and there was no threat of a tsunami. So, everything is OK. YAY!

It's interesting because the first place I looked (when I realized what was happening) was up at the ceiling. Of course, if it was a big earthquake and strong enough to make that ceiling fall on me, looking up to survey the situation and ponder the structural stability of the building I'm in would likely be a waste of time. I'm talking boarderline laughable. Like if there was a video camera there capturing the moment that the earthquake hit, the video would probably make its way to YouTube with the title "Idiot Foolishly Looks Up a Moment Before Being Crushed."

I should note, that when I looked up at the ceiling I realized that it was pretty funny that I had chosen to do that rather than run to a doorway or under a desk. I am a stupid human being... but hey, who isn't?