Guess who's here! Day 1-3

Well, after a 16 hour plane trip to get here my parents and sister finally arrived in Korea. They look so alert and happy in this photo I feel it must have been taken at the beginning of the trip because they were not like this when they got here. But they perked up and we went out in my neighborhood that evening.


The next day was a trip to the DMZ, where we were treated to a propaganda filled tour, a visit to one of the tunnels North Korea built to do a sneak attack on Seoul, many soldiers and views of North Korea. Unfortunately, pictures were not often allowed. But below is a look at the Civilian Control line, a guard tower and across the river is the southern limit of the DMZ. Very interesting, and much safer than my trip to DPRK.
The next day we traveled to one of the five palaces in Seoul. And Mom, Dad and Grayson experienced Asian architecture. The palace is huge with sections for the King, Queen and comcubines. But we had fun with these cut-outs of a palace guard, a high official and a soldier. (love the sun glasses on dad).
These are the real (fake) guards.
Grayson tried her hand at sketching some of the pagodas but concluded that it was more difficult than she expected. "You think it would be easy because they're such a distinct shape, but you really don't know which way the wood will go."
In downtown Seoul they opened up a walkway next to an underground stream that feed the main river in Seoul. It's a beautiful (but hot) walk through the busiest area of the city.
And just to prove that this is not somewhere in North Carolina, a crazy store that only sells fire extinguishers. Talk about specialty.

The Past Few Weeks

Hello loyal audience. I'm back to report on my doings these past few weeks. So, first up. I'm a third degree black belt in Taekwondo! I passed my test with high scores and so moved up a rank. Yay. The test itself was kind of easy but I tested in the world headquarters of Taekwondo so that was awesome.

Immediately after testing I took off on a roadtrip to Tongyeong, a coastal city literally on the other side of the country. I went with a collection of exchange students and english teachers. More than half of whom spoke German. (I'm resigned to not speaking in English anymore)
The city was beautiful.

We climbed the local mountain. This is Mi-yeon and Anna, my two German-Korean friends. And took a nice boat ride around the islands.

Last weekend I attended the wedding of one of my old Masters from White Tiger.
The groom, Master Yu, said his vows and then did a back flip in his tuxedo. Oh, Taekwondo people...
Speaking of which, my friend Ashley from the US has been studying abroad in the Japan for the past semester and came over to visit. She took this great picture of me at practice.

We toured around Seoul. And went to something I've been thinking about since I got here. Dr. Fish! These little fish from China and Turkey eat dead skin. So, they're used for beauty and medical purposes to clean the skin. They really tickle when they bite but it works. My feet were definitely smoother afterwards. And of course a picture of friends at dinner. I'm spending alot of time hanging out with friends and trying to do everything I can before I go home in 52 days!

It's been awhile but I'm back!

So... surprise! I cut my hair again. About three weeks ago my friend suggested getting a hair cut and I went with it. Like it?
Also, late March is cherry blossom blooming season. Everyone and their family go to special areas to see the trees. The world is pretty much all soft and pink. Very pretty!

Then I had a break between midterms and school beginning again, so I took off for Japan! I have a friend who is studying in the lower part between Osaka and Kyoto so I went there to visit her.

Kyoto is the old capital of Japan before it was moved to Tokyo so it's full of historical places. One that impressed me more than a sight has in a while was a Shinto shrine known as Fushimi Inari. It's a mountain covered with local shrines and over a 1,000 torii gates (large orange wooden gates) that purify the temple.
You can bet it's been in bunch of movies.

Another famous bit of Kyoto is Gion, the most popular and successful geisha district in Japan. Geisha still perform and live here and can be hired for private parties for about $1,000 for two hours.
Geisha "hunting" was fun. As the geisha move around the neighborhood, tourist follow them trying to take pictures. It's very much a movie star/ papparrazzi relationship. They're so pretty.
The old area still looks like it did after WWII.
A young apprentice

Traditional shoes Gion by night.



As I said Kyoto is historical. Lots of temples. A famous one known as Kinkakuji is completely covered in gold leaf. The cherry blossoms also bloomed in Japan. It's a bigger deal there. It's actually a festival.
Another temple was Ninaji with a historic pagoda.
And Nijo Castle. The floors of this place are super cool. They're called Nightengale floors and when walked on they squeak, sounding like bird song. Which is cool but it's actually a defense against ninjas sneaking around. Ninja attack!
I don't know what this flower is. I'm guessing peony. Anyone else know?
Kyoto is also known for hand-crafted fans. These cost in the thousands.
I also visited a grave yard. Because of space and disease the Japanese are cremated and the whole family shares a one square meter plot. The surviving family members pay tax for it and also pay monks to write blessings on wooden stakes to be places on the grave.
Osaka by night.
Something I did which I'm really excited about was seeing Takarazuka theater. An all female theater. In the early 1900's a man created a resort area so people would use his railway to get there. He started a family oriented theater and trained young girls from the area to perform. Over the years it grew. Now it is a unique cultural experience. The audience now is almost exclusively middle aged women. Because Japanese men are require to work late and spend lots of time with people in their office to build stronger community bonds their wives do not get enough attention. To make up for this the women affection in the romantic stories (Gone with the Wind, Zorro...) played out on stage and make "boyfriends" out of the lead "male" stars. There are huge fanclubs that attend everyshow and buy expensive gifts to give to their favorites. It's strange to think about but after seeing a show I can imagine how these women fall in love with the lead role. The theater trains the girls to be the perfect men. Strong, but vulnerable, declaring their undying love while dueling with rowdy pirates. They're perfect and acceptable for Japanese women to love all because they're not men. Below is the bill for the show I saw both people are female. Amazing isn't it. Even their actions are trained to be male. You'd never guess if you didn't already know.
A funny twist though is while the first half is a story the second half is like a Las Vegas Revue, with kick lines and crazy costumes. Below is the main actor, Yuga Yamato, being interviewed in her final costume.
Another city I visited was Nara famous for it's wild deer population.
These deer herds rome the city and the temple and are a famous for their aggressiveness now because of people feeding them. So of course more people, like myself feed them. And yes they're bullies and yes I did run away and get nipped by a bunch of Bambis.

And some Shinto monks.
Finishing the day I tried my hand at Japanese gambling. Gambling is illegal in Japan (and Korea too) but Pachinko changes money to silver ball to valuable plates that can again be sold. So it's not actually gambling (but it totally is) Pachinko parlors are all over Japan and recognizable by their bright flashing lights and loud music. They're supposedly tied to the Yakuza (Japanese mob) who are supposedly primarily Koreans left in Japan after WWII and the occupation who had no other option in the biased society. I had no idea what I was doing by the bright colors are dazzling. As I said before I was visiting a friend from highschool who is studying in Japan. We spent three days together and I lived with her host family. This is my friend Ashleigh and her Okaa-san (host mom) and her 3-year-old host brother Taiyo. Do I even have to mention that he and I bonded quickly and that he's the most adorable and active child I've played with in a while.

And finally back in Korea May 2nd was Buddha's birthday. So off to a large Buddhist temple to say my prayers and get a free lunch.
There were hundreds of people making wishes and pryaing.
And about a thousand lanterns put up by patrons of the temple.
And these guys. It's cool what can be made from paper.

Well that's all for the past three weeks. I'm glad to have a computer again.

Oi! Time Flies...

Oi, I hadn't realized two weeks had already past. So here's what I've been doing.

Every Wednesday since 1992 there has been a protest outside the Japanese Embassy by Korean women who were kidnapped and used as sexual slaves for the Japanese soldiers during the occupation and WWII. To this day the Japanese government has not recognized the suffering of these women nor made an apology. This is the Japanese Embassy with Korean riot police out front.



And here are the women. The five grandmothers sitting in front are "comfort women" and they do this every week with help from sympathetic volunteers. Having been taken in their late teens and early twenties these women are now entering their 80's and become fewer and fewer each year as they die without recompense.
Then a friend and I headed down South to a satellite city of Seoul known as Suwon. This city has alot of the culture that has been covered in Seoul. Specifically a massive fortress and palace complex.




And the most exciting thing is I had the chance to attend the World Cup Playoff between North and South Korea. It was an oddly close game but South Korea won in the last three minutes of the game by one goal. I was still excited to see North Korean players. I wasn't even aware that they had a team.