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.

Not much has been happening lately in Seoul. I'm in a basic school routine... Class, sleep, procrastinate, eat, sleep, homework, TV, homework, sleep, class... Not very interesting. But some small things to report on.

First, I visited a large Catholic church nearby. It was pretty much your basic cathedral with high arched ceilings and pretty stained glass. But the main door startled me. Usually, there's nothing to remind me that I'm in Korea as opposed to a Korean neighborhood in the US but then something jumps out. Look closely at the door and you'll see traditional Korean noble dress. I was surprised.



Also, I visited a board game room the other day. Korea has a whole room culture. It's starts with basic PC room(internet cafe/ arcade) or Singing Room (Karaoke) and then onto weirder things like sitting rooms (you pay for a nice place to sit) or board game rooms (you pay an hourly rate to play some of hundreds of board games. To work there you have to be able to explain the rules to all the game) Below we're playing a simple children's game that we all were terrible at.

And the last big change. I've started a volunteer position. (Couldn't stay away from kids for long) I now go each week to a poorer elementary school and with three others teach basic English to 1st through 3rd graders by playing traditional Korean games with them.
There are 35 students and this week we learned shapes. They now know the word triangle. (circle, square and parallelogram were lost to them) Aren't they cute?And of course I'm having fun too.

School Begins!

Right, so this week I started class. And because Dad requested pictures of campus so I'm taking you on a tour of my daily life.

So, for some reason this semester I decided to try my hand at morning classes. (It's been a week and I'm already regretting that) But I wake up every morning at 8am and walk to school. In front of campus if a huge intersection (and the only place on earth where I always obey traffic laws, sorry mom) But at every hour hundreds of students wait and crosse on en masse weaving between backed up traffic.

The walk from the main gate up to campus. The mountain in the background is part of campus. K, First stop. The theology building (it even looks like a church, not the rose window). Where I have Psychology of Happiness (my professor actually was one of the first to start this field) and History of Christian Education (a feminist critique on the Bible and Christianity in Korea) This class seems interesting but unfortunately may be taught partially in Korean. So, it could be tough.



K, my favorite statue on campus. I don't know what it actually is but it looks like the Death Star.
The building in the middle is the Law School where I'm taking International Law. Yay! It looks to be my favorite class but also promises to be really tough.
And finally one of Yonsei's most famous buildings and a film site for many Korean movies. The school was founded by American missionaires which explains why parts of campus highly resemble somewhere like Georgetown or Harvard. (Ivy covered brick buildings)
And before coming home I'm also taking Modern Korean History, Taekwondo and Swimming. This is my little alley way. It starts between the 7eleven and the Krispy Kreme and ends in a very big church.
My room is the first set of four windows on the left. I love my room, especially now that spring is coming and I can leave the windows open.
When I first was looking for rooms I found this place because of the plants in front. Seoul doesn't have much greenery. So, I came but the woman who runs this place wasn't home for two days. But I held out and from what I've gathered I've got one of the best places in the area.
So, yup, that's my life.

Young In University

On Wednesday and Thursday I went to visit a place I'd heard about since I started Taekwondo nearly 7 years ago. Young In University is a school well known for it's skills in teaching Korean martial arts as well as is where all of my Taekwondo instructors and interns studied. So it's pretty much a pilgrimage site for anyone from White Tiger visiting Korea. I luckily know several students in Korea who are either studying now or graduated from Young In, so I got a personal tour and several lessons from people who do martial arts professionally. (In Korea you're able to major in Taekwondo, Judo...) Anyway, it was amazing.

This is the main building. About five stories tall with two gyms to each floor that were bigger than any I've ever seen before.

The taekwondo gym. Isn't it beautiful?
One of the people I know at the school is on the demonstration team that travels internationally showing off highly trained skills. They practice for about 5-7 hours a few times a week. I got to join the morning part of one of the practices and learned alot. (In real life he jumps off a persons folded arms to do a back flip to hit the two paddles and lands. It's actually a boardbreaking skill) And finally a short clip of a short demonstration they did. This is called Taekwondo Areobics. The music is current Korean pop songs and the moves that are obviously not fighting moves are dance motions that go along with the songs. OK!