Japan: Part One

Hello there avid readers!

Finally, the much awaited post to read, though quite daunting to even begin writing, the 7 days of adventures in Japan!

Alison and Jake Visit
Our week long holiday began with a friendly visit from our old Torontonian neighbours on Saturday morning. My high school lockermate Alison, and her boyfriend Jake (who was addressed as Jake 1 for the weekend as he is older than Jake 2... kinda like Thing One and Thing Two a la Dr. Seuss styles) have recently moved to a place near Seoul to teach English at a Hag won (Korean private academy school) as well. After hearing their stories of a lengthy, tiring and confusing trip, just from Seoul, Jake 2 and I wondered what would become of us on our taxi-bus-subway-ferry-taxi-Japan Rail path that would begin on Monday morning.
Nevertheless, we all managed to ignore the traveling blues and party hard, sight-see in the GUA (Greater Ulsan Area), bow in buddist temples, drink from the fountain of youth, eat too much Galbi, haphazardly shop downtown, attempt to see a sold out Die Hard 4, brave torrential downpour, Nori-Bong (private Karaoke room) with Simon and Blah for Simon's birthday, avoid being hit by a fire-breathing bartender juggling vodka bottles, and drunkenly set fireworks off at the beach after playing several unbeatable curbside vendor games (my favourite of which you purchase a cockroach for 2,000 won ($2 CDN) put it into a funnel, and watch it swim around until it chooses a sort of "gate". Whichever gate it stops at you win a designated prize. Alison won a loud pocket calculator that looks like a cell phone. Handy n'est pas?), all in two days. (Phew, that was a mouthful, 1 weekend, 1 sentence). A fun and enjoyed weekend indeed, and we have the pictures to re-live it.....and the sand that was dragged back into the apartment that night via shoes, pockets, and in Jake 2's case, hair (he had a wee lie down on the beach) that we still haven't swept up .....

**Pictures**

The Japan Trek Begins (Day 1 & 2)
So, Monday morning we awoke at 6:30am, did a final packing check - passports, Alien Registration Cards, rubber ducky - and got a taxi with Alison and Jake 1 to the inter-city bus terminal. We headed south to Busan, while Alison and Jake 1 went north for some more Korean sightseeing. Between an Ulsan taxi and bus, and a Busan subway and mad-dash-taxi, we arrived at the ferry terminal 15 minutes to "take-off". Unfortunately, our aggravated ticket attendant told us we were not going to be allowed on our 10am ferry. We pleaded, looked very lost and confused and white, but she didn't flinch. So, instead, we were able to make it on the 2:30pm ferry which got us into Japan at 5:30... which made us miss the last train to Tokyo, where our reservations were for that night. So, tired, frustrated and down-trodden we decided to JR (Japan Rail) it to the closest destination to Tokyo that the train went to and caught the last run to Osaka. We arrived in Osaka around 10 pm or so, and decided to wander outside the station and find the closest hotel to crash at. We found a rather expensive one, got some hot dogs and salad at the closest restaurant, showered and crashed.

We made it to Tokyo the next day (Tuesday) at 11am. We got off at our station in Ueno (an area of Tokyo), and wandered through a maze of escalators, train and subway platforms, restaurants, gift shops etc. towing our luggage behind us. With exhaustion, hunger and motion sickness all in full effect after finally exiting the station, we suddenly remembered that Jake had left our hotel directions, and a new 1 liter bottle of Jack Daniels in a bathroom somewhere in the station. After returning to the maze-like station, and with the retrieved bag in hand, we finally trotted along, through a park, of course getting lost again, backtracking and arrived at our Tokyo hotel. A nice place with a cute lobby and really nice garden. And, despite their cancellation policy, they didn't charge us the 50% of the cost of the room for canceling the night before! Great success, finally.
We explored our area of Ueno (one of the 3 busiest areas of Tokyo, and Tokyo's 'historical downtown), walked through the markets located between and under two rail tracks, a booming area called "Ameyayokocho" which is a street market district that "evolved out of an open-air black market that sprung up after World War II" (thanks Wikipedia). If interested in info on Ueno Park (our hotel actually was in the park grounds, which also included a zoo, temples, restaurants and more) click here.
At night we ventured to a man made island that supposedly had a substantial nightlife, but we didn't really find said nightlife. Instead we shopped and played arcade games and headed on another subway mission to find a good bar and restaurant. Unable to find sushi, literally after passing dozens of traditional Japanese restaurants in a decent area of town (outside of Tokyo Station and towards Ginza), we settled for an Irish pub that had Guinness on tap, and signed the pint with a shamrock imprint in the head. I enjoyed some fish and chips, and cherished my 700Yen Guinness. We once again attempted to find a bustling downtown bar scene, asking a local who gave us an uninteresting location, and settled for a drink in a random dead bar. We later realized that it was only a Tuesday, but hey, if Antigonish can have a booming Tuesday nightlife, why the heck wouldn't Tokyo!?? Also, apparently dancing and dance clubs are illegal in Japan... "dancing is considered a violation of public morality" (check out this article of a dance bar raid and it's owners sentiments) .
We headed back to the hotel to rest up for the big day at Tokyo Disneyland the next morning! Disneyland post up next!

**Colleen's Pictures**
**Jake's Pictures**

Back from Japan: Safe and sound

Dreams and Magic in Tokyo Disneyland!!

Hey there, just letting everyone know that we arrived back from Japan last night (Sunday night) at 9pm or so. It was an amazing trip and we got to spend 7 days there, and saw a good chunk of 5 cities; Osaka, Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Fukuoka (Hakata). We are currently exhausted, so this post is just to assure you of our good health and spirits. We have over 1,200 pictures to sort through to show you and posts describing our wonderful trip will come shortly!
Hope all is well in all your lives!
xox
Colleen

I like the nightlife.

I've said the following line to too many people for it to be considered even remotely original, and to be honest, I stole it from my Lonely Planet Korean Phrasebook (which I recommend to anybody thinking of teaching in Korea):

"Drinking is Korea's national pastime."

For better or for worse, South Koreans don't seem to have any semblance of the Western notion of "problem drinking." Where buying liquor in most parts of Canada means being 19 (21 in the States -- poor bastards), wandering into a government-owned liquor store and paying mountains of "sin tax" on top of your pint of Captain Morgan ("mickey" of Captain Morgan for my Ontario readers); in Korea, you simply saunter in to your local "dis caunt stoa" or FamilyMart, pick up a cheap bottle of Soju or Hite, and continue about your business.

In Antigonish, Nova Scotia, if you open up your kitchen window while holding a bottle of Keith's and a gentlemanly RCMP officer catches you, he'll charge you with a $445 fine for public drunkenness. In Korea, you can walk down the street with a beer, drunkenly set fireworks off at the beach, play ball at the corner batting cage, or simultaneously vomit while pissing yourself, and you're more Korean then the day you received your Alien Registration Card.

It truly is an amazing place if you've recently graduated from university, enjoy beer, or are of any vague Canadian descent. The following is a run-down of the Korean night-life, starting with the drinks to which we've been introduced.

Soju -- A type of rice/sweet potato vodka. It's generally a 20% alcohol content, making it a bit stronger than wine. However, vodka by any other name, still tastes like fire water. Granted, it's a bit more mild than Smirnoff or Skyy, but it's still vodka. Picture a 50/50 vodka-water mix. Also, it's dirt cheap. It's about a dollar for a pint, and maybe 3 -4 bucks for a mammoth '66er' equivalent. What's more shocking is the Koreans love this stuff like it's holy water. Rarely will you find a mixed Soju drink. No sir, the Koreans like their Soju by the shot glass. And not only while raucously partying -- it's extremely common to see 5 -6 empty Soju bottles at a table of Koreans enjoying fried chicken at the neighborhood shack. Soju is king here. I've only challenged it once, and I lost my umbrella that night.

Hite -- For a beer with a name so remarkably similar to "shite," it's not half bad. We were told that Korean beer was indeed crap, so our expectations were low. We were pleasantly surprised, however, to stumble upon Hite. It's a very light beer, like Miller Genuine Draft. It goes down very easy. Koreans love their Hite. Also, as I pointed out in an earlier post, you can buy them in huge plastic jugs at convenience stores. It's no Keith's, but it will have to do until Ulsan opens up a trade route with Halifax.

...put them together and what do you have...

Car-ak-ju --This devilish cocktail was taught to me by a co-worker. It's a drop-shot extraordinare. In a large beer mug, insert one shot glass of Pepsi, followed by a shot glass of Soju (resulting in a leaning tower of doom). Fill the beer mug up with Hite until it almost reaches the top of the upper shot glass. Consume in one swift motion. Repeat as needed.

The Bars --

I know there are a lot of Maritimers reading this saying "Jake, why go to the bars if you can drink on the street?" Yes, you do have a point. As I mentioned, public drunkenness is almost an olympic sport here. We happen to live very close to Ilsan Beach, which is a fun little strip of bars and mini outdoor amusement zones. You can stroll on to the beach with whatever you please, be it alcoholic, explosive, or otherwise.

Even if you don't feel like going completely indoors, you can hit up a sidewalk Soju tent and enjoy liquor with random seafood, though Colleen and I usually avoid anything with tentacles. Here's a picture of Colleen and I sitting with Blah (a Thai name meaning 'fish') in a tent. The photo was taken by her fiancee and our co-worker, Simon. This was during typhoon min-ya, or whatever it was called. As you can imagine, it was a tad blustery in that tent.

Our Ilsan Beach area has tons of Korean bars, which are usually situated in what looks like office buildings, with bars stacked 4-7 stories high. The booze is cheap, and white-folk are treated like celebrities. You usually get some complimentary side dishes, like plums, boiled eggs, and other random crap, and Koreans usually like to order more food as well. I'm thinking the constant influx of snack food prevents any serious Soju poisoning from happening multiple times in one night. Here's a picture of our random complimentary scoff, along with a bottle of the infamous Soju:
A great feature about the Korean pubs, and restaraunts in general, is the airplane/doorbell style service button located at every table. One press of this puppy and you're in business. It avoids any of that awkward server interaction, which usually comes too often or not enough.
Beyond the Korean bars, which have thus far been our favourite spots, there are a number of "Westerner bars" located in Ulsan. At these places, you'll find imported beer from all over the world, at ridiculous prices (so far, the only Canadian selections we've found are Molson Canadian and Moosehead). You can get anything from Nacho's to Poutine. You're surrounded by white people playing pool and foosball. Basically, you feel 'right at home.' There seems to be a booming ex-patriot community around here, and we're just starting to scratch its surface.

Finally, we come to my favourite part of the nightlife in Ulsan, particularly that of our area near Ilsan Beach. The batting cages. These gems are surrounded by all kinds of ridiculous punching bag games and things of that nature. There are also these whacky rock-paper-scissors gambling games where you have the potential to win up to about $2.00 Canadian. In the following video, you'll see our co-worker Min-hi slugging it out in the cages, and yours truly cleaning up at the R-P-S machine. I must have walked away $3.00 in the good that night.

Well, that's a taste of the shadier side of our time here in Korea. I'm not sure why Colleen insisted that it be my post, but, I sure had a fun time telling you about it all. I now leave you with a picture of Korean men bronzing each other before taking the stage at the bodybuilding contest today at Ilsan Beach.
All the best,

Jake

Going's on for the First Two Weeks in Crazy KoKorea

Anyong Haseyo friends and fam,



Thought we'd give you a bit of an update of how our first two weeks have been and all the cultural adventures we have stumbled upon both un- and intentionally.

School: Our boss, school and coworkers are all pretty awesome. The school is relatively small, with class sizes no bigger than 12 students, and there are 3-6 classes going on at any given time. There are 3 foreign teachers, Jake and I and a bloke from England(/ he has been living in Thailand for the past four years) named Simon, and 3 Korean teachers. The kids are pretty well behaved save for the mandatory few class clowns and the one or two "I'm too good for this" Emo child. The kids, aged 7-14, are usually in school from 9-5, and then have other daily classes, ranging from piano, taekwondo, math, English and more Korean classes until about 10 or 11pm. So, to say the least, we can kind of understand when students are tired and unmotivated. Not really though, because we've never actually been pushed that hard at school, so we don't really understand in that "I've been there" way, but rather the, "I feel sorry for you because I'm wearing my undergrad ring and probably in my 21 years haven't worked as hard as you have in your measly 7 years" kind of way.

Classes are 40 minutes long Monday to Friday. We work either 1:30pm-7:40pm or 3:20pm- 9pm. So, we get to seep in and have enough time in the morning (sometimes) to do groceries and errands and such, and in the evening have time to go out for dinner and beers if the mood strikes us.
Neighbourhood: The neighbourhood is quaint yet bustling and downtown is pretty hip and happening, loud and bright. Jake and I ventured alone downtown last week, our first time using public transit. It took about 25 mins to get down there, and over an hour to get back. We couldn't really figure out the reason on our own so we asked a co-worker who told us we had taken an express bus down, and a regular one back home. The buss token system is pretty cool as you buy a little key chain that has an electromagnetic thing-a-ma-jiggy in it that you wave in front of a screen when you get on the bus. The screen will say some things in Korean and display your remaining balance on your card. Then it says "Kamsa haminada", or "Thank you" in a polite female voice. You can go to more popular bus stops that have vendors at them and put as much or little money onto it as you want.
Shopping: The main stores that we have been able to explore are the less scary-more western department stores. These are the Hyundai Department Stores (x2), Lotte Department Store, and the New Core Dept store. These department stores are absolutely ji-normous compared to Canadian standards. Think the Bay or Sears with style and on steroids. The local Hyundai store is 8 stories tall, and is all store. None of that "top 5 floors are offices" thing that the Eaton's Center has. Basement=groceries, electronics, int'l bank and food court. 1st-3rd floor= women's clothes. 4th=kids stuff. 5th=sports equipment. 6th= mens. 7= ikea-esque and 8th= restaurants. You get the picture. The fashion for ladies in these dept stores are pretty cool by my standards which some find strange, but everything is ridiculously overpriced. I asked our Korean coworkers (both male and female) where to go clothes shopping and they told me that everyone in Korea basically shops online. This upset me as I love to spend hours wandering around malls and bargain basements and second hand stores. I feel like by all Koreans buying clothes online they are deterring the possibility of wonderful, cheap malls erupting in Ulsan. Hopefully when we go to Japan at the end of the month we will find some sweet discount stores. Or when we visit Seoul... but that is too far in the future, my shopping bug needs to be satisfied before then!
Ok, sorry about the shopping rant for any male readers.
Foreigners: Our school, just today, got two new giant banners that they have hung on the exterior of the academy. One features Jake, Simon and I with our names printed in English underneath, and some Korean characters, and another taken at the speech contest we judged, with both kids and teachers. We are going to be way more famous than we had anticipated in our area of Bang O Dong, Ulsan. As the only non-Koreans for kilometers, the local store owners and citizens are starting to get used to us. The "Dis Caunt Stoa" in front of our apartment is used to us purchasing chips, pop and beer, and the ladies across the street that wash vegetables in large bowls on the street 6 days a week always say annyong haseyo and giggle when we return in our Canadian accents. We assume these ladies wash and prepare vegetables for stores and restaurants, but maybe they just eat absurd amounts of it themselves. Until we learn more Korean, we can only speculate.
Customs: We have adventured the areas local temple which was pretty and serene. There are lots of small parks around where unattended children, as young as 4 I'd guess play without any supervision. The crime rate here is so low that there really is no point in worrying about regular Canadian frights such as robbery, abduction, theft, bar fights etc. Along with letting kids roam free, most people live in smaller apartments and let their animals run free as well. We've been told that you basically let your dog out in the morning, and if it comes back, feed it at night and let it sleep inside. We have made several local cat and dog friends. Considering the fact that there are no traffic laws here the unattended children and animals learn the ways of the street quite fast and have swifter reaction times than the average oblivious Canadian pedestrian. In our area, and Korea in general, there are no stop signs at intersections, simply lights at select major intersections. When approaching an intersection with no lights, it's basically a game of chicken...one speeds up and honks the horn loudly and the bravest gets through). While it sounds chaotic, it really works quite well, and there is none of the stop-and-go 4-way-stops residential area stuff that there is in Canada.
Also it's very important to know, and most do, that when traveling in Korea, as well as most Asian countries, it is very, VERY important that you remove your shoes before entering a house or any restaurant where you eat on the floor. Our house came equipt with slippers for the house, and slippers for the bathroom and slippers for outside. Each pair of slippers waits for you at the entrance to the designated area, and one size will have to fit all. (In Korea they call one-size fits all "Free size")
Food: We have eaten at several local restaurants, each one discovered better than the last. Our new favourite food, galbi (a garlic marinated pork rib with onions and pepper paste wrapped in a leaf) is available at many many places. We went to a new restaurant on Friday with our crazy co-worker Min He and couldn't finish it all, so they made us a spectacular doggie-bag and we had it for dinner again the next night at home.
Partying: We have gone out on one Friday and two Saturdays to the local watering hole called Ilsan Beach. It's an area about a 10 minute walk from our apartment and is like a mini-downtown. There are many buildings that are about 6 stories, with each story being a new bar, restaurant or Nori-bong (singing room). Jake will explain the beauty and excitement of the area in the next post.
Hugs and kisses
Colleener

**Click for Pictures **

Here's a video of the view from our apartment roof:

A Clarification

Contrary to popular belief (particularly that of the Toronto Fitzpatricks), our Korean beer of choice is called "Hite," not "Shite."
I am pictured here holding the convenient "pitcher" size, which is just as common in corner stores as 2L jugs of Pepsi. $4.30 at a corner store (our local spot is called the 'dis caunt stoa'), or $3.70 at the grocery store.
mmmm HITE.

-Jake

PS: Photo Update:

** Click for Jake's Pics**

** Click for Colleen's Pics**

Facebook Photos

Pictures from the first few days in Ulsan.

**Click for Pictures **

The Apartment

So, our apartment is pretty sweet. 2 bedrooms, an office, a big kitchen, 2 enclosed balconies, 2 27"screen t.v.'s, a bathtub (very rare in Korea), and to top it all off, the colour of choice throughout the apartment is a stunningly fashionable easter egg purple! Our faves! hahaha. Other than the tacky wallpaper and the purple doors and their frames, the apartment is gorgeous. And it's definitely a good price too....free!!

In Korea all interior doors and windows are sliding, usually opaque, large squares. It's pretty fancy looking. So when in the kitchen, you can open a sliding window and see the computer room/office. Same goes with the two bedrooms and the balconies.
A strange twist to Korean apartments is that they are all made entirely of concrete. So, you can't really hang anything with nails or screws into the walls or ceilings. We've been told it is because of the massive rebuilding of the country after war and recession. Concrete seemed like the quickest and easiest way to build up a stable standard of living and economy.
Other apartments in the neighbourhood are either very bland, or very 'classic Asian' styled, with swooping roofs and round shingles.... you know the type, the stereotypically Chinese design.
Hope these videos give you an idea of how we are living. We haven't had time to decorate yet so don't mind its sparseness.

APARTMENT TOUR PART 1

This tour is interrupted by who we refer to as "The Plum Man." The Plum Man drives around the area with a truck full of produce (often, but not always, plums), and blares a recorded message on loop from his truck. The first time we heard him we thought he was a propaganda man.

APARTMENT TOUR PART 1.5: The Plums of Wrath

Colleen's camera misses the plum man... but you can hear the bugger.

APARTMENT TOUR PART 2: The Conclusion