A day to remember

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Thus far, August has been all I’d hoped it would be but it’s actually been nice to get back into routine the past few days. Perhaps now I’ll finally have time to write about our trip to Korea!

We flew to Seoul on Saturday, August 9 and spent the next three days exploring that city. Though we didn’t know it until we arrived, that was a perfect time to be a foreign tourist in Seoul due to a promotion called the Seoul Grand Sale 2008 which provided us with free passes to several of the historical sites that we wanted to visit as well as free transit passes.

Our first full day in Seoul was especially memorable. After breakfast, we caught a bus to Changgyeong-gung, one of the three palace complexes that we visited. Though many of these historical buildings were destroyed by the Japanese at various times throughout history and have since been rebuilt, the throne hall at Changgyeong-gung escaped destruction and is said to be the oldest building of its kind in Korea. Much work has been done in recent years to restore the rest of the palace complex to its original state. The buildings were very similar in design to many that we have seen in Japan.

After touring the palace complex and walking through the peaceful grounds, we made our way to the nearby Jongmyo Royal Ancestral Shrine where two long buildings house memorial tablets for many former kings, queens and other royal family members. Jongmyo is considered the most important shrine in Korea and one of its two main buildings is the longest traditional wooden building in the country. Once a year, in early May, a ritual Confucian ceremony is held here. During this six hour rite, special food and wine are offered to the spirits of each of the departed kings, ceremonial recitations are spoken and traditional musicians and dancers perform. A video presentation gave us a glimpse of that.

Next, we walked to Insa-dong. Full of antique stores, art galleries, handicraft shops and restaurants, this well-known shopping district was an intriguing place to poke around in. After much deliberation, we came home with a handmade lamp that we both fell in love with. We enjoyed lunch in a tiny, authentic Korean shop in Insa-dong. It was here that we first tried a popular Korean dish called bibimbap. Though we found much of the Korean food to be too hot for our liking, this dish was very tasty.

After leaving Insa-dong, we visited a small park that is somewhat of a shrine to Korea’s independence movement as it was from the park’s octagonal pagoda that the Declaration of Independence from Japan was read in 1919.

Late in the afternoon, we started to make our way back toward our motel on foot. That’s when the day really started to get interesting! First, as we enjoyed a Starbucks coffee break a group of high school students spotted us through the window and came in to ask if they could interview us for a project they were working on. A little later, quite by accident, we came across Cheonggyecheon, which I recognized only because I’d read about it the evening before in some of the tourist information that we’d picked up at the airport. This once badly polluted waterway had been covered over with cement after the Korean war to create more roadways and decrease traffic into the downtown area. In 2003, the mayor of Seoul initiated a major project to uncover and revitalize the stream. Completed in 2005 with waterfalls, fountains, stepping stones and historical bridges it is clearly an asset to the city and drew many people on this hot summer afternoon! We decided to walk along it as it led in the general direction that we needed to go. What an amazing experience that turned out to be. At one point, we heard drumming in the distance and soon came across a colourful group of street artists performing traditional music. We sat and listened for awhile before continuing on to the end of the waterway where we discovered that the Korean Olympic committee had set up a huge TV screen, a stage where a live band was performing and even a huge electronic Olympic flame! As darkness fell, we joined the large crowd that had gathered there and watched the Korean women’s archery team win the gold medal! What a moment that was, complete with fireworks! The square rocked with loud music and cheering. It was a wonderful privilege to share that moment of national pride with the local people gathered there. Eventually, we moved on, stopping for a quick supper along the way. A little later, we once again heard music in the distance and were drawn to Seoul Plaza, an open grassy space in front of city hall. There we caught the finale of an open air symphony concert complete with vocalists and dancers!

A few more blocks brought us back to our motel and the end of a wonderful day. Though most of it was relatively unplanned, we couldn’t have planned a more delightful day if we had tried. In my next post, I’ll try to give a summary of the remainder of our Korean holiday but this day was definitely one to remember and one that cried out for a more detailed description.

Revisting Mt. Fuji

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On Wednesday morning we left for an overnight trip to the Fuji Five Lakes area with Matt and Robin. We stayed at an inn on the shore of Yamanakako, one of the five lakes which are scattered around the northern side of the mountain. When we first arrived, the mountain was shrouded in cloud as it often is. Toward evening, though, the clouds began to clear and as we walked along the lake on our way back to the inn after dinner, we watched the sun go down over the mountain. Exactly five weeks after watching the sunrise from the top, this seemed so very fitting. Later, we could see the lights of the mountain huts marking the trail that we had followed up the mountainside.

Yamanakako is a holiday destination for Japanese tourists with many spots along the shore where bicycles, paddle boats and pleasure boats can be rented. An enormous swan-shaped hovercraft does regular tours of the lake but I thought the many live swans were much more beautiful!

In the morning, after enjoying a traditional Japanese breakfast at the inn, we set out to walk to the far end of the lake, a few kilometres away. We ended up walking all the way around the lake! If I’ve read the map information correctly, that’s a distance of about 13.5 kilometres! On our way, we stopped to watch a high school marching band practice, snacked on ice cream, and enjoyed resting in peaceful shady spots. We even saw a campground. After all the time we’ve spent in bustling cities recently, this was a very nice break.

At the end of the day as we waited for our buses, a violent storm blew in. Lightning flashed over the lake, thunder crashed and rain pounded down. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. We took shelter in a second floor restaurant with enormous windows and watched in fascination. Fortunately, the storm subsided somewhat before we had to venture out again.

Rich and I returned to Tokyo by bus then home to our regular daily lives by train. Matt and Robin caught an overnight bus to Kyoto. They’ll be spending the next few days in Kyoto and Osaka visiting good friends and favourite haunts from their two years living in that area. Fortunately, they’ll be back to see us again before they leave the country.

Fish Markets

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I really do have some catching up to do here. Korea was a great experience and I’m looking forward to writing more about it but as long as Matt and Robin are around, spending time with them comes first! Robin managed to sprain an ankle yesterday but she’s determined to keep on going so they’re off on a day trip to Kamakura today and we don’t have to leave for work for a while yet.

While we were in Busan, we visited the Jagalachi Market, Korea’s most active fish market. There were fish of every description as well as crabs, squids and other creatures crowded into plastic tubs. Richard found it fascinating but I didn’t much enjoy looking at row upon row of writhing tubs of sea life waiting to meet their demise! If I want to see living sea life, I’d rather wander the tidal pools or visit an aquarium.

Yesterday morning, the alarm woke us at 4:40 a.m. so we could make an early morning trip into Tokyo to visit Tsukiji Fish Market, the world’s biggest. In comparison, it was enormous. Fish weighing a total of about 2140 tons are sold there each day. When your only real contact with tuna has been the little cans on the grocery store shelves, seeing the giant fish being cut up was probably the most interesting sight.

We wandered around the stalls that sell directly to restaurants, retailers and other buyers. I found it much more enjoyable than Jagalachi, mainly because the fish were already dead!  They were frozen or packed on ice. In general, other than the fact that many of the workers were smoking, it also appeared to be much more sanitary. In fact, I’m rather suspect of the food handling standards in Korea.

After wandering through the market, including the agricultural section and the outer market where one can buy a wide variety of cooking utensils, we ate breakfast in one of the tiny restaurants that cater mainly to the traders. Unlike North America, where certain foods are considered suitable for breakfast and others are not, Asian breakfasts seem to consist of the same foods as their other meals. A typical Japanese breakfast would consist of fish, rice and miso soup. While we tend to prefer a western breakfast, we ate sashimi (raw fish served with rice) yesterday! I had crab which I knew I would enjoy and sea urchin which I had never tried before. I also had a bit of Matt’s tuna and tried a few of Rich’s fish eggs. We all ate tiny stuffed squid. It might be a good thing that I didn’t know what those were until after I ate them but they were very tasty!

World without strangers

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Since arriving in Busan yesterday, we’ve noticed two people wearing t-shirts with the logo “World Without Strangers” in bold lettering across the front. Apparently, these were produced by fashion brand, Giordano, in conjunction with the Beijing Olympics. If we were to see them for sale while we’re here in Korea, we’d probably buy a couple, not only because we like the sentiment, but also because it seems to be an apt description of the Korean people.

Though we can’t tell the difference between Korean and Japanese people by looking at them, it didn’t take long to discover that they are very different. Japanese people tend to be very reserved. Though they’re known as a polite society, it often seems as if the people are very self absorbed and hardly seem to notice anyone around them. We’ve usually found them to be very helpful if we approach them and ask for assistance but have seldom had anyone offer to help us when we’ve been trying to find our way or figure something out. Here in Korea, however, people are constantly stopping to ask us if we need assistance when they notice us checking our maps and brochures.

We’ve also noticed a difference on the subways. In Japan, people are very quiet on the trains and almost never speak to strangers. That’s definitely not the case here where people seem much more open and friendly toward one another. In Japan, people occasionally choose to stand rather than taking a seat beside us and though it hasn’t happened often, we’ve even had people move when we’ve sat down next to them. Today, I had quite the opposite experience. We were on the subway on our way to the beach. The car was full so we were standing. When it stopped and someone got off, an older lady who was sitting next to the now empty spot beckoned to me indicating that I should come and sit with her. Later, on another train, I was sitting and Richard was standing. A lady sitting next to me noticed a spot open up on the other side of the car so she moved across and indicated that Richard should take the seat next to me. I also noticed a young man get up and offer his seat to an older gentleman. That would be a very rare occurrence on a Japanese bus or train.

Something else we never see in Japan is vendors on the the subway trains. Here it appears to be quite common for someone to get on the train and make their way from car to car hawking their goods. As you can imagine, the Korean trains are noisier than their Japanese counterparts but they’re also much friendlier.

Am I disappointed that we chose to spend this year in Japan rather than Korea? Absolutely not! There are many things that I love about living there and we have had the opportunity to get to know many wonderful people. It’s just interesting to observe the cultural differences between the two countries.

Living in luxury

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We’re enjoying a little bit of luxury including a computer and free internet in our hotel room so I thought I’d try to catch up on a bit of blogging this evening. Seoul was amazing but it will need more time than I have tonight so for now I’ll just write about more mundane things like hotel rooms.

In Seoul, we stayed at the Daewoo Motel. Finding it was a challenge as it was tucked into a maze of tiny alleyways just off one of downtown Seoul’s main streets. Our room was small but clean and adequate. For 35 000 won/night (about $40) we had a tiny but private bathroom, a TV, a mini fridge and an air conditioner. In this climate, having an air conditioner is probably more important than just about anything else! We also had access to free internet and the room price included a full breakfast each morning!

Here in Busan, we hoped to find something similar. We were correctly told that we didn’t need a reservation and that we could simply ask to see a room then decide if we wanted it. The lady at the tourist information booth at the train station directed us to the Dong Yang Motel which is practically next door to the station. What a good suggestion that was. For 40 000 won/night (less than $50) we feel like we’re living in the lap of luxury. In addition to the in room computer and free internet, we have a beautiful big room with big screen TV, mini fridge, water cooler, air conditioner and fan. The private bathroom has a big corner tub that I can stretch out in! What a delight that was after all the walking we’ve been doing the past few days. The room overlooks the railroad tracks and beyond that the harbour but in spite of how close they are we’ve hardly noticed any noise from the trains.

Both cities have first class hotels like the Hyatt, the Hilton and the Westin, of course, as well as mid range ones like Best Westerns and Sheratons but how we could want anything more than we have here, I don’t know. Of course, Busan’s luxury hotels have scenic locations overlooking sandy beaches instead of railway tracks but we’ll spend tomorrow on the same beaches without spending several hundred dollars for a room.

We haven’t bothered with a TV in Japan but having one while the Olympics is on has been a bonus even though the commentary is in Korean. We haven’t seen much of how the Canadian athletes are doing, however, as they mainly keep showing the Korean successes over and over. It’s been kind of fun to cheer along with the locals though. Everywhere we go, people are huddled around TV screens watching the Olympics.

Amazed by the little things

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Sometimes it’s the little things that amaze me. Anyone who lives in a cold climate knows what a nuisance glasses are in the winter. Every time you come in from the cold, they fog up. Yesterday, I had the opposite experience. I walked out of a cool air conditioned building into the steamy heat of Japan in August and my glasses fogged up! How weird!

I also discovered what warm rain feels like. Since Richard and I are both teaching at the school closest to home this week, we’ve been riding our bikes to school. On the way home yesterday, the sky looked dark and ominous. We had some things with us that we didn’t want to get wet so Richard headed for home while I stopped to pick up a few groceries. Sure enough, he got home before the sky opened but I rode home in the rain. I haven’t mastered the Japanese art of riding a bike while carrying an umbrella so I got totally drenched but it felt amazing. The rain was actually warm!

It’s August!

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When I was teaching school in Alberta, August 1 meant that the long awaited summer break was already half over and soon the countdown to another school year would begin. When I turned the calendar page this morning, however, it was with great anticipation.  I’ve really been looking forward to August!

First of all, this month means a change in routine. We have no regular classes next week.  All MIL teachers will work Monday to Friday, 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. with a scheduled one hour break each day.  Like Spring Week, back at the end of March, Summer Week involves teaching three day children’s courses which are marketed as “English Intensive” and are meant to give our regular students a chance to practice their English and prospective students a chance to see what our teachers and classes are like.  The other two days are “Fun Days” with age appropriate activities for children and summer tea parties with light conversation for adults.  One of the main purposes of Summer Week is student recruitment so there will also be trial lessons to teach.  When we aren’t teaching, we’re expected to be working on projects which may include anything from creating flashcards and other teaching resources to cleaning.

On August 9, summer vacation begins and we’re off to Korea!  We’re flying to Seoul and spending three days there then traveling by train to Pusan where we’ll spend another three days before flying back to Japan on August 17.

Hopefully, our return flight from Korea isn’t delayed because about two hours after landing back in Japan, we’re supposed to meet Matt and Robin’s plane!  How exciting!  Three years ago, we visited them in Japan and now they’ll visit us.  We have to teach the first two days of their visit but then we’re using days off and yukyu (personal leave days) to get away for an overnight trip to the Fuji Five Lakes area where I’ve booked us rooms in an inn on the shore of Lake Yamanaka with spectacular views of Mt. Fuji just across the lake.  After that, Matt and Robin are off to travel to other parts of Japan including Osaka, where they lived for two years.  They’ll be back to see us again before leaving Japan though.

Late August will also mark the halfway point in our year here in Japan!  In some ways, the time is going quickly.  On the other hand, we’ve seen and done so much in the first five months that it seems as if we’ve been here for a long time already.

Missing Scrabulous

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I learned earlier today that Scrabulous, a popular online version of the Scrabble board game, has been shut down on Facebook in Canada and the United States and I’m not sure what to think. The news didn’t come as a total surprise as I’d heard some time back that Hasbro, the company that owns the rights to Scrabble in Canada and the U.S., was considering legal action against the creators of Scrabulous for copyright infringement. There’s no question in my mind that it is, indeed, copyright infringement as the online game is pretty much identical to the original. Ethically, I realize that Hasbro has every right to bring legal action against Scrabulous but my problem lies in the fact that I’m one of the more than half a million people a day who love playing the game and I’m going to miss it terribly!
Scrabulous is actually still available to we Facebook users who live outside Canada and the U.S. but everyone I play the game with is in one of those two countries. When I think about the fact that I’ve only been using Facebook since January and didn’t even know that Scrabulous existed before that time, it seems silly that I find it’s demise so disturbing but it’s been one of the ways that I’ve maintained contact with some of my friends back home and that’s why I’ll miss it so much.
Mattel, the company that owns the rights to Scrabble outside Canada and the United States, is also pursuing legal action in the Indian courts against the creators of Scrabulous, two brothers who live in that country, so it’s probably only a matter of time until access to the game is shut down worldwide. Apparently both Mattel and Hasbro have official versions of Scrabble on Facebook but my understanding is that they aren’t nearly as good as Scrabulous and when I tried to sign up for Scrabble Beta today, I learned that it isn’t available to players in Japan. It’s the version that Canadian and American players are switching over to so I’m assuming that it’s the one that Hasbro has authorized. In other words, my Scrabulous friends and I probably don’t have access to the same version because we’re on opposite sides of the ocean. Darn! I guess I’ll just have to hope that the games companies and the Scrabulous creators can eventually come to an agreement that will allow the game to resurface. In the meantime, I’ll have to go back to playing Scrabble against the computer. Fortunately, I brought the CD with me!

Obligation gifts

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The giving of gifts is a big part of Japanese culture.  For example, whenever a person goes somewhere, even for a few days, it is expected that they will return with gifts for friends and coworkers.  These gifts are usually sweets of some kind.  Consequently, wherever you go, stores are filled with boxes of individually wrapped sweets sold specifically for this purpose.   As teachers, we are often the recipients of these gifts when our adult students have been somewhere.  As a result, we’ve had the opportunity to sample a wide variety of Japanese sweets!

Gifts are also a way of showing appreciation.  For example, at church yesterday we were given two fresh mangoes by Mrs. Sunaga.  This was her way of saying thank you for our prayers and concern on behalf of her husband who is in hospital recovering from a heart attack.  We’ve also enjoyed a jar of her homemade jam given to us as a welcome gift shortly after we started attending the church.

At church yesterday, we learned about another aspect of gift giving.  When our friend, Seiko, gave birth to her wee son, Ayumu, we bought a baby gift.  Knowing that baby showers are not held in Japan, we took the gift to church and gave it to her husband, Atsuo.  We noticed that many other people did the same thing.  Yesterday, Atsuo and Seiko arrived at church with a huge box of gifts to give to all those who had given gifts to Ayumu!  We were presented with a nicely wrapped tin box of very tasty sweets.   The box itself is lovely and will be a treasured keepsake.  More important to me, however, was the handwritten note that accompanied it thanking us for the gift as well as for our prayers and encouragement during Seiko’s pregnancy.

Since we don’t know any engaged couples, it isn’t likely that we’ll have the opportunity to attend a wedding while we’re in Japan but it’s my understanding that they are very costly affairs because the bride and groom are expected to give gifts to all their guests!  They also receive gifts, usually money, but my impression is that the gifts that they give are often quite elaborate.  Adult students have told me about giving not only food, but also dinnerware and other household items.

Summer festival

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Several weeks ago I noticed that colourful posters had appeared on fences around our neighbourhood but, of course, they were in Japanese so I had no idea what they were advertising. They were all the same and the drawings included strings of lanterns and little characters in traditional dress who appeared to be dancing. I was able to determine that something was happening on July 26 and 27 and when I considered where the posters were located, I wondered if whatever they were advertising might be occurring at the nearby elementary school.

A little while after the posters appeared, we received a photocopied flier in our mailbox with the same drawings on it. I took it to one of the ladies meetings at the church and asked my friend, Yoko, to translate it for me. She told me that there would be a summer festival in our neighbourhood this weekend and confirmed that it would be happening on the school grounds. The flier included a coupon for a free gift and also promised the first 300 people a free insect, a popular pet amongst Japanese children! It also explained that anyone who wanted an insect would be required to bring an appropriate container to take it home in. The flier also included the information that traditional dancers were needed for the festival and gave a deadline for registering. We immediately decided that the event was something we’d want to check out when the time came and marked it on the calendar.

As I walked home from work early yesterday evening, it was clear that the festival was underway. I could hear the music and when I looked down the street that leads to the school, I could see brightly lit lanterns strung above the entrance to the school ground. We decided to head over there before making supper to see what was going on.

It was definitely a happening place. Crowds of people were milling around, many dressed in yukata (summer kimono). The grounds were brightly lit by strings of lanterns and a stage had been set up in the centre. On the stage and in a circle in front of it, dancers moved to the rhythmic music and the throb of the drums which were located both on a platform high above the stage and on the ground in front of it. Groups of dancers in matching costumes clearly knew the precise steps of the dances while young children joined those on the ground and did their best to imitate them.

Around the perimeter of the school ground, booths had been set up to sell various snacks as well as glow in the dark toys to appeal to the children. We enjoyed some tasty pork pieces grilled on wooden skewers. The people who sold them to us were clearly delighted by the presence of Eigo (English) customers and called out “good bye” and “good night” as we moved on.

After we returned from church this afternoon, we decided to head down to the school ground again to see it in daylight. Though the recorded music was playing, the drumming and dancing hadn’t started yet. There were lots of people, however, and we milled around amongst them enjoying a few more snacks. It was oppressively hot and humid and we weren’t surprised when thunder began to roll and lightning flashed. Suddenly the skies opened! Rain began to pour down and everyone ran for shelter. Our first summer storm in Japan! We took cover with many other people near the entrance to the school and waited for the rain to subside a bit before heading for home. Though we only had a few blocks to go, the skies opened again and we were drenched to the skin before we arrived!

Fortunately, the storm blew on by and awhile ago I could hear the drums throbbing in the distance so the festival was clearly underway again. I’m glad as people had obviously gone to a lot of work to set it up and it would have been such a disappointment if the weather had shut it down early.

Just in case you’re wondering… no, we didn’t come home with an insect. We did turn in our coupon though and our prize was a package of garbage bags!