Korea (Spring 2004)

Korea was a lot of fun. There ended up being 4 of us in all (Me, Nathan, Jeremy, and Maripat). We faced a choice of taking the closer night ferry (14 hours) or the faster day ferry (3 hours) from Fukuoka (a 6 hour drive away). Ended up leaving from Fukuoka early Thursday morning which was rough since we were all beat from the drive down and the lack of sleep Wed night. Once in Korea though we all regained our senses and immediately headed for Seoul (another 3 hours away by bullet train). As you can imagine, the first night was an early one and pretty uneventful except for the fact that we treated ourselves to a huge dinner at pizza hut!

The next day was spent exploring the central market and searching for bootlegs (no luck). The market was huge. Alley after alley of shops and buildings and under all this was a catacomb of more and more shops. The day was basically spent here and walking around the local neighborhoods. That night was "Club Day". On the last Friday of every month they have this event where you pay about $15 and they give you a wrist band that will get you into 20+ clubs for the night, each playing a different mix of music. We ended up at about 4 of them (that I remember) playing hip hop, reggae, and techno. One club was even handing out free packets of cigarettes for some reason???

The next day we drag ourselves up for an early morning tour of the DMZ (about an hour bus ride away). Unfortunately we couldn't take the US military tour but booked into another one that took us down into one of the North Korean "infiltration tunnels" and to an observatory where we could spy on North Korea with huge binoculars. Pretty interesting. That evening we checked into a nicer hotel and then went on the hunt for a Mexican food restaurant. So far we've had a mix of Western food (including the best corn dogs I've ever had) and Korean food. The Korean food has been good but not as good as the Japanese rave about. It's basically a mix of different wet vegies, grilled meats, and stews. Most of these are very spicy so it's a nice change from the unspicy Japanese food. There's some weird stuff here too. I saw reindeer antler in the grocery store (sliced thin like potato chips) and there's an endless supply of some sort of larvae at all the street stalls. We had to try it and it wasn't bad...kind of like a soggy bean or nut. Anyway, back to our quest. We were finally successful in finding the Mexican restaurant. It was down in a neighborhood called Itaewon which seems to be the hangout of all the foreigners and off duty US military. Not the scene we were looking for so we basically got our overpriced Mexican food (delicious by the way) and got out of there.

The final day in Seoul was spent checking out the annual Royal Shrine ritual. Unfortunately, not as exciting as it sounds. It was a rainy day and the ceremony lasted throughout the day so it was difficult to keep our patience with the rain, crowds, and slow motion rituals. After befriending a few locals and getting some pictures, we left to explore more of the city on foot.

The next day we took the bus to Geongju which is full of ancient Korean artifacts, scenery and culture. Throughout the town are these giant mounds with unexcavated tombs underneath. If you've ever seen Telletubbies then it will look familiar. Basically wherever you walk you run into a shrine, observatory, temple, ruin, etc. It's a pretty interesting place that would be fun to explore for a while. We spent the next morning at one of the famous temples called Bulguksa, and then headed to Seokguram Grotto where they have this giant Buddha in a cave. I know it doesn't sound too exciting but the grotto and statue really are amazing. Unfortunately no pictures allowed:(

Finally, we headed back to the port city of Busan to get some last minute Korean and Western food (Popeye's chicken) before heading home. I'd like to spend more time in Busan though. The city is built around the bay and there hills surrounding the city with colorful buildings terraced up the hills that remind me of Rio de Janeiro of all places. Definitely worth exploring in the future. But for now I'm back in Japan and ready to plan my next trip.