Weekend in Samcheok

I went to Samcheok on the eastern coast of Korea over the weekend with some friends. It was very green and beautiful with all the spring rain.

Mark never smiles.

Samcheok (read about it here) is known for two things - beautiful caves and penis park. For some reason, I find this very appropriate. Titter titter.

Deryk, Graham and I (right to left) hiking!

The caves were very big. And very dark. So much so that I didn't really get many decent photos. Though, I did snap this one:

The Bridge of Confessions

We walked over the Bridge of Confessions after first crossing the Bridge of Love and trekking past a heart-shaped rock formation in the Valley of Hell. Will I sound jaded if I say it seems like the people who named these things were trying to offer some sort of commentary on relationships?

After a day of hiking and caving, we went out for dinner and drinks. There was much drinking of soju. I also learned that the novel I'm currently reading, about the Spanish Revolution, is not going to end well. I probably should have been tipped off by the inscription in the beginning - Do not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee (500 won to you if you can guess the book title).

We found an "American Bar" which means it has a kitsch jumble of Americana and still serves soju. All riiight. Just don't talk to any drunk Irishmen. They may seem amicable, but they will insult you, lecture you about the newfound necessity of the appendix and then take your shot without even asking. You've been fairly warned.

Don't Use Your Cell Phone, Don't be a Slut

The 3rd graders (8th graders in America) at my school have done an art project and now all their posters are hanging up around the school. It's pretty cute, though I feel a little bad that, of all the things the art teacher could have given them to make paintings of, she chose school rules.

However, this was very educational for me! Until this point, I wasn't really sure what the school rules were. Now, I can give you well-informed guesses!

 

Don't look like some foreign ho?

Actually, it says "we are students." I assume this means, given that we are students, don't dye or perm your hair, wear contacts or make-up. Because we are here to learn, so you don't need to look good doing it?

Don't be a bitch?

But, seriously, don't be.

Don't watch people dying on your computer?

The text in the center picture means "today, how many people?" I get the sense that some students did not follow the exact guidelines of the assignment. Good on them.

Don't be fat?

No, I'm just playin'. It actually says "wear your name tag!"

Have self esteem?

Actually, I think this is pretty much what is says. The best translation I could do was "Do you like what you see? Your appearance." I'm not sure how this is a school rule, though...

????????

The text translates to "Would the pretty princess still have been admitted?" I feel I am losing something in translation. Or, this student has made an interesting social commentary about beauty and the false equality of the Korean school system.

But, the point is, my students are adorable. Except Tuesday 5th period. I will break your recorders ON you next time you play in my class.

The Lotus Lantern Festival

May 21st in Korea is 부차님오신날 ("buchanim oshinnal") or "Buddha's Birthday." To celebrate this event, the city holds a big  festival in the center of the city, the Lotus Lantern Festival, and has done so for a Long Time. The lanterns are supposed to be "symbolic offerings of the light of wisdom and compassion that dispels the dark and suffering of the world." Okay, Korea, I like it. 

The Buddhist temple was hung with so many lanterns. It was beautiful.

Now, for Adorable Things.

Normally, I think characters in full body costumes are creepy but for some reason, this is just precious. It's hard to be scared of a flower.

The Lantern Festival is quite the popular event, especially with children, it seems.

 Koreans love their cellphones. A love equal to that for their children?

I got my name written in Korean with a Buddhist precept of my choosing in Chinese calligraphy. I was debating between "Just do it" and "Meet your parents' expectations, and things will run smoothly," but I finally chose "live life as flowing water." Although I also think it's rather poor advice, it seemed so name appropriate.

Throughout the day, traditional Korean dances were performed. In my favorite one, dancers lifted two tiny, costumed, dancing children on their shoulders and paraded them around.

It was pretty adorable.

There were a lot of craft tables and since the Lantern Festival is such a big event, they had helpful English translations.

Fingering, Fingering, we can make the world together! (Hah.)

This was a pottery station. Sadly, they blocked out "fingering, fingering" later in the day. I guess someone informed them that it might have an...unintended meaning for native English speakers.

Some Buddhist monks were doing sand mandalas in the street. They were creating an image of the buddha.

A friend explained the significance - in Buddhism, the creation and then destruction of the mandalas is supposed to signify the "transitory nature of material life."

There is also a big lantern parade during the evening. Unfortunately, I was so tired from the day, I couldn't stay until the end.

Why Living in Seoul is Great; Why Living in Seoul is Awful

In an effort to save more money,  I've been tracking my expenses lately.


Typical Expenses (Weekday):

Lunch - Bibimbap + juice (GS25)            2,500 won
             Sweet Chocolate bar                     200 won

Subway Fare (both ways)                        1,800 won

Dinner - Odeng                                       1,200 won
              apple                                         1,000 won

                                                 TOTAL: 6,700 won = $5.90 US

---------------------------------------------------------------

Typical Expenses (Saturday):

Snack - chocolate waffle (subway)           2,000 won

Subway Fare (both ways)                        1,800 won

Lunch - Salad (Kraze Burger)                  5,500 won

Pre-dinner Drink - whiskey (Sam Ryans)  5,000 won
Dinner - Pollack Soup (Itaewon)              6,000 won

Drinks (Queen, Stompers, etc.)               38,000 won
Drinks (GS25)                                          3,000 won

Taxi (from Itaewon)                                15,000 won

Drunken snacks (GS25)                           6,500 won

                                                TOTAL: 80,500 won = $70.84 US

;_;

You're Doing It Wrong

Recently, I watched the Korean movie, 200 Pounds Beauty. The story focuses on Hanna, an obese, ugly woman, who is frustrated and demoralized about her life. She has a beautiful voice and is secretly the actual voice behind a popular Korean singer. However, her looks humiliate her and keep her from ever gaining celebrity herself. So, she decides to undergo full-body plastic surgery. A year later, she reappears as 'Jenny,' a beautiful, slim and 'natural' beauty. Suddenly, her life is perfect - she receives kindness and help from strangers, is on her way to becoming a popular new star and the man she was in love with returns her feelings.

Too bad, while Hanna is morbidly obese by Korean standards, she's actually...not that abnormal by American ones.

The plot of this movie is so...Korean. Sure, overweight, unattractive people being treated poorly, and the make-over story that often accompanies it are common themes everywhere - Sabrina, Clueless, Shallow Hal, and on and on. But, there are very few countries that would use plastic surgery as the make-over device. The movie's ending tries to point out the negatives of what Hanna has done, but she still reaps the rewards from it. Ultimately, the movie still tacitly approves of plastic surgery.

How can we not feel a little better about plastic surgery after staring at Kim A-Jung's pretty, pretty face for 90 minutes?

But actually, that moral debate doesn't interest me very much. I just thought it was an interesting look into the attitude of Koreans toward plastic surgery.

The line echoed throughout the film is "It's okay, as long as it's not my girl." During the film, Hanna and her best friend discuss how all men feel the same - they could understand why some women would get it done, but couldn't accept it in the person they were dating. Yet, obviously, this is not reality, considering that 76% of Korean women in their 20s and 30s  have had cosmetic surgery (from Ask a Korean!).

Maybe the reality is that Korean men and women have an unspoken agreement. Men will gloss over the plastic surgery and women will gloss over the sleeping with prostitutes.

(Prostitution is sadly, extremely common here. Wikipedia tells me it is estimated to be a $13 billion dollar industry...and that doesn't sound surprising at all...).

Oh, Jon Hamm, you're so dreamy.

I'm also reminded of the 30 Rock episode "The Bubble." Jon Hamm guest stars as Liz's boyfriend, who is so attractive that the world just bends to his needs. This is mirrored in 200 Pounds Beauty. While Hanna is treated poorly, Jenny's life is perfect. She rear-ends a taxi and the the cab driver starts apologizing. A policeman gets involved and immediately offers to set her up with a good mechanic. The attractiveness bubble fixes all of her problems.

I hear some foreign guys talk about this, too. Essentially, they say, being in Korea is like being a hot girl. Or, what they seem to imagine life is like for hot girls - People want to help you, things work out for you, life is just...easier. I believe people who are more attractive are probably treated better but I feel skeptical of such significant differences. If this were really true, there wouldn't be so many beautiful waitresses in Los Angeles.

Men may want to think that hot girls are treated better, and they are now enjoying an 'only fair' reversal of fortune. But this seems like crap to me. I don't think attractiveness is that much of a factor - the important thing is knowing how to use what you have.

Korea, I Love You When You're in Love

Spring is finally springing here and I've realized that in Korea, this is my favorite season. Why?

COUPLES OUTFITS.

"Couples outfits?" You may wonder, thinking of corny Halloween costumes or couples that color coordinate their polo shirts.

In Korea, couples outfits are so much more than that. And spring, when love is in the air, is the perfect time to break them out and show the world how much you love each other.

Matching T-shirts!

Matching shoes!

Entire matching outfits! Completed with ridiculous dressed-up dog!!

It's interesting how different the attitude is here. In the west, the automatic thought when seeing couples dressing alike is 'wow, that guy has no balls.' However, in Korea, it's just considered sort of cute and funny. (Or a lot more Korean guys are just ball-less. But, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.)

And a few more of my favorites...

Brilliant! Who is going to hit on your girlfriend/boyfriend if they're wearing this?

The 80's vomited. 

Oh, jeez, how stupid is- oh, oh wait...well, I feel sheepish.

So, have any couples outfit photos to share?

Japan Part III: Kyoto

The main hall of Toji Temple in Kyoto

Our final stop in Japan was Kyoto, the more recent former capital of Japan (794 - 1868). I'd heard Kyoto referred to as the cultural and historical capital of Japan, so I was interested to see it.

The five-storied pagoda at Toji Temple.

Our first stop was Toji Temple, one of Kyoto's most famous landmarks. The five-storied pagoda, originally built in 826, is the highest pagoda in Japan. It has been struck by lightening and burned down 4 times. Which makes me think that maybe they should have stopped trying. But they seem to be having better luck lately.

I think I was expecting something like Nara, but Kyoto is actually a large city and quite modern-looking in most parts. Although it is home to 1600 Buddhist temples and 400 Shinto shrines, as well as an imperial palace, most of the city looks similar to Osaka. In fact, an article in the New York Times recently discussed Kyoto's identity crisis.

That said, there were still many interesting and beautiful things to see in the city. Since it's a big city and the different tourist sites are pretty far apart, we rented some bikes.

For some reason, I thought wearing a mini-skirt would be a good idea that day.

Close by our hostel was a really delicious rice cake shop. The lady working there made our rice cakes to order.

Surprisingly, although they use basically the same ingredients, Japanese rice cakes taste different than Korean rice cakes. The Japanese version is lighter and smoother in texture, and from what I saw, there is less variety.

We also went to the sake museum, to see how sake was made. As we learned, you get a free can of sake with your 300 yen admittance fee.

Mmm, nothing like a can of sake at 11 A.M.

My favorite part of Kyoto was Gion, traditionally the geisha district. Sadly, we didn't actually see any geisha (although, I read a very interesting blog post about the maiko and geisha who still train and work in Kyoto today). There are also a lot of beautiful temples and shrines in the area.

While walking in Gion, we wandered into the Yasaka shrine, also know as the Gion shrine. It was so beautiful at night!

Basically, being in Japan sort of made me feel like I into the Miyazaki film, Spirited Away.

Japan Part II: Nara

 We decided to go to Nara for a day, the former former capital of Japan (710 - 784, The Nara Period). Besides the temples and heritage sites, Nara also has some interesting wildlife. Like, the very friendly deer.

There is a legend that a god rode in to protect the new capitol of Nara on a white deer. Since then, deer have been regarded as the heavenly protectors of the country, and are allowed to roam freely around the city.

I wanted to pet one but was afraid they would bite off my fingers. Silly me, Nara deer don't eat fingers. Nara deer eat only special Nara deer cookies.

I'm pretty sure the deer live off of cookies alone. Just like me in college.

As the sign warns, be careful.

"The deer of Nara are wild animals. They can occasionally attack people, so please be careful."

We saw several small children getting chased by hungry deer.

Nara was beautiful, for the forests as much as the temples and shrine. We took the walking tour of the city, which took us about 4 or 5 hours.

We went to Todai-ji first, a Buddhist temple which has the distinction of being both the largest wooden building in the world and holding the largest statue of the Buddha in the world.

The main hall of Todai-ji.

Surrounding the Buddha are two large guardian statues. They look pretty intimidating. Here is one of them.

Here is the statue of the Buddha, or in Japanese, "Daibutsu" (Which I'm pretty sure translates to "big Buddha").

It was very big.

Inside the temple, we saw a long line of children with their parents. At first, we thought it was something special for Children's Day. But, actually, it is related to a temple tradition.

There is a hole in one of the temple's support beams that is said to be as large as the Daibutsu's nostril. If you can squeeze through the hole, it is said you are guaranteed enlightenment in your next life.

Small Japanese kids. Lucky.

In practice, this means a lot of children will be granted enlightenment in their next life.

Afterward, we walked to Nigatsu-do, a smaller, neighboring Buddhist temple. It was very pretty.

Before coming to Japan, this was how I pictured everything in the Japanese countryside.

Then, we walked through the Katsugayama Primeval Forest. There are stone lanterns all along the trail. I wish we'd been there at night, as it looks like they still light some of them up.

Japan's temples and shrines give the feeling of being in harmony with nature. Perhaps this is the Shinto influence in the culture? All in all, I think Nara was my favorite of the cities we visited. It was definitely the most beautiful.

Japan Part I: Osaka

Since I got three days off for Children's Day (May 5th) and my school anniversary, I decided to go to Japan at the last moment. We found some cheap tickets on a Korean travel site and ended up flying to Osaka for a long weekend.

We did many things in Osaka! There were many things to do...

We went to a conveyor belt sushi buffet! (Sometimes they call this Sushi kuru kuru, which means sushi-go-round hah.)

...And then we felt a bit ill.

We went to Osaka Castle. It is very big.

I am standing in front of a koi pond. The koi were huge. As in, seemed to be too huge to become fully submerged in the pond, huge.

They have many interesting things in Japan. Like the beer vending machine.

Wow.

We also learned about Japanese culture. 

For instance, the South Park episode "Whale Whores" perpetuates the idea that the Japanese hate Whales and Dolphins, given how much they hunt and eat both. But, this is completely untrue. The Japanese actually hate octopuses. 

Osaka is known for the very delicious street food, takoyaki, "octopus dumplings."

They eat sooooo much takoyaki. All this octopus-eating eventually evolves into this:

A huge light-up octopus. Japanese tour boats come by every 10 minutes and one lucky person gets to fire a laser canon at the octopus. Having been successfully 'slain,' the octopus sings cheerfully about delicious takoyaki and everyone is joyful.