English in Korea

some friends have told me that the standard of english in Korea is, in general, a little higher than that in Japan, although i couldnt really tell the difference. i encountered the grand total of two service staff who knew english – one asked us if we wanted a bag with our purchases while the other asked if we were taking out or dining in; not grand feats by any stretch – one waiter who freaked out trying to explain something to us in english, and all the rest just spoke korean to us regardless of the fact that we were foreigners.

to me it’s pretty much the same as in japan; of course there’re places like Hard Rock Cafe and Outback Steakhouse where the servers speak excellent English, but such places are few and far between. given that i’ve been here a lot longer and been around more also means that i’ve had a larger “sample size”, but i definitely can’t say that english standards are any better or worse in korea than in japan.

that’s not a problem anyway, as my experience wasnt too inconvenienced by my lack of korean ability. there were some amusing english signs and expressions there though; read and enjoy :)

here’s calling your loved one:

an appetizing menu:

beverages with gendered views:

spot the mistake:

spot the mistakes:

watch out!

hello Golden Week

it’s golden week and i have nowhere to go and nothing to do!

I think i’ve no more use for Lonely Planet - suggestions for interesting/scenic places to go or things to do within 2 hours from Osaka City would be much appreciated.

onegaishimasu!

JET interview – evaluation guidelines

I recently read a book on the early years of the JET programme which the Brit had lent me - “Importing Diversity: Inside Japan’s JET Programme” by David L. McConnell.

The book is rather interesting as it focuses on the programme as it was before, and highlighted a few issues that i will blog about soon.

I found this information most useful for potential JETs i think. In 1992, the author was privy to the interview process, and revealed that interviewers were given an evaluation form (and score sheet) with several key aspects for interviewers to consider.

According to him, “To be considered for recommendation, applicants must meet certain basic conditions. They must be outgoing, well-mannered and have a sunny disposition.”

While this information is rather dated, it might serve as a useful point of reference for JET-hopefuls when preparing for the interview, in order to present the right image or highlight certain strengths that they might have:

“Personality: consider flexibility, strength of personality, ability to adapt to foreign cultures, etc.

Ability: consider self-expression, creativity, general knowledge.

Motivation: consider desire to participate in JET programme, sense of purpose; interest in Japan

English ability: clear pronunciation, proper word use, etc

Japanese ability: Applicants for the CIR position must have a functional ability in Japanese, an ability not only to speak and understand well but ideally to read and write as well. For ALTs, evaluate conversation and reading ability.

Overall impression: Please recommend those applicants who seem sociable, stable and can adjust well to new situations.”

Yoshino – the alternative viewpoint

Mt. Yoshino is in central Nara, and is generally considered Japan’s top sakura-viewing site. it’s also a UNESCO world heritage site (as is almost everything in japan), and people flock there during cherry blossom season.

i went there last year for hanami, but unfortunately left wondering why everyone makes such a big deal of the place.

someone on facebook uploaded pictures of yoshino this year, and there were many people liking the album and commenting on how beautiful her pictures were. curious, i went to take a look, to see if she saw a different, more picturesque part of Yoshino and thinking that perhaps i was wrong after all.

turned out that the Yoshino she saw seemed pretty much like the Yoshino that i recall – totally unimpressive.

these were taken last year - what’s so pretty about such a view?

okay, so there are mountains, there are ridges, there are trees. but just because there’s nature and nature is precious and to be admired doesnt mean that we have to be undiscerning about it.

yoshino, even with its cherry blossoms, can’t be considered a picturesque or awe-inspiring mountain range. if you want to see nice mountain views, take the highway bus from Osaka/Kyoto to Takayama – now those mountains are gorgeous.

but i digress. that everyone speaks of yoshino as the mecca of sakura-viewing completely baffles me, because, as mentioned above, the mountain and its sakura arent exactly that pretty anyway. i’d expected whole stretches of sakura, but as you can see, the sakura trees are patchy at best – many other hanami spots offer you a wide swathe of sakura that stun you with their beauty. don’t forget that the sakura on Yoshino were also planted deliberately – in 4 groves at different altitudes – so one would think that they could have done a smarter job of planting trees that bloom at the same time at the same altitude, so one doesnt get some trees at full bloom and others with their leaves half out like that above.

moreover, the variant of sakura on yoshino arent that special either. those that i saw were the regular, ‘single layered’ ones. the photos uploaded on facebook by the ‘someone’ were the multi-layered variant:

those are really gorgeous, but Yoshino isnt the only place you can see them. the Japan Mint in Osaka (造幣局）has many trees of that variant of sakura too; the picture above is in fact of sakura from the Mint which i borrowed from someone here. the Mint might be open for only about a week or so in mid-April, but it’s right there in the heart of Osaka, as compared to Yoshino, which is really far unless you’re in Nara itself.

it took at least 2 hours to get there – and the trains that run there are infrequent and PACKED. plus the 2 hours i took was just to the foot of the mountain; you have to take a bus (after queuing for a looooong time to board) to bring you halfway up the mountain, and if you want to go further up you’ll have to walk or take the cable car (looooong queues too).

it was such a mission to get there that the trip left the group of us completely drained at the end of the day. we spent more time getting there and back than appreciating the flowers, which i feel defeated the purpose. none of us felt that it was worth it, nor did we think that Yoshino in any way deserves its reputation.

i dont know why so many people think highly of Yoshino, but there are some of us out there who certainly beg to differ!!

takarazuka revue – the scarlet pimpernel

I saw the Takarazuka Revue perform the musical “The Scarlet Pimpernel” last weekend, and loved it!

(photo from here)

The Takarazuka Revue is an all-woman theatre troupe, and are really famous in Japan. in this troupe, there are women who train to play male roles, and women who play only female roles. (read more about them here and here).

I first saw a Takarazuka show last year, not long after I arrived. i dont recall the title of the performance, but it was an original production and unfortunately none of us were too impressed by the lack of storyline and the weak acting. after all i’d heard about Takarazuka, i wanted to give them a second chance and decided to wait till they do an adaption of an actual Broadway musical – i’m happy they decided to perform the Scarlet Pimpernel before i leave!

the wait definitely paid off. The Scarlet Pimpernel is set in France/England near the end of the 18th century, which means extremely beautiful and elaborate costumes! just check out the dress of that lady below, and imagine a stage full of dresses like that in certain scenes..

 

i really enjoyed the performance, as the singing was excellent, the set was mind-blowing, the costumes were gorgeous and the music and storyline was pretty good.

it was a happy contrast to the other musical that i had seen recently - i saw the Shiki Theatre Group perform the disney version of the Beauty and the Beast musical (this group does many Broadway musicals in Japanese) about a month ago, and underwhelmed by the so-so singing and lousy songs. the songs are apparently from the original cartoon, but i dont remember; i felt that they didnt have a proper tune, werent melodic enough, were very forgettable and never really engaged me. i saw the Shiki Group perform the Lion King in Tokyo last year, and the singing was amazing, hence was somewhat disappointed by the average rendition this time too.

I was therefore really happy that the singing in the Scarlet Pimpernel was good. the two “male leads” were excellent, which makes me willing to pass the previous Takarazuka experience off as an unfortunate blip. haha. the revue comprises 5 different troupes that focus on their respective performances, and the Moon Troupe which presented the Scarlet Pimpernel is apparently known for their strong singing. yay!

oh, and the set – there were so many set changes, with buildings and rooms rising out from the stage. the stage also has a revolving centre piece, which is pretty cool. In the finale, where the entire troupe comes out and does a dance, they even revealed this gigantic staircase – think a Chicago (the musical)-like staircase, with all the steps lined with many tiny bulbs – which the main stars walked down, to much applause.

so nice. i wish i could have taken pictures..

lessons given and lessons learnt

Mirch Masala, an Indian restaurant just opposite Balabushka in Shinsaibashi, was reviewed in Kansai Scene this month. Lured by the promise of curry, naan, salad and a drink for only 680 yen (ridiculously cheap!) WITH free curry and naan refills (gasp), a bunch of us headed there for lunch today.

I’d just read the review this morning in the office, and pointed out to some of them that is was in KS. i also wanted to comment on the opening sentence of the review, in which the author sounded like a complete nob (my friend’s words, not mine). I might be quoting the latter half slightly wrongly, but he essentially stated that “I am qualified to tell the difference between Indian food and really good Indian food” – after spending all of 6 months in India.

it was a good thing i held my tongue on how arrogant the author sounded – it turned that he was part of the other group dining there, and that the publishers had gotten his byline completely wrong.

sometimes silence does pay off.

(by the way, if you visit Mirch Masala, please stop the owner from refilling your naan and curry if you dont want anymore. We didnt manage to stop him giving us extra naan, and i’m still FULL 8 hours after having had lunch.)

* * *

2,370,000 yen – that’s how much funerals in japan cost. That’s about 10 months worth of a JET’s salary, and more than 3 times the cost of a funeral in the US. I wonder how much Chinese funerals cost, cos they’re not cheap either.

Read more about interesting stuff on Japan at Japan Probe, a website with articles and lots of videos. I particularly like the video of this adorable security guard cat which reminded me of the cat in my secondary school, as well as the dramatic music in this video on racoons damaging national heritage sites.

* * *

someone posted a facebook link to this article titled “40 Singapore foods we can’t live without”.

the usage of “foods” makes me uncomfortable; food to me is an uncountable noun and thus should only appear in the singular. besides, “foods” sounds so awkward too – someone please enlighten me on the usage of it.

i believe, also, that the title should at least have read “Singaporean foods”, since it’s not China food, Japan food, America food or Italy food. Perhaps it’s because a prior article featured “40 Hong Kong foods we can’t live without”, but that’s okay only because there isn’t a word to describe things coming from Hong Kong.

How can sub-editors possibly miss that?

* * *

finally, as an act of public service, let me address one of my pet peeves – that of “with regards to” and “with regard to”.

please, please, please realise that you ONLY ever say “with regard to” – there is no ‘s’! so it’s “with regard to your letter”, “with regard to that point”, “with regard to what you said” and so on.

and if you’re reading, i beg you to also spread the word that the ‘s’ is, in all cases but one, UNNECESSARY and hurtful to the eye. you can say “in regards to”, but it’s very definitely only “with regard to”.

the only exception is when that phrase is used in a very different context with a completely different meaning – when you’re sending your regards to someone, like “with regards to your parents, love Jim”. that is the ONLY time the ‘s’ should ever appear in the phrase “with regard to”.

お願いします！

Spurious arguments

Kansai Scene (KS) is a great free monthly magazine that provides listings on events, concerts, festivals and exhibitions in Kansai. it’s available at many restaurants, pubs and nightspots in Osaka (i’m not sure where you can it in other parts of Kansai), and our lovely BOE has copies delivered every month for us to take.

i value KS most for its listings and the amusing personal ads, as well as valuable restaurant reviews and recommendations. it sometimes has good articles, although most often they’re okay, and rather frequently you get a terrible one or one that has the odd, very dubious sentence.

the KS article that i have taken greatest issue with is by far this month’s feature article “Unarmed Utopia”. The main aim of the article is unclear, although I think the writer is attempting to compare gun ownership and armed robbery – and the relationship between the two - in the USA and Japan.

That, however, is not the biggest problem in the article. The biggest problem would be the numerous fallacious arguments present – from start to finish, in fact. Many of them are only hinted at, in the way in which paragraphs are laid out; take for example the end of the first paragraph and the paragraph it’s followed by:

“Everyone seems to carry cash in Japan, but unlike America, why don’t they get robbed?

The law is simple in Japan: no one can bear firearms (or swords) under any circumstance. The only citizens allowed to possess weapons are police and the military, along with those with hunting licenses (albeit highly restrictive). With one of the world’s lowest crime rates, gun crime is consequently nearly nonexistent. Anti-gun lobbies proclaim Japan as the kind of nation America should be.”

I dont know if it’s intentional or not, but from a literary point of view, it can well be said that the writer implies that the low rates of armed robbery in Japan is linked to the illegal nature of the bearing of firearms simply by innocuously having that paragraph succeed the rhetorical question. That argument, of course, is ridiculous, as you definitely don’t need a gun to rob someone – a blade of any sort would suffice. And given the number of elderly people in Japan, a robber has plenty of targets which might not even require much use of force or threat at all.

In the middle of the article, the writer makes some explicitly expressed, horribly spurious arguments:

“The issue of how guns fit into the overall relationship between the people and the government still stands. It could be argued that Japan is a police state, with a population overwhelmingly compliant to searches and questionings when under suspicion. Evidently, the Japanese criminal justice system has complete authority and turns a confession rate of nearly 95%. With the prevalence of absolute government power, it seems people do not wish to defy authority by owning guns for personal protection. Most Japanese simply accept that there are essentially no rights to privacy because there is no right to bear arms.

This submissiveness in society comes easier to the Japanese than Americans because Japan is far more ethnically and economically homogenous. Moreover, they willingly comply with one of the most unyielding criminal justice systems of any democratic nation–guns or not, the Japanese are simply the world’s most law-abiding people.”

Like, HUH?

How could anyone make such grand leaps in reasoning? Japanese people do not own guns for protection because there is simply NO NEED TO. it bears absolutely no relation to them being generally deferent to authority!

And the assumption that rights to privacy equates to the right to bear arms – I have no idea how they could be in anyway be argued to be related (and as you can see, the writer didnt elaborate on that either). Besides, if i wanted personal protection, i could always carry a switchblade around, but i’m sure you wouldnt find many japanese people who do that.

As for the opinion that the Japanese are more submissive because they’re more ethnically and economically homogeneous – that’s an extremely racist line of reasoning. It’s precisely what the proponents of nihonjinron use as a reason for all the arguments that they make, arguments which so many scholars take issue with due to its racist attitude.

Besides, if we look at the American side of things, it’s not even like Americans own guns because they’re thinking “hey, i have the right to own firearms, and yes, let me now exercise that right and go out and buy a gun” -I’m sure it’s more because they feel the need for the supposed protection that a gun might provide, although if it really is gun ownership for the sake of exercising their right to do so, then I all have to say is that those people who think that way are grand idiots.

Seoul – Seodaemun Prison

im not sure if this attraction receives many visitors – there werent too many people when we were there – but Seodaemun Prison is one of the places that i liked the most in Seoul, and one that i’d recommend to anyone visiting the city.

Seodaemun Prison was constructed during the Japanese occupation, and if i recall correctly, is infamous for being the place where most of the tortures and interrogations of korean freedom fighters were carried out.

 

the koreans’ dislike for - or perhaps more accurately, their hatred of – the japanese is evident from all the descriptions at tourist attractions, and is perhaps most evident here. while most museums and attractions use neutral words in their descriptions, in korea, you see a lot of emotive language, such as “japanese aggressors”.

there were a fair number of figurines in the prison. this is a portrayal of a japanese prison warden:

there were others showing prisoners undergoing various forms of torture:

above: beatings and electric shock tactics

below: the fingernail-yank torture technique

there was also a track with some life-like screams of pain. the main building was less creepy than the prison museum i visited in sydney, however. the latter was rather eerie because it was even emptier than the one in seoul, yet the few visitors there were enough to make the wooden floorboards creak – just imagine hearing strange sounds in a quiet building, where you are the only person in sight. *shudder*

this particular prison seemed to have been built for efficiency; it was just cell after cell, and was drafty and cold. just imagine the conditions the prisoners had to endure in the harsh korean winter!

 

there were several other buildings on the premises. one of them was an underground female prison, where the cells were so small that the inmates could never stand up straight or lie down flat. in another particularly scary block were dark cells that from which recordings of screams of pain and terror periodically play, catching the random visitor unaware.

there were also two enormous south korean flags on the side of two of the blocks, presumably to reinforce the fact that seoul korea is now independent.

sakura in kamakura

(Keeroo, this post is purely for you!)

the sakura are almost gone in most of kansai, and once again i’ve failed to take any pictures of those that grow on the grounds of my apartment complex. i can never bother doing so, cos taking pictures of them means that i’ll either have to make a special trip downstairs to take photos, or that i’ll have to stop while i’m cycling out. either way, i think the sakura where i live are best appreciated cycling fast out of the side gates, perhaps only slowing down when the petals are falling in the wind.

anyhow, i was in kamakura before school started, and the sakura there were actually more in bloom than those in osaka, even though it’s warmer here.

the first real glimpse of sakura was when we reached Kuzuharagaoka Shrine while on the way to the big buddha at Kotokuin:

 

by the way, i know my photos arent too impressive, but that’s because i know that capturing the beauty of sakura as you see it is an exercise in futility, so i dont even bother to try.

continuing on, this is what people in japan do when they’re out at hanami, or cherry blossom viewing:

i was about to type “japanese people” up there, when i remembered that us Osaka City JETs probably had the greatest tarp to human ratio when we were hanami-ing at osaka castle park last weekend. here’s two of our party having a DSLR vs old video recorder standoff:

note also the dirty socks – and this was only about an hour into the hanami for most of us. by the end of the day – i was there for about 7 hours – our socks were completely wrecked, mainly because people were playing beer pong or got progressively more inebriated through other methods and spilled liquid all over the tarp. it was really gross.

but i digress. here’s a close-up of some blossoms that have seen better days:

and yes, this is the length to which some people would go to for the perfect picture:

having been here for a while, however, i have to say that his lens isn’t that impressive.

some nicer sakura in the nearby park:

Zeniarai Benten, which i just blogged about in the previous post, has some pretty, multi-layered sakura. just dont wash your money there!

just a bit further down from the Daibutsu, towards Hase station on the Enoshima line is Hase-dera. It’s a very beautiful temple which a nice view, a fair bit to see and pretty flowers. It’s most famous for the 12-faced, 9m high Kannon, but i think the grotto with the Benzaiten statues was the coolest bit.

we even saw some pilgrims walk right before us

there was this gorgeous sakura tree that everyone was taking pictures of:

 

it was also interesting in that flowers grew in clusters on some parts of its bark:

isnt this cute?

i think, however, the best place for sakura viewing in kamakura was Kenchoji. it was surprisingly empty, but is ranked first among the 5 great Zen temples in Kamakura, and is one of the best sights in Kamakura. lots of the halls were transferred to its current location from its original location elsewhere in japan (like kyoto). Lonely Planet highlighted “the painstakingly landscaped Zen garden, shaped like the kanji for ‘mind’”, although i can assure you that the pond in the garden looked nothing like 心。

isnt this pretty?

and this concludes my 桜だより。until i next see sakura, さよなら、and お気おつけて。

spate of bad luck

things havent been going well lately. in particular, i’ve been having terrible luck with money. and today, while cleaning the house, i tripped on a wire and yanked out the wire linking my nice speakers to my laptop. i managed to completely destroy the pin on the speakers wire (it was bent quite badly, and while trying to straighten it, it broke) as well as pull out some small gold piece from my laptop’s headphones jack.

basically, i cant insert any headphones into my laptop; they wont fit and no sound comes out. besides rendering my nice speakers useless now, i can’t insert anything into my laptop even if i got new speakers, including the microphone headset that’s essential for talking to my mum (although i suppose she’ll just call me on my mobile then).

if this means that i have to buy a new laptop, it’ll be extremely bad luck with money indeed.

i believe this spate of bad luck began after my visit to Zeniarai Benten, this money-washing shrine in Kamakura.

you have to pass through this tunnel before entering the shrine

it’s believed that you’ll get good monetary fortune when you wash your money at that shrine. lots of people were washing their notes; there were several thai tourists who were washing all their baht too.

here’s me washing my money. shouldnt have done that.

 

like seriously, which chinese person ever told you that it’s ok to 洗钱？more like washing away all my luck lor. tmd.

i need to do something to 转运, or at least 传运. gah.

ball games

so i recently watched two matches: Gamba Osaka vs Singapore Armed Forces Football Club (SAFFC) and the Hanshin Tigers vs the Yomiuri Giants.

the football game was about a week ago; the Singaporean club was playing Gamba as part of the AFC Champions League and Singaporeans actually got a free ticket. that’s the only reason why i was there actually, as i’m by no means a soccer fan and have NEVER before sat through an entire game.

gamba osaka are the reigning champions in japan, and given the state of soccer in singapore, i certainly didnt expect SAFFC to win. my national pride still went down the drain however, when we lost 0-3 in a terrible  game.

the last time i saw singapore play football was when we were up against malaysia i think, many many years ago at the SEA games or some south-east asian football championships. then, we were criticised for lacking energy, having poor ball control and simply not showing the desire to score goals to win.

sadly, some things havent changed.

it was very obvious how much better gamba was. whenever we got possession, the game turned defensive and the pace dropped. the players lethargically passed the ball to each other on the defence side to kill time; they werent playing to score and the ball kept being passed backwards towards our goal. and whenever the ball went across the field towards gamba’s goal, the last man on the SAFFC team would be somewhere closer to midfield than the goal post and lost possession halfway cos he simply had no one to pass the ball to. URRGHH.

above you can see SAFFC in white and gamba in blue. it was pretty crap cos it was clear that SAFFC was just trying to play it safe, even when it was after half time and clear that, at 0-2, there’s no point being defensive when the only way you can turn the tide is to attempt to score. the gamba goalkeeper must have been extremely bored that match because he only had a handful of attempts at his goal. the SAFFC keeper did a pretty good job though, as he saved quite a few balls. too bad it wasnt the same for the rest of the team.

and just earlier this evening, i went for my first real baseball match. baseball is big in japan, and if you’re in kansai, one of the things you must do is to see a Tigers vs Giants match, cos we’re HUGE rivals. you can read all about the Curse of the Colonel that ended the winning streak of the Tigers about a decade ago online, but the Tigers vs Giants rivalry is basically an extension of the Kansai vs Kanto (or more specifically Tokyo) rivalry.

it was pretty cool before the game began, sitting at the legendary Koshien stadium and seeing so many people decked out in the Tigers’ colours, just like the Colonel above. the stadium was quite full too, and there was an air of excitement that i’d expected of a Tigers vs Giants game. tickets to their matches arent easy to get, and this is another of those things that i really want to do before i leave japan.

i never thought i’d say this, but i actually found the gamba vs SAFFC football game more exciting than this Tigers vs Giants baseball match.

unlike soccer, where there’s always action (people are always running about passing the ball, or at least that’s meant to be the case), nothing really happens in baseball. the pitcher pitches, the batter bats and the catchers (?) catch the ball. and this repeats itself until someone bats a good ball, which allows him to run to the next base. unfortunately this doesnt occur very often, and even when that happens, it’s not easy to score points because you need to repeat it 3 more times to reach home base and score 3 points within ONE inning, which isnt much.

throughout today’s match, the giants did that once and the tigers none at all; we lost 0-3.

someone tell me that this just happened to be a boring match?

i’d seen part of a baseball match once before, when my high school was playing another (better) school somewhere in Banpaku. that game was rather interesting as it moved quite fast; strikes were counted, points were scored; batters batted good balls and catchers missed. so there was lots going on and people were running and everything. i have no idea why the game just wasnt as engaging today.

for some reason too, the tigers dont seem to have very good batters. there were so many balls that went high into the air rather than far across the field, and quite a few went out as well. there was a group of Tigers supporters behind us who gave funny commentaries, and a really annoying Giants fan in front who kept cheering and blocking my view. i wanted to kick him!

the most exciting part of the match was the “Lucky 7” – in baseball, the 7th inning is something like the deciding point and is called the “Lucky 7” in Japan.

so everyone in the stadium will blow up sperm-shaped balloons like those above - i have no idea why they’re shaped like this – when the announcement is made. they’ll hold it up in the air in preparation for the signal:

and when a special song is played, they’ll release the balloons into the air:

my phone’s camera is quite lousy, but it was a pretty sight and everyone was excited and cheering really loudly at this point in the game. too bad this match turned out to be kind of a non-event though! i was rather buzzed up about this but it was somewhat disappointing. if someone organises going to another Hanshin Tigers match, i might give them a second chance though, and hope that it’ll be more exciting.

thoughts on seoul – overview and food

i spent the last week of march in seoul, which was unfortunately long enough to discover that there really isnt much to do there.

i admit to not being the biggest fan of korea, but with so many people around me raving about the country, plus it’s right there and so close to japan, i did go there with an open mind and the intention to give it a chance, be objective about the country and, most importantly, enjoy myself there.

seoul’s main attractions remind me of china, japan and thailand all rolled into one. the palaces are a combination of chinese and japanese stylistic elements – just less grand than the forbidden palace, for example - while the many markets about the city are very similar to those in thailand. having been to all of those countries very recently, seoul didnt really present anything new; i felt like i’d seen it all before, just rehashed.

the city itself reminded me of shanghai. while certain areas were new and shiny, with skyscrapers and conspicuous consumption, just next to them might be the older neighbourhoods, with buildings that clearly display signs of age and dirty roads.

lots of older people in seoul also like to hack up phlegm and phtttoey it out onto the streets – which is really disgusting behaviour – and the several times when i heard the sharp, short beep of the horn from a motorcycle speeding up from behind on a narrow alley, or when a car ploughed through a red light and still had the audacity to horn at the pedestrians, reminded me of beijing.

frankly, china really wasnt the best of experiences, and the whole look of seoul reminded me too much of china for comfort.

that doesnt mean seoul wasnt interesting though. seoul has great museums, and what attractions it has are interesting. however, beyond those attractions – and especially if you’re not interested in shopping – there isnt much to occupy your interest. i like being able to sit somewhere picturesque, like a park or along a waterfront and relax, but there werent any opportunities for that. places that were described as pretty in the guidebook – like Wolmido in Incheon – turned out to be disappointingly underwhelming, thus we decided not to check out the Han River – which was described as good for cycling and walking, and not for the view anyway - lest we get disappointed yet again, especially given the freezing winds and cold weather when we were there.

food in korea is quite cheap in comparison to japan though, which is really good. i discovered that there isnt too much variety to korean food however – it’s either some variety of barbequed meat or spicy soup, or bibimbap or chijimi, or some unidentifiable item – but fortunately there’s plenty of other types of food in seoul. we couldnt stomach more than 1 korean meal a day, but had some good italian, not very nice fried chicken, tasty food at an irish pub, and not bad japanese food.

apparently, the korean custom is that if a restaurant is doing well, it shouldnt undergo renovations, else its luck will be altered. this meant that there were some new, nice-looking restaurants that sold food as cheap as elsewhere. we had a korean dinner at one of these places one night, and it was it was fantastic. we ordered 1 chijimi (mistake, cos a chijimi is big!) and a serving of barbequed pork ribs with side dishes. it came to about 2400yen for both of us, which is ridiculously cheap – we ate till we burst, and essentially paid half of what we would have paid in japan.

our side dishes – the chijimi wasnt out yet, and note the bowl of rice which went untouched:

here’s the deboned ribs, which were extremely tasty and soft, as well as a huge bowl of stodgy soup, the contents of which are unknown. i think there was some tofu inside, but it wasnt tasty and there was much more delicious food to eat, so it went largely untouched:

my favourite 2 side dishes:

the above is some cold but spicy soup. it was very delicious and the noodles were firm, like chinese la mian. below is zucchini with dried shrimp – it’s near impossible to get haebi in japan, and this was so so good. i would have ordered more of these 2 dishes if i had exra space at the end, but it was a struggle to finish the chijimi and meat.

 

the first lunch i had brought some tasty side dishes too:

above are, clockwise from the right – kimchi, spicy dried cuttlefish (this was amazing!), bai chye cooked in lots of sesame seeds and sesame oil (i heard that korean cooking uses a lot of sesame oil. that’s the way to go), seaweed soup, tasty beansprouts and potato with chilli.

korean food is especially cheap – unless you order the barbeque meat – as they usually come with lots of side dishes that fill you up. for example, you might be paying the same price (or less) for a bowl of bibimbap than what you do in japan, but get all the side dishes too. wonderful!