My (South) Korean Vacation (Part 2)

One day, I took a day trip to South Korea's third most popular tourist destination (unbeknownst to me at the time), Gyeongju. Most of the city's attractions were spread out over a rather wide area. At one point late in the day, when I was already pretty tired from all the walking I had done, I had the choice of climbing a fairly steep hill to see a shrine at the top or calling it a day and heading back to the bus station. I'm glad I decided to burn a few extra calories. My biggest reward was getting to take pictures of a whole bunch of little statuettes that surrounded a lantern at the top, like the ones shown here.

More of the little figurines. Notice the little guy on the far left, showing off his pitching motion! The fella on the far right has a baseball glove, too, but I'm not sure why. Is he supposed to be the catcher?










I also found this at the top of the hill, painted on the side of a shrine.











I took this picture of the underside of a roof of a building that was on the grounds of palace complex. (Gyeongju)










I took this picture on the grounds of the Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul.










A building on the grounds of the Banwolseong Palace in Gyeongju.










The yin-yang symbol painted on an old door of a shrine in Gyeongju.













I saw these lanterns in Busan, down the hill from Yongdusan Park.










A door on the grounds of a temple in Seoul.










Busan has an amazing fish market. Part of the market is indoors, but most of it is outdoors. It stretches for several hundred meters, and it seems like millions of fish are for sale, most likely for cheap. 99% of the hawkers were elderly women.










A good deal of the seafood being sold was just thrown into baskets on or near the ground. Some of the creatures were already dead, whereas others were still squirming around. There was also no shortage of fish being skinned alive. Fish guts were flying everywhere. There were surely countless health violations going on, for Western standards, anyway. But this wasn't the West, so all was well.










Many fish were displayed inside-out.










It wasn't just fish that was for sale.













Some of the many boats that bring in the daily haul.

When a Picture Says It All

That's my work in red on the left. That's not my work in red on the right.

Admittedly, I'm not swamped with work as some of my colleagues are. But I'm also not the one who handed out this assignment.

Changes Coming to English in Japan

If you want to get a pretty good handle on what's going on regarding the teaching of English in Japan, read this article, this editorial, and this reader submission, all of which recently appeared in The Japan Times Online.

As for my own two cents regarding the level of English being taught in South Korea and China, compared to Japan:

From what I learned during my one week in Korea, I'm convinced me that English is stressed a lot more there than in Japan.

And from talking to a random few of the junior-high school students from China who visited my school today, it is clear to me that their English is greatly superior to that of the junior-high students who I teach.

So, yeah, I, too, am pretty sure, based on my own unscientific evidence/research, that China and South Korea are doing something right in this matter that Japan isn't.

My (South) Korean Vacation (Part 1)

The first food I ate in (South) Korea was an onigiri (rice ball) like the one pictured above. I figured it would taste like just about every onigiri that I had eaten in Japan, so I bit right in. The last thing I expected was the blast of kimchi that followed. Good thing I found a water cooler nearby. But I was momentarily delayed in my quest for relief, since I couldn't find a cup dispenser.










What I did find, however, was a stack of paper that, upon closer observation, was actually a stack of paper cups folded flat. Or at least that's what I assumed they were. So I filled one with water and hoped that I wouldn't get any weird looks from people wondering what I was doing filling a random advertising flier with water.










Another unusual thing I found at breakfast was these cool little packets of jam. At first, I tried to peel the cover off of one, but then I noticed I the little "how-to" diagram and realized I was going about things the wrong way. I later learned that they also have these funky packets in Japan. And if you take another look at the first picture, you can see that I had the pleasure of eating "butter fresh." Finally, notice the plastic chopsticks. Throughout my trip to Korea, I can't recall ever seeing a single pair of throwaway chopsticks like they have everywhere in Japan (besides my own pair*, which I brought along). Kudos in that regard to the Koreans!

*In Japanese, at least sometimes, your own whatever is called "mai" (pronounced like the English "my") whatever. So if you bust out a pair of your own, personal chopsticks (hashi), for instance, instead of using the disposable ones like practically everyone else, you'll inevitably get a comment about how great it is that you are using "mai hashi." And that inevitably leads to the following exchange: "No, no, these aren't your hashi, they are my hashi!" "That's what I said. They're mai hashi."










After I had breakfast at my hotel in Busan, South Korea's second-largest city, I went for a walk. One of the first things I noticed was that there were a lot of signs in Russian. Considering that Russia borders on Korea (albeit North Korea), I guess I shouldn't have been all that surprised to see the Cyrillic writing. There was even a neighborhood opposite the train station that was marked as a "shopping area for foreigners" but was in reality a little Russia Town, full of shady cafés, shops, and places to exchange money.













This memorial, which is similar to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., is located at the "Memorial to the Loyal Dead" high up on a hill in Busan.










Looking up at the top of the "Memorial to the Loyal Dead."










That's "Busan" in Korean next to the "33" on the license plate. After I figured that out, I decided to take this picture to help me learn the characters for Busan, as an aid for reading train and bus schedules, for example.










I had a bunch of spare Korean change that I brought with me from Japan. Some of the coins were 20 or 30 years old, and I wasn't even sure if they were still valid currency. So I tried them out in this coffee vending machine. I had no idea for sure if I was buying black coffee, coffee with sugar, some other kind of coffee, or even hot chocolate. But that didn't matter. What was being called for in the situation was bravery. So I chose to push this pretty red button.










The coffee cost all of, oh, 25 cents (U.S.), and I got what I paid for in both quantity and quality! Later, after a bit of investigation regarding the smaller characters at the top of the button, I was able to confirm without a doubt that what I had purchased was indeed cream coffee. Buy some coffee, learn to read some Korean. And look at that: The cup has a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge on it. Well, almost.










Wow, look at this! Liquid guts... Or is it a "good" drink? Or something else? As harmless as I'm sure the drink was, I took a pass.













I don't know about you, but I don't exactly want this back taking care of my money. To be fair, the bills they gave me weren't fake.










Perhaps the strangest thing about Korea is the paper money. They only have three bills. And the largest one, the 10,000 bill, is only worth about $8 US (about 6 euros!). So it's no wonder I saw people everywhere paying with credit cards. What a sharp contrast to Japan, which is quite the cash society, possibly even more so than Europe is. And by the way, everyone's a winner in Korea, since their currency is the "won."













I saw quite a few amazing cakes...










and pastries...










and donuts. The Koreans love donuts. In Japan, you've got "Mr. Donut," but in Korea, you have Dunkin' Donuts as well as Krispy Kreme. (By the way, I entered this photo in Snapfish.com's "What does love look like?" Valentine's Day photo contest. Wish me luck!)











Of course, I had my fair share of Korean food, starting with bibimbap. (Notice the metal chopsticks and spoon that you get with just about every meal.) (6000 won?)










And you can't go to Korea and not have Korean BBQ. Lucky for me, I was treated to this meal by a really nice Japanese family that I had met on my second full day in Busan. The husband happened to be an English teacher from Kagoshima Prefecture, which is relatively close to where I live. I'm still waiting for them to write to me so I can send them a thank-you card.









This meal I ate at a hole-in-the-wall that someone recommended. The soup was piping hot and was full of vegetables and clams. And notice the multiple side dishes, which are served with most Korean meals. They are always all-you-can-eat. This meal cost all of 4000 won, or about $3.50/EUR 2.25.










Surprisingly, this meal only came with two side dishes, one of which was kimchi, of course. But you could have as many noodles as you wanted. All this for 7000 won.










More side dishes galore. These were served with a vegetable soup. This meal probably cost about 5000 won.










I met three Koreans one night and we all went to dinner together. We ordered some kind of stir-fry, with kimchi (go figure!), cabbage, chicken, and Korean-style mochi, which looks a bit like string cheese.










When we finished most of that, we ordered some rice and had stir-fried that, as well, because the Koreans prefer their rice crispy on the "bottom," if you will. (These two dishes together: 7000 won)










Even when I didn't have Korean food, I couldn't quite escape it. I heard that the Koreans "Koreanized" most foreign food, and, sure enough, that characteristic matched my experience. Here's a plate of Thai food that came with some surprising side dishes. (7000 won)









And here's a plate of food that I had at a Turkish restaurant: Lamb served with those lame pickles on the side. As well as kimchi, naturally. Sigh. (14,000 won)










More Korean 101: Those first two characters obviously mean "toothpick." Not so obvious is which cup holds the used toothpicks. So I took a pass. But later on, after careful observation, I came to realize that the "do-not-cross-the-street" a.k.a. the "man-in-the-hat" figure is the one to avoid.










One time in Seoul I went to a movie theater, because I was curious how much tickets cost. In Japan, tickets can cost as much as $20. In Korea, they were much cheaper. When I was in the cinema, I also had to use the restroom. There were no signs in English, but I noticed the sign above me had these two strings of characters that were nearly identical (except for the first character). Voilà! All that was left was to follow the arrows that pointed the way and look for the "man" or "woman" figure on the door.







Ever heard of 25 o'clock? Or how about 27 o'clock?

Check out this Video

Check out this CNN video about Japanese fathers rarely seeing their children because they spend so much time at work.

Running with the Kids

On Friday, I participated in a 4.5 km race against 45 of my school's junior-high-school boys. Yeah, that's right: Old Man Yama running against a bunch of 12- to 15-year-olds. (This isn't the first time. Remember the mini-triathlon?)

I ran in the race last year, too, and ended up with a time of 19:58, which was good enough for a respectable sixth place, even though I crossed the finish line a good 1:33 behind the winner.

This year, I planned to run faster and finish at least one place higher. Well, things worked out just fine.

Just like last year, I got off to a slow start. Going around the first lap, I found myself trailing around 25 runners. Despite the fact that no one had taken a clear lead, I wondered if it maybe wasn't my day, especially since some kids were even passing me. (Last year's start was even worse, as I saw a few runners take off in such a hurry that they easily distanced themselves from the pack and left me with no hope of winning. Furthermore, since so many runners were out of sight that time, I never knew what position I was in until after I finished the race.) But as the race progressed, many of the runners who were ahead of me ran into a wall, whereas I was able to maintain my pace.

Luckily, I was able to keep my eyes on all of the runners in front of me, so I quickly counted bodies and realized that I had managed to move up to 15th place about a third of the way through the race. Then I began to pick off the remaining guys who were in front of me one by one until I was in 8th place. That's when I knew I had a chance to finish better than 6th, so I kept pushing myself to keep the pace going.

With a little more than 1 km to go, I finally made it into 5th place, passing last year's third-place finisher. (I expected him to compete for the title, especially since he told me he that his goal was a top-three finish.) And on the final lap, I even had two more guys in my sights for quite some time. But I just didn't have enough gas left in the tank to pass them.

So how did I do?

Well, I finished in 5th place with an official time of 18:23, which is a big improvement over last year and two seconds faster than last year's winning time! Oh, and believe me, when I see last year's winner later today, I'm going to rub that in! You see, my unofficial time had me finishing with the exact same time as he ran last year. (He ran in a different race this year.) So after the race, he was giving me a hard time about the fact that I was this close to beating him but didn't. So I'll get the last laugh now!

I am a bit bummed that beating last year's winning time only moved me one step up the ladder. But this time I only finished 28 seconds off the lead, even with the school's second-fastest student in the race. (Yes, he won.) So, yeah, overall I'm very pleased with the results!

I must say, however, that last year's race-day temperature was probably about 35, whereas this year's temperature was closer to 50. So obviously that is one explanation for the faster times run this year. But I'm also in better shape now than I was a year ago. And once again I was able to push myself in competition, which is very satisfying.

One crazy thing about the day's events (there was a total of four races) was that there was no food or drinks on hand for the participants until afterward (when a bunch of the parents served some food and a red-bean soup called zenzai). I just don't understand how you can have a bunch of people exercising and not have water and bananas for everyone, for instance. (Actually, there was a water fountain, come to think of it. But if you ask me, that's not good enough.) I remembered that from last year, however, so I had plenty of my own supplies. But the poor kids. None of them seemed particularly thirsty or hungry, but fuel is important. Then again, as I've mentioned plenty of times before, the Japanese seem to like to suffer.

One more crazy thing: After the races, there was very limited support for the kids who were in obvious discomfort (probably because they pushed themselves well beyond their limit or they were severely dehydrated). Although I don't believe any of the kids got hurt, I found the lack of first-aid rather alarming.

Anyway, I'm happy that I was allowed to participate in the race and I'm already looking forward to my next athletic challenge, the road relay race in February. Ganbarimashou!

This is No Way to Live!

(This wasn't exactly what I wanted to post first after my long hiatus, but this topic has been burning inside me and just had to come out. So here it is. Sumimasen.)

If I'm upsetting you by writing this, well, my apologies. Don't take it personally.

What I have to say is this: Japan, or at least my(!) Japan, is an utterly ridiculous place at times. Especially in the winter. Especially now.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

When I arrived at school today, I was in pretty good spirits. But as soon as entered the building, my mood changed for the worse. Why? Because the first thing I noticed was how cold everyone was. Students were shivering, teachers were sucking in air (as if that would help them warm up), and several people mentioned how cold it was. And then, when I entered the teachers' room, I saw a few teachers huddled around the pathetic little heaters we have. And I also noticed that a few teachers were either wearing or in the process of putting on heavy jackets.

This is no way to live.

Let me repeat that, with a little more gusto: This is no way to live!

If you've been following my blog, you already know that I walk to school, and that just about every other teacher at my school does not. And, well, seeing as it's winter, I can assure you, I am positively the lone walker these days. Because all the other teachers think it's too cold to walk to school.

Well, folks, let me clue you in: Walking is a form of exercise. Not only is it good for you, it warms your body up. So when you arrive at school, you're actually taking layers off, not putting them on. And while everyone else is bitching about how cold it is, you're feeling your natural body heat in action. Granted, that warmth goes away rather quickly on colder days, but it's certainly a reminder that, if you're cold, there are several things you can do to warm up.

So let me list some of them, for all of my fellow comrades out there who haven't discovered the ways:

1) Motion. As the ol' physics saying goes, bodies in motion tend to stay ... warm.

2) Hat. A great deal of your body heat escapes through your noggin. Trap that heat by wearing a hat.

3) Gloves. Even those cut-off variety of gloves are useful, since they let you use your fingers (to type blogs, for instance) and also help to keep your hands at least semi-warm.

4) Layers. Look, it's winter. It's cold. Stop worrying about looking "professional" in your suit and tie and puts some more friggin' layers on. You'll feel much better. For instance, you could put on an extra T-shirt underneath your dress shirt. And how about adding a sweater? Or two. And a jacket. Or two. Come on, don't be shy!

5) Shoes. I've made the remarkable discovery that shoes keep your feet much warmer than beach sandals do. (Why didn't I realize that last year?)

6) Heater. It's amazing how much warmer a room can get if it's heated up. Duh!

7) Doors. Keep the doors closed and the building will stay warmer. A rocket scientist told me that and I believe him. (Pardon me while take a break and mosie on down the halls to do just that: close some doors... I'm back. Doors closed count: Three.)

(For those who can't remember my seven tips, here's a mnemonic: MHGLSHD. What does that stand for? Beats me! I think I need to buy some vowels.)

The problem with my tips is that most of them don't apply to the students. Their uniforms are simply way to skimpy for cold winters. For instance, from what I can tell, the poor bastards aren't allowed to wear hats, gloves (although I occasionally see a student or two wearing cut-off gloves), or coats (they are allowed to wear their coats in the hallways but not in the classrooms). And the only real addition to their uniform in the winter is a sweater and sport coat, both of which are rather flimsy. And they wear the same indoor slippers all year long. And they love to leave the sliding doors open when shuffling from class to class.

I often feel guilty walking around the school in my jacket(s), and even wearing one in class, especially when I see the kids obviously suffering from the cold, sometimes feebly trying to at least keep a bit warm by draping a big towel or small blanket or even their jacket around their legs. But why should I suffer just because the kids have to? I'm telling you, it's a crime that the kids' winter uniforms aren't designed to keep them warm. A crime!

By the way, today is December 8th. Which means, according to last year's schedule, this should only be the eighth day that we have had heat in the building. But this year, something remarkable happened. The heaters appeared on November 19th, nearly two weeks early!

"How the heck did that happen?" you ask? Well, it was pretty cold that morning and we saw our first snow, or rather sprinkling of snow, that day. And it was noticeably colder in the building than the previous few days. So I guess someone decided enough was enough.

I'm not sure who made the decision to bust out the heaters, but I think it was the new vice-principal (the one who arrived in April), because it was he who made an announcement using the intercom at around 12:15 p.m. I had no idea what he said, but before I knew it, a horde of students came pouring into the library, took the heaters out of storage, and immediately distributed them to the classrooms and offices.

What a difference a year makes. If you remember, last year the process of getting out the heat was slow and painful. This year it was instantaneous. Bam(!) and the heat was on! Well, thank goodness for that. It blows my mind that someone actually showed at least a tiny bit of reason this time regarding the use of heaters.

Now if I can only convince them to make the rest of the changes that are needed around here to make this place livable. Good luck to me with that!