Back to the Empire of the Sun, Pt. 2

Hey all,

When we left off the Caped Crusader and friends had just arrived in Tokyo early on Wednesday morning and were about to start off on the 2nd half of their Japanese vacation. Let's catch up with them!

Wednesday, February 17th:

I'm not sure if bus-lagged is a technical term or not, but for the blog's sake, I'm coining it because the three of us (well maybe not Dave, he can fall asleep on any moving vehicle for any amount of time) could only be best described as such. While grabbing a quick fix at Starbucks, we contemplated our next move. An intern that worked at Alex's high school, Tony, recently moved to Japan and we wanted to meet up with him while we were in Tokyo, but we had had a hard time reaching him and we also wanted to book a hostel for the night so with all this going on we decided that booking the hostel first would be smart and might allow us to get a little settled before roaming through the megalopolis that is Tokyo. So, we headed to Asakusa in search of a hostel. Eventually we found our place and Tony and grabbed some udon for lunch. I'm not sure how many of you reading this have been to Japan before but a very popular way of ordering, especially in noodle shops, is via vending machine. You punch in what you want and then it prints a ticket which you give to the workers behind the counter. Anyways, that's how ordering went, which was cool to experience. Back to our sightseeing...When I met up with Mom, Dad, and Robyn in December I didn't see Asakusa at all so I was glad that we got to explore it this time around. We went to the Sensoji Temple and surrounding area, which was great and explored the large marketplace nearby where you could buy Barack Obama and Michael Jackson masks as well as samurai swords. At night we headed in to Ginza and then Shinjuku, one of the main nightlife areas in Tokyo, but only for a little bit so we could catch the last subway back to Asakusa. When we got back we mingled for a little bit with the other hostelers before calling it a night, for there was much to do on Thursday.

Thursday, February 18th:

We woke up earlier than usual so we could get a head start on our day, with plenty to see and not a lot of time to see everything. To start off our day we headed out to Akihabara Electric Town to check out all the ridiculous electronics that Japan has to offer and there were plenty. Next we went to the Imperial Palace and the East Garden, which were both as beautiful as they were in December. Following the palace tour we made our way to Harajuku for lunch at a gyoza joint, which had excellent gyoza, as well as other sides like cucumber with miso paste and bean sprouts with meat sauce. The aroma in the place was great as well. After lunch, we visited the Meiji Jingu shrine across the famous bridge in Harajuku. Alas, there were no Harajuku girls out because it was a school day. From Harajuku we made our way back towards Asakusa, where we said goodbye to Tony and stopped off in Ueno to visit the Edo Museum, which had some very cool exhibits on life in Edo (before it was Tokyo) and the rapid modernization of Tokyo. We finally got back to our hostel in time to grab our bags, a quick udon dinner, and make our way back towards Tokyo station in order to arrive with enough time to spare before our overnight bus to Osaka. While at Tokyo Station the three of us decided that it was time to make the impulse decision we'd all been waiting to make: it was time to try some sushi. I mean, how could you take a trip to Japan, regardless of your budget, and not have at least a few pieces of sushi. Luckily, we found a sushi bar (one of many in the station) and it was delicious! We made our bus and left Tokyo in a blur headed for Osaka.

Friday, February 19th:

We woke up in Osaka as tired as could be expected and in search of warmth and some rocket fuel. Eventually we found a cafe that was open and sat back and enjoyed some java and Chinese hearts since we had plenty of time to kill before we needed to be at the ferry. For our last meal in Japan we all agreed on some more sushi, which was a very good decision, quite tasty! We arrived at the ferry where we met some Korean teachers who also decided to vacation in Japan. We also met up with Chang and his buddies, also on our return trip. Once we boarded, we were glad to see it was the same crew, including Tony, who we hung out with later in the evening. Alex and I were exhausted from the trip so we both decided a nap would be a good idea and both of us immediately passed out once we got into the room. When I woke up a few hours later, I found out that we still hadn't left Osaka (not sure why the delay), so we were pushed back a few hours. Later in the evening, Tony came by and was as kind and friendly as he was on the way to Japan, offering us ice for our beverages and anything else that we needed. In exchange we shared some of our stock with him and he regaled us with stories of his families and engaged us in a conversation on his homeland of Lebanon, which was both intellectually stimulating and fascinating. We also met another Korean school group from just north of Busan who were in Japan on a 6th grade trip and the students instantly fell in love with the three of us (I mean, obviously they did, who wouldn't?).

Saturday, February 20th:

After a long, much-needed slumber, we awoke to free breakfast and beautiful sunshine, which was great. We also met a group of Japanese high school girls whose parents sent them to Busan on a shopping trip (much like those trips over the border to Buffalo for the outlet malls) and took some pictures with them, as well as Tony, Chang, and the Korean elementary school group. All in all, I'd advocate the ferry ride between Korea and Japan if you have the time to spare; it's a very relaxing way to travel. We arrived back in Busan around noon and we took the KTX train back to Seoul to end the trip.

In other news, this week has been pretty relaxing. I've been desk warming and making final preparations for the new semester, which starts on Tuesday. I was able to watch the USA-Canada game and the unfortuante outcome as well as the Canada-Germany game yesterday. Ii also went to my 1st concert in Korea last Sunday night. A Canadian band, Do Make Say Think, made up of members from Broken Social Scene, and it was great! Also the largest gathering of foreigners I've seen in one place since orientation. More along the concert wires, Jeff Beck is coming to Seoul in a few weeks and Robert Zimmerman will be here at the end of the month. I'm having a hard time deciding who to pick, so feel free to chime in with your opinions. The weather this week has been great as well. Today the high was 62F, which meant outdoor tennis and shorts for me, absolutely incredible! That's all from my end, hope everyone has their hamantaschen and gregors ready to go.

iPod A-Z song update: "Tweezer" by Phish. Also, I've passed over the 10k plateau!

Links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prB1kNhnGPI

Back to the Empire of the Sun, Pt. 1

Hey all,

In one sentence, the trip back to Japan was amazing! Not just good or great, but absolutely wonderful. It's definitely a different experience trying to Japan on the cheap as opposed to Mom and Dad helping out, but it's nice to know that I was able to do it both ways. Anyways, that's enough preamble, I know you all want me to get to the meat of the trip so let me begin...

Saturday, February 13:

The men (Alex, Dave, and myself) arrive in Busan in the early hours and head straight to the jjimjibang for some quick R & R before our long seabound journey began.

Sunday, February 14:

Valentine's Day, and what better way for the 3 of us to spend it than together with each other on a vacation to Japan? If you can beat that, go ahead and try. Our ferry left at 3 pm from Busan and this ferry was not what we were expecting. I suppose the only other ferries I've been on are car ferries going across Lake Michigan between Michigan and Wisconsin and this was definitely not your typical ferry. It was more like a cruise ship, which was awesome. Our room had two sets of bunk beds, not very big, but still very manageable, especially when I came in with the expectation that I was going to sleep on the ground if anywhere, so definitely a nice surprise. Most of the staff on the ferry were Korean, but there were also a few Russians and Ukrainians and our friend Tony, the Lebanese engineer (more about him later). The ship had a duty free shop, a convenience store, and plenty of vending machines, so we were ok for food and snacks. As most wise men would, we positioned ourselves at the spacious table on the second floor, where we stayed for the majority of the ride over. Later in the evening we made our way down to the main room for the night time entertainment, which included Alexei, the Russian trumpeter, who played the theme song from IRIS, our favorite Korean drama, and some "Girl from Ipanema" for good measure. Next, was some bellydancing, followed by a magic show and finished by the Korean equivalent of the Carpenters. After the show we retired back to our "lounge" on the second floor, where we made friends with another Alex, who is an English teacher in northeast Seoul and Chang, a recent high school graduate who lives in Osan, roughly 20 minutes from me in Suwon. All in all the ferry was very relaxing and a great way to travel if you have the time to spare.

Monday, February 15th:

Around 10 am we arrived in Osaka and made our way from the ferry terminal to the train station where we embarked towards Kyoto. We got to Kyoto a little after 1 and headed straight to Nishi Honwangji and Higashi Honwangji. I definitely experienced a little bit of deja vu, which was fine, but also quite enjoyable. It's nice to know that even though I've only been to a city for 3 days previously, I am still able to remember where everything is and get around. To be fair, Kyoto is pretty easy to navigate, it's laid out in a grid, much like a Western city, unlike the majority of Korea, where street signs are rare. From the temples we made our way to Sanjusangendo, which we didn't see the last time. It's a huge Buddhist hall with over 1,000 smaller Buddha statues and a few big guys. Unfortunately taking pictures weren't allowed so mental memories were the best we could do. The garden and surrounding area were also magnificent and thankfully we could take pictures so you can all see. Eventually we made our way to our hostel, the A-yado Gion, located right in the heart of Gion a.k.a Geisha central, which was as good a location as we could ask for. The hostel was very nice, great showers, nice bathrooms, good lounge, friendly staff, which made the experience that much better. For dinner we headed towards Gion Corner and Alex and I had some yakitore, while Dave tried some traditional Japanese tofu dishes. Afterwards we rallied the troops at the hostel to go explore Kyoto nightlife on a Monday night, which was fun. We wandered around Pontocho for a while, which gave us great views of the city along the river. We headed home a little early so we could gear up for a big day of touring on Tuesday.

Tuesday, February 16th:

Woke up early, crammed in some granola bars and PB and bread and hit the ground running. Our first stop was the Kiyozima Shrine and Temple (another first) via the Yasaka Shrine. Kiyozima was gorgeous, the temple was built sans nails, meaning that each wood board intertwines with all the others in a crazy and unique architectural scheme, the likes of which I've never seen before. The Shrine was very crowded, many Chinese and Korean tourits traveling because of the New Year, but we managed to weave our way thru the crowds and see everything in a timely fashion. Lunch meant a quick stop at 7-11 for ramen and then back to the streets, where we met some Korean English teachers also taking the bus to the Golden Pavillion (Kinkauji) on the other side of Kyoto. The Golden Pavillion is definitely quite the sight to behold! I'm guessing most of you have seen Dad's pictures of it by now, but if you haven't you can check out mine as well, just incredible even if it's a thin layer of gold coating the building. From the Pavillion we made our way to Nijo Castle (one more first), which was very cool. I liked it better than the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, more accesible and the landscape was gorgeous. For dinner we grabbed some udon and cruised the streets of Gion where we found many delicate and beautiful geishas, even a few that were willing to take pictures with us, which was great! We made our way to Kyoto Station later at night to board an overnight bus bound for Tokyo, which is where the 2nd part of these travel adventures will continue. Same Bat time, same Bat channel.

iPod A-Z song update: "To Ramona" by Bob Dylan

Links:

I'm sure everyone has seen this already, my only questions are why is Al Jardine there and did you ever think you'd see Jeff Bridges, T-Pain, and Gladys Knight in the same room?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glny4jSciVI

And now for an actual unique link, a tribute to my favorite dog:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaRz-3DYV7c

Graduation/Back to Japan

Hey all,

Just wanted to drop in quickly to let everyone know that I'm off to Japan with Dave and Alex for a week, so if you don't here from me, that's where I am. I'm very excited to go back. I was looking over the city map of Kyoto today and it was very cool to be able and visualize where many of things were that we went to a little over a month ago. Yesterday was the 6th grade graduation at school, which meant no teaching for the second day in the row. On Wednesday I moved my entire classroom to the new English room, so all my classes were cancelled. Anyways, elementary school graduation in Korea is very different than it was for me at Pilgrim Lane. I'm pretty sure all I got was a piece of paper and a ribbon saying I was moving on to middle school, but here there was a whole ceremony, complete with belly-dancing performances, air bands, and presentations from school officials, as well as city officials from Maesong-myeon and Hwaseong-si. It was very interesting to see how the whole ceremony was carried out. Afterwards the city officials took all the teachers and other school officials out for lunch, which was great. That's all from here, I know it was brief, but trust me, there will be plenty more when I get back. Keep your fingers crossed that I'll be able to post pictures this time around, I still have 200 pictures from my old camera sitting on a memory card, but alas, there is no Walgreen's or Shopper's here where I can transfer them onto a CD, etc...

iPod A-Z song update: "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" by CSN.

Super Bowl Mayhem

Hey all,

The past week was relatively uneventful. School was fully back on for all of last week and 3 days this week, but only half days of teaching so basically the same as during winter camp for me. I don't quite understand why the school schedule is set up the way it is, the students who are graduating have definitely been a little restless at school. Graduation for the 6th graders is on Thursday, I'm not quite sure what exactly happens during the ceremony, so I'm excited to see.

This past weekend was nice because everyone was back from their respective winter vacations. It was great to hang out with everyone after not seeing them for a few weeks and hear some fun stories from everyone's trips. This coming weekend is a long weekend for me because of the Lunar (Chinese/Korean) New Year celebrations so there is a possibility that I will be making a return visit to Japan with Alex and maybe Dave, which would be exciting. The only thing really holding us back is the traveling costs, which add up pretty quickly, depending on how much we want to see and do. If I don't end up in Japan, I'll definitely enjoy the few days off here.

Yesterday at school during lunch I was made a judge of a kimchi tasting contest, which was awesome. I got to taste test 8 different kinds of kimchi and choose which one I liked best and based on my judgment, the school kitchen would serve that kimchi for lunch during next school year (starting this March). It was a great and unique experience for sure. I also found out today that I'm going to have a new co-teacher starting in March. Thankfully she was already at my school and we get along very well so it should be a very smooth transition.

As some of you may know from talking with me over the course of yesterday, I wasn't able to watch the Super Bowl live because I had to teach. Dave, Alex, and I made plans to go in to Seoul to watch the game at night. I was extremely impressed with my self-control. I didn't see the score once! I even managed to tempt fate by checking out espn.com a few times, but didn't once feel the urge to look at the score. Good thing I remembered the /nhl or /nba or /mlb when I was typing. Dad almost ruined it for me as well by letting me know that they were going to be celebrating on Beale St. But, then I remembered that Beale St. is in Memphis, so I got over my momentary disappointment. Anyways, as soon as school let out, we all hurried in to Itaewon to the Rocky Mountain Tavern, a Canadian pub that was showing the game again at 7:30. We were worried it was gonna be uber-crowded, but we arrived early enough to grab seats. It was a completely different change of scenery. You never expect to be surrounded by other foreigners here, but that's what it was. It almost didn't seem real. It was as if we all teleported back to State Street Brats in Madison. The game was pretty enjoyable, although I must admit the Who looked pretty old on stage, which was a little upsetting. The atmosphere was great though. Nothing quite like wings, burgers, nachos, some tasty beverages and an American institution that I haven't missed since we moved.

That's all from this end!

iPod A-Z song update: "Stephen Stephen" by the Apples in Stereo.

Link of the day (in honor of Mom and Dad's run-in last week): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k4ZXzhwCkM

New Music Tuesdays

Hey all,

I figured I'd start off the February posts by introducing a new weekly bloggumn, New Music Tuesdays! Every Tuesday I'll have a short little post for what I'm currently listening to and a video/song sample. So without further adieu I give you this week's feature.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QS20feaPCs

Also, for those interested, the iPod A-Z song update: "Something's Happening (Live)" by Peter Frampton.