I spent April 1, 2, and 3 with Naoko in Seoul, Korea. I had mentioned wanting to visit Seoul before returning to the states and miraculously, at the absolute busiest time of the school year, Naoko had three days to spare. Any other principal in the prefecture was working harder than ever but someway, somehow, Naoko managed to clear a few days to "take a bonding trip" (her words), with me. She loves me and I know it and I love her equally in return.♥
Our trip was short, but sweet. We arrived on a Wednesday afternoon and my initial reactions upon landing were:
- Everyone is speaking Japanese. That's weird.
- I can't really tell the difference between Korean and Japanese people.
- This country smells weird.
- The drive from Incheon Airport to downtown Seoul was incredibly boring.
Initially unimpressed and for the first half hour of being in Korea I was convinced that I was in an ugly, old version of Japan. But once we got to our hotel (even though everyone there spoke Japanese, too), I started feeling like we definitely weren't in Kansai anymore. ;)
First things first, exchange your money. I love the currency exchange counter at the airport. I think it's so interesting to watch the exchange rates fluctuate and to see the worth of the dollar in comparison to other currency from around the world. It's intriguing to watch people exchange their money from this to that and for a split second I can't help but think about their story. Where they're coming from ... where they're going. What are they going to buy with all their money, or lack thereof? When you think about it, money is really nothing more than a medium of exchange with socialized value. In Japan, back in the day, they used rice as currency for goodness sake. As long as masses of people are hip to recognizing something as valuable, it can be called money. I know, I'm probably the only person in the line who's thinking all of this stuff about currency is exciting. What can I say, I'm fascinated by the small stuff. :)
Korean currency exchange was no different, but the money is strange, which is what I always say about currency I've never had in my wallet before. The most interesting thing about the Korean Won is that the highest bill they have is equivalent to about $10.00. Imaging having no $20, $50, or $100 bills. Just $1, $5 and $10s. That pretty much stacked my wallet and made me feel incredibly rich.
This was about half of my money:
Naoko had this general response to anything I thought was outrageous. "That is Korean people's style. So strange." And she wasn't lying. The first 'so strange' thing I encountered was this trilingual sign posted on the bathroom door:
Don't throw garbage in the toilet. I get it. It's not like I was planning on flushing banana peels and plastic conbini sacks. Who does that anyway? Oh wait, what they meant by 'tissue or any waste' was toilet paper. That's right ... don't throw ANY toilet paper in the toilet. 'Huh? I don't get it' was my reaction to which Naoko responded, "That is Korean people's style." Where do you put your used toilet paper you might be wondering ... in the garbage can, of course. This is crazier than that one time we had to pay for toilet paper in Mexico. I'm not sure if I'm hip to the 'Korean style'.
We had this super cute Korean tour guide for the entire time we were there and she was kind of like our beck and call girl. Whatever we wanted to do, she would make it happen, wherever we wanted to go, she knew how to get there, whenever we needed a recommendation, she knew who to call. She was a nice comfort to have when time was a luxury we were lacking. So we got right down to business ... We needed a good Korean spa. The people that I know that have previously been to Korea said this was the hot thing to do in Seoul. Bring it on.
The first thing I realized about the kankoku este was that they definitely cater to the tourists. They spoke Japanese, English and Chinese (I think) and had multilingual menus and brochures, along with accepting all sorts of various currency. They were quite the sales people, too. I'm not used to the very direct, persuasive, 'very American' (as many Japanese people say) way of making sales. In Japan everyone is so sweet and extremely helpful, yet never annoyingly pushy. In Korean this woman was all sorts of in your face trying to sell you package A and B with the options E-H.
The entire experience lasted about 4 hours and consisted of 3 different saunas (one reaching over 200 degrees), steam rooms, hot baths, akasuri (which literally translates as 'aggressive dirt' and was a dirt/salt massage that hurt real bad), a 'fully body wash', a cupping massage, and finally a full body soft massage. Despite the pain, everything was pretty fantastic and we left feeling stellar ... and we had some serious marks to prove it.
The aftermath of a cupping massage:
Korean writing is called Hangul and is impossible to understand. Japanese is like a cakewalk compared to this stuff. The circles, the dashes, the lines ... I don't get it. Seriously ... 규율못 읽안해 ... what is that?
The spoken language was worse. Korean is a really harsh language that is loud and fast and accentuated weird and I think everyone speaking it sounds angry. I think maybe my mom spoke Korean when I was growing up. :)
We got tickets to this martial arts comedic show called JUMP and it was hilarious. I heard through the grapevine that they have an international tour going on.
The markets were one of the most fascinating things about Seoul. They were kind of like the Mexican markets, only not quite. Everything was crazy cheap, crazy busy, and just plain crazy. Naoko and I were all about the market food ... even when we didn't know what it was:
You could do a little vegetable shopping ...
Or pick up some bird ... That's gross.
And everyone was eating these silkworms, but I couldn't do it. The smell made me want to vomit and there was no way I was putting that in my mouth. Even Naoko turned this one down.
The food in Korea was actually really good. I was a little nervous at first and figured if worst came to worst it was only three days. I could fast for that long. But, surprisingly enough, the food was tasty. Spicy and made my mouth burn, but good.
We spent the second day of our trip doing cultural stuff around Seoul. We visited the Hwaseong Fortress and it was pretty amazing. There was this whole 'mini Great Wall' that Naoko kept telling me was great practice for the real deal that's coming up this week!!
Mother & daughter:
The temples in Korea are so colorful and so unlike Japanese temples. They are typically hand painted and the details in the paintings are unreal. This area of the fortress was called Dongbukgangnu (seriously) and, although they all kind of looked the same, I thought this one was the most beautiful.
We watched this battle reenactment that was pretty intense. They were some pretty intense get up too.
We made another cultural stop at this place called Jongmyo. It is the oldest royal Confucian shrine in ultra king-like shrine and the place was huge. It is actually the longest traditional building in Korea, but it's also kind of boring. The one interesting thing about it was that during the Seven Year War the Japanese burned down the original shrine and it had to be reconstructed in the 1600's.
The trip was short, sweet, and to the point. I was a little upset that I was unable to go to the DMZ (the demilitarized zone) but apparently it wasn't the safest time (considering that North Korea was set to launch a 'missile' over Japan the following day) and it really wasn't feasible with the time constraints. I'll have to catch the next time around. I put all of my pictures up on facebook ...
Korean down, back to Japan, and onto America before I know it ...
much love
-tara-
xx
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