Chuseok in Tongyeong

In the last weekend of September Korea celebrated one of its “biggest and most important” holidays, Chuseok (click on the word Chuseok to the left to learn more about the holiday). For this holiday Koreans from all over the country flock back home to be with their families and almost all businesses are closed. As a foreigner this can make the three day weekend a rather boring affair, but in order to take advantage of the extra long weekend some friends, Kurtis, and I set out on an adventure to Tongyeong.

Tongyeong is a wonderful coastal city on the southern most tip of Korea, about an hour bus ride away from Masan. Speaking of riding the bus, I have just got to say that one of my favorite things about living in Korea is definitely the public transportation. Having a more condensed population may make public transport a more practical option than back in the states, but I still will dream that one day USA will step their game up.

Anywho, once we had arrived in Tongyeong our group split into 2 cabs and headed for the hotel (side note: without any request or encouragement from us, our cab driver put together that we were with the people in the other cab and took it upon himself to make it a race… For anyone who has ever taken a cab in Korea you know the

life endangered feeling it can provoke, so you can only imagine how this added ‘Fast and the Furious’ component increased the typical insanity. Luckily, we made it safely to our destination and happily discovered our hotel exceeded all of our expectations and was very beautiful.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with adventures which included eating eyeballs, discovering a circus, exploring a sea side trail, and enjoying the view of ocean and mountains from our big rock. That night we decided to check out the circus we had found earlier in the day, and it was everything I’d hoped and more! Afterwards, we grabbed a bite to eat, had some drinks, and then called it a night so we’d have our energy for the next days activities.

After a building wide 8 am wake-up call, we were on our way to explore more

of the city. Most of this time was spent taking in a hill side of murals that lead the way up to a beautiful overlook of the city. At the top of the hill we enjoyed the beautiful lookout, watched some kite flying, and had coffee. It was such a fun experience and we had a blast just walking around and taking pictures with our friends.

We concluded our hilltop fun, and having had a wonderful weekend Kurtis and I ended the day with a purchase of some of Tongyeong’s famous honey bread, known as kkulppang, and boarded a bus back to Masan.

This was our first time traveling outside of Masan and it was such an easy, affordable, and fun trip, I have a feeling we’ll be going on a lot of weekend adventures :D.

Multicultural Festival

The weekend after Kurtis returned from Japan we joined some friends in going to a Multicultural Festival. Being a port city with quite a few manufacturing companies has lead to Changwon becoming home to a large number of migrant workers. This diverse population has helped to make Changwon’s Multicultural Festival the largest in Korea.

On our way to the event we rode with our friends and across the hall neighbors, Will and Naiya. Making a quick pit stop while doing some errands, we grabbed some sushi to hold us over until we could eat at the festival. It was delicious!

We finally arrived and met up with the rest of our party, Chantal and Hyeonho.

There was much to see, and while I have been lucky to have been exposed to a number of multicultural events back home, this festival was an entirely new and eye opening experience quite unlike my previous encounters. Growing up in the states my exposure to eastern cultures was limited to mostly China, Japan, and Korea (with perhaps the occasional run-in with Indian or Thai food). As I got older I learned more about the differences between the western and eastern cultures but now I’ve really started understanding the differences within many Asian countries.

       

In the main area of the festival there was a sea of white tents ran by energetic peddlers where shopping and food could be enjoyed. Close by a more quite large tent housed instruments, pottery, art, clothing, artifacts, and much more from many countries mostly around Asia. Kurtis, Chantal, and I gravitated to the display of traditional clothing and partook in the festivities (I’m too old to say played dress up right?)

    

It had been cloudy and drizzly most of the afternoon and evening, but as the rain really began to come down we took shelter in the food area and enjoyed some delicious treats. All in all a fun filled day with good company.

PS- Naiya shared with me a delicious Korean cookie that is almost exactly

like the ones gram Kekec makes. So GOOD!

Kurt to Japan

Hey Folks, Kurtis here, once again writing a solo post. If you’ll remember (it’s been a while since our last post, sorry!) We last saw Kurtis and Susie learning that Kurtis had to go to Japan in 2 days to complete a visa interview.

This seemed a daunting task, but I was up for the challenge. I had to get to the Korean Embassy in Fukuoka, a city on the far western coast of Japan. Fukuoka is actually closer to Korea than Tokyo!

The first step was to decide the mode of transportation. I could either fly, or take a hydrofoil speed boat from Busan to Fukuoka. Hmm… let’s see… SPEEDBOAT! (Kobee Hydrofoil at right).

Traveling between cities in Korea is ridiculously easy. One needs only pay around $6, hop on the bus, and go. You may remember from the last post that only 2 days before I had caught my first taxi. Pretty cool, I know. But now, I had to navigate a subway system—in a different language. It all went well and I found Jungang Dong and the International Boat Terminal. There was an interesting mural painted on the wall of a building just outside of the Jungang Dong subway stop that featured a member of royalty riding a horse and some servants carrying umbrellas. I had an umbrella, so…..

Taking the speed boat was a phenomenal experience. I had just a bit of a wait

in their main lobby and saw this bizarre poster. It seemed very artistic, but I am not sure the image is something most travelers would want to see when boarding a boat that is going out into international waters!

Boarding the boat was exciting because I knew that once I was on the boat, the next ground my feet would feel would be Japanese soil. I have been interested in Japan ever since I took a summer enrichment course about the Japanese language and culture when I was a kid (THANKS Mom and Dad!)

By the time I got out of customs and exchanged a few KRW (Korean Won) into Yen, the sky was starting to darken. I rode a bus into Tenjin, the downtown area of Fukuoka. I found a place I had read about online that had brochures and maps in English on the 14th story of a mall. That’s right. It was a 14 story mall. With info in hand I set out to leave the mall, but took one escalator too many and ended up in the basement instead of the street. But it looked as though I was in the street. There were streets and corridors, and shops, and restaurants, and loads of people walking along as if going somewhere. What in the….. This is an underground city! My friend Yutaka had told me about this kind of thing. Many cities in Japan have underground areas that connect from subway station to subway station that, if not for the ceiling, would be indistinguishable from the hustle and bustle up above. Fascinating!

I left the subterranean city and went to a hotel, only to find that there were no vacancies. The Heiwadai was a neat hotel with great service, but tiny bathrooms. The bathrooms in a Japanese hotel are about 3 cubic feet and feature an interesting shower that is controlled by the faucet on the sink. I was quite tired from all the traveling and sank into a restful sleep.

The next morning I had to be to the Embassy by 9:00 to submit my paperwork and get my visa. The Embassy was far less intimidating and official than one would expect. It was just a small office and waiting room. I filled out my form and glued my picture to it with the ever-present glue sticks. I have seen more glue sticks in offices and classrooms in the past month than all of my years in school (after first grade, of course) combined. Forms here always need a picture of you glued to them.

I left the Embassy with a spring in my step, a twinkle in my eye, and a thirst for adventure in wherever that kind of thing is normally housed. I got on a bus and got thoroughly lost, then asked a parking lot manager for directions—In Japanese!

The directions that I was seeking—and the parking lot manager so graciously provided –were to the Fukuoka Castle Ruins. I was really excited to get to the ruins, but ran into something totally unexpected on the way there.

I was walking the way I was supposed to go, and I saw a big Torii gate.

Many torii are red, but this one was bare wood and much larger than any I had seen before, even in pictures! I had to stand out in the middle of the street to take this picture of it, and I still didn’t capture the whole thing!

As I stood in the street like the ignorant tourist that I was, I noticed a park with very old looking trees behind me and determined from what I had seen on the map that the Fukuoka Castle Ruins must lay somewhere inside.

It had been raining off and on all day and now a steady drizzle set in. I opened my umbrella and enjoyed the sound of raindrops on my umbrella, moss-covered giants, and ancient stone.

The rain ensured I had the place all to myself, and when the sun finally broke through, I had a view of Fukuoka from the top of the Ruins all to myself!