tales from Korea

One thing you can do pretty easily while living in Korea is take a trip to Japan – just 90 minutes to Osaka and less then 3 hours to Tokyo.

I’ve dreamed of visiting Japan since I was young. One time I phoned the Japanese Embassy in Dublin to inform them of my intent to visit, they asked me when and I said “When I grow up”. They posted me out a package of books, pencils and other bits and bobs. I’ve always looked at Japan and admired their unique and delicate culture, been fascinated by their high points (Feudal Japan) and their low (WWII). Being in Korea has definitely given me a little bit of a tarnished view of how the Japanese behaved during WWII; then again can you really hold it against the current Japanese people? I can understand why the Koreans behave the way they do, but I won’t go into that (Dokdo or Takeshima, anyone?). A lot of my interest about the country stemmed from Japanese comics, I learned quite a bit of the culture from those right-to-left Tokyopop mangas. When I think of a place like Tokyo now, I remember the film Lost in Translation – man, that film is right up there in the best for me.

A Loner’s Life

A stark contrast between Korea and Japan. In Korea, eating meals are always eaten with company… family or friends, usually in big groups. It’s seen as a little depressing to eat on your own. People who are on their own often opt for a take away and go back home or eat in the street to avoid the ‘embarrassment’ and ‘sadness’ of eating alone in a restaurant.

In Japan, many of their restaurants are built around the concept of individual eating alone, petty much the complete opposite of Korea. Many places have a bar style layout with a few two or four person tables scattered around, even in big chains like McDonald’s they have more individual seats facing walls or a partition then at tables. Quite a few times we ended having to order and eat at the bar in a line because the very few tables there are taken, usually by a small family. Still the bar format tends to lend a certain type of atmosphere, almost forcing you to be close to other people there, centred around the action at the bar rather then yourself at a group table. In one bar in particular, we experienced this enjoyment – the staff and other patrons almost more then our own conversations. In a way I’ll miss that, maybe Japan is more friendly to the lonely/seeking traveller? Who knows.

Osaka / 大阪府

We crossed down the narrow steps in the station and waited just a few seconds for the Osaka express to take us into the mega-city. We sat down and I studiously studied everything Japanese around me, it may have just been a train – but it was in JAPAN! We realised after a stop or two, that we didn’t actually buy the express tickets and didn’t have any assigned seat numbers. Would our first 30 minutes in Japan get us fined? Of course with a few minutes an inspector came over and we handed her tickets, she gave us a laminated card with instructions in a few languages: “You must pay 500 Yen now”, only $5 each so no big deal really. I peered out the oval aircraft like window for most of the way looking at the sprawled concrete landscape below. I was a little surprised to see how disorganised and drab the streets and buildings looked, I though after WWII they would have planned the city and rebuilt it, but it still seems a mess. In a way I felt that there was more uniqueness to the place, compared to Korea’s planned towns and rows of identical apartment buildings. More small streets, back alleys, individually designed houses and strangely shaped residential blocks. However it appeared so disorganised, I don’t know how I’d ever find a house in that jungle.

Osaka is a really happening place, a great vibe almost everywhere we went. We ate so much great food, and soaked in the atmosphere in some traditional Japanese bars.

Overall we had a great time, taking in the city… doing some shopping, seeing the sights. But, after our two nights, we were ready to move on to our next destination – Kyoto.

Kyoto / 京都

A bit of magic

Kyoto, a city of remarkable history. Even people who don’t know much about Japan will likely have about this place. We elected to stay three nights here, but thanks to its fame it is also more expensive – so we went from a nice hotel in Osaka to a modest but atmospheric youth hostel instead, for the same price. The name of the place is “K’s house”, and we’d recommend it to anyone. The staff here are great, friendly and genuine. When we stepped off the train we were greeted by Kyoto’s impressive train station, but exiting the station were equally surprised by how drab the area around the station is. The ugly “Kyoto Tower” staring back; no matter, ugly as it is it became a useful point of orientation when we became lost.

Actually the main city centre is not very exciting at all, mostly a sleepy enough place with a grid like layout. Kyoto’s ingenious city planners decided years ago to rip it apart and create it in that way – leaving most of the old city, temples and sights scattered around the outside of the city. So we took the bus everywhere, and hopped between some of the sights. At times, I could almost imagine myself as a samurai, or Buddhist priest, roaming the temples, taking in the serenity of these places, sneakily hidden away from everything. The gold temple was wonderful, and despite the droves of tourists (Us being part of it), were notably moved by this place.

We came across some Geishas at one point, posing for another photographers photo shoot. He wasn’t particulary happy when I tried hijacking his shoot. Unfortunately the strong sunlight played havok with my camera – I had light leakage and flair, despite taking precautions to avoid both.

Another beautiful shrine we came across was the Fushimi Inari shrine, hundreds (or possibly thousands) or individual gateways leading up a mountain to a holy place. It was a wonderful photographic opportunity.

Some nice people we spent a night with in K’s guest house. Some Koreans, Austrians and a Taiwanese girl.

Let’s Be Naked

The public baths were not that new to me, since Korea has a similar style (jimjilbang), but the casual attitude of the bathers, and staff was a little arkward at the beginning. We nipped across to a local baths just across the street from the guesthouse and entered separate doors for men and woman. Once inside, a wall separated both areas but the front desk counter looked into each one. One old lady greeted us and took the cash from Jayeon. From the front door, there was the locker room and no further room before getting into the baths. I was thinking, what… do I just strip off here? No further room in which to change. The front desk lady was looking in, and if the mens door opened some of the street was visable. In Korea’s jimjilbang’s you usually go through a section for shoes and lockers before the showers and changing area. But, everyone was just stripping off and seemed content. As my last piece of clothing came off the receptionist suddenly appeared behind me, I turned around a little surprised. “Yes yes, free shampoo… take”, “Urm no… arigato ga day mas, I’m okay”. I scuttled towards the baths and jumped into the water. The Korean bath waters can be very hot, but this was ridiculous.

2 Minutes, Is this actually scalding me? My whole body is itchy.
4 Minutes, Maybe my heart rate is 120-130 or so…
6 Minutes, Moving my arms and legs cause some pain.
7 Minutes, Starting to feel faint…
9 Minutes, Dizzy… pull myself out of tub and cool down.

I felt a bit wimpy, how can the Japanese men stay in for so long? I got out and changed, and to my surprise Jayeon came out at the same time. She found it so hot as well, time for a cold beer.

After our time was up, we pressed on to Kanazawa and our good friend – Loki.

Kanazawa / 金沢

Kanazawa station itself is impressive and the citizens seem proud of the iconic wooden entrance built to resemble a temple. Our arrival got off to an enthusiastic start picking up a well written and detailed visitors guide from the helpful tourist information office. They were overeager and seemingly surprised at foreign English speaking tourists being there at all; the city itself is a popular enough tourist destination but more for Japanese nationals then big nose whites. One of the staff told me that she was a Japanese English teacher on the JET program and knows some of the teachers who live around here. The place had already given that local feel, after all the city only has a population of 500,000. We wandered down the main street, looking up at the heavy, dark sky and then down at the map in our flashy guidebook. A castle in the centre of the castle, and the population… this place really is like Edinburgh – one of the reasons for Loki picking the place (We don’t know why he’d want to do that, but, different strokes).

We found the place quite dull in just a short period of time and ended up running for coffee when the raindrops starting touching town. We waited a bit and met up with Loki after school was finished, looked mightily bearded and in good spirits. We all trodded the modest walk to his apartment, we got there and had fun catching up and drinking all in one packets of “Milk Tea”. We met one new face there, Loki’s multilingual friend Jeff who Loki claimed could speak English, Taiwanese, Mandarin Chinese and Korean, I admit being a little skepticalat first Loki really wasn’t kidding. Jeff and Jayeon spoke in Korean at some length. We all headed off in Jeff’s box van, with sushi in mind and wallets stuffed with Yen, we headed to a 100 Yen Sushi restaurant.

The place was just fascinating, I loved the fact you could order sushi for yourself on the little computers at each table. Also, when you finish you put your plates down a little slide (To where?) and get a chance to win a little plastic ball with something inside – like from a vending machine. With more then 40 empty plates on the table, we played away and won twice. Here’s a video of us putting the plates in and winning one useless plastic thing:

The Ninja Temple

The next day when Loki was in school, Jayeon and I made our way to the so called “Ninja temple”, of course it was never ninja who occupied this building, but samurai. A lord lived here, with the samurai sworn to protect him. The house was not a reconstruction, but almost completely original. Unfortunatly the guides only speak Japanese, but English speakers get a pamphlet with descriptions about each part of the house you visit. On the outside of the building, it appears to be a normal two story dwelling. Back in the time it was built, no building could be higher then three stories. But inside the house has 4 levels, with staircases everywhere. It was called the ninja temple of course because of it’s traps and tricks, employed to protect the lord who lived there from attackers. Simple, but ingenious – I loved the pitfalls, optical illusions employed to hide an observation room, a see-though stairs from the back used to see and spear enemies running up it. Such simple but clever devices, it made me really feel like I was back in an ancient time.

After out wonderful time in Kyoto was up, we headed to the capital – Tokyo.

Tokyo / 東京

Tokyo was the last destination of our trip and we had limited time, but with all the sights covered in previous places, we decided to just take in the atmosphere – Shinjuku, Shibuya, Akihabara. So many sights, sounds and smells. Too much for one and a half days, but enough to get a good impression.

This dodgyness of everything in Tokyo led us to to try one wacky idea, a maid cafe.

The Maid Cafe

Descending a random elevator in a subway station, we saw a huge advert for a “Maid Cafe”, I laughed and joked about going there and before I knew it, that was the next plan. Well I guess this is Tokyo, so you have to see some crazy things, right? We were only a few blocks outside of the subway station and we spotted some girls in elaborate maid outfits throwing flyers around and blinking their eyelashes at passers by. We met a pretty girl and without much convincing needed she hurdled us into an elevator. What were we getting ourselves into? The elevator doors opened on the 8th floor to bells and two maids ready to greet us. We all froze and realised this may be a bad idea, but Jayeon pushed Loki out and so we followed. After a look around in astonishment, I quickly realised what a creepy place it was. Individual, desperate looking Otakus’ sitting by themselves being served drinks by bored looking ‘fake’ maids. I realised that, while looking for fun, I wasn’t looking for a creepy experience like this. We embarrassingly got back into the elevator and in a panic all mashed the 1st floor button. That idea was firmly done and dusted!