Summer vacation in Japan!

Where to start? Japan was, of course, incredibly amazing. From the moment I arrived, I had a permanent giant smile on, and I felt like I was right at home! Not to mention that the transition into using Japanese was remarkably fluid for me.  And I didn't get lost once during this whole trip! Bonus!!  This trip, it felt like I did much more 'doing and experiencing' than the last time, if you understand my drift.  And although I felt like I didn't have my camera out very often, I still somehow managed to come away with over 1000 pictures.  How that even happened boggles my mind - because I could've sworn I had my camera out constantly last time, but based on the ratio of days spent to pictures taken, I took more this time!

I spent my first day in Shinjuku, getting a few things done that needed doing (like getting my JR Pass).


The Southern Terrace at Shinjuku Station




Typical night views in Shinjuku

I followed that up with a visit to Shinjuku Gyoen - which is a GIANT 58 acre park that has different styles of gardens within it - Japanese, English, and French. It also had a good-sized greenhouse at one end of the park, and you could go in and see all different kinds of unique plants.  If it weren't for the fact that it's summer - it would have been a very quiet and peaceful place - listen to this video as an explanation (that noise - that's from bugs!):

Click here if the video above isn't working.

 

One of the little guys responsible for the sounds in the video above...

 

 

More pictures from Shinjuku Gyoen can be found here.


That night, I spent my time listening to the live music that is put on by many different performers at Shinjuku Station. And I found a new band that I really like too! They're called Slur.
Here's a quick video I took while listening to them:

Video not working? Click here.



And this video is also one of theirs - if you're interested... Link is here, if you can't play it...

Oh, and this video was taken at the Southern Terrace of Shinjuku Station - it was kind of quiet that night though...

Click here to go to the video

The next day I had planned to be my hiking day, but it was WAY too hot to even consider doing that, so I took the train a few stops further and visited the Nippara Limestone caves. And that was a process in itself - after getting off the train, you have to take a bus for about 30 minutes, and then walk for another 15-20 to get to the caves because the bus doesn't go that far. But it was worth it! When you finally get to the entrance of the caves, you can feel a cool breeze coming out of the cave, and walking in is like going into air conditioning. But it's all natural! It was quite interesting in there - but very dark, and I kept getting dripped on! And some of the passageways (or rather the stairways) were a little bit sketchy - there was only room for one person to go at a time, they were wet from the dripping rocks which means slippery and you were going more or less straight up and had to watch your head because some of the rocks extended quite low...
If you're interested in rocks at all, I would suggest checking that out!

        

My pictures from the Limestone caves can be found here.


The following day I spent outside of Tokyo, visiting Mt. Fuji, Oshino Hakkai (an attraction of melt-water ponds from Mt Fuji), and an orchard.
Mt Fuji was, to be perfectly honest, not that exciting - I think it would be more interesting to go there if you were actually doing the hike up it, but since I wasn't...
At the 5th station of Mt Fuji you're at an elevation of about 2300m, so you're kind of right up in there with the clouds, and that's nice - the views off the sides of the mountain as you're driving up/down where you are above the low elevation clouds are kind of cool.  But there was SO many people there, it was ridiculous - if you went into any of the stores/restaurants there, they were packed wall to wall with people.

Mt Fuji and the masses.

 

The orchard (Kinbaraen Orchard) that we visited was great!  Apparently the region we went to is supposed to be quite famous for the fruit they grow.  All over this area there were little vineyards with different kinds of grapes - purple, red, and green.  And of course other fruit trees as well.  The thing that I noticed was different from the vineyards I've seen in the Okanagan, is the height of the grapevines - most of them were tall enough that you could walk under them, and others were even taller than the buses!  Oh, and did I mention that the grapes tasted absolutely delicious!  I probably could've eaten them all day long!  They were actually quite small, but were incredibly sweet!  And I also got to eat a couple giant fresh-picked peaches which were also equally delicious.

 

        

 

 

More pictures from Mt Fuji and the orchard can be found here.

 

 

Oshino Hakkai was absolutely beautiful!  For starters, the area surrounding it was beautiful on it's own, but then you saw the ponds.  They are filled with the most amazingly and startlingly clear water!  It's even more amazing when you consider that the water in these ponds is held there for 30-40 years (and it was pointed out to me that the water is older than I am!  True enough...), and for whatever reason, it doesn't stagnate at all.  In fact the Japanese even specially go to buy the water from these ponds because it's considered to be an 'energy' or 'power' source. Oh, and I guess I didn't mention this yet - the water comes from melt water off of Mt Fuji.

 

Here again there were tons of people, but since August is also summer vacation time in Japan, that's only to be expected.

 

This particular pond is supposedly 8m deep.

 

 

For more pictures, click here.

 

The next day, it was off to Osaka, which was smoking hot!! By the time I got into Osaka, it was already mid-afternoon, so I spent the rest of the day exploring the Umeda area where I was staying.  Umeda is a kind of vibrant area - there are all different kinds of restaurants around, MULTIPLE department stores all within 5 minutes of each other, and of course there are the stations themselves - there is the large JR Osaka station, and then multiple other smaller subway stations.  I also lucked out in that at one of the plazas at Osaka station, there was an event going on nightly called "Music Buskers in UmeKita", so every night there were at least two different musicians performing.  It was wonderful - plus it was in an area where you could sit down and enjoy the cool night breeze as well.  Relaxing might describe it well.

 

In this video, you can see some of the plaza I was just talking about, and you can hear the breeze and one of the performers as well!

Click here to go to my video.

 

 

Here are some pictures of around Osaka station:

I took a ride on this ferris wheel one night.

 

And then, I wanted to talk a little bit more about the "Music Buskers" event... My favorite happened on my last night in Osaka.  I actually hadn't been planning to stay to listen to music that night, but as I was walking by, one particular performer caught my ears.  And I liked his music so much that I stayed for the entire hour and a half that he played!  It was really fun music, and he interacted really well with the people (including kids) that were listening.  Oh, and I don't think I mentioned - after these events, the performers usually go around and hand out leaflets to the people who were listening to their music (basically giving info on their next live dates, websites, and that sort of thing).  So when his performance was done, he went and handed out the leaflets, and stopped to talk to the people too.  Including me - so I had a good little conversation with him (in Japanese)!  I learned all kinds of things - for example - not just anyone could perform for this event - they actually had to audition and go through a selection process for it...

 

Even though I hadn't planned to stay that night - it was definitely worth it - I think it definitely ranks up there as one of my most favorite nights in Japan - definitely my favorite in Osaka!

 

That being said, I think some videos are in order, so that you might be able to see why I enjoyed it so much (or not, who knows!)

 

This first one I took while I was listening, so here it is, ヨシダヒロキ(Yoshida Hiroki):



Click here if above isn't working.

 

And because I can, here are a couple of his other music videos on YouTube:

This first one is the full song of the one that I took in my video:

Video not working? Click here.

 

And this next one is another one of his songs that he really seemed to have fun performing:

Video not working? Click here.

 

For my first full day in Osaka, I started it off by visiting Umeda's Sky Building's Floating Garden Observatory, where you can see some nice views of Osaka.  I found out while I was there, that it's a very popular 'couple place'.  There's one room where you're supposed to sit on a couch together and hold hands and the floor lights up according to the 'strength of your love'. Sure it does.  And there was an area outside on the observatory for couples only - it also had a little mini couch and a place to hang a lock commemorating your date/love, or something like that.  I  just went for the views of the city....

 

The Sky Building

The escalator you ride to get up/down

View of Osaka



 

The 'couples only' area.

 

Right, so Sky Garden in the morning, then in the afternoon, I visited with my friend who lives in Osaka.  The two of us went for lunch, wandered around another shopping area, and then went to Osaka aquarium to escape the heat.

 

 

I also visited Osaka Castle one day as well as taking a river bus to see some more of the city from a different perspective.  In Osaka Castle the floors that have the most interesting things - artifacts like scrolls and paintings - you can't take pictures of, but on the other floors they kind of explain the story of the history of the creation of the castle as well as the life of the person who had it built.

 

 

 

You can see more pictures from my trip to Osaka here.

 

While I was in Osaka, I also took a day trip out to Nara.  While I was there I saw a few World Heritage sites, and TONS of deer.  Apparently there are 7 or 8 World Heritage sites in Nara - I had time to see three of them.  The deer just wander around the town, at least in the area where a lot of the Heritage sites are.  People touch them, and you can even buy 'deer crackers' to feed to them.  And they definitely like those things - if they could smell them on you, you'd get a group of deer surrounding you searching for those crackers.  It was kind of funny though - because a lot of the Japanese girls and women who had the food for the deer would start screaming when the deer came near.  Why buy food for them if you're scared??  At one point I even saw one deer walk behind a woman bend down its head, and give her a 'gentle' little head butt to her backside.  I admit - it was a little bit funny, although I do feel a bit bad for her at the same time. 

I also think that the tourist information office in Nara deserves a lot of kudos!  When you go there, they ask you how much time you have to spend in Nara, and then give you a map and give you a suggested course of where you should go to see the main sites (based on the amount of time you said you have), where you can stop for a meal, souvenirs, and other sites you might want to check out if you have extra time.  They were extremely helpful!!

 

I also got to have some more conversations in Japanese while in Nara, and some of the locals told me about some things that I could do, and some less touristy places I could go visit too.  Unfortunately, I didn't have time for everything! (And that's the mantra of my trip - Not enough time for everything!)

 

You can see pictures from Nara here, although I warn you there are a lot, and lots of deer pictures...

 

 

Kofukuji - A World Heritage Site

 Todaiji - World Heritage Site - largest wooden structure in the world home to the Daibatsu (Great Buddha)

 

Daibatsu (Great Buddha)

Stone lanterns going towards Kasuga Taisha Shrine (World Heritage Site)

A baby deer!! CUTE!



 

 

And then there was my last day in Tokyo.  I did a number of things - I visited Ueno Park to see the lotus flowers in bloom at Shinobazu pond, saw a juggler/bagpiper in the middle of the park and then stopped at a Panda Café for lunch.

 

 

 

After lunch, I headed off to Asakusa to visit the famous Sensoji Temple and Kaminarimon Gate.  That place was completely packed with people!!  But, it is a popular place, and I went on a Saturday, so I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised by that.  While I was there I also wandered through Namikase - which is one main shopping street between Sensoji and Kaminarimon, and there are a number of other covered shopping streets that run perpendicular to it as well.

 

 Sensoji

 

Kaminarimon Gate

 

 

Next, I went to Tokyo Skytree, a 634m tall tower, which is surrounded by Tokyo Skytree Town which has shopping, an aquarium, a planetarium, restaurants, an arcade and more.  And it was also crammed full of people!  I had gone up to see if I could go to the planetarium, but turned out it was all Japanese, so I decided I might be better off to spend my time seeing other things.  Only problem was - because there were so many people it took about 45 minutes to get out of there! But on the way out, I got a ginger mint soda - which was made with real mint and real ginger - it was deliciously refreshing!

 

 

 

After that, I took a quick ride on a rickshaw.  I learned all sorts of things from my driver, who told me that he studied for a year in Australia, and because he was from Kyushu he said that both his English and his Japanese sound strange.  I also learned about the older part of Asakusa, and things about rickshaws and their drivers.  For example, did you know that a rickshaw costs about $23,000 to make?  Or that there are different kinds of rickshaws for different events?  Or that the drivers have to take 5 different exams (Traffic laws, how to drive the rickshaw, English, etc.) to become a rickshaw driver?  Interesting, right?!

 

If you're interested in seeing photos from Ueno and Asakusa, please click here!

 

 

My next stop was Harajuku, because when I was in Asakusa, I was told that there was a dance festival going on in Harajuku that weekend, so I went to go check it out!  The festival was traditional Japanese dancing, and I enjoyed watching it.  I took a few videos of some of the dances - unfortunately, I didn't bring enough memory cards with me that day to video some of the later dances, which were even better in my opinion, but at least I can give you a quick idea of how some of them go! (If you're going to watch these videos, I would suggest watching in full screen mode so you can actually see what's going on)

 

If video isn't working, click here.

 

Link to video #2 here.

 

Link to third video here.

 

 

If you don't know this already, even on a normal day, Harajuku is filled with all kinds of different people, but this time it was extra insane.  When the dancing was over, going to take a train back was intense.  For the first train that came, masses of people crammed into that train, and Japanese people can seriously cram into small spaces - but there was literally no room left on that first train for anyone else to squeeze on (or even breathe by the looks of it!)  So, I waited for the next train, which didn't take long because Harajuku is on one of the main train lines that loops around Tokyo.  Squeezed in and headed out for dinner.

 

 

By the time I finally ate my dinner - it was already quite late into the evening, so the I didn't quite have time to go see the other things that I wanted to, because they would have already been closed for the night.  Next time, I guess!

 

Speaking of dinner - this trip to Japan was filled with all kinds of delicious food!  I ate SOOOO much!  It's absolutely amazing that I could even move after eating all that food ;)

 

For example, I ate things like:

 

             

Okonomiyaki                                                                              Om-rice

 

Waffles, Fruit & Ice-cream 

 

All in all, I REALLY enjoyed my trip to Japan, and I was left wishing that I had much more time, as there were many more things that I wanted to do and see, but I just didn't have time for.  And, once again, it was incredibly difficult for me to leave.  I just really click with Japan, and can't seem to get enough!





An excellent end to the semester

This Thursday marked the final day of the first semester at my school, so all of the teachers were treated to a lunch outside of school, after which we were able to go home early for the day.  During this lunch I was talking with a couple of the other female teachers, and one of them told me that we should be friends because I'm alone and she's alone (apparently her husband is working overseas right now).  So she told me that in September when the new semester begins, she and I will have to hang out after work and do things and eat dinner together.  Sounds great to me!

Moving on to Friday...
It was an absolutely wonderful day!!!
Most of the staff from school all met at 7:30 to hop onto a bus to go to the island of Geumodo for a day of hiking.

While we were waiting on the ferry to get to the island - the other teachers were making fun of me because I wasn't wearing long sleeves, a hat or sunglasses.  But have you ever seen a Korean that's all geared up for hiking?  Let alone a whole group of them?  Let me tell you - it is very colorful, and I don't understand how they weren't dying of heat wearing jackets, hats, bandanas, etc.  But of course, they don't like the sun, so that is kind of understandable, even if I had to listen to things like, "Sun is bad for you!" and "Amanda, you're weird!" (because I like the sun...)

Once we arrived at the island, it was clear that we were going to be in for a very beautiful hike.  Parts of our hike went through a forest kind of area, while other parts were along the side of a cliff where you get some awesome views of the sea, and some of the surrounding smaller islands.

 

 

For the first leg of the hike, I ended up tagging along with the younger gym teacher, and it turned out that it was also his 30th birthday that day!  As we were walking along, I could've sworn that I had seen other teachers ahead of us, but when we got to the rest area, there wasn't anyone else there at all!!  And no one else showed up  for at least 15 more minutes!  I didn't think we were walking that fast at all though!  As we were waiting for the other teachers to show up, we had a furry little visitor come hang out with us - an adorable little dog!  After getting some attention, she left us for a bit, but it was worth it because she came back with two absolutely adorable, cute and very friendly little puppies!!  They were more than happy to play with us and get some attention in general. 

 

When all of the other teachers finally made it to where we were, we all got on the bus and went to a restaurant for lunch, which was some kind of fish stew.  At this point though my co-teacher asked  me if I still wanted to do hiking after lunch - to which I said, "of course!! This is an excellent way to spend the day!"  And her reply was that all of the teachers were tired and didn't want to hike anymore.  That's ridiculous! It wasn't even that bad of a hike - there was barely any slope at all - mostly all flat ground, although there were a few sections where we had to pick our way over a rock strewn path.  Which reminds me - I was also asked if I was enjoying the views - which were absolutely beautiful, if I didn't say so already!  But after that, the teachers told me they weren't seeing the views at all because they were so busy looking at the pathway so they wouldn't trip and fall.

 

After lunch, the bus took us back to where it picked us up and we continued on our hike. Once we started this part though, one of my co-teachers asked me why I looked so happy.  Because I get to be outside in lovely weather, we're hiking (which I love), and it's beautiful.  Do you need any more reasons than that?  And I get told again about how the other teachers don't really want to do anymore hiking.  Oh my.

 

When we finished the second part of the hike we all stopped for drinks/ice-cream, then walked for a bit more back to the bus and were taken for an early dinner.  Which was seafood.  It looked very interesting.  There were things like sea urchins, octopus, abalone, something in a spiral shell, and other kinds of fish.  And then we got some kind of thick yellow soup with rice in it.  After dinner we all piled back onto the bus, which took us back to where we had met first thing in the morning, and everyone parted ways after a lovely (in my opinion anyway) day!

Weekend with the girls

Last weekend myself and three of my friends made a trip up to the city of Daegu to watch a Cirque du Soleil show. We left Yeosu first thing Saturday morning, to arrive in Daegu around lunch time.  After getting off the bus we decided to stretch our legs for a bit and wandered around the market next to the bus terminal.  It had all sorts of interesting things.  For me though, I think the one thing that stood out the most was the WHOLE chicken that had been fried in tempura (or whatever the Korean equivalent is called).

After that we decided to go find a hotel for the night.  The first few we stopped at were either too expensive, too sketchy or flat out turned us away.  But not to worry, we did find a reasonable one eventually.  And for my first experience of staying in a love hotel, it was surprisingly clean and quiet.  Although still slightly sketchy.  If you pulled the chain on the light in our room it went from a white light to a red light - lovely...haha.  Oh well, I'm sure it could've been far worse.

Anyway, after dropping off our stuff, we decided to eat lunch and then go do some exploring.  After doing a bit of browsing through stores we hopped on a bus which took us down to the south end of the city before kicking us off at the end of the route.  At that point we decided to try to find a bus that would take us up to the north end of the city where the show was going to be.  And we did - it just took us a while because the buses weren't stopping on our side of the street!  But once we went to the other side, it was a short wait before we found a bus that took us where we needed to be.  Although it took at least an hour and a half to get there!  So, by the time we arrived, we basically had time to go in, get our tickets and brave the lines to buy some drinks/snacks and then find our seats to watch the show.

And what a show it was!  It's difficult to figure out what words to use to describe it.  But needless to say, it was amazing!  The way that some of them were able to move defies all laws of flexibility!  I think my favorite part of the show was when one team came out with the lights off and their costumes had different little lights all over them (which changed color too!) and so all you could see were these little lights moving around.  It was A-MAZING!

Our next adventure began after the show:
We thought we could take a bus back to the terminal or a subway line and go to the hotel from there. (because buses all go to the terminal eventually was our logic - that's what happens in Yeosu, why would it be any different in Daegu?)  Well.  It turns out that there's more than one terminal in Daegu and we got on a bus that went to the wrong one!  As we were riding the bus, we were watching the GPS on our phones so we'd have an idea of when we'd need to get off.  And as our bus started heading in the opposite direction to where we wanted to go, we got a bit nervous, but no worries because at the very least it should turn around and go back to where we started eventually, right?  Yeah....except our bus just happened to be on it's final route of the day.  So as our driver was about to pull into the terminal to park his bus, he asked us where we were going, which was, of course, nowhere near where we were.  So, he turned off the in service light for his bus and drove us back into town (~30 minutes!) to the subway station where we could hop on the train back to the area where our hotel was.  We definitely lucked out with an exceptionally kind bus driver!  Although, every time we passed by another bus, he'd flick on the interior lights so they could see that he was driving around with four foreign women.  At one point, we were stopped at a red light next to another bus, and the two drivers started talking - the in service one clearly wondering why our bus was still driving around.  So, our driver turned on the lights and explained that he had four ridiculously lost waygookins who he was taking to where they needed to go.  The other bus driver gave us a giant smile and waved at us as we awkwardly/sheepishly waved back. 

So, long story short, we spent an excessive amount of time on buses last weekend, and had many adventures that we made through without too big of a catastrophe!

Optical illusions + Aquatic life

This past weekend I visited Yeosu's aquarium with a couple of friends.  And when I say aquarium, it's actually much more than that.

First we dropped in on the 'Alive Museum', which is basically a place full of optical illusions.  And it's set up so that you can take your picture as though you're a part of the illusion picture.  As you can see here:

Since we went first thing in the morning, there were only a few other  people there, so we were able to take our pictures easily. It was actually quite fun considering how I feel about getting my picture taken. You can see more pictures here.

As for the actual aquarium part,  it was quite relaxing. Especially walking through the, what would you call it? Water tunnel? I really liked that! I've never been to an aquarium with one of those before- just seen them in movies.

They had a number of different animals other than just fish, including otters, seals, penguins and they even had two beluga whales!

The most dangerous thing was probably the tank full of piranhas...which by the way, have a lot of sparkly gold scales. In case you were ever wondering about that...

The three of us also stopped to watch the mermaid show, which was kind of interesting- three Korean women dressed as mermaids went into the main tank and put on a water ballet/acrobatic show. After that a couple of guys in scuba suits went in and fed the fish their lunch. Although I think the rays got to eat the majority of the food!! When the show was finished, we wandered through the rest of the aquarium, finishing off with a late lunch out on the patio. It was a lovely day!

Meltin' and Chillin'

So, since it's been a while, let me update things a little bit - the first week of July from the 2nd through to the 7th or 8th, the weather here was absolutely disgusting.  It rained consistently for basically 24 hours a day, and with the rain, there was heat, making the humidity incredibly nasty!  And the rain wasn't light either - it was heavy and came straight down - you could get completely soaked in less than a minute.  Actually it was kind of fascinating exactly how straight it was... *Note to anyone who has to walk to work in this weather - either wear bare feet or bring an extra pair of socks, because they will be soaked!  Your pants too...* I officially do NOT like the rainy season at all.  The plus side though was there was some awesome thunder and lightning!

This week though, all of that nasty rain and humidity has cleared off and we are left with simply HOT!  The best way I can explain this is that when I come home from work and walk into my apartment - it feels pleasantly cool inside, even though the thermostat says it's 29.  Oh, and if you walk outside in the sunshine, you get an instant sweat.  If it stays nice this weekend, I think another visit to the beach is in order.

This past week has been kind of stressful at work, however, I was able to have a lot of fun with my students, which helped to make up for that. One morning break time (there is 'rest time' between 10:30 and 11) I went outside to enjoy the sunshine, and my students decided to come talk with me.  This led into a conversation about who was crazy, and I do believe it was decided that everyone in general was crazy, although when one student told another teacher walking by about this, I think he definitely thought we were all crazy based on the look he gave us. haha.... The next morning break, I went out again, and the crazy topic came up again, although not for long this time.  This time they wanted to know what skipping ropes were called in English.  And after that they challenged me to show them that I knew how to use one.  Done!  As I was jumping, they all chanted, "A-man-da, A-man-da..."  And then I had to join in on all of the different games they were playing with the skipping ropes.  It was a lot of fun!  When I went back to my classroom after break, my co-teacher just looked at me and said, "Why do you look so happy? What happened in the last 20 minutes?"  Didn't know it was odd to look happy... Anyway, then during lunch, on my way back to my office, I got ambushed by a pair of grade 3 girls, who spent the next 20-30 minutes saying random things in English to me and making me repeat phrases in Korean after them.  About 5 minutes in we were joined by a pair of grade 3 boys who also jumped into our conversation, and they started being pretty silly, standing on the window ledge - at which point we got scolded by a Korean teacher, looked innocent, and went back to what we were doing. :P  Eventually we were joined by a pair of grade 4 boys who decided it was time to teach me how to say their names (and then I got made fun of by a Korean teacher for my bad pronunciation).  Oh, and then they (the grade 4 boys) each told me that the other liked me.  Awesome - because that's what I need - children crushin' on me...lol

And that segways me into my next mini-story - I was taking in some sunshine, when one of the younger teachers walks by and comments on how hot it is, and so I responded that I thought it was nice (more about the sun after that nasty rain...). Five or ten minutes later that same teacher comes back with two cups and hands me one, saying, "Amanda, iced coffee.  DRINK!!!!!!" uh...but I don't like coffee though.... hahaha....
Hmm, upon reflection, I think they like feeding me because as I was doing some photocopying one of the staff brought me a couple of plums to eat (and she told me they were plums, even though I could see that myself) ;)

Apparently today was also "Teach Amanda Teacher Korean Day".  During that morning break, a few of my grade 3 girls stayed after class to write random things in English on the board.  Then they started pointing to the things they wrote, and made me read them.  This turned into writing things in Korean on the board and making me read them.  Pop quiz on Hangul!!  After the quiz, (well at the same time actually) they also started saying words and phrases, and made me say them slowly, and then faster, and I had to repeat them if I pronounced them wrong. Enter the demon dragonfly!!  I've noticed that Korean kids seem to be scared/freaked out by any kind of bug, even butterflies!  So when the dragonfly flew in, chaos erupted!!  After it got chased out of the room, they started dragging me around the room to different objects, telling me the names in Korean.  It was a great impromptu practice!  Although, I can't say how much I'll remember...
Then at lunch, as I was chilling out enjoying some of the sunshine, one of the admin staff found me, and decided to teach me the names of some sports in Korean.  Not sure that that will really be useful to me at all, but I appreciate the thought.
And to finish the day off, as I was heading home after work, the principal calls me over, and 'teaches' me how to say goodbye.  No worries, I can pretend like I didn't know that one ;)

The only other adventure I've had recently was getting a haircut.  Now, if you know me really well, you know how much I don't like getting my hair cut, so it was naturally incredibly nerve wracking to go in and find out the hairdresser knew basically no English, and yet still get a haircut.  I think the only words I got from him in English were: cut, ok, and layers (although this last one was repeating after me).  And with my limited Korean, I am very happy I brought a picture with me! His cutting process was also very different than what I'm used to - he didn't wash my hair first - just misted and went straight to cutting.  After a few "Oh no, what've I got myself into" thoughts, it came down to - "too late now, gotta go with it"!  No worries though, in the end it turned out alright, even if it's a bit shorter that I wanted.  And is it even possible to get a haircut for only $12 at home? Somehow I don't think so.

Cross your fingers for good weather for me this weekend!!

Next weekend = a trip to Daegu with the ladies to see Cirque du Soleil!  Excited for that - stay tuned...

A day at sea

It finally arrived!  The long anticipated day out on the Koreana, Yeosu' s biggest tall ship. And we couldn't have asked for a nicer day! The weather was absolutely beautiful- warm and sunny, and being in the water gave us a nice breeze that kept it from feeling too hot.

The Koreana

We set sail in the morning with about 35 of us foreigners, plus the captain and crew, who of course had to get a photo taken with us and their ship before we left. I'm actually quite glad that Stuart, (who organized this trip) didn't go for the full 50 people the ship could hold because I feel like that would've made the ship overly crowded.

We sailed around on the bay just outside of Yeosu and enjoyed the weather and scenery.

 

Around lunch time we stopped at one of Yeosu's many islands for about an hour,  and we wandered around the island for a bit, while others jumped off the back of the ship and took a swim.
Apparently the village on this island has a famous makgeolli (rice wine) factory, which we were supposed to be able to go see,  but the owner wasn't answering his phone, so that was cancelled. Nonetheless, a rather large number of bottles of makgeolli were loaded onto the ship anyway.

Just as we were about to leave the island, a bunch of Koreans wearing bright blue shirts came up to our ship and started talking to the captain.

Turns out they were from NBC, a Korean TV station, and they wanted to take some pictures and video footage  us and the ship.  So we delayed our departure for a bit and had our pictures taken while having to  say things like "I love Yeosu" and "Fighting". Then they had to film people jumping off the ship onto the water and others climbing up to the crowsnest.

When we got underway again, we sailed by another island, whose rock face is apparently a famous view in Yeosu.

After that, the crew put the one front sail up again and turned off the boat's motor. Since it wasn't really that windy,  we didn't really go anywhere fast at all. Well actually, I think we sat in about the same spot for at least an hour or so. Not that there was anything wrong with that mind you.

During this time, it got really quiet, as a lot of people fell asleep (or passed out, depending on the person and what they'd been drinking). We also had a paper passed around for those of us who live in Yeosu, as the captain apparently said that he'd register those of us who were interested in a sailing class for free! So we of course jumped at the chance, and we'll have to see if it comes to anything.

We pulled back into the harbor around 5:30, and everyone started to take account of how tanned or burned they got over the course of the day. I of course got a bit of a lovely tan! As we de-boarded the boat, the captain shook our hands, gave hugs and had photo ops.

All in all, I thought it was a wonderful day- I got to spend time with my friends, met some new people and enjoyed a beautiful day out on the water.

We were also informed earlier today that the captain is planning another outing sometime in the near future that will be an overnight trip and will cost significantly less (only 10,000₩) on the condition that we all make or bring a food dish from our countries. Hmmm....we'll have to see about that one... He must've really liked us to be offering to do this...

If you're interested in seeing more pictures from this particular outing, you can see them in the album I created on Facebook here.