Let's check out the DMZ

So I went to Seoul last weekend with A, J and E. We had signed up for a DMZ tour for Saturday. The only way to actually get to the DMZ is through a tour as they do not let people loose in the area. It's probably a good decision by and large considering from the tour bus we could see that on both sides of the road were wires tagged with triangular signs that read: "MINES." 

It was an interesting trip to have done if not overly exciting. Our first view of the DMZ came just after passing the Super Viking amusement park. Kind of odd if you ask me but whatever. At every stop we had about 40 minutes to peruse the souvenir shop (a bit much but the theory was if we got bored enough we'd at least want to buy some ice cream). My favorite quote of the day was the name of the first shop we stopped at: "Intangible Cultural Properties." Somebody definitely had their thesaurus out for that one!

The third tunnel was a feature stop of the trip. It was discovered back in the 70s by the South who claimed it was dug by the North right under the DMZ. The North tried to claim is was a coal mining tunnel. They supported this claim by painting the walls with coal. Hmmm not quite an airtight plan but maybe it could work....

We had lunch at a town located in the civilian monitored zone. The food was good an assortment of about 12 Korean side dishes. People who live there pay zero taxes and make about 3x as much as other farmers. This is seen as compensation for living in the most dangerous part of Korea.

My favourite part of the tour was the view from the observatory. It was a bit misty when we where there so we couldn't see very far but it did complement the general serious nature of the DMZ. 

Here are my photos of the tour and the next day in Seoul where we went to Insadong and ran in to the Olympic torch relay.

Kickin' It In Geumcheon

This video is sooo Korea! ...minus the rapping white guys.

Baseball, Sashimi and the Great Wall of Busan

I've updated my facebook album. And created a hiking album.

The Pusan Giants had their season opener last weekend. Until then I had been to one baseball game in my life: the Ottawa Lynx. Needless to say this was somewhat of a different experience. For starters, it was a sold out game. Twenty thousand Koreans singing what I can only assume was the equivalent "bring him home!" made for a highly entertaining afternoon.

Another thoroughly pleasing aspect of life in Korea is the endless opportunity to eat out for usually less than $10 (drinks included). The general set up here is whatever meat you are eating is cooked on a barbecue at your table and you wrap each small piece of meat in a sesame or lettuce leaf with your choice of sauces, garlic and greens. Delicious!

As I have blogged hiking is the national past time of Koreans. So on Saturday my neighbors A and J and I joined the masses and hiked along an old fortress wall aka The Great Wall of Busan to Beomosa Temple. The hike took ~5 hours and was about 8.8 km. The views were absolutely spectacular!

Holiday in Japan

I went to Japan last week. Within two hours of arrival I had spent a fortune on a very posh taxi ride and discovered that my entire reason for being there was null and void without a specific paper which I was remiss to have forgotten.

Not to worry I was fully prepared to enjoy a two-day, mid-week vacation in beautiful Fukuoka. It is cherry blossom season and the city is beautiful. Everybody says Japan is like Europe and Korea is more like... Mexico. It was fun to visit Japan for a few days but given the 30-40% price hike between Korea and Japan living in Pusan is definitely more in step with my current financial reality. Also Korea has character coming out the wazoo!

Wandering the streets in Fukuoka I frequently found myself staring down a band of oncoming bicyclists. In Japan the cars drive on the left. The same cannot be said of bikes. They drive three across all in the same direction and always on the (extra wide) sidewalk. I love that every bike has a basket. In Ottawa my bike (complete with basket) is considered hideously un-chic I feel somehow vindicated now that I know the always fashionable Japanese believe in baskets too!

 Click here for more photos of Japan.

Break Time

B Teacher has arrived! By next week the schedule at SSS will be back to normal. 

A and I have further explored Pusan. Last weekend we attempted to go on a hike in the east end of the city. Though it turned into a saunter down into a quaint fishing village it was no less interesting. What was most notable was the almost total lack of people in this isolated spot of the city. I have learned empty spaces in Korea are somewhat of a rarity. I would bill it near the top of my list of things missed most about Canada -and cheese.

Tomorrow I will go to Japan. I'm pretty stoked about  this mid-week holiday. I don't know what I'll see there. I'm sure just walking down the street in Japan will be a completely different experience than here in Korea. Pictures will follow.