Kyoto - Attempt #2

I'm in the hostel in Hiroshima. Its 100 degrees outisde. I'm also waiting for Romi because her and some of her friends are coming here tonight!

Kyoto was awesome. Everyone told me that it was beautiful and it absolutly was. I walked everywhere, saw the palace, walked around the touristy areas, and lucked out by seeing 4 geisha. Some people I met said they have been in Kyoto a few times or for a few days and have never seen one. Lucky me! Kyoto is one of the only places in Japan that really has a Geisha scene today.

I walked and walked some more. I developed a blister on my foot and some unpleasant chaffing in some unpleasant places. It was so hot there, about 35. Some people said it was cooler that day than the day before.

The other thing about Kyoto that I loved was the architecture. The best part of walking everywhere was seeing people's houses with the little gardens in front. Then rounding a corner and there is a huge shrine or temple, all original. One temple, I took off my shoes and walked around for a while, then lay down on the tatami mats and let my mind go blank while looking out at a small pond. When I decide to build a house, I want one from Japan.

The next day I had to check out so I got all my stuff and left my bag in a locker at the station. I headed to the Golden Pavillion which is one of the most popular places to visit in Japan. It was so beautiful. I got there early enough to avoid the crowds, becuase when I was leaving, it was packed around the main area.

Then I went to a shrine/temple are where there is an amazing bamboo grove. Then the rains began. Monsoon rains, with thunder and lightning for hours. Not a passing storm but hours of it. I hid in a temple for as long as I could but then I realized I was wasting valuable time and risked getting soaked. I was also starving, so I went to first restaurant I could find, deciding I could handle whatever food they served.

As an aside, Japan cuisine is amazing. Its not just the sashimi and sushi, but all the veggies they have too. I ordered a pot of tofu and I got all this crazy stuff with it. Onions, rice, sesame seeds, wasabi, soy sauce. Actually not that amazing but put all together it was really good. The other thing about Japanese food is that there are no mystery meats or mystery fish. Korean, Chinese food, if I get a plate of meat or fish, I can never be certain what animal it has come from. But Japanese food (so far) has been mystery free.

After eating, I wandered around the bamboo grove and took lots of photos in the rain then decided it was time to go. I was cold, and I had to catch the train to Hiroshima. The train ride was about an hour and a half. The top speed of the train is about 300KM.

I got to my hostel, dumped my stuff and then went for a walk around the A-Bomb Dome Peace Park. It was really nice at night, everything was lit up. It was hard to grasp the magnitude of what I was looking at in the moment however.

I went to a sushi restaurant and gorged myself on sashimi, came back to the hostel and went to bed.

Kyoto

I was in Kyoto for the last 2 days and it is an amazing city. It was one of the few cities that wasn't destryoed in the war so a lot of the old shrines and temples are still standing. It is a beatiful city also. I walked around everwhere, saw geisha, took so many photos. I can't actually remember what I did right now. The days have blended together a little and I just drank a beer.

I just arrived in Hiroshima. So far on the trolley ride to the hostel, there is not as much standing history as Kyoto, because it was all wiped out by an atomic bomb.

Of course as soon as I start writing, my mind goes blank. But here is some of it in point form:
- I love bullet trains
- I love Japan

Blank brain again. I'll try again tomorrow.

Happy birthday Heather and Andrew! And Ricky J.

On my way to Japan

Tomorrow morning, well actually in a few hours, I will be on my way to Japan. Its summer vacation and I need to get out of Korea. I decided to go a few months ago via the ferry. I'm taking the train to Busan then getting the ferry to Fukuoka. I'm taking the bullet train to Kyoto once I arrive tomorrow afternoon. I'm also going by myself. I started shitting my pants about a week ago because of this. If I get lost or eff up, its up to me to get out of it. I feel confident with my travel skills however and Japan is fairly easy to travel in, based on my December trip. I'm really excited to see Kyoto and Hiroshima. There was a large earthquake in Japan a few days ago, but it was in the northern part, far from where I am going. Please, no one worry.

Work has been rough lately. I have nothing good to say about it so I guess that is why the lack of communication. We started morning classes on Monday and they are not that bad. I teach for 2 hours, then have a bit of a break. The crappy part is Denise's last day was today and the new teacher is starting for 2 more weeks, so her classes were delegated to the other foreign teachers. It has increased my workload and I won't have any breaks on Mon, Wed or Fri. It was a really long week and I know the rest of the summer is going to be exhausting. So yippee for vacation! Denise and I said goodbye tonight. No tears, no hugs, just a see you in 6 weeks in Nepal. I'm glad it was a simple goodbye.

Some news form home. My best friend Briana had a baby the other day. Mya Alexis was born July 23. Everyone is doing well. Bri and I lived together in Prince George for 3 years. Bri, I wish I could be there with you!

Random Thoughts for the week of July 14

I hate doing dishes and laundry. I encourage my students to use a word other thatn "hate" when converying dislike. But I hate dishes and laundry. If I had to choose one over the other, it would be laudry over dishes, probably because it still involves a machine doing the work for me. Because I don't want to do dishes, I don't even want to cook now. But its hard to get the required fruits and vegetables everyday without having to cook at home. So alas, I must still cook and suffer with the burden of doing my dishes.

The other night, instead of using eye make-up remover on my eyes, I used nail polish remover. They're in the same style of bottle. Luckily I didn't get any in my eye.

I've been pretty lazy lately. Two mornings this week I have rolled out of bed at noon. When I'm not sleeping, I'm catching up on TV shows from the internet, or movies. (I highly recommend The Wire and Rome). I also play lots of Nintendo, and take photos, and doodle in my drawing book. I don't really put things away on my apartment. I just move piles from one side of the room to another.

I do have some pretty important things to get done these days though, like banking and medical stuff. I have to get several shots and perscriptions before travelling. Typhoid, dyptheria, Japanese encephalitis, malaria. I also need to get anti-diahrea medication, parasite meds, altitude sickness medication, and anything else that might cure anything I get while travelling. I have to do this all tomorrow morning because next week I start teaching "intensives", the extra seesion for students during their summer vacation. So I'll work 12 hours days for the next 5 weeks. It's extra money, so I don't mind. But that will probably change after one week.

9 sleeps left until Japan. But also 9 sleeps left until Denise and I depart from each other for 6 weeks. We have spent everyday except for maybe 7 together out of the last 10 and a half months. It will be strange without her.

Coming to the end of it...

Before I came to Korea, my friend Jonathon told me, "don't be like other English teachers and let yourself go while you're there". Unfortunately I feel like this has happened. I need new clothes but I don't want to buy anything. First, I want to save money for travel. Second, anything new I buy I will just have to send home or carry with me through SE Asia. I have lots of t-shirts that are just good enough to travel with and then throw out. So in the mean time, being in Seoul, I wear my "worthy of travel and not much more" clothing to do my day to day things.

Yesterday, I caught a reflection of myself in the mirror at the subway station (mirrors are everywhere in public places so Koreans can admire their beauty) and I looked like a bag of poo. I also dress like a boy. I had on skate shoes, capris and a golf shirt. The humidity does a job on my hair, and I constantly sweat. Korean women don't sweat, they always wear heels and cute dresses. Or short shorts to show off their immaculate long legs. So here I am, short, feeling frumpy, sweaty and dresses like a boy. When I came home, I put on a dress, some better jewelry, emphasized the boobs a little more (something the Korean women can't do, ha!) and went out again and felt much better about myself and my lack of new clothing.

Humidity

Call me crazy, but I love humidity. I've always loved steam rooms and hot places. Right now, Seoul is sweat country. The Korean summer has officially arrived. The air smells like the amazon gallery at the Vancouver Aquarium. On the walk to work today, it was so humid, my earphones would not stay in my ears.

Island Life Part 2

The next morning, a little hung, but happy that it wasn't rainy, we all got up and meandered out of the hostel. Although it wasn't raining, it was cloudy. I skipped bringing my bathing suit and sunscreen also.

We caught a bus from the airport that went to the other side of the island from where we were staying. The roads are like those on Maui, so the combination of that and the night before made me feel quite sick.

We made it to this resort area where all the big hotels are. We walked through a small trail and then we saw the ocean from a hill top. The sky cleared and it was sunny! I saw surfers out in the ocean. I found the path to the beach and booked it. We met up with Stephanie again on the way and headed down to the beach. There was a swimming area and lots of her friends that she was with had surf boards. Of course though, I didn't have my bathing suit. But having no shame, I went into the ocean in my tank top and underwear. It was so nice. I was truly happy in that moment. It would have been nice to be surfing, but the waves were too big for me.

About an hour and half later, we were hungry so we left for lunch. We had the greated pub food I've had since Canada.

For the rest of the day, we got in and out of taxis and went to different waterfalls along the south side of the island.

We had to leave the next morning and go back to Seoul. I really did not want to leave. The island folk were just like island folk anywhere else. Nice, relaxed, generous. They stopped their cars at crosswalks to let the pedestrian have the right of way. They smiled and spoke surprisingly good english. I miss all of it. Except for the ridiculous rain from the first day. Now I miss island life! Romi is now considering coming back to Korea for another year to and teach on Jeju. The thought crossed my mind also.

I'll take Island Life for 100, Alex - Jeju-do, Day 1

Last weekend, my posse (Romi, Dale, Denise) went to Jeju Island. Its a small island off the south coast of Korea. Its like the Hawaii of Korea. The flight there was an hour. I was soooooooo excited to visit this place because I had heard so many great things. I also really wanted a tan, and to swim in the ocean. The weather forecast said rain all weekend, but I kept up my hopes. Every vacation I have been on while here (North Korea, Japan, China, Muiido, Busan) have been really cold and/or rainy. My expectations weren't really too high.

We left early early Saturday morning. I didn't sleep the night before because I had to meet Denise at 5am anyway. I slept on the flight but woke up while the plan was making its first approach at the airport. The wind and rain were so ferocious that they had go back up and re-attempt the landing. During the loop back around to the airport, we experienced the worst turbulence I've ever been through in my life. I've flown enough to make that statement. It was actually scary and my mind raced back to news about the last plane crash I could remember. In the mean time, Denise was sitting next to me with he head between her knees and barfing into a bag. She filled one and then started on the second. I never ever get motion sickness and I alsmost (almost) felt sick myself.

Once we got on the ground, it was ok. Denise still looked green. We got in a cab and headed to our hostel. The rains were coming down so hard I think Noah was about to make a comeback. We got to the hostel and I fell asleep right away for about an hour. This was 8.30 in the morning by the way so we had already had quite a big day. Mostly I wanted to wait out the rain a little. Romi wanted to get out and do stuff, which was good because I probably would have slept all day otherwise. So we went to the "#1 tourist attraction" on Jeju. It was a shrine with some holes in a grassy field. It was also monsoon raining. My shorts were SOAKED right through within 15 minutes of being outside. Truly, it was as if I had gone swimming in them.
We went for lunch after that. We went to a department store that was supposed to have a good food court. It didn't.

As an aside story, before this vacation I had developed a bladder infection from being on antibiotics from the last time I had bronchitis. Following me? I tried to rid it with cranberry juice and it worked for one day. But by the time we got to Jeju, I had to do something. I went to a pharmacy in the department store. No one spoke any english (usually pharamcists speak english because they are very highly educated), so I whipped out my cel phone and opened up the english/korean dictionary. I looked up BLADDER and then Dale used his phone to look up INFECTION. We showed both phones to the pharmacist but they just looked from one to the other, back to the first one. We ended up mimming the action of what was hurting and finally they got what we were trying to tell him. I got some meds and we were on our way.

We got some noodles for lunch and then went to a sauna, the naked kind. As it was raining that hard, there was nothing else for us to do. Our clothes were soaked, we were tired and hella cranky. Dale and Romi had never been to one before. So Dale went off on his own to the male one and we went to the female one. It was perfect. We warmed up, showered, dried our clothes, had some snacks, got a foot massage, had a nap, went into a steam room. All for $9.

That night, we went to meet a friend that Dale went to high school with. Her name is Stephanie and we all hit it off. She's only been in Korea for one month, but she sure is smart to pick Jeju to live.

Our activity for the evening was Jeju Love Land. This is an outdoor adult themed art park. Its just what I said. There are statues and pictures and sculptures of people doing it. Doing it alone, with someone else, with a few other people. You name it, this park had it. It wasn't gross though, it was very well done. I guess some art students from Seoul came up with this idea and the only place that it was ok to build it was on Jeju. Koreans are not the most sexually liberated people. So to the island it goes!

That night we drank at Stephanie's house and then went to a foreigner bar called the Blue Aguava. It was seedy. We got drunk and then we to McDonalds.