South Korea in a Nutshell

Prior to going to South Korea, our knowledge of Korea was limited to Korean BBQ, Korean hot pots, their text using circles, and a Korean spa that Anthony went to once.  So we were both excited to go to South Korea and learn a little more about their culture.

Korean Kindness

Taking a high-speed ferry from Fukuoka, Japan, we arrive at Busan, South Korea's 2nd largest city behind Seoul.  Trying to find our hotel, we were looking at one of those area maps inside the subway station.  A Korean guy passes us by and stops, asking us if we need any help.  I have the hotel name, address, and phone number written down in Korean, so I hand it over to him.  He whips out his phone and calls the hotel for directions.  He then tells us that we went one stop too far and suggest that we take a cab since trying to walk there might be difficult since we don't know the language.  We walk out of the subway station w/ the Korean guy and he waves down a cab for us and tells the cabbie where to go.  He then waves us good-bye and we thank him.  We're in the cab shocked at the helpfulness of this guy.  Through all of my travels, I have had numerous people be generous with their time when asked for directions or a little help, but never anything like this.  And this was perhaps an hour after arriving in South Korea.  Though we never experienced anything like this through the rest of our time in South Korea, we did have a couple of other people ask us if we needed help translating the menu and such.  So it was great to have experienced the outgoing and helpful nature of Koreans.

Korean Spa

As mentioned in other posts, we spent a lot of time in Japanese baths, so it was fitting that we experience the Korean bath as well.  Our first night in Korea, we head over to the largest Korean bath in Asia, Hurshimchung.  Unfortunately, no pictures were taken since you're pretty much walking around the place naked, so I had to grab pictures from around the web.  But it was pretty great.  The difference between the Japanese and the Korean bath is the number of baths that they had in the Korean spa.  They had large baths, baths of varying temperatures, baths w/ varioius minerals in it, cold baths, an outdoor bath, a lap pool, and even a bath where you can sit and order snacks.  They also have various temperature wet and dry saunas.  There is also a co-ed area called jjimjilbang where you have to put on pajama-like outfits that the spa provides.  There you can lie around on the mats, order food, or partake in the more dry saunas of varying temperatures.  But since we got to Hurshimchung late, we weren't able to use this part of the sauna.  We wanted to go to another one when we went to Seoul, but we just didn't make it out to one.  

The Large Bath Under the Dome

Half Bath for Sitting and Snacking

Bath set to 54 Degrees Celsius

Open Air Bath

Milk Bath in a Cave Setting

Half Bath for Sitting and Snacking

Gyeonbokgung Palace

Since Seoul has been the capital of Korea for centuries, there are plenty of palaces to visit.  The most prominent would be Gyeongbokgun.  This was the palace that was set up by the first King of the Joseon Dynasy in 1394.  The palace has been rebuilt a couple of times since they've been invaded by the Japanese a couple of times so we aren't exactly sure how old anything currently is.  It was a cold, cloudy day when we visited Gyeonbokgun Palace, so our pictures are a little dreary.

The Plaza; Facing the Main Hall

The Plaza; Facing the Gate

Anthony Listening in on the Very Useful Audio Guide

 Our favorite part of the palace grounds was a pavilion called Gyeonghoeru, which was set in the middle of the lake.  The pavilion was used for special banquets.  Unfortunately, our pictures did it no justice.

Gyeonhoeru 

We did manage to catch the changing of the guards in front of Gyeongbokgun.  The weird thing was that most, if not all, were wearing fake beards/mustaches.  We guess it's to make it more authentic looking.  To us, it just looked funny.

Chyeongbokgung Palace

On our last full day in South Korea, we finally got some sunshine and took some beautiful pictures of Cheongbokgun Palace.  This palace is considered to be 2nd in historical significance to Gyeongbokgun, but it is actually the one that is the most well preserved and does look far more impressive.  This palace was built by the 3rd king of the Joseon Dynasty.  It is said that since that king had to kill his half brothers to ascend to the throne, he wanted to live in a difference palace than where his half brothers were slain.  

Notice how the underside of the roofs were painted.  The adornment is called "Dancheong" and it really did make the structures all the more beautiful  

The best part of Cheongbokgun is their garden, which can only be viewed w/ a tour guide and an additional cost.  Having missed both english tour guides of the garden, we jumped in a Korean tour since it would allow us to still see the garden.  It was quite serene and provided us with some more beautiful structures, so we were glad that we made that decision.

Darin In Front of the Eosomun Gate and Juhamnu Pavillion

Anthony With Their Korean Tour Guide

Korean Alphabet

On our first evening in South Korea, we quickly realized that we'll have a bit of a language barrier since English wasn't posted on every menu or sign, unlike in Japan.  So Anthony decided to start snapping away at picture menus to be able to figure out what food they can order.  It turns out that reading Korean can be quite simple.  After a week, with a little cheat sheet, Anthony was able to read "kimchi",  "mandu" (dumplings), "galbi" (marinated beef dish), "haewool" (seafood), "seoul" (which actually reads su-wol), and a few other words.    

It turns out that the 4th king of the Joseon Dynasty, King Sejong the Great, is credited with creating Hangul, the Korean alphabet.  Previously, Korea would use Chinese characters in scripts but King Sejong thought that it was too difficult to learn and made it too difficult for commoners to read and therefore, resulted in the commoners not knowing how to properly behave in public.  He also felt that the Chinese characters didn't match well to the Korean language.  So he had his scholars come up with Hangul.  Currently, there are 24 consonants and vowels that make up Hangul and are written in groups to represent a syllable.  So to most westerners, it would seem that Koreans use characters representing their language.  In fact, each "character" is actually a block of 2-3 (sometime 4) letters grouped together.  

It was pretty interesting info that Anthony found out and proved that it indeed is easy to learn to read, which was the goal of King Sejong.  Unfortunately, the elites of the time didn't want the commoners to learn to read, since reading is an upper/learned class activity.  So it took a couple of centuries until it was widely adopted.  But it's used now and it sure is neat.

A Hostel Environment

Scattered across large cities all over the world, nested in all types of questionable buildings are the so called youth-hostels. I'm your host John Attenborough here. Today we take you to Seoul South Korea, one of the worlds most populated metropolitan areas and a key travel destination making it a prime location for the hostel. Ranging in size these ecosystems house transient travelers for nights on end with new blood flowing in and out every day. Many languages echo from the wall, they are truly International. Providing cheap lodging and the chance to meet other half-clean mostly-ragged travelers, these beehives of activity never seem to calm down. They provide a colorful way to experience travel. But not all in the hostel in fun and games… Food is limited and comprised of bread with jam and tea. Competition for all resource is high and male dominance gesturing is common practice. "I'm on vacation for two months"

"I'm on an excursion for three!"

"I've climbed Kilimanjaro"

"I've climbed K2!" This one upping  is only complicated by the “sex gap”. Because, the male of the species dominate this micro environment almost 10 to 1; competition for the females is fierce. But every once in a while some males not interested in females venture into this foreign land. These two travelers have had to find their own way. Thinking that the hostel was a swarm of activity 24/7 they were pleasantly surprised to find that from the hours of 7am and 9am all the wild travelers are in a deep alcohol induced slumber and the common area is calm. After one night in six man dormitory they moved into a private room for two. There they are separated from what at times has been described as the “terrible stench” of the dorms.

If you ever find yourself traveling and in need of cheap accommodations or a cheap thrill; I present to you the youth hostel.

Eating Our Way Through Japan

So our whole trip through the Philippines and Japan has been great food adventures for us.  And we're sure it will continue as we go through the rest of East Asia.  Of course we eat the usual Japanese foods: sushi, ramen, and curry; all were delicious.  But we got to try a couple of other things as well.

Anthony Hungry = No Time for Pictures; Curry Yummy

Ramen, Gyoza, and Fried Rice

Takoyaki

This food is at the heart of Japanese street food. Takoyaki is snack of  pancake-like batter balls filled with octopus, green onion and pickled ginger. It is served with four or five on a skewer slathered with a sauce. This savory snack is cooked on a special grill by dedicated men and women who pour, flip, rotate, and stab these takoyaki until they are ready to eat, still boiling hot. We purchased our first set from a lovely women who proclaimed even though her shop was small (the entire shop can be seen in the photo) her takoyaki are as good as anybodies. They are. If you ever make it to Japan and need a snack, keep your eyes open for the takoyaki vendors.

Fugu

In an earlier post we talked about fugu from the perspective of a language barrier, but we did not talk about what it is, so here we go. Fugu is pufferfish, most probably Japans most notorious sashimi. This is because the fish contains lethal amounts of a sodium channel blocker, a poison that if consumed will cause paralysis resulting in asphyxiation and death. Because of this all restaurants that serve fugu go through an intense governmental licencing program and all chefs that prepare it are required to go through extensive training. Even with the intense training and regulation there are still some deaths from fugu. So it was a goal of Darin's to eat it, obviously. And as it happens, across from the capsule hotel was a fish tank filled with pufferfish advertising the restaurant as specializing in fugu.

We enjoyed it as sashimi and as a table-top barbecued. The sashimi tasted like spring, it was served on raw cabbage with some fresh green onion and some other fresh vegetables. Very light and refreshing, absolutely delicious!

The cooked version had three different cuts of the fish; skin, flesh and flesh with bone. Our favorite was the bone-in cut. All of the barbecued fish and vegetables were basted in an incredible ponzu sauce that could make anything taste great. Overall, two more fugu lovers have been added to the world.

Kobe

We have all heard of Kobe beef, and on a map we saw the city of Kobe. How could we pass up such an opportunity? So having no idea if the name was merely a coincidence we hopped off the train and made a b-line for the information desk. Clearly we are not the first tourists to ask about this since the woman handed us a map of the area with restaurants that serve Kobe beef.

So for 9,240 Yen or 123 USD we split one “special Kobe beef” lunch, with a five course meal including Kobe beef. The meal started with some thinly sliced raw beef, not Kobe, then the salad and oxtail soup. For the main course we had 110 grams of Kobe beef cooked by our own personal chef right in front of us, and dessert included peach sorbet and tea.

Our Chef Cooking the Vegetables

Our 110g of Kobe Beef

Darin Dining on His Kobe Beef

In an earlier post Anthony had mentioned that Hida beef was just as good as Kobe beef. I have to agree, Kobe beef is just as good as Hida beef. Talking and comparing the two meals we came to one final conclusion; eat Hida not Kobe. Why? There is a fairly noticeable difference in price of the two beefs and we could find no justification for it other than the celebrity status of “Kobe”. Granted both of these beefs are uber indulgences and the consumption of either is the definition of gluttony, one fact remains.  Eat Hida not Kobe!

From Our Hida Beef-eating Experience

Okonomiyaki
As we were wandering Kyoto, we stumble across a little cherry blossom festival and see tons of food vendor stalls.  Half of them must have been cooking things in these cupcake tins and we were curious.  They fill each one with batter, a lot of cabbage, an egg and a piece of ham.  After a couple of minutes, the cook deftly flips it over and lets the other side cook.  After a couple more minutes, they're done and ready to be eaten.  And we purchase one not knowing what it truly is.  Overall, it was yummy.  Anthony didn't care too much for it, but I thought it was good.

As we head to Osaka and Hiroshima, we read about the two cities on wikitravel and find out that what we ate what is called Okonomiyaki.  These two cities are actually known for their versions of Okonomiyaki with Osaka making the snack with a thick pancake-like battter in the bottom and Hiroshima making their version with a thin crepe-like bottom and a lot of noodles.  Both have tons of cabbage, egg, and ham or bacon to top it off.

While in Osaka, sitting in a bar, we strike up a conversation with the bartender and mention that we had Okonomiyaki in Kyoto.  She responded with, "why?"  At the time, we really didn't know better, so we were just trying it.  I guess the people of Osaka know that their city is the city to have Okonomiyaki.  Sadly, even with her recommendation (and with the same recommendation from a different bartender in a different bar), we didn't get to try Osaka Okonomiyaki.  But we get to Hiroshima and hear that there are a couple of places where there are stalls after stalls selling Hiroshima Okonomiyaki and we head off.

Prepping the Crepe-like Bottom

Cooking the Egg for the Top

Darin Enjoying his Okinomiyaki

This version was yummy.  Anthony and I both agree that this was definitely better than the Kyoto one we had, though we weren't able to compare it to Osaka.  

Kinosaki Onsen

With the versatility of our JR pass we opted to spend a night in the small town of Kinosaki. There is but only one thing this very small town is known for: onsens. An onsen is a Japanese hot springs. For those Nor Cal folks, think of Calistoga. This town has seven public onsens and if you stay with certain ryokans in town you get a pass that allows you into all of them. So that is what we did, we booked a beautiful ryokan, checked in, changed into our yukatas, and headed out.

Walking up and down the street from onsen to onsen are couples and small groups all dressed in the yukata from their respective inns and walking in their geta (traditional wooden sandals) making clacking noises on the cobble stone street.

We also once again got to see cherry blossoms lining the street and waterway, lit up at night by hanging lanterns.

All in all this was one of the most relaxing times of our trip, flowing from onsen to onsen drinking beer and plum wine while munching on warm crab-stuffed steamed pastry buns. Highly recommended.

Japan travel tips

So for those wanting to travel to Japan, here are a couple of sage advices from us to you.

Tip #1: Learn Japanese

So you don't really need to learn Japanese to come to Japan. You can always bring your Japanese friend or Japanese sister-in-law with you. We kid of course. Getting around Japan knowing no Japanese and being fluent in English has been more than adequate. Not as easy as getting around the Philippines of course but I have a feeling that it might be more difficult in South Korea, China, and Vietnam. There are plenty of people in Japan that speak English. We really only had one tiny problem, which is why we thought of this tip.

Our language barrier at a Fugu (puffer fish) restaurant in Osaka was quite the experience. We sit down and look over the drink menu and the picture/english menu. We pick out two items from the menu and look over the drink menu. We tried ordering sake and the waitress kept saying "wata". So we thought she was asking us if we wanted water. We said yes. But she kepts saying the same thing after ordering the sake. And after not understanding her questions, our waitress kept giggling and turning to the other waitress in confusion. They too knew little to no English. So we decide that no sake for us. I post the picture in hopes that someone (Fumi) might be able to shed some light on our drink confusion.

So after being settled w/ our dinner order and water for drinks, the waitress comes back and asks us another question in Japanese. She points to the Japanese menu and we infer that we have an option for our meal. Darin thinks we get to choose which part of the puffer fish we want for our bbq plate. So we try to ask the waitress, "head, body, tail" and point to the appropriate body part. More giggling and looking at her waitress friends. After a couple more minutes of this, she runs of and finds another waitress who can speak English. Turns out, we get a choice of sauces for our bbq dish. So having spent around 10 minutes in utter confusion, as soon as the English speaking waitress says that one of our sauce choice is ponzu, I immediately ask for that since I know and like ponzu.

We also got to choose to have vegetables with our fugu. The only thing we were able to decipher from our waitress was mushroom. And the rest we tried to figure out on or own when it arrived. We were able to figure out the bell pepper and the leek, but that was it. There was an okra-looking thing that tasted like a very mild pepper. And there was a potato-looking thing that was crunchy like a water chestnut.

To add to the problems in communication, I see this little contraption on the table and thought it might dispense a toothpick or napkin or something. So I grab it, press the button, and say, "what's this do?" Darin knew exactly what it was but it was too late. The waitress comes by and Darin waves his hand saying "no, no, sorry" in his limited Japanese. The little contraption is generally used to call the waitress to your table. Who knew? Ooops, my bad.

Tip #2: JR Pass

A couple of weeks before leaving for this trip, I had a couple of friends give us this advice to purchase a JR pass. And since you can only purchase this pass outside of Japan, it was best that we purchase it before leaving for the trip. Granted, you can get the pass in other Asian countries as well, but for the sake of simplicity, we just got our pass at a travel agency in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles.

The JR pass allows travel on all JR busses and trains in Japan, which include most bullet trains and at least one line in most big cities. Getting around in cities would require paying for the local metro, but we were still able to get by without doing that since we walked around quite a bit. In total we used a local metro twice in Tokyo and once in Fukuoka. We then used our JR pass six times within Tokyo and six times within Kyoto. But we primarily used our passes to get in between cities which accounted for all of our 7 train rides in our transportation tally. And the best part was that we were able to change our tickets whenever we wanted. We actually changed our city destination twice and changed to an earlier departure time 3 or 4 times.

Our 14 day pass cost us 41,000 yen a piece and doing a rough calculation, our trips would have added up close to 60,000 yen per person. And that doesn't include the reservation costs or the change fees that we might have had to pay. So the pass even gave us more flexibility than what we would have normally done if we hadn't bought the pass.

Darin As a Bullet Train

For those only spending a week in Japan, the JR pass would pay for itself if all you do is Tokyo and Kyoto. A 7 day pass costs 28,000 yen and a round trip ticket from Tokyo to Kyoto is 26,000 yen. With the round trip cost of getting from Narita airport into Tokyo at 3000 yen a piece, your 7-day pass would have paid for itself. If you're an intense traveller and visit 3 cities in 7 days, then you're making some great savings. If you were to do Tokyo-Kyoto, Kyoto-Hiroshima, Hiroshima-Tokyo, it would cost 42,000 yen total. Meaning the 14-day JR pass would have paid for itself and adding more stops and cities would all be savings.

So Darin and I concluded halfway through our Japan trip that the JR pass was a good investment. Even though it cost us close to $500 each.

Tip #3: www.japan-guide.com

Need help figuring out where to go in Japan? www.japan-guide.com. Need help figuring out how much it might cost to get from Japanese city to Japanese city? www.japan-guide.com. Need help figuring out when the cherry blossoms will be in bloom and where to see cherry blossoms? www.japan-guide.com.

I used this site a lot and help me figure out the best way to get to Hida-Takayama and Kinosaki Onsen. Plus the various ideal places to view cherry blossoms. Very helpful site for those english speakers visiting Japan.

Tip #4: Shoes that you can easily remove

You would think that I would know this already, but man, did we have to remove our shoes a lot. I love walking around in socks or go barefoot, so I don't mind at all. What I do mind was having to untie and tie my shoelaces up over and over again. If only there was an invention where i can easily unstrap and strap my shoes. Oh wait. It's called velcro. Sadly, I don't have any velco shoes. Nor did I bring any slip-on shoes. My slip on shoes are dress shoes or a pair of vans (which don't provide much arch support). So I pretty much loosened up my shoelaces instead and walked around with loose shoes and was able to slip my shoes off and on fairly easily.

Tip #5: On a budget? Stay at a capsule hotel

This tip only works best if you're male and not claustrophobic. Yes, I said male. Apparently, there are no capsule hotels for women. And the savings is far greater if you are travelling alone since for two, the savings wasn't as great as staying in a hotel since you're paying per person as oppose to paying for a room.

Our Capsule Hotel in Osaka

Darin and I got to stay in a capsule hotel in Osaka. It was pretty great, but not something we would do regularly as we kept hitting the walls as we moved around in our sleep.

Tip #6: Japan uses 100V for electrical equipment

Previously, I recommended bringing an internation adaptor/converter instead of just an international adaptor. Scratch that tip. Instead, make sure you only bring electronics that accept anything from 100V-240V. The converter we bought in the Philippines didn't work out quite well in Japan and I ended up killing my electric shaver. So I tossed that away and bought a new shaver in Japan. One that takes 100V-240V. So with my international adaptor, this shaver should work anywhere in the world. Now the only thing that Darin and I have than need a converter is the hair clipper. Hopefully, we can start using it again in Korea or China.

Kyoto

On A Bike

Reading up on Kyoto, a couple of travel sources recommended renting bikes to get around Kyoto. So at the train station, Darin picked up a flyer for a bike rental shop where we can rent a single speed bike for 800 yen and a 3-speed bike for 950. Darin opted for a one speed and being sick and not wanting to expend a lot of energy, I went with the 3-speed. In hindsight, we both would have been able to get around town in a single speed since Kyoto is fairly flat and I only needed to use the higher gear twice.

Renting a bike was a pretty great idea since we were able to see quite a bit of the city at our own pace. We got to come and go throughout town and not have to wait around for public transportation.

So what is there to see in Kyoto? Gardens and temples. And this being cherry blossom season, we got to see quite a bit of cherry blossoms in gardens and temples.

Willowy Cherry Blossom

Darin in His Cherry Blossom Pose

Cherry Blossoms by Buddha

Cherry Blossoms by a Cemetery

Cherry Blossoms by a Creek

Pink Ones and Pinker Ones

Artist Painting Cherry Blossoms and Selling Post Cards

Cherry Blossoms by a Canal

Cherry Blossoms by Tulips

Flower Arrangements

After spending the first day riding around Kyoto and doing quite a bit, we thought we'd take it easy on the second day and go out of the city center and visit one of the neighboring suburbs. Darin read somewhere that there was a flower arranging exhibition at a nearby temple. Though you'd think after a week of looking at cherry blossoms, we'd be sick and tired of seeing flowers, but we thought that this might be a little different from the ordinary sight.

It was pretty cool, but my tolerance for looking at arranged flowers is a little lower than Darin's.