Japan & Korea – May 28, 2016

Started the day with a western-style brunch with HaeJung and her high school sophomore daughter MinJu.  I first met MinJu in 2008 when the family had just returned from a year living in the U.S., and this 7 year old child spoke fluent English with an American accent.  She and her mom have worked on her retaining her English; her vocabulary and accent are both amazing.

We then went to the Coex Mall, a huge, and relatively new, shopping mall.  While I don’t especially enjoy shopping, it seemed a good way to spend time together while having an opportunity to talk.  We arrived to find that there was a festival going on outside the mall (a not infrequent occurrence on weekends in Seoul).  Sponsored in part by International Rotary, there were booths and entertainment from several nations.  We watched some musicians, supposedly from Ecuador, although their headdresses looked more like American Plains Indians to me, were amused by “game show” entertainment using traditional Korean games for the competitions, and enjoyed a little (too little for my taste) pungmal drumming from a Korean drum group.

Then we entered to hallowed halls of the mall.

MinJu, who is a teenager after all, had an idea and led us to a photo store – with many picture-taking booths of a complexity far beyond the “4 pictures for a quarter” machines of my youth.  She took charge, and we took a good many photos which she then played with, adding accessories and otherwise changing things around – and having a good time.

Since I’d originally thought about a trip to the zoo to see the pandas but decided against it (a long way with concomitant time commitment and I had seen pandas in Tokyo), going to the Aquarium housed in the mall seemed like a good compromise.  It is a very well-done aquarium, and we had a good time looking at fish and other sea animals.  They creatively displayed fish as art with the tanks surrounded by frames and were doing some improvement work as this underwater worker tried to hammer underwater.  The penguins were cute, and the manatee exhibit was extraordinary.  We were there as clumps of lettuce were thrown into the tank, and the manatees, with as much speed and enthusiasm as manatees can muster, eagerly grabbed and ate.

It was after 5 by the time we finished our aquarium and Coex visit, and MinJu had to get home, grab something to eat, and get to her “Academy” by 7.  This non-school education class is English Speech and Debate.  I read the preliminary paper she had written to deliver as a speech and was quite impressed.  It is my opinion that Korean students work far too hard, giving us almost all free time and fun to attend extra educational Institutes.  I just hope MinJu, who is bright and creative, doesn’t get worn out before graduation.  At least she had a fair amount of enjoyment in elementary and middle school since she didn’t do the extra Institutes then that many Korean students do.

She had to go to school.  I was able to relax and read at home. . . .

Japan & Korea – May 26 & 27, 2016

Now that I’m in Korea where I’ve visited frequently and lived for three months in 2009, there will be less of a travelogue and more of a journal of catching up with friends and doing “old” stuff again.  InAe, the friend with whom I’m staying at Building 63, Hyundai Apartments, Apgujong Gu, Seoul, was out for most of the day.  This let me be on my own to unpack, get organized, and think a bit about the Korea stay.  Had a late lunch of chicken salad at the Paris Baguette (a chain in Korea with baked goods, sandwiches, and coffee) and, wanting to be outside, went to the rooftop of the Apgujong Hyundai Department Store where there is a lovely garden area.  Sat there, feeling far from home, watching this man pace back and forth across the grass (worried? exercise? contemplation?) and reading a mystery.  It was a pleasant way to spend the late afternoon. 

InAe provided a wonderful Korean meal of mandu (dumplings), noodles, and side dishes.  At 10 p.m. her downstairs neighbors, and my friends, HaeJung and MinJu stopped by.  MinJu who is a sophomore in high school had just returned from her evening institute (Korean high school students work far too hard), and they wanted to say hello and discuss tomorrow’s activities.

On Friday, 5/27, HaeJung and I went to InsaDong, a famous tourist shopping street in Seoul.  I wanted to stop by Seoul Selection, a nearby store that specializes in books about Korea in English, and also go to a shop where I could purchase pungmul jackets for my Twin Cities drumming group.  Since those places are at the north and south ends of InsaDong, traversing the street made sense and was fun.  We watched the candy makers who have their patter down well, in Korean and English; 

saw youngsters in their rented hanbok (apparently that’s a thing now in Korea just as renting kimonos is in Japan); 

and looked around the art displays and lovely setting at a traditional tea shop.

We returned to Apgujong by subway to go to one of HaeJung’s favorite restaurant that I remembered from previous visits where PoSam is the featured dish (pork which is wrapped in sesame or lettuce leaves along with hot sauce and garlic).  Yum!!  Here is the food laid out before we started and HaeJung looking very satisfied upon completion. 

Full and tired I returned to InAe’s house for a restful evening writing and posting blogs.

Japan & Korea – May 25, 2016

Tried the hotel breakfast again; not a good choice.  But coffee was satisfactory.  Checked out of the hotel at 9:45 and left my suitcases with them.  Walked to the airport bus stop to make sure I knew where it was and then reversed direction and walked to Dejima, built as a man-made island in the mid-17^th century to isolate the local residents from foreigners and the threat of Christianity they represented.  While there have been many changes over the years, Dejima is still in its original location and maintains its original fan-like shape.  Because it was used for a variety of purposes over a long span of time, it features both Edo Period restorations and buildings remaining from the Meiji Period.  Restoration and repair work continues to go on.

 I viewed one side of Dejima as I walked from the hotel.  In addition to the map of the area there was a detailed model.

When there was a need to do restoration, as much as possible original construction techniques were used.  However, the sign assured visitors that those techniques were modified in order to take into account current earthquake standards.  And, of course, even in “17^th century” buildings there need to be accommodations to modern needs.

Dejima is one of the many sites in Japan where visitors can rent kimonos and parade around.  This couple was from Taiwan and thoroughly enjoying their dress-up experience.

By 1899 foreigners were not limited to Dejima as they had been in previous centuries, but the area was still a center of foreign business interests.  The International Club was founded by Thomas Glover (of Glover Gardens fame) and fellow businessmen as a place they could meet and do business amongst themselves and with their Japanese counterparts.

There is an emphasis on archaeology and research on the site.  Stones from the original bridge leading to the main gate were preserved and will be used in the construction currently underway.  In the 17^th century the bridge to the main gate, which connected the island with the city, was guarded by Japanese and posted with a sign on the Edo-machi side of the bridge.  No one other than courtesans and certain Buddhist priests were allowed onto the island and, of course, no Dutch were allowed off the island onto the mainland.

The Chief Factor’s Residence dates from the early 19^th century and shows that living was good for the Dutch East India Company’s first in command.

 An interesting fact that was posted on information boards put up by the Dutch government which still has strong links to Nagasaki is that from 1810 to 1815 the only place on earth which flew the national flag of The Netherlands was Dejima.  In 1810 France conquered Holland in the Napoleonic Wars, and England rushed to take over the Dutch Asian territories.  But Blomhoff, a representative of the Dutch India Trading Post, refused to hand over Dejima to Lord Raffles.  So until the Kingdom of Netherlands was established in 1815, the Dutch flag flew only in Japan.

As with most things in Japan there is an emphasis on neatness and cleanliness.  Two young women dressed in the official uniform of the site were going around replacing the dirty mats in the display buildings with clean ones.  I wasn’t sure the task really needed doing, and they seemed overdressed for the occasion, but maintaining standards is important.

As I exited the site, I was drawn to these drains on the ground around the building.  During the Edo period gutters were installed along both sides of the path to drain water.  In the 19^th century V-shaped gutters were installed in the same positions.  The gutters in front of the 10 restored buildings on the site were recreated in the Edo period style using excavation findings concerning materials and placement.  

One place I frequently crossed the street (near the YouMe Department Store and its Food Square) presented a large number of alternatives.  The “don’t walk” lasted a long time, but when “walk” appeared, choices were many.

Walked the block to my hotel from Dejima, picked up my luggage, and went to the bus stop to catch the airport limousine which came on time.  Fortunately I had left myself plenty of time because after we had gotten out of town, had gone through the first tunnel, and were close to the second tunnel, all traffic was stopped.  According to the pictorial sign which even I could read, there had been a crash in the tunnel.  Police and emergency vehicles passed us as we turned around (not an easy task with a large bus) and headed back into Nagasaki City.  Had to drive around the city, with frequent red lights, until we reached the alternative way out of town to the airport.   

Although we were about 45 minutes late, I still had plenty of time to make the flight to Osaka.  Once at Kansai Airport I had a wait of a couple of hours until the flight to Seoul was ready for boarding.  On this low-cost airline which charges for everything, the first five rows are more expensive; the first five rows were empty!  I sat in the 6^th so could be the first off the plane in Seoul.  Lines at Passport Control were fairly long but I still made it through the whole process in time to catch the airport limousine to Apgujong, the area of the city in which my friend InAe lives.  Her sister, also my good friend, InSook had come out to the airport to meet me because she was fearful I might miss the last limousine and find the alternative means of transport too difficult.  We had a pleasant 45-minute ride into the city where she left me at Building 63, Hyundai Apts., my frequent home in Seoul.  It did feel a bit like coming home – although at midnight I was more ready for bed than appreciating the location.

This blog will continue in Korea.