Monday, June 30, 2008

Couchsurfer, Hollywood Bowl, Cinespia, and MORE.

Since it took me so long to get my blog caught up from my Korea/Japan vacation, I haven't had time to update it this month. So here's the short version of how I spent June. Many nights were spent having dinner and drinks with friends and sharing travel stories, but besides that...

I hosted a Couch Surfer from Sao Paulo, Brazil for 5 days. He was a really cool guy who works as an editor for the Brazilian version of the TV show Super Nanny. I showed him around Santa Monica and Venice Beach, took him to a Dodgers vs Cubs game (I had to explain the rules of baseball to him), and gave him a tour of Paramount.

I went to a few of soccer matches... LA Galaxy vs Columbus Crew (3-3 tie), LA Galaxy vs Colorado Rapids (3-2 win), and a World Cup Qualifier between the USA and Barbados (8-0 win). The USA game set a record for the high score. And of course I watched much of the Euro 2008 finals on TV. Congrats to Spain who hadn't won anything since the 1960s.

Summer is here and that brings my two favorite LA activities... concerts at the Hollywood Bowl and movie screenings at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. I saw Thievery Corporation with guest singers Seu Jorge and Perry Farrell along with opening act Bebel Gilberto at the Bowl on the 22nd. Amazing show. Gilberto Gil played with Devendra Banhart on the 29th. Very disappointing... I did not like Gilberto Gil's band. I saw him last year at UCLA performing solo and he was amazing. And last Saturday night I went to the cemetery to see Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much.

On the 19th, I saw The Who's Tommy at the Ricardo Montalbán Theatre. It was the theatrical premiere of EXP3D's 3-D Sound. You wear Bose headphones while watching the show. The music was great and the story was cool, but I did not enjoy wearing the headphones for the entire show. Especially when I could not adjust the volume.

And finally, a few of work events... a screening of The Love Guru at Paramount, a bowling party at Jillian's with the kids from American Teen, and a birthday celebration for A.C. Lyles who celebrated his 90th birtday and 80th anniversary at Paramount (child labor?).

Tuesday, June 3, 2008


Buggin' Out @ The G2 Gallery
Venice Art Walls Benefit Art Auction

This evening I went to the G2 Gallery on Abbot Kinney in Venice to check out the Venice Art Walls Benefit Art Auction. The Venice Art Walls are the only place in Los Angeles where artists can legally paint graffiti art on city property, but they are in danger because the city is cutting funding for the walls due to the budget crisis. Unless something changes, the walls could close as soon as July 1st when the funding is cut. ICU Art organized the auction of over 80 pieces contributed by local artists. The auction went very well. I think every piece sold. I saw one piece sell for over $2000. I bid on and won "Buggin' Out", the Bugs Bunny painting pictured above that was donated by my pal David "Miner" Cowan. You can read all about him and see some of his graffiti art in the book: The History of Los Angeles Graffiti Art (Volume 1, 1983-1988). If you're interested in contributing to help keep the Venice Art Walls open, visit the Donation Form page.

Monday, June 2, 2008

I'm Back!

It was a long day today... I woke up at 5:30am in Seoul, South Korea and watched the sunrise #1 as I took a taxi and then a bus to the airport. I had breakfast #1 and then caught a flight to Tokyo where I had lunch #1. After a 4-hour layover and a 1-hour delay, I boarded a plane for Los Angeles. We flew over the the Pacific Ocean as I watched sunset #1 as we crossed the international dateline. Several hours later, still on the plane, and still Monday, I watched my second sunrise of the day and had my second breakfast of the day. Around 9am pacific time, I arrived at LAX 20 hours after I left Seoul and still Monday morning. Then I went to work after my 6000+ mile commute. :) Now, it's Monday evening #2 and after 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches, 1 dinner, 2 sunrises, 2 sunsets, 6000 miles, 3 countries, 2 planes, 2 taxis, 1 bus, 2 scooter rides, 1 day of work, and approximately 34 hours, I'm starting to get a little tired.

All the details from my trip can be found in my previous six posts. My pictures can be found here. Everything about it was amazing. I ate tons of great food, made new friends, attended soccer, baseball, and sumo matches as well as the theatre and some live music clubs. I did some sightseeing and shopping, saw some real geishas, cosplay girls, Mt. Fugi, the DMZ, and got into North Korea, the strangest place I've ever been. I went to a design festival and a shrine festival. I took planes, cars, buses, trains, subways, bicycles, and a ferry all over Korea and Japan. And I had my friend Kyounghae who gave me a full tour of Korea and made sure I tried every Korean dish she could think of. It was awesome.

Sunday, June 1, 2008


At a Soccer Game in Seoul (Soonhwee, Kyounghae, and Jamie)
Japan/Korea Trip Part 6: Seoul

Day 16: Saturday May 31 - Palace, Insadong, Soccer
This morning we did some sightseeing at Gyeongbok Palace where we saw the changing of the guard ceremony and a parade. In the afternoon, we took a walk around Insadong, a neighborhood with lots of shops and art galleries. One place I really wanted to visit in Seoul was a tea house in Insadong called Yetchatjip (Old Teashop), it's a famous old tea room that's supposed to have live birds flying around inside. We went inside and had tea and snacks, but the only birds I saw were in cages. I was a little disappointed with that, but the shop was really cool and the fruity iced mogwacha (quince tea) I had was delicious. After that we met up with Kyounghae's sister Soonhwee (who's now a tv star)and her boyfriend Hyunggwang for dinner. We had could noodle soup, which I've had in LA a few times. It was delicious but really difficult for me to eat. The noodles are so thin and long and hard be bite through. Mine had to be cut into small pieces with scissors. After dinner the four of us joined 53,000 other people in going to Seoul World Cup Stadium for the South Korea vs. Jordan soccer match. The match was a FIFA World Cup Qualifier as the Asian teams attempt to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. We sat, I should say stood, in the Korean supporters section with all the hardcore singing fans. My favorite player, Park Ji Sung, whose jersey I got a few days earlier, was in the starting lineup so I was happy. And just before the end of the first half, he scored the first goal of the game putting Korea in the lead. Then, just three minutes into the second half, Park Chu Young scored on a penalty kick putting Korea ahead 2-0 and it looked like it was going to be a sure win for Korea. But, as all soccer fans know, 2-0 is the most dangerous score. In the last 20 minutes of the game, Jordan's Hasan Abdel Mahmoud put in two goals and the game ended in a 2-2 draw, a big disappointment for the home fans, but probably good enough to get them into the next round of qualifying. Here are some video highlights of the game.

Day 17: Sunday June 1 - Shopping, Baseball, Groceries
On my final day, we did some shopping are the COEX mall and near the women's university. We also went to a grocery store where I picked up some kimchi, dried squid, and chestnuts to bring back to the USA. I wasn't exactly sure if I was allowed to bring in these kinds of foods, but luckily LAX was really busy when I arrived and noone noticed my food or North Korean souvenirs. In the evening we went to a baseball game between the Woori Heroes and Lotte Giants. We cheered for the visiting Lotte Giants from Busan (Kyounghae's home team) and actually, most people in the stadium were cheering for the visitors. The game had similar atmosphere to the games I went to in Japan, lots of singing and cheering for the entire game, although the ballpark was much smaller than the huge domes I went to in Japan and it was much cheaper ($4/ticket vs $40/ticket). The quality is a little better in Japan, but the games are fun to attend. The best Korean players usually go to play in Japan, while the huge stars of Japan and Korea end up playing in Major League Baseball here in North America. There are three South Korean players currently in MLB including Chan Ho Park, the first Korean-born player in Major League history, who pitches for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Japan has 14 players in the Major Leagues this year including Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka. We left the game a little early, but Lotte was winning 7-1.

Here are my Seoul photos.

Friday, May 30, 2008


Jamie in North Korea!
Japan/Korea Trip Part 5: Kaesong, North Korea

Day 15: Friday May 30 - Kaesong, North Korea
Most people don't know that it's now possible for tourists to visit North Korea from South Korea. Until recently, the only way to get to North Korea was to go through the hassle of getting a Chinese visa, then go to Beijing and apply for a North Korea visa, and then fly from Beijing to Pyongyang and go on an organized tour. But now there are two options for getting into the North from Seoul. About 10 years ago, Hyundai Asan began offering tours to the Mount Kumgang tourist area in North Korea. Currently they offer a 3-day tour to this area, but you don't get to see the real North Korea. You are just taken to a national park area for three days and trapped in your hotel at night. In 2004, Hyundai Asan began developing an industrial park in the city of Kaesong, North Korea to allow South Korean companies to setup factories and hire North Korean workers. This park helps create much needed jobs in North Korea and allows South Korean companies to take advantage of the cheap labor. Just six months ago, Hyundai Asan began offering a 1-day tour of the tourist sites in Kaesong. The exciting thing about this tour is that most of the tourist sites are in the middle of the city of Kaesong, so tourists get to see a real North Korean city and real people even though they're not allowed to interact with or take pictures of them. This is the tour that I signed up for. I was able to book it online from the GOnSEE Korea travel agency for around $185 which includes the all day tour (in Korean), bus transportation to/from Seoul, and lunch.

Another early day... I had to wake up at 4:30am to take a cab to the spot where a bus would pick me up and take me to border. The bus arrived at Imjingak around 7:00am where I had to register, get my pass for entry into North Korea that I must wear along with my passport around my neck at all times, check all items that are not allowed into North Korea (mobile phones, magazines, MP3 players, etc.) into lockers, and then go through South Korean Immigration and Customs where they put an exit stamp on my passport. The whole arrival and checkin was pretty chaotic because it was very unorganized and there were hundreds of people there. It was even more difficult for me because all the instructions were given in Korean and I wasn't sure what to do, but I got through it. By the way, I'm going on this tour solo, no friends to guide me around today. After checking out of South Korea, we exit to a parking lot of a dozen buses. The tour is going to be a dozen busloads of people and I am assigned to one of the buses. I find my bus and board and soon our dozen buses are traveling across the DMZ to the north side of the border. When I stop seeing South Korean and American soldiers and start seeing North Korean soldiers, it occurs to me that almost everyone on the tour is Korean except for a few Japanese, and I appear to be the only Westerner on the tour. I start getting concerned about being the only white guy crossing the border and having my US passport around my next for all to see and wondering how safe I am with no more UN troops around. We arrive at the North Korean immigration building a few minutes later. Everything I'm carrying gets searched on entry and the customs officials do not look friendly. The woman checking my bag found a Seoul tour magazine I had in my bag and looked through every page of it before decided it was okay. I showed my passport and entry pass (which acted as my visa) to the immigration official and he stamped my pass. They don't stamp your passport because they don't want to cause any problems with your home country. Around 8:30am we got back on the buses and our brainwashed North Korean guide joined the tour. I couldn't actually understand anything he said all day, but I do know that he never smiled and he often raised his voice and sounded angry. He did sing us a song while on the bus which was extremely awkward.

The first stop was the Parkyeun Waterfall where we spent most of the morning. We were never allowed to take pictures while we were on the bus, but when we got to one of these tourist areas we could take as many pics as we wanted to. But I didn't really come on the tour to see these sights. The waterfall was nice, and we hiked around the area and saw a little temple where I drank some water that's supposed to add 10 years to my life. I met some Koreans that spoke English and they offered to help me throughout the day which was helpful. But more interesting to me was the bus ride to and from the waterfall. We got to pass through the city of Kaesong and the industrial park as well as some farmland. The first thing I notice is that are no cars on the streets. Everyone in the city is walking or riding bicycles. This looks really weird because it's a fairly big city and there are big wide streets everywhere. Most of the people I saw walking or riding bikes were single-file. People didn't seem to be even talking to each other. The people are all wearing really drab colors. Many of them are dressed the same and I notice that almost all the women in the city have the exact same handbag. It felt like I was in an episode of the Twilight Zone. Looking around the city, I see lots of apartment buidings. They all look really run down. Everything looks run down. The other thing I notice is that there are no stores or businesses, or at least there are no signs for any. The only signs or pictures in the city are about how wonderful Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung are or other propaganda messages. You can tell that these people are poor. The strangest thing is that there are people everywhere but it's so quiet. The main reason for this is probably the fact that there are North Korean soldiers everywhere... several on each city block, keeping the people in line and making sure none of them come anywhere near us tourists. If they find out we just paid $1 for a cup of coffee (one week's pay for them), they might figure out that North Korea isn't as great as they're being told it is and Kim Jong-il can't let that happen. But he desperately needs our dollars so he has to allow these tours to come in. While most of the people in the city appear afraid to even look at us with all the guards around, the ones in their apartment windows and others behind fences take a good look at us. The children, who are less afraid, wave to us. And that is why I don't feel guilty about paying nearly $200 that I know is going directly to the evil government. It's important for these people, especially the kids, to see outsiders and to see that we're not as bad as they're told we are. Even when we were driving through miles of farmland, there were soldiers standing in the fields making sure that some farmer doesn't wander over to our buses. It was crazy.

At noon we went to a restaurant for lunch. There were long tables setup like a cafeteria and we all ate together. We each had our own setting of several side dishes. I couldn't really tell what the main course was supposed to be. It might have been a small bowl of soup, but to me it looked like just side dishes. We were served by several young North Korean women who brought us our food and refilled our tea cups. The food was pretty good. Outside the restaurant there were a couple of gift shops. I went inside one and everything in it looked decades old. Things looked like they'd been sitting on the shelves for years. I purchased some North Korean tourist guides and some buttons and pins. I wanted to buy some books, but a South Korean guide told me that the books that I was looking at were not allowed by South Korean customs so I put them back. After lunch we went to an old school called Sungyangseowon and then to Seonjuk Bridge where Jeong Mong-ju, a renowned scholar was murdered in the 1300s. Later we went to the Goryeo Museum where I visited another gift shop. This one was selling old postage stamps and I bought two books full of old military propaganda stamps. I was a little worried about getting these into South Korea and the USA, but luckily I never got searched. We drove around the city of Kaesong a little more and then headed back to the border for customs and immigration. The North Korean customs official checked everyone's camersa to make sure we didn't take any pictures of anything we weren't supposed to. I passed the test and the immigration official stamped my entry pass and let me exit, but he kept the pass. We got back on the bus, drove across the DMZ, went through South Korean immigration and customs, and then back to Seoul at around 6:00pm.

Even though we spent most of the day at lame tourist sites, the trip was completely worth it for the chance to see the city. This tour was one of the highlights of my trip and North Korea is absolutely the most bizarre place I've even been in my life. I'm really glad I went. I would actually like to see more of North Korea and hopefully someday I will be able to. I would definitely recommend this tour to anyone in South Korea. And other than my inital fear when crossing the border, I felt completely safe during the entire trip.

Here are my DMZ and Kaesong photos.

Thursday, May 29, 2008


South Korean Soldier in the JSA
Japan/Korea Trip Part 4: Seoul, DMZ, JSA

Day 13: Wednesday May 28 - Train to Seoul, Soccer Jersey
It was raining a little this morning, but that was okay because it was a travel day. Kyounghae and I took the train today from Busan to Seoul where we would be spending the last 5 days of my vacation. We stayed with her sister Soonhwee who I'm told is going to be on national television soon in Korea. I had tried to couchsurf in Japan but wasn't able to find any hosts, so I was very happy that Soonhwee let us stay at her place in Seoul. After arriving in Seoul, we went on a mission: to find a white, long sleeve, #7, Park Ji-Sung, Korean national team soccer jersey in size large for me. Park Ji-Sung is a Korean soccer player whose day job is playing for my favorite team, Manchester United. This weekend he would (hopefully) be in Korea to play in a match for the South Korean national team and I wanted to get his jersey as a souvenir. Kyounghae asked some friends and found a shop near Dongdaemun Market that sold jerseys and would print his name and number on the back. They were able to do the exact jersey I wanted and they had it ready the next day. Success!

Day 14: Thursday May 29 - DMZ Tour, Riot Police, Shopping
We got up early this morning to go on a tour of the DMZ. The Korean Demilitarized Zone is a strip of land separating North and South Korea. It is 2.5 miles wide and 150 miles long. With over a million soldiers ready to go to war at a moment's notice, large numbers of tanks, long-range artillery, and armoured personnel carriers, it is the most heavily armed border in the world. Bill Clinton once called this area "the scariest place on Earth." It is pretty scary when you think about it, but a fairly safe place to go as a tourist because you're protected by South Korean and American soliders and incidents are "not anticipated". You do have to sign a paper declaring that you realize you're going into a hostile area and the possibility of "death as a direct result of enemy action". For the first part of the tour, we visitied Imjingak which is basically just a tourist park with some symbols of freedom and reunification like the Bridge of Freedom, the Peace Bell, and a Place of Worship. They also are building an amusement park which I thought was pretty weird. Next we went to see The 3rd Tunnel of Agression. Over the years, the North Koreans have tried to dig several tunnels under the DMZ. The 3rd Tunnel was discovered in 1978 and is capable of moving 30,000 troops per hour from North Korea into South Korea within an hour of Seoul. The tunnel has been blocked and now you can walk down into it and see it. This was a pretty cool site. Next we went to the Dora Observatory where you can get a view of the area and see North Korea from a distance. You can see the DMZ, the propaganda village that noone lives in, and the city of Kaesong which I will visit tomorrow. Next we visited the Dorasan Train Station, the closest train station to North Korea on the railroad line connecting Seoul and Pyongyoung. The station is not being used of course, but you can visit it and get a passport stamp (just don't stamp your passport!). George W. Bush actually visited the station in 2002. At this point, Kyounghae had to take a bus back to Seoul. South Koreans aren't allowed to vist the Joint Security Area (JSA) and Panmunjeom without applying for permission over 6-months in advance, but I continued on. The JSA is the village on the border that is used for meetings between the North and South. I got to go in the conference room and take a few pictures. Photography is very controlled in all areas of the DMZ. There are only certain places and times when you can take photos. I also went to the Freedom House in which I was able to take some more pics including a few of some North Korean soldiers spying on us from the other side. And then had a look at the Bridge of No Return before returning to Seoul and finding RIOT POLICE(!!!!)... thousands and thousands and thousands of RIOT POLICE! I had heard that the South Koreans were protesting against importing American beef but I didn't realize exactly how big the protest was. Luckily, I was there early before the craziness started and the police were just getting ready for the evening. Why are they protesting? LOL... for some reason they think we've got mad-cow disease. They think that Americans don't even eat American beef. You'd think they would have done some research before organizing the biggest protest IN DECADES. Oh well... In the evening, I did some shopping in the Myeong-dong shopping area and bought a couple of shirts at Polham and Who.A.U, shops you can only find in Korea.

Here are my Seoul and DMZ photos.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008


Traditional Korean Meal in Gyeongju
Japan/Korea Trip Part 3: Busan and Gyeongju

Day 9: Saturday May 24 - Ferry to Korea, Gwangalli Beach
Today started out as a travel day. I had to get from Kyoto, Japan to Busan, South Korea. The quickest and easiest and maybe cheapest way would have been to get a short flight, but I decided to be a little more adventurous. I took an express train to Osaka and then transfered to another express train to Fukuoka in the southwest of Japan which is actually on a different island than Tokyo and Kyoto. Along the way, we made a stop in Hiroshima. It was a good day to travel because it was cloudy and rainy today. When we reached Fukuoka, I took a city bus to the Hakata ferry terminal where I boarded a JR Kyushu Beetle ferry headed for the port city of Busan, South Korea where my friend Kyounghae lives. When I boarded the ferry I started getting a little worried about seasickness (and the warning signs about "sea creatures"). I was about to go on a 3-hour ferry ride across the open sea during a storm. What I didn't know was that the ferry uses a jet propulsion system and hydrofoils that actually lift the hull up out of the water so that you're not affected by waves at all. So even during the storm and riding across the open sea, you do not feel the water at all. It feels like you're riding on a train. I went through immigration and got a cab to the Nongshim Hotel, the only high-end hotel of my trip (it was about $450 total for four nights). I was very lucky on the timing of my trip. Coincidentally, the day I arrived in Korea was the last day of work for my friend Kyounghae. So instead of me trying to find my way around Korea on my own, I had my own personal tourguide for the next nine days. To celebrate my arrival and Kyounghae's last day of work, we went out to dinner and then out drinking with some of her coworkers. For dinner, we went to Seomyeon and had jjimdak (a spicy chile, chicken, and noodle dish) with soju (korea vodka). Dinner was very spicy and I started to get worried that all food in Korea was going to be that spicy, but luckily it turned out to be the spiciest thing I ate while I was there. Next we went to Gwangalli Beach, a beach with a strip of bars and cafes where a lot of foreigners hang out. From the beach, you can see a beautiful bridge all lit up at night crossing the bay. And unlike beaches here in the USA, you're allowed to drink outside on the beach which is what most people do there. I had a lot of fun that night (which lasted until about 5am) but it almost didn't end well... there was a lot of alcohol consumed... an incident involving fireworks... and then the police came... I shouldn't put anything else in writing. :)

Day 10: Sunday May 25 - Shopping, Temple, Haeundae Beach
When I woke up, I took a walk around my hotel area. It's not easy to walk around Busan. Most of the streets don't have sidewalks and cars don't yield to pedestrians (even at red lights!). You really need to be careful. Getting around Busan can be a bit of a challenge, but there are subways, buses, and taxis so there's always a way to get where you need to go. The taxis are very cheap and the drivers are honest unlike many countries including my own. Actually everything in Korea is very cheap, especially food. A meal that costs $25 in Japan, costs about $5 in Korea and includes about a dozen side dishes for free. In the afternoon, we went to the Pusan National University area (PNU) which has lots of shopping, restaurants and bars and we had lunch. Then we went to Haedong Yonggungsa, a beautiful Buddist temple on the rocky coast. It was here that I tried my least-favorite Korean food, beondegi (silkworm larvae), which actually smells worse than it looks or tastes. In the evening, we took a stroll along Haeundae Beach and went to a Korean buffet dinner where I got to try many different types of Korean foods. At this point I should mention that I actually had some culture shock on arriving in Korea. I fully expected for the culture shock to happen at the beginning of my trip in Japan, then I expected to get over it, and then expected Korea to be very similar to Japan. I was wrong. I adjusted to Japan quite easily, but the Korean people are very different than the Japanese. To be honest, at first I thought Koreans were extremely rude. It's very common for people to bump into you on the street or the subway and not apologize, or even cut in front of you in line. But after realizing that everyone does these things, I adjusted and got used to it. I actually got strange looks when I bumped into people and apologized for it. The other thing about Korean culture is that most people will completely ignore you if they don't know you, whereas Japanese always seem to give you their full attention. But once a Korean gets to know you, after a meal or a drink, you practically become family and they will do anything for you.

Day 11: Monday May 26 - Gyeongju Tombs, Temples, Street Food
Today we took a bus to the city of Gyeongju, one of the most popular tourists destinations in South Korea and only 45 minutes from Busan. In Gyeongju we visited the Royal Tomb Complex, an area of large grassy mounds where ancient kings are buried. We also saw the 7th century Cheomseongdae, one of the oldest surviving astronomical observatories in East Asia and one of the oldest scientific installations on Earth, and the Seokbinggo, an ancient ice storehouse (the first refrigerator?). Then we went to a traditional korean restaurant where I had my first experience of eating while sitting on the floor. This was one of my favorite meals of the trip. In the afternoon, we had some Gyeongju bread for a snack, a pastry filled with red bean paste. We went to the most famous Hwangnam Bread shop and bought a couple boxes to take home with us. Finally, we visited the Bulguksa Buddist temple before taking the bus back to Busan. In the evening, we walked around the Seomyeon area which has lots of shops and restaurants and street vendors. Tonight I got to try lots of delicious street foods as well as some Korean frozen yogurt at Cafe Iceberry which was much better than any Pinkberry or Red Mango in the USA.

Day 12: Tuesday May 27 - Markets, Live Octopus Lunch, Shopping
In the morning I explored the Bujeon Market, the largest market in the city, and saw all kinds of vegetables, herbs, and fish for sale on the street before visiting the expensive Lotte Department Store. For lunch, I met up with Kyounghae and her mom who drove us to Ilgwang Beach so I could try live octopus, something I had seen on Anthony Bourdain's No Reseverations and really wanted to try. First we went to a market and got an octopus, an eel, and another kind of fish which Kyounghae's mom took to a restaurant and told them how we wanted them prepared. We sat down at the restaurant (on the floor of course), and were given a million side dishes and sauces. They brought out the octopus which was chopped up in pieces, but the pieces were still moving in the dish. The eel was grilled, and the other fish was served raw. This was my favorite meal of my entire trip. The octopus was really fun to eat. The suction cups were still working and sometimes you had to fight with it with chopsticks to get it to let go of the dish. Then you dip it in a salty yellow sauce and put it in your mouth. You can feel it moving still in your mouth and the suction cups sticking to your tongue and cheeks. It was such a bizarre feeling, but I loved it. And it tasted delicious. The eel and raw fish was amazing too, but the experience of eating the live octopus was one of the highlights of my trip and an experience I probably never could have had without Kyounghae and her mom. After lunch, there were a few pieces of octopus left and they were still moving - an hour after it was chopped up! On the way back we stopped at a fish market in Gijang-gun and then went home to Busan. In the afternoon, Kyounghae had to teach for a couple of hours (she's an english teacher), and while she did that I walked around the PNU area and did some shopping. That evening we had dinner with her students (two 15 year-old boys) and then drinks with one of her friends.

Here are my Busan photos.

Friday, May 23, 2008


Yokoh, Fukiko, and Friends at the Buffaloes Game
Japan/Korea Trip Part 2: Kyoto and Osaka

Day 6: Wednesday May 21 - Mt. Fuji, Geishas, Pontocho Alley
After having a sushi breakfast and ramen lunch in Tokyo, I hopped on the express train to Kyoto where I would be spending the next three days. The three hour train ride ended up being quite interesting. I had a window seat in an almost empty first class car. Along the way, I caught a glimpse of Mount Fuji in the haze and snapped a few pictures. Then we made a stop and a bunch of real geishas got into my train car and sat next to me! About an hour later when we arrived in Kyoto, everyone in the station got out their cameras and started taking pictures as soon as we stepped out of the car. I spent three nights in the Econo Inn, another budget hotel/hostel where I had a private room for about $50/night. The hotel was supposed to be 15 minutes from the train station, but it took me over an hour to find it. The room was nice and had a view overlooking the city. That night I visited Pontocho Alley, a narrow alleyway filled with old traditional japanese restaurants. This was one of my favorite places in Japan. Many of the restaurants had balconies overlooking the nearby river. I saw a few more geishas sneaking around the alleys later that night and that was the last time I saw any until my last day. Also in this area I noticed a lot of american and european tourists which I hadn't seen in Tokyo, probably because it's so big. I ended up having several meals in this area over the next few days trying tempura, oden stew, yakitori, donburi, and shochu (japanese vodka).

Day 7: Thursday May 22 - Bike Riding, Tea Shop, Gion
I woke up around 5:00am so I decided to check to the TV to see if there was any chance the Champions League Final was on and it was! I missed the first half, but was able to watch the second half and overtime and saw Manchester United win on penalties. Woohoo! In the morning, I rented a bicycle which I kept for two days. Kyoto is very flat and bicycle is a great way to get around town. While most people come to Kyoto to see the famous temples, I was templed out and just decided to ride my bike around the city for next two days. I got lost several times because I was reading my map wrong, but I found my way and did see a few temples as I was riding. In the afternoon, I went to the Ippodo Tea Company, the most famous tea shop in Kyoto. They sell the finest green tea around and have been doing so for almost three centuries. I ended up spending a couple of hours in the shop tasting teas. I ended up spending almost $250 on tea and a ceramic kyusu teapot. I bought so much that they had to ship it to me. I brewed some tea at home tonight and it's delicious. I may be ordering more from their online store when I run out. That night I strolled around the Gion District, which is filled with bars, restaurants, shops and geishas.

Day 8: Friday May 23 - Chopsticks, Geisha Show, Osaka
This morning I rode around town on my bike some more and stopped at Ichihara Heibei, a 300 year-old chopsticks shop where Kyoto's finest chefs shop. I picked up a really nice pair of chopsticks for around $40. They had some that were hundreds of dollars. In the afternoon, I saw the Kamogawa Odori (Kamo River Dance) show performed by the geishas of Pontocho Hanamachi in the Pontocho Kaburen-jo Theater. It's an hour long musical theater show that they perform only in May and have been doing annually for almost 150 years. In the evening, I hopped on a train to Osaka to see the Osaka Orix Buffaloes play the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in the Osaka Dome (another baseball game). I had a seat really close to the field and even though the Buffaloes are one of the smaller teams in Japan, the crowd was just as crazy as the game I saw in Tokyo. The Carp fans are especially vocal and it was my second time seeing them, so I was starting to learn their songs. The guys sitting next to me brought in a few bottles of shochu and an extra cup so I don't remember much of the game.

Here are my Kyoto photos.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008


The Grand Sumo Tournament
Japan/Korea Trip Part 1: Tokyo and Nikko

Day 1: Friday May 16 - Travel Day
My flight from LAX to Tokyo departed on Thursday afternoon, but I lost day by crossing the international dateline. It was a long flight, around 13 hours. The flight wasn't so bad though. There was a guy from Argentina sitting next to me and we ended up talking for most of the flight. So, even before I got off the plane, I had already made one new friend. Traveling alone isn't so bad. When I got off the plane in Tokyo, it was 4pm on Friday and I was a little tired because I'd been awake for 24 hours and the sun had been in the sky for that entire 24 hours. I found the Narita Express train to the Ikebukuro district of Tokyo where my hotel was located. The directions to the hotel were very easy to follow and I found it very quickly. You need very specific directions to find anything in Japan since the address system makes absolutely no sense at all. I stayed at the Sakura Hotel, which is a budget hotel/hostel. I was able to get a single private room with private bathroom for $60/night which is really cheap for Tokyo. The room was small but perfect for me.

Day 2: Saturday May 17 - Fish Market, Shopping, Shrine Festival
I woke up early on Saturday to go to the Tsukiji Fish Market, the largest wholesale fish market in the world. You need to get there really early, like 3 or 4am, to see all the action - the fish arriving, the tuna auctions, etc. I couldn't do that, but I got to see a lot of fish and seafood. It's in every tourbook as a must-see in Tokyo, but it's actually quite dangerous. There are trucks and carts speeding all over the market and not a lot of room to walk around. You have to be really careful not to get run over. There's one small area of sushi bars there and I had a sushi breakfast there three of the five mornings that I was in Tokyo. It was definitely the best and freshest sushi I had ever had. I tried three different sushi bars including the two most popular: Sushi Dai and Daiwa Sushi. It only costs about $30 for an omakase ("chef's choice") set. From there I walked around the Ginza area and went into some of the expensive department stores. Many of them sell expensive food in the basements like Harrod's in London. I saw one cantaloupe in a box for sale for $105. I didn't buy anything. Next I walked around the Imperial Palace Gardens which was pretty unexciting other than watching some little japanese kids on a fieldtrip. I spent the afternoon in Asakusa where the Sanja Matsuri ("Three Shrine Festival") was going on this weekend. This was really amazing. It's considered the largest and wildest festival in Tokyo. The streets were filled with people and there were lots of street vendors selling all kids of crazy food that I got to try. Today was the day when 100 mikoshi (portable shrines) were paraded through the streets and it was quite a site. I took lots of pictures. Later that evening I walked around the Akihabara district which is famous for electronics and manga.

Day 3: Sunday May 18 - Harajuku, Design Festa, Baseball
A strange thing happened on my way to the subway station this morning, a police officer asked me for my passport and started asking questions about why I was in Japan. I think he just wanted to practice his english or something. This morning I went to Harajuku in search of some Cosplay girls. I didn't see any in the morning so I walked around the shops and also discovered Yoyogi Park, a beautiful park with a cool shrine where I witnessed a traditional japanese wedding ceremony. Later I came back and saw a bunch of Gothic Lolita girls. In the afternoon, I went over to Tokyo Big Site where the bi-annual Design Festa was going on. It's a 2-day art festival featuring art, music and theatre. It was really cool, but too much to see in one afternoon. In the evening I went to a baseball game at the Tokyo Dome. The Tokyo Yomiuri Giants, the most famous team in Japan, played the Hiroshima Toyo Carp. The experience of going to a baseball game in Japan is completely different than going to a game in the United States. It's more like going to a soccer game in Europe. The fans cheer, sing and chant the entire game. When the home team is up to bat, the home fans sings, when the visiting team is up to bat, the away fans sings. It was so much fun. The Giants won 6-3.

Day 4: Monday May 19 - Nikko, Kegon Falls, Ikebukuro
Today I decided to get out of the big city make use of my Japan Rail Pass. I took three trains north to the city of Nikko, a popular tourist destination. I visited some famous shrines and temples in Nikko National Park, took a bus Lake Chuzenji and saw Kegon Falls, one of Japan's highest waterfalls, and had some great yuba udon noodle soup. Seeing the tourist sights wasn't that exciting but my legs really needed a break from walking around Tokyo and this helped. In the evening I went back to Ikebukuro and had dinner at a yakitori bar where I had all kinds of delicious meats and vegetables grilled on skewers. I even tried pig's foot and tongue. Pretty good stuff. I had a whole bottle of sake too and then went back to my hotel to get ready to go out for the night but ended up passing out.

Day 5: Tuesday May 20 - Kabuki Theater, Sumo
On my last full day in Tokyo it was raining a little in the morning so I decided to check out Kabuki-za, the best place to see traditional japanese kabuki theater. I only stayed for one act because the entire show can last 4-5 hours. It's actually acceptable to fall asleep during the show. It was a really cool show with interesting costumes. It is accompanied by music and all the actors are men, so the men play the parts of women as well. In the afternoon I went to the Ryogoku Kokugikan arena where I attended Day 10 of the Grand Sumo Tournament. It's an all day event, but the important matches are at the end of the day so I only watched the last 2-3 hours. It was interesting to watch although there's not a lot of wrestling. Most of the time is spent doing rituals before the wrestling actually takes place. It was very exciting though when they started to wrestle and the entire arena started making noise. They're actually doing a special tour to Los Angeles this weekend, so go check them out at the L.A. Memorial Arena.

Here are my Tokyo photos.