Japan / Korea Blog 2006

Back in Seoul for the conference. In the classic tradition of myself, my trip back was not as easy as I'd expected. Turns out there are 2 hotels with the same name -- who knew? And they're only separated by an hour shuttle bus. I did get the opportunity to cruise around downtown Seoul for a bit though, so that was good. There's all kinds of interesting, modern stuff going on in Seoul. Magical mushrooms anyone?

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And a golf course ten feet off the curb. How cool is that?

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What happens to all those headlights from wrecked cars you wonder? They go into street sculptures.

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This manmade river flows through downtown Seoul. People congregate and stroll along the walks in the neon glow.

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Super cool modern structures abound in Seoul.

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I did finally make it to my hotel. I've got a nice room on an executive floor -- high roller! And the bathroom even comes with a cool flood feature. The shower flows water onto the floor so you can enjoy walking in puddles.

I'm relaxing for a few days in the South, in a place called Gyeongju. It was the capital of the Silla dynasty and has an abundance of historical sites. This is the view from my room of Lake Bomun.

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Bulguksa Temple is one of the more popular tourist stops with bus loads of Korean children. And every one of these kids wants to practice the four phrases they know in English.

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A tranquil 3+ km hike from Bulguksa Temple takes you up the mountainside to Seokguram Grotto. This was an unplanned side trip and whoever drew that tourist map really should be fired cause it's nowhere near to-scale. The beginning of the hike is very nice with a tree covered path.

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At almost half way up you get this view.

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As near the top, the quiet is shattered by more bus loads of kids. Apparently there's a road and I could've taken a taxi up. But the view from the top is quite nice.

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And inside this building is a granite Buddha that you really can't appreciate until you've hiked up the hillside and imagined people hauling up granite slabs in the 8th century.

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I would've liked to have taken a taxi back down, but alas, there were none. And when I got back to where my taxi had originally dropped me off, there were none available. Just my luck! I found my taxi a little further down and got to take this picture of the bell tower at Seokguram where I had just hiked to.

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Why are airports in major cities on this side of the world so far away from their respective cities? An hour by express train from Tokyo to the airpot. And an hour by bus into Seoul. I stayed a night at a Best Western before heading down South to Gyeongju. It was great to sleep on a real bed -- the bed at the Ryokan was a pad on top of the straw mat floors. But I was intimidated but what I found in the bathroom. This thing has more options than a microwave. What happened to a good old fashioned sesh with the porcelain thrown? This thing was worse than Starbucks, I had to make twenty decisions to have a BM.

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Half an hour outside of Kyoto is Nara. Nara Park is home to a large number of historical sites and around 1200 deer (believed to be messengers of the gods). One of the first things you encounter on your walk through this area is the Nandai-mon, a huge gate housing two Nio guardians.

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After passing through the gates you get to the most popular attraction here, Todai-ji Temple. Todai-ji Daibutsu-den Hall is the largest wooden building in the world and is only 2/3 the size of the original. It houses one of the largest bronze Buddha in the world. This Buddha is enormous. It's as tall as the building, it's pretty incredible.

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One of the other popular sites is the Kasuga Taisha Shrine. There are hundreds of lanterns all around this area -- I'd hate to be the guy that has to light them all.

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I finished up my walk around the sites at Nara Park earlier than expected. So I took a little bus tour out in the suburbs around Nara. Ok, this was totally unintentional and not my first choice for killing a couple hours. My stop was apparently the 2nd on the route and I took this bus for at least 20 (in each direction). Slick, huh?

My next stop put me in Kyoto for 2 nights. I stayed at a Ryokan (Japanese Inn), that came complete with a public bath and kimono. Believe it or not, this door is only slightly taller than myself -- I actually ducked a little when I went through it.

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Traveling and sightseeing in the same day usually doesn't work out too well, especially when public busses are involved. My plan to see 3 temples in the afternoon resulted in only one -- Rokuon-Ji Temple (The Golden Pavilion).

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Short on time, I changed my plans and tried to see Nijo Castle since I was in the neighborhood. I arrived 5 minutes after they stopped selling tickets so this was what I got to see.

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I did make it to see the To-Ji Temple which is home to the tallest pagoda in Japan (57m). And when you need a break from temples, King Pachinko is right across the street.

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I equate the public bath to taking a naked cuzz (pronounced cooz for jacuzzi) -- unless I did something wrong... Afterwords I headed out for some Japanese cuisine. On recommendation of the hotel staff, I headed for a restaurant around the corner that has English speaking staff. I mistakenly went into the Sushi bar next door. The Sushi bar was 7 seats long and that was the entire restaurant. A quick look and I knew I was in for an interesting experience: I was sure no one spoke English. Luckily the woman sitting next to me spoke enough to translate the word Tuna. Dinner started with what I think was a seaweed salad with the consistency of mucus, followed by several rounds of unidentifiable (to me) Sushi. When a small crock pot was brought out, the helpful woman asked if I eat whale. Well, needless to say, I tried raw and cooked whale meat, raw whale tale, and cooked whale blubber. The meat really does taste like meat, not fish.

I left the more modern areas of Tokyo for my night, thinking that the lights and people would be more interesting. My walkabout took me through the Harajuku and Shinjuku areas. Both are packed with bright lights and people. If you've been to a major modern metropolitan shopping district, then most of the Harajuku area won't amaze you. Most of the stores belong to the list of: Gap, Brooks Brothers, Versace, Louis Vuittton, Zara, and on, and on -- not too interesting if you're from a major US city. Though I did spot my first Asian greasers! Condomania and the Hawaiian burger place were two of the more interesting looking places in this area. And the 7 floors above Lazy Susan (what a name), all have overhead hall lights that synchronously change from blue to red (I mean what will they think of next?).

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The Shinjuku area is home to even more neon, billboard-size TVs, and the red light district. While the red light district isn't as interesting as that of Amsterdam, Shinjuku has a huge animatronic (that means it moves kids) crab on the side of a building about 6 floors up.

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I made it to Japan! I spent my first day seeing the sites in Tokyo. The New Otani maintains a very nice Japanese garden. I nominate the picture of me for the best self-taken photo ever!

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My first stop in Tokyo took me to the Imperial Palace. Though you can't go inside, you can walk around some of the gardens and catch a glimpse of the palace over the walls.

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Next I cruised up to Asakusa to check out the Senso-Ji temple. This gate and the crazy markets behind it preceed the temple. And how cool is it that that girl has a drum! Oh ya, and a monkey. Everybody wants their own monkey.

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South of Asakusa is an area that can only be described as a video gamers' paradise. This area of Akihabara, known as Electric Town, is home to more electronics than anyone could ever possibly need. For those that thought Sega was dead -- you thought wrong. And what video gamers' paradise is complete without Japanese girls dressed for the occasion?

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