Couchsurfing in Japan

After a week of traveling in Japan, I'm home and ready to start my last month at Songpa SLP. This trip to Japan was rather special for me, as it was my first time traveling alone. I wasn't sure how it was all going to go, but it all came together in the end. I finally got to try CouchSurfing from the traveler's end of the spectrum. Since starting to host couchsurfers in September, I've really gotten a whole new travel bug to get out and meet people and see new places.

The lovely thing about couchsurfing is that you can meet the locals, or at least the local expats. They can take you to the good restaurants, treat you to some home cooking and introduce you to some cultural aspects that you would have completely overlooked as a tourist passing through for a few days or weeks. And, while I don't believe couchsurfing is about saving money, it is definitely one highlight of it. Especially in a country like Japan where the worst hostel will put you back around $30 per night per person. That adds up quickly on one's budget.

The first place I stayed was with a woman from Osaka living in a small one room apartment. It reminded me of Korea in many ways (except for the lack of floor heating). On the first night she took me out for some drinks and yakidori (grilled chicken). It was a great meal, but it also was a bit of a sticker shock when I realized that between the two of us we owed 6,000 yen (83,000 won) for not all that much food. So, again, one needs to watch the wallet when eating in Japan. But, I try to enjoy as well. It's about balance. Maybe learn to sacrifice on lunch and splurge on dinner.... or something to that effect.

Both mornings I stayed with her, we ate a breakfast of tea, rice (slightly different from the Korean variety... much drier, eaten with chopsticks and often eaten just plain) and natto. And oh I love natto... one of the world's most amazing foods (and too expensive in Korea!) I brought home 10 boxes of it back to Seoul.

The downside to couchsurfing sometimes is that you often need to leave when the host leaves the house. In my case, about 8 am. So, I had all day to explore Osaka.... but on a day when most museums were closed (Monday + New Year's holiday) so there wasn't much left to do. I started my day with Osaka Castle and then later I met my friend Asami from my Korean class to explore some other areas and get dinner. At least I had some company for some of the day!

Tuesday it was on to Kyoto. I carried my backpack all day until I met my host, but it was worth it, because she brought me to her traditional style, 100 year old home in downtown Kyoto. It's hard to find old homes in Japan since so many were destroyed in the war, not to mention that I'm sure many others have been demolished in order to make way for modernity much like other countries in the world. Our first night, she brought me to the Gion district, famous for Geishas (but we didn't catch any walking around),  to eat some dinner in one affordable restaurant she knows of. Again, nothing like hanging around the locals to find the good places. On Wednesday night, she cooked me a feast for dinner (see above) full of all sorts of treats.

Her cat seemed to take a liking to me and slept with me both nights.

Finally, on to Kobe. I met my friend from college, Nori, at the subway station and he took me for the grand tour of Kobe.

We finished the day with a grand meal of Kobe beef with his friend and friend's mom. They all wanted to get a chance to practice English with a native speaker. In Korea, this would bother me a lot since I need all the Korean practice I can get... but here, where my Japanese is limited to about 10-15 words (on a good day) I welcomed all the English I could get.

Here is Nori's house. It survived the earthquake, unlike many other homes in Kobe. It was a full fledged house, something that I've yet to experience in Seoul (maybe only in the suburbs). They gave me my own bedroom and filled me up with a grand breakfast in the morning.

I was actually supposed to stay here for two nights, but because of the holiday they couldn't host me for the last night, so they surprised me with a hotel for my last night. It wasn't quite like staying in someone's home, but I must say it was my best night's sleep on my week long trip.

I hope you all make a couchsurfing account now that you've read this (if you haven't already) and take full advantage of this website to meet new friends in your hometown and when you're traveling. If you don't know what couchsurfing is, it is basically a site to bring together people from all around the world who can offer a free "couch", meaning a place to sleep, or some guide service with people who are traveling around the world. Staying at a hotel, or even a hostel, doesn't give you the same cultural experience as staying in someone's home or going out with the locals. Whether you're young, old, single,  a couple, have a family or whatever, there's sure to be someone on this website for you to meet and share cultures with.

My trip to Japan... in Black and White.

Osaka

A few weeks ago, I tried out some black and white photos around Seoul in the style of the photographer Daido Moriyama. I posted some those photos here and they seemed to be well received. I've fiddled around with the post production and I think I've improved my technique, so I'd like to share with you a few photos I took while on my trip to Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe. I won't post them all, for the sake of space, but if people like them, maybe I'll post more. Please do tell me what you like and don't like. I am always trying to improve :-) Constructive criticism is always welcome. 

 Osaka

 Osaka 

 Kyoto

 Kyoto

Kobe

New Year, New Age

Yes, it's the new year again, which, in Korea means it's time to add another year to your age as well. As of today, I'm officially 27 by Korean standards (unless you're one of those Koreans who choose to count from the Lunar New Year to make yourself a month younger). I've been quite used to saying sumul-yosot but now I need to start practicing saying sumul-ilgop sal (27 years of age) now. Saying 26 wasn't so bad... it seemed sort of natural... but saying 27 gives me a certain sinking feeling. Like 30 is rapidly approaching and there's no escape.

But, in other good news, I'm still 25 years old by international standards. Let's hope I stay this age for a little while longer... I'm getting to like 25.

Sleepless in Osaka

Howdy all, Im updating from my couchsurfers house in Osaka. You'll have to excuse any poor spelling and punctuation here as I'm updating to you from my iPod. I arrived arround 330 and got to he couchsurfers house by 6. She helped me go through the maps I picked up from the airport and then we went out to dinner. She took me to a nice litle yakidori(grilled chicked) place. Lots of good stuff on sticks. I was a little shocked to see the bill. I was going to pay for her dinner but when I realized that the bill was nearly 6000 yen (nearly 80,000 won) I begrudgingly took 2000 yen from her to cover some of the bill. When I arrived atthe airport I had 7000 yen which I exchanged at gimpo airport before coming. ThT was almost completely spent upon my ariv when I bought a 3 day subway pass and a bus ticket to the city. So, while I was hoping this would be a budget trip, I think it's going to be a bit mote than I planned. I just have to make sure that when I'm arround by myself that I sample the best of the 7/11 cuisine ㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎ.

After goin to bed arround 10pm, which is much earler than my normal bed time, I found myself hopelessly awake around 230am. The current time is now 520and I still haven't slept a wink since I woke up. I'm thanking god right now(whichever god is in charge of all things mechanical) for this iPod and the fact that even though my host doesn't have wireless, that I'm picking up a working(semiworking) signAl from somewhere else. Otherwise I'd be going mad right now with nothing to do.

Tomorrow(no wait...today) I'm going to meet a japanse friend from my sat. Korean class in the afternoon and hopefully get in some sightseeing . There's actually not much to see in Osaka , and even less this week due to the new years holiday which is a big deal here in japan.

Skating at City Hall Plaza and my Christmas Eve in Seoul

We spent all day on Friday deliberating what we should do with our Christmas Eve. Christmas in Korea is notorious for couples out on dates, overpriced drinks (from coffee to booze), and needing reservations to get into any decent restaurant, so we were a little stressed over what to do since we didn't want to face any of those things. This is actually my first Christmas in Korea. My first Christmas in Asia, I spent on a plane going to Vietnam, my second I was home for two months between contracts, so finally, another year has passed and I'm actually in Korea for Christmas (though I'm leaving tomorrow for Japan), but had no idea what to do.

Finally, at 9:00 when I was leaving work, the boyfriend suggested we check out the ice skating at City Hall Plaza. While I've wanted to go for a while, the freezing temperatures yesterday made me feel a little uncertain about the event, but it sounded better than sitting at home on Christmas eve, so we met up at Sindang and headed to City Hall station.

They suggest that you make online reservations, but we didn't and we were fine. That probably wouldn't go for any holiday like Christmas eve, but I'm positive the cold temperatures kept a lot of people away.

The price is only 1,000 won per person (0.86 cents USD by today's exchange rate) and that includes the skate rental. The skates weren't exactly high quality, but then again, what can you expect for 0.86 cents?

Finally it was time to get on the ice. Fortunately, I was not one of these people pictured below that were a bit scared to let go of the railing. I don't blame them too much though, I wouldn't want to learn how to skate for the first time in the crap skates they rent out either. 

We skated for about 45 mins before we got cold and sick of feeling like hamsters running round and round the wheel without a purpose. After taking copious amounts of photos we got off the ice and started to deliberate what to do next.

We tried warming up at one of these warming stations, but either I was so bundled up that I couldn't feel the heat or it was just so cold that this fire wasn't doing anything. I gave up standing there pretty quickly. 

We decided to head to Noksapyong to Tony's Aussie Bar up the hill.  As we walked to the bus to get to Noksapyong, we passed Baskin Robbins selling ice cream cakes on this frigid night. In fact, I've been seeing huge cake displays outside of every bakery I've past in the past few days. Evidently, eating cake is a Christmas tradition in Korea. We didn't buy one.

In the tunnel to cross the street near Haebangchon, we found this and thought it was amusing. 

 

We haven't been to Tony's in a while because it seems that whenever we go lately, there's no seats left. The place is always packed. As we ran up the hill in the freezing cold and wind I was just imagining the same problem tonight. Full of Korean couples for Christmas eve (since most of the foreigners are out of town by now, or getting ready to get out if they're not already). But, I was delighted to find the place nearly empty except for two (Korean) couples. The winter drink menu was certainly an exciting one. Eggnog with rum and hot mulled wine. I ordered one of each!!

Of course, by the time we got there, the kitchen was already closed, so after hanging out for an hour or so, we decided to go back down the hill and check out some chicken we had seen roasting in the window of a little Korean as we had made our way up the hill to Tony's.

It was as delicious as it looked from the window. And they had a glorious space heater right next to our table. We stayed here another while, not looking forward to going back out into the cold. 

Finally, we went home around 1:30. It was a lovely night full of unexpected surprises. I hope everyone's Christmas is full of more wonderful surprises!

Sick of Jajangmyon? Get some real Chinese food in Seoul.

Are you sick of of the typical jajangmyon and tangsuyuk that Koreans call Chinese food? It's time you checked out This dongbei (northeast) style Chinese restaurant called 동북화과왕-Dongbuk-hwagwa-wang (written in Chinese characters) in the Dongdaemun station area. This rather popular hole in the wall has some great selections. We usually just pick randomly off the menu (though there's a few we always get) and we've never been disappointed. We went with a big group on Saturday night after Korean class to celebrate the end of the semester and picked a fairly wide selection of plates to try, some tried and true favorites and some new things.

Panchan (side dishes) are a mix of Korean style and Chinese. Koreans wouldn't be happy if their meal didn't come with kimchi. 

This dish is one of my personal favorites. Di san xian, an eggplant and veggies fried in a delicious sauce.

Perhaps this is what tangsuyuk was trying to imitate. Guo Bao Rou, seems to be some sort of sweet and sour pork. 12,000 won. In any country, it's not my favorite. 

This is the boyfriend's personal favorite. Jing jiang rou si,  pork with green onions and cilantro for a do-it-yourself wrap in tofu. 12,000 won. Here's how it works:

Choose what you want to eat and put it onto the tofu wrapper.

Wrap tightly and enjoy!  (you probably could have figured that out without my help...)

Here's a tasty dish. It's fried bok choy, I believe (feel free to correct me, my Chinese food experts out there) with a garlic (?) sauce.

Si quan sha (this pinyin is wrong but I can't find the right one) is fried shrimp in a slightly spicy/tangy sauce. Quite delicious. 20,000 won

Also, not pictured here is our fried rice, which was nothing special, just your typical fried rice and our spicy tofu that we got "service-uh" (aka, for free).

And what authentic Chinese meal would be complete without some authentic Chinese hard liquor? It seems as though the Chinese go for something not so tame as soju (and I say tame because of its 20% alcohol content verses the 40% this one has). While I'll never be a fan of straight hard liquor, I must say, this has much more flavor than soju... though it also burns a lot more than soju going down too.

For anyone craving real Chinese food in Seoul, this is the place to go. It's rather austere setting and decor is another draw for me. I feel this place cares more about the food than the ambiance which means they're not overcharging you for some fancy-shmancy place. We ate all this food and liquor and got out for 10,000 won per person, which I think is quite a feat.

To get here, go out Dongdaemun Station (not Dongdaemun Culture and History Park Station) exit 6. Take your first left and then the next left onto an alley with lots of restaurants. It will be on your right before the Family Mart. It's less than 2 mins from the exit. There is no English or Korean on the sign, only Chinese characters, so you'll have to just keep your eyes open for the sign that says 24시 2F and a big red sign in Chinese (see photo at the top). The menu has lots of photos to help you decide what to eat if you don't know your Chinese food. Here is their website, but they have two locations so their directions are a little confusing.

House of Sharing (나눔의 집)

Sunday I had an amazing opportunity to visit the House of Sharing in Gwangju, Gyeonggi-do province, about 45 minutes from Seoul. This is a house where women, who survived sexual slavery by the Japanese military during Japan's military expansion into the rest of Asia before and during World War II, have come to live together. The Japanese term for these women was "comfort women" but their position was far from comfortable. Today we refer to them either as sex slaves or simply Halmoni (Korean for grandmother).  Estimates of how many Korean women were conscripted into this brothel system are between 50,000- over 200,000. Many died or were killed as they served the Japanese, and most of those who survived were left behind in the various foreign countries where they served, stranded, unable to get back to Korea. While many of them eventually made it back to Korea, years later, the shame of the ordeal kept them from telling the public about what they endured. The world was ignorant of their suffering until 1991 when the first Halmoni came forward and talked publicly about her experiences. Many people, even Koreans, refused to believe, but her courage has allowed 220 more Halmoni to come forward and declare themselves as former sex slaves to the Japanese. Many others, though, remain in silence, either not wanting to relive memories of the past, or discouraged by families who feel ashamed to have this scar on their family's history.

These women, despite their age, continue to fight for official recognition and compensation from the Japanese government, which continues to claim that they were uninvolved in the brothel system.

The House of Sharing is a place for the Halmoni to live together and heal the wounds of the past while educating the future generations of the suffering they survived.

Before you enter the museum, you will pass two sculptures. This sculpture represents what the Halmoni dreamed of before they were conscripted into the brothel system. They dreamed of love, happiness and having families of their own. 

This represents their mind after becoming sexual slaves. Their dreams shattered, pierced with bayonets. 

As you enter the museum, you are greeted by the hands of Kim HakSoon Halmoni, one of the survivors of the brothel system. Her message as you enter the museum is this: "우리가 강요에 못이겨 했던 그일을 역사에 남겨 두어야 한다" which means: "That which we were forced to do must be recorded in history." You can learn more about Kim HakSoon Halmoni from this interview I found online.

It's hard to see on this map, but if you can make out the tiny dots marked about the map, they represent the locations of all the known and suspected sex slave camps set up by the Japanese military throughout their empire in East Asia and Southeast Asia from 1932-1945 when WWII ended.

Actual photos of the "comfort women" and Japanese soldiers at the brothels.

The Japanese soldiers paid for their stays with the "comfort women" with the Japanese military currency (left side) but the women never saw any of this money. Each woman was issued one condom which she needed to wash between clients. Some women saw up to 40 men per day. Those who complained about the conditions or tried to escape were beaten or killed to make an example for anyone else who had similar thoughts.

The women, who were 80-90% Korean, were given Japanese names, usually flower names, and each woman's name was placed on a wooden placard on the wall which is quite similar to menus in a Japanese restaurant. When a woman was unavailable for a day due to illness or other reasons, the placard was turned over, just as a sold out item would be in a restaurant. It really goes to show how the women weren't even thought of as humans. The reason why the actual number of women who were coerced into this trade is unknown, is that when more women were required they were ordered on military supply requests along with ammunition and other supplies.

After you pass through the rooms of the museum explaining the history of the sexual slavery, you come to a room which shows the present. You can see photos of all the Halmoni and how they came back to Korea. You can see Japanese and Korean textbooks, neither of which touch upon the subject of the sexual slavery during the Japanese occupation. Above, you can see many gifts which have been bestowed upon the House of Sharing. Many have come from Japanese visitors who do not follow their government's line of thinking in that the Japanese government and military were not responsible for the brothel system.

An art therapist has helped the Halmoni to come to terms with their suffering and express their emotions through art. Some of the paintings are on display in an upstairs room of the museum.

As you exit the museum, you can place your hands in the hand prints of the Halmoni.

Finally, visitors may have a chance to meet some of the Halmoni that reside in the house. We decided to make a banner with the Halmoni. Actually, none of the Halmoni actually painted with us, but they seemed quite content to watch us. Some people talked to the Halmoni, but I'm much to shy for that. But, I had a nice time painting. Above you can see my creation :-)

English tours are only offered about once a month by the International Outreach Team so you'll have to plan in advance if you want to come here. You can visit the English website or email the International Outreach Team (visits@houseofsharing.org) for more information. The next tour will be held on January 15th, 2011. You need to email to sign up, but you can also check out their facebook event.

One other way to participate in their struggle for recognition from the Japanese government is to attend a Wednesday protest. Every Wednesday, no matter what, the Halmoni go to the Japanese embassy in Seoul to demand that the Japanese government accept involvement in their suffering. Any are welcome to join the Wednesday protests and having a western face present shows the Japanese that it's not only Koreans, but the whole world who are aware of this stain on Japan's past.