Cupcakes and Kimchi

I finally managed to scrape enough money together to take a trip to Japan's closest neighbour, South Korea. I only have five more weeks left in Asia, so was really happy to be able to see one more Asian country before I head back to the West.







Yumi, Ed and I spent four days in South Korea's bustling capital city, 서울, Seoul. It was one of the busiest trips I had ever been on - so much to see, do (and eat!) and so little time to fit them all in. First of all, thank you so much to Vivian and Jenny. Korea would not have been as enjoyable an experience without your help;Vivian compiled an amazing list of things to see (thank you so much!) and my Korean friend Jenny was the best guide ever, taking us to all of her favourite places and telling us about Korean cuisine. One of my favourite things that Jenny told me was about age in Korea. Jenny was born in 1988, making her 22, however, in Korea, she is 23. In Korea,a person's first year is counted as year one, rather than year zero. So Jenny has two ages - an international age and a Korean age. :-)

I enjoyed the food in Korea so much. I found it to be much more satisfying than Japanese food. Everything is very spicy with lots more vegetables than Japanese food. It was nice to eat spicy food again after so long.





I forget the name of it, but one of my favourite dishes was cold spicy noodles (it even had ice cubes in it to keep it extra cold). I liked adding loads of kimchi (spicy vegetables) to make it even spicier. Scissors are a staple item in Korean dining. They are used to cut everything from lettuce leaves to noodles into more manageable sizes - cute eh?



I loved jijimi; a Korean style pancake. It's traditionally made from the leftover scraps of vegetables. It was divine.

Seoul is a huge metropolis. I loved riding the subway and changing trains all the time - it really made me feel nostalgic for the hustle and bustle of London (not long now!) There are an abundance of things to do in Seoul and everything is available. For the most part I liked this - I enjoyed being able to have nice smoothies, good coffee and interesting salads whenever and wherever I pleased, and I took full advantage of the cheap cosmetics shops that seemed to appear on every corner.


That said, the Americanisation of everything was something I hadn't anticipated. In many ways, Seoul seemed far more advanced than even Tokyo; everything Western is embraced. Japan is definitely more perseverant in retaining its own idiosyncrasies and I do believe that there are merits and disadvantages to each approach. I think however, that if I hadn't stuck to eating largely Korean food and didn't have Jenny with me, Seoul is the kind of place where one can have a 'city' experience, rather than an authentically Korean one. It's an international, cosmpolitan kind of place and authentic culture can be overshadowed by modernism. I guess it's the same for every major world city though - authentic culture is often hard to define now.

I love the Korean script so much. I like all the little signs that look like 'o's. I think it is much less ferocious looking than Japanese writing hehe.







The Leeum Museum was a really beautifully designed art museum in the neighbourhood of Itaewon, filled to the brim with interesting pieces.


We spent ages there and even longer outside with these spider sculptures.





I am always on the quest for a good piece of cake and Vivian recommended a small cake shop located just by the Leeum which I successfully found. It was the cutest little shop and my green tea cupcake was delectable.







High on my list of things to see was the heavily populated student area of Hongdae. Hongdae is the best - it's full of these tiny little shops, selling pretty things and bars and restaurants a-plenty.






We rested our feet in this really cute restaurant/bar hidden away in the back streets. Dining outside is not so common in Japan and Seoul is no where near as humid, so it was really lovely to be outside, chatting away into the early hours.




Hongdae is just as buzzing during the day. On Saturday, Jenny took us to a little restaurant where we had the amazing spicy cold noodles for lunch, again, with lots of kimchi.



After a spot of rain and an impromptu co-ordinated umbrella party....





...we went to Hongdae Saturday Flea Market. I loved it so much; it was full of young artists and designers selling their produce, with live music and lots of places to sit down and relax in the sunshine.




After we had stocked up on treasures, we took a walk down to Cheonggyecheon, a newly developed area of the city....




...before trying another traditional Korean dish for dinner. Galbi is grilled meat (usually pork or beef) eaten in a lettuce leaf, with a variety of side dishes, kimchi and grilled vegetables. I didn't really like this too much, I don't eat much meat and it was a little too heavy for me. I snacked on kimchi, the lettuce leaves and the lovely sides instead.




That evening, we headed to the Central Plaza area of the city to watch the South Korea v. Uruguay football match. It was so much fun to be in Seoul at this time and despite the fact that it poured with rain for the entirety of the match, the area was teeming with people.



Jenny and Gin, the red devils.






We stayed out all night on Saturday, so spent Sunday, our final day, mooching about in coffee shops, stocking up on face products and taking it easy (yet still managed to almost miss our flight!). Our final taste of Korean food was this bibimbap; a bowl of sauteed and seasoned vegetables (and often meat)and chilli pepper paste that is mixed with rice. Mmmhmm.



I had such a wonderful time in Seoul. Despite its proximity to Japan, it boasts a flavour and feel that bears no relation at all to the culture I am experiencing here in Nihon. It amazed me that two neighbouring countries could have such different taste buds! Seoul was such an exiting, fun loving and vibrant city to visit and if I was in Asia for longer, I would not hesitate about returning.



Hearts for Seoul!
xo

Hello October

October has arrived and has brought with it the rain and a gusty wind. News has it that a typhoon is heading to South East Asia. Shikoku is situated in a cosy little spot down south, protected by the main island of Honshu and the calm Inland Sea. Apart from a few more bicycle falls as more people than usual haphazardly attempt to cycle with one hand whilst holding an umbrella in the other, Shikoku folk will be safe.

Last weekend was spent in Takamatsu visiting another British girl here, Gemma. Naoshima is an island in the Inland Sea which can be reached by ferry from Takamatsu. Naoshima is truly a treasure. It is an island devoted entirely to creativity. The island has many contemporary art galleries, and sculptures and installations are dotted all over the place. I didn't get to see all of the things that I wanted to see so I plan to go back. It was so beautiful and so inspiring.




A private beach for use by Naoshima hotel guests only....Gemma and I sneaked onto the beach. Getting back however proved to be difficult as the path back to the road was lined with the biggest crickets I have ever seen. There was a lot of screaming.




You can take a bus to all of the art galleries. I love Japanese transport design so much - it is so endearingly cute.






This pumpkin sculpture is a piece by Yayoi Kusama. I was utterly taken by her work and I have been reading about her a lot this week. Yayoi Kusama is an intriguing character and I think her art is incredible. She makes 'infinity rooms'; mirrored rooms filled with hanging coloured lights and polka dot shapes. I find them simultaneously comforting and unsettling. Kusama loves to wear different coloured wigs, oversized polka dot caftans and bright lipstick. I wish I had gone to see her work at the Walking Around In My Mind exhibition at the Southbank Centre back in the summer time.





On Sunday,Gemma and I continued on our quest for aesthetic satisfaction by visiting a Designers Flea Market down town. It was so beautiful and made me think of my market wanderings back home.









There have been some amusing incidents that have taken place at Maruko over the past few days. Speech contests are a really important part of school life here in Japan. Speech contests involve students memorising both famous speeches by iconic figures in history and self penned speeches. Speech contests take the form of a heat process; if a student wins the city heats,he/she will go on to the prefectural heats and from there, onto the national final. I was asked to help two students at Maruko for the prefectural contest next week.

One girl had written a speech about her father who works as a fisherman. It was a well written speech and she delivered it with such sincerity that I think she could score very highly. There is one problem...she has difficulty with the pronunciation of the word 'hook'. Her pronunciation of the word 'hook' sounds very like the word 'f**k'. Yesterday, whilst standing in front of me, with a beam on her face as she spoke about her beloved father, she uttered the dreaded sentence, the sentence I knew could end my position as a speech contest coach; 'Sometimes, my father 'f***ks' big fish'. I wanted to leave the room more than anything, I was trying so hard to quell my laughter, but I could feel an enormous laugh deep in the pit of my stomach, waiting to unleash itself. I managed to turn it into a pathetic sounding cough, then turned to my right where I saw Ohmiya-sensei guffawing, quite openly in front of the bewildered looking student.

Ohmiya-sensei is still retaining his spot as my favourite teacher. He is a particularly hearty eater and at lunch time, I can hear him express his appreciation for the contents of his bento box, each and every content, loudly and clearly. He takes a bite, chews, swallows and ends with a 'haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa' sort of contented hiss and a little chuckle. Williams-sensei hates when he does this and yesterday, turned around very abruptly, narrowed her eyes at him and told him ' I hate it when you do that. Please stop. You are ruining my lunch' Ha. Ohmiya-sensei loves food and next week, I am teaching a lesson entitled 'Dream Recipe' in which the students will have to use the new vocabulary I will teach them, to make up their dream recipe. I found some strange British recipes like bacon and egg icecream and deep fried chocolate bar. These pictures are intended to both disgust and inspire the students to create something equally as bizarre. Ohmiya-sensei on the other hand, asked me for the recipe for both...

I have to visit so many classes, so end up seeing each class only once a month. Lots of students have given me their e-mail addresses so that we can talk more but my contract states that I cannot contact the students outside of school hours. I love letters so much. Unlike an e-mail which can be rehashed and rewritten, a letter achieves permenancy straight away. I like seeing people's thoughts written in their own hand,I like seeing the crossings out and last minute addings of words, squeezed into the last available space. It is such a personal thing. I therefore suggested to the teachers that we set up an inhouse postal service whereby, the students can write me letters with questions and news and I can reply back to them. The teachers were really taken with this idea, especially Ohmiya-sensei who began yelling at the top of his voice 'mustu maku pooostuu boxxuuu' as he ran down the corridoor to the art room (unaware and probably unconcerned as to whether or not there was a class already taking place in the art room).

That reminds me; one thing that makes me laugh about life here is that Japanese people do a lot of running. When I go to the convenience store, the shop assistant will run from stacking shelves to the cash register. When I go to the post office to pick up parcels, the post sorter will sprint to the cubby hole to retrieve my post. At school, teachers run from one class to the next. I have even found myself breaking into an enthused run as I finish a lesson and head back to the teachers room. I like it.

This week, I have started reading about things to show my family when they come and visit me. I have never been so excited in my life; I can't wait to see my family <3 I took a slight diversion from researching ornate temples and shrines after I stumbled across this cafe in the Kansai Times. Neko no Jikan (Time for Cats) is a cafe in Osaka at which live eighteen cats. At this cafe, you can pay 1000 yen (about 6 pounds) for a coffee, cake and an hour of cat time. I miss my Alfie so much, I think a trip to Neko no Jikan will make me feel better!



xo