Day 51 - Kyoto!

My grandmother told me Kyoto was lovely, and all the guide books about Kansai concentrate almost entirely on the place rather than any other city, so today I went to check it out. I was up at 8, and out of the house by 9:30, which is fairly unheard of for me. The day got off to a bad start, as I had a can of coffee at the train station and immediately felt terrible, and had to spend the next half hour or so throwing up in the loo, which somewhat ruined my "get there early before the crowds" idea. When I eventually made it onto the train, I went to Inari station so I could see the much-photographed Fushimi-Inari Shrine, which has thousands of Torii gates making a 4km path up the mountainside. It was an awesome place, really tranquil and beautiful, with lakes and forested areas surrounding the main path. It was almost hypnotic walking through the gates in the noon sunshine (it was really warm today as well, about 18 degrees, which made the place even nicer), with the gates forming a seemingly endless tunnel of orange. Certainly better than the beginning of the day, at any rate. At the top of the hill you can look out over all of Kyoto, which seems like a much nicer city than Osaka, surrounded by traditional Japanese houses, Temples and Shrines in every direction, with the occasional pagoda poking out of the trees.

My next stop was the Philosopher's Walk, a trip from Nanzen-Ji Temple to Ginkaku-Ji, the Silver Pavilion. The route takes in loads of other temples and gardens, so numerous that I cant remember how many I went to, let alone their names. The ones that stood out most were Honen-in, a complex of temples joined by covered walkways (no photos allowed, I'm afraid), which has a Pagoda at the top which also gives awesome views of the city. Also there was a really nice little one with incredibly neat raked sand gardens, about half way along, but I have no idea what it was called - it was a bit out of the way, and signposted only in Japanese. The Silver Pavilion itself is not too spectacular, but the gardens surrounding it are, especially at this time of year. There is a 6ft(ish) mound of incredibly neatly raked sand representing mount Fuji (supposedly). Next to it is a vast expanse of raked sand representing the ocean. Its pretty impressive, meticulously raked every day. All the Maple leaves are turning orange and red at the moment, prompting huge crowds of tourists to come here to see this, and take pictures of themselves next to the trees - this struck me as a little odd, but I must admit I gave in and took a few pictures myself. After all this sightseeing, I got on the most crowded bus I have ever been on, for 30 minutes of constant toe-crushing and groin-elbowing (another problem of being tall in Japan), before returning to Osaka and instantly falling asleep when I got in.

Day 49 - Failure at Koya-San

Today was supposed to be a great day of sightseeing, as we went to Koya-San for a day of temples and shrines. However, we ended up not getting to the cable car station until about 3 o'clock, a problem as it gets dark around 5 here. We went to the temple of Okunoin, which has the largest graveyard in Japan (half a million graves), but got lost in the graveyard and subsequently failed to make it to the temple itself. We then headed to the other end of town to try and get to the massive gate before dark, as there are apparently awesome views all the way to the Seto inland sea, however we took a detour via the great pagoda, and happened to catch the 5 o'clock bell, which eched around the mountain and was answered from other temples. It was incredibly loud, and we were the only people around to hear it. After this we trudged onward through the rapidly darkening town for a kilometre or two, and managed to reach the gate just as the last light faded from the sky. This meant we then had a miserable walk back in the dark, and it started to rain, making it somehow reminiscient of many other failed attempts at tourism which I have been a part of - I swear I have been on more than my fair share of dark, damp, half-lost walks through cities and fields all over the world (in general due to poor planning on my part), while insisting that it's all very much worth it and everyone will agree with me when we get there. This is seldom the case.

We headed back to Osaka, and had Sushi at the place across the road, which has an awesome delivery system - instead of waitress service, if you order things from the touchscreen menu, they arrive on a miniature Shinkansen/Bullet Train which whizzes down a track above the conveyor belt!

Tonight was poker night - Bill and Eric came over, and we played Texas Hold-em for a 2500 yen pot - Eric was out first, then me, then Bill, leaving Les and Laura (who didn't even want to play) to battle it out for the money. This isn't exactly what happened, as Les wasn't paying attention, and Laura was bored, so they ended up (in spite of our protests) splitting the pot down the middle, in a terribly fair and sporting manner.

Day 47/8 - Kobe and Karaoke!

There has been an interesting development in the ongoing Nova debacle - Les and Laura attended a meeting yesterday afternoon with the company who have taken over Nova, in which it was promised that all remaining Nova "employees" would receive ¥150000 (about £670) if they signed up to restart work on January the 10th, regardless of whether or not they run away and not honour this promise. While this falls well short of what they're owed, if it happens it will certainly make it a lot easier for them to survive here, go home, or move to Korea.

Yesterday I went for an adventure around Shinsaibashi/ Yotsubashi/Korie/Amemura, and I now feel I know the place fairly well. It's a bit of a warren, but seems like a pretty cool place to be, surrounded by bars and restaurants and people pretty much constantly. We went to Kobe in the afternoon (having failed to meet up, and getting three different trains from Osaka to Sannomiya), which is a very cool city, from what I saw. It's tiny, despite containing about 1.25 million people, and seems to be designed on a much more people friendly scale than Osaka. It has a chinatown, which may seem a little redundant in Japan, but in fact is very different in style and appearance to the rest of the city. While Les taught her lesson, we had a look around the (Lonely Planet recommended) sights within walking distance of the station, and were pleasantly surprised. Lots of restaurants serving Kobe beef, unsurprisingly, which I am determined to try before I leave this bit of the country, to see if it's all it's cracked up to be, although at ¥6000+ per steak it will probably be a one-time only experience.

One culinary treat I probably won't be trying is the super-fresh sushi, cut into sashimi while the fish is (supposedly) still alive, ending up looking like this appetising plastic representation in the restaurant window.

We attempted to eat at a cheap restaurant near chinatown, only to be told that the place shut at "ninety o'clock", and a gentleman came outside and told us where we could get a similar meal, all in passable english. When Laura thanked him in Japanese, he laughed out loud and clouted her incredibly hard on the back, maybe as a form of friendly jostle, maybe as a stern warning never to attempt his hallowed language again. We can never be sure... 10 o'clock rolled around, the time we were meant to be meeting Claudia and others for drinks before Karaoke, and we found ourselves to be in a ¥280 bar in a whole different city, so we probably weren't going to make it on time. As it turned out, we made it to Karaoke about half 12, to find a little room with (just) room for 8 or 9 people, with an enormous bible of Japanese, Korean and English songs, a touchscreen remote for entering your requests, two microphones and free soft drinks. After a shaky start (I have never done booth-based karaoke before, and was a little nervous to say the least) I got into my stride, singing Chop-Suey by system of a down with a girl called Sandy. A rather unlikely song, mainly chosen because she said "Can you imagine trying to sing System on Karaoke?" In total, we were there for about 6 hours, belting out such classics as Eternal Flame, Folsom Prison Blues, Total Eclipse Of The Heart, The Final Countdown, Leaving On A Jetplane (solo by Claudia, as she is...), and a rather stunted version of Gasolina. You can stay in the Karaoke room from 11:00 pm to 6:00 am for only the equivalent of £7, making it cheaper than any hostel I've heard of in Japan, almost making it a viable option when Les and Laura leave and I have to move out...

As I went to catch the Subway home at dawn this morning, I found a Ramen bar just by one of the Shinsaibashi Station exits that did freshly cooked Pork Ramen for only ¥600, with big bowls of kimchi and spiced spring onions for adding. I once again found I can use chopsticks when tipsy and exhausted, as I did at Yoshinoya on my first night here in Japan, the night of the neck-kicking incident. I was proud, and arrived home just as the sun was rising over the buildings around Kita-tatsumi, mere minutes after Laura had (incredibly) arrived back on her bike.

Day 46 - Addendum to yesterday, and window shopping

I feel I should also mention that we may have seen a man die yesterday. As we were waiting for Les at Umeda station, there was a bit of a cafuffle behind us, although noone was paying much attention. We had a little look for curiosity's sake, and there were a group of paramedics giving CPR to a body so limp and colourless that at first I thought it was a dummy. As we were leaving, they wheeled him away on a trolley, with his pallid arm hanging limply out of the side, from under the blanket. I was reminded of this as today we saw an old (maybe 60) man fall off the pavement, really hammered, at about 3 o'clock while his mate was hailing a Taxi. I went over to see if he was ok, and ended up half-carrying him to his taxi while he slurred Origato and Thanks alternately.

Preceding this, we went up to the roof of the OCAT building for a picnic and to say goodbye to Lawrence, another ex-Nova employee who's leaving Osaka. Yet again, another thing to do in Osaka which involves being up high and looking down on the city, something I normally love to do, however not instead of having things to do in the city itself. Les, Laura and I went for a wander round Shinsaibashi/Amemura/Dotonburi looking for various things, and I was left to my own devices for a few hours, during which I tried to cover as much of this area as possible. It's areally interesting place to walk around, a positive warren of shops, bars and restaurants, which I found to contain very few foreign ATMs. After a bit of window shopping I found a cool little cafe on the 2nd floor of a building just by the centre of the Shinsaibashi Mall, called Cocoa, which serves loads of variants on hot chocolate, in a very well decorated (by which I mean cluttered with every concievable piece of chocolate-related media) little establishment. Seemed like the kind of place Clare might really like, sort of like a cutesier, booze free Evaristo...

Tomorrow night we are apparently going for all-night Karaoke with Claudia (a german ex-Nova who I met today on the roof), after going out in Amemura. I'm a little apprehensive, to say the least.

Day 45 - Mino-o and a Naked chat

Last night we got the Glastonbury DVD from the video shop, and had a sleepover in the living room. This may seem a somewhat redundant activity in a flat with paper walls and sliding doors, but it meant that when one of us woke up, the others did too, which aided us a lot in achieving today's goal - To go to Mino-o and climb the mountain to the waterfall. Upon arrival, I discovered that it was in fact more of a slightly uphill path, but it was awesome nonetheless. The area around it seems to have one main commercial interest, which is the deep frying of Maple leaves, coated in Maple Sugar batter. This produces delicious candied leaves, which are nice and crunchy and reminiscient of brandy snaps or those orange sweets you get in indian sweetshops, whose name escapes me. We also had some Red Bean Mochi, called Daifuku, which were a wierd doughlike consistency and bright green.


It was a perfect sunny day today, with not a cloud in the sky, however as a result a few thousand other people had the same idea as us, meaning that the route was pretty crowded all the way up. The main attraction at this time of year seems to be the fact that the leaves are all turning from green to various stunning shades of red, which made for hundreds of whimsical shots of mountainsides clad in leaves of various hues. The walk was really nice, not too strenuous and dotted with loads of extremely Japanese scenes, culminating in a pretty spectacular waterfall at the end of the 3 km(ish) trail. We bumped into two ex-Nova teachers called Owen and Lee, who told us that the Onsen at the Mino-o Hotel was half price after five, valuable knowledge.

To get to the Onsen you go up in a glass lift from ground level to Hotel Lobby level, which commands pretty spectacular views over the endless city of Osaka, so I have yet more cityscape photos. The Onsen experience is a little disconcerting at first, being as it is a large room mainly full of naked Japanese men. The one at Mino-o is apparently below par, although it was nonetheless very relaxing. This Onsen is sex-separated, although this is not always the case. There is an enormous pool in the centre at about 37 degrees, surrounded on two sided by showers and stools, with soap, with a Sauna and a Vapour room at the top. The Sauna was at above 110 F, about 45 C, whereas the Vapour room was very odd. It amounted to a small greenhouse, indoors, with sprinklers in the ceiling which sprayed those inside with a fine mist of water at a fairly neutral temperature. You walk around the Onsen nude, except for a small flannel which you can either use for a little modesty, or (for some inexplicable reason) place folded on top of your head while you sit in the baths.

There was also an outdoor Pool/Jacuzzi full of hot water, which allowed you to look out over the city (in daylight). It was while I was in this pool that I saw Owen again, and we had a chat about degrees and Masters' and the like, while utterly nude. This seemed odd for about 30 seconds, but somehow ceased to be so very quickly, much like the whole experience in fact. The fact that absolutely noone else finds it even the slightest bit odd makes the whole thing a lot easier to deal with. I wonder if such a thing would work at home, where being the naked guy in the changing room is the exception, rather than the norm...
Anyway, the point is that it was a really nice relaxing visit, and I can quite see why the girls are such big fans of Onsen in general. They met Lee in their side, and pointed out that it's somehow wierder being naked with someone you are aquainted with than a close friend or a stranger, although they may well become the former quicker as a result.

(edit - just watched Breakfast On Pluto, with Cillian Murphy - It's really good, I recommend it. Also, we're going for a picnic on top of the OCAT building tomorrow!)

Day 43/44 - My first Thanksgiving!

Yesterday was apparently thanksgiving, so all the remaining Nova teachers, American or otherwise, attended a celebration at (Les's boyfriend) Bill's flat. It's a tiny little flat, which had 19 people rammed into it for an evening of gorging. We enquired about the purpose of the holiday, and couldn't glean much more than eating. The menu was impressively large and diverse, containing:

• Bread
• Popcorn
• Sweet Bread Rolls
• Corn Bread
• Peas
• Sweetcorn
• Green Beans
• 2 types of Macaroni Cheese Pie
• Pasta Salad
• Green Salad
• Cooked Onions
• Cheese Slices
• Chicken Pieces
• Ham Slices
• Mashed Potato
• Candied Yams
• Carrot Cake
• Apple Crumble
• Custard
• Crisps Galore

All this was accompanied by Beer & Chu-hi (my offerings) and various other boozes. I was stuffed within about 20 minutes, as were a lot of the attendees, but we all proceeded to eat until there was simply no more room in us, which was about 8 o'clock (it felt like about midnight, it gets dark confusingly early here). We sat and chatted for hours, and I met Owen (Bristol) who said he might be up for seeing some sights when his sister arrives on saturday, so I may have someone to go touristing with. Also a girl called Claire gave me lots of tips on stuff to do here/Tokyo/New York, with the help of the Hostess, Emily, on the latter.

I ended up cycling home on Les's pink Ci-Vada, which was exhausting, and thus (probably also as a result of the immense amount of food and drink that was ingested) I slept for an enormous amount of time, having some of the oddest dreams I can remember. Consequently today has been a little wasted, I'm hoping to go out in a minute and investigate what this area has to offer - after a little research, it seems that the highlight of Kita-Tatsumi is the Ramen place which is directly below this building. Also I must find an internet place to put some of my pictures up from Henry and my adventures.

Day 41 - Aquarium, Castle, Apples

Henry got up early and went and sorted out his Visa, and I met him later to go to the Aquarium. It had been touted by various people as the unmissable thing to do in Osaka - They have the only Whale Shark in captivity, I think. Anyway, it was absolutely amazing, enormous too - some of the tanks were spread over three storeys, they had otters, sea otters, seals, dolphins, monkeys, loads of types of sharks & rays, jellyfish, an 8 ft wide Manta Ray, and various other amazing things. The whale shark was about 4 m long, which is small (they grow up to 12 m) but impressive nonetheless. I shall attempt to upload some of the hundreds of pictures later, the internet in Les's flat (probably because it's stolen from next door) is a little unreliable.

In the afternoon we went to Osaka Castle, a replica of the original castle which was destroyed in the 19th century. The stoneworks surrounding it are all original though, it stands in an enormous park, surrounded by trees (which are just turning red and brown, looked awesome) on top of a hill, commanding awesome views of the city. The castle is 9 storeys high, edged with gold, and fairly spectacular too - although budget considerations prevented us from going up to the 8th floor observation deck. As before, pictures to follow - see the list of albums on the left of the page.

We met Les for a drink and a wander, including a visit to a 280 bar, where all food and drink is only 280 yen, or about £1.50. These places are a blessing in a city as pricey as this, and they look pretty cool inside as well. The reason we met Les & Laura was to attend a lecture at the Apple store, as they figured they might as well learn stuff as they're not up to much else. This turned out to be from a chap called Garry Mouat, on his life in design. While interesting in places, he stumbled over his words loads, and Henry and I struggled to stay awake on our few hours of sleep. We left pretty much the second he finished, we weren't too keen on the Q&A and mingling parts of the evening... Henry and I went for a wander through Shinsaibashi, the Neon centre of Osaka, for a bit of a gawp, which concluded our day of Osakadventure.

Day 40- Leaving Seoul

Monday was a sad day. We all went to our local Ramen etc. place for a takeaway lunch, which was to be my final meal in Korea for (I suspect) a very long time. Leo repeatedly told me I wasn't going to Japan, I should just hang around in Seoul for longer, maybe get a teaching job. I would be happy to do so if I didn't want to get to Thailand and start diving (and if it wasn't so bloody cold) - It's odd, Japan almost seems like an obstacle to this, rather than a unique and bizarre country to explore, but maybe this is just the cold talking.

The flights all went perfectly to plan, Henry and I had loads of time, got two exit seats, I hired a Japanese sim card (09017949910, country code +81. You could call me from a mobile or landline through first number for between 13 & 15p a minute you know), and Henry very kindly lent me his phone for the duration of my stay here. We made it all the way to Kita-Tatsumi subway station, only to find no answer from Les... After a half-hour wait we got a call, it turns out her phone was on the blink, and she lives directly above the station, so all's well. Les says she'll get me a key cut, so I reckon that means I now live in Japan.

Day 37/38/39 - Freezing!

The temperature is now 0 degrees. It's time to leave, going outside is utterly horrible. This has reduced our ventures outside quite significantly, as it is simply painful to go out. We've spent the last couple of nights with Hans, which has resulted variously in:

• Henry dancing on the bar with a nonplussed American man and losing his only winter coat in Tinpan, a very western bar in Hongdae.


• Hans managing to make out with (I think) three different Brazilian girls over two nights in the same bar.


• Going to Itaewon to a place called Gecko's, which was basically just like an American Wetherspoons, with NO Koreans in there (we left soonish).


• Glenn doing something. He knows what.


• Brian sticking his foot in it unbelievably in the cab, and also going to M2, an electro club, and being the oldest customer by a good 10 years.


• Having to deal with Farah smashing on the door of the shower to get me out of there, and screaming her heart out in my hungover ear repeatedly until Jim and Christine got the hell up so we could go for a coffee, all the while claiming that we told her to come round. This was not the case.


• Being entirely lied to by Kate - we were promised a Drum 'n' Bass night, about which we all got very excited (hard to find anything that isn't hip-hop out here) only to find, having trekked halfway across Seoul, that it was someone playing for an hour in a gay club. we got free entry to three other gay clubs in the area, but oddly this didn't swing it.


• Meeting a load of Australian chinese-vietnamese girls and being so confused by their accents and general existence that conversation became impossible due to bewilderment.


• Finding a very strange set of coincidences today - I have encountered Cirque de Soleil in three different programs today, and Seth Rogan and his mate in three as well.


• Finding Superbad hilarious, and Knocked Up even better, while entirely understanding why almost every girl who sees the later will hate it - you are constantly put in situations where you have to side with the lazy laid-back dude and the sophisticated clever sensible lady, and you will always side with your own gender, I would say.


• Discovered the origin of the "Asian Alcohol Flush" (aka Red Tamma), in astonishing detail.


• Packed all my possessions only to find I seem to have gained about 20% extra stuff, even with vacuum packing, since being here.

Anyway, off to Osaka tomorrow. I'll be really sorry to leave these guys, it's been awesome spending so long with Leo, Jim, Henry, Christine etc. I'd love to stay longer, but (1) I need to get moving if I'm going to get everywhere I want to go, and (2) it's just too damn cold.

Day 35/36 - Beowulf, and Illness...

Wednesday was the smoggiest day so far, so much so that when Jim and I walked to the World Cup Stadium along the river, you could look directly at the sun with no problems, it was just an orange orb in a yellowy sky. After filling up on the free samples at the World Cup Mall Supermarket, Jim and I ate Sushi which may account for the slight digestive problems I'm currently suffering from - everything else I have eaten in the last two days I have cooked, so by process of elimination... Also Brian keeps remarking that I'm a cook, based on the fact that I have knocked up some tofu & Surimi egg fried rice and some pasta with a spicy tuna sauce. Hardly a chef, but I do seem to cook more than anyone else here.

Today Leo and I went to the Irish embassy to pick up his new passport, only to find that he's forgotten his old passport (again), meaning that we had to phone Henry and get him to come and drop it off. He did so, but not before inserting two pictures of crudely drawn Phalluses into the passport. One of these was removed before handing it in to be cancelled, but the other somehow remained in until the lady at the embassy returned the passport to Leo. Luckily she didn't see it, as I am not sure what the very conservative Korean culture's reaction to knob doodles would be...

We went for coffee on our way to the cinema to watch Beowulf (this may also be the cause of my illness, on second thoughts), only to find we had mucked up the timings (again!), so we bought tickets for the 10pm showing. It was at the IMAX, in 3D, and was absolutely incredible. I'm not sure how well it would have stood up without the 3D, but we were all very impressed. It was as near to photorealism as I've seen CGI so far. Also they show an astonishing amount of violence and Angelina-based nudity. Geek out over. I also managed to change my flight, to noon on Monday, but I'm on standby for the 1800 flight with Henry. Fingers crossed...

Day 34 - Happy Birthday Mum!

Today we went to Yongsan again, to get Henry's phone fixed. I did a bit of haggling and bought myself a Samsung NV20 Camera, as recommended by Pat. It seems pretty incredible, has a remote control and so on, and loads of other features I haven't yet discovered. We were looking around the I-Park mall, and we found the E-Stadium, where they play televised Starcraft which seems to be on all the time. As we were the only westerners in the (mostly female) audience, we were filmed, and possibly made it onto Korean TV! Also we went to the big E-Mart in the basement, and bought (partly by accident) a 2.7 l bottle of 30% Soju for 6,900 won. That works out as about 50p a pint, for extra strong Soju! Apparently it's part of a kit intended for making your own fruit Soju, which would explain the 2 bags of sugar which came with it.

I also tried to change my flight to Japan to monday, but the lady on the phone said my ticket was so complicated that she had to check the regulations and call me back. She did not do so. I chose my ticket precisely because it was easy to change the dates, so this obviously annoyed me somewhat.

Day 32 - Happy Pepero Day!

Today I saw the oddest thing I have yet seen in Korea - we were walking around a new area of Honggik, when we saw a dog grooming parlour, with the door to the back room open. When I peered through, I saw a woman in a surgical mask very precisely shaving the arse of a tiny dog, as can be seen in the photo. This country is so wierd. We went for a visit to Myeong-dong, a fairly nice Commercial district with narrow streets and no traffic - street food stalls line the streets, and every building seems to be a clothing store. Apparently today was Pepero Day, one of the oddest festivals I've heard of - it's like Valentine's day, but entirely centred around one type of confection, the stick-like Pepero. You can buy gift sets of loads of boxes of Pepero taped together into heart shapes and so on, which you can then shower onto loved ones. An odd day.

Day 30/31 - Pat's last day, and my exhaustion

Pat's last day was a reasonably productive one. We went to Gangnam, the posh bit of Seoul, with Jim, to look for a present for Pat's girlfriend. We searched through the Galleria department store, which was full of Chanel and Tiffany etc., which was slightly out of Pat's price range. We looked in the Lonely Planet for a Korean designer shop, which turned out to contain only men's clothing. Defeated, we walked through the horrible rain to another shop, where Pat bought a bag which "she'll hate, but it's the thought that counts".

We met Leo for a cocktail, chosen and paid for by Pat. He chose: Fuck You (Jim), Sex History (Me) and Matrix Revolutions (Leo). Afterwards Pat and I went for the best Korean BBQ I've had yet, featuring Soju, ribs and wafer thin slices of frozen sirloin. We met the others in Honggik for a few drinks, on the understanding that Pat and I were to be at home by half one, as he had to be up at half 6 for his flight. About 3 am he asked me if I would come to the airport with him, as noone ever says goodbye (ahh). We made it to bed at 5, were up at half 6, and made it to the airport in plenty of time, thanks to a 60000 won cab ride, which Jim assured us would be about 20000. They wouldn't let Pat on the plane as he didn't have a flight out of Singapore, so we, horribly hungover, had to go down to an internet cafe and trawl through his hotmail to find a reciept, which she accepted. I fell asleep on the bus back to town, missing my stop by half an hour and having to get a cab back. Needless to say, I had a somewhat woozy day, and slept for 12 hours while everyone else went out.

Day 29 - A very productive day

I'll try and keep this brief again, as I am making the others wait - today Pat and I went to Insadong for lunch, and had something delicious and Japanese. We then went to the largest Buddhist shrine in Seoul, near Anguk, where we encountered a large number of Korean soldiers ferrying huge quantities of cabbage to, and Kimchi from, row upon row of tables full of women in aprons spicing and pickling the cabbage. I can only assume that they were making a year's supply for a local barracks or something, all very wierd. We then went to the knife museum, which has an enormous selection of edged weapons from armed forces, films (they have Glamdring and Highlander's sword, as well as the Green Destiny Sword!), as well as Helms from Lord of the Rings, and lightsabres which were immensely cool. They also had a display on how to nake a Katana, and a huge array of Shuriken, Kunai, various other Shinobi weapons and all sorts of horrible fighting knives. Once again, being boys, we absolutely loved it and spent ages in there, discussing the ingenuity and cruelty of man, and also going "Wow" at the thing that gave you claws like Wolverine.



We tried to go to a restaurant on the 33rd floor of the Jongno Tower (right, the restaurant sits at the top, above the void), but we were denied entry. We saw a lot of Insadong, which is really nice and quaint, with narrow streets and loads of shops selling monk's robes, calligraphy brushes and fans. We went to Dongdaemun market, where we haggled reasonably well, and I got a Hoodie and a hat*, and then an hour-long sports massage. It was one of the most painful experiences of my life, the dude was pummeling my spine immensely hard, crushing me into the massage table. A few times I was close to crying out in pain, as my (admittedly very large) face was squashed into the korean-face sized hole. Afterwards I did feel immensely good though, although that may just be the equivalent of how good you feel when you stop smacking your head against a wall. Pat enjoyed it immensely, the masochist. We got Krispy Kreme Doughnuts on the way home though, which made everything better.



*Since being in Seoul I have bought four hats, and managed to lose three (although one has now been found). Two of these I have bought on the street, taken off for manners' sake inside, and then copmpletely forgotten to pick up on my way out. I am a buffoon.

Day 28 - Itaewon and Henry's fear...

Today we had to move out of Kim's again, as I felt it would be good for Pat to see another side of Seoul. In the evening we went to Itaewon, the slightly seedy district near the US Army bases, which is full of a combination of westerners and bars designed for westerners. We met Leo, Jim and Henry's friend Hans for a drink, and went and played some pool in Spy Bar, although on the way there Jim and Pat suggested we go to a bar in a likely looking street, however I noticed that the establishments were called reBall, Queens and Toujours Hommes, which I remembered from an article I had read about the burgeoning gay scene in Itaewon. We turned round and found ourselves on "Hooker Hill", which we promptly exited. I must say I wasn't a fan of Itaewon, it was sort of like a grimy, run-down version of SoHo, and I don't think we'll be visiting again.

Oh, also loads of Bars and Clubs around where we were staying have banned american G.I.s from entering due to the trouble they cause, so you can imagaine what Itaewon, which is overflowing with them, is like. Not a nice atmosphere.

On a lighter (for me, anyway) note, Henry has aquired a stalker at his training accomodation. I'll let him tell the story:

"Right some more random news, very random and a little freaky. I'm writing
this at 1am after a strange series of events. I'm (Henry) currently staying in a
hotel room on my own for my training. Whilst going to my room I said hello to
this guy in the lift who asked me where i was from. Naturally I obliged and then
returned the question. He was from Indonesia and spoke very little
english. Almost straight afterward as I was getting out of the lift he asked me
what my room number was which seemed a little strange at the time but I though
nothing of it. About 10-15 mins later my doorbell goes. It's him. "Hello". Of
course I greet him and he asks if he can come in, naturally not wanting to seem
rude I invited him in. He did seem very friendly. We tried to have a
conversation but his english was very bad and my Indonesian was limited to 3
words. It was pretty awkward, for me at least.We were just sat on a bed in a
relatively small room. We didn't get very far and mostly echanged names and
where we are from and even that was difficult. Plenty of awkward silences. After
a while I tried to tell him that I have to study now and make some phone calls.

He then asked me if he could just stay. I wasn't exactly keen. I was just hoping
to chill out on my own and watch tv, not have some random stranger who spoke
almost no english and just sat there staring at me in my roomI eventually
managed to get him to understand that I needed to do stuff and that he had to
leave but I said he could come back later. That he did.He first came down at
about 9.30pm. I could see that it was him at the door cos there is a camera
linked to and lcd display in my room. Although it was rude i decided to ignore
him. I just couldn't face the weird situation again plus I was still studying.
After ringing the bell 3 times he gave up and I saw him walk off. Of course 20
mins later he comes back. I figured if I didn't answer he would think I was out.
He dissappeared after 3 rings. About 3 minutes after he goes the bloody phone in
my room starts going! I assumed it was him and let it ring out. It then rings
again. I let it ring out. And again.Another 20 minutes or so pass and the door
bell goes. I look at the monitor but can't really see anyone. I then look closer
and spot an arm. He was hiding against the wall so he couldn't be seen! I think
he thought it was the only way he get me to answer.This was now getting a little
too strange. After a few rings he retreats. Of course the phone then goes again
and again and again.By this point it is about 10.45 and i'd had enough. The door
bell was far too many decibels and the phone was worse so I just pulled the
phone cable out.

Not long after this i can still here a sodding phone ringing.
After investigation I discovered that there is one rigged up in the bathroom
which couldn't be disconnected. He kept bloody calling at regular intervals for
ages. Eventually, about 10 minutes ago which was 12.50am I answered the phone.
Who knows. It could be someone else."Hello. I am your friend. Remember. Your my
new friend!" To which I politely reply and point out that I am trying to sleep.
He then asks if he can come down to the room to which i said no and further
explain that I need some sleep. He understands this but still asks if he can
come down. I quite clearly say no.2 minutes later the mother fucking door bell
starts going. I should point out then when it rings it lets off 3 very loud
beeping noises. He was pressing it many times. I tried to work the video
intercom to say go away but as all the buttons are in Korean I just set off a
load of alarms and louder noises.After his persistent ringing and my frantic
button pressing I went to the door and just told him that I was trying to sleep,
still keeping my cool. He asks to come in to which I politely decline again. "I
need sleep, I am sleeping!".Now here is where it get even stranger. He just
tells me that he has no friend in his room to which I said perhaps we can do
something tommorow and I can introduce you to some people. He then asks me if he
can come and sleep in my room! Now i'm pretty sure that's not normal behaviour
for complete strangers. I just said no and shut the door.I should also point out
that I asscertained from our odd conversation that he is 33 so it's not like
he's a youngster.Anyhow sorry for the enormous essay like account of my strange
encounter. i just needed to share it. I am still worried that he will be coming
back tommorow. What do I do? Any suggestions?"

Day 27 - World Cup Stadium, Failure, and an accidental night out...

Hmm, I think I'm going to have to be briefer, as Pat and Jim want to go and eat and I'm slowing them down...

Pat and I went on another adventure today, to the 2002 World Cup Stadium. We went on the promise that there would be little electric bikes for hire which we could zoom around on. After a long time searching, we failed to find such wonders, so instead we paid the princely sum of 1000 won (50p) for entry to the stadium, which we had entirely to ourselves. The 60,000 seat building was completely deserted, allowing us to wander freely around the stands, dressing rooms, meeting rooms etc. We ran out of the players tunnel, arms outstretched to an imaginary roaring crown, we mucked around on wheely chairs in the coaches debriefing office, pretended to shout at a non-existant team from the dugout, and generally dicked about and had loads of fun. Afterwards we wandered around to the other side and investigated the World Cup Park, which would have been lovely if it weren't for the enormous clouds of mosquitoes that followed us wherever we turned.

We got a call from Leo and Glenn, suggesting we meet for dinner in Honggik again, so we caught a cab (which got stuck in traffic for ages, making us half an hour late, oops) and went for a brilliant dinner which involved dipping thinly sliced frozen beef into a huge dish of spicy soup, along with veg, squid, prawns and a horrible new discovery which we have dubbed "sea-balls", to complement the earlier discovery of sea-knobs. Leo and I both tried them, and they were probably the worst thing I have tried in ages - when we bit into them, through the hard rubbery shell, we were greeted by a jet of tepid salt water, which was absolutely horrendous.

Later on Jim, Pat and I went out for one drink, and thought we'd investigate a new direction near our hostel. We went for a couple more and ended up in DD, which was completely empty, however the lady behind the bar told me I looked like a "Gucci Model", and said it was because of my hair. We left and went to another place, which had noone in it at all apart from the three girls behind the bar - one of whom was absolutely stunning, unbelievably so, and so, being the weak men we are, we stayed for a drink there too. This was very odd, for a few reasons - firstly because there was noone else there, secondly because The girls leant on the bar directly opposite us, meaning they were staring at us about 6 inches from our faces, thirdly because the owners were sitting in another part and kept sending us cuttlefish, nuts, fried chicken, of which they had a seemingly endless supply, and fourthly because they said Jim looked like Justin Timberlake, and Pat looked like David Beckham. Not a bad haul of compliments really, although I feel they may just have been not very good at telling us white folk apart...

Day 26 - Yongsan and Hongdae

Today Pat and I went to Yongsan market, an enormous market/district selling nothing but electronics. After an awesome Japanese Lunch, we forged ahead into the first of the three enormous shoppingt complexes. Luckily Pat and I share a love of small clever gadgets, so we wandered around for a few hours gasping at ultra mobile touchscreen tablet PCs & Samsung NV20 cameras, haggling over Nintendo DSs loaded with pirated games in the XBox Mile, and generally geeking out.

On our way home we met Leo, Jim and Glenn in Hongdae, or rather we got really lost and they eventually came and found us in Ho Bar III. We ordered some drinks, and were presented with this - a bottle of Whiskey (good), a can of coke (insufficient) and a selection of prepared fruits (just plain wierd). In this country, whenever you order a drink you're given a bowl of crisps, nuts, or some other food for free, which seems to be a good way of avoiding getting drunk too quickly - which is perfect for the Koreans, as they drink a lot compared to other asian nations.

We went to NB later on, to show Pat the wierd phenomenon that is Korean dancing - everyone faces the DJ/stage, in lines, meaning that you're always looking at peoples backs. Evryone does this, and occasionally at some unknown signal a synchronised routine will occur, performed by those nearest the DJ. Pat fell foul of the strong drinks measures, resulting in me making this friendly reminder when we got back home...

Day 25 - A night at Mike's, an evening at the Tower

I picked Pat up with no problems, and after a Soju or two on the train we went to Mike's Cabin, a bar in Sinchon owned by a Korean American (called Mike) who the guys met at the hostel, when he was staying there for a week to escape from his girlfriend. It's a really cool place, and was packed out with westerners, most of whom seemed pretty cool. Leo and Pat got deeply involved in some discussion or other, although Pat later confessed that he may well have been repeatedly contradicting and repeating himself, which probably fuelled Leo's frustration. We stayed there until about four (very impressive stamina from Pat, I must say), when I realised that, distracted by talking to a girl called Shannon, I had failed to notice Pat and Henry's departure. I dashed outside to see them getting into a cab, so I hopped in the other side, terrifying Pat, who thought I was just a random Korean.

Sunday afternoon Pat, Jim and I headed down to the river for a walk in the sun, which was really nice, and Pat and I headed off to Seoul Tower with the intention of catching sunset from the top. Due to a combination of poor directions and a lack of knowledge of where the hell the tower was, we missed sunset by a long time, and ended up getting a cab all the way up the mountain (where only buses are allowed to drive, oops). It was entirely worth it though, as can be seen below.


To quote Clare, "Are you a superhero? This looks like the city in which a superhero might live."

Or, from the slightly more alarmist Birdie, "It looks like something from the future!! Ahhh!"

Day 24 - Pat!

Henry has moved into his serviced apartments for his training, and I'm back at Kim's waiting for Leo, Henry, Jim and Christine to show up. We're hopefully meeting Farah later on for a drink or two, (she called earlier to say she was in Hyehwa, turns out she was in a cafe that pretty much backs onto our hostel!) after I've picked up Pat from the airport. We have yet another new arrival! Farah seems convinced we're trying to take over this city, one by one.

Also, by the geeky wonder of ssh/scp, I have managed to put al my photos on the UCL HEP webspace, here.

Day 23 - Sleepy

Jose got a cab at 5:30 this morning, and arranged one for us to the bus station too. His flights go Busan-Seoul-Paris-Sao Paulo-Santiago. Poor guy.

We got the first bus to Seoul, at 6 this morning. I persuaded Leo and Henry to pay extra for the deluxe bus, in the vague hope I could fit in the seats and get a decent bit of sleep, however that belief was ill-founded. I didn't sleep at all, meaning that I slept all afternoon at the new hostel. We went to the Coex Mall in the afternoon, the largest underground mall in Asia. It's incredibly huge, and has shops selling just about everything. It also has an Aquarium which takes an hour and a half to walk through, and in which (if you go early enough) you can swim with the sharks, according to Leo. The area around the new hostel, the Golden Pond Guesthouse in Hyehwa, seems pretty cool and interesting. It has a lot of shops, bars and restaurants, however unfortunately there's no room here for al of us, so we're going to have to return to Kim's.

Day 22 - Expensive Mail, Free Clothes

In breif, today we woke up battling Soju hangovers to the sound of drilling (again) and Jose packing. He's managed to pack up his whole life here in a few short hours, and sent it al back to Chile by air mail, at a cost of $2000! He also left us a load of Jeans, shirts, shoes and coats (much of which in branded as belonging to Ulsan Hyundai Tigers) to pick through. As I write this I'm wearing his jeans, Henry's wearing his shirt and jeans, and Leo's sporting a yellow t-shirt of his.

We went f0r the best meal I've yet had in Korea this evening, it was like a normal Barbeque place but they had a tilted gril, letting all the fat run off, and gave us mushrooms and Kimchi to BBQ as well, making everything even nicer than usual.