Kyoto, Japan...The Asian Sensation!

Danny and I were lucky enough to have a long weekend, so what did we do?  We were OFF TO JAPAN!  I honestly didn't think I cared to go to Japan, but in the end I'm soo glad we went.  Danny and I say that Japan is what Korea "should be".  Now before I offend anybody, I'm not saying that Korea is bad, I LOVE KOREA, actually!  But what I am saying is that Japan really has the tourism/smell/trash thing working for them.. i.e. the the tourism industry is down to a science, the streets aren't covered in litter, there aren't garbage "drop offs" wherever you walk, and the markets (even in the fish section) don't smell like rotting fish!  It's awesome!  The only thing I missed was that Koreans are more friendly to Westerners than the Japanese... nobody called us handsome or beautiful once! ; )

Danny and I started our Japanese adventure in Kyoto, which is the "cultural" mecca of Japan.  It is such a beautiful city filled with mysterious looking tea houses, quaint cobblestone streets, and tons of great food!  It is also one of the places that you can go to see geisha's, and as Danny liked to call it, I was on a "Geisha Hunt" the whole time we were there.  I saw a lot of japanese women in kimonos, but I only saw ONE geisha as she got into the taxi.  I was pretty excited to see her with the painted white face and red lips and I was just amazed that is still apart of their culture... apparently there is less than 1,000 geisha's left in all of Japan and they can be paid up to $3,000 for a night of singing and dancing!

Danny and I loved Kyoto because you could easily get around it by bicycle, and thanks to our awesome hostel, Sakura House, we rented bikes for the day for only about $10. 

Kyoto has lots to see by bicycle.  We started our trip riding by the river that runs through Kyoto.  All along the river there are beautiful restuarants that are bustling at night, and people are everywhere exercising and enjoying the outdoors during the day.

Man feeding the ducks along the river.

This scene seems very "Japan" to me.



After about a 15 minute ride from our hostel we went through downtown Kyoto on our way to Nijo Castle.  The downtown is one of the best shopping areas I have seen and has a huge indoor/outdoor mall filled with tons of crazy shops.  We found high fashion stores as well as trendy and vintage stores selling old American Tshirts... we even saw an Air Force Academy shirt and a Fort Collins Bank shirt!  Koreans basically dress all alike so it was fun to see unique styles for a change.



Kyoto's downtown shopping district.



I loved all the different fabrics at a kimono store.



One sight we saw while we were downtown that we were shocked to see was that people actually lined up for the bus in Japan.  Koreans sort of go for the mob/group mentality and push their way into a bus or subway, but the Japanese have more of a refined way about it.  I think that going to Japan would be interesting for anyone, but Danny and I especially enjoyed comparing how different Asian cultures can be coming from Korea.  I thought that Asia was all pretty similar when I was younger, but I am now seeing how each country is unique in their own way.

After downtown, we headed to Nijo Castle.  Danny and I heard that castle in Japan are beautiful and we weren't disappointed.  They were exactly as I imagined them full of paper paneled windows, bamboo mats and old wooden floors.  I was especially interested in the floors because they called them "nightengale floors" because they chirped when you walked on them.  This was to alert the residence of the castle if there were any ninja intruders.  Obviously we didn't make a sound as we walked on the floors seeing that Danny and I have awesome ninja skills ; )

I have gotten used to taking off my shoes wherever I go in Korea, and the Japanese also go by the same rule of thumb.  Thankfully they are again a little more organized and have everyone remember where their shoes are by number!

The grounds of Nijo Castle were especially beautiful and were exactly as I would imagine a Japanese garden to be!

Students touring the castle.

Probably my favorite thing that we saw during our time in Kyoto was seeing the Fushimi Inari Shrine just outside of main Kyoto.  This shrine is one of the most famous sites in Japan and it is really amazing to see.  This shrine is filled with thousands of orange gates that you walk through, and the colors in contrast to the beautiful forest around is just awesome.  You can tell that there are some older and more faded gates as you walk through, so I was amazed to see a man who was painting some of them.  Being that there are thousands of these gates, I imagine that your job might never be finished, but at least it's simple with only two colors!

Fushimi Inari Shrine

Another place that Danny and I really enjoyed was the Kiomizudera Temple.  This temple was only about 5 minutes from our hostel, and had a great view of the whole city.







People fetching water from a temple fountain.




A monk asking for donations.


One of the last highlights of our time in Kyoto was the Golden Pavilion... a Japanese temple covered in 14K gold.  Although the pavillion was really cool to see, the reason it was great was meeting Mr. Kobayashi.  Danny and I were riding the bus to the Golden Pavillion when a old Japanese guy got on the bus and sat behind us.  He started up a conversation with us, and then after a little while, he asked if he could join us on our sight seeing tour. 


Even the entrance tickets are beautiful in Japan!


Danny and I accepted were laughing about the situation that we find ourselves in.  We wondered what Mr. Kobayashi's plans were for that day, or if he always just rides around on buses hoping to meet foreigners to tag along with : )  He ended up being a really great guy to talk to... we learned asked him all kinds of questions about Japanese culture and history, and even though we offered to pay for his ticket because he was our "tour guide", he ended up being the one who bought us tickets, got us a Japanese souvenir, and took us out to coffee afterwards!

He was such a nice guy, and really made me realize how connected we all are if we just reach out to people.  Mr. Kobayashi said that when he came to America, people were so nice to him that he just wanted to return the favor in a way, so I only hope that I can meet a Japanese tourist on the streets of Colorado and show them the same kindness! 

Danny and I having coffe with Mr. Kobayashi.



Overall, Kyoto was a fantastic place to visit and now one of my favorite Asian cities.  Women walking around in beautiful kimonos, people drinking tea, and the sun setting over the ancient temple really made us feel like we got to experience Japan and we loved every minute of it! 

In the next post, I will tell you more about things we loved about Japan in our time in Osaka, especially the fashion, so stay tuned!

Another "mysterious" tea house.

Celebrating Freedom Day in Korea! Happy 4th of July!

If you know anything about Danny and I, we LOVE freedom.  Don't even get Danny started on how much he loves Mrka (America)... he will go for days.  Being that the 4th of July is my favorite holiday, I am sad to have missed the parades and barbeques, but we did our best to celebrate here in Korea. 

Since Korean's don't really care too much about American Independence day, we had to spend most of the day at work...boooo.  Then we enjoyed some American s'mores over a camping stove at our apartment thanks to our friend Sara's mom sending it all in a care package. (My first s'more in a year and a half.) It's crazy to me that people in other countries haven't really had s'mores before so I enjoyed watching our coworker, Cathal, trying his very first one. 

After the intense sugar intake, we went down by the river to light of the symbol of freedom...no not bald eagles...FIREWORKS!  We didn't have any really crazy stuff, but it was fun to let out the pyro in us for the evening and light stuff on fire ; )

My favorite was playing with the sparklers, and as you can see, Danny had fun with it too!

 We made a attempt to write "D love's K" but someone who will remain nameless, who also starts their name with a "D", did it backwards : )  But you know what?!  We have the FREEDOM to do that...WHY?... Because WE ARE MRKANS!!! GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy 4th of July!

Postcards from Korean Kids : )

I have mentioned before that our teaching atmosphere is what you might call "alternative" here at Andong English Village.  Instead of grammar class and other ridiculously boring ways of teaching English, we teach things like Grocery Store class and Yoga class... not bad, right?  

I just wanted to share with you some postcards that I have recieved from my Post Office class.  I have students write a postcard home at the end of the class, and sometimes I get some interesting ones.  Here are a few of my favorites...



I feel honored that she called me "buttiful"... 
I'm not ashamed to say I have some "junk in the trunk" ; )

Another great one...

Who knew that a Korean kid could so perfectly put into words what
I think everytime I eat amazing food!

 Korean kids are so wonderfully honest...


I feel bad for this kid, going back to a school where their Korean teacher is
"bery, bery scared" but at least they liked their week at AEV!

 Kids are awesome and so are these postcards.  I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did!

Korean Hiking Club...We're at it again!

Last time Danny and I went on a trip with a Korean Hiking club, it was literally the craziest day of our lives… and I’m not kidding. One might think that we learned our lesson and would never repeat that experience again, but when a Korean man we know from our gym, Yune Han, asked us to hike Seorak Mountain with his club we decided to give it one more try… let’s just say that we weren’t disappointed.

** Warning: This post is not inappropriate, however it does contain the male phallic symbol in the form of pottery and stone so just be warned family or friends before you go showing children or grandparents ; )

This trip was in one word: INSANE! We had learned some things from our last experience so we knew how to prevent things from getting out of control such as just saying “NO!” to drinking Soju at 9 in the morning and definitely NOT letting anyone pour beer all over you. However, one thing you should know is if you ever spend a day with a Korean hiking club, crazy stuff is going to happen whether you like it or not!

We started the day at 5:40 in the morning… yikes. I know you are thinking that should have been the tip-off that we shouldn’t have gone, but Seoraksan is supposed to be the most beautiful mountain to climb in Korea, so we thought we could suffer through the early morning. Off we were on our 4 hour ride to the mountain! Suddenly in the middle of the trip, the bus stopped for what we assumed was a mandatory bathroom break… WRONG! Danny and I, instead, found ourselves walking up to a sculpture park which we also assumed would just contain normal Korean sculptures… also WRONG! This particular sculpture park happened to only feature the male phallic symbol and lots of it… thus started the madness.

Before we knew what we were walking into.

We found ourselves in the midst of a bunch of 40 year old Koreans who were laughing, talking, and playing with penis paraphernalia. This particular sculpture park had penis cups, spoons, key chains, hat racks, and basically anything else you could think of. It took us a while to get over the shock of where we actually were, and from shock we went right into laughing hysterically. So far the trip wasn’t disappointing us and if a penis sculpture park was part of the itinerary, then who knows what would be next! ; )

The time back on the road was basically uneventful except for the fact that the Soju (Korean sake) was already flowing at 9:52 am, but we stuck to our first answer of “no thank you” and we made it to the mountain with no problems.

Our host: Yune Han and his wife.

Seoraksan is a beautiful hike that goes by a river, but who cares about hiking anyways? Korean hiking clubs should really be called anything but that because the hike was really the smallest part of the day… maybe call it “Korean Drinking Club” or “Crazy Middle Age People Club”, that would fit better. On the hike one of the funniest parts was that our Korean guide, Yune Han, kept stealing my camera and forcing Danny and I, and every other couple on the hike, to take “couple” pictures at every picturesque spot, which was about every 5 min as well. Another part that kept us laughing was that Yune Han somehow got it in his mind that if we were over 50 ft. away from him, we were in danger so he would call “Danny?”… “Candy?” (Katy must have been too difficult to say) and make us come stand near him.

After our camera was stolen... again.

After a couple more hours the hike was finished and, again, rather uneventful. We started to worry as we saw cases of beer taken off the bus and plates of compressed chicken that the low-key hike that we were hoping for was coming to an end but it wasn’t too bad. We drank some beer for good measure but said no to the compressed meat, and after some toasts and making fun of the waygookin’s (foreigners) we were on the road again. Again, we were pleasantly surprised that the Korean drinking party didn’t last a few (or five) hours as it can tend to.

Mmmmm... compressed chicken and soju.

As Danny and I sat back on the bus and were on our way home, we thought, “Maybe this isn’t going to be as crazy as we thought,” and from that moment on we were jinxed. Here were the next 6 hours of our lives…

Help me!

4:00 ~ No rae bang. These people really loved their “trot music” and let’s just say it could possibly be the worst music in the world. (Here is an example... just imagine listening to music like this for 6 hours straight!)

4:01 ~ I sneak my ear plugs into my ears so I don’t go deaf.

5:00 ~ We realized that we weren’t on our way home but in fact going the complete opposite way for a seafood dinner.

Still trying to enjoy the loooonnggg day ; )

6:00 ~ We arrive at dinner where we are basically forced to eat food until we want to die… and then we had to eat some more.

7:00 ~ Back on the bus…Lord please help me the “dance party” has begun!!!! : ( This is the time when we found out that ONE song can last over 45 minutes… oh no.

The loudest “Throat Music” + drunk Koreans + us being forced to dance in the aisles = a very sad and tired Danny and “Candy”… oh and by the way this is when we were told we would arrive back home : /

They wouldn't take no for an answer!

8:00 ~ Still not home, the music is still bursting eardrums everywhere and people are even more drunk. Poor Danny is starting to lose it.

9:00 ~ The crowd has subsided and all that are left are three VERY drunk individuals dancing with toilet paper wrapped around their heads. Danny is really loosing it now and has that look in his eyes like he’s gonna kill the next person who tries to make us dance.

How I was really feeling!

10:00 ~ People have finally tired themselves out so they have to sit down, however the horrible “Throat Music” is replaced by even worse, even louder synthesizer music. Danny has lost it and is on the verge of a mass murder of drunk Korean hikers.

10:30 ~ We FINALLY arrive back in Andong and say goodbye and good riddance to the hiking club.

There you have it. Our 2nd Korean hiking club experience. It may not have been the party train like last time but it was MADNESS just in a different form of transportation. We spent 17 hours with a group of middle aged Koreans and lived to tell the tale. We laughed, we almost cried, we almost puked, and more but let’s just say that we will never do that again.

In the end, if you are looking for an unforgettable and wild experience, join a Korean hiking club, but consider yourself warned, my friend, that you will never be the same ; )