Back to Tokyo

Me: Um, Katsura, could I talk to you for a minute? (thinking we'd go in another room or something. We didn't.)
Her: Yes? (with a huge smile on her face)
Me: Well, you know how I'm supposed to leave on Saturday and come back on Sunday?
Her: Yes? (still with a huge smile on her face)
Me: Well, I was thinking maybe I wouldn't come back on Sunday if that was ok with you.
Her: Yes? (I thought the smile might end there, but it didn't)
Me: So that's ok with you? It just seems really busy here and I'm not really able to be all that helpful because of the language barrier.
Her: Yes, that's ok. Sorry it is too busy here. Thank you for your work!

Wow. So I was right, she wasn't heartbroken. My last day at the farm was good cause I knew it was my last day. I seeded like I had ever seeded before. I got to wear a different flannel shirt too. It was red and was too big instead of blue and too small, so that was cool too.

The girl who showed up when I was writing the last blog ended up being really nice and tried to talk about music with me while we were seeding which almost made me think I shouldn't be so quick to leave. She likes `Ben Happa` and `Fyna Appol`. Turns out she's from Western Japan and in Western Japan they are known for being like Koreans and talking a lot and loudly. Eastern Japan is known for not being quiet or just not talking. Michiyo told me that (`You should go to Western Japan. It's much livelier. They talk more. Yukiko is from the west. Did you notice she talks a lot?`) I did! So Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, here I come. Well after hanging out with Errol for a couple days.

Errol lives in Niigata (NI-ga-ta, not ni-GA-ta, how I foolishly pronounced it). Whenever I mentioned I was going there people but their arms around their bodies and said, `It cold there!` I think I'm ok with that. It'll be more rural Japan but with a friend/interpreter. I'm excited. That'll be Thursday or Friday.

As for today, I got on a train at 8:22, got to Tokyo at 9:34, walked around for a long time. Got food (chicken sandwhich, goodbye vegetarianism!) and made my way to possibly my favorite place in Tokyo, Tower Records in Shibuya.

It has 6 floors of music each with a ton of listening stations and then the 7th floor has English books and magazines!!!!!!!! I walked around for a very long time. They started playing Surfer Rosa as I was walking in. I knew it was the exact place I was supposed to be.

I bought Lonely Planet Japan (finally, I should have done that in the States), and On The Road cause I've been told more than once that I should have read that by now. I also got some book written by an American who has been living in Japan since 1984. Chapter titles include The Super Bowl and War Crime Trials, The Japanese TV Police: PBS With Teeth!, Confessions of a Profesisonal Pro Wrestling Announcer, The Trashman Commeth, Kung Fu Masters for Beginners and Dumb Foreigners and Gift-Giving in Japan just to name a few. It looks good.

After leaving Tower Records I went to a tiny CD store and asked the guy behind the counter where I could find a compilation with Japanese rock bands. He showed me the area and when I asked if he had a favorite he pulled out a Rolling Stones tribute album done by all Japanese rocks bands. I had been meaning to buy a Rolling Stone album for the last couple of months so this seemed to kill two birds with one stone. Nevermind the fact that I don't have a CD player with me. There's always February.

So right now I'm sitting in the nicest internet cafe I've ever seen. It's a full on private cubicle with a nice, fast Dell with huge headphones and a gigantic leather recliner. I think the guy next to me is sleeping which is probably no good as I think these are pretty expensive. I haven't paid yet.

I just booked a bed at a hostel tonight and they have internet there so I'll figure the rest out later. I think since I now I have free time/rail pass I may go to the Earth Embassy (the place that never emailed me back about WWOOFing) and check out Mt. Fuji before going to Niigata. Or maybe start heading north, stopping at Nikko which has Michiyo's favorite hot springs (onsens I think they're called). We'll see.

Oh and to answer Barbara's question... I definitely not against WWOOFing again, I just know what to look for and ask next time I search for a host. I didn't mind the farmwork at all, I just didn't like that the Japanese people would get like a 10 minute mini-lecture on what was going on and then I would get a 5 second summary like, `he said put the seeds 15 centimeters apart, about a centimeter deep.` I think I would just look for a place where I could get more attention. Like a place with fewer WWOOFers, more international WWOOFers (some hosts specify that they're only looking for internationals), maybe couples without kids (as they tend to eat up a lot of potential one-on-one time with the hosts) and make sure ahead of time that they would actually talk to me in English. I also know to ask about housing if it says you stay in a WWOOF house and not in the family's house and what kind of free time I can expect. There are a lot of olders hosts who offered to teach Japanese which (stupidly) hadn't interested me when I was first looking, but now I'm really interested in. So there are a bunch of ways that things could go better than they did. I don't think I'll get to it with the time remaining in Japan because I've gotten so excited about the Japan Rail Pass and talking with Michiyo, but I still have the whole month of January where I have nothing planned and my visitor's visa in Japan is good until February 1st.

Phew. That's all for now....

-Besu (my name in Japanese. No `th` and the necessary vowel following a consonant. I'm not completely sure how `u` was picked, but that's how things go apparently.)

P.S. Pictures coming soon. My backpack (with my camera USB cord) is currently in an overpriced locker at Tokyo station. I've got pictures of the farm, Katsura, Michiyo, Haru (the 5 year old girl who didn't like me much cause I couldn't pronounce her name right), Yuto, the family's Previa (with a sunroof!), my super sexy farm work outfits (complete with rubber boots!), my laundry hanging achievements, and the WWOOFer house.

Woah

So today is Day 5 of Hippyville, Japan. I'm in a town called Ohara, which is in the Chiba prefecture which I think is like a county. I don't think I have much time but I'll try to explain the basics....

1. People - Husband, wife, daughter, a Japanese WWOOFer with her 3 year old son, a WWOOFer from Germany (but grew up in Japan until she was 10, speaks Japanese as her first language), a WWOOFer who has been here for 6 months who has a boyfriend in the area (from before she started WWOOFing I think) and a WWOOFer, Michiyo, who is from near Yokohama who is looking to be here for a year, but plans on going home on the weekends. Today at lunch she asked me if I was homesick and told me that she was. She got here Sunday.
2. Language - I am the only one who doesn't speak Japanes as their first language. And there are a lot of people here so there is a lot said, all in Japanese. I sit cluelessly for hours at a time. The girl from Yokohama spent a year in the US in high school and a year in the US for college (at SUNY Buffalo, how weird!?!) so she speaks English really well and talks to me sometimes, but I think she's getting annoyed with me asking her, `what's he/she saying?` all the time. All the directions, instructions are given in Japanese and then I either have to ask Michiyo what's being said. Maybe once a day the wife (who speaks English, but just doesn't like to) will say something to me in English like, `are you ok?` and yesterday she tried to have a conversation and she started it off with, `so do you know anyone who was hurt in the hurricanes?` Yeah. Those are our conversations. Slow, awkward, short.
3. Friends - So Yuto is the 3 year old who has yet to figure out I don't speak Japanese. He asks me a lot of questions. In Japanese. Repeatedly. And when I don't answer, he'll move on and ask a new question. My favorite thing I've learned from him is that the whole Japanese peace sign in pictures thing starts young! Wow. As soon as I took my camera out, his fingers were up. In front of his face. I had to work hard to get him to move them to the side. I have pictures but they're not uploaded yet. So he's cool, but sometimes three year olds aren't the best people to have as friends. Like when he starts screaming or when I'm supposed to be working planting seeds but he thinks he should take the seeds and put them back in the bag. And sometimes when I'm working he wants to play the climb on Beth game, and not knowing how to speak Japanese kind of makes that difficult.
4. Farming - Yeah, I work on a farm I guess. Monday, I layed grassy stuff over seeds. Tuesday, we harvested wild potatoes in the morning, started clearing weeds in the afternoon. Wednesday, we cleared more weeds and started seeded wheat and this morning we seeded some more. This afternoon, I'll be seeding some more.
5. Clothing - I was not prepared. On the first day I got to the house (she picked me up from the train station) and after a little paperwork she said, `You can change into your work clothes and then we'll leave.` I was already wearing my jeans so I didn't know what to do. I decided to change into the polypro long underwear and rain pants and polypro shirt with a t-shirt over it. I did alright. That evening when we got back to the house one of the other workers took off her rainpant looking pants and she had jeans on underneath. I thought maybe that was a good idea and tried that on Tuesday but it was gross and my jeans were completely soaked with sweat by 10am. Wednesday and toady I went back to the polypro long underwear and rainpants. Today I'm in the same. So pretty much I wear the same thing everyday. Laundry gets done at least once a day so I can have anything I want washed so underwear and socks stay clean. I also started borrowing flannel shirts to wear over the polypro top. The t-shirt the first day wasn't that necessary. I just don't like wearing only the polypro top. I also get a pair of rubber boots to wear. They're big on me (even in Japan), but not that bad. And it's better than getting my sneakers all gross.
6. Food - I guess I've been a vegetarian for the past 5 days. It hasn't been bad. This has been the easiest place to eat so far. It's all really bland which is totally my style. Lots of brown rice, mushy vegetables, the occasional pasta (buckwheat pasta this afternoon) and soups that I sometimes try. No dairy, no fish. Actually they have homemade yogurt and cheese that I've had a little of. Yogurt in the morning usually. Ok, they're all back now. I should probably go.

Lastly, I'm going to be leaving early. There are like a billion people here (one more Japanese WWOOFer just showed up as I'm writing this) and I kind of have been feeling crappy since the day I got here. I was under the impression that there would be this whole group of international travelling kids (like in Australia and NZ) and it's pretty much the complete opposite. No one really talks to me, but I can tell when they're talking about me which is never a good feeling. At the dinner table there are usually 2 or 3 conversations and then me and the whole `experiencing their culture` novelty has worn off. I've done laundry, hung out with their kids, set the table, worked on the farm, all of it. So I think I`ve been through enough. I was under the impression that I'd be learning about farming, Japan, herbal remedies, all of that stuff that it said in the book, but it's way too busy for anyone to actually teach me anything. I've kind of turned into cheap labor. Cheap because all they give me is food (which is very very very nice of them) and a place to stay (an extra WWOOFer's house, about 15 minutes away, no running water, freezing cold at night). I was also under the impression that I would have time off to explore the area. See, I'm not against being the only one who speaks English as a first language, but I'm kind of not so keen on it when I also have no time for myself and am constantly shuffled from one place to the next. We wake up at 7:30, get to the family's house by 8:30, eat breakfast, do chores, go to the farm, eat lunch (sometimes on the farm, sometimes at home), more farm work, then home, more chores, dinner, shower, then back to the house, usually by 9pm. I also have the rail pass that I've already paid for so if I figure if I'm not happy here there's not too much of a reason to stay.

Back to the farm now! I'll write more after I leave. So far I've asked for the weekend off. I forgot to mention the part about me not coming back. I will.

Organic Farming??

I go meet my hippies tomorrow. Wow, I'm excited.

I posted some more pictures. Check the flickr account.

Saturday -
I wandered around Tokyo a bit. I wanted to get off at the official "Tokyo" stop on the train line so that's what I did. It felt good. I walked around touristy garden places, then I followed some bright lights and ended up in the electronics district and went into a store called Bic Camera. It was really loud with lots of people with microphones, really crowded and really really really headache-inducing-ly bright. And then once I left the store I followed even bigger, brighter lights to Ginza which is the crazy lights and shopping area, like Times Square maybe? It was pretty cool to walk around in. Really bright lights. Tokyo seems to be good at that.

Saturday night -
Out on the town!! We went to a club with a really fun DJ. It was in Shibuya and the DJ was playing this stuff that I said sounded like Techno Lounge and Lindsay told me that's the music that Shibuya's famous for. Well I was impressed. It was really fun. I danced for the first time in a while. The trains stop running from midnight to 5am so if you decide to go out, you decide to go out all night. We had no problem with that. When we were done with the club we went for a walk, stopped at this place called Freshness Burger and I got a cookie. It was 90 cents but really really good. Their fries were really good too and I don't even like fries that much. Then the 5am train back to Yokohama. I got bored and decided to take a lot of pictures on the train.

We got back at 6am, walked up the hill and went to sleep.

Sunday -
Got out of the house around 2pm. One thing that's kind of funny about Japan is how careful they are about, um, everything. There are DANGER!!! CAUTION!!!! signs/announcements/hand gestures everywhere. Nothing doesn't have a warning. And these same rules apply to the rain. DANGER!! RAIN COMING!!! USE UMBRELLA!!! DO NOT GET WET!!! People are nuts here about their umbrellas. As soon as the first tiny drizzle started the entire city went up in umbrellas. Lindsay, her cousin Sam who had just arrived in Yokohama and I were the only people in sight without them. In fact, they're so into their umbrella usage that places (hotels, restaurants, etc.) will often lend umbrellas if it's raining, or lightly drizzling. Right. So when we got to the hostel that Lindsay's cousin was staying at the lady who ran the place freaked out and tried to get us to borrow some. It was barely drizzling so I kind of laughed (to myself) and said, "Oh, that's alright, thanks though," and we were off to Chinatown to get some dinner. Ha ha, joke's on me. It started pouring.

So completely soaked, we sat down at some Chinese restaurant called Tung Fat and tried to order food.
I got chicken fried noodles and a spring roll. I don't mean to sound mean or inappreciative but I just have a hard time getting excited about eating foods that just don't really taste that good to me. I mean, I did it, I ordered it and I ate a good portion of it, but I probably wouldn't choose to do it again if, let's say Magic Wok was an alternative. I also tried a roasted chestnut. It smelled really good, but it didn't taste really good. We looked for some ice cream but then decided we were too cold and wet and then found out there was a Starbucks! Sometimes it's really nice to see a Starbucks sign. I got a mocha, a chocolate chunk scone, a seat near a window and then fell asleep soaking wet. It was nice. Then we came back to Lindsay's place and I started writing this blog.

TOMORROW!!!!

I go to Chiba to see my hippies. I'm really excited. Really nervous too. I know nothing about farming. I'm really excited to get my Japan Rail pass tomorrow. I've been spending at least 1,000 yen ($10) a day on trains and from tomorrow on I won't need to pay a penny! I mean, I've already paid for it, so at least I won't have to go through the physical act of putting a 1,000 yen bill in the machine.

Oh, one last thing... I wanted to put a disclaimer on the stuff I wrote "about Japan." It should have been "about the small part of Tokyo/Yokohama that I've witnessed so far." I also wanted to add that last night a drunk girl tried really hard to speak English to us and today I saw someone flat out littering. I'm sure Chiba (where the hippies are), Niigata (where Errol is) and the rest of the places around Japan will all be different and not so Tokyo.

To the hippies!

voicemail

Leave me voicemails!!!! It's free for you!!!
1. Dial 1.800.706.1333 (That's the number for the US. Other countries, check here for the toll free number.)
2. Press *, then 2.
3. Enter my STA Travel Connect number 3001192205, then press #.
4. Follow the instructions and leave me a message!

Ok cool!!

Love,
Beth

More pictures

The rest of Korea (haircut, fondue, etc) - is here.

The first batch of Japan (funny signs, new shoes, crazy trash stuff, etc.) - is here.

Japan is not Korea

First things I noticed about Japan...

1) People are quiet! Very quiet. There are signs in the bathroom asking you to close the door quietly. And they don't talk much. On the train from the airport to Lindsay's house we may have been the only ones talking the entire 2 hour ride.

2) First stare, then ignore. That's how you deal with anything out of the ordinary, like for example, a Western person. No little kids or middle school kids coming up to you to show you their English. No rockstar treatment at all. I miss Korea.

3) Things are really clean. I was at a coffee shop yesterday and as soon as I got up a girl was there to wipe up the mark on the counter from the cup and pick up the straw wrapper than had fallen on the ground. There are also 6 or 7 different containers to get rid of trash from "small metal objects" to "plastic wrappings."

4) No touching policy, except for the trains where all bets are off and you will definitely be shoved up next to someone, or several people. Apparently there's a problem with groping. Because of the no touching policy they have trays where you put your money and then they put the change there, like a bank teller kind of, so that there's no chance of possible touching. Also people make funny shapes with their bodies in order to not bump into each other. Apparently other people exist here. I miss Korea.

5) When I said they are quiet that is until you walk in or out of a store, restaurant, etc, where every single staff member greets you, pretty loudly. I was definitely caught off guard the first couple of times.

6) It's really expensive!!! Meals have been no less than $9, beer is $5, cabs start at $6.60 (haven't taken one yet) and the trains are not cheap. I must have gone through like at least $150 so far. Oh boy. I miss Korea.

Those are the first impressions. I'm in Yokohama which is just outside Tokyo, but still on the train lines. This is where Lindsay lives. She lives in a house with 5 other people. An Australian lady who runs the English school Lindsay works at, the Australian lady's brother who also works at the English school, a really funny girl named Sarah from Idaho who also works at the school and then two Japanese guys. One who never leaves his room, the other who is on a business trip, neither who work at the school. The school staff consists of... the four people who live in the house and two Japanese secretaries. Quite an intense community! But it seems to all work out nicely.

Thursday night I watched Lindsay try to fill out a form to get a membership at her local video store. Wow, she did really well. She studied Japanese for two years at UW. I think even with two years I would have just stared at it and then thrown it away and decided I didn't actually need movies. Then I tried to get a Sudoku book. The plane ride over they had some in the magazine and I finished them all and wanted more. I thought this was going to be easy. Sudoku... Japanese, right? Guess not. No one had a clue what I was saying. We finally were pointed in the direction of the crossword puzzles and found what I was looking for. It said, in Japanese, "Number place." That's not fair.

Friday (yesterday) I went to Harajuku because I felt like Gwen Stefani would have wanted me to. It was pretty fun. I bought a pair of used red low top chuck taylors for $10. Everyone was so bright and colorful and I was wearing my dark blue jeans with a dark blue track jacket and black skate shoes. I was the anti-Harajuku girl. Harajuku is pretty much the place with the cheap thrift shops, the expensive thrift shops and then actual expensive clothing too. And everyone looks cool. You have to be wearing something plaid, something ripped, something with stripes, something camo, something with random English words, something baggy, something tight, at minimum 2 belts, 3 or 4 layers on top, 2 or 3 layers on bottom, a REALLY cute hat and either cowboy boots (stiletto cowboy boots if you're a girl) or chuck taylors in some pattern that only you have. All at the same time. This goes for boys and girls. But if you're a girl you better find yourself an equally attractive boy to go along with your outfit. And you have to be really skinny and Asian.

I went to this place behind the Harajuku station and got yelled at a lot. It was a shrine I think, but I'm not sure if I even actually got to it. First I got yelled at sitting down on some steps. Then for trying to go to the side of room to get a look from a different angle, then for going out the wrong exit then for not leaving when it was closing. Wow. I never knew I was so bad. Japanese people were getting yelled at too for all the same things so I didn't take it personally.

I got dinner (Caesar salad with a poached egg on top!) at an internet cafe where all the buttons were off and I couldn't get to blogger. Ahhh!!! After that I went to the nicest Tower Records I have ever seen. Wow. They actually had a sign that said no pictures, otherwise I would have taken a ton. There were 6 floors and probably 50 listening stations on each floor. I saw Japanese albums for Catch 22, Army of Freshman, The Beautiful Girls and Ashlee Simpson! See here is where I have a dilemma. Should I buy any of it? First, I don't have a CD player. Second, I don't have my computer to put them on my ipod. So for any kind of music listening purposes it's pointless. BUT, it's bands I'm friends and albums I might want anyway, AND it has a little spine covering the real one that has some Japanese on it. And I can send it home and listen to it when I get home. But then couldn't I also buy a Japanese import online if I really want the Japanese version? I can't come up with a good answer. I didn't buy anything and figured if I change my mind I'll probably be back in another Tower Records before I leave Japan.

Today is Saturday and I'm now going to put the computer down and go to Tokyo! Lindsay and Sarah are at work for the day but tonight is going to be our big "Going out in Tokyo!!!!!!" night. Pictures to follow....

Everyday is opposite day in Korea!!!

"They don't have potable water, but they have GPS in every cab. They have cell phones that can do anything, but they believe in fan death. Everyday is opposite day in Korea." - Brian Jenks

Reasons why Korea is... um, Korean -

1. Fan death - South Korean firmly believe that an electric fan, if left running overnight in a closed room, can result in the death (by suffocation, poisoning, or hypothermia) of those inside. This belief also extends to air conditioners and the fans in cars. When the air conditioner or fan is on in a car, Koreans are apt to leave their car windows open a crack to avoid "fan death".

From Wikipedia...
"The legend is remarkably resilient, and is accepted even by many Korean medical professionals. In summer, mainstream Korean news sources regularly report on cases of fan death, even if more likely causes (e.g. heart attack, gunshot, alcohol poisoning) are evident.

A typical example is this excerpt from the July 28, 1997, edition of the Korea Herald, an English-language newspaper:

The heat wave which has encompassed Korea for about a week, has generated various heat-related accidents and deaths. At least 10 people died from the effects of electric fans which can remove oxygen from the air and lower body temperatures....
On Friday in eastern Seoul, a 16-year-old girl died from suffocation after she fell asleep in her room with an electric fan in motion. The death toll from fan-related incidents reached 10 during the past week. Medical experts say that this type of death occurs when one is exposed to electric fan breezes for long hours in a sealed area. "Excessive exposure to such a condition lowers one's temperature and hampers blood circulation. And it eventually leads to the paralysis of heart and lungs," says a medical expert.

"To prevent such an accident, one should keep the windows open and not expose oneself directly to fan air," he advised.

2. Ghost people - In Korea, if you haven't been introduced to someone then they don't really exist. This becomes really evident when it's crowded. People will walk into you, push or shove you, and go through a lot of extremely physical contact with no "excuse me" or anything because, basically, you don't actually exist to them. Since Korea was my first Asian country, I didn't know what things were Korean and what was Asian. The pushing/walking into people is Korean. I got to Japan where there is a very strict no touching policy. And "sumimasen" (excuse me)'s all around if any touching does accidentally occur.

3. Squatting - Tired? Need a smoke? Well then let me introduce you to squatting. Feet flat, knees bent. It's actually kind of hard. The picture I have is a guy, but the ladies were doing it too. On the subway, outside the office, wherever.


4. Screaming/loud voices - I thought that German sounded scary when spoken, but woah, Korean may be worse! Very very harsh and loud. I would turn around thinking there was some huge fight going on behind me and it would be two mothers sitting down at a restaurant. I would guess they pick this up young which probably accounts for the intensity of the 5 year old "HELLO HELLO HELLO" chant I talked about before. The cabbies are the worst/scariest.

5. Speaking English - So in Suwon, no one knows English. If by chance they do, they would still have no chance keeping up with the speed or slang of any native speaker. This made it quite an interesting environment. Brian Jenks used to be a very polite, respectful person. Then he moved to Korea. Now he can walk around the street giving very frank judgments on anyone, pretty much to their face, without them having a clue. And he does. Also, there is no topic too rude or obscene to be spoken about in the most public of places. Preferably in as loud of a voice as possible. Danny, Brian and Brian took full advantage. I had a harder time getting into it.

6. "If they didn't invent it, they're the best at it" - That's just the way it goes in Korea. Their national food (kim chi) will prevent SARS, their people are the most intelligent, and pretty much they are the coolest in every and any possible way.

7. Starcraft - I don't know if it's one word or two, but Korea is obsessed with it. Our first night out in Seoul there was a Starcraft tournament happening on an outdoor stage with a huge audience. Two kids playing and the game being projected onto a movie screen. When we got back to the motel Brian showed us the Starcraft channel. All Starcraft, all the time.

8. Traffic - U-turns in the middle of streets are just the way things happen, red lights are only a suggestion, even for left turns. Busses don't always stop you just have to kind of run up to them, bang on the door, then jump in. Not at all stops but at the big crazy Suwon Station ones. They're not really into addresses or street names either. To get to Brian's apartment I would show the name of the girl's middle school on the same street and get dropped off there. Real addresses will do you no good.

9. The cars - About 99% of the cars are either Daewoo, Kia or Hyundai and either white, silver or black. Brian said LG and Samsung made cars too but I don't know if I saw any of those. Trucks are allowed to come in blue. There's a 40% import tax on cars, so pretty much if you want to show how rich you are you get a foreign car.

10. Korean education - So education is really important to Koreans. Wait, let me rephrase that. Grades are really important. The actual act of learning, not so important. The act of doing whatever you have to do (lying, cheating, bribing) to get good grades, very important. They make teachers and principals change schools every two years in an effort to curb corruption.

11. Trash - First, there's a lot of trash around. Seoul, Suwon probably don't count as those "clean" cities like Singapore or Toronto. Second, Brian doesn't know what to do with his trash so he just kind of takes it outside and puts it behind a car. As I said before, Brian is a good person, just living in Korea. He told us that old people get paid to pick up trash so he's actually helping them out. And he lives by himself so it's only a shopping bag or two at most. And when he does "bring it out" it's gone by the time he gets back. And there are also a ton of other bags around so maybe no one has a clue what to do with their trash and the old people are really taking care of it all. I have no idea.

I don't want to give you the wrong idea though. Korea has some really awesome things too!!!

1. Heated floors - Heat for Brian's apartment came from the floor!!! It was really nice. The fake hardwood floors became really nice to stand/walk/sit on.

2. Cheap - Meals were never anymore than $8, my haircut was $15 for the whole thing, taxi rides started at $1.50 and there was no where we couldn't get for less than $5 and tipping is considered rude. I think I took out about $200 which lasted 5 days even including the DMZ tour that was $75. I only used my credit card on the last day for my haircut and the bus to the airport.

3. Ice cream fondue - Baskin Robbins has an ice cream fondue dish that Brian, Brian and I split on the last night. Small balls of different flavored ice cream, some green tea cake stuff and a couple pieces of fruit (including tomato). Korea 1, USA 0. Does this exist and I just haven't seen it?

4. "Fusion" restaurants - Their shot at "Western food." We ordered nachos. They were chips with ketchup (salsa), cheese whiz (cheese) and what we decided was probably whipped sour cream. We got a fruit dish that didn't have a drop of mayo on it so that was really exciting. Brian ordered a "Midori Shower" and I went back and forth between a "Matini" or a "Dequila Sunrise" but then ordered a Sex on the Beach and was then given a Blue Hawaiian.

5. Dance Dance Revolution - I finally found a place where I wasn't too embarrassed to try it out! And guess what?? I sucked!! I had wussed out countless times in America and Australia because I generally don't like doing things that I know I'll be bad at in front of an audience. But in Korea I felt a sense of American pride in that, I am American and chances are I'm going to suck and you all (Koreans) know this, so come on, gather 'round, and watch the white girl look like an idiot. I'm American, this is what I do. So Brian and I put out 500 Won in and had a blast. You get graded, I got an F, Brian got a B. But then we did it again two days later and I got a D, Brian got an F. But hey, in America we care about more than just the grades, we care about the effort and I give myself an A for effort! I have a video from our DDR experience and when I get a chance I'll make a link for it.

6. Bowing - I know how to give a formal Korean bow, words and all. I have video of Danny and me practicing. And I can show you the real thing when I get home!

Thank God

I've never been happier to see a nun.

Danny and I were on our own. Our mission was 1) figure out how to get to the airport and 2) get to the post office to send stuff home (my backpack was getting too heavy).

We went to tourist info place near Brian's school and got maps. Each of us got our own maps. We found out Danny needed to get to Castle Hotel to get the bus to the airport. Awesome. And the map was in English and Korean so we could point to it for a cabbie.

Then to the post office. That wasn't easy. I didn't know how to say, "I don't have a return address" in Korean. It worked out after a while then we tried to get a cab and go to Castle Hotel. Then I realized I had sent the map home. Oops. And Danny couldn't find his map. We lost both of them. Also, I had a different bag with me and forgot to bring Brian's number. No good. So then we decided we'd take a bus to Suwon Station, go to the tourist info place there. Suwon station is the most popular place in Suwon so we figured bus drivers would recognize it in it's English name if we asked. But we got on 5 busses saying, "Suwon Staion???" and each driver just shook his head. Don't know if they didn't understand or they didn't go there. So after a while of that we saw a nun. And she was black. This was the first black person I've seen since being here I think. I went out on a limb and asked her if she spoke English. She did!!!!!! She was from Zambia and had been living in Korea for three years. Wow. We asked how to say Suwon Station in Korean and she said she was getting on the bus to go there and we could just follow her. Wow, SOOOOOO helpful. We talked for a while, she gave us some cards to give to Brian. He'll be excited. Her Christian name was Agnus.

I also realized that trying to be being polite in a language that isn't understood is kind of pointless. Saying excuse me, thank you and please doesn't really matter. I was using them all and then realized that they just turn into more words that aren't understood and make things more confusing.

I go to Japan tomorrow. I've got a phrasebook. Watch me go.

If you want to be a rockstar....

be and English teacher in Korea, or just white.

First off I finally posted a ton of pictures.

Next, what's been happening the last bunch of days...

Saturday -
DMZ - We first ate at this restaurant and this random dude tried to get us eat this stuff called kimchee. Kimchee is a loose translation for "hell food" and I tried it cause it looked a little like pasta. It tasted like satan relocated hell to my mouth. The meat was pretty good though, and the watermelon went down well. Then we went to north korea and came back. The end. - Danny
Dinner - bibimbop. Yeah, it's really fun to say, but it wasn't that fun to eat. There was rice, so I ate that. And an egg, so I tried to eat that. But it was covered with other not good tasting stuff. Oh yeah and we went to diner with a bunch of Madison kids. There are about 60 of them in and around Seoul teaching English. So at dinner was Brian Jenks, Danny, me, Brian King (my best and favorite, "I'm So Bored w/ the USA" guest), Andy (turns out he was in my psych class), his girlfriend Emily (from UW too) and Stuart (knew him from WUD people). So even in Seoul, South Korea, Madison is really small.
Market - Things you could buy for 1,000 won ($1) - shoes, shirts, spinning hot dogs, more silkworm larve than you could ever want, 3 pair of socks and a ton of other pointless crap that I would never, ever need.
Bar - Wanted to order beer, but we had to order food also. So we got a $7 plate of french fries and tater tots. It came with two slices of cucumber. I ate those.
Sleep - Dong Bang motel. Shoes off in the room, bathroom sandles, the whole thing. Hard mats on the floor for sleeping. Major backpain.

Sunday -
Breakfast - chocolate cereal and milk. GOOD!
Prison Museum - really intense. Room after room of Japanese torturing Koreans. Lots of screaming, blood, rape, and litte kids walking around.
Palace - ate "sandwhiches" and "rice cakes" and ice cream. I've been eating a lot of ice cream. We dressed up in the tratitional Korean get up. Brian - King, Beth - Queen, Danny - giggle, giggle, giggle. Pictures are up at flickr.
Insadong - cool markets, no cars allowed on saturdays and sundays. Ate at a tofu place. Tofu and beef soup, I ate more than when I had bibimbop. Korean meals come with like 20 side dishes each. Like a fish, way too much kimchee and pieces of fruit smothered in mayo. But, at this place we got eggs to drop into the soup, so that was fun.
To Suwon - Where Brian lives, 1 million people, about 1/2 hour south of Seoul. His apartment is really small. There's a twin bed and the equivalent of a twin bed on the floor. And three people. Hmm.... The sink and toilet double as a shower. You close the door and take a shower while standing in front of the sink/mirror. Oh, and it's about 2 inches below the rest of the apartment. So the water doesn't get out of the bathroom.

Monday -
SCHOOL!!!
If you ever want to be a rockstar, be an English teacher in Asia. As soon as we started walking to school with Brian kids started screaming. "BRIAN TEACHER!!!! BRIAN TEACHER!!! HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO!!!!!!!!" So the day was really cool. It was halloween, we handed out erasers to kids who got the answers right. They don't know about the candy! Poor souls. The kids were really dumb sometimes. "What day was yesterday?" "computer games." "How are you today?" "Monday." No. But they tried. Those were the 5th graders. The 1st graders were really cute. Danny and I played soccer with the kids. I tried to get the girls to join me but they just giggled, covered their mouths and ran away. When we were leaving kids started screaming again, "BYE BRIAN TEACHER!!!! NICE TO MEET YOU!!!" They don't get what that means. Brian yells back, "You've known me 2 months!" They don't get it, but they mean well.
Dinner - neck or throat of some animal, possibly a pig. Cooked on a tiny grill in your table, wrap it in lettuce then shove the whole thing your mouth. Fun. Followed with... ice cream. Also had apples covered with mayo.

TUESDAY -
Korean Folk Village - one of Korea's biggest attractions. There's an amusement park too. We went on the viking with two middle school girls. They ran on and went to either side so Danny and I followed and the 4 of us had a screaming contest. It was fun. Then bumper cars like 5 times. Very fun. There were also a lot of school groups with a lot of "HELLO HELLO HELLO!!!" screaming five year olds. They don't see white people that often so they get really excited and scream hello. And then as soon as you say, "How are you?" they get nervous and turn around. We walked around a lot, went on traditional swings, ordered the wrong food, overpayed for it, ate really really bad corn, threw it out, bought 3 cups of dippin' dops, saw a few other white people for the first time since getting to seoul, watched traditional dancing, saw farm animals who had better corn than we bought, skipped the museums cause it was really nice outside, went on all the rides again and then got a bus back to the tourist center. Took pictures of funny signs. Check flickr.
Dinner - Went to the mall, tried to get Chinese food, realized the place closed, went to Burger King. I couldn't have been happier. Six piece chicken tenders and a Jr. Whopper. Yeah, that's right, and a Jr. Whopper. I was really hungry. No rice, no kimchee. I'm all about experiencing culture, but I'm also into eating food that tastes good to me once in a while. Brian and Danny got ice cream after. I skipped it. Two a day was enough for me.
Arcade - Then we went to the arcade in the mall. I dance dance revolutioned for the first time. Danny took video, don't worry. Brian and I also played some firefighting game. We saved people until the 3rd round, then they all died I guess. Oh well. After that we met up with two more Madison people (I didn't know them well but I've definitely seen them and probably introduced to them before). Then we walked one of them home through Suwon's red light district, which looked like a tiny version of Amsterdam, with all the rooms and sad girls sitting in the windows. Brian and I tried to get Danny to get a hooker, but then were interupted by the first person in Korea to kind of speak English, some drunk guy probably coming from some hooker's room. That was weird. But we talked to him for a bit. Something about New York, Boston and Chicago and maybe a stepfather. I don't know.
Then we went home. Then we slept.

WEDNESDAY -
TODAY!!! posted pictures, took a shower, wrote in the blog.

There is sooooooo much more to say but my hands are done typing for today.

Next entry will be about the funny/ridiculous things about Korea. Like... fan death and ghost people.

HAPPY HAPPY FUN FUN ASIA!!!!

I Really Don't Speak Korean

Woo hoo!

I made it to Korea! I'm happy and having fun and have never felt dumber in my entire life. Just what I was hoping for! Quick run down...

Thursday
3:50pm - Left New York. The plane flight was 16 hours. I have no idea how much I slept. I don't remember falling asleep but I remember waking up. We got dinner about an hour after we took off which was nice (Beef Stew) and then breakfast (scrambled eggs) an hour before we landed which was nice, but kind of confusing becuase it was actually 7pm. For breakfast there was also some abalone and clam congee dish but I went for the eggs. Sorry. Not adventurous, but I didn't think plane food was place for adventure.
Friday
8:50pm HK time(8:50am NY time)- Got to Hong Kong! Got my 90 day visitor's visa, met Danny, got a fruit and yogurt parfait from McDonalds (it has peaches instead of strawberries! How exotic!), walked around for a while and then went back to immigration to get on another plane. There was probably some transit visa I could have gotten because I was only there at most 3 hours but oh well.
Saturday
12:25am HK time (12:25pm NY time) - Left Hong Kong! The lights were on for the entire flight except for the last hour. That was kind of weird. And they served us a meal, which was also weird cause it was only a 2 1/2 hour flight and it was kind of the middle of the night. but at around 1:30 they had food. The guy asked us which one we wanted in Korean. I said, "Um, English?" and he said, "uh.... chicken or... uh..." and Danny and I both said, "chicken." The other thing was rice with vegetables I think with some sauce that came out of a tube. The chicken was fine.
4:50 am Korean time (3:50pm NY time)- Land in Seoul. Go through Korean immigration, customs, get money, go the bathroom, got on bus 6A with only minor confusion. Brian's instructions - take the 6A bus to Meyong Dong, get a cab to Joong Ang theater, across the street is a Pizza Hut, go down the alley next to the Pizza Hut and the motel will be at the end. Turns out the bus stopped at the theater so we didn't even need the cab. Woo hoo! So that was easy. Oh, and the bus driver gave me a let Jesus save you pamplet on the way out. That was cool.

Brian and Brian just got here!! We're going to the DMZ!!!! I'm so excited!!!!!!!!

And not tired!!!

Other things I've learned:

1) Korean cappuchino tastes like powdered cappuchino
2) Korean cops really do not know how to speak English although they totally mean well.
3) If something says chocolate bread, it's probably going to taste good.

8 hours, 16 hours, 2 hours, 3 hours, DMZ

By the time I'll be finished writing this, it'll be 7:50am Thursday morning. I haven't gone to sleep yet. My flight is at 3:50pm Thursday afternoon. (8 hours)
Then I'll be on a plane from 3:50pm NYC time to 10:10pm Friday Hong Kong time. (16 hours, 20 minutes)
Then I have until 12:20am (Saturday) to get off of a plane, get my bag from baggage claim, go through customs, find Danny, get tickets, check my bag, go through customs, and get on another plane. (2 hours, 10 minutes)
Then we fly to Seoul, South Korea, and when we get off that plane it'll be 4:50am Saturday. (3 hours, 20 minutes)
Then we meet Brian Jenks and Brian King and go tour the DMZ. There's a dress code. I think I may skip that and take a nap. Like in a real bed. Just a thought. We'll see how it goes.

As for my last night here... I had a kick-ass make your own sundae going away party tonight. Thank you to all those who came. Yes, all 8 of you.

And a hardcore shout out to Erica, my sister, who stayed awake to help me pack. It was not easy, but she helped me get through it. Thank you Erica.

So the rundown of me, right now:

I'm really tired.

I'm really nervous.

But I'm more tired.

Asia better be worth it.