For me this was the first time I had ever been to a country where I had basically no knowledge of the native language. I thought it might make me feel a little uncomfortable like I had this little bubble around me, but I think it just opened up all my other senses to take it all in since I was paying no attention at all to the language and trying to translate things in my head. I'm thankful though that most transportation signs have English on them as well so getting around wasn't a problem at all.
Friday, we arrived at the airport late in the afternoon, and by the time we had taken the bus to Seoul and reached the hotel it was getting dark. We headed to a nearby restaurant located in a back alley for a huge pot or spicy chicken stew. The meal comes in one of those old style hand laundry tin tubs filled with vegetables, spicy soup, and a whole chicken. Fantastic meal for two. After that we headed did a bit of walking around and headed back to the hotel.
The next morning we went to an area called Itaewon which apparently is a foreigner paradise, as probably 75% of the people I saw while there weren't Korean. It also happens to be home to a number of leather clothing and jacket stores. Korean leathers are a hot item in Japan and Keiko was in the market for something distinctive, but unfortunately, unlike everything else in Korea, the leathers weren't cheap and she was left empty handed.
After a bit of walking around and some lunch we went to Gyeongbukgong, the old palace of the Korean Emperor. The buildings were destroyed by the Japanese during their occupation of Korea, but the Korean government has made it a priority to restore the palace to its former glory, and I must say what they've done so far is fantastic. The palace grounds are massive, and the first thing I noticed after experiencing a number of Japanese castles, which are surrounded by greenery and gardens, is that the grounds of Gyeongbukgong are predominantly stone-covered. The architecture is also quite different and seems to have a greater Chinese influence than buildings of similar age in Japan. Following the tour of the palace was dinner where we had an incredibly spicy stew. I also started to feel the symptoms of my uncoming cold around this time.
The next day we headed to Suwon to take in the last day of the Hanmadang. I had seen some on tv the previous morning and was pumped to see it first hand. The Hanmadang is a little different than a normal tournament in that there is no sparring. The focus is on patterns, breaking, and team demonstrations which combine, patterns, breaking, and pre-planned demonstration fights with flashy techniques. It took a fair bit of time to reach Suwon, and being the last day the tournament finished in the afternoon, but I still managed to see quite a bit and a number of impressive things. I was a bit surprised at the crowd (or lack thereof) which was mostly made up of other competitors. The tournament was free to watch, located in a largely populated area, and they had free drinks and snacks so the lack of a crowd was pretty surprising to me. I don't think it was because it was the final day either, because when I saw the tv broadcast from the day before the crowd was looking just as thin.
Most of the competitors were (surprise!) Korean, coming from various universities around the country. By far the most impressive was the team from Yong-In University. After doing a bit of research afterwards I found out Yong-In University is one of the premier martial arts schools in the world. One of their faculties is the College of Martial Arts where it's possible to take a 4-year university degree in Taekwondo! Students who complete the program graduate with a sport instructor's license, the 2nd level playing instructors license (not really sure what this is), and a 4th degree black belt. Anyway one of their team members managed to break 49 boards that were only being held by one hand in 30 seconds with consecutive reverse turning kicks to take a breaking title. Another girl from the team won the jumping front-snap kick breaking with a break at 225cm. I didn't get to see their team performance, but I did see team performances from India, Mexico, and Taiwan. The Taiwanese were by far the best of those three and Keiko commented on how they seemed to be much better showmen, and far more entertaining than the other two teams.
Another reason for coming to the tournament was to see level of competition of other countries and whether or not the Toronto level (particularly the black belt team, Team One, that my brother and I are/were are part of) is up to par. I've gotta say hands down that their is easily enough talent on Team One to compete at next year's Hanmadang if they wanted to. While I don't think we could win or place top three, the team would most likely be better than the Mexican and Indian teams I saw, and very close to the Taiwanese team's level I think.
Since the tournament ended rather early we did a bit of sightseeing in Suwon, home to Hwaseong Fortress, Korea's only walled city. I came to Suwon to see Taekwondo, but Hwaseong fortress for me was easily the highlight of the entire trip, attraction-wise. A 5.74km wall circles what use to be the entirety of Suwon city before urban sprawl took over. Four main gates at the cardinal directions along with other guard towers, observation posts and the like make up the wall. Inside, a castle and archery range among other historical things, as well a large number of modern buildings make up the fortress city. I can not adequately describe what a site Hwaseong fortress is. I can only say that is the most magnificent man-made structures I have seen in either Korea, Japan, or any other place I've ever been, and even some of those I haven't. If you are ever in Seoul and have a day you can take to go to Suwon and experience Hwaseong Fortress DO IT! You will not be disappointed.
That night we headed back to Seoul and met up with three of Keiko's friends from English school in Toronto. One of them couldn't stay around long, but the other two took us on a whirlwind night tour of Seoul where we visited Seoul Tower, the Han River, a 24 hour grocery store popular with Korean music and TV stars where we picked up kimchi and other food stuffs to bring home, and Dongdaemun, the famous shopping district home to a number of department stores which never close so Koreans and tourists alike can get their shopping done any time of day, any day of the year. It's really kinda crazy when you think about it.
Monday we met up with Keiko's friends again and since our flight was later in the afternoon we had time to have a group lunch and do a last little bit of touring around the popular shopping district for young people. While Keiko and her female friend were in some girly store, her other male friend and I waited outside. While we were standing outside the store we were approached by some workers from a Christian TV station who asked if we wouldn't mind giving our opinions on gays and lesbians. It was pretty uneventful, but all the people walking by were giving us looks, probably wondering why the cameras were focused on the one white guy in the area.
After lunch we headed to the airport and the two friends who took us out on the night tour escorted us all the way to the airport. Riding the train to the airport were interviewed yet again, this time by what Keiko's friend told us is a fairly large and popular national business news network, about what we thought of the airport train we were riding on. I'll tell you the same thing I told them. It's fantastic. Spotlessly clean, fast (but not Shinkansen fast), and is mindblowingly cheap. The total fare for the express train is 3100 won ($3 CAD, 360 yen) for a trip that distance wise would cost you at least 2000 yen in Japan (more if you took the Shinkansen) and probably $10 CAD on the not nearly as nice GO Train. Keiko's friend said the clip will most likely be up on the internet soon, so she'll try and find it and send us the link. So if I get it I will put it up here as well. Maybe if all else fails there a job for me on Korean TV with all this recent exposure???
Finally, I'd just like to share a few random observations I made during the trip.
- Seoul has to be one of the most hilly cities I've ever visited, and I was surprised considering how big the city is. I thought it would be more flat like Tokyo, but there are hills everywhere and they are aren't just tiny little things either. More often then not they are fairly steep and long. There are a number of residential areas in these steep hills throughout the city and they are fantastic to walk through to see the beautiful terraced houses and experience the "real Seoul."
- No matter where we were in the city there were always an incredibly diverse group of people: young, old, couples, all guy/girl groups, families etc. In Japan many place you go to tend to be frequented by a certain group of people. You don't see girl only groups in ramen shops, or young people in snack bars, but it seemed like wherever we were or went there was always a healthy mix of different groups of people and I found it very refreshing.
- Before I came to Japan and went to Tokyo first hand, the image I had in my mind of what Tokyo was (outside of famous areas who's appearance I already knew) is basically what Seoul is.
- Seoul, unlike any other big city I've ever been in is CHEAP! The subway costs 1000 won ($1 CAD, 120 yen), you can get a great meal basically anywhere for 5-6000 won, and even a huge baller-style meal is at most about 10000 won a person. If you want to drink as well a bottle of soju (350ml) is 3000 won and beer (750ml bottle) is 4000. The hotel (which was actually like a little apartment) cost about 50000 won a night and was right in the heart of the city with easy access to everything.
- Driving in Seoul seems a lot easier than in Japan. Despite the volume of cars the roads are a lot wider. There are actually a number of roads that run throughout the city that are 10 lanes or wider. There is a ton of horn honking though and taxi drivers at night seem to go colourblind and run red lights like crazy.
- Unlike Tokyo, which I get sick of after 2 or 3 days, spending 4 days in Seoul I only wished my trip had been longer. It seems like Seoul is a very easy city to live in. Of course, I really have no idea about daily life there, as a tourist, but I was thinking about all the English teachers here who lost there jobs when Nova closed down and I got the impression that if you were just coming to either Japan or Korea just for the hell of it as an English teacher with no knowledge of the country's native language or customs, Seoul would be much easier to get used to than Tokyo or Osaka and Japanese life.
- We travelled out of Nagoya airport rather than Osaka because it's much closer to Shiga and Keiko had never been there and was probably the best decision we madeaside from actually going to Korea. The place is deserted compared to Osaka airport. Leaving we made it through check-in, security, and to the gate in probably 30 minutes. Coming back we cleared immigration, got our bags and made it through the final security to the train in a similar time. From now on, all my trips will be from Nagoya unless it's impossible to do so. Easily the most hassle-free airport experience of my life since I have been old enough to travel on my own.
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