Sunday, September 18, 2011

Last days in Seoul… Returning to Japan…

Hi everyone from Curridabat, Costa Rica!!! :D
After the first days in South Korea and the initial guide given mostly by Elisha, it was easier to visit tourist spots by myself. I also got used to Korean food and I could find places where the food was free from hot spice (something rare in Korea). I found an Iraqi restaurant where I ate almost everyday after finding the place!
I loved Soul city, but the most important thing from this short trip was the people I met!
After the first days, another nice and interesting people stayed at Mr. Kim’s hostel… I became friends with Phillipe from Canada and Visnu from India. We took an interesting 6-hour walk around Seoul, got lost in our way to some temples and talked a lot about cultural stuff and differences related to the places where we live and from where we are. Here are some photos the day we walk around the city and with Mr. Kim, the hostel’s owner…
Seoul:With Phill and Vishnu at the main plaza!!  Seoul: The HUGE pixel man!!
Seoul: Mr. Kim's Hostel with Phill!!  Seoul: Vishnu's last day at the hostel
Also, by the strange paths of destiny I met Mirai, a beautiful Japanese girl that was also on a short trip and whom I would meet again many times in Tokyo (fortunately!) I climbed Soul tower with Mirai and I had a wonderful time that day… :) She returned to Japan before me… Also she told me not to upload photos from Seoul, but in some other post I will talk about some of our time together in Tokyo.
I climbed Seoul Tower like 5 times with different people, the view at the top is amazing and there is something very particular here: the love key locks. What is this all about? Well, a couple climbs to the top of the hill, they make a love promise, close the lock  and then toss the key into the void, this is not so impressive after all but what is really amazing is the quantity of locks in this place, there are millions of them!! Here some shots from the place…
Seoul Tower: Love promise locks!!!  Seoul Tower: Love promise lock trees...
Seoul Tower: toooo many locks!!!  View from Seoul Tower...
I got a bit sick during my last days in Seoul, because of this I took 2 days off to rest at the hostel, when I was in better condition I met with Elisha again and we visited another nice place. It was an old military fort (it still has some tight military security) and now days is just a tourist spot. With Joe’s company we headed to a typical Korean village and we were very lucky, on that day an impressive Taekwondo exhibition took place!!! Here are some photos and 2 of 4 videos I took from the Taekwondo event, the other videos can be seen in my Youtube channel!
 Korean traditional houses...  Elisha in a military fort...
 Korean traditional style houses...  haha so funny!!

Another interesting experience I had was Karaoke (my very first time in Asia!) with the excellent company of Vishnu and Julia and Andy from Holland, they stayed a couple of days at the hostel. I never thought that this Karaoke would be so fun! I singed some metal rock songs (the karaoke palces here have a lot of music loaded!) and everybody had a great time! Fun and great time!!!

Good concentration!!! :D  The karaoke stage...
Run to the Hills!!!!!!!  With Andy and Julia at the Korean Karaoke!!!
I can’t finish this post without a comment about Korean food… This people really love hot spicy food and as some of you might know for me this is not very attractive. I’m glad I could try something very good for my taste: Korean BBQ!!! This are very thin meat slices and rare vegetables (some fun fact is that they use scissors to cut everything!) mixed with some delicious sauces and spices. Everything is cook on the same table where everyone’s eating (Chinese tradition I think) and each person takes what they want to try…
Julie and Mr Kim at the Korean BBQ!!!  Korean BBQ ingredients...Korean BBQ!!!! Sooo good!!!!
Also related to food in South Korea, I could try some strange things here… The weirdest was the living octopus! You can feel the guy moving in your mouth… Actually it was almost flavorless, but this was a very rare experience :P This video is about how Korean people prepare the octopus for eating (please note that this video is posted only for cultural reasons)…
I’ve shared with you the most excellent experiences I had in South Korea… Once again I have to say: what made this trip so interesting, apart from the cultural things was the people from many places I met, friendships from far away places that will last forever! Time to end this chapter with a video I took near the place where I stayed, a bit worried about my return to Japan and with my voice a little different because of my sickness…
My return to Japan was successful and in the next posts I will tell you about my next 3 months in Honshu, Japan where really amazing things happened!!! :D
I hope you are doing excellent wherever you are!!!!!!
Seoul: Military fort...  Last day at the hostel...