Republic of Korea

The land of kimchee, boy/girl bands, and plastic surgery. At least that's what most Japanese people think, and after having visited Seoul, the capital city of South Korea, four times I think korea lives up to that image fairly well.

Kimchee is served with pretty much every meal, and I am pretty confident in saying that the large majority of restaurants will automatically give you kimchee (and free refills).

Boy and girl bands; now I am sure you are scratching your heads and saying to yourself "I thought they disappeared with the end of the 90s?" Well, not in Korea. They are more prevalent than ever, and I am sure there is not a single Korean person (Or possibly Asian living in Asia) that doesn't know who Girl's Generation or Big Bang are.

Now, I am assuming that a number of you reading this aren't familiar so I have prepared selected a couple songs and their accompanying music videos for your viewing pleasure.

Girls' Generation - Mr. Taxi

When searching for this video, I came across a David Letterman clip featuring Girl's Generation singing on the program, so I actually may be incorrect in saying that many of you are unfamiliar with them. It also turns out that the song I have posted "Mr. Taxi" also has a Japanese and English version. 

Now onto a boy band. Big Bang is their name and they are extremely popular in Asia. I bought one of their CD's when I was in Korea last time and I have to say that I quite enjoy listening to them. Does that mean I have been in Asia too long? hahaha. 

Big Bang - Tonight

I have also mentioned plastic surgery at the beginning of my post. It may come as a surprise to most, but South Korea is a very popular destination in Asia to get work done. This article from the New York Times in 2011 suggests that as many as one in every five South Korean women have had some form of plastic surgery. Narcissistic a little? From what some of my Korean friends have told me, looks are extremely important in Korean society in anything from finding a potential partner to being selected or obtaining an interview for job. 

From my personal experience, I noticed that there are certainly no lack of cosmetic surgery clinics in korea and from what I am told the price is fairly reasonable as compared to many other countries. 

Aside from the what I have mentioned above Korea is really a great place to explore. It is certainly more affordable than Japan and there is pretty much something for everyone. 

Here are a few pictures I have taken on my several trips to the country. From traditional temples to the markets that sell anything and everything and on to the ultra chic café's of the Garosugil area there is something for everyone to enjoy. 

                                          

                                           

                           

I had the dessert with the strawberry on top! 

The Big "C" -- China, of Course!

Having only visited China twice, I am far from an expert on anything Chinese. I am sure it would take me hundreds of hours of study and numerous years of living and travelling in China to even break the surface of a country with such a deep history and complex political system.

To some, China it is a place where human rights are violated and freedom of speech is non-existent. To others, it is a bustling economic epicentre where capitalists run the show. One thing I can say with confidence; however, is that China has infiltrated almost every nation, country, or state on this earth, in some way or another. Just take a look at the tag on your clothes, the label on your mobile phone, or the sticker on your child's toys. Chances are that at least one of those things, if not all, will have in some way come from China. 

I have met a few people who refuse to go to China because of what they hear on the news, see on TV. However, I think that it is necessary to visit somewhere and see for yourself before forming and opinion and judging, and I can guarantee you that if you take the time to talk to a Chinese person in China they will have opinions about just about anything and everything. And with all of the technologies today it is quite easy to get around the "Great Firewall" that is so famously blocking large amounts of information found on the internet in most other countries. 

So before judging a book by it's cover, or in this case a country by it's head of state or political affiliations why not jump on a plane, or a boat, or in a car or on the train, and get a first hand look!

My first trip to China was in 2004 during the time I was studying abroad in Japan and I would have to say my first impression wasn't what most people would hope it to be. I was met by a grumpy immigration officer who clearly wasn't in the mood to deal with the hundreds of foreigners lined up in front of him. I made the mistake of not filling out my immigration card properly leading the officer to bark at me in Chinese. I am still not sure what was wrong, as he ended up waiving me through after I stood there for a few minutes with a puzzled look on my face but in the end I was successful in entering the country and making it to my final destination (a youth hostel in central Shanghai where I met one of my dearest Canadian friends). 

My second impression or impressions of China was "There is so much chaos, noise, and pollution...."

Not that I am trying to paint a bad picture of China or that say that I dislike the place, because I really enjoyed visiting China, but I can say that it is like no other place that I have visited. 

Five years later, in 2009 I had the opportunity to visit China for a second time and I would have to say that it has changed dramatically, or at least Shanghai has. Here is a picture from 2004 and a picture from 2009 taken in the same location in Shanghai. 

It's hard to believe that a cityscape can change that much in the spend of five years. I was also amazed by how much the city had been cleaned up and pollution had disappeared. Though, this may have been a result of the wold expo that was taking place at the time of my second visit. I am told by a friend who was living in Shanghai that much of the pollution returned soon after the expo finished and Shanghai disappeared from the international spotlight.

I also had the pleasure of visiting both Hangzhou and Nanjing while in China as well. Hangzhou is famous for it's beauty and West Lake which is located within the city. Though it was still winter and the weather wasn't great, that didn't stop the masses of people taking walks along the lake and hiring a canoe or rowboat to paddle out into the lake.

Nanjing, as most people are aware is most famous for the atrocities that took place during World War II with the "Rape of Nanjing." But because I am not a historian and embarrassingly have to admit that I don't know a whole lot about the incident, I am not going to go into any detail but will instead show a few pictures of what Nanjing looks like today.

The above picture is of the hike up to Dr. Sun Yat-Sen's Mausoleum. Dr. Sun Yat-Sen was a revolutionary who was the founder of what is not the Republic of China, or Taiwan. Though I don't recommend hiking up to the top when it's 30 degrees, like I did, I do highly recommend it for anyone visiting at cooler times.  With some 300 stairs (if my memory is correct) it has quite a view from the top.

This photo above was taken in the southern section of Nanjing near the Confucius temple. It is extremely popular as people can hop on one of the boats and take a cruise down the river. This isn't just any trip, but one filled with neon lights that brighten up the surroundings almost to be point of being a bit tacky!


I am afraid I will need to cut my self off here but note that I will re-visit China in the near future. This is not only because I have left so much out, but also because my next trip to China is already booked and if all goes as planned, I will be on the plane bound for Beijing on May 30th.

Japan

I am fairly certain everyone who knows me, is aware of my slight obsession with travelling. But what seems like an obsession to most, is a passion to me. I just can't seem to sit still for more than a couple months before the itch to travel becomes unbearable. 

In order to share this "obsession" or "passion" or however you would like to classify it, I have decided to write a little bit about each of the countries I have been to in my short twenty eight years on this earth. And what better place to start off with than the country where my passion for travel started. Japan. 

I first travelled to Japan in 2004 to participate in a university study abroad programme. I was elated, not only from being accepted to study abroad, but also about taking my first trip abroad (apart from the U.S.A), though I can't say the same for parents. After some pleading to the ones with the purse and being selected for a scholarship covering the majority of the costs of studying abroad, I packed my bags, boarded the plane and was off to the "Land of the Rising Sun." 

For anyone having lived abroad for more than a couple of months, I am sure you are aware of the flood of emotions that you go through over the course of your stint abroad. Excitement, nervousness, frustration, happiness, loneliness, the list goes on and I am sure that I had experienced them all at that time. But there is no replacement for the sense of fulfillment having made it through that first ten to twelve months. 

My introduction to Japan began in the Kansai region (Osaka, Hyogo, Kyoto etc) and I would have to say that this picture represents Osaka VERY well.

Shin Sekai, Osaka (新世界、大阪）

 

Bright lights, comedians, delicious food and friendly people. These are all characteristics of Osaka and anyone who has spent any time in Osaka will know what I am talking about. Obviously this isn't the "Japan" that most people imagine, but when you spend enough time in Japan this becomes extremely normal. 

Now, I would assume you are scratching your head and wondering "but what about the temples?" Well, being lucky enough to have lived about forty minutes from the ancient capital of Kyoto, I have seen my fair share of temples and enjoy spending the day wandering around the grounds of a temple.  

A couple of my favourites are pictured below. 

Fushimi Inari Taisha 伏見稲荷大社

Although this this picture isn't of the temple itself, the walk in through the mountains of Kyoto around this  shrine is pretty spectacular. This shrine was first established in the year 711 and is known as the shrine with a thousand torii (Torii are the red gates you see in the picture above). Although this shrine is not normally on the list of shrines and temples to visit on a first trip to Kyoto, it is definitely worth the visit. 

Kiyomizu Temple （清水寺）

This next temple is more well quite a bit more well known and just as spectacular. Kiyomizu Temple was established in 778, but like many other temples in Japan, it has been rebuilt several times due to having been burned down.  It is well known for the beautiful colours of the tree leaves in the fall and also the pastel pink of the sakura (cherry blossoms) in the spring. 

Since this is one of the more famous temples of Kyoto I think most first timers to Japan will have this temple on their list of places to visit. 

In order to avoid boring you all too much I will limit this post to two more must see places in Japan. One for the adventurous and one for anyone willing to go slightly off the beaten path. 

For the adventurous, none other than Mount Fuji. Not only visiting it but climbing all the way to the top. 

The view is breathtaking, to say the least, and the feeling of achievement after reaching the top is pretty exhilarating. 

I am not sure how many of you have seen the sun rise from 3776 meters above the sea, but it looks something like this. 

The last place I want to introduce, is my favourite place in Japan. It is a place that the majority of people overlook when deciding where to visit while in Japan. This is likely due to the difficulty in getting there and the limited access to information in English, but I would say that anyone visiting Japan should consider visiting. The name is Mt. Aso and it is located on the southern island of Kyushu and looks something like this. 

If you like nature, the countryside and a friendly reception (regardless of whether you speak Japanese) Kyushu is the place to be. I lived there for just about two years and consider this one of my several homes.  If you are lucky enough to go in late summer you will be surrounded by fragrant flowers, sweet smelling grass and what else but hundreds of kilometres of rice paddies. 

I hope this brief introduction to "My Japan" has sparked your interest in the country and might just convince you to visit someday. If you want a travel partner or guide for the country, don't hesitate to ask! I will join you any day!!

A Day at the Zoo!

I have been holding myself back from doing a lot of sight seeing because the weather has been poor ever since arriving in Taipei. I am told that if you go to the south of Taiwan the weather is much more pleasant, but not to hold my breath on seeing nice weather in Taipei. A British friend even said that it rains more here than in the U.K. which definitely says something for the weather. 

However, knowing that if I hold back for too long, I may end up not doing anything at all, I decided to head to the Taipei Zoo with a couple of my classmates. 

As we shuffled through the gates of the zoo and the attendants took entrance tickets, we were also handed a slip of paper, which under further investigation turned out to be a ticket designating a time to go and visit the panda exhibit. 

I guess the pandas are so popular that the zoo needs to designate times for the hoards of people visiting the zoo in order to avoid chaos, and I would assume stressing the panda out too much. Although we had every intention of visiting the pandas, by the time our turn came around we were all too tired from the masses of people and walking around the rest of the zoo. 

Although we "missed out" on the pandas, by far my favourite part of the zoo was the butterfly exhibit. The butterflies were free to fly about the biosphere type building to feed on the flowers and different fruits that were set out for them. 

Here are a couple of pictures I manage to capture with my macro lens. 

Wikipedia has taught me that there are approximately 377 species of butterfly in Taiwan of which approximately 56 are endemic to the island. Needless to say, they are spectacular to photograph if you can catch them in time! 

Other than the butterflies, the Taipei Zoo is home to most other animals that you would expect to see at a zoo in pretty much any other part of the world. 

I personally liked these ones

This black bear seemed pretty content rolling around playing with it's two tires.

And like the rest of the flamingos in the zoo, this one was concentrating so hard on eating that he didn't even notice the hundreds of people crowded around its living space. 

Though the zoo wasn't any more remarkable than any other zoo I have been to, for a mere 1.50 CAD entry fee I can say I was able to get my moneys worth and take some pretty good photos at the same time. 

The only tip I would have for anyone wanting to go is to visit on a weekday to avoid the crowds!

Hunger Games and Spirited Away

With all the talk about the Hunger Games streaming on Facebook, I finally managed to make it out to the theatre to see what all the hype was about. But instead of humming and hawing about how great the movie was, I am going to entertain you by talking about my weekend.

On Saturday I woke up early to indulge in an American style breakfast; something that I haven't eaten for a long time!

By Taiwan's standards it was a relatively expensive, costing about 200 NTD (roughly 7 CAD), but it was worth every penny. I decided on the French toast breakfast which consisted of crispy bacon, hashed browns, scrambled eggs and of course French Toast. Since I love taking pictures of my food, I have one to share with you all here

I hope my photograph makes up for what my lack of expressive writing and detail. The picture makes my mouth water, anyway!

My friend who invited me out the the restaurant for breakfast had an omlet that looks something like this.

I had forgotten how delicious a good breakfast is, but now that I have rediscovered it, I may need to wake up early to have breakfast more often. 

Since the rest of my day was fairly boring, outside of watching the Hunger Games, I will skip the details and move onto Sunday's schedule, which consisted of doing some sight seeing north of Taipei City at a place called Jiufen (pronounced jo fun)

Known for it's stunning views, posh tea shops, Jiufen is also featured as one of the scenes in Miyazaki Hayao's "Spirited Away". For those who don't know much about Japan and Japanese animation, Miyazaki is one of the most famous Anime artists in Japan, and possibly the world. I don't think there is a single Japanese person who doesn't know who Miyazaki is and hasn't seen at least one of his films. 

My Neighbour Totoro is one of the most well known films, but Spirited Away is also well known. According to Wikipedia, the film grossed roughly 270 million US dollars to give you an idea of the popularity. 

Several of the buildings and scenes in the animated film were based off of buildings and areas located in Jiufen, Taiwan. This restaurant and coffee shop is one of several buildings that some of the scenes in the film  were modelled after. 

For those who haven't seen the movie, I would highly recommend it! Who knows, you may even become a fan and end up watching more of the animations. If you ever have a chance to visit Taiwan as well, I would recommend taking a day trip to Jiufen as well, it is definitely work the visit!

Just in time for sunset, my friend and I made it to the top of the hill which the town is located on and ducked into one of the many tea shops to enjoy the view and to get away from the hoards of people, who all had the same idea as we did (to spend a lovely day in a beautiful place).  Although it was overcast, the sun made its best effort to peek through the clouds and give a stunning view of the surrounding mountains and ocean. 

Though, I probably should have been studying for my Chinese midterm this past weekend, I would say my time was well spent taking in the sights and indulging in the delicious food that Taiwan has to offer. 

One month and a couple of weeks into my stay in Taiwan and I am loving every minute. I can only expect the next months to come to be even better than the first.