HAPPY NEW YEAR( or in Japanese "Shinen akemashite omedetou gosaimasu")! The year just flew by again didn't it? My new year's resolution is as follows:

1) Learn more Japanese!
2) Learn more Japanese!!
3) Learn more Japanese!!!(I can't emphasize this enough because I hate the helpless feeling I have at times being in another country)

I got back from Seoul (Korea) this morning at about 9:00am and still feel really exhausted. My trip was awesome for the most part and filled with a couple of odd, but funny moments.. (ooooh...and as a side note, I said hi for you Sam, but they didn't know who you were). Well anyway, the first thing I noticed about Korea is the appearance of males and females. For the males, they are very clean cut and have hair styles similar to asians in the states with spiky and glossy hair. The girls seem to have a sophisticated but simple fashion about them. In comparison with Japan, where any kind of fashion seems to go (especially skirts with knee high boots in the winter!), girls seem to be a bit more reserved. Couples are very affectionate and there's always a lot of PDA (public displays of affection). The streets tend to be dirtier than Japan, and there is always someone spitting on the sidewalk every 5-10 feet you walk. You can hear them in the background clearing their throat and you just have to pray and hope to God that no one shoots one in your direction! The service quality is adequate but people don't go out of their way to help you as they do in Japan. They'll just tell you as much as they know and don't go beyond that. An example of this was when I asked staff at my hotel about bus information to the airport. He said he knew what number the bus was, but he didn't know the bus schedule. So he didn't seem willing or friendly enough to go the extra mile and spend a minute to ask someone else for help. Instead, he went back to reading his newspaper behind the counter and not giving me a second thought. I'm probably just spoiled because in Japan people will go above and beyond to help you. Even when I first arrived at the airport, people didn't smile and kind of handed me off to other staff members nonchalantly when they couldn't help me.

On the subway, there are a lot of weird people who sell cheap gloves, batteries or other goods to passengers. An old, creepy guy tried to approach a girl with cheap $1 gloves and then he started rubbing her face like a perverted geezer for a couple of seconds after she said no. When I was in the foreign information center, an old Korean man tried to talk to me because he heard me speaking English. He took me about 15 feet away from other people and looked around cautiously. At this point I started thinking that he was going to open his laptop back and bust out with some illegal merchandise or something. Then he coughed and let out a huge fart! I didn't know what to do because I was kind of weirded out by that point. But anway all he wanted to do was practice his english on me and I talked to him for about 3-5 minutes before telling him I had to leave. He was nice, but an oddball

Ok, so beyond the negative stuff I mentioned, I'll start talking more of the positive things I experienced. First of all, the outdoor food stands were great! These street stalls have an assortment of food from big fat rice noodles in chilli sauce, to meat on a stick. It's all really cheap, filling and tasty. My hotel (although old and rugged looking), was in the middle of the downtown area in Seoul and I could easily get around to any destination I wanted to go on the subway system. And when I did ask for help, about 1 in every 5 people could speak english very well and did help me out. The palaces were really beautiful and breathtaking. I even met a Japanese tourist at one of the palaces named Morimoto-san who treated me to bibimbap (look at my images page for more information on this kind of food). Shopping districts were busy and bustling with life. Prices were cheaper over there, but not as cheap as I expected them to be.

My day at the DMZ(demilitarized zone)was really interesting. The cold tension you feel while being in
the middle of the South and North is eccentuated by the cold weather, and soldiers with large guns over their shoulders. Even riding in our bus through this area, we had to avoid road obstacles set in place in case North Korea tried to invade South Korea. You also notice mine fields to the left and right of the road with skull warning signs to indicate danger. The english translator on the bus spoke about tactics that used to be taken to slow down the N. Korean army if they were to invade the south, but then went on to say that now if N. Korea wanted to invade the south, all they would have to do is press "the button" and then it would all be over. It was said so casually, but it freaked me out because nuclear warfare is an option that the north possess's. Our tour group had the opportunity to look at what's called the 3rd infiltration tunnel inside the DMZ. It's an underground tunnel that North Korea was building to sneak in troops to invade the south. It was discovered in 1978 and is now a tourist attraction. North Korea claimed to be searching for coal, but it's obvious that that wasn't the case. I wasn't allowed to bring my camera into the tunnel, but it is about 2 meters high and 2meters wide. You have to wear a helmet because the ceiling is kind of low for some people, and I did end up hitting my head once.

My third day in Korea was spent looking at a traditional Korean folk village 2 hours outside of Seoul. It was like taking a step back into time. Houses were simple, with dirt floors,straw roofs, and small farms. I only stayed a couple hours and got a little lost finding my way back to the station, but I found it eventually. Later that day I met up with 2 Australian friends I met on my DMZ tour (Yvonne and Anthia in my images page)and we celebrated New Year's Eve on the street with thousands of other people. It was really crazy because everyone had long firework sticks which they shot in the air, so sparks and ash were falling on my head for a good 20 minutes. I thought my hair was going to catch on fire!

My last day in Seoul kind of sucked because it was January 1st and everything was closed! I spent most of the day watching cable television in my room and only went out for lunch and dinner.

Overall my trip in Korea was very memorable. It was the first time I ventured off on my on without relying on anyone and I was able to squeeze by knowing nothing about language. I ate korean barbecue everynight and had a lot of other delicious food (I just don't know the names of them). I would go back in the future to Korea, but not for awhile because I've eaten enough kim chee to last me for the rest of my stay in Japan!

Take a look at my images page and let me know if there are any faulty links. For those who don't know my address it's hitokiribuddha@yahoo.com

Things are going well, and hopefully I won't give up my New Years resolution in one month! Take care back at home. I'm so lazy that I don't know when my next update will be so stay tuned. =)