Wishes

In Seoul Plaza there was a huge wire man. There were green tabs for people to write there wishes for the world on. Those wishes were then places on the man making him green. Seould is hosting a conference on global climate change and has beed putting alot of focus on green issues. There is going to be a huge expansion of the bike paths in Seoul and around Korea. That will be nice. Alought the bike paths were stink because motorcycles and gobbs of people keep them blocked up anyway. I have never used my bell so much!

Amber writing her wish.


Our wishes are being hung up.


And here is a close up of the wishes.


Some beautiful cheery trees. I am doing my Korean pose. I need to work on it alittle more.

Noryangjin Fish Market 2

While Amber was visiting we made a stop at the Noryangjin Fish Market after a long day of cherry blossom festival, swan boats, and the 63 Building. This is one of the largest fish markets in the world. It is also one of my favorite places to eat in Seoul. Anyone who knows me, knows I love seafood and fish markets. I love seeing all of the strange things, and then being able to taste them. Although, we always purchase pretty tame items to take to the resturaunts. This time we got two fist, one was flat and white on the bottom side. The other was long and silver. We saw many people buy those two together, so we thought we would try them. We also got a crab and some huge shrimp. Ellen and her mother were with us if you were wondering why we got some much food.

Our table at the resturaunt. When you buy your fish, you tell them how to cut it. Then they ask you if you want to go to a resturaunt. If you say yes, they lead you through some tiny walkways to the one they are associated with. Then you tell the resturuant how you want it cooked. We got the fish Sashimi style, which is raw. The crab and shrimp were cooked and then we had shabu shanu.


This was our sashimi fish plate. I love this dish. There is raw fish and then different things to build a fish wrap. Lettuce and sesame leaves are provided. There is regular sliced galic and pickled garlic( yum) that can be wraped up with the fish. Then there is a spicy red sauce to put in with the fish and galic. Wrap it all in lettuce and you get delicous!


Shabu shabu is a spicy soup made from the fish leftovers. All of the bones and heads are put in the soup. Amber and Ellen ate the fish eyes. I did not. This is a Japanese dish. It is also very tasty. If you don't like raw fish, you can cook it in with the soup.

Korea House

We went to the Korea House one night. It was one of the most interesting things I have seen here. It is a theatre in a tradtional hanook, which is a traditional house. We saw a variety of tradional dances and even heard a Korean opera singer. The Korean opera has one singer who plays all of the roles. It was really amazing the way the woman could throw her voice. Th fan dance was one of my favorites. We couldn't take pictures of the dances, so you'll have to take my word, beautiful and amazing. For the last song women played drums. I got called up on stage to play one of the drums. I have no beat whatsoever!


We got our photo with the dancers. They are wearing traditional hanboks, which are the traditional KOrean dresses. Very pretty.


We found a drum in the courtyard and put my new drumsticks to use.


We got hotdogs before the show. Mine has frenchfries mixed into the batter. It was alot of batter....


Amber and her huge corndog. Street food is interesting here....

Seoul Tower

Amber and I went to Seoul Tower one night. It is the biggest date/love place in all of Seoul. I think we were one of the only non couples there. There is a fence around the base of the tower. Couples get paddle locks, lock them together, attach them to the fence and throw away the key. It is what the really serious couples do. Once they are locked together, they can never break up.


We caught a couple putting their locks together.



There were hundreds, maybe thousands of locks on the fence.


Many of the locks were decorated. Many couples would add their own tags and other things.


Close-up of the locks.

Deoksugung

Amber's first weekend here we went sight seeing through Seoul. Here are some photos from the Deoksugund palace. This is me and one of the palace guardians. The cherry blossoms were out! I am standing next to the servants quarters. Yeah, we were very Korean and took photos everywhere! We got to see the changing of the guards. This is the main gate to the palace. It was built in 1611 and named Daean of Daeanum which means "of great comfort". It was later repaired in 1906, they don't say why but it probably had something to do with the Japanese. It was renamed named Daehanmun which means 'Today's Seoul will prosper'. These are some stone markers leading up to Junghwajeon which was the main throne hall. It was used for coronations and receiving foreign envoys.

South Korea v North Korea

South Korea and North Korea played in a world cup qualifying match. Tensions have been really high, so it was an interesting match. The North Korean fans were not nearly as lively as the South Koreans.

We had pretty good seats, right midfield.




South Korea won 1-0. It was a pretty heated match.


There was a nice orderly que to leave the World Cup Stadium Station. It only tooks about 20 min to get from the ticket turnstiles to the platforms...

Bulls Fighting

Here are some more photos of the Bulls Fight Festival in Cheongdo.


On the train ride down, we hung out in the noribang on the train. This is a little room where you can sinf kareoke.



The train also had arcade games and inernet access. Very nice.




Everything in Cheongdo had the bulls. They were pretty cute.




The bull fighting was interesting. They mostly butted heads for awhile. Sometimes they would push back and forth quite a bit. Other times the bulls would just avoid each other and the fight would be over.



The arnea was huge. Apparently the US Rodeo team preformed, but we missed that.



After the fights we enjoyed some soju, Cass, and mochali (rice wine).




There is NO SMOKING on the beaches in Busan. We spent the night near the beach here.