G'day/Anyeong to all those out there in Netlandia, T here. Just dropping you all a line to let you all know whats been happening in the dong of late. First of all I would like to say farewell to some people who have recently left us to go stateside. Firstly - Jennifer and Kara who we have spent the best part of 3 months working with at Swaton.
Thanks for all your help when we were getting started, we'd have been lost without you guys - It's not going to be same without you. Also, a huge farewell to Matt and Aden. Hope you have fun in Texas, thanks for everything over our first few months you really helped us find our feet socially in Korea. I think that if it wasn't for you guys we'd still be hiding out in our apartment every night. Most importantly, you taught us how to play Texas Hold 'em - we miss poker night guys, Thursday nights will never be same. To Matt, Aden, Jennifer and Kara - I wish you all the best in whatever you choose to do in your new American life, please keep in touch and if you are ever downunder drop us a line. If we are ever stateside expect a knock on your door!

Okay, now that the sentimental goodbye's are over with, I can let you in on everything else that has been happening. First to the wacky world of ESL teaching - I have been spending my days reading such intellectually stimulating classics as Yippy-day-yippy-do, Be careful Matthew, Jolly Jumping Jelly Beans, and The Wind Blows Strong. As well as playing games such as Connect 4, Jenga, Bingo, and Uno. Of the past few weeks there have been some definate highlights of my classes. "Like what?" you say. Little Timmy learning his first word in English? Teaching a child to read? An Apple for teacher? Not quite. First of all a girl in my class drew a symbol in her notebook "Teacher, Teacher - Korean, Fuck you" Thanks for that. Another moment that made me laugh was when one of my kindergarten kids drew a lady and wrote my name "Lady- hot lady, Troy-teacher happy!" She didn't mention any names but I'm pretty sure they starting to cotton on to Alwyn and I? "Troy-teacher married? Troy-teacher Alwyn-teacher --- friends?" followed by streams of giggling. Also the younger of my two kindy classes have invented the game get the car keys from teachers pocket. They think its the best game on the planet- needless to say its not so fun for teacher. Let me tell you, theres never a dull moment in crazy world of English education. Included are some photos from last week's excursion to the Geology museum with our kindergarten classes.

Apart from working, Alwyn and I have been keeping ourselves busy with various pursuits. A few weeks ago we went with 2 fellow Songchon-dong ESL teachers - Dan and Greer - to Busan to farewell our Texan friend, Matt. Who's father by the way was good friends with Bill Hicks! very very cool. Anyways, we hung out on the beach drinking beer with thousands of Korean's until 3 in the morning. We had an awesome time. Apart from that we've just been hanging out in Daejeon trying to keep out of trouble. I have included some photos of our trip to Busan .

Keep smiling,

-T

Food in Korea

Korean food is delicious. Every meal in Korea is served with numerous side dishes. These side dishes are free, and vary depending on the food you ordered (even the pizza is served with a side of pickles -T). Korean food is generally flavoured with garlic and red pepper paste. So, for our faithful dongers here is a crash course on the Korean foods we have tried so far...

Kimchi - Kimchi is the Korean staple. It is said in Korea that, a meal is not a meal if it does not include Kimchi and rice. Kimchi is usually cabbage that has been left to ferment in spicy red pepper paste. Kimchi can however be made with other vegetables...such as raddish. It also varies in taste depending on how long it has been left to ferment (Fermented Cabbage. It tastes as good as it sounds -T). Kimchi has been known to be left for up to a year. Every October in Gwangju is the traditional Kimchi making festival.....this is one place that I will NOT be visiting. Troy and I have been told that the longer you spend in Korea, the more you will enjoy Kimchi. Obviously we haven't been in Korea long enough!

Samgyeopsal (sam-gip-sal) - Samgyeopsal is barbequed pork filliets brought to the table raw, then cooked on your table, dipped in sesame oil and salt, then wrapped in lettuce leaves. This is a VERY popular dish in the restaurants surrounding our place. Samgyeopsal is served with the many side dishes that accompany most Korean meals. I can gladly recommend Mr. and Mrs. Park's Samgyeopsal resturant in Songchon-dong!

Kimbap - mmmm. Kimbap is similar in looks to Japanese "Sushi" or Nori Rolls. Kim (seaweed) is wrapped around a neatly made package of rice, ham, raddish, fish cake and egg. These are the basic ingredients of Kimbap, however there are numerous versions of Kimbap (including Kimchi Kimbap). I personally like Chumchi Kimbap, which is tuna Kimbap. The basic Kimbap costs around 1000w (Au $1.20) while the Chumchi Kimbap is about 2500 w (Au $2.80). It is a cheap and filling meal.

Bibimbap - This is one of my favourite Korean dishes. Bibimbap is a bowl of mixed shredded vegetables, lettuce, cucumber, rice, and hot sauce with an egg on top. Upon recieving your Bibimbap, you then procceed to mix the ingredients vigourously. My prefered way to eat Bipbimbap is Dolsot Bipbimbap . Dolsot Bibimbap is served in a hot stone bowl with a raw egg on top. The egg cooks as you mix it in. It's delicious! You can get Bibimbap at all good Kimbap places for W2500-W3500 (AU$3-4).

Mandoo - Mandoo are steamed or fried dumplings that are served either on their own, with noodles, or in Mandoo-guk (Mandoo soup). Mandoo is usually filled with meat and vegetables, as well as some spices, however you can also get other types of Mandoo...such as Kimchi mandoo.


Kalbi - Kalbi are short ribs that are BBQ'd Korean style at your table. Kalbi ribs are marinated and brought to your table to be cooked and served in the same style as Samgyeopsal.

Seafood - Seafood in general here is really good. My favourite seafood dish is Samchi. Samchi is a pan fried fish brought to your table on a sizzling plate. There are also many sushi and sashimi places nearby, as well as lobster and crab restaurants. (There is also a huge amount of squid served in the menu here. Served in all sorts of ways, the most interesting being squid jerky which is commonly served at bars -T)

***AMENDED 09/15/2005***

Donkkas - Much to certain peoples disgust we left this culinary gem off our original food posting. Donkkas is much like a cutlet or schnitzel that you would eat at home. Its basically a pork cutlet which is breadcrumbed and fried and served with either a savoury brown/BBQ type sauce or a spicy sauce and sides. Its delicious - If you are ever in Songchon-dong, Daejeon I strongly suggest you try the Donkkas from Jin Jin Pig next door to the BYC undies shop.

Cheers - T

There are many more Korean foods out there, we have only just begun on our culinary guide to Korea. Stay tuned for the Winter Soups review.

- A.

P.S If anyone from the land of the morning calm is reading this and thinks that I have left anything major out, please email me.

and now for another episode of...

DONGS IN SPACE

JAPAN

R & R in Tokyo

On Monday, July 25, 2005, Alwyn and I caught the 3 hour hydrofoil ferry from Busan, South Korea across the Japan sea to Fukuoka, Japan for our
week long trip ot Japan with a number of questions on our mind. Is it really as expensive as people say? Were we going to be able to afford eat? Are Japanese people as short as people say? Is Tokyo truly the city we see in movies like Kill Bill & Lost in Translation? What's that strange smell? All of these questions, with the possible exception of the last one would be answered in our week long tour of the land of the rising Yen.

HIROSHIMA

Upon arriving in Fukuoka we caught the night bullet train to Hiroshima. A tram ride and a frustrating search for the hole in the wall hotel I had chosen for our accomodation later we went to sleep in our sweatbox hotel room. We checked out the hotel the next morning and headed out to explore the city. In the light of day we noticed that Hiroshima was a beautiful city, the tramline really lent it an old charm.

Although the hotel was fairly basic it was good in the regard that it was right near all the places we wanted to see that day. So after breakfast and a coffee we walked the short walk over the bridge to Hiroshima's Peace Park. Peace park is a very nice park that was set up as a memorial of the 1945 atomic bombing of the city. The park's site is located at the hypocentre of the explosion and is dedicated to nuclear disarmament and peace in general - the perfect use for a place that was witness to such brutality. Yesterday (August 6) marked the 60th anniversiry of the bombing, so you may have seen pictures of Peace Park in the news.

To look at the park their wasn't much to suggest that it was once obliterated by nuclear bomb - except for one thing, The "Atomic Dome". The Atomic dome is an old government building with a dome roof (hence the name) that is one of the few buildings that survived the blast, and is the only one still standing today.

The Atomic dome sits at the back of the park as a grim reminder of what happened 60 years ago. They say the reason it is still standing is because the bomb was detonated in the air almost directly above the building, the force hitting the building downwards instead of across. It gutted the building, everything inside caught fire and everyone inside was killed instantly, but the the building's framework remained untouched. It was so surreal, we stared at for an hour.

During our walk in the park there were a bunch of young japanese English students who interviewing the foreigners in the park, most of them around 5-7 years old. They were so cute , asking questions like "What is your name?", "Where are you from?", "Do you like purple?" and "Do you like lollypops?".

After the walk in the park, we headed to the museum. The relatively calm atmosphere of the park was contrasted in the museum. The museum documented the history of the war and the bomb, emphasising the nuclear bomb's destuctive power and the need to get rid of these weapons. The part on the rebuilding of Hiroshima added some hope to the picture. The most moving part of the exhibition was the section where they showed relics from the bombings, complete with children's school uniforms that they were wearing at the time of the blast, a watch that stopped at 8:15 (the time of the blast), a child's lunch box with his lunch burnt to a crisp inside, a piece of someone's thumb, and a toddler's tricycle. Everyone around the room was close to tears.

Going to Peace park and the museum in Hiroshima is something that will stay with the me for the rest of my life. If you are ever in Japan I strongly recommend that you go, it has a way of putting things into perspective...

Late in the afternoon we traveled to Kyoto by train.

KYOTO

We arrived at Kyoto at about 9:30pm. Tonight we would be staying at the Holiday Inn, which strangely enough was the cheapest hotels out of all, possibly because it was one the hardest hotels to find (My hotel choosing skill once again proudly displayed). We had no idea to get to the hotel so we called them from the closest payphone and got rough directions. So we did what they said and got on the bus and got off at the bus stop close to the hotel. The hotel wasn't in eye shot, it was dark and we had no idea how to get a hotel. After wandering around for 20 minutes, we finally asked someone for directions. This was where we got our first real taste of Japanese politeness. The guy we asked, he looked like he was on his way home from work with his dinner in his hands, did an about face and gestured us to follow him. He walked us the way to the hotel, which would have been very difficult for us to find as it was in a back street. If that had been in Australia I'm sure all I would have got was a vague point followed by "over there" or something to the effect. So, we found the hotel which was your typical international hotel, it was fairly nice.

The next morning we first headed back to the train station to put our bags in lockers so we could trek around and see the temples. We got some tourist info and off we went. We got on a sight seeing bus, which was similar to the regular buses but it traveled to different temples throughout the city. Kyoto is an absolutely amazing city, one of the few cities that did not get bombed in WW2, so it still looks and feels like old Japan. The old-style arcitecture in the town was good to see; especially all the buddhist temples and shinto shrines. Their are over 2000 temples and shrines in Kyoto so it was hard to chose which to visit. In the end, we found a walk by the name of the "Path of Philosophy", which was a scenic walk that took us past many small temples and shrines and ending with the magnificent Nanzen-ji temple. The walk was beside a small river and lined with cherry blossom trees. The walk took us about 2 hours, it wasn't very long but we stopped to look at things on the way. The buildings we saw were nice, so different from anything I'm used to at home.

At the end of the walk we found ourselves at Nanzen-ji temple, an absolutely breathtaking place. It was originally built in the 13th century as a retirement villa for the Emperor but was turned into a temple upon his death. Most of the original buildings were destroyed in the 15th century by civil war and were rebuilt in the 17th century. After walking though the menacing sanmon gate we found ourselves in the temple's grounds. Within this were numerous sub-temples. We explored the small temples and the grounds before paying our 500 yen (about $AU7) to go inside the main hall. In the main, or hojo's, hall we explored the old sleeping quarters which had walls decorated with old Japanese drawings and enjoyed the beautiful traditional gardens, - "Hows the serenity?"

What we saw of Kyoto was amazing; and what we saw was but the tip of the iceberg. It is a big city with all soughts of things like this to explore - I'd love to go back someday. After our day of walking - it was on to the night train to the buzzing metropolis that is Tokyo.

TOKYO

We got into Tokyo at about 8pm on Wednesday, July 27, 2005. After having some problems with getting the ATM's to accept our foriegn cards we hopped on the subway to catch a train to our next place of accomodation, the Ryokan Kantetsu. A Ryoken is a Japanese style hotel. So it was a futon on the floor and a fairly basic room. It was similar to a backpackers at home only Japanese style. The grounds were nicely landscaped with Japanese gardens and rock pools, the common room had internet and a cool, but strange, massage chairs.

We had two days in Tokyo to explore the city before the fuji festival. We spent our time basically just wandering around the city and checking it out. We went to the Sony building in Ginza, it was good but there was not as much hi-tech new gadgets as I had hoped and no sign of the PS3, the shinjuku shopping area, which was buzzing with bright lights and people everywhere, the Ginza shopping district, and the electric town, a conglomerate of electronics shops (a must for all cybergeeks). Tokyo is a city of contrasts, while it is a huge bustling city unlike any I have been to, there are places like Ueno Park, which was a giant park surrounded by museums, art galleries, an antiques market and a zoo. Inside the park there were also Shinto Shrines and beautifully landscaped grounds. It was the perfect escape from fast city environment, and the shade provided much needed respite from the heat, as it was a very hot day. We spent all afternoon there.

Tokyo had the big city vibe that I was hoping for and more. Of all the cities we visited its hard to pin down a favourite but Tokyo is the city I would most like to spend an extended time in, maybe someday.

So, what did we learn in our week in Japan? Well, Japan is not as expensive as people say, its a little more expensive that Korea and Australia but nothing to stop anyone from going. I mean if you wanted to eat steak every night and go exclusive stores and clubs then yeah you will drop a lot of cash, but otherwise its okay. So, yes we could afford to eat. We also learned that Japanese people are not short people (another Myth BUSTED). As for the movie question, well I think its best to visit a place like Japan especially Tokyo without to many preconceptions, having said that those movies are not completely off the mark. We never found out what that smell was....

Till next time

-T

FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL

On Saturday, July 30, 2005, we embarked on a journey to the town of Naeba, in northern Honshu, Japan, to participate in the Fuji Rock Festival - the festival was a three day festival but we just had the Saturday ticket due to work restrictions. The day wasn't exactly the fun in the sun with the Japanese summer festival atmosphere that I had anticipated - being that it pissed down rain for most of the time, and the festival was held up in the mountains at a Ski field - these two combined to make it a little chilly. So after traipsed through the mud through a monsoonal downpour and discovering that my raincoat is only really good in light showers - we found shelter under the marquee and attempted to dry off - to no avail really. That was the worst of the day over with - the rain did clear up to light showers during the afternoon, so after checking out some pretty cool japanese bands and some not so cool western bands - we headed out of the marquee to explore the grounds.

The food at the place was awesome - there was Jamacian Jerk Chicken, Russian food (qacalash & crab juice - j/k), hot dogs, kebabs, meat pies!!!, fish and chips and loads more that I can't think of right now. Okay, you know your in a foreign land when you are standing next a whole bunch of people eating fish and chips with chopsticks. Anyways after a good dose of western food (meat pies and chili dogs) we checked the main stage. The stage area was excellent - surrounded by the mountains. Breathtaking.

It was here we would see the feature acts that we had paid to see - BECK and FATBOY SLIM. We managed to get to the front for Beck so we had an awesome view but unfortunately security wouldn't let us take photos. Beck was great he played songs that he didn't play last time I saw him, like Sexx Laws and Beercan, which I really wanted to see live. On stage, there was some weird dude in 80's tennis gear who just danced and bashed the drums occasionally. Also, late in the set the backing band did this cool percussion piece on plates and glasses at a "dinner table" that they were sitting at during Beck's solo acoustic songs - which led straight into Where it's at (Two turntables and a Microphone). Anyway it was great, I could go on for ages. If you want more details email me!

About half an hour after Beck, Fatboy Slim started with the star wars imperial march and a dazzling light/animation show. The Fatboy ripped it up on stage mixing up everything from Sunshine of you love to Billie Jean, and of course favourites such as Praise you, Rockerfeller Skank, Right Here Right Now, and Fatboy Slim is ___ing in Heaven. My personal favourite was when we mixed Public Enemy's Bring the noise with Seven Nation Army - tre cool. He played for two hours and it was one hell of a party, the climax of which reached as the storms returned and the sky began to emulate the dazzling light show onstage.

After Fatboy Slim ended the party continued, we caught a Japanese blues band, and an electronica band from the states - before going to the british council marquee and watching screenings of such british comedies as The Office and The Sketch Show. After this, at 2:00 (or 26:00 as the shuttle bus schedules would have it) it was time to catch the bus down the mountain and wait for our 6:00 train back to Tokyo. Sleeping on the concrete outside the train station with about 100 of the local punters is something I'll most certainly be able to chalk up to experience. I didn't manage to get much sleep as I seemed to chose the snoring section of the pavement.

We got our train at 6:00 and flew back to Busan at 2:00pm. Back to the reality (well the Korean version of it anyway)...