Point of Reference

I've been really trying to take advantage of the lovely weather these past few weeks. Although occasionally a little too humid for my taste, most days are sunny with the temperature hovering around 22 degrees Celsius. I've also been on quite a number of "photography trips" with my office-mate Jon. I thought last year's name situation in the office with four people whose name started with "J" was difficult for the Japanese people, imagine them trying to differentiate between, "Jon-san" and "Johnson-san".

I've also recently discovered how to do panoramic shots. The above photograph is stitched together from 10 different shots. I probably could have done it in less but it was my first attempt at trying so, I was probably being overly cautious. Unfortunately, I forgot to include a point-of-reference that demonstrates just how big/long the statue really was. Just take my word that it wouldn't fit in just one photograph!


Is this considered blasphemous?


Air-conditioner season officially starts tomorrow in Japan! Woo-hoo! In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, public Japanese institutions (like my office, schools, etc.) aren't allowed to turn on their air-conditioner units until June 1st -regardless- of the temperature outside. See, you just learnt something new. :)

Just Another Sunset Shot

Just a photo update this time. Time for Japanese class!

The Finish Line

I wish I could say that I'm cherishing every moment I have left in Japan. I've started packing recently and the closer I get to the end, while not exactly "thrilled" to be leaving, I don't feel all that unhappy to "move on".

Don't get me wrong: I'm not trying to sound ungrateful for this amazing opportunity; nothing is the same anymore, that's for sure. But I guess the more I look toward the future, regardless of how murky it is right now, I'm slowly drifting further away from this place.

Somebody needs to kick my arse.

Breaking the Rules

I've been deceived. My impression of Japan has always been a country that reveres silence. Nothing would make me more happy than a quiet work environment. I guess I never really noticed it before but the Japanese teachers staffroom is noisy. And I don't mean just the general background noise of people working, I'm talking about shouting matches, people hollering across the room, teachers talking to themselves, humming, etc.

This reminds me of the incident last year when I was on the bus with my friend. We weren't talking particularly loud but it was definitely audible (the bus was mostly empty). In Japan, or at least in Fukuoka, when a bus stops at a red light, the majority of bus drivers turn off the engine. Don't ask me why -- I don't know; but that's besides the point. Anyway, while we were stopped at this red light, somebody proceeded to "shhh" us. I had only been in Japan for a few months at this point so, I was pretty taken aback. In retrospect, I probably should have, err, made "violent eye-contact" (hey, I'm not looking to get deported.. yet).

Seriously though, it's not like we were *cough* intoxicated ALTs clearing subway-carts of people *cough*; we were just two people casually discussing neo-existentialism (okay, I made that part up).

Man, will I ever get it right?

In other news, the BBC has an excellent special report on global food culture on its news website. It's the kind of stuff I've been saying since I started this blog. You can read the full article HERE. My question is: Is this really news? For a country that conquered the world, did it really take -THIS- long to finally realize that not everybody fries their fish or puts meat in their pies? And Icelanders eat penguins?! Wow, I want to try that.

**Breaking News**
The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka has hanged himself. He was found unconscious this morning at his residence in Tokyo. The Minister was to testify in front of a panel about inappropriate construction bid-rigging this afternoon. You can read the full article HERE.

Just For Laughs

It was a busy weekend; Heck, it's been a busy week. But no complaints -- it's nearing the end so, I'm just trying to take everything in stride. I'll have plenty of time to contemplate the "meaning of life" and other absurd mental pursuits in due time. But for now, enjoy the video!

Warm, Wet Weather

I finally had to turn on my air-conditioner today. The rainy season is upon us and that means flash thunderstorms, the humidity index reaching 80% (just today!) or more, and the return of the giant spiders (sorry, no photograph this time).

Where has spring gone?

A Million Different Things

It's been another busy couple of days. We had the annual JHS Sports Festival on Sunday. I probably circled the track at least 20 times and took approximately 800 photographs. Aside from my concept shots, I'll be giving all the photographs to my school to use for posters, slide shows, etc. Sports photography is -difficult- and I had trouble figuring out which controls to use on my camera. I'll have to try to invite myself to another sporting event so I can practice some more. Although not the sharpest photo, the above picture was definitely the most interesting out of the lot and where I was able to, luckily, time it on-spot.


I also went back to the waterfall in my area and had some cold noodles from a bamboo pole. It's a little bit difficult to explain so, I'll post a photo up once I get the chance to sort through everything. I still have pictures from 2-3 weeks ago that I haven't processed and posted yet; I think I waste far too much time just surfing the Internet.


I also got my first prime lens by Nikon. I got the Nikkor 50mm 1.8D which is probably one of the best lens from Nikon for around $100 USD. I've seen photos with this lens and the image are -SHARP- as heck. I'm hoping to improve my composition skills since this lens will -force- me to think about my photograph before actually taking the shot; plus I'll have to move around a lot more since I won't have the convenience of zoom either. Unfortunately, since I'm still learning how to use a prime lens, I had difficultly capturing these bugs. My friend James has a far superior shot of this hovering insect on his flickr/blog site. I -- unintentionally -- went for a different angle, but as you can tell, it isn't nearly as sharp.


I think the best inspiration for things "out of this world", is to just look around in -this world-. This fly reminded me of something out of some '90s Japanese sci-fi TV show or movie.


Anyways, this post has kind of gone all over the place but that pretty much describes the past few days for me.

And in case you thought I was finished, here's an interesting news story: Japanese tourists are the best tourists in the world! In second place: Americans, and in third, the Swiss. And the worst tourists in the world: the French. You can read the full article HERE.

10 Years Later

In case you haven't heard, Blizzard officially announced the development and highly-anticipated release of StarCraft 2. Of course I won't be able to play it as intensely as I did when I was in high school (ahh~ the good ol' days..), but it sure does bring back a lot of memories.

Anybody up for the original? Haha~

The World at Our Feet

One thing that has changed since I've become more addicted to photography (let's face it fellas, photography is a drug!) is that I'm starting to notice things a lot more. Be it the colour of the sky, the reflection in a puddle, or the neon-lights of a city ready to party.


Things that I never thought were particularly interesting become a challenge: How can I make this mundane subject more attractive?


After all, a photograph isn't reality. It's a lie; a deception so well conceived that most people believe it to be true.


Although, truth be told, I still have no idea what I'm doing 90% of the time.


Like this caterpillar, I'm just chugging along..

In the News

I just read a very interesting article in The New York Times about China's problem ensuring its food and drug exports are safe for human and/or animal consumption. You can read it HERE . The reason why I thought this was interesting is because I thought this was fairly old news. When I went back to Canada for Christmas, nobody in my family was buying "Made in China" products because of some other contamination that, I'm assuming, didn't make it on the Western news outlets. "Made in China" has, and continues to be unfortunately, just another way of saying "Made Cheaply".

Here's an interesting anecdote: Recently, my friend went to China the same time I went to South Korea. She's Korean-American so, it was kind of funny to compare our experiences. Hopefully based on my blog posts, you can tell I had a great time. I didn't run into any trouble whatsoever; the people, though very different from the Japanese, were genuinely polite and helpful throughout the entire trip. I would go back to South Korea without hesitation.

My friend summarizes her trip as follows: "I'm glad I went, but I would -NEVER- go back." She told us countless stories of aggressive peddlers, rude attendants, fraudulent businesses, etc. Even when I went last year, though I obviously didn't encounter as many difficulties, China still has quite a ways to go before one could classify it as being "tourist-friendly".

Anyway, I bring up the story only to illustrate my point: Capitalism as a process works -- it's just sometimes the results that can be unexpected. That being said, I think, and I hope, this is a wake up call to the nation of 1.3 billion. In one years time, the whole world will be watching the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and I wonder what people and tourists will remember: Wow, this place is amazing or "Dude, you got pollution in your hair."

A Boxed Life

A very kind teacher helped me collect some boxes from school and then brought them to my jutaku after work. ありがとう。

I can, and probably should, start packing. I thought I had a lot more stuff to box up, but looking around my place now, I'm starting to think otherwise. That's a good thing, though. Less rubbish to send home means less money I have to spend on postage. However, the problem is, what do I take with me and what do I toss? Can I fit 2 years into a single (or double) box?

A House of Cards

It's funny, you know, how a single moment can change everything. It doesn't take much to sway the fickle. Sometimes no matter how certain you are about something, it can turn out to be exactly the opposite of what you thought. Conviction -- or the unsubstantiated opinions of the hopeful -- isn't always enough to change the systemic limitations imposed on the individual by particular circumstances.

A house of cards will collapse from the gentlest breeze.

Seoul: Day Six & Seven

I spent my last day in Seoul with no real plan. I was pretty exhausted from all the sightseeing and wanted to just take it easy on my last day in Seoul. I flipped through the Lonely Planet: Seoul lying on my friend's desk in the morning and decided to check out some of the local museums.

My first stop: The National Museum of Korea. Recently constructed, this museum was huge and housed not only artifacts from the early Three Kingdoms period to modern-day Korea, but also had in its possession a fairly large Chinese and Japanese collection. Unfortunately, I went on a bad day. It must have been "Museum Day" for several schools because when I got to the museum, the place was exploding with children. Like children anywhere, they were loud, obnoxious and turned the museum into a zoo. Luckily I didn't have to endure any "English Shower" (I wouldn't have even attempted to go in if I wasn't Asian-looking). I went through each exhibit quickly and got out of there ASAP.

The above photograph is not from the National Museum of Korea but from the Korea National War Museum. See below.


Since my first stop didn't work out as I expected, I decided to check out the highly recommended Korea National War Museum. Lonely Planet strictly advises against going to both museums in one day. Well, I've never been one to follow directions and the allure of being rebellious proved irresistible. In your face Lonely Planet.


This place was amazing. If you thought the National War Museum was big, this one is even -bigger-. It was enormous. All the exhibits were very well done and their section on the Korean War was impressive. Any first or second-year university student studying the Korean War could just spend an afternoon at the museum and write an A+ paper -- no problem.

Perhaps I spent an inordinate amount of time looking at each exhibit because just as I was making my way up to the last floor, an announcement came on the PA system telling everybody to get out in 30 minutes. I rushed through the last floor and by the time I had left the museum, I had spent more than -THREE HOURS- there (and I probably could've stayed longer if I wasn't pressed for time). It's that good, honest! :)

My POTM was taken at the museum and is a photograph of a figurative statue depicting North and South Korean brothers embracing each other after reunification. While a lot of South Korean propaganda tends to adopt this picturesque and idealistic future, I find it difficult to believe things will be so easy. That being said, to be honest, I don't know enough about the situation to make an informed opinion. Like most of my blog, it is self-indulgent twaddle. :)


At the outset of the trip, I told my friends that after the DMZ, my top priority while in South Korea was to eat a particularly famous Korean dish. There was simply no point in me even -going- to South Korea unless I was guaranteed that we would at least try to find this dish. Well, on my last night in Seoul, Shannon and I, with only a crude map drawn by one of her students, went on a trek looking for this dish. A 10-minute walk turned into a 2 and-a-half hour expedition that saw the likes of our group grow from 2 to 5 people all in search of a single restaurant that served.. DOG.

Finally, we found it.


After nearly 3-hours of hunting, we thanked our comrades and headed into the restaurant. Shannon is a vegetarian so, she just came along for the ride. We ordered the "boshintang" or dog-stew and waited for it to be prepared. The restaurant was empty except for a couple of salarymen sharing a drink together over some shabushabu. After a few minutes, the restaurant owner finally brought the steaming stew to our table and placed it in front of me. I slowly inhaled some of the soup stock, anticipating a foul odour, but was pleasantly surprised at how delicious it smelt. I picked up my metal chopsticks, looked for a piece of meat, grabbed it and stuck it in my mouth.

Conclusion: It tastes like lamb. In fact, it actually wasn't that bad. Sure, a lot of people have mental hang-ups about eating dog (I wouldn't do it everyday either) but I didn't go abroad just to experience the same thing I do at home. To me that's boring. I realize I'm just talking about food, but culture and food are intricately linked and, well, this was just something that I had to try at least once. Two-thumbs up! :)

After completing my mission, we headed back to the apartment so I could start packing. My flight was in the morning which meant I had to wake up -very- early (as usual).

Anyway, that's South Korea in a nutshell. I had a great time and would definitely consider going back -- if not on vacation, on a more semi-permanent status (haha, joke?). Thanks for reading.

Panmunjom: Day Five

This was by far the most interesting part of the trip. IMHO, a trip to South Korea is incomplete without checking out one of the world's most heavily fortified borders. The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is the military demarcation line that runs along the 38th parallel and separates North and South Korea. Running along the DMZ is the Joint Security Area (JSA) which is the only part of the border where both the North and South military face each other.

This place was eerie. Before entering the zone, we were briefed at Camp Bonifas and then required to sign a wavier absolving the US and UN military of any liability if we should get hurt or killed while on the tour. No joke.

We were then taken to the JSA where we were allowed to take pictures and whatnot. We were told not to make any sudden, rapid movements, or pointing motions, or faces/gestures at the North Koreans as they could be misinterpreted and/or used in propaganda material. In fact, one member of my tour group was so afraid that she refused to bend down to tie her own shoelace.

In the above photograph, the South Korean in the foreground is standing halfway behind the building in a modified-Taekwondo pose to a) intimidate the North Korean soldier and, b) to make himself less of a target.


This was the closest I got to an actual North Korean soldier. He kept checking us out with binoculars.


A typical South Korean soldier. We had about 5 or 6 surrounding our tour group for "protection". The sunglasses are for intimidation.


This is a rather poor shot of the giant flag in the North Korean "town" closest to the JSA. While the South Korean town is an actual town, the Northern counterpart is actually empty and is really an industrial complex of some sort. The flag is so big and heavy (it weighs approximately 300 pounds) that when it rains, it gets soaked and tears itself apart. It must be replaced 3-times a year.


After the outside tour, we were led into the UN Unified Command Building where we got to -- technically -- step into North Korea. While we were safe inside the building, the last person to cross the line was a Soviet-Russian in the mid '80s who fled from a communist-led tour. A gunfight ensued and while several North and South Korean soldiers were killed, the Russian was saved.

The soldier pictured above stands right behind the conference table used by the United Nations Unified Command Officers. From what I gathered, he was there to protect the honour(?) of the UN Unification conference talks and we were instructed -not- to pass in front of him. Indeed, the last person to walk in front of him -- interestingly enough, a Japanese tourist -- got socked right in the jaw.


The rest of the tour was mediocre compared to the JSA-tour. We went to a look-out point where we were forbidden to take photos beyond a certain line (see above; although Google Earth works) and then we walked through a North Korean infiltration tunnel.


The Bridge of No Return.


Like I said, I'm a history nerd so this was, by far, the most interesting part of the trip. I learned a lot about the Korean War and why certain things unfolded the way they have. And being so close to -real- history made things that much more intriguing. :)

After the DMZ tour, we headed back into Seoul. We decided to check out the last of the "big markets" in Seoul. We went to Dongdaemun Market to do some shopping but my friend got overwhelmed by the market-style arena. So, we decided to skip Dongdaemun Market and headed to the Western-style COEX pavilion. I didn't have much to buy so I browsed a bookstore for a couple of hours instead.

After COEX, we headed to a food market to get the rest of our omiyage shopping done. We headed back to the apartment and then met up with some friends for some drinks. It was Sara's last day in Seoul so, we decided to try some famous Korean Soju. That stuff is delicious. I wish I could have brought back a couple of bottles but seeing as I'm trying to cut down on the drinking (Mt. Fuji training!), I figured they would probably go to waste.

I spent the last day in Seoul by myself just checking out stuff that I know nobody but myself is interested in (i.e., museums). I'll conclude my South Korea blog posts tomorrow. Until then, thanks for reading.

Seoul: Day Four

I was -forced- to wake up rather early today because my friend insisted we check out one of Shannon's English conversation class. Normally I wouldn't have a problem observing a class except that the class was at 8 o'clock in the morning and, in case it wasn't obvious, I was on vacation.

To be fair, it worked out well in the end because we had some stuff planned in the morning that took us longer to complete than expected. However, since I did attend an English conversation class while in Korea, allow me to make some generalizations based on that -one- university-level conversation class.

I'm going to skip the details and go straight to the conclusion: Korea is ahead of Japan when it comes to English conversation. Not only did the students have a better grasp of pronunciation, they also possessed a larger and richer vocabulary than any Japanese person I've met of similar education. Furthermore, they were not afraid to speak in English and they seemed far more mature when they did speak. Did they make mistakes? Of course -- but so do most "native" speakers if you really listen. In any case, I was fairly surprised; but more on that later.


After the English conversation class, we left the campus to start our morning hike along the Inwangsan walking-tour. My office-mate and the Lonely Planet: Korea guidebook recommended this walking-tour as a great way to see Seoul from a mountain-top vista. We had some difficulty finding the starting location because the directions given in the Lonely Planet guidebook are simply abysmal. We ended up turning too early and had to walk through peoples' garden to get back on track (we were careful not to trample anything and, in fact, were following a well-worn path throughout). After stopping to ask where we were several times, we managed to find the starting gate only to discover that.. the mountain was closed.

Yea, -CLOSED-. I didn't realize that was possible but apparently every Monday is the mountain's "day of rest" (not my choice of words). Frustrated, we decided to walk around the base for awhile before catching a bus back to central Seoul.

The above photo is just a really cool -- and very narrow -- house I saw while on the "walking-tour".


The roof of a Korean-style building.


I didn't plan anything for this particular evening so, we decided to get some of our "omiyage" shopping done. We headed back to Insadong market and browsed around for a couple of hours.


I've been fooling around in Photoshop and I recently learned how to do this type of photographic effect. I apologize in advance if I suddenly start posting all my photographs like this. :)


As the evening drew near, I decided tonight would be the ideal night to try to find the much-sought after, but ever-elusive, "boshintang" restaurant. Don't know what that is? Ahem, google it. I called my friend to see if she knew of any of the aforementioned restaurants near Insadong market but to no success. We walked around trying to look for one but since neither of us could read Korean, our search -- or rather, my search -- ended in futility. However, I would get my revenge later.

That's it for Day Four. The best part of the trip is coming up tomorrow so, please come back then. I'll try to wrap up my Korea-related posts by this weekend and then it's back to Japan. I'm the luckiest guy in the world, eh! :)

Suwon: Day Three

We woke up fairly early again to catch our hour-long train-ride to the UNESCO World Heritage city of Suwon. If we had known that there would be so much to see and do in Suwon, we probably would've tried to wake up even -earlier-. But, we settled on spending the rest of the morning and afternoon at the Korean Folk Village and the Folk Museum (did I already mention that I'm a museum geek?).


The Folk Village was sort of cheesy. Obviously everything in the village was catered to tourists as no normal South Korean would voluntarily opt to spend a day there. Would you want to spend a day at Black Creek Pioneer Village? However, there was enough live entertainment and interesting photo opportunities to keep me more or less occupied.

We also managed to catch some traditional performances during our walk-around. The first show was the acrobatic equestrian act.


Next, the traditional Korean farmer's dance. It was actually much more entertaining than it sounds.


Following that was the seesaw acrobatics. My friends said the females performing the seesaw acrobatics looked Chinese. I politely disagreed.


The final act was the tight-rope walker. This guy definitely knew how to work a crowd!


You're probably asking yourself, "What am I eating?" Good question. As we were walking around the Folk Village, I was dared by my friends to try the ever-popular Silkworm Larvae snack. At first completely repulsed, I had to really work up some courage to do it. But, seeing as I'm always spouting nonsense about "cultural tolerance" (who believes in that rubbish anyways?), I had to, literally, eat my worms .. err, words.

Conclusion: This is one snack better left to those who have achieved gastronomic enlightenment. You know the sensation when you smash a cockroach with your slipper? The *crunch* of the slipper cracking the hard exoskeleton and then the soft, oozing feeling of the innards rubbing against the floor immediately thereafter? Now, imagine that entire experience in your mouth. I ended up eating 5 larvae before giving up. My friend, who conned me into eating 5 before she would even try -ONE-, said it tasted like shrimp. To each his own.


For those of you that want a closer look. Mmm, Korean Folk Village Snack!


After leaving the Korean Folk Village, I got in touch with a friend from Canada who is living in Seoul and we decided to grab dinner together. We headed to Namdaemun Market to see if we could get something there and do some sightseeing as well. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the awesome Namdaemun Gate (I said I was going to go back but I never found the time afterwards). After ordering something completely different from what we wanted (never trust those Korean-Canadians to order anything), we walked around Namdamun Market but ended up back at Myeongdong Market (they're fairly close to each other).

The cafe, pictured above, was just about to close for the night but I asked the clerks if I could grab a couple of photos. As usual, it was no problem (the gaijin card is international -- works more often than the "Get Out of Jail Free" card in Monopoly).

We ended the night watching another performance in Myeongdong before heading back to the apartment. Stay tuned for the best part of the trip. :)

Seoul: Day Two

We decided to wake up early on Saturday so we could pay for our USO-sponsored DMZ tour (more on that later). My predecessor, who I finally got to meet after almost 2 years of strictly email communique, kindly took us in the morning and showed us around the city a little bit; afterwards, we grabbed lunch in one of the restaurants near Insadong Market.

Insadong Market is a good area to get Korean omiyage and souvenirs. Most of the stores sell the same K-crap but it's worth the trip -- if only to haggle over 1000 won (roughly equivalent to $1.20 CDN or 130 yen). Around Insadong Market there are also a fair amount of trendy modern and traditional art galleries, tea emporiums, Starbucks, and many over-priced restaurants.

Though my friend took us around most of the time during our stay in Seoul, the subway, pictured above, wasn't that difficult to navigate in the end. All the stops were easily marked, both in Hangul and English romanization, and the T-Card, a prepaid electronic card (very similar to Hong Kong's Octopus Card), made taking public transportation hassle, and coin, free. Speaking of public transportation, it only costs 900 won (roughly $1 CDN or 110 yen) to take the subway -anywhere- in the city! That's progress.


After lunch we headed to Gyeongbokgung Palace -- Korea's most famous palace. Personally, I thought it was -just- okay. I mean, after having been to China's Forbidden City, seen the Imperial Palace, how can anything else compare?


That being said, there were plenty of other things to check out around the palace. We arrived just in time to catch the daily "changing of the guards" which was pretty kool.


One general observation I made while visiting some of Korea's tourists' traps, was the vibrant use of colour, especially blue, red and yellow, on nearly everything. This struck me as very unique because most Japanese structures tend to be more subdued, almost blending into their backgrounds with almost no use of colour (all Japanese castles are painted white with only the brown/black of the wood to offer contrast); Chinese structures, on the other hand, tend to be mostly red and gold.


We also checked out the Korean Folk Museum on the palace grounds. It was pretty neat seeing the various exhibits (I've become somewhat of a museum nerd lately) but the best one was probably the kimchi exhibit. That stuff is great!


At my behest, we left the palace to try to make it to Seoul Tower before sunset. Upon exiting the palace, we landed right in front of the "Blue House" -- Korea's answer to the "White House". We couldn't see much thanks to the carefully placed trees and other vegetation, but this "Guard House" struck me as rather amusing. I guess they wanted the guards to be able to see 360-degrees around but, wouldn't it have probably been a little "safer" to hire 2 or 3 more personnel, no?


We made it to Seoul Tower just as the sun was setting. Seoul tower itself wasn't that impressive but there was a lot of activity at the base the day we went. The above photo is a picture from the base of Seoul Tower of the radio antenna adjacent to the tower. :)


Seoul is dirty. While the weather was great almost every day we were in Korea, the pollution from the city was intense. Though not nearly as bad as China's, there was a very noticeable fog surrounding the city. The most likely culprit is probably automobile pollution. With over 10 million people in an area smaller than New York City, the effects of automobile and people pollution could be seen everywhere. The amount of apartment complexes in and around the city was staggering. They reminded me a lot of Soviet-era communist-style housing (not that I've lived in one but one only needs to have read Nineteen eighty-four or Brave New World to know what I mean).


At the top of Seoul Tower, my friend and I managed to catch the "Sunset in Seoul". Don't ask me who those people are -- I don't know. They just happened to be "in the way" when I was trying to take my shot. :)


Upon exiting Seoul Tower, we stumbled upon a concert in-progress. I'm not entirely sure who this singer was but apparently she is rather famous (I could be wrong though). We left the concert as soon as the all-too predictable Korean gangster-wannabes started their performance.


We were pretty hungry at this point so, we decided to try to find something for dinner. We headed to Myeongdong which is a fairly famous shopping/fashion district in Seoul. We thought we had found a fairly inexpensive restaurant to eat at but it turned out to be the most expensive meal during our entire trip. It was false advertisement I tell ya! The food wasn't that good either.


Every night in Myeongdong a stage is set up where, I'm assuming, amateurs are able to perform in front of a live audience. The night we went this dancing troupe literally stopped traffic with their routine. Actually, I think it was just the guy in the centre. The Korean mob went crazy every time he did a stunt or something. What do I know, eh?

After walking around Myeongdong, we decided to call it quits and headed back to the apartment. Tomorrow would be another long day. Until then, thanks for reading!