Land of the Deer

Seriously. So many deer. And they've been here forever. They are so used to tourists and are quite pushy when it comes to getting their biscuits. They're addicts and they aren't afraid to nudge, buck, and nibble to get their dose. 

After getting of the train with a Korean friend (Mars) I made at the station in Osaka we headed toward a few temples we wanted to check out. When I first saw deer ahead of us on the side walk, I was beyond exited. It wasn't long after that I realized these guys are everywhere. I found a cute old lady selling treats to give them and Mars and I were immediately bombarded with deer. Pushy little guys. We had a blast leading them around the park, teasing them and playing with them. They are so forward and pretty domesticated. 

I watched many shopkeepers shoo them out of their stores when they would venture a little to far into the shop. One of the shopkeepers was able to tell me that one of the deer that hung out around her shop was only a year old, and she pointed out the mother. How she was able to identify them out of the hundred of deer living in Nara was beyond me. As pesky as they may be, the locals love them like you would any other 4 legged furry friend. They are considered to be sacred messengers of Shinto gods

                      

We strolled through the small little town of Nara and checked out whatever temple was in our way. There were loads. We chose a nice, shady path lined with huge stone lanterns on the way to Kasuga. This temple is known for the thousands of bronze lanterns, but it was nearly 5 bucks to walk through them - we decided peering through the would be sufficient and saved our precious money for something we REALLY wanted to see.

I could have easily spent hours aimlessly exploring every nook and cranny of this little place. Around every bend there was something new that caught my eye. A little river here, a cluster of lanterns and statues there. Temple after temple, it was hard taking it all in. Mars and I found a beautiful temple situated at the top-ish of Nara. It was nice having him around cause he was able to help me figure out how to properly interactic with all these Buddhist things I have no experience with. Water fountains with cups, bells with brightly colored fabrics, incense and candles. He showed me the ropes when it came to these things and added a lot to my experience in this little town. 

                           

The view from this temple was unreal. I could see the tippity top of Todai-ji - The massive wooden structure  and main attraction in Nara. I really, really wanted to see this baby. Seeing it peaking over the trees got me so excited that I was able to ignore the growls from my stomach begging for food and frolic on in Todai-ji's direction instead.

It was so massive and so beautiful, I have never seen anything like it. Before walking in Mars and I lit some incense meant to clean the surrounding air of unwanted spirits and energies and made our way inside. I sat and stared at for at least 5 minutes before even bothering to take pictures of the huge Buddha that was sitting in front of me, situated peacefully on a lotus flower.

You are able to walk completely around the giant statue. It has two smaller shrines on either side with golden statues and smaller things to look at while you make your way around. There was a place you could practice calligraphy and a small hole in one of the wooden pillars that had a line accumulating around it. Thankfully Mars was there to explain why people (including grown men) were crawling through it. Apparently being able to fit through the tiny space guarantees you a spot in heaven. Challenge accepted. Once I get around to making a video compilation of my Japan footage you will be able to witness my attempt first hand :)

Osaka - The Venice of Japan

Oh, Saka. Despite being what some may consider a typical big city, I enjoyed it more than I thought. To be honest though, I didn't spend much time there. My couchsurfing host actually recommended not to spend the day in Osaka and instead head to Nara. I took his advice.  He is a local. He knows things. I definitely made the right choice, but I appreciated the time that I was able to explore the streets of Osaka.

I didn't leave Taka's place until 10ish, and with the last train leaving around 11:45 I didn't have much time to get my exploring in. I got off at the metro stop he suggested and started wandering in the general direction of the Dotonbori, a notorious street in Osaka known primarily for it's deliciously cheap food and extravagant shop front displays. I quickly found the ramen joint I was dying to try, mainly because they have kimchi to garnish your noodles with. Kinryu ramen is likely the most popular place to get ramen - so popular they have three lcations in the Dotonbori. All of their store fronts are adorned with giant Dragons. It wasn't hard to find.

I put my 900yen into a vending machine and pressed the picture of the ramen I wanted. It spit out a ticket for me to hand to the lovely man who was about to feed me my first proper Japanese ramen. I inhaled that giant bowl of noodles while sitting crossed legged on the tatami mat with a perfect view for people watching. Almost immediately after eating ramen I figured it was about as good a time as any to eat takoyaki - octopus balls. Not like, testicles. Just fried balls of octopus. They were wonderful, definitely better than the live baby octopus I ate in Korea. But, anything fried is automatically better.

I caught the last train to Taka's house and instead of heading straight home I decided to wander in the direction of a river and see what I could find on my way. I was happy to stumble upon a 7-11, one of my favorite snack stops in Korea. It was fun to compare the convenience stores in Japan to the ones back home. They definitely have a better selection of alcohol, food, and reading material. A stood in front of the drinks section for at least a minute contemplating whether or not to get a regular sized Strong or a tall can. A Strong is an alcoholic beverage in Japan, rightly named. 8% alcohol that comes in an assortment of fruity flavors? Sign me up. I picked up a small can, walked a few feet to the register and turned around to grab a tall can. The store clerk giggled. So did I.

I didn't make it as far as the river, but I did find a lovely park that I walked around and played on. How could I resist a set of swings? I definitely got a few stares from the few people making their way home. It probably isn't too often they see a white person swinging at a park in their neighborhood late at night with a Strong in hand.

The next day I woke up, shared tea and breakfast with Taka - and headed to Nara. After shopping all evening throughout the multiple shopping districts in Osaka, I came home that evening to a beautiful meal prepared by Taka. You can read all about it in my couchsurfing blog. I wanted to get to Kyoto the next day fairly early, so I had an early night. Pretty much spent the whole evening, and the next morning chatting with Taka. I really enjoyed his company and was happy to share my experience with him.

I came back to Osaka the last night of my trip since I was flying out the next day. I didn't want to have to worry about waking up and traveling too far to the airport. I found a super cheap hostel with a PRIVATE room, and AC. I was stoked to have my own space, not going to lie. I love hostels, but for some reason I wasn't interested in meeting a whole load of other people traveling. I was in the hostel long enough to set my stuff down and check out a map. I decided I wanted to go to a park nearby and set off. I don't know if I every actually made it to the park. I did, however, wander around some really cool areas of town.

One of the streets I walked down was filled with hole in the wall sushi joints, rooms full of old men playing some game I had never seen, men gambling on the ground, turtles that I assume were soon to be someones meal, and a lot of bike traffic. I got a lot of stares while walking down this street, most people seemed surprised to see me. Most stares were followed by smiles though, which is one thing I loved about Japan. Everyone seemed (relatively) happy.

At night I decided I wanted to visit Namba Parks, a giant shopping center with landscaping around the structure and a garden/park along the roof. I planned on getting dinner here and exploring some of the shops, looking for hopefully cheap and small things to bring back home with me to decorate my apartment. I ended up grabbing dinner here at a restaurant that specialized in cheese and then heading back towards the direction of the Dotonbori to wander more.

While walking around I decided I might as well pick up a cheap drink from a convenient store. While I was walking down the Dotonbori with a Strong Zero in my hand a Japanese man thought it was funny and tried to spark up a conversation with me using (pretty much) only the word "strong". "Ahh! Strong, very strong!" Acting out drunk stumbling and chugging drinks took place. He asked if I knew any Japanese. Thankfully I had my drink in hand and was able to point to the word "zero" written across my can. He was disappointed in our lack of communication, and so was I. My biggest pet peeve is not being able to communicate with a person. If I were a superhero, I would want the power of ALL languages. BAM.

After a few more hours of exploring I worked up another hunger somehow so I decided to have a second dinner. SECOND DINNER was the best choice I have ever made. I went to Kinryu again, just a different location on the same street. While waiting for my noodles I retrieved a beer out of a vending machine and a little old man started up conversation with me. This one had indoor tatami seating so after I topped my ramen with massive amounts of kimchi I sat down to eat. The man, Eiichiro, asked if he could have dinner with me. I was thrilled.

He was so excited to practice his English, and I was happy to have someone to share my meal with. I confessed my love for food and that I missed Kimchi. We talked about communicating and how he learned English, places we have traveled and things we have done. He kindly walked with me to the subway and helped me find the right train. I would have figured it out, but it probably would have taken more time considering I was definitely feeling the mere two drinks I had consumed. He shared candy with me on the train and reminded me when it was my stop. Even though our paths only crossed for a very short time, I was so lucky to have met him.

And then, once again, I made a convenient store stop before heading back into my hotel. I grabbed a drink and some dessert and went back to my private hostel room at Toyo and vegged out while organizing and packing.

Worst part of my day

                             

...is eating my last bite of food. Any food. Mostly gimbap though. I always want more. More more more. Idk what's wrong with me, but the food here is too good. I just ate a whole roll of gimbap and I already want to devour another one. 

Although, my live baby octopus meal didn't have the same effect of my monstrous appetite. It wasn't horrible. I chewed the slithery little pieces enough before they ever got the chance to latch on to my throat and suffocate me, no worries. But really it just tasted like the sauce I lathered in. Luckily our tentalicious meal came with a counterpart. Some random fish the market guy picked out, cooked with onions and mushrooms and a yummy sauce. I'll say my first visit to the live fish market went about as good as it could have :)

Bread, yukgwa, and beer - is there anything better?

                            

Bread houses. Man, those are hard to pass up. There is even one that goes by the name of "Eat Bread". They turned my life motto into a bakery, what more could I ask for?

One of the markets I go to (frequently) has a bakery attached to it, and there are ALWAYS discount - and I am reminded of this fact everytime thanks to the cutie who mans the stall. He is always way to happy to see me and eager to use the little amount of English he knows. Which includes the aforementioned "discount" along with other words; hello, very good, pretty, goodbye, and I love you. The last one is my personal favorite. He always cons me into getting bread. Always. How an I deny a little Korean man confessing his love to me, even if it's because that's all he knows how to say in English?

 

One of my favorite parts about life is how much exploring there is to do. With so many new things in my life, it's hard to get bored. I visited Ulsan Grand Park before work one afternoon and rode around the same area of the massive park for an hour on my bike rental trying to find the butterfly conservatory. It was a massive fail, but wandering around was a blast. I ran into a few cool parts of the park and am looking forward to exploring it more.

  



And friends. So many new people, from all around the world. Foreign and Korean. I am so excited to get to know these people and to create and share memories with them. It's been so easy to get into the swing of things here. I've felt welcomed from day one. 

                                

Makkoli and banchan, YUM

Sandcastles at Ilsan Beach, Ulsan

Mudtastic

              

Lucked out and found people selling tickets to the Boryeong Mud Festival less than a week before the event. Buying those tickets may have well been one of the best decisions ever. That and my GoPro. Thanks Molly :)

We took a 6 hour bus ride from Ulsan to Boryeong on a "party bus". Cheesy lights flashed and norebang took place on the trip at the lovely hour of 9 am. Nothing like Korean karaoke and soju cocktails in the morning to really get me going. That's a recipe for a good time.

We stayed in a pension, which until this point I had never heard of. It's one GIANT step down from a hostel, where mass amount of people sleep on floors. They give you a big empty room with pillows and blankets. The rooms weren't clean when we arrived so 60 people ditched their things in one large room and changed into the clothes they intended to be doused in mud. We didn't have time to waste. 

                

Once we finally got to the festival my desire I be covered on mud from head to toe had reached an all time high. We walked into the mud pit and unfortunately we couldn't bring our glass soju bottles in. Or fortunately? I ditched shoes the second I had the chance and the last thing I wanted was a bloody mud foot.  I elicited he help of one of the cute little Korean security guards to watch over our drinks, and he did so diligently. While waiting in line for wrestling the girls and I took turns running back to him and taking soju shots. 

There were loads of mud things to do. Giant mud slides and games and even a mud prison for those people who, for some odd reason, were not covered from head to toe. The lines were quite long for everything and we figured a wrestling game was priority. We choose a numbers game where 20ish people stand in a mud pit and have to get into groups of people depending on the number the announcer calls. 

We got in line and immediately made friends with the people around us. There was a cute little Korean family who absolutely loved us. We chatted and they asked to take pictures with us. A lot of Koreans did that. You'd think we were famous. When we were chugging soju - there were Koreans with cameras snapping away. When we laid in the mud, snap snap snap. There was a thick group of Korean paparazzi stationed just above the mud pit, cameras protected with plastic and special casings. I'll be searching the internet for years trying to find out where all of these photos ended up :)

The game was a blast and ended way too quickly. The second round I was hurdled up with a group all hoping we had the correct number of people  - we were one over. So what happened? I was thrust from the group and left for dead. As I was pushed into the mud you could hear the, "ohhhh!"'s from the crowed of people watching. Anyone who loses and doesn't have a group when the times up gets put into the middle and everyone else showers them with mud. Fine by me. I took my mud bath like a champ.

 

I got mud in my eye, however. I think it happened at the very beginning in the mud sink when an Indian man tried to help me cover my face. And then during the game the problem intensified. After that I could have easily been a one eyed mud pirate. It was so bad I had to have my momma goose walk me to the medical tent where a woman syringed my eye out with some sort of eye wash concoction. I obviously wasn't the first.

We then decided to get beer and go to the beach to wash off and chill while listening to some live music. It was a challenge pulling my muddy money from my swim suit and paying the cashier. I can only imagine the cleaning up that has to be done after this festival is over. There is mud on every damn thing. 

We swam and played and had a grand old time. I made so many friends, a few of which I had to record on my GoPro spelling their names so I could remember to add them on Facebook.

The rest of the day/night is a giant blur. We got back to the pension and showered, and then there was dinner. Loads of meat grilling and ssamjang and rice. I ate and drank WAY too much. Then eventually the sun went down and we went back to the beach for more music and fun. Once we got back to the pension we relaxed on the patio area and chatted and drank the night away. I can barley remember most of their names, but I do remember trying to learn Korean and someone kept bringing me ice cream. I was happy. 

Then, at 2 in the morning I decided to round up all the people who were still awake and got them to go to norebang with me and my new best friend Samuel. He was the KING of norebang on the bus earlier that day. He inspired me. A group of 10 people staggered down the street to the first karaoke room we could find and started singing. And drinking, MORE DRINKING. I did a beautiful rendition of Baby Got Back... But mostly everyone just sung together. Even the Korean songs that I didn't understand and could barley read. 

Water. Sleep. WATER. By the time we got back to the pension, no one could find anywhere to sleep. Some people were pissed... I on the other hand found the first spot I could and passed out. I woke up on the floor pillow-less with no covers in between two people I have never seen before. 

Our group was a pathetic sight to see the next morning. Some people were taking shots, most people had a startling resemblance to zombies and were eating noodles for breakfast- myself included. Best hangover cure.  It's crazy how this group of people went from strangers on a bus to friends who shared some insane experiences together, and a lot of drinks. Foreigners or Koreans, didn't matter. Language barriers, PSSSH. There is such a thing as an universal language my friends - ALCOHOL.

 

I've put together a little video compilation with footage from my GoPro :) enjoy!

A night out in Samsan

Samsan is the name of the neighborhood with encompasses "downtown". This is where everyone goes to party, Koreans and foreigners alike. It's a good 30 minute bus ride, with no traffic. And there's typically traffic. But, buses are easy and it's a nice way to check out what's going on outside of my Dong-gu bubble.

Before we made it downtown we went to dinner at a restaurant which creates the "best pizza in Ulsan." It was good, that's for sure. Anyways, it was orchestrated by Karyn who takes part in a "meet up group" where anyone can come and meet people. Koreans and foreigners. We had a rough head count of who was coming, all of which she, or someone, knew. BUT, the beauty with this meet up thing is people just show up. Two Koreans and an Indian engineer joined us for dinner. MORE NEW FRIENDS. 

My friend Charly, who I met the night before, drove a few of us downtown. French people apparently can't drive very well. Haha. But we made it to Thursday Party (a nice foreigner's bar) in one piece. The place was crowded and there was a mix of different people. Old white engineers and Koreans and English teachers everywhere. I made the sweetest little Korean girlfriend and we talked about differences in culture between America and Korea. Koreans don't wear thongs, and they don't show off their chests. But it's okay if I do because I'm just a silly miguk - their term for American. 

She asked me why I chose to come to Korea and what I was enjoying the most, which has been a hard question for me to answer. I am still in my honeymoon phase, everything here puts me into a state of amazement. It's been hard to single out my favorite part or exactly how I feel about all of it. But, I was able to come up with a decent response. I love that I'm so out of my element here. Every day that I wake up, there is a new challenge ahead of me. Whether it's something as simple as learning how to order gimbap or catch a cab home or traveling around the country - it's all new and it's all a learning experience. Everyday is a new adventure, at least that's how I look at it. 

Anyways. Karyn's Korean boyfriend, Q, wanted a change of pace. So we called around and got a table at a club. THEY GAVE US CANDY AND FRUIT. And two bottles for $100. Deal. It was quaint and the music was a mix of really Korean EDM and some typically mainstream songs, but I was loving it. We had a great group of people, good vibes make all the difference. And dancing. How can you not be happy when you're dancing?

The next morning I was well hungover. Karyn made me a green smoothie for breakfast and then we went out for a delicious shabu-shabu lunch. 12,800 won for a salad bar with all of my favorite things (dokboki, chapchae, donkus, and an assortment of salads) AND a giant bowl of delicious veggies and meat set right in the center of out table on a hot plate. You get to watch the meat and drool while it transformers into a pot of delectable stew.

And then, despite wanting to stay inside and cuddle in my bed, I worked up enough energy to get out of the house and enjoy the afternoon watching extreme frisbee and strolling around a park. The weather was PERFECT and the park was lined by the river, which made me happy. Because water makes me happy, in any form. I made a good decision.

It's hard not to be incredibly happy here.