Daegu to Pohang

Our next major destination after Haeinsa was to be the island of Ulleungdo, but we decided to make a stop on the way in Daegu to check out its famous herbal medicine market. As usual, our first task upon arrival was to secure lodging for the night. We had no reservation, but our trusty travel guide informed us that one hostel in particular was the best value in town, so naturally we set out in search. The hunt proved to be more difficult than usual, and we misjudged the scale of the map, causing us to walk a long way in the heat with all of our bags, in a neighbourhood that didn't appear at first to have any hotels at all. It didn't help that there was no English signage, and we had to carefully scan the Hangul (Korean characters) for something that looked like the right name ("okay, we're looking for one that starts with the circle with a hat, and then the one that looks like a TV" - oh dear, we are ignorant tourists sometimes!).

Just before giving up, we finally found the correct building, with the circle and the TV and everything.   We were so relieved that it took us awhile to figure out why the nice lady at the front desk was asking us whether we wanted to sleep overnight or whether we needed the room for only an hour. Our inspection of the room confirmed that we had indeed stumbled upon one of Korea's famous "love motels." But it was surprisingly clean and nice and inexpensive, and perhaps our overheated exhaustion played a role in the decision, but we decided to stay.

We then ventured out for lunch, and we are ashamed to say that we headed straight for a Pizza Hut that we had spotted on the way to the motel. Yann and Emilie were much better travellers and ventured elsewhere to get authentic Korean food. But we were at a breaking point over cold bibimbap. The pizza was exactly like Canadian Pizza Hut pizza, except even more delicious because it came with a garlic butter dipping sauce. We quite enjoyed it.

We were ready to be more adventurous by dinner time, and we all headed out to find something among what we now realized, in the darkness that had descended by evening, was a neighbourhood full of love motels and bars all lit up in neon.

(This wasn't our motel - we would have been able to find this one.)

We avoided the dark alleys. We managed to find a little hole-in-the-wall that agreed to make us a vegetarian bibimbap, and this turned out to be one of the better ones, with lots of spicy red pepper sauce and, since we were now out of the mountains, lettuce, spinach and bean sprouts instead of those hearty "mountain vegetables."

After dinner, we were feeling adventurous enough to try to find our way to a movie theatre that played English movies. We piled into a taxi, taking advantage of the fact that taxis in Korea are very affordable - it cost about $6 to get all of us all the way across town. We could never have afforded to take a taxi anywhere in Japan. The only English movie playing was Spiderman, so that is what we saw.

The next morning we headed to the herbal medicine market early so that we would be able to see it before we had to check out of the motel. The market had been closed the day before, so this was our last chance. 

We peered into dozens of little shops with curiosities mostly in the categories of twigs, roots, and bark, plus lots of ginseng and reindeer antlers.

Since Antonia loves old and interesting (or not so interesting, in James' view) tins, she decided that she had to have one of the neat tins used to sell ginseng. She was willing to buy some ginseng just to get the tin, even though ginseng is not cheap. She and Emilie entered the store with the best tin display, and when the owner saw that they were primarily concerned with picking out their favourite tins, he offered an empty tin to each of them for free!

We then bid adieu to our love motel and headed to the bus station for the city of Pohang, which was the site of the ferry terminal that we needed to use to get to the island of Ulleungo. This time we headed straight for the ferry terminal before looking for a hostel because we needed to reserve tickets for the ferry the next day. The terminal was quite empty and we waited awhile before anyone came to the ticket counter to help us. When someone finally did, he took one look at the foreigners, exclaimed, "oh!," and promptly turned around and went straight back into the back room. It seems he had gone to find someone capable of speaking English. The second guy came out to greet us and Yann, Emilie and Antonia began asking about ferry tickets while James decided to sit this one out a short distance away. The poor ticket guy interrupted them and pointed at James and asked, "wait, do you speak Korean?" He had taken James for a Korean who was lazily letting his English-speaking friends do all the work. But he was out of luck, and he had to dust off his English. This was one in a long line of incidents in our travels that confirm that James would make an excellent international spy - wherever we go, locals assume that he is one of them, often with hilarious results.

Next we had to find a place to sleep, and the process was much like that in Daegu, because once again we got very turned around and had trouble matching the characters of the signs around us to the one of the Manstar Hotel, recommended by our guide. And once again, it turned out that this was a love motel, but by now we didn't even bat an eye. They are a decent and affordable option in Korea. The Manstar even offered us an upgrade to a room on the 7th floor with a view of the beach.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in our air-conditioned hotel rooms trying to escape the intense heat, and we ventured down to the lively beach and boardwalk area in the evening when it started to cool off. 

Our survey of restaurants along the beach yielded nothing suitable, at least for the vegetarians, because most restaurants specialized in fresh seafood, and one even had a moat running around the counter containing all kinds of sea creatures that patrons could just scoop out with their own little nets and plunk down to be fried up on the spot - Antonia's absolute nightmare! So we bought some ramen from the 7-11 and we ate at a picnic table on the boardwalk. As the sun set, everything around us became very neon. 



The buildings down the boardwalk and across the bay were all equipped with blinking neon lights, and the world's first ocean fountain, which we had admired in the daylight, was of course illuminated. 

We finished the evening with a lovely stroll down the boardwalk to take in all of the lights and people on the beautiful summer night.

Haeinsa

We made our way from Busan to Haeinsa on a bumpy bus ride, eager to see the small town and its famous temple, which is one of three Jewel Temples in South Korea. After finding a hostel and settling in, we strolled around the quiet streets of Haeinsa and took in our first view of the temple in the twilight. It was lovely, and we were eager to return again the next day.

During dinner at our hostel that night, we all decided to try the mountain vegetable bibimbap (a dish of rice with vegetables and sometimes eggs, which James and Antonia ate almost daily while in South Korea), along with a spicy peanut noodle soup, and the seemingly dozens of banchan (small side dishes) that accompany every Korean meal. 

The soup was excellent; the bibimbap was cold and a bit bland. We read that in Korea, vegetarian food is often bland because if you're eating it in the first place, you're doing so to be moderate and humble. Plus, monks don't want to get their blood going with any garlic or spice. Some of the banchan was very good, like the acorn jelly. But very much of the banchan was either not vegetarian or fermented in the style of kimchi ('fermented' turned out not to be Antonia's favourite flavour). Suffice it to say that Korean cuisine was not our preferred cuisine of this trip - except for the green onion pancakes, which were amazing! The food would probably have been a lot more exciting overall had we been meat-eaters.

To unwind before bed, we watched a little TV. The language barrier was not a problem, as two of the thirteen channels carried math tutorials for students (well, Antonia still couldn't understand what was going on, but the language wasn't exactly the problem there). Apparently, since academics are so important for Korean children, parents often hire tutors to give their students an advantage. These math television programs were designed to bridge the gap between students whose parents can afford a lot of private tutoring, and those who can't. So now, every child can spend their free time learning more math! But seriously, it seems like a good initiative.

We made a plan to get up at 7 am the next day to hike around the temple, which is set at the base of a mountain that is reputed to offer beautiful views of the temple and its surroundings. We were eager to do the hike before the rest of the tourists, and while it was still relatively cool. So we psyched ourselves up: "Are we really going to leave at 7? We're going to do this, right? No sleeping in!" But it turned out that we had overestimated Emilie's enthusiasm, and at 7 am, she was more enthusiastic about a couple more hours of sleep. So we started our trek closer to 10 am, after a breakfast of juice and coffee, and Cream Clan cookies that we had found the night before at a grocery store.

We walked to the temple and began the 5 km climb up the mountain. It began with a very pretty path along a babbling brook, but then quickly turned into a steep, rocky ascent. 

(Along the way, we were pretty sure that we could spot twigs and leaves on the side of the path that had been part of our mountain vegetable bibimbap the night before). 

There were lots of stairs and makeshift stairs formed of uneven rocks that were steep enough that we had to climb with our hands as well as our feet. 

As we climbed further, we began to climb into mist, which became fog, which became clouds, which started to rain. We became drenched first in sweat from the climb, and then in the rain. To make matters worse, we kept thinking we should be at the summit very soon, only to turn a corner and see an even steeper set of craggy rocks to climb.  

James was not impressed and kept repeating, "Remind me why we're doing this, again?" Emilie and Antonia tried to assure him that we would climb above the clouds and be rewarded with an amazing view at the top, not quite believing it themselves, but needing to say something to keep everyone going. 

When we did arrive at the top, all we could see was a grey wall of fog in front of us. It wasn't completely without beauty, though - there were some interesting rock formations, and it was eerily pretty to watch the clouds and fog flowing past them. 

The way back down was wet and muddy and slippery and the rocks had punctured a hole in the sole of one of James' shoes. James denounced what he believed was the futility of our walk, and revoked everyone's privilege to drag him on any more hikes for the remainder of the trip (luckily, this didn't last too long).

After our hike, we visited the Haeinsa Temple more closely. 

The main hall was beautiful, although we weren't sure if the thin mustache is a good look for the Buddha - but in this area, he is always depicted with one.

Antonia decided to walk the labyrinth set up for walking meditation.

The most impressive sight at the temple was the Tripitaka Koreana, which is the collection of Buddhist scriptures and laws carved onto more than 80,000 wood blocks and are nearly one thousand years old. They are the oldest known intact version of the Buddhist canon in Hanja script, and are believed to contain no errors in their over 52 million characters. They are preserved in a lovely library and guarded at all times. As a souvenir, we bought an imprint of a copy of one of the blocks to take home.

Here is Antonia inside the library:

Fooled you! Since photographs are prohibited inside the library, we took pictures of ourselves in front of the handy 'photozone' outside.

Before leaving for our next destination in the morning, we stopped for breakfast at KFB. That's right, North America might have KFC, but it doesn't hold a candle to Korea's Famous Bread. We had walnut and red bean donuts with coffee - quite delicious! So perhaps we have been too hard on Korean cuisine. There were certainly some bright spots, but just way, way too much cold bibimbap for the vegetarians.

Busan

After bidding Japan sayonara, we boarded a ferry toward Busan, the second largest city in South Korea. We took several ferries during our trip, but this one was by far the most fun because it was the only one that allowed passengers outside on the deck, and when we ventured out, we were in the most violent winds we have ever experienced. It was nearly impossible to stand in one spot or to walk into the wind, and when we put our backs to it, it pushed us down the deck with so much force that we couldn't stop running until we hit the railing on the other side, which was thrilling, but a little bit scary, and made us hurry back into the safety of our cabins.

The journey from the ferry dock to our hostel immediately highlighted the differences between Japan and South Korea: crossing the street seemed daunting because of the unruly traffic and the metro machines inconveniently accepted only 1,000 won notes fed into them in a very specific manner. We realized how spoiled we had been by the user-friendliness of absolutely everything in Japan. However, we eventually made it to our hostel and after checking in we explored our new neighbourhood, which was full of hostels, clubs and general chaos. Because Busan is a large city complete with a famous beach, it is known as the party destination for young Koreans, as well as the destination of choice for American soldiers on leave (the great number of American soldiers we saw was an odd reminder of the continued American military presence in South Korea).

Finding dinner was also a bit more difficult than in Japan, as almost every restaurant featured Korean barbeque with little other than meat on the menu. Eventually we found a place that advertised noodles with vegetables, although when our order came, it arrived with a generous pile of ham on it, which we gave to Yann and Emilie. We were now ready to dig in, but we were confused by the presence of scissors on the neatly arranged plate.

A kind server noticed our awkward attempts to serve ourselves and expertly cut up the noodles with our scissors and tossed the ingredients together for us.

The meal was a proper introduction to the food that we would be eating for the next three weeks in Korea, as it was cold (in fact it was served with some ice on top) and smothered in red pepper paste, which was delicious, but too spicy for Antonia.

The next day we walked the short distance to beautiful Haeundae, an urban beach with a view of skyscrapers in the background and blue, mountainous islands out on the ocean. We spent a fun few hours swimming in the chilly waves and napping under a beach umbrella. 

For lunch we found a Mr. Pizza chain and ate a vegetarian pizza that was topped with corn and had a very sweet sauce, and came with sweet pickles and mayo on the side.

To round out our short time in Busan and to see the city in a completely new setting, we took a metro and then a cab up a forested mountain to see Beomeosa temple.

While exploring the grounds in the beautiful surroundings, we began to hear the sound of drums beckoning the monks to a prayer ceremony.

We followed the sound to an ornate open-air structure that housed the largest gong we have ever seen and we watched as monks stood around it playing various percussion instruments.

The monks then proceeded to a prayer room to commence chanting, and we sat on the steps in the large courtyard to listen.

For dinner we picked up green onion pancakes (which would become Antonia’s favourite Korean food) and tempura from the bustling street market after wandering up and down the alley gazing at the various goods for sale, from knock-off bags to giant crabs that were trying to climb out of their tanks.

Japan: A Video

Here is a short video we put together of the wonderful time we spent in Japan.

Fukuoka

Fukuoka was our last destination in Japan, and truthfully we chose it primarily for its ferry port that would be our access to Korea. It is a large and vibrant city, though, and we used our few days there to partake in some Japanese activities that we hadn’t yet had the chance to. The first of these was pachinko – a hugely popular gambling phenomenon in Japan. Throughout our trip, we had been amazed by the sight of tall, windowless buildings full of people playing what looked liked an especially easy arcade game at all hours of the day and night. Since we were staying down the street from one of these giant complexes, we decided it was time to venture in, even though we had no idea how it worked. Walking inside was an immediate sensory overload. The building seemed silent as we approached but the automatic sliding doors opened to an overwhelming wall of noise. The beeping and ringing of the games was so loud that we wanted to cover our ears as soon as we stepped in. The machines were very bright and would blink and flash according to what was happening in each individual game. We got a very patient employee to show us how the game worked. He offered a level of help that we are sure wouldn't be allowed at a casino in Canada, putting his hand over James' and essentially playing the game for him. Nevertheless, we never really got the hang of it. Basically, players buy a set of marbles that are fed into the game and bang around as in a pinball machine. If they fall in the right place, the player has an opportunity to win a jackpot if various things happen in the correct sequence, and more marbles would be released from the machine. We played one game, and sadly our 1,000 yen ($13) melted away into the machine before we could learn much more. If we had been luckier, we could have traded in our marbles for ‘prizes’ at the counter (gambling for money is illegal in Japan), and traded in these prizes for cash at another counter around the corner. When we stepped outside while chatting to each other, we suddenly realized that we had been shouting at the top of our voices just to be heard.

The next morning we were gently awoken by a kind hostel staff member who remembered that we had mentioned an interest in taking a tour of the Asahi brewery and had found out for us that the only English tour of the day started in the morning. We quickly headed to the brewery and took our free tour. It was interesting to see the extremely efficient machine assembly line – a mere 140 employees operate the plant that produces 800 million cans per year. The best part was the 20 minutes of free beer after the tour, although we could only drink two glasses each – it was only 11:30 am after all!

During the afternoon we prepared for a quick trip to Osaka to visit Yoshiaki Nagasawa, a master bicycle frame builder. This was an adventure that James had dreamt up and to tell the truth, Antonia was just along to make sure that he didn’t get lost on the way, but she had an unexpectedly great time owing to Nagasawa-san’s warm hospitality and the fast friendship that we made with his colleagues. Nagasawa-san does not entertain regular tours of his foreign fans, but James had read of some other tourists who had managed to get a hold of the builder and pay an impromptu visit. There were a few small things standing in our way: Osaka is about four hours away from Fukuoka by train, and Nagasawa-san works only during the night, from about 7 pm to 7 am. But we decided that this opportunity was worth missing a night’s sleep, since when else would we be this close to a master frame builder? We had the hostel staff call his workshop and we got permission to visit him that night. Preparations included finding a box of his favourite candy and taking an afternoon catnap.

Yann and Emilie chose to stay behind and leave the nighttime adventuring to us, so we boarded the Shinkansen alone and were very proud to make all of our connections and easily find Nagasawa-san’s home station on the outskirts of Osaka by about 11 pm. The difficult part was finding his workshop from there, but with some help, we eventually found the correct intersection. We didn’t have any further directions and for a few moments we were at a loss about how we would find the right building until we took a close look around and suddenly saw a beam of light in the darkness that illuminated a warehouse of countless bike parts. We entered tentatively and were greeted by Sadako and her husband René, Nagasawa-san's English-speaking colleagues whom he had asked to translate for us. René is actually an Australian with a passion for cycling who came to Japan on a trip and ended up falling in love with the country and with Sadako. They now own a cycling shop of their own and collaborate with Nagasawa-san on special projects. Antonia could see James getting ideas about the perks of such a lifestyle and begin scheming about how he might spend summers in Osaka. We were very happy to have René and Sadako with us, not only for the translation (we had previously imagined nodding politely as we stood in silence watching Nagasawa-san work all night), but because they were interesting and kind people whom we enjoyed getting to know in the wee hours of the morning. We're not sure if they had intended to stay the entire night, but they insisted, through stifled yawns, that they didn't mind. We are very grateful to them for forgoing sleep that evening since their presence made the experience much richer for us.

Nagasawa-san was more welcoming than we could have hoped for. He first took a coffee break to sit down with us and chat, then invited us to watch him work and didn't seem to mind being the subject of hundreds of photos throughout the night. When he found out that we weren't staying in Osaka, he even offered us a guest room at his house for the night. We did not end up making use of it, though, since we spent the wee hours happily getting to know René and Sadako, and watching the master at work. 

Throughout the night, we had the opportunity to get to know Nagasawa-san a bit. René and Sadako informed us that he had begun his career as a keirin racer, but he was in a bad accident and doctors forbid him from racing anymore. To remain in the keirin community, he was forced to learn other aspects of the sport, and studied massage and bike mechanics - anything to stay with his team. He realized that he should learn to build keirin frames and that if he was to do it properly, he should learn from the masters in Italy. So he showed up at the door of Ugo De Rosa without having any money or frame-building skills, and without knowing any Italian. He started by sweeping the floors of De Rosa's workshop and worked his way up to frame building in the shop, acquiring the skills that make him one of the best frame builders in the world. He eventually brought these skills back to Japan and used them to revolutionize keirin frame building. Rumour has it he also brought back his Italian sleep schedule which is why he still keeps such strange hours to this day.  

At about 4:30 am, Nagasawa-san stopped working to give us a gift of a full set of bicycle decals and part of a frame from a bicycle of his that had been damaged in a keirin race. He proceeded to pour beers all around and we toasted one of the best nights of our trip. Then, because he works such odd hours, he declared that he was hungry and that it was time for 'dinner.' He insisted on taking us all out for a meal, and René and Sadako drove us to a nearby 24-hour diner where we joined Nagasawa-san, his wife and his son for a large 5:30 am feast throughout which Nagasawa-san discussed his views on cycling, Japanese history, and life in general. It was truly a treat to spend time with such a knowledgeable and warm person. After the meal, René and Sadako kindly drove us to a train station where we started on our long way back to Fukuoka.

Having slept only about an hour on the train, we went to sleep as soon as we had regaled Yann and Emilie with our Osaka adventure, and only woke up in time to go the the baseball game that we had bought tickets for in our quest to experience another national pastime of Japan. Our hostel had a Fukuoka Hawks fan rulebook and we read it in preparation. It was a ridiculously detailed account of  how to behave as a fan, and outlined for example appropriate times to wave a flag: when your team scores, when your team hits a run, and when your team is ahead by a large margin. Only in Japan would spectating be so heavily regulated. The Japanese certainly take cheering seriously - the audience stood the whole time the Hawks were at bat.

A live band and a very enthusiastic man with a megaphone led the crowd in cheers that everyone knew, complete with particular dances to go along. 

When flag-waving cheerleaders came onto the field between innings, a businessman in his suit took out his matching flags and moved into the aisle to perform the entire routine with them, spot-on and full of energy. When the routine was over, he carefully rolled his flags up and sat back down, smoothing any creases in his pantsuit. The baseball game was lots of fun and a great opportunity to witness for one last time the adorable mix of seriousness and playfulness in the Japanese culture.

Mount Aso

We left Hiroshima early in the morning on a train bound for Mount Aso, the site of one of the largest active volcanoes in the world. We hoped we would have a clear view despite the heavy rains that we travelled through. From the train station, we walked the short distance to our hostel and were delighted to discover that it was the nicest we had been in so far; we’re sure we won’t find another one like it on our trip.  The spotless building was made to feel like home, with beautiful furnishings and every amenity we could want. Thoughtful touches like a woodstove, a clean and well-organized kitchen, a library of manga and board games, and stuffed animals to sleep with allowed us to enjoy the rainy evenings that we spent inside.

We woke up the next morning to blue skies and we knew that we had to take advantage of the unexpected break in the weather to explore the volcano. We took a short bus ride up to the base station with a plan to hike around the crater and then back down to the town. When we got to the station, though, we were informed that the crater was closed due to noxious gas emissions. Aso is a caldera volcano, with an ever-broiling cauldron of sulphur dioxide formed after an eruption caused the mount to collapse in on itself. When we approached the base, we could see the fumes spewing out of the crater, and we could certainly smell the eggy sulphur. But we had read that Aso’s sulphur output was inconsistent and that access to the crater was often opened and closed by the hour, so we waited at the station hoping that we would be able to see the volcano we had travelled so far for.

 
After an hour without any sign of Aso letting up, we decided to take another hiking route and check back later. We began walking toward some extinct craters in the vicinity while the sulphur fumes climbed into the sky behind us.


On our way, we came across a man with a van on the side of the trail, selling helicopter rides over the volcano. At first we scoffed at the unofficial appearance of the set-up, but we had earlier seen a helicopter circling safely, and we realized that this might be our only chance to see the crater. Yann and Emilie could not be convinced, but Antonia talked James into taking this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and we signed up.


We are very glad that we did because this was one of the best experiences of our trip so far. Our first-ever helicopter ride was exhilarating not only because of the thrill of being so high, but because of the spectacular views that it afforded. We got the see the entire landscape of extinct craters, but most breathtaking, of course, was the view of the volcanic cauldron that turned out to be off-limits to pedestrians all day. We flew directly over it, and the sulphur fumes dissipated just enough for us to clearly see the green-blue sulphur lake spewing the noxious gas. It looked violent and hellish, but it was beautiful from the safety of our helicopter.



Yann and Emilie greeted us on the ground, and we continued on our hike to an extinct crater. A steep climb rewarded us with great views of the mountains and lakes surrounding us.

 We got to walk around the edge of the now grassy extinct crater...



and got another perspective of the rocky one that was still very active.


That evening, we capped our lovely day with a feast of homemade tempura with beer in our beautiful hostel. We were the only guests there that night, allowing us to pretend that we lived in our own grand mansion.
 

Since we were a little sore from our hike, the next day was a great opportunity to take a day trip to nearby Kurokawa, a small town famous for being full of some of the loveliest onsen in the country - this part of the archipelago being perfectly suited for the hot springs that come from volcanic sources. The town boasts dozens of onsen and ryokan – traditional Japanese lodging, usually very fancy – that see Japanese tourists wandering the streets between onsen in only their robes and slippers. Staying at a ryokan was a bit expensive, but we bought a pass to visit three onsen for only 1,200 yen – about $15. All of the onsen were ridiculously beautiful. We don’t have pictures to show you because of the tradition that onsen bathing should only be done in the nude, but just imagine the most idyllic natural springs that you can, and you will be halfway there. Some were outdoors, with steaming water in a stone pool overlooking a waterfall in a glade. Some were indoors, with large picture windows giving a view of bamboo, streams, and more waterfalls. The first one was nearly empty except for us, so we got to revel in our own secluded paradise. The second had some baths separated by sex, as we were used to, and some that were mixed; the Japanese don’t have the same shyness about nudity in front of the opposite sex as we North Americans. We weren’t yet ready to do as the locals do, though, and we bathed separately again. At first we were confused about where the changing rooms were, though, and thought we were supposed to undress in the washrooms and walk the halls of the fancy hotel in our birthday suits. We realized just in time that the changing rooms were directly beside each individual bath, and we laughed for the rest of the afternoon at the thought of the faux pas that we nearly committed. The baths here were in a bamboo grove with stone Buddhas adding to the relaxed atmosphere. One bath had a deep area with a bamboo swing to help hold you up. The third onsen was the fanciest we visited, but it was also exclusively mixed. We hid behind small ‘modesty towels,’ but they have to go in a sort of less-than-stylish turban on your head once you’re in the clear water. We enjoyed one outdoor bath beside a huge waterfall, and one inside a cave. It was all very relaxing and indulgent, and we reflected on how lucky we were to spend a day in such fantastical surroundings.