Springtime Blahs?

There’s vomit on the streets and yellow dust in the air. It’s springtime in Korea.

This is a whiny article. I’ll just warn you.

Both Paul and I have the privilege to walk by vomit puddles on a regular basis. Public drunkenness (and alcoholism) are both big problems in Korea that few people seem to talk about. We’ve passed groups of men fighting in the streets and men passed out in the streets – before 10pm. And then there’s the vomit puddles that never get cleaned up – they just fade away.

Springtime in Korea feels much more like a time for plodding than plotting and planning. Every spring, yellow dust from the Gobi desert in China blows down into Korea. The phenomenon has been recorded for several hundred years, but in the recent past the effects have been much worse: the sand brings more pollutants with it. Fortunately, in our neighborhood, people have taken to burning their fields, manure, and garbage piles, so that we can enjoy this experience even more.

We took a trip to Costco last Saturday. This may not seem like much of an event, but it’s a two-hour ride there, maneuvering through the store, and a two-hour trip home. (Usually, the bus ride is a little shorter, but the traffic was bad this weekend.) The process of shopping at Costco is unique: it feels like big-Asian-market-meets-American-wholesale-club. There are people and carts everywhere you turn. In Korea, there is a power of wills (or of age); no one moves carts or bodies out of the way, so the experience can be rather frustrating. If you do happen to be in the way, someone will push you to get by. This is done with no subtlety in a classic pushing move: put hand on other body and shove. I’ve taken to saying out loud how much I dislike Korea when this happens; though, on my first trip to Costco I sobbed uncontrollably in the middle of the store.

This particular trip was noteworthy because of our bus ride home. Because we were the last people on the bus, we stood for the drive home - in the front of the bus. I was right beside the driver, and watched as he checked his phone for messages, opened the window, closed the window, looked through his bags, opened a drink - all while driving a bus full of passengers at 125 km/hr. I spent the ride thinking of what to do in case of an accident. But I also spent the ride knowing that I would likely get home safe, with a story to tell. And really, that's how I feel about a lot of the things we experience here - from bus rides to vomit puddles. Every once in a while we look at each other and say, "our kids will never believe that we were this cool."

In Praise of Japan

If you haven’t read Paul’s posts below and looked at his beautiful pictures (he just posted some more last night); you really should. He’s written three posts now on our trip to Japan, and I haven’t written one.

I haven’t written because I didn’t really know where to start. It was a surprise trip, and we had a bit of struggle getting out of Korea. (I now have three pages of voided stamps in my passport from the Koreans.) In that sense, it was a relief just to be able to leave the country. Neither one of us would say that we’re unhappy here, but every time we’ve left the county, I think we both feel as though an enormous weight has been lifted. In part, because of my visa troubles, and, in part because of the rudeness we encounter here.

But this isn’t about Korea; it’s about Japan. And Japan was amazing. There were a lot of evergreens, so even in winter the country looked green and warm. The first day we went to Miyajima, one of the ‘three most beautiful’ places in Japan. It kind of set the pace for the trip. Miyajima is an island of mountains – long, shapely mountains that look like dragons curled up on each other. And so richly green! Every site we visited was warm (in appearance only) and green, pristinely manicured and poised for tourists. At every site, they would have English brochures ready before we bought our tickets. At Matsushima, a guide came running after us in order to give us a free tour in English. If we had to take our shoes off, they had ‘large size’ sandals ready for Paul (he refused them at one place, thinking he could just walk around in his socks; he took them after he realized it would be too cold. What was remarkable was that the people offering didn’t tell him it would be too cold, but they looked very sad for him.)

This kindness extended everywhere. People smiled at each other and bowed. They would duck out of each other’s pictures. At Himeji Castle, Paul stopped to take a few pictures near a boy and his grandfather. The grandfather quickly pulled the boy out of the way. When Paul was finished, we thanked him, and the grandfather commented on Paul’s camera and told us to have a nice day at the castle. When we were lost in Kyoto, a woman walked several blocks with us to help us find our way. Neither one of these experiences is particularly remarkable, except to say that they were the rule rather than the exception.

It’s the cleanest place I’ve ever been – not just Miyajima or any of their other parks, temples, or castles – but every single street. The cleanliness probably stuck out a bit more after living in Korea and spending time in developing nations like Vietnam and Cambodia. I remember the one time I saw trash on the ground – the one time in our whole trip. But it wasn’t just the absence of trash that made Japan feel clean: it was that the streets and sidewalks had obviously been cleaned and swept on a regular basis, the trees were pruned and cared for, at one site we even saw workers brushing the moss on the ground. These are people who are concerned not simply about appearance of their place, but about the health and well-being of the place itself. Cars were quieter and emitted less fumes. We walked through the busiest sections of Tokyo, and the air was still cleaner than anything else I’ve experienced since I left Vermont.

Clearly, one of the most important parts of any trip is the food. I was excited about visiting Japan just for the sushi. But here I have to gush again: everything was so fresh! I’m not particularly fond of the sticky Asian rices (unless covered in some kind of sauce), but the rice in Japan was so fresh it was like eating something purer than air. I know this all sounds ridiculous, and perhaps it is, but something should be said for the dedication the Japanese have to fresh food. I think it’s the first vacation we’ve been on together where we didn’t both gain five pounds. We ate meals from 7-11 that were head and shoulders better than anything else I’ve had in Asia. And, of course, we ate sushi until we couldn’t eat any more.

That’s my glowing blog about Japan for now. Perhaps later I’ll write a bit more details about the places we visited.

Memories of Japan

It's been awhile since we've posted. We started our new school year on Monday, and when we arrived on Monday morning neither Meg nor I (or any of the other 3 public school teachers we know) had a schedule for the term. None of us had any idea what was happening or if we were even teaching that day. Luckily, neither Meg nor I had to teach until Tuesday (our friend Kevin wasn't so lucky. He had 5 classes he had to teach on the spot).

As of next week we'll have been here for 6 months. For the most part I think the six months have gone rather quickly (I'm sure our trips into Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Japan have helped a great deal). I think this next term will be easier for both of us as Meg finally has her own office and I gotten comfortable enough in mine to skype people from work.

In other news, Meg and I bought a humidifier that is shaped like a dog. It's name is "Puppy". we're both very happy to have something to combat the dry season we're in now. For those of you who don't know, it's Yellow Dust (Asian Dust) season here. I'm not sure how it works exactly, but a bunch of sand blows over Korea (and parts of Japan sometimes) from the Chinese desert. This has occurred for thousands of years, but has only recently caused trouble as it now picks up the air pollution as it passes into Korea. Needless to say, Meg's had difficulties with her asthma this week. We're hoping "puppy" will help solve the problem. For more information on the Asian Dust visit wikipedia, it's more interesting than it sounds.

I figured I'd put up a few more photos from our time in Japan. Meg and I both miss it greatly and talk about it more than is healthy, I'd imagine.

Meg admires a figure of Japan's most famous Haiku poet (Matsuo Basho). Basho even visited my town of Ishinomaki while he was traveling around Japan crafting his Haiku. Although, my students told me that he actually got lost and hadn't intended to visit the city. That didn't stop the city from putting up a statue of him in the town park on the top of the hill (near where I'm standing with the torii a few posts down). This photo is in Matsushima, one of the three most beautiful places in Japan (and more importantly, only 25 minutes from where I lived).

Meg and I in front of the Phoenix Hall in Uji. This was probably one of Meg's favourite places in Japan. For those of you who know the Tale of Genji (believed by some to be the World's first novel - written in Japan in the 11th century), some of the scenes took place here.

We were lucky to see a couple of Geisha visiting the Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji) in Kyoto. This one even posed for my photo. We also visited the Gion district of Kyoto to see the Geisha wandering the streets between performances, but it was too dark to take photos of them.

Himeji Castle is easily Japan's most famous castle. It frequently appears in Japanese television, movies and in serves as the back drop for many video games as well. Although the area around Himeji was bombed by the Americans a couple of times in WWII the castle escaped any major damage.

A Noh performer in Miyajima. Noh is a form of Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century.

A pagoda in Miyajima. I really like pagodas. For some reason there are a lot more in southern Japan than up north where I lived.

The deer of Miyajima are considered sacred. The pretty much wander the island like the own the place. Of course they aren't nearly as bad as the deer of Nara (I'll have to post some photos of Meg getting bitten by them while trying to feed them. I don't think she overly enjoyed the experience). Anyways, Meg made noises to draw the attention of this deer so I could take some photos of it. At this moment I was pretty sure it was getting ready to jump on Meg. Thankfully, it did not.

An Old Friend

I also visited an old friend while we were in Japan. This visit wasn't quite as painful as the last one...

Mount Fuji from Lake Ashi

From the top of a nearby hill

And a final one of Fuji as the sun begins to set

I've written about our trip in more detail below. I suspect Meg will add to it in the upcoming days.

This is the Most Productive I've Been All Day

Well we’re back from our second winter vacation. Though we’re not really back doing very much as both Meg and I are sitting in our offices all day without any classes to teach. The next term starts next week and they’re starting to figure out what we’ll be doing. We’ve both asked our co-teachers what we should be doing this week and we’ve both been told to “prepare”. Of course when we ask what grades we’ll be teaching or when, we’re told that it hasn’t been decided yet and they’ll let us know March 2^nd (also known as the first day of school). And so as Meg tries to prepare for the unknown I sit here writing a blog. It’s probably the most productive I’ve been all day. It’s now 3:20 here and so far today I’ve read numerous articles online in Canadian, Japanese, American and Korean newspapers, browsed some online discussion forums for teacher’s working in Korea, gone for lunch and talked with my brother on Skype. Tomorrow I think I’ll start to assemble some of the photos I took last week in Japan.

Speaking of Japan, we had an amazing trip. It was really nice to show Meg what I thought we were getting ourselves into in Korea. She got to see why I talk about it in such glowing terms all the time. How overly friendly most people are, how beautiful the landscape is and how many cultural treasures they have. I think in a lot of ways we both enjoyed the trip more than our visit to Angkor Wat. I’ll leave it to Meg describe her feelings in more details, but I think if we find ourselves with another free week or even a long weekend we might go back.

It’s hard to say what part of the trip I enjoyed the most. We spent the first 5 days hoping from one national treasure and world heritage site to the next. Then after a couple of days in the Tokyo we headed up north to there area I lived back in 2003/2004. While it was nice to show Meg all the places I frequented and the locations many of my stories about Japan took place, it was also a little sad. I really loved the town of Ishinomaki and I think of it fondly. I really enjoyed my time there and loved all my students. Ever since we decided to come and live in Korea I’ve been a little bit excited about visiting Japan and seeing Ishinomaki again. Now that we’ve done that I’m a little bit sad not knowing if I’ll ever go back. And if I do, I’m not sure how much of the city I knew will still be there. The movie theatre I frequented is already gone. . . and the department store beside my school where I ate most of my lunches on work days, did all my grocery shopping, and bought most of my Japanese presents is closing next month. The 100 Yen store (dollar store) where I got all my teaching supplies, candy for my kids classes, dishes and even a frying pan was already packed into boxes. I don’t know what I would have done if it had closed up while I was living there. The number of times I raced over there during a break to grab some dice, toy hammers, balls or trinkets for a game I was planning to use with my kids classes might be too high to count.

I was lucky to have lived in the city at a time where it was optimistic and saw a bright future. They had just finished a new Japanese Cartoon museum and were hoping to draw in tourists with it. While I was there they put up statues of Japanese Anime characters all over town to help promote it and to guide people from the train station to the museum. They even painted the roof of the station with anime characters and redid the town maps with them too. Now things don’t seem so happy. Many of the stores looked like they had closed and with the movie theatre gone and the department store closing, I have a feeling if I ever do visit again my school might be gone as well. The town likely won’t be at all as I remember it. It makes me a little sad. I’m just glad that I got a chance to show it to Meg now. Hopefully, if I ever do make it back it’ll surprise me.

P.S. The photos are of me standing on the hill in Ishinomaki that overlooks the Pacific Ocean (which you can kind of make out behind me. In the spring all those trees are cherry blossoms and it looks spectacular). The other one is at the Ishinomaki train station with the Masked Rider. The creator of the Masked Rider and other famous Japanese characters (like the Power Rangers) was born in Ishinomaki.

And We're Off Once Again

School was back in session this week for both Meg and I. Last week, I had two days of classes (if you can call watching Ice Age in Korean and English class) before a three day Lunar New Year (Chinese New Year) holiday. Meg and I both struggled through classes this week as students couldn't care less about school. After 5 weeks off they come back for 7 days (5 in Meg's school) to end the term. The next two weeks are Spring Break. It is a very strange schedule here.

Anyways, while Meg was talking to her co-teacher about planning for the new year, her co-teacher told her that maybe she could have a day off next week during the holiday. And so her teacher went and asked the principal about Meg getting a day off. The principal decided that Meg didn't need to come in at all over the two weeks, however Meg's co-teacher didn't like that idea and after some discussion, Meg got next week off (mostly because our friend Kevin has the week off and after asking my co-teacher about it he told me I didn't have to come in either). So the mad scramble began. We now had 9 days of nothing ahead of us. We looked around online as quick as we could and found semi-reasonable tickets to Japan and so we are off once again. We leave tomorrow. I'm not sure I have ever bought plane tickets closer to my actual departure date then this.

We fly into Hiroshima around noon and will spend a day and a half there before heading up to Himeji Castle (the largest in Japan) on our way to Kyoto. We'll do a day in Kyoto and Nara (the two ancient capitals) then stop at Hakone National Park (where Mt. Fuji is) as we travel into Tokyo. I don't think we'll spend much more than half a day in Tokyo (it isn't my favourite place in the world) and I'm anxious to have plenty of time in Sendai and my old hometown of Ishinomaki. It'll be a pretty crazy 8 days, but I think it will be a lot of fun. I'm off to Seoul tonight to pick-up our Japan Rail passes which will let us travel the country with ease and for a great deal cheaper. We'll basically be going from one end of the main island to the other along the Bullet Train. I've done most of this the trip twice before so it shouldn't be too difficult, and the last 3 days will be quite familiar for me as I spent 14 months living in that area. We're both really excited. It'll be quite a month and a half for us. Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Korea and Japan. I think we could really get used to this. Of course, this will most likely be the last interesting trip we take for quite awhile.

I doubt we'll be writing much over the next 10 days or so (though it isn't like we've written particularly much over the past month anyway). We hope everyone back home is enjoying the winter weather that we've been missing here. It'd be nice if the snow stayed on the ground longer than a day or so.

Ac-cen-tu-ate the Positive

I sometimes have a hard time sleeping on Sunday nights. In fact, I sometimes have a hard time relaxing on Sunday evenings, because I dread what Monday will bring. Last week was New Year’s holiday and my school was only open on Monday and Tuesday, but no students were present. My coworker had talked with the Vice Principal on the previous Friday, and they told me I didn’t need to come in either of those days. I wouldn’t have had any work to do if I had.

But this morning, my coworker told me that I had misunderstood, that I really should have been at work. After a few minutes of venting to Paul over Instant Messenger, we figured out the problem. On Monday, the English teacher from the High School next door came to my school to ask me for lunch. Likely, they were embarrassed that she was asking for me and I wasn’t there.

It seems like every time we write on our blog, we have another story to tell like this one. Every night we have new stories for each other, and we save the best for telling the folks at home. Sometimes I wonder what we’re doing here, and I know some of you do, too. So, I’ve decided to write about the things we enjoy about our life here.

First of all, we’ve saved more money in five months here than we could have saved in five years living in North America, For those of you who know what it’s like to be in debt or to be ‘just starting out’ this means a lot. Secondly, the experience of working in a foreign country is quite a nice thing on a resume these days, for any job or any kind of school. And, we have the opportunity to travel, which we wouldn’t have from North America.

These are the top three reasons we always cite in reckoning with our time here. But there are more reasons. If we were in North America – either in Canada or in the States, we would have the paperwork and the waiting for work visas and family visas. There are a lot of hoops for both of us to jump through for citizenship or even just a green card. With both governments, the process is easier after being married for two years.

As much as we complain about things, our life here is pretty nice. After work, we’re free to pursue all the leisure activities we could want: I’ve read plenty of books, practice piano, go to the gym, etc. We have friends nearby that we see often for social events, and we have a lot of time to spend together. Our life moves by at a rather relaxed pace, which we certainly won’t experience in a few years. It’ll be nice to have this time to look back on as the first few years of our marriage.