New Blog!

For further updates, please check out My Go Journal.  I`ll be covering some of Japan, hopefully a lot of China, and beyond!

People cheat on exams?

The BIG news in Japan these days, besides the 28 Japanese students whose bodies they haven’t yet found in Christchurch (without apparently mentioning all the other exchange students from other Asian countries who died there), is the discovery of cheating on Japanese University entrance exams. 

The culprit, under the handle “Aicezuki” apparently went on Yahoo Questions during the exam, specifically the English language portion, and posted the exam question.  Within a few minutes a helpful user responded with an answer, which may have been applied to the exam.

I personally wouldn’t have used that answer.  The grammar was not the best as far as I could tell from brief screen captures shown on television.  Was it good enough for Kyoto University’s entry exam?  Perhaps, considering the levels of English aptitude which are normal in Japan. 

Either way, this is a big deal.  Most mornings, while I am trying to find some way to make it look like I am eating at least a respectable portion of the immense amount of food laid out for me, I have been treated to theorizing and discussion by some of the greatest minds on Japanese morning panel news show.  Yesterday they had a reenactment of a testing environment to test different cheating methods in their quest to uncover the truth/ looking for a way to fill time until the weekend when they all have AV Idols booked to come on the program.  About twenty students sat a test with an invigilator.  The invigilator was assigned to look for cheating students.  About ten of the students were rigged up with different devices for cheating.  These included a pen camera, glasses camera, cell phone scanner camera thingies, earpieces, and normal smart phones with people typing on them.  They tested them all out and most of them got caught, except one guy who just had an iphone in his sleeve or under his arm whenever the teacher came around.

I really hope whoever put together that segment felt like an idiot this morning when it was explained in a news conference at the Kyoto Police Headquarters (yes, it’s that serious) that it was some guy who had borrowed his mother’s cell phone and just typed fast.  And, it proved to all us students who were watching while eating our melon pan before school  that you don’t need to buy fancy hidden cameras to cheat.  All you need is your normal cell phone.  

After it was discovered to have happened at Kyoto University, the student admitted to police that he did the same for exams at three other prestigious universities.  These included Keio which is one of the top two most prestigious private universities in the country.

Why is this earth shattering news?  In the past, the university exams were the great equalizer of Japanese society.  The exams are all multiple choice because it does not allow for any subjective grading.  However, some universities have recently begun to introduce short essay sections. 

The supposed equality of these has changed recently with more options for private schools and cram schools.  As these options become available, families who can afford them take advantage of them more and more.  Thus the exams become more difficult to adjust for those who spend hours in class after school or in schools which teach directly to these exams. This effectively shuts out many of those who go to the local public high school from the nation’s elite universities.

Where you go to university is probably the most important factor which decides your place in Japanese society.  If you don’t go to university, you’ll probably work in a service job until you retire with no pension.  If you go to Tokyo University’s Faculty of Law, you’ll get a job in the upper echelons of the national bureaucracy upon graduation.  The entrance exams decide where you fall within this scale.  Therefore, it is a big deal when somebody cheats.

And now they’ve caught somebody cheating.  But something I wonder is how often it happens.  This person was caught because somebody saw it the question on the internet, based on my very poor understanding of the Japanese on the news.  But there is no way that this was the first time.  In a society which offers no second chances, the stakes of this exam are too high to leave to private school, cram school, and chance alone.  Japanese cell phone users have been able to access the internet for a long time, and prior to that they could have used other forms of cheating, such writing on your arm or on the inside of your eye patch. 

This, in the end, only furthers my disgust with Japanese news media.

In other news, for someone who is interested in the American State Department and the Foreign Service, the last few weeks have been interesting.  With the unrest in the Middle East things have been pretty rough for officers posted to places like Libya, Egypt, and Bahrain. 

As the Foreign Service seems to have so many bloggers within its ranks, whenever a major event happens I instantly start searching the FSO blogosphere to try and find some firsthand accounts of the view from the embassy compound.  Probably the most fascinating one that I have come across recently is that of a Junior Consular officer posted to Tripoli.  He wrote a brief article about his hasty departure from the country, and the extreme emotional difficulty of undergoing his own evacuation while working to aid other foreign nationals in Libya.  The link to the original is here, and another here, in case the original is removed.

An article about the families of the embassy officials who were evacuated can also be found here.

New Years Day in Seoul

Trying on traditional Korean clothing.

I’m not going to recount every day of our time in Seoul chronologically as I have done with the previous entries.  Instead I intend to cover a few of the highlights.  This will leave out a lot of writing about subway stations.

Valerie and I were extremely fortunate.  On our first trip to South Korea, we were able to spend New Year, perhaps the most important day of the year, in the traditional South Korean manner: by visiting family, paying respects to the ancestors, followed by the elders, and then going out for the afternoon.  We were lucky to be able to borrow Sunny’s family for this.

On New Year ’s Day, Febuary 2^nd, we woke up early (around 7 o’clock, which is early for us full time students) and after a light breakfast, took the subway out to where Sunny’s grandmother lives with her aunt, uncle, and cousins.   The train ride took an hour and I was the one who ended up staying awake the whole time.  The trains were surprisingly empty at this time.  It was explained to me that Seoul empties out during the New Year because everyone is returning to their hometowns to visit their families. 

On the way to the train station.

We arrived at a station between Incheon and Seoul, and got off the train.  We crossed the tracks, and then a river, and finally arrived at an apartment complex.  Many elderly people live in the complex so there was a step in the elevator so those who live on the top floors can reach the buttons. 

When we got to the apartment we were welcomed and introduced to various family members who had gathered.  Sunny’s grandmother also spoke some Japanese.  What she spoke was very basic but entirely correct.  As a child, it is probable that her elementary schooling was taught entirely in Japanese, as Korean language was reduced to an elective by the Imperial authorities and the colonial administration.

Sunny’s eldest uncle used all his best English on us, and we were able to understand pretty well.  (Most of the young people present probably spoke English as well, but may have been too embarrassed to use it.)

During this time the altar was prepared.  The altar consisted of a decorative paneled screen behind a low table.  On the table was piled a huge amount of food.  Closest to the viewer were stacks of fruit.  The next row contained some rice dishes, as well as the typical (in Korea) fried New Year’s foods.  One layer further was the fish.  Several types of fish were used, some normal and one rather pricey one which is special for marking The New Year.  Last, and perhaps most important, were three bowls of rice; one for each family member who had passed away.  In each of these bowls a metal spoon was placed upright.  On the other dishes, metal chopsticks were laid across the top of the dish or placed upright in the food.  (Therefore, it is worth noting that in most East Asian countries it is extremely 失礼, that is, impolite to stand chopsticks or other utensils upright in the dish.) 

After all was in place the family gathered together everybody arranged themselves in rows in front of the altar.  We had been coached before, so were prepared when it came time to bow before the altar.  The bow is done by placing the left hand over the right hand, kneeling, and then pressing one’s forehead to your hands which should now be planted flat on the floor in front of you.  The bow lasts three seconds.  The whole process is then repeated.  Luckily, due to the hierarchy, Valerie and I were in the back along with Sunny who is the youngest in the family, so we didn’t have to worry too much about other people noticing any mistakes that I was making.

After respect was paid to the ancestors, it was time to pay respect to the living.  Sunny’s grandmother, father, and two uncles then arranged themselves and we all turned to face them.  We all reorganized ourselves and performed the bow again.  Then everybody got money!

Or toshidama, in Japanese.  (I have no idea what it is in Korean or English.)  Money is given to the younger members of the family in envelopes on New Years.  In China my impression is that red envelopes are the norm, but those we received were yellow or had polka dots.  I had been warned, but was still somewhat surprised to actually receive a rather large sum of money in total from people who I had only just met, the family of my friend. 

Now that the most important ceremonial aspects of the day were over, it was time for what I personally consider a highlight of every day: Lunch.  The food that had been placed on the altar was brought to the kitchen, added to the larger pot from whence it came, and placed on the four or so low table which had been laid out across the room.   

Sunny’s grandmother also insisted, at one point, on feeding Valerie and I by hand.  In this she was more focused on Valerie than on me, but it was still an interesting experience.  It is something that was entirely foreign and although I was told it was somewhat normal, it’s difficult to for me to understand exactly what was going on.  As sweet as it was, I’ll just be content that I avoided most of that attention.

(On a side note, today I received a Skype call from Sunny and her family who were celebrating her grandmother's birthday.  Apparently I came up as a topic of conversation and she wanted to see me again.)

Thank you Mr Sejong.

After another hour or the three of us left and took the train back to the city.  We headed for Insa-dong, Seoul’s historical main street.  This street is close to most of the government buildings and the US Embassy, which was really ugly.  As one approaches the main palace, there are several large monuments in the center of the street.  One is a tribute to the man who is credited with stopping one of the Japanese invasions and was decorated with some lovely pictures of samurai getting owned.  Further along the street is a large monument on top of an underground museum all dedicated to King Sejong the Great.  King Sejong is perhaps best known for creating Hangul, the amazing Korean script.  It takes an incredibly complex language and assigns it a script that took a dunce like me about an hour to learn how to read.  Even a month later I can still sound out most written Korean, even if I have no clue what it means. 

Go America!

This guy apparently took out a lot of Japanese.

At the end of the street is the former imperial palace.  As it was New Years Day, the admission fee had been waved and it was quite crowded.  The palace is sprawling and quite beautiful.  They had also opened up some of the buildings so we were able to go inside and warm up.  The Korean National Folk Museum is also located on the palace grounds, so we were able to see a free performance by traditional entertainers outside the main gates.

何で皆ふうふみたいって言った？

That's one brave kid.

After this we headed for the neighborhood around the palace, which is apparently famous for boutique stores and coffee shops.  If I ever live in Seoul, this is where I want to live.  We had warm drinks and cake inside a three story Nescafe café.  After this we wandered through another touristy street that reminded me a bit of Kyoto, before heading back to Sunny’s apartment.

When I'm super rich living in South Korea, I'll live in this neighborhood.

It's a party, as usual.

South Korea - Part 2

Click here for Part 1.

Again, thanks to Valerie and Sunny for the use of their photos.

The next day (Sunday) we had planned to do some traveling.  Valerie and I were quite unprepared and had very little idea of where to go or what to do, so Sunny (with the help of her mother, I suspect) planned a short trip and made reservations in some interesting accommodation.

Near the East Seoul Bus terminal.

Our first destination was Andong. We traveled from Seoul to Andong by bus.  This also offered us a chance to see more of South Korea from ground level.  It was cold.

Looking across the Han River to the south.

It cost a little more than ten dollars for the bus ride, which was extremely comfortable.  There were three seats in each row, the all reclined, had a leg rest, and provided plenty of leg room. 

I even managed to sleep, which is quite rare. 

Obviously rare enough to warrant a picture.

Andong Bus terminal.

We saw very little of the town itself, beyond the bus terminal.  Instead we took off for a smaller village built in a very traditional Korean style which is listed as a world heritage site and was located nearby.  We waited some time for a bus in the cold, but then an enterprising taxi driver asked the three of us and another pair who were heading to the same place if we wanted to share a taxi.  So we fit 5 passengers into a compact Korean taxi and took off at about 140km/hr down the highway. 

Safety first.

Twenty minutes later, we barreled around the pay parking booth and were deposited in front of the tourist office at Hahoe, the traditional Korean village mentioned previously.  It was cold.  There was an irrigation pond next to the village which we walked across.

  The wind blew down the valley over an icy river, which is probably what made it so uncomfortable.  The houses were very interesting, and the church especially was quite beautiful I thought. 

However, one of my favorite parts of the area was a small exhibit dedicated to the visit of the Queen of England to the area several years prior.  There were many large photographs from the visit, along with artifacts and helpful explanations of their significance in both English and Korean. 

We had dinner in a restaurant that caters to the normal crowds of tourists that probably infest the area when the weather is much nicer.  Noodles, chicken, and vegetables were mixed together in a sauce of some sort which was slightly sweet if I remember correctly.  It was of course served with rice and kimchi.

The original in floor heat system.

Sunny called the owner of our lodgings for the night and after we had finished he came to pick us up from the restaurant.  He drove us about 20 minutes over dirt roads until we pulled up in front of a traditional style Korean house.  We had two rooms: a kitchen/dining type of room and a sleeping room.  The sleeping room had no windows, but had two small doorways on each side of the room.  The floor was electrically heated, but 30 years ago it probably would have been heated by lighting a fire underneath the house.

Big doorways too.

Exterior door.

In the morning we awoke to find another cold but beautiful day.  We also discovered that we were in a very rural area and that our rooms were perched on a slight hill looking over the river and another series of hills on the other side.

  We took some time to explore the neighboring buildings, which are part of the normal tourist attractions and include an old Confucian school. 

We wandered along the river as well.  In the summer it must be an extremely popular place to relax, but while we were there it was iced over along the banks.  While we were at the river the owner of the rooms came down to see if we wanted to have breakfast, and we ate at a restaurant he and his wife own nearby.

Everyone's favorite president also visited here.

We managed to catch the bus back to Andong that morning.  As it bounced down the dirt road it became apparent that the road we came through at night ran along a cliff for a good portion of the ride.  As we traveled towards the town, we often stopped to pick up older women who live out in the country.  They all seemed to know each other and chatted loudly as we traveled back to Andong. 

When we got to Andong some of them started to get off the bus.  One of them accidently pressed the “Stop Request” button one stop too early, and when the driver stopped and opened the door, nobody got off.  The driver was not pleased.  According to the brief explanation provided by Sunny, he shouted that you shouldn’t press the stop button if you don’t want to get off.  As it was one of their group who had pressed it too early, most of the old women were quick to come to her defense and shouted back at him that it wasn’t a problem.  This began a shouting match between the driver and the older women on the bus.  This is further proof of the huge differences between Japan and Korea.  In Japan, when someone pulls a wrong stop they apologize and say they pulled the wrong stop.  The driver nods and continues.  Korea is certainly more interesting in this way.

When we arrived back in Andong we found that we had about two hours to wait for the next bus to Gyeongju.  We wandered around the bus station for a few minutes looking for a place to sit, and found a place inside a Maxwell House branded café.  It was at this point that Sunny taught Valerie and I to read Hangeul. 

Hangeul is an alphabet designed to fit with the Korean language as it already existed.  It is quite quick to learn and after only about an hour of actual teaching and practicing, I am still able to sound out most words a week later. 

As three o’clock approached we made a quick stop at the convenience store for some snacks before we boarded the bus for Andong.  The trip took almost three hours and it was starting to get dark as we arrived in Gyeongju.  We still had about 45 minutes to an hour of daylight left so we started out for the tourist information center to get our bearings.  On the way out of the station (a place where we were stared at an inordinate amount compared to the rest of Korea) I heard someone calling out in Russian, but ignored it and continued.

When we got outside a Korean looking man was following us.  He came up to the three of us and began speaking Russian.  As far as I understood he claimed to be from Ukraine, and he certainly seemed to speak quite fluently to my untrained ear.  However, he kept looking to Sunny as he was speaking.  I told him in the only Russian I remember that I don’t speak Russian.  He then kept asking where I was from and if I was Russian, so I told him I wasn’t.  He returned to the bus station and we continued to the tourist information center.

After picking up our free English language maps of the Gyeongju area, we headed for a large park quite close to the station.  It housed a large number of ancient burial mounds (kofun, in Japanese.)  They contained the graves of royalty of a kingdom which was based in the south of Korea almost 1000 years prior.  One of the mounds had been hollowed out and we were able to go inside to see the different layers, as well as some of the artifacts found inside the mound.

Trying to hide from the wind.  Why didn't I think to bring under-armor?!

We continued our walk and passed through a large park with an ancient observatory and beautifully lit trees.  It was really cold.  We visited the site of the palace of the same kings who were buried in the kofuns.  Some parts have been reconstructed and are lit up at night.  Most of the tourist brochures for Gyeongju show it lit up at night, however when we went the pond was ice. I didn't take any pictures here because it involved moving my hands.

We got on a bus to head for the hotel, but due to some mix up the bus did not go exactly where we needed to, so Sunny called the number to try and clarify the location. She got some directions, but then another woman on the bus offered to help, took her phone, and managed to arrange for us to get picked up from the next bus stop.  We got off the bus and huddled in the shelter for about 5-10 minutes before a sliver Mercedes pulled up to the bus stop.  A middle aged woman motioned for us to get in. Sunny went to talk to her and it was our pickup from the hotel.  Valerie and I squeezed into the back along with the woman’s shopping and Sunny took the front passenger seat.

We quickly arrived at our accommodations.  It was not a hotel or hostel as I was expecting, but instead a small apartment on the third floor of a building housing a restaurant.  We arranged to have dinner in the restaurant and set our bags upstairs.

When we came back downstairs we sat on another heated floor around a low table.  We were served the Gyeongju specialty (which it seemed like every restaurant on that street served).  The tofu was cooked in a slightly spicy soup with a little bit of seafood and brought to the table in a stone bowl.  About 9 different types of kimchi and other preserved foods were laid out as well, along with the normal bowl of rice.

After dinner we went upstairs to our rooms to drink tea and watch TV.  There was cable so we watched the news and a somewhat horrendous learn to speak Korean program on Arirang tv, a channel for English speakers.  After that it was a special about the K-pop group Girls Generation, and on another channel a movie about a group of people on a cruise ship being attacked by thieves and a giant monster.

In the morning we packed our bags and started off for Bulguksa temple.  It was starting to warm up so the weather was not as unbearable as before.  The temple was quite large and is probably the most famous attraction in the area according to Sunny. 

After viewing the temple we continued up a trail towards the Seokguram Grotto.  This grotto contains a very large statue of the Buddha.  

It is built into the side of the mountain, and although you must view it from behind a large window, it is probably one of the most impressive pieces of art I have seen since in any temple area.  From the window, the viewer looks down a small hall with pillars hewn out of the rock.  A quick google search brings up some professional images of the cave.   Like most important Korean sites, parts of it were dismantled and moved to Japan during the colonial times pre-1945. 

View from the front entrance to the cave.

It is also common to leave messages of good will and such on the roof tiles which will be used when the roof of various buildings around the temple will be redone.  The variety demonstrates the popularity of the site.

We walked back to the parking lot, and waited for a while before we caught a bus back towards the city.  We eventually made it to the bus station, and bought tickets for the bus back to the East Seoul terminal.  As it was the day before the New Year’s Holiday, the bus was full and traffic heavy.

A Links to my Facebook photo albums: Album 1     Album 2

Next time: Seoul

South Korea - Part 1

Although it’s only a two hour flight away, South Korea sometimes seems like it’s a world away from Japan.  Having spent a week in South Korea, I’m repeatedly mentally kicking myself for not having started Korean instead of Japanese, despite the fact that it’s a much more difficult language and despite the fact that learning it would probably be quite difficult, due to the high levels of English among university students and graduates in Korea.  But, I do realize that if I spent more than a week there and developed a normal routine which did not resemble that of a tourist I would probably have a very different opinion. 

For scheduling purposes it was decided sometime on the 25^th or 26^th of January that it would be most convenient for Valerie and I to visit Sunny at her home in Seoul during the current vacation, instead of in March as originally planned.  We were lucky to find and, despite the best efforts of the airline, purchase tickets for Saturday the 31^st of January.

Flying on a discount airline provides an interesting comparison to your typical Delta or United international flight.  For one thing, Jeju airlines (named after a popular Korean resort island) operates a website which only provides a translated web page for routes that touch countries with that official language.  For example, the English page only provides information on the routes between Hong Kong and South Korea.  The Japanese page, correspondingly, only provides information on routes which touch Japan.

Secondly, on Jeju Airlines, everybody flies in Joy Class.  I would also like to note that in Joy class all the arm rests have ashtrays built in, which attests to the age of the aircraft.  I was nervous that if one peeled back the labels on the seatbacks which note the location of the life vests in Korean and English, the label below would be printed in Cyrillic. 

After the in-flight refreshment, which consisted of a beef Onigiri and your choice of orange juice, water, or coffee, I studied Kanji using a slick Nintendo DS game I bought a few weeks ago with the assumption that I would be bored out of my mind this vacation, so I might as well learn something.  Valerie slept.  Soon we were able to see Korea.

What sort of idiot goes to Korea in January when most people are heading for Thailand?

It looked cold.  Even the largest rivers appeared to be frozen entirely.

Upon arrival we made our way through a nearly empty international terminal at Incheon International Airport, about an hour outside of Seoul proper.  We received a warm welcome from Pierce Brosnan, who recommended the Paradise Casino.

Thanks.

An amazing thing about going through immigration control in Incheon was the English ability of the interviewing officer.  We both marked that we were visiting friends on our customs form (which interestingly was an option next to the usual business, travel, study, etc.) but had neglected to get an address or write down Sunny’s phone number.  He let us in anyway, but I commend him on his ability to thoroughly probe the depths of our unpreparedness in clearly understandable English.

Thankfully Sunny was waiting beyond customs.  Together we picked up our bags and proceeded to the train.  Another thing I liked about South Korea was the cost of public transit.  When we traveled to the airport in Japan it came to around $20 USD.  In Korea it cost approximately half that and took about the same amount of time. 

Reunited!

We disembarked at the station and walked for about 5-10 minutes to the condo where Sunny lives with her family.  On the way I noticed that, yes, Korea is much dirtier than Japan.  However, I have to admit that I found it refreshing after the ugly but very clean atmosphere of Japanese cities. 

The condo was on the 16^th floor of a new building.  It had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a large kitchen and dining area.  I’ve since been informed that this is definitely a large apartment by Korean standards.  Another amazing thing about the condo was the heat.  Japanese homes in the region where Valerie and I live have no central heating and no insulation, so although it rarely drops below zero (and when it does, it’s a huge deal) I am constantly cold in the house and spent the first part of the vacation in bed with my Kindle or DS, as that was the best way to stay warm if I was going to stay home.  This home had in floor heating and I was too warm in the house on occasion.

The view from Sunny's room.

That evening the three of us when out to dinner in a local restaurant. (I should point out now that this restaurant is not typical for Korea.)   It was an experience that I think would frighten many of my acquaintances in Japan, but I think part of the reason I liked it so much was because it was an experience which be entirely alien to some.  The restaurant was crowded, but Sunny went ahead and asked for a table.  She came back and we followed her into  the restaurant.  The interior was somewhat dark and covered with sticky notes with messages in Korean, Shochu girl posters, and some handmade decorations, which included one featuring the chief waiter of the establishment on a wanted poster next to Osama Bin Laden and one “Mr. Kim” of a city about 200km to the north.

After becoming used to Japan it was a relief not to have anybody shout “IRRASHAIMASE!” as soon as I open a door or look at the shop.  In fact, the waiter, appropriately dressed for the occasion in a jeans, a yellow t-shirt, and sunglasses, was too busy to move out of the way when I opened the door so I had to carefully slide around him without knocking over anybody’s drink.  (It was not a large shop.) 

We made our way to what was labeled the “VIP Room” in the back to wait for a table to become clear.  The VIP Room was obviously a smoking deck which they had covered in plastic and plugged in a heater due to the cold.  It hung out a little bit over the train tracks, but seemed solid enough, at least enough to accommodate the group of eight who came in after us.

When a table became available we did our best to get seated without putting our coats or gloves in somebody’s beer or kimchi.  The ordering process is very simple, you name tell the waiter how many people you have in your group, and an appropriate amount of pork is placed on the portable stove set up on your table, along with some kimchi.  In addition, you receive a dish of thinly sliced daikon (I think), some soya powder, and some sort of a red sauce.  As the meat finishes cooking in front of you (the start it on a grill somewhere in the back) you cut it into small pieces with shears provided by the restaurant.  If need more condiments, water, or napkins, you get it yourself.  If you need more meat, rice, or sake you call to the waiter.  Apparently that doesn’t always work as some patrons would just smack him or yank on his shirt as he passed, and he would shout at them, finish whatever he was doing, and then deal with them. 

危ない！

The other waiter sported aviators, spoke some English. After discussing with Sunny where we were from and how she knew us, he spoke a bit with me, and then tried out a little bit of German on Valerie.

Sunny was going to meet with a few of her friends, so Valerie and I retreated to a nearby branch of the chain “Angel in Us Coffee”, which appears to somehow be associated with Vaseline.

Anyways, we sat and talked and people watched for a while before Sunny returned with a few of her friends who wanted to meet us.  We spoke with them for a bit and managed to navigate the cultural landmines without too much trouble.  Soon, another acquaintance arrived.  He was on leave before finishing his last 100 days of military service, which in South Korea consists of two years of compulsory service.  He lived in the US for two years when he was younger and now works with the American military at Camp Humphrey.  It took me a few tries to figure this out.  At first when he spoke to us, I had no clue what he was saying, I couldn’t even identify the language.  Next I thought it was Korean, and then one sentences later something clicked and I understood everything:  He was speaking American English with an incredibly strong North Carolina accent, which in some ways makes sense as Camp Humphrey is almost entirely staffed by servicemen and women based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

It was extremely cold outside, especially after living in a part of Japan which is usually between 5-10 in the winter, so we took a taxi back home.  In most other countries I would have toughed it out and walked the whole 20 minutes or whatever it would take, but we took the taxi and it cost roughly $5USD.  (Another friend told me that to get to a certain building on her campus in Seoul, she and a friend will share a taxi instead of walking to the this building as it is cold in the winter, on a hill, and costs less than cheap cup of coffee.)

Part 2 will be up soon and will cover our trip to Andong and Gyeongju.

Not all the photos are mine, so credit to Valerie and Sun Hyun.