I met interesting people in YH

When you travel alone, you may feel you need some companies. One of the advantages of staying at a youth hostel is that you may meet interesting peoples.

Korean cuisine 4

If you are so interested in food culture in the country, here is my recommendation : visit the Institute of traditional Korean Food. It is a perfect place to have an afternoon tea break. On the first floor, you can find a cafeteria where they serve several different types of traditional Korean tea with mochi rice cake called "tteok".

- Plum tea with rice cake -

After taking tea, spending over 5,000 (3-4 euros), you can go upstairs to visit the Tteok museum, which exhibit a huge collection of seasonal rice cake and meals at each seasonal ritual. It is interesting for someone who study food culture and history as well as tasting them.
I went there on my second day before noon. As I was the first visitor, a senior clerk at the museum, guided me volunteerly by explaining all in Japanese. It was a pleasant surprise.

Name : the Institute of traditional Korean Food & Tteok Museum
住所 ：ソウル市鍾路区(チョンノグ)臥竜洞(ワリョンドン)164-2
行き方 ：3号線鍾路3街(チョンノサムガ)駅7番出口から徒歩10分
電話番号 ：+82-2-741-5447
ウェブサイト ：http://www.kfr.or.kr/jpn/index.htm　 (日本語)
利用時間 ：10:00～17:00(月～土曜日)、12:00～17:00(日曜・祝日)

Enter the Palace of Suwan

After watching the performance, you can enter the palace. You should take an audio guiding recorder to listen to the explanations this time.
This is the palace where King Jeongjo (the 22nd King of Joseon Dynasty) stayed in his later life in order to visit his father's grave, who was killed by the court's conspiracy. The walls of Suwan was built after clearing his father's innocence in order to protect the grave.





You can see some interesting exhibition. Here is a wooden container used for storing rice and other grains. The father of the King Jeongjo was locked up inside this when he was accused of an attempt murder of the previous king, his true father. So, Lu can use this vessel to punish his husband for his naughty conducts. You can see how it was used in the drama that I mentioned earlier.


After visting the palace, I walked up the hill to view the palace from the hilltop.
It is also a good afternoon activity to go along the wall to visit all the gates of the wall. It is quite an execise.

Visiting Suwan

If you have only two days for visiting places (excluding a shopping day), my suggestion is to make a day-trip to Suwan (水原), the neighbouring city of Seoul which can be reached by the LINE 1 metro within one hour.
The city is surrounded by massive walls (like a great town of Avila in Spain!) . The first place you should visit is the palace. Don't say that you will have seen enough in Seoul! Unfortunately, there is no guide here. Wait guys. Let me explain. The main attraction of this palace is to see a traditional Korean martial arts performance. It is said that this was developed after the Japanese invasion in the end of 16th century by adapting some of the techniques of Japanese and Chinese martial arts. Unlike many of movie amusement parks and cultural events, performers can be real practitioners who learn the techniques for many years. If you have seen some Korean historical dramas such as Yi San (이산) , you can recognize it it is real stuff. I do not want to write too much explanation but I post some pictures. It is more evident. See:










Title : 24 Martial Arts Trial Performance
Date and time : you should check it on the website
http://eng.suwon.ne.kr/sub/travel_tour/travel_tour_05_01.asp?menuCode=0405

To add, there are also two other free performances on weekends relating dancing. So, even if you have seen enough palaces, it really worths visiting.

Visiting Palaces in Seoul

One of the attractions of staying Seoul on holidays is to visit royal palaces. There are five palaces in the metropolitan area. In addition, there is also one in Suwan. If you have three days you could visit all of them but I will do not recommend that because you would be bored and you will get no particular impression on the last two. You will also get confused and end up wondering which ones you have already been yesterday, which ones remain, which ones are closed on Monday or Tuesday. As you may know, I have worked out perfectly beforehand, laying out schedules for each day and possible Plan B for altering plans. However, on the second day, I went to the palace which I had been on the first day. Using a different subway station and altering a visiting place, I did not recognized till I got to the gate. The names are also problematic for those do not know Korean. Anyway, I can tell you which ones you should visit if you go to Korea.
The palaces were constructed between the 14th and 15th centuries. Most of them were severely damanged or lost during the Japanese invation in the end of the 16th century. Although most of them were reconstructed or renovated during the Joseon Dinasty, many buildings of the palaces were destroyed again by the Japanese in the early 20th century. Therefore, there are vast space of empty yards inside the sites in spite of having long passages and surrounded walls. To sum up, if you do not check the time and join the tour, you will not be benefited to appreciate it at a full extent. Official guides at these palaces are knowledgeable and experts and you may get interesting stories about the palaces.

Gyeongbokgung / 景福宮（キョンボックン）
This is the palace that I recommend the most in Seoul. It costs just 3,000 won ( 2 euro +) including free entrance to the National Museum (currently closed for renovation) and the National Folk Museum which have a large collection of items related to the life of Korean people in each era such as household items, models of houses and costimes). And do not forget to attend a free guided tour in English (Chinese or Japanese). One of good aspects of touring Korea is that the Tourism and Cultural Ministry place a great emphasis on inviting foreign tourists to participate cultural events and guided tours at free of cost. There is no prior application such as we were required at the Imperial Palace in Kyoto when Nuno was there. (Thanks to the Imperial Ministry, it was the only places where we did not have to pay in Japan.) In Japan entrance fees for similar places are twice or three times higher than ones in Korea.)

Korean Cuisine 3 -Dampling

One of the Korean food I liked the most is dampling. Here in Korea, there are more variety (certainly more than Japan). You can have ordinary minced pork and spring onion, or prawn dampling. You can have spicy kimuchi damplings. We can not have spicy kimuchi one in Japan. It is among my favorites along with king prawns.

Korean Cuisine 2

The second dish I introduce to you is bibimbap, a bowl of rice with topping such as a few different types of vegetable, raw egg and raw beef. The one I had is served in steamed hot stone vessel and you should mix the ingredients evenly before you eat.It is more entertaining to choose this type than one served in cold stainless bowl. Anyway, see the picture:

The one below is without beef:

Athough I ate beef first time by knowing it for 10 years, as I said, you can avoid eating beef.
In general, when you order one dish at a Korean restaurant, it accompanies 4-6 small dishes. So, you should avoid ordering the second dish:



古宮（仁寺洞店）
住所 ： ソウル市鐘路区寛勳洞 38（サムジギル内地下1階）
行き方 ：地下鉄3号線安国(アングッ)駅6番出口 昌徳宮より
ウェブ ：http://www.gogung.co.kr/jp/index.php

Korean Cuisine

Korean food is hot and spicy. That is true but there are more varieties of dishes to choose from Korean cuisine. When you go to a Korean restaurant and order some dishes, they will almost always bring a small plate of kimuchi, Chinese cabbage pickled in red hot chili pepper paste. However, you can ask a white pickled cabbage in vinegar or slices of yellow “daikon” radish which you can also find in Japan. They have a mild taste. Of course, to do that, you need have some knowledge of Korean to explain it properly.

First dish I present is grain flour noodle soup with dampling.

This photo was taken at the restaurant called "Myouhhgdong Kyoja". It does not contain any chili. So, Both Nuno and Linda can enjoy. In case that you can not manage to change "spicy" kimuchi to the mild pickles, here is a tip: Make sure Lu and Tso Lin order one of noodle "soup". Then, before you taste spicy kimuchi, you bathe and wash it thoroughly in their soup (not yours). In this way, you don't eat spicy pickles nor sip a spicy soup! So, as I said, there is always a way to avoid spicy food.
Anyway, this noodle shop is highly popular. You should avoid going there at lunch unless you want to quere. In my case, I first went there between 18-19 hours, I didn't have to wait. But next day, I went there again for lunch, since I didn't have kyoja (dumpling), there was a long quere. I didn't wait and I went to another place to look for something else.



Here I explain one interesting story about Korean customs. In Korea, dishes are normally served with silver or stainless chopsticks and spoon. Korean do not use a pair of wooden chopsticks. Rice bowls are also made of metal. This is related to the customs of serving dishes in the Korean Court. In order to avoid chances of possible assassination by poisoning, kings, royal families and court officials used silver kitchenware as the metal reacts to poison which could be visible to anyone who take a meal. Since rice bowl was served in hot temperature, they could not hold it in hand. Nowadays, Koreans still use metal kitchware to serve meals. By this reason, they do not hold a rice bowl in hand and use metal chopsticks. So, be wise to bring your own managable wooden chopsticks.


Name / 名称：Myouhhgdong Kyoja / 명동교자(명동1호점) / 明洞餃子（ミォンドンギュザ）
Address / 住所：서울 중구 명동2가 33-4 /ソウル市中区明洞2街33-4 / Myondon
行き方：地下鉄4号線明洞(ミョンドン)駅8番出口
電話番号：+82-2-776-3424
利用時間：10:30～21:30
ウェブサイトhttp://www.mdkj.co.kr (韓国語)

Seoul is my soul!

I am going to make a new entry this year. I went to Seoul and it was my first time to visit South Korea. I have been thinking of doing this trip for years, since I took the Korean Air to Italy two years ago.
For some people, Korea is not a destination for travelling since they can not take hot food, or they are against dog eating habit, or Koreans almost always beat Japan in sports competitions. Whatever.
South Korea has been a good competitor to Japan in terms of economy, industry and sports events. Recent Korean entertainment boom accelerates their TV and movie broadcast in Japan and create a huge number of fans in our society. Although I am not a follower, I find some of tv series more interesing and decent than Japanese ones.
Going back to my trip, I finally decided to accomplish this exciting mission to the new world and South Korea is my 21st country to visit. I took flights with T'way, a Korean low cost airlines who has recently launched a new route between Fukuoka and Seoul. Here are some pictures of cabincrew.






It is man's nature to be attracted with beautiful women. But in this time, it is not a subject that I want to emphasize. Both Korean men and women are very attractive in person. I would say many Japanese are two-faced: they look gentle and kind in service but they do not give any simpathy nor comfort. I met various people on streets of Seoul, no one looked at me annoyed. They do not seem to be too much in a hurry like ones in big cities who are fed up with tourists. I'm sure you find Seoul is much more comfortable,exciting and relaxing place than Tokyo. Here you go! This is my first episode of Korea!