Seoul

Days 10-13
Unfortunately, Seoul has been a little bit of a disappointment. It may have something to do with the fact that I've recently been in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo so it's possible my expectations were set too high and I'm a little burned out on Buddhist temples, imperial palaces and ancient Asian culture as a whole (next stop is Taiwan so I'm sure I have more of the same coming my way!) While there are distinct differences between Chinese, Japanese and Korean cultures and I don't want to take anything away from that, but they are all starting to blend together for me.

I came across a Catholic church, so had to snap a picture. As it turns out, 25% of Koreans are Christian and 28% are Buddhist. An interesting stat.


The food has been very different in the various Asian countries I've been to recently - Chinese is good but very oily (at least northern China), Japanese has been my favorite but I've always loved sushi, and Korean has been my least favorite by a long shot...not liking the kimchi and I normally love spicy foods. Fortunately Japanese cuisine is very popular in Seoul so I've resorted to more sushi restaurants.

Even though Seoul hasn't been my favorite Asian city (probably to no fault of its own), there have been some highlights that I'll share. For starters, I'm staying at the Grand Hyatt which is very nice and in a good location at the base of Namsan Park (where the Seoul Tower is located).


The Hyatt is a little bit of an eyesore set amongst a very traditional neighborhood, but it made it easy for me to find my way "home."


View of Seoul Tower from my room.

The Grand Hyatt is located near the US Military base which in and of itself isn't an attraction, but the Koreans have built an international district (Itaewon) near the base. A wide variety of restaurants, night clubs and shops - all with an international flare. An Iranian restaurant next to a French restaurant next to an Italian restaurant. Everywhere I ate had great food and great beer...especially the beer at the Rocky Mountain Tavern where I enjoyed a nice frosty Coors Light (shout out to you Doug!)


As I walked around throughout Seoul, I kept coming across a burger chain called "Kraze Burger." After doing a little research I found out it's a Korean based company with 47 locations in Korea (and only Korea). Of course, I had to check out how well a Korean company did making an iconic American cuisine - the hamburger. I have to say, it was really good! The main sauce they use is called a BBQ sauce but had a little curry kick to it. Sounds weird, but it works.

I'll note here, that I haven't been saying "South" Korea. I noticed relatively quickly after arriving in Seoul, that most references to the country are "Korea" not North or South Korea. Addresses, references on local marketing material, etc. almost always say Korea rather than South Korea. Again, a little research and I learned that most Korean's consider North and South to still be one country - temporarily divided. Hard to believe after 50+ years, they still consider it temporary, but I learned that tens of millions of families were separated between the two countries and millions of children were orphaned. No communications between the two, but they still hold out hope that they will once again be united.

Speaking of the division between North and South, I'm sure you've all read about the increased tensions between the two governments. It hasn't been a concern at all for me - no one else seems to be worried so I'm just going with the flow. In fact, I found out that the USO does a tour of the DMZ (demilitarized zone) and the tour even crosses into North Korea (a town run by a joint security force - JSA). I tried signing up, but the USO needs to give the JSA 4 days notice of everyone that will be entering into North Korea so I couldn't go. One of the downsides of traveling the way I am, I don't really know when I'll be where so I'm not able to plan too far ahead. Everything that I read about the tour sounds awesome, so if you ever come out to Korea, be sure to sign up for it in advance. I would feel safe knowing that it's run by the USO and is for American Military personnel and American civilians are allowed to "tag along" if there's room.

Another interesting "hot spot" was the Namdaemun Market:












These pictures don't really do it justice, but it's basically the "back alleys" of downtown Seoul and packed with little vendors selling everything from shirts and hats to luggage and jewelry. The interesting part is that even though the alleys are completely packed with people, motorcycles will just drive through the middle of crowds...at relatively high speeds! It amazed me they weren't running people over, but somehow they always seemed to zig when the pedestrians would zag!

I got completely lost several times which I fully blame on the Korean government! And I mean "lost" as in, I have no clue where I am, the street signs are telling me I'm in one place, and the Google map on my iPhone is telling me I'm somewhere totally different. Apparently the government decided to revise the romanization of their language in 2000 and not all signs throughout the city have been revised...and some local businesses refuse to change. For example, I get off a subway stop called Jamsil. I walk around for a few hours then try to find that same subway stop but can only find Chamsil. How the heck am I supposed to know that those are the same stop? Especially when there are two completely different stops like Samsung and Samseong (both using the new romanization method). Here's a snapshot of a portion of the subway map just to show how confusing it can be!



Trying to find your stop is like playing "Where's Waldo" except your stop is not wearing a bright red and white striped shirt!

Overall though, the subway system was very easy to use - as it was in the other Asian cities I've been to. I'll note that so far on this trip, I have yet to hail a single cab! I've taken buses, subways, trains, or I've walked (a cab ride from the Tokyo airport to my hotel would have been $260 USD - I paid $28 on a bus!) I don't think I can keep that streak going for too much longer, but for those of you that know me well, know I'm a guy of convenience and not always concerned about what that convenience costs me. I'm learning to be more like you Geoff! Are you proud of me?

On that same note - it's obviously impossible to pack for 5 months so I packed for about 10 days and expected to do laundry along the way. Since I'm lazy when it comes to doing laundry, I decided to use the hotel service (there's that convenience thing!) W3,400 (about $3.00 USD) to wash a single pair of socks! Since I brought 10 pairs, that's $30.00 just for my socks! Granted I'm at the Grand Hyatt so I would expect it to be expensive but $30.00 to wash what is probably a fifth of a load is ridiculous. So instead, I went down to Itaewon (the district I mentioned above) and found a street vendor that sold socks - Nike socks (Scheffel, I'm sure they are the real thing - so no need to file a lawsuit for copyright infringement). They were only W10,000 - about $8.30 USD...but that's for 12 pairs!!


They'll probably disintegrate after the first time I wear them, but hey I have 11 more pairs!

I leave Seoul in the morning (Sunday for me since I'm 15 hours ahead of Mountain Time) and I'm heading to Taipei, Taiwan for a few days before going to Singapore. Should be interesting!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Itaewon-dong,Seoul,South Korea

Tokyo Part 2

Days 5-9: The weather cleared up for two days but then went right back to rain for the last 2 days. Kind of a bummer, but still lots to see and do. Here's a picture of my hotel - keep in mind I'm keeping this blog for my own purposes as well - to keep a record that I can look back at years from now to help me remember this journey.



The tower in the background is "Tokyo Tower" - supposed to be replica of the Eifel Tower but if the Eifel Tower is anything like this tower, I will be very disappointed. I don't get to Paris for another couple of months so I guess I'll have to wait and see.

On the first sunny day, I woke up early (5am) to go to the Tsukiji Fish Market - the world's largest fish auction and market. Amazing! A really cool experience...fish everywhere!



This is one of the "booths" selling fresh fish. While I didn't count every booth - I would guess there were 1,000's of booths. Some of the styrofoam containers have live fish - talk about fresh!









Here are some more pictures of the market:





I think the above is tuna - but I could be wrong.



The guy above took about 5 minutes to cut through this fish very carefully. Apparently he is cutting it up for sushi restaurants so they make surgical like cuts (according to the English speaking guy standing next to me). I'll also note that this is not a "tourist destination" per se rather a real fish market. There were several tourists walking around taking pictures, but you could tell the workers were a little annoyed by us.



I'm guessing these are eels - nasty slimy looking things. I love unagi, but after seeing these bins (and smelling them!), I question my tastes.

The picture below is just outside the fish market - it's hard to tell here but behind the green banners is a sushi restaurant. The guidebook I have says it's the best sushi in all of Japan, maybe the entire world. Apparently everyone else has the same guidebook because the line was about 2 hours long.



In case you're not keeping track of the time...this is now about 6:30 in the morning...and the line is two hours long?? The restaurant is no bigger than my kitchen with a long slender bar and 12 bar stools...no tables. Well, I took the bait (pun intended) and waited in line. It was well worth the wait...the best sushi I've ever had! If you ever make it to Tokyo - you must go to Sushi Dai.

I'll note here that I must have had sushi 9-10 times while in Tokyo. I love sushi, but even I'll admit that's a little excessive (and so will my wallet!) I even ate at one of those "conveyor belt" restaurants in an attempt to save some money. If you haven't seen one before, it's basically a long bar that wraps throughout the restaurant like a maze. On top of the bar is a conveyor belt that sends sushi on different colored plates - each color being a different price. You take whatever plates you want, stack them up, and when you're done the waitress counts up the number of plates you have in your stack and gives you your bill. It was only ¥1700 (about $16 US) for about 10 plates of sushi (two pieces per plate). Not bad, but the quality was nothing like the higher end restaurants.

Enough about raw fish...after touring the Tsukiji market, I walked around the Ginza district which is a major shopping area. Every major retailer you can imagine. The thing that amazes me most about these shopping districts (and other shopping districts in Japan and what I experienced in China) is that there doesn't appear to be a necessity to be located on the first floor. They have several 8, 9, and 10 story buildings with stores on every level. In the US, if your store was located on the 10th story of a building - you'd be BK in a month! Granted the nice stores (Rolex, Gucci, Giorgio Armani, etc.) are all located on the first floor, but it amazes me that someone thinks it's a good idea to put their store on the 10th floor of a building. And what's worse, there are 20-30 of these buildings all in the same district. Here's an example in Ginza:



Building after building, all 5+ stories high with shops on each floor. Sorry, but as a real estate guy, this just doesn't make sense to me.

I also noticed this car being advertised by a Nissan dealership...



...I think i may trade in the Maserati when I get home. Can't you see me tooling around downtown Denver in one of these? Ha!

Just off the main drag of the "westernized shopping districts" is where the real shopping takes place. Below is a picture of one of these streets. I can't figure out how all the vendors can make a living when they are all selling basically the same stuff...chopsticks, seaweed, dried fish and a thousand different types of hard candy.



Random picture of CBRE in the HOOOUUUUSSSEEE!!



PS - I'm having trouble with this program I'm using to post these blogs (BlogPress) - it keeps crashing after I insert a picture. If anyone has any better suggestions for the iPad or iPhone - I'd love to hear them!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:４丁目,Minato Ward,Japan

Tokyo Part 2.1

I was having problems with the last post, so this is continuation (hopefully it won't crash on me).

I really wanted to go to a sumo wrestling match and as it turns out there are only a few tournaments held each year in Tokyo - with the last week of May being one of those tournaments. In hindsight, I kind of wish I hadn't gone. Waste of money, but here are some pictures anyway.







I say it was a waste of money because what I didn't realize is that each match only lasts 20-30 seconds with the longest match I watched only going for a minute or two. Two big fat guys wearing thongs (revealing way too much by the way) and pushing each other out of the ring. 20 seconds later, one guy falls out and the match is over. Then two completely different guys get in the ring...or whatever it's called.


I also found it odd that in the main lobby of the Arena, in the trophy case honoring past champions, is a picture of a Corona bottle. First of all, why? Second, if you're going to pick a sponsor for sumo wrestling in Japan, would you pick a Mexican beer company?

Another random picture but I found it interesting that they have these vending machines everywhere. Sometimes 5 or 6 of them lined up next to each other with another 5-6 just down the block. This one was funny because it has Tommy Lee Jones as their pitch man...really??



I also went over to the "electronics district" (Akihabara Electric Town). It's a large district with hundreds if not thousands of stores all selling every type of electronic device you can imagine. The coolest of the stores was Yodobashi-Akiba.


It's a 10 story building with each floor about the size of a typical Best Buy in the US. They sold everything you can imagine, from an entire floor dedicated to cell phones and cell phone accessories, to computers, to golf equipment. Crazy large! Just outside of the building, there were a few hundred teens playing on their gameboys or whatever they play now...


...this was just one area where they all huddled under the shelter. I stood and watched for a few minutes and not once did one of them talk to another one. Social skills?

I tried going to a Yomiuri Giants game at the Tokyo Dome but that turned out to be a nightmare. The guidebook told me to get there early (3 hours before game time) because people will start lining up for tickets which can only be bought at the dome on the day of (for the reasonably priced tickets that is). I misjudged the time it would take me to get there so I arrived 3 and 1/2 hours before game time. The line for the tickets was at least a mile long (I'm not exaggerating). It wrapped around buildings, over bridges, along the sidewalks...it was crazy. And this is 3.5 hours before the game starts! What the heck are these people doing? Anyway, needless to say I didn't get to experience a Japanese baseball game but did get to witness how crazy the Japanese are for baseball!

Another random picture of the view from my hotel balcony at night.



In the end, I really liked Tokyo but I was probably there a little too long. 7 days is too much. I would recommend 4-5 days and you can probably see it all and get a good feel for the culture. Yesterday I arrived in Seoul and have 5 days here until heading to Taipei.

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Tokyo Part 1

Flight from LA to Tokyo was great - I highly recommend Singapore Airlines. Top deck of a 747 in a lay-flat seat is fantastic! First time I've been able to really sleep on a plane (9 hours of a 12 hour flight)...unfortunately I arrived in Tokyo at 7pm and got to the hotel at 8pm so trying to fall asleep that night was nearly impossible. After watching 5+ hours of late night Japanese television trying to put myself to sleep, I think I am now fluent in Japanese...at least everything related to Japanese game shows. They love their game shows over here!

First two days in Tokyo have been raining - non-stop. So I haven't taken many pictures but the forecast for the next 4 days is 75-80 and sunny. I'll be sure to take a bunch for my next post.

I had a great lunch at the following cafe...


...I'll let you guess what I had. Tastes like chicken.

It's really interesting to see how new and modern Tokyo is - at least compared to my recent stops in Beijing and Shanghai. Very little historic architecture. Everything is very clean but there's not a lot of open space. Steel and concrete everywhere. I'm staying at the Prince Park Tower Tokyo - located in one of the few parks I've seen. I'm not exactly sure how the "Location" link at the bottom of this post is supposed to work, but you should be able to click on it and it will bring up a map of where I am right now...one of the many cool features of the iPad's GPS capability.

The language barrier is a little more difficult here than what I experienced in Mainland China - not sure why. I seem to be playing charades a lot. Try acting out "grande caramel macchiato and a blueberry muffin." I'll save that video for a later date.

Like I said, I'll take some pictures over the next few days when the sun is out. Right now, I can barely see out my hotel room window because of the rain/clouds. I can, however, see the building across the street - it has ORIX written across the top - those of you in the real estate biz know who they are, maybe I should stop in and say "hi!"

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:４丁目,Minato Ward,Japan

The Backpack

5 months of clothes in this tiny backpack. I'll either learn to love this backpack, or hate it! I'm already leaning towards the latter and I haven't even left Denver yet!

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Location:15th St,Denver,United States