Catching up: Dr. Fish

This is me, sitting in a cafe with my new friend Kelsey. We left Seosan together after my weekend trip and bussed up to Seoul, where we spent most of the evening lost in a busy commercial area in the south side of the city. But why do I look so excited?

Doctor fish! A trend that has swept the parts of the globe where people can afford pedicures, these are the little fish that feast on dead skin. What started in various Asian countries and moved into trendy Western boutiques has now become part of your regular relaxation experience in Korea. After enjoying cafe beverages and a complimentary mini toast bar, you step up to a platform that holds two tanks full of constantly moving water and little hungry fish. After a quick rinse, you stick your feet right in, like so:

This is the tank with the small fish, maybe an inch in length and pretty non-threatening. The tickling alone was probably too much for me to start, but the idea that fish were gnawing away at the dead skin on my feet had me unbearably spooked. After about two seconds, I gave up and left Kelsey to brave the hungry, flesh-eating hordes while I sat around and took pictures.

And then we get to the second tank, which the lovely attendant informed us would tickle more but be better for our feet. At first, the bubbling water appears empty, almost inviting, when suddenly, sensing our presence and our dry heels, this appears:




Except instead of just one, it's hundreds, hundreds of two to three inch long fish, bigger around than my thumb, eyes bulging and mouths opening and closing furiously, as if to say, "come on in, the water's fine". I don't let them fool me though, I can see that it's teeming with creepy looking carp and I want my feet nowhere near it, thank you very much.

Sadly, instead of feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, I left the cafe with still-dirty feet and a new fear of aquatic life. But after a good latte, complimentary mini toast, and a two-second run in the pool, I think I still count this night a win.

Catching up: Jeju Island

Welcome to Jeju Island!

Here to greet you is one of the island's many dol hareubangs, or stone grandfathers. If you think it looks like a penis, you're not wrong. These guys are phallic as all get out (though they are alternatively said to look like mushrooms), and offer protection and fertility to the towns on the island. They're placed at the entrances to villages, and if you rub one's nose upon entering a place, you should be blessed with a son.

Known to locals as the Hawaii of Korea, Jeju is a volcanic island just south of the peninsula in what wikipedia tells me is the Strait of Korea. It's got a warmer climate than the rest of Korea and is a very popular tourist destination for people in China and Japan as well as Korea. Because of its warm climate, Jeju is teeming with beautiful plant life:



And monstrously large grasshoppers!!


Not really. He was just a regular sized grasshopper. But the warm Jeju sun had him so relaxed he let me get about six inches away from him to take this picture.

Jeju also has several lava tube caves, about which I know basically nothing. But the two I visited had quite a variety of geological features, including both stalagmites and stalactites, and some holes in the ceiling that look like dragons. None of those things are pictured here.




Jeju also features this, which is called something that translates to sunrise peak:


There is a massive crater at the top:


Which we were able to see, thanks to the path of stairs that has been set up for the climbing pleasure of the island's many visitors. My uncle wanted to move on to the next site after climbing a third of the way up, but ever the intrepid adventurers, we insisted on getting to the top. And we were rewarded with some amazing views. Not bad, eh?

There are tons of beautiful places on the island to visit, but we only had a few days, so many will have to wait for the next trip. Luckily we were able to squeeze in one last excursion to a green tea farm and museum, where we looked at hundreds of teacups from around the world and tried some delightful ice cream.

Yes.

Gyeongju: The Korean Valley of the Kings

If I had to have the same view for all of eternity, I wouldn't mind this one. This is Gyeongju, the capital of the Silla Dynasty and home to many well preserved spiritual and governmental sites. The modern city is in pretty much the same spot as it was first built, situated in a beautiful green valley on the Hyeongsan river.

Many sites have been well-preserved or discovered and restored, and most have been made available to the public for small entrance fees. The most common sites are tombs, which would have been for royalty or people of high rank and with the means to build them. They look like huge, perfectly shaped hills and are built up with stone of various sizes and soil, with the actual tomb buried at the bottom. We saw a cross section of one mound, and the precision with which the stones were placed was impressive. It's no wonder these tombs have remained unchanged for so many centuries.
Many of them are unmarked and unadorned, which I imagine is because the accompanying statues and markers have been lost or taken over the years. But I don't know very much about anything so don't take my word for it. I think also the amount of outer adornment had to do with how much importance a person had, or how much money they had to decorate. This is the tomb of General Kim Yushin, who was one of the driving forces behind the unification of the three separate kingdoms on the Korean peninsula in the 7th century.

The actual burial mound was pretty small, but it came with some sweet decoration. The wall around it is spaced with reliefs of the twelve animals of the Asian Zodiac. In the lower left corner you can see a little bit of the ox (that's me!).

This is at Oreung, a burial site for several early Silla kings. They have not one, but two gates protecting their tombs.

I'm not sure how the landscaping works. In my imagination, large groups of gardeners come out at dusk with grass clippers and go over each mound carefully. Or someone just goes crazy on a riding mower.

We saw a lot of these tombs, and you could say that once you've seen one you've seen them all. There's only so much variation on the grassy mound theme besides height or steepness and ornamentation. But there was something really stirring about staring up the slopes of these ancient markers. It might have been the natural beauty of their surroundings, or the warmth and sunshine, or it might have been the thought of all the care and attention that goes into their upkeep. Their simplicity is perfect, melting into the landscape around them and quietly reminding visitors of the rich history that is often overshadowed by the bustle of Korea's modern cities.

They also look like they'd be really fun to roll down.

Heartthrob.

My second cousin. First cousin once removed? Whatever he, is I'm in love.

Mini-break!

I love my family and appreciate that they have been letting me stay with them for so long, but after a couple of weeks of their attentive care I was ready for a little independence. Lucky for me, I have thoughtful friends who happen to be very popular, and before I got to Korea I was given the contact information for the good friend of a good friend teaching in Seosan. After a couple of emails and a phone call, we set a weekend for me to come down for a visit.

It took a bit of nudging to get out of town; first my family wanted to know why anyone would go teach in Seosan, a tiny city compared to Seoul, and then they were concerned that I wouldn't survive the two hour bus trip back and forth. My uncle took me to the bus station, bought my ticket, and spoke to every staffer there he could find to tell them I came from the US and needed help getting on the right bus at the right time. An hour later, just as my bus was about to leave (with me safely on it), he ran back, out of breath and slightly sweaty, to give me my aunt's phone for the weekend. Even though I assured him I would be fine and had already used a pay phone (twice!), he insisted, and left again, reminding me to sit out of the sun. Five minutes later, the driver started the engine and was getting himself situated, when surprise! Back comes my uncle. He ran back on the bus and told me the phone was on silent. He took it off silent, called it to make sure it worked, and at last was forced to let me go.


The drive down was lovely, all lush green landscape and surprisingly few high-rise apartment buildings once we left we the big city. I listened to pretty music and thought about things and felt at peace. When I got to Seosan, I was greeted by my new best friend Jake, who welcomed me to town and spoke to me like an adult and generally made me feel very welcome. We headed to the rooftop of one of his fellow English teachers and spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the sun, drinking beer, eating Jolly Pong, listening to music, and chatting while a few more friends trickled in. Everyone was so inviting and fun, and I thought to myself, If I were going to do something like this, I'd love to be surrounded by these folks.


Roof darts! Like lawn darts but with weighted rubber balls instead of sharp metal spikes, and on a roof instead of a lawn. After nearly lobbing a dart off the roof and onto a parked car, I decided to save my energy for drinking beer on the sidelines and making the occasional objective judgment call. As the sun went down and our bellies started rumbling, we made our way over to a little place called Garten Bier, where I saw two things that have changed my life forever.


OH MY GOD IT'S A REFRIGERATED CUP HOLDER! Seriously. This is so brilliant. I think I must have said "This is the coolest thing I've ever seen" (literally!) about fifteen times, until one of my new friends told me I needed to get out more. But really, this is genius. Don't you hate how sometimes you just want to savor a beer but it will only get warmer and warmer until by the end it's like drinking flat barley juice? I do. With this 4 degree Celsius Bio cup holder you never have to worry about that again! I mean really. How neat! Possibly even better than my cup holder was the beverage that stayed cool inside it. Behold:


Soju. Slushie. In mango! So delightful. I had two, and I could see these being very dangerous. They tasted like the freshest, ripest mangoes had been just been picked from the tree and chopped up right then and blended with ice and soju. The food we ate was good too, but nowhere near as memorable as the drinks. The evening progressed into the wee hours of the morning, bringing with it a climb to a hilltop observation tower, some new Korean friends, and an epic two hours at a noreh-bahng, or karaoke room, where you and ten of your closest friends can pick all the songs the MC's at regular karaoke bars never let you sing. Having spent the two weeks prior going to bed at 9 every night, this was just the kind of night I needed. Many thanks to my new loves, Seosan is lucky to have you!

Oh. Yeah: Ssam Gyeop Sal

We make fire. Cook meat. Mm. Technically, waitstaff make fire, but we did cook our own meat! Welcome to ssam gyeop sal, the Korean barbecue that no one I know of can resist. A bowl of hot charcoal is brought to your table and placed under a little grill. You get a big plate of lettuce leaves and sometimes sesame leaves (a relative of Japanese shiso), spicy soy bean paste, and various vegetable toppings, plus a big plate of raw meat that you get to cook up just the way you like. It's usually sliced really thinly so that it cooks up quickly, and our first plate was gone in less than 30 minutes.

See? Meat! Plus a handy vacuum hose that can be moved up and down as needed to suck up all the smoke. We had beef marinated in spicy sauce, but you can also get plain beef in various cuts, pork belly, mushrooms, and more.

Aaaghh.... That's a sigh of contentment trying to work its way out through a mouthful of this wonderment. Take a leaf or two of lettuce, add a smear of soy bean paste, pile on some green onion shredded and mixed with sesame oil and some spices, follow that with a bit of spicy radish kimchi, a grilled up bit of garlic if it's available, and, finally, meat. I started layering mine this way because occasionally the meat, so fresh off the grill, can make my fingers feel uncomfortably warm, and I don't want anything getting in the way of my ssam gyeop sal enjoyment. Technique is as varied as the different add-ins can be, and you may find yourself with shredded cabbage in place of green onions, cucumber or cabbage instead of radish, sesame oil with sea salt as a dipping sauce. The main idea is that when you eat meat you should eat a vegetable with it, and why not just wrap it in a vegetable too?

Yes. The grill is cooling, little bits of burnt grease and the scent of smoke in my clothing all that's left of our dinner, and my inner caveman has been satisfied. For now.

Things I've Eaten in the Last Week.

Fried chicken from BBQ, a Korean chain that is only a few short years away from total world domination. Seriously, look at their website. Their parent company, Genesis, which began in the 90's with just BBQ and now has 10 other chains, wants to have 50,000 locations worldwide by 2020. They started in Korea, making "Olive Luxury Chicken," whole chickens that are freshly chopped up, battered, and fried in olive oil. Plus, here at least, they deliver! Though most fast food chains do here so that's no big thing. We got the regular and one with some sort of sweet sauce. The regular was super crispy, flavorful, and moist without being at all fatty. The sauce was really different too, I think it had some allspice in it, was sweet and rich, with a little bit of tang. Yum! My cousin's husband works for the company; I'm pushing for Seattle as their next US location.

Ah, to be drunk in Seoul. Late running public transportation, and a plethora of 24-hour fast food joints like this one, where we sampled some excellent odeng, or fish cake. Not as gross as it sounds! I don't know the exact formula, but it's basically fish and flour with various spice and/or vegetable add-ins. Something more familiar might be those pink and white slices you sometimes get in a bowl of Japanese udon. In Korea it's prepared many ways: in soups, stir fries, thrown into spicy rice cake dishes, and for those busy people (sober or otherwise) on the go, boiled or deep fried and served on a stick. Most places that offer it will either have someone dishing them out or just leave a warm pot and a bowl to collect the few coins it costs to eat one.

We also bought a couple of rolls of kimbap to go. Kimbap is like sushi, Korean style. Instead of vinegar, the rice is mixed with toasty sesame oil and sometimes the roasted seeds themselves, filled with a variety of sauteed meats and veggies, fried egg, pickled radish, and sometimes deep fried, barely-there tofu or a thin rope of artificial crab, then wrapped in nori that's also been painted with sesame oil and salted. This particular one had beef, hot dog, egg, radish, sauteed carrots and spinach, and some sort of tasty mystery food. It's unbelievably satisfying, starchy, meaty, vegetable-y, tangy, and toothsome. Seriously, excellent drunk food (Or you could just call out for some fried chicken), and probably fairly healthy.

These late night restaurants and carts are everywhere, and sell all manner of foods. They're great for students and business folk, many of whom work until after 9 or 10. They're cheap and fast, so you can grab a quick bite while waiting for the bus, or sit inside and keep the party going. Have I mentioned that I think these places must be great for nights out drinking? Because I really do.


Some free cookies at a tea shop I visited in Insa-dong. I have no idea what the ones on the left are made of, other than air, honey, and the innocence of children. On the right is yakgwa, made with flour, maybe eggs, sometimes spices like cinnamon, and honey or liquid yeot (a Korean sweet, essentially a cooked sugar where the starting liquid is made from fermented rice or other grains). The little biscuits are shaped and then fried, giving them a crisp, glossy outer layer and soft, malty sweet insides.

Yakgwa translates literally to "medicine biscuit," and was considered to be beneficial to the health because of its ingredients. These were about an inch in diameter, but they're usually much larger, maybe 3 inches, and quite hefty. Because of the work required to make them, they've become mostly mass produced and sit on store shelves for ages, bland to start with and further drying out and becoming completely wasted calories. When they're freshly made in a small batch, they're lovely, like these were.

And in anticipation of the next three weeks of eating, it's now time for me to hit the gym.