Noodles for Breakfast

This is what I had for breakfast once I'd made my way to the ANA Business Class lounge. Delicious Soba noodles.

This is the view I had whilst I slurped down my food.

Early Morning/Late Night

I left my hotel before 6am this morning. It was a bit disconcerting to see people on the streets who were just winding down their 'fun and games' from the previous night (though not really surprising given the hotel's location – in a Kabukicho, the red light district!).

I'd given myself plenty of time to lug my stuff to the Narita Express train at Shinjuku station. Too much time really as I could've got the train before the one I actually had a reservation for. I almost came a cropper on the escalator up to the platform as I momentarily lost my balance and the weight of my bag threatened to send me tumbling. Thankfully no one saw me (apart from anyone watching on CCTV).

Whilst I waited I bought a can of coffee from a vending machine. It was warm and tasted like chocolate milk.

Sign Language

I'm guessing this is supposed to say 'no dog walking' or perhaps 'dogs to be kept on the lead', but, hey, who knows! Maybe dogs in Japan are fond of their 'pasture'.

Work it....

I've absolutely no idea who this chap was or why he was having his picture taken.

It was by a place called Zepp which according to wikipedia is a live music venue. Maybe the person being photographed is famous or something!

Sunshine

Another sunny day on my trip to north-east Asia. I'm still cursing myself for not packing shorts -- hey my fault for believing decades of climate statistics!

I did a lot of walking today -- first of all from my hotel to Ginza (which took a bit longer than I expected) and then over on Odaiba.

My big achievement for the day was exchanging a couple of t-shirts I'd bought at UT for bigger sizes. This entailed trying to find what the Japanese word for 'exchange' is (it wasn't in my guidebook). Anyway I was understood and it all worked out OK.

Noodle Goodness

So this was my dinner.

Much less then the cost of my lunch, but equally as satisfying (but in a completely different way).

According to my ramen 'crib sheet' this is a 'tonkatsu gyoukai' broth which means that it's a standard tonkatsu broth (i.e. pork) with fish stock added. Also in the bowel are the noodles (obviously), slices of pork, a boiled egg, some unidentified vegetable and seaweed.

It didn't take me long to slurp it all down. However I couldn't compete with the guy sat next to me who vacuumed his up in the blink of an eye -- since this place is in Tokyo Station maybe he had a train to catch?

Battery Life

I walked from my hotel in Shinjuku to the Imperial Palace this morning -- a reasonable trek. I tried to do this when I was in Tokyo last time but failed because the map I had was rubbish.

This time I had a much better map (and actually used it).

I looped round the Palace and found myself by the entrance of the Eastern Imperial Palace gardens. I thought I'd have a quick look.

The gardens were immaculate and worthy of a few photographs. Unfortunately this is when the battery on my camera gave up the ghost. Time to beat a hasty retreat back to my hotel to charge the the thing up.

£75

That was the price I paid for lunch today!

I went to Ten Ichi for Tempura and in a moment of financial laxity I went for the most expensive of the set meals. And a beer.

The food was really rather excellent and the service was top notch. But it was only when I 'did the math' properly that I fully dawned on me how extravagant I had been. Damn the rubbish exchange rate!

Just as well I'm planning to get some ramen noodles for dinner then -- a bowl should cost significantly less than £10 and will tasty and filling.

Umbrella

I bought one today. It cost me 500 Yen. It's the super cheap type that all the Tokyoites carry around with them.

The weather forecast predicted rain and they were sort of right. However, in my mind it wasn't the sort of rain which justifies using an umbrella. Nevermind. I got to look like a 'local' carrying it around (well obviously not a looking in terms of looking Japanese).

Seoul to Tokyo

I haven't really done a great deal today.

The flight across from Seoul was fine. There were only 4 passengers in Business Class so the service was very attentive. The food on the two hour flight was pretty good -- I had a seafood and rice combination. No kimchi though!

I was in two minds over what to drink, but in the end plumped for some champagne when I saw the man on the other side of the plane having a glass of wine poured for him (the flight left Seoul at 10am).

The attentive service meant I was forever getting my champagne glass topped up and I was feeling the effects when we arrived at Tokyo!

From the airport I got the Narita Express to Shinjuku and then walked the short distance to my hotel.

I was feeling the affects of my early start and the inflight champagne so didn't really feel like doing a great deal. I walked round the shops but was pretty immune to the energetic atmosphere as Saturday afternoon became Saturday evening.

I got some sushi from the Takashimaya Food Hall and retreated to my hotel room where I was able to watch some Japanese baseball (a post-season game).

Seoul Thoughts

So as I while away the time until the I get on the short flight to Tokyo here are a few thoughts on my time in Seoul.....

- You don't need much Korean to survive. This was a bit of a worry as I thought Korea would be very daunting with just a handful of Korean vocab. In the end I was pleasantly surprised as to the amount of English that was spoken and the rest of the time relied on pointing and other gestures. Sort of multilingual charades!

- You really don't need to visit all the Palaces. I went to two and that was plenty (unless off course you are a Palace geek).

- It is very rare to see anyone eating or drinking alone. This just isn't the way Koreans do things.

- The street food is excellent and varied. This is handy when you consider the point above.

- Kimchi really is a national obsession. It's served with pretty much every meal. What I didn't appreciate is the various different types -- my lunch yesterday was accompanied with 3 differnt types (as well as a few other side dishes).

- Korean men are very enthusiastic smokers. I googled it and 67% of men smoke! (The percentage for women is 6.7%). There are smoking areas on the street where you can see the office workers congregating to get their fix. Maybe if they didn't smoke and took so many cigarette breaks they wouldn't have to work the long hours they do.

- Koreans like a good drink! Whether it's Soju with barbecued beef or rice wine or beer they knock it back with vigour. You often see groups of office workers a bit the worse for wear late in the evening as the fall out of a restaurant and move on the a 'hof' for more boozing!

- I think Korea is an interesting mix of Japanese and Chinese characteristics -- with a much greater similarity with Japan. It would be interesting to see whether Seoul is a proper reflection of the whole of Korea.

Incheon

I'm in the Asiana Business Class lounge at Incheon International Airport (인천국제공항)waiting for my flight to Tokyo.

Incheon is another Asian mega airport that vies with Hong Kong and Singapore for the "best airport in the world" title. It's impressive and some bits of it are architecturally weird/interesting (sort of spacecraftesque).

It was an early start (up at 5am) to get here for my flight and it was frustrating as the airport bus weaved round Seoul on its route picking up passengers. Once we made it to the highway it was pedal to the metal as we raced along with the Kias, Hyundais and various other brands that I haven't seen on cars before (e.g. the ones made by Samsung).

Any way time to start remembering my survival level of Japanese!

Dessert

So after my mega-sized lunch I was pretty much full for the rest of the day (I'd also a pretty substantial breakfast at my hotel).

Anyway after browsing through a few shops in Myeongdong I couldn't resist the subtle cinnamon aroma that was wafting from this stall.

What they were serving was a sort of flour based dumpling which had a sugar and cinnamon filling. When the dumpling is fried the filling caramelises and what you are left with is sweet, sticky and tasting (and smelling) cinnamon. Just what I needed for dessert, even though it was several hours after my meal!

Bibimbap

Bibimbap essentially means 'mixed meal' and what you get is a bowl of rice topped with a variety of vegetables and often a raw egg. You then mix it all together (the heat of the rice cooks the egg). This being Korea you also get a whole load of side dishes.

For lunch I went to a place called Gogung and had a Bibimbap and a Seafood and Spring Onion Pancake. When it turned up it was obvious that this was not a combination designed to be eaten by one person (and that's before we contemplate the 6 or so side dishes).

However I was up for the challenge!

I paced my self and did a pretty good job. All the side dishes went (including the three different types of kimchi) and most of the Bibimbap and Pancake.

Gluttony aside the food was really good (although I reckon I've had my fill of kimchi).

Final Palace Dosage

Last full day in Seoul today. I didn't have much planned really, so I ended up at Changdeokgung sort of by accident.

Well it was another Korean palace -- plenty of photo opportunities and also plenty of camera toting tourists (me included).

It was quite noticeable today that the number of Japanese tourists has increased markedly since earlier in week. I guess this is the equivalent of people in the UK popping over to somewhere in Europe for a long weekend.

When I had lunch I was sat next to a couple of girls who I think were from Hong Kong (they were definitely speaking Cantonese). Anyway when they asked for the bill they used English (they also asked me to take a photo of them in pretty good English). I was quite amused by this as you sort of assume that there is a degree of commonality amongst the Chinese, Korean and Japanese. Obviously not! But then English, French and German are all different.

Mandu

We had lunch on the DMZ tour. I had bulgogi, which is essentially marinated beef along with rice and a load of side dishes (including the ubiquitous kim-chi).

For dinner I once again relied on 'street food'. This time I stopped off at a place selling mandu, or dumplings. I had 3 -- 1 stuffed with kim-chi and 2 stuffed with a pork and vegie mixture.

It's a bit predictable to say they were really good, but they were.

The other picture is a load of fried octopus legs which a bought to go with a couple of beers. Yum.

DMZ

I went on a tour to the Joint Security Area (JSA) of the De-militarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea today.

It was a good tour which also included a trip inside one of the 'infiltration tunnels' that North Korea had built in to South Korean territory.

The DMZ part of the tour is run by the US Army (even though it's a UN operated mission) and one of their soldiers was our guide. On some bits of the tour you could claim to be in North Korea. You also got quite close to North Korean soldiers (who looked quite ramshackle really). The South Korean soldiers (pictured) were very intense and when they are on guard they assume a modified taekwondo readiness position!

It was fascinating learning about all the times North Korea has launched attacks on the South -- even since the armistice in 1953. The tunnels being a prime example (the last one discovered was found in the 1990's, and they reckon there are undiscovered ones).

It was a long day with a very early start to get to the tour departure point for 7am. Lots of people were taking advantage of the 1 hour bus ride to the DMZ to catch up on sleep. I wanted to snooze, but I was trying to watch some Korean film that was shown on the coach (it did have subtitles).

More Kim-chi

My dinner tonight was a sort of kim-chi stew/broth served with a big bowl of rice and the normal array of side dishes. The stew/broth is served in an individual pots which are heated on an impressive gas fired range.

I made it to the restaurant just before it closed and had to order without the benefit of an English menu.

Today's Street Food

I had one of these as I was heading back to my hotel after another day of intensive sightseeing.

Be the Reds!

So after yesterday's trip to the 1988 Olympic Stadium, today I ventured out to the 2002 Seoul World Cup Stadium.

It's quite an impressive venue which is now home to FC Seoul (as well as a supermarket and sports centre). You can pay to have a look around and there is a small museum attached. It was crazy seeing all the coverage of how the whole of Korea went mental as their football team made it to the semi-finals.

More Street Food

I got back to my hotel a bit later than I planned. I had earmarked a restaurant to go to, but it would mean a 20 minute walk and I really was pretty wacked (and desperately needed a shower).

So it didn't take much tempting to grab a few bits and pieces from some of the food stalls that I passed on my way back to my hotel. I had some Korean yakitori, steamed corn on the cob and a plate of random fried things (sweet potato, gimbab and a kind of spring roll) all covered in the sauce from a bubbling vat of tteukbokki.

All good stuff. I'm now veging out in my room sampling a few cans of some of the local beer (pretty tasteless fizzy lager).

A Little Local Difficulty

I went to the Korea war memorial museum today. It was a bit weird really as it didn't feel much like a memorial but more of a pseudo-propaganda vehicle.

There were plaques with the names of all the Korean and UN forces who were killed in action during the Korean war, but there were also displays of 'military hardware' and lots of posters with very positive images of what Koreans get up to in the army, navy and airforce (two years military service is mandatory for all men).

Sunblock

Not something that crossed my mind at all when I was packing. The weather has been glorious since I've been here -- very sunny and temperatures topping out at about 21 degrees C.

I also wish I'd stuffed some shorts and Birkenstocks in to my luggage. It's been warm work treking around the city over the last couple of days. It's funny seeing the local Seoulites wrapped up as though it pretty chilly. It's bizarre because in the depths of winter it does get properly cold here, down to about -5 degrees.

Stanozolol

So this is the view that Ben Johnson had just before he cheated his way to winning the 100m final at the Olympics in 1988.

There is a monument just outside the main Olympic stadium which has the names of all the gold medal winners in all the sports at the Seoul games. There are plenty of athletes from the USSR and GDR -- I wonder how many of them were also 'juiced-up' on performance enhancing drugs?