7000 miles east

2006-11-20T02:25:00.000+09:00

Things have been going well. The weather has been getting cold the past few weeks but that’s expected. Minhee’s cousin is getting huge, I don’t have any reccent pictures but she is big, she should be giving birth shortly. So it has been a few months since my last post and some interesting things have occurred. We are on our last steps for Minhee’s visa and that chapter will be done. I think it was the last day of August there was a family picnic for her fathers side all and all about 40 some people came. Thought it was going to be canceled since I woke up to the sound of thunder bit the bus deposit was non-refundable so on went the show. Got to see a part of Korea that I hadn’t been too so that was nice. Had a BBQ, consumed soju (96 bottles were drank that day), caught crabs, and went on a boat ride. September went by did some fishing, planned my trip, and almost broke my finger. October 6th of this year was Chusuk (Korean Thanksgiving) so visited the relatives on both sides of her family. Rode up to Seoul with her brother then departed for Weihai, China on the 9th. Wanted to go to Dandong a border town between China and North Korea but that was the day The North Koreans did their bomb test. Took the slow boat to China which was nice, watched a few movies, went in the spa, drank a few beers then went tot bed and was there. Went to 3 cities in all and got to see some real back countrty of China. Ate too much, even got to eat ranch flavored dorritos not chinese food but missed food that can’t be found in Korea. The cities I went too were a mix of German and Chinese flair and I don’t think they get that many travelers. Got a few stories but will have to wait until I get home. Went to the sea one Saturday with the hopes to do some salmon fishing, couldn’t fine any so did what I like doing driving and getting lost. Korea is not that big of a country so the chances have it if you are lost you won’t be lost for too long. Anyways came across a pottery festival, got to see five different styles of traditional pottery, plus eat at a pig roast and drink makulli. Well hope all is well for you and have a good Thanksgiving.

2006-08-16T23:40:00.000+09:00

Greetings. Hope everyone is doing as good as I am. The month of July was just a lot of rain and then some more so that pretty much wiped out the thought of fishing or even going on a picnic. Did do some grilling but had to do that while hanging onto an umbrella. Went to a hot spring resort was more interesting than I thought it would be, got to see some flowers that look like birds. Went down to Busan to visit some relatives, but before doing so we decided to go to the beach, I never seen so many people on one beach. As it turned into the evening the human carpet that covered the beach and the first 10 meters of water disappeared just leaving trash everywhere, of all the times I didn't have my camera. Was reading the paper the next day and they said there was over 800,000 people on the beach that day. What is the size of the beach you ask not that big . Plan to go back one more time just to take that picture. The other weekend went up to the northwest corner of Korea and got to see some things. Also got a peek at north korea, not what not all that much. The place around where we stayed had problems with north korean spies coming over some years ago.
Went to a fossil museum got to see some dinosaur eggs, some fish in rocks, and a bug in some amber just like in the movies. Have one more interview left and that should be it for Min-hee's visa. Take a easy and avoid the heat if you can.

2006-05-07T11:10:00.000+09:00

So the other night went bowling with Minhee. There are some weird people in Korea. They have more gadgets then the pros. So was watching the guys on both sides of us bowl, all of them had some metal looking gloves on that prevented them from bending there wrist and kept their index finger in a standing position. They all were trying to bowl like the pros, you know when it looks like the ball is going into the gutter then it comes spinning out and knocks them all down. I have never seen so many gutterballs, myself on the other hand just roll it straight down, where it starts thats the only line it knows. I found out when your a bad bowler such as myself a few strikes by luck make you look good. Well off to enjoy a Sunday. Cheers.

2006-04-16T21:49:00.000+09:00

This is Kevin speaking. Hello. Sorta forgot about this website, but had a friend remind me about it. So here we go. The month of February was good got to do some traveling. Went to what the Japanese proclaim as the largest wooden structure in the world. The original structure burnt down and the present one is only 1/3 of the original. You may say it looks small but keep in mind a picture is not a good judge of an image and to both sides there are wings. For the rest of the month I started a new job and Minhee's cousin got married. The wedding was still strange to me since her cousin didn't even have a boyfriend at the end of December and like a business the two families got together decided it would be a good and they got married. Odd as you may say this is a way a lot of weddings are still done over here. For March work, some fishing, and dust storms. April the dust storms let off and some warmer weather came. Usually on the weekends try to do some fishing, so far myself and my friend are having a good year. Last weekend one of my teachers got married and got to see Mr. Komoro. Haven't seen this guy for a few months he was busy doing some fininhing touches on selling his house in Japan, I guess from what he has said he going to stay here with his wife. This is Minhee speaking. Kevin is handsome. Try to put up some more within a week. Oh this is a picture of me with huge blowfish sign. Thought it was interesting. Cheers.

2006-02-11T23:50:00.000+09:00

Well if you haven't heard I quit my job mid January. Don't worry I found a better job. Since I quit my job and my new job didn't start until mid February I suddenly had a lot of free time on my hands. Made a few phone calls to my friends and off we were to Japan. We went to seven different cities and passed through countless. We started out in Fukoka and headed up to Tokyo by the shingangsan (bullet train). There we met my friend Iszaki Ajoshi. Thanks to him we had a easy time seeing everything. Right now off the top of my head can't remember everything we saw there, but we saw a lot and had a wonderful time. Got to see another one of my friends while we were their. Yama. I like this guy. One of the funniest people I have met. When we always meet we have a good time. After spending some time here we went to visit my friend Sumi. (The guy to the left is Ajoshi)

Sumi lives near Takasaki, which is about 200 km from Tokyo. His hometown is famous for making Dalma heads (to the left). As the above guys Sumi did an excellent job of showing us around. Tired so more later.

2006-02-11T23:18:00.000+09:00

Things are going well. Just got done with the Chinese New Year a few weeks back. Got up early and went over to Minhee's uncle's house. There they did a religious service for their ancestors. What they do is set a table as the one you see to the left. On such table there is a arrangement of different types of fruits, meats, fish, nuts, grains.... When it begins her uncle starts by proping the front door open (to allow their ancetors to come in)then burns 3 sticks of incense then twirls a dish of rice wine around the smoke three times then sets it on the table. This is done several times by different people then the rice and soup is placed on the back of the table. Chopsticks are shoved in the rice while a spoon is placed in the soup at this time everyone does two bows then a period of waiting while their ancestors eat. If you zoom onto the picture you can see the tops of the fruits are cut off, this is so they can eat them. After a little while the spoons and chopsticks are taken out and the covers are put back on the rice dishes. Then the table is cleared and they eat. After this we went to the Kim's hometown which is only about 45 minutes away from our house. Here they do the same thing above but at their realtives house. Later on in the day we headed over to Minhee's mothers side and had dinner with them.

2005-12-24T01:01:00.000+09:00

Had today off from work so we got up really early and decided to go for a drive. We were thinking about going to the sea, but been going there a little too much so we decided to go some place new. Was driving through the mountains saw some wild life which I have seldom seen over here so the day started out good. Stopped for lunch and over heard some kids bitching about the rain, at first I thought they were joking. I looked out the window and could see nothing. Finished eating, went out and sure enough it was misting but we deicided to go on. A few minutes later it was raining, now this is the point were we dind't know what to think, go on or go home. The rain let down but still misted so we kept on going on and found a rest stop with a nice view took some pictures and thats when the rain started its morph into snow. As we went higher up the rain became less and the snow came harder. Here we are not that far from the place where we took the first picture, just a little higher up in the mountain range. As we went on we found a two track, now I not really sure how high we were up but if you look to the picture to the right, the one with nobody in it. If you look from the left to the right you should be able to see a cloud. The next few pictures I just thougt were nice since i found it interesting. As we came down the mountain there was like a fine line saying if you are on this side let there be snow and if you are over there let there none. And we hope you have a wonderful Christmas.
Minhee& Kevin

2005-12-11T20:19:00.000+09:00

Two weekends ago went to the sea with Minhee. Wanted to do a little fishing but decided against it since I thought I was getting sick, just turned out to be a sore throat and nothing else. Last weekend did some two tracking which was fun. Found a trail that started on one side of a mountain and went to the other side.

2005-12-11T18:57:00.000+09:00

Not too long ago they opened a fish restaurant by our house. They had dancing girls like the ones to the left dancing in their parking lot. Went there with Minhee and her mom. Kinda of nice could look around in all the tanks and decide what you wanted to eat. Compared to the usual fish restaurant this place was huge, 12 fish "butchers", 12 cooks, servers and servers, and seating for around 250-300 people. Also not too long ago one of Minhee's friends asked her if she could watch her dog. So here it is. I'm not really too pleased with it. It is small, needs a hair cut, wears a sweater, and tries to sit on the couch. I don't want it to sit on the couch because its an animal. So I came home from work one day and decided to look for a picture on the camera and this is what I found. When the cats away the mice play. For the first time in some time we have a Christmas tree. Its made in China. It is nice to look at and reminds me Christmas is coming. To the left is Minhee with our tree. This is the first and last time the lights were on. The next day while we were gone the dog decided to chew the light cord.

2005-12-11T18:40:00.000+09:00

Korean Jail. Got a chance to tour one so did it. Much bigger than what I thought it was going to be.

2005-11-23T23:11:00.000+09:00

The farmers of Korea were up and busy during the month of October harvesting and drying their rice. The picture to left is of a rice thrasher. The rice that people eat goes into the white bag to the left and the rest come out the rear. The rest that comes out the rear is burnt so the nutrients are returned to where they came from. But this is not the end , after this any free spot is taken advanatage of to dry the rice. Everytime we went fishing in October we saw scenes like the one to the right in parking lots, on driveways, or even on the side of roads. Which is okay, but you have to think as a car passes by it kicks up dust and what not, so wash your rice before you use it.
Red pepper or as the koreans like to say gochu(고추) has a large role in korean food. I would hate to guess what percentage of korean food it goes in, but a day does not pass were I don't eat it. So as you can guess a high percentage. These peppers are not for sale. They are going to be used by 3 or 4 families.

So the place I work at decided to have a halloween party which is all fine and good but they decided it would be better to have it in November. I thought this kid was alright, one of the only few that did something. He is a corpse.

The past few times that we been to the sea, I've noticed that the number of squid have been going up. The ones to the left are beening dried for side dishes or anju ((안주)snacks when drinking). The ones to the right are also being dried the same was as one would dry their clothes. Sometimes you can see strings of these that go on and on. To the left is me with my friend, we had a good day caught some flounders, darts, and some fish that I don't what they are called in english but they taste good. Being from Michigan I'm not used to catching fish with poison, so being a novice still to sea fishing if you don't know what it is just assume it is poisonous until you know otherwise. More later. Happy Thanksgiving.

2005-10-25T00:09:00.000+09:00

This weekend we did the same as the last but without our friends. We left for the sea Saturday morning thinking we would only stay for the day, but once arriving we changed our minds and decided to stay for the night. The sea was really rough Saturday with waves up to 3 meters and Sunday some up to 5 meters. The waves were so bad that the place were I usually go waves were coming up over the tetrapods and over onto the pier. So after a while of fishing at another place we went for a nice drive along the seashore. Took some shortcuts and thought the car was going to be stuck on this really narrow road but managed to get it through then found out the raod was a dead end with really no room to turn around, there was really no way to go in reverse since if one bad slip or turn down goes the car off the road and into a rice field, so had to to slowly turn the car around, took about 20 minutes but got it around. The following day as i said above the waves were a lot bigger then the day before. So we decided to continue up the coast and head up to Youngduk (영덕) . It was a really nice drive, not that much traffic and the trees were about 30-40% into their fall color. Got up to Youngduk later that day and headed to the crab market. There was a lot of crabs but during the peak time (Dec-Feb) the tanks are just jammed packed with crabs. Some of these crabs are just huge, I'll have to post a picture of one.

2005-10-18T22:24:00.000+09:00

I broke over 190 pounds.

2005-10-16T18:37:00.000+09:00

Yesterday (Oct 15) went to the sea with some friends to do a little fishing. It was just a beautiful day, the sky was as blue as it could be, and with the crisp sea air mixed with the scent of fall one couldn't ask for a better day. Starting off a little rocky, was fishing off some tetrapods, turned around to get something from Minhee, then this wave came from nowhere and took one of my fishing poles to the the bottom. So having one less pole, decided it would be wise to change places. Was a good idea caught some fish. The picture to the right is one of the guys that I go fishing with almost everyweek, we both just got into this sea fishing since the weather is starting to cool down and freshwater fishing is starting to slow down. The picture to the right is what true maeutang (매우탕) should look like. If you haven't been reading this site maeutang is a a spicy stew that is usually served after you eat raw fish. What parts of the fish you don't eat they throw into this stew.

2005-10-09T16:27:00.000+09:00

Japan

We were walking around one day and happen to come across a park I been to about three years earlier. In the middle of this park is a nice sized pond with a bride going right through the center connected by a few islands. Being a waterbody in a park there is almost always some sort of fish, as there was here. As I was looking this bird decided to peer with me. It got fairly close then lost interest and flew away. This day it looked like it was going to rain and it did, only for about thirty or so minutes so we found some refugee under an overpass. After it stopped raining we kept on walking and saw this. I have seen plenty of these(car lift) before but when trying to explain them to other people through e-mail, I don't know what kinda of picture they got in there head, so as they say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Saw a few temples which was quite interesting when comparing them to other temples of other countries, for the ones that I saw in Japan there was a roundness to them and they all seemed to blend very well into their enviroment. As for other things that seem to blend in well is Mc Donalds. Minus a few countries in the world, they are everywhere, and always seem to have business. Another place in Japan that seemed to be doing well were the game rooms. So seeing this just couldn't pass. They had a lot of claw games and the prizes were a lot better than those paper stuffed animals. going to see a movie so leave it here for now.

2005-10-07T00:59:00.000+09:00

Not to long ago went over to Japan. I find the best to travel is to have a few things you want to do or see, then have all the rest happen by random, by doing this you can ensure you will have a unique vacation that nobody else has done. The city we went to was Fukoka, nothing really much here for tourist when compared to Tokyo, but one can still have a fun time. Going there we decided to take a boat, nice relaxing ride. Its not all that bad only about 3 hours, one must remember I rode on a boat from Korea to Long Beach, Californina (10 days), so this was nothing. Got there and decided we wanted to stay in a 'tradtional' japanese room I think the place was a front. But anyways decided to go out and eat at some of the street carts, wanted to see japanese business men drinking with ties on their heads. Didn't get to see, but there is always next time. . Went t0 a mall to see what there was to see and came across this jewel, what we have here is an official pokeman store. If its pokeman or related to pokeman you'll find it here. This store was bustling busier than a toys r us in December. Quite the noise.

2005-10-04T17:19:00.000+09:00

A few days before everybody headed back home we went to Andong(안동) village. This village is very nice since one can directly experience rural and long ago Korea. To the left is my uncle with a tractor called kyoungungi (경운기) these things are great, can see them a lot in the rural areas and once and awhile you can see them in the city when the farmers drive them instead of their cars. The picture to the right is not a house but it is a gate, which surrounds the house. There is rooms in it and they were usually used as a place to raise livestock, storage, or if the homeowner was wealthy it was used as servant quarters. Once inside one of these gates, there is open area where one's daily life takes place. Cooking, washing clothes, gardening, drying out herbs,bark,roots, etc.. for medicine (picture to the right).

The interesting thng about this folk village is that it still is a functional village. What this means is people still live here. Other folk villages throughout the country are just buildings, no people except for visitors and employees. Because of this situation at Andong many of the families living here have turned their houses into businesses to earn some extra money. So one house might sell straw shoes (짚신), while another may sell rice wine and food. So overall its not a bad deal, but they (the people of Andong) do have rules, regarding preservation, so the village will retains its folk village status, so no there will not be a starbucks coming soon.

2005-10-04T16:20:00.000+09:00

Since we were on an island we decided to eat some fish. In Japan they have sushi and in Korea they have a hway(회) which is sushi minus the rice, wasabi, and soy sauce. So what you have is just a piece of flesh. Now if you look at this picture you might begin to wonder hey where is the rest of the fish, what do they do with it? They take everything, gills, guts, head, etc.. and make a type of stew out of it called mauntang (매운탕). This stew is rather spicy, and sometimes too spicy, the picture too the left is the stew with no peppers added to it so it is quit easy to eat, but if it isn't spicy it the fishy taste is quite strong so its up to you.

2005-09-29T01:49:00.000+09:00

For the honeymoon we went to an island south of Korea. I wanted to go back packing through China but the wife wanted nothing to do with that. So here we are. We had a rental car which was a good idea until I backed into a small boulder. No dents but it did put a nice scratch on the car. When we took it back there was no problems, I guess they saw worse. As for the island it was beautiful. Went to a few waterfalls, some caves, cliffs, and some really nice views. Had a really nice time would like to go back again if time permits.

2005-09-19T16:21:00.000+09:00

Well I finally made it to our wedding day. If you look to the left there is Minhee and her mother. Her mother is wearing a hanbok(한복), traditional korean dress. On this day my mother, uncle bob, aunt sue, and about 40 friends came from my side, but since Minhee's father is a servant of the korean government about 750 people came, they wanted to invite more but it was hard enough to find a place that could accomadate to that. The wedding itself lasted about 20 minutes. If one should ever have a wedding in Korea it would be wise to take all handphones as people come in. Here I am with Minhee. Boy she is lucky to be married to such a handsome guy as myself. The hardest part of the whole wedding I think was picking out the tux. And after all the effort and time I put into it, the wedding planner decided it was best to go with her choice than mine. Probally was for the better since she does it for a living and this is my first. The picture to the left is of Minhee with her cousins and her oldest brother. The picture above is of Minhee with her two brothers. Her younger brother is to the left and her older brother is to her right. Here we are after the wedding. We had a cake and got to cut it with a huge sword. I don't know what ever happened to that cake sine it disappeared after it was cut. The 'great mystery' of the day was who was going to catch the bouquet. Wasn't that hard to guess who was going to catch it since there was only one person. I guess that is the norm. Had to do the classic of picking up the bride. For a few weeks she was joking by saying she was going to gain as much weight as she could. She could have gained 20 kilos and there still wouldn't have been a problem. We had a western style wedding but also had a little korean element to it. After the western style wdding was finished we proceded to Paebaek (폐백 ) which is the payment of respect to the each side and when the parents give advice to their son or daughter. The picture to the left is when my mom got to throw some nuts at Minhee. For every nut that we caught in Minhee's dress we will have a child. If that is the case I will be very busy.

2005-09-16T17:26:00.000+09:00

Not that far from the city I live is a city called Kyoung-Ju (경주). Kyoung-Ju is a city filled with history, temples, tombs, and some really unique things. The first place we saw was the temple called Bulguksa (불국사). If you should happen to see a picture of a temple chances are it will be this temple. About a 10 to 15 minute drive up the mountain from here is suekgulam (석굴암). What this is is a temple that is built into the side of mountain. From the outside it looks small but once you go inside it opens up, and in this pocket is a huge statue of Buddha which is blocked off with a glass wall. Pictures are not allowed once inside and one must take off their shoes. On Buddha's birthday, visitiors are allowed to go beyond the glass protected area and walk around the statue. From here we went to Gampo(감포). Gampo is a very small city but it has a wonderful beach on the sea of japan. Its fairly clean and usually not a lot of people so one can actually enjoy the sea.

2005-09-15T22:56:00.000+09:00

Here we are getting ready to go to Daegu. Nice hot day calls for some afternoon beers. Now as the story goes my Uncle Bob likes pottery. He found a piece that he liked at a store less than a 100 yards away from this bar, since it was still early in the vacation we decided we would wait and buy one later. As it turns out never saw another piece like that one.

KTX which is the bullet train of Korea cuts the travel time from Dague to Seoul by at least 60% (speeds up to 300km/h) but it has some small seats. They also have a deal that really nobody knows about. There are blocks of four seats with tables, if one should buy all four of these table seats you can save up to 34% which means you get a free ticket. When we arrived at Dong-Dague Station MinHee's father was waiting for us. He was reviewing all the english he had studied for over the pass few weeks, but a soon as he met everybody, he forgot everything. Oh well there will be a next time.
Korea is a small country but what makes its even smaller is about 70% of it is covered with mountains, which creates a high population density rate. It also creates some wonderful parks and things to do. Here we are at Palgong San(팔공산) ( san means mountain). We were going to ride up to the top but we had to meet Minhee's family for a traditional chinese meal in Korea. I wish I would have had a camera for that restaurant, the food kept on coming and coming. As it does at most places.

2005-09-14T01:45:00.000+09:00

Here we are in downtown Seoul. If you look in the background you will see namdaemoon (남대문) . You might have to enlarge the picture to see it. Namdaemoon is one of the four old gates of Seoul. Around this area is a very famous market, I think it is actually the biggest market in Korea. Well anyways here are a few pictures of both the gate and the market.

The markets in Korea are something worth seeing. You can have twenty stores in a row selling the exact same things but they all seem to have some business going on. From ginko to gi boots it all can be found. Sometimes the smells can be a little brutal and it is best to wear shoes after a rain. After sightseeing here we all decided it would be a good idea to take a walk to namsan tower and see what the city looks like at night. Believe it or not I actually took this picture. Well when we finally got to the tower there was a sign saying the observation deck was closed, found out one could see the city so we went on up. Looked around and found a restaurant with a wonderful view. This picture is not the best but will have to do for the time being. But you can get a good idea of what we saw. Even though this view was from a restaurant with 'korean pizzas' it was still worth while.

2005-09-13T01:23:00.000+09:00

Food. I think everyone that came over gained at least a few pounds. There was just so many different kinds of food that we wanted to introduce to them. The three weeks or so they were here they did more and ate a wider variety of food then most people that haved lived over here for a few years. I'm quite proud of that accomplishment, that is what I wanted to do for them and to actually to do it, wow. Started off a little shaky with the food but ended up with none.

In Seoul, there is a good mix of old and new. As you can to the right even in the center of downtown one can find a palace which is a good place to relax, reflect, or sightsee. Being from the country and now living in a big city places like this or even parks are quite a nice refugee during the day. Usually places like these there is nobody around, so they are very quiet and somewhat peaceful. For some reason throughout the country of Korea especially at palaces, temples, and road sides there is an ample army of ginko trees. Why, I have no reason, but am trying to find out. These trees are wonderful to see during fall, they turn to a bright yellow that just stands out and makes a drive on Sunday more interesting. The picture to the left is some of the biggest ginko trees that I have ever seen. According to the plaque these are over 300 years old if my memory serves me correct. If you can remember or if you know post a comment please.

2005-09-11T23:51:00.000+09:00

Can you find us? Look hard enough and you may. Roads filled with neon, music, fliers, and of course people. Some people are so stupid that they even try to drive cars down raods like this. Why? Who knows. But these kinda of roads are fun, lots of things to do. From pizza to pa kimchi you can find it. Well of course minus a few c's cheese, camels, and Gabe you know. Its quite interesting, in the past year or so, a traditional drink called makkulli (막걸리) is becoming popular with the younger crowds. Makkulli is a alcholic drink made from rice. As the name is mak(막) which means carelessy, at random, or roughly. Kulli (걸리) which is derived from the verb kullida (걸리다) which means to catch (note the above words do have other meanings than metion above). So loosely tanslating it means roughly filtered rice wine. So as you would expect there is pieces of rice in it. It is usually drank chilled and out of a tea keatle. Strange as it may sound it is actually quite good, myself the first timed I tried it I didn't have it again for quite a while, but now I am a really big fan of it especially during those muggy days.

The following day for us was that rainy day I told you about. Even though the show must go on. The choice was easy for us, since I think none of uswould like to spend the day away sitting inside our hotel room. Let me correct myself, hotel nope more of like a korean guest house. My uncle got the pleasure of bathing in a blue light (must have been on sale somewhere) in his bathroom without a sink.

2005-09-11T14:35:00.000+09:00

A little over two months ago I got married. So my mother, Aunt Sue, and Uncle Bob all came over to Korea forabout three weeks. These three unlucky people all got bumped up to first class due to some problems with a gas line, and because of the delay they missed their connecting flight in Tokyo so they got to stay a night in Tokyo free. Depending on the way you look at it, their trip began a little rocky or really nice. First class, free night in Tokyo. So when we finally met, we headed to downtown Seoul. It looked like it was going to rain about half the time but only rained one day out of the few days. In the above picture is Kyoung Bok Kung (경복궁) the biggest palace in Korea. Our hotel at the time was not. We all had a good time sight seeing, but I think if everybody doesn't see a palace for a while nobody will complain. These guys were great. We saw almost everything to see in Seoul, and a great majority of it actually almost all of it was done by walking.

2005-09-11T14:22:00.000+09:00

Hello,

This is my first real attempt to make a web page. I made one a few years back but shortly abandoned it due to the lack of not having a computer. Now that we have one I'll give it try again. Not the best page, but I hope it will improve as time goes on.
The whole purpose of this page is to show my friends and family back home where I live and what I do.