Never Eat the Brown Soup

Grade 6 - little sods

Snowy

It’s been snowing quite a bit here in Seoul over the past week. It was cold and icy and the kids pelted me with snowballs every morning as I walked through the school gates. Two of the boys ran up to me shouting “teacher, teacher, never eat the yellow snow” – I laughed.. then wondered how they knew that because I certainly didn't teach it.

But I’m not here to talk about snow. It’s winter, it’s cold, we get it.. let’s move on. No, I’m here to talk about school lunches. I like food and am really not fussy about what I eat. In fact there are only two things I will not eat – any type of nut and anything banana tasting or smelling. Banana reminds me of baby sick… but moving on!...

When I arrived in South Korea four months ago I thought I might struggle with the food. Meals at orientation weren’t exactly a culinary delight. Rice and kimchi with every meal is the norm here but it was the weird attempt at western foods thrown into the mix that freaked me out. Soggy chips were the main issue.

Anyway, once out of the weird orientation bubble and back into the real world food improved immensely… on the whole. At school we get a full cooked lunch everyday and during the first few weekends of being here I realised how much I was relying on those lunches to stay fed – I hadn't been brave enough to buy anything much at the supermarket at that point. Now, four months in, the school has stopped trying to impress me but the lunches are still great and far better than I can attempt to make at home.

Monday:

The worst food day of the week and the day of the Brown Soup. I have no idea what is in the brown soup but from the taste of it, I can only assume it's the left overs of the previous weeks soups left to 'mature' over the weekend. It is disgusting.

clockwise from the top left: pickled radish, fried potato/egg thing, pineapple, Brown Soup, rice with veg stuff.

Tuesday:

We've got all the main ingredients to a school lunch here. Rice, kimchi, soup, meat, and veg. No surprises. Surprising!

clockwise from the top left: kimchi, veg and stuff, meat (possibly pork?), cabbage and veg soup, rice.





Special Wednesdays:
For some unknown reason, most schools in Seoul have a special lunch on a Wednesday. I've had everything from spag bol to cheesy chips.
This particular Wednesday was a little less special than usual. Boo.

clockwise from the top left: veg stuff, kimchi, mini mandu, beef noodle soup, apple and carrot juice and ricecake.


Thursday:
I remember this day. Mostly because I enjoyed everything which is rare. I should clarify, I DO NOT enjoy kimchi... but I can't be arsed with the fallout if I ever didn't put it on my tray!

clockwise from top left: tomatoes, kimchi, ddeokbokki and quail eggs, scrambled egg soup, rice with seaweed and stuff.

Friday:

This lunch was a whole load of weird. The bread and the 'soup' were the weird bits. The bread has a weird buttery/sugar coating and I guess is meant to be dessert along with the orange. The soup was unexpectedly fishy. Weird.
clockwise from top left: orange, breaded meat + unknown sauce, kimchi, sugar bread, fish porridge soup, rice.

This is the tale of what happens if you're a vegetarian here in South Korea or generally don't like spicy food.

Sad times.

And this is an example from a third school.


So the moral of this story is yes, obviously don't eat the yellow snow but more importantly never, ever eat the brown soup!

I'm off to Vietnam in four days time so it's safe to say I won't be posting again before then - it takes me that long to pack a bag! I'll be gone until mid-Jan but I'll be posting pics bragging about drinking cold beers on sunny Thai beaches in the meantime.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

November Happened

I’d love to tell you the reason I've not posted in a long while is that because I've been so busy and having a great time (which I am) and the weeks just slipped by (which they did)… But here’s the truth:

My name is Rachel Brennan, and I’m a Netflix addict.

Wow, that feels good. But don’t worry, I’m working through it. And by working through it, I mean I’ve binged watched Orange is the New Black, Breaking Bad, Friday Night Lights, Dexter, Parks and Recreation, Scandal, The League, and now The Walking Dead. So… that’s a new problem hobby.

A secondary reason for not posting in while: since I've been teaching English to Korean 7 year olds, my grasp on the English language, vocabulary, spelling and grammar all seem to have... gone to shit. So really, I'm doing you a favour.

November just disappeared on me. It flew by! I was taking down the Halloween decorations one minute and I was clearing up from Thanksgiving dinner the next. Now with only 3 weeks until I fly off to Vietnam for Christmas break (more on that next time!) I'll keep this short and post again soon. Unless the new series of Scandal becomes available on Netflix that is.. in that case.. all bets are off.

November highlights package:

Sokcho and Seoraksan National Park

Sokcho is a small city on the east coast of South Korea. It's a quiet place with a large fishing and ferry harbour. It's also the gateway to Seoraksan National Park, home to one of the highest mountain peaks in Korea, Daechongbong. I left Seoul early Friday morning - everyone at Yongdu had a 4-day weekend to celebrate the school's birthday (not joking..) - I caught a bus from Dong Seoul bus station and less than 3 hours later I was checked into my hostel and exploring Sokcho.

I started with breakfast on the beach then wandered around Abai village - a small community of North Korean expats. I visited the nighttime fish market and the Sokcho Expo Tower.

On Saturday I caught a local bus 25 minutes to the entrance of Seoraksan National Park. I climbed to the top of the Ulsanbawi peak and rode a cable car to another. I visited 2 temples and a giant bronze Buddha. Two Nice old Korean guys gave me food and booze and we generally just had a great afternoon acting out basic conversations.


Seoul Grand Park and a Day at the Races

A few weeks ago I visited Seoul Grand Park. I wanted to see the David Hockney exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Luckily, after a week of wet weather, it was a warm, sunny autumn day so I walked though the grounds after buying some kimbap and was able to find a bench in a prime location overlooking the sculpture park. I eventually went into the museum and strolled around. I watched the Hockney documentary and saw the painting. I'll definitely go back to the park - there's an amusement park and a zoo too.

Later that same day I met some friends, Pete, Karim, Tom and Sam, at Seoul Racecourse Park. Turns out horse racing, and more specifically, gambling on the horses, is extremely popular here in SK. With Koreans barred from all but one of the casinos here, gambling on the horses is the easiest way win/lose a lot of money quickly. Entrance to the Racecourse park was a ridiculously cheap ₩1000 (65p). We were free to stroll right up to the fence at the finish line or to sit in the stands and try to make some sense of the huge information board showing the odds and the name of the runners and riders.

After we had watched a couple of races and observed the locals filling out the betting slip and putting the money on at the window, a few of us were feeling lucky enough to have a flutter.. I picked two horses based solely on their colours (hey, it worked in this years Grand National - HELLO £120!). I staked a MASSIVE ₩7000 (£4.55) and shouted and jumped when one of them came home in... second place! Luckily, my risk averse side had backed it each-way so I walked away with something. A successful and very fun afternoon!

Seoul Lantern Festival



Each year the Cheonggyecheon stream that runs through the middle of Seoul city centre is the venue for the Seoul Lantern Festival. It was great!

I met Katie for some dinner and Sam arrived little while later. We walked to the stream and did a 360 loop up and down both sides of the stream. It was busy but the crowds of people kept moving and we were able to see all of the installations. They were all incredibly impressive including a laser light show and a full fleet of lantern ships. It was easy to see why it is so popular every year.

SK Knights Basketball

I've been to watch FC Seoul a couple of times now and I've seen the LG Twins at Jamsil baseball stadium but a couple of weeks ago I went to watch the SK Knights. They're the top team in the league and won again on this night. In true Korean style, the crowd were singing and dancing throughout the entire game - including the opera singer who performed at half time!

They were trailing for a lot of the game but they fought back to win by a narrow margin. All sports events are pretty cheap here. Even to see the top teams i the biggest and best stadiums. We paid less than £8 for the basketball and the same for the football, the baseball outfield seats are even less. Next up on the sports list - ice hockey. The cold weather sports season is about to begin here, the ski slopes have opened and I'm excited to see what the Korean snow is like!

Thanksgiving

One of my favourite things about November was Thanksgiving. The day started with a subway ride up to Katie's at Banghak - I got funny looks on the subway (more than the usual) from the clinking bottles in my bag. Or maybe the morning hikers were already gagging for a soju... who knows. We watched the UCF Knights game with a terrible Bloody Mary and a much better Screwdriver, by lunchtime we'd moved on to peeling potatoes over a beer whilst still shouting at the game.

So in a country without any live turkeys and very few ovens, how does one manage to provide a full turkey dinner for 12 people?... Get a full cooked turkey delivered directly to the front door, at whatever time you need it at - of course! Korea is brilliant at some things - delivery service is definitely one of those things.

We ate and drank and ate some more until we (mostly me) were all ready to burst. It was really great.

There was other stuff that I did in November too...

I joined a gym. Partly because it's getting too cold to be exercising outside and enjoying it. Partly to counter the Netflix guilt.

I bought a coat. I don't like shopping at the best of times but shopping in Korea is quite traumatic. In Korean terms I'm a weird giant woman with oddly long arms but I made the best of a bad deal and if I don't raise my arms for the whole winter nobody will even notice I'm sure.

I discovered the electric darts board. Call me old fashioned but I'd always played darts with a piece of chalk and a blackboard... A few thousand ₩ and a computer does it all for you! Leaving you able to enjoy some more beers and get steadily more terrible at darts...

And most exciting of all I booked a Christmas trip to Vietnam! Leaving on Christmas day and returning from Phuket on 11th Jan. THREE WEEKS TO GO!!

Right, It's 1am... I'm off to watch more Ne bed.

Until next time,
Bren x

My Dinner is Alive

Market

Last Friday I met up with some friends at the Noryangjin Fish Market just south of the Han River.

We walked up and down the stalls looking at dozens of different types of fish but ultimately, were too nervous to commit to buying one of the beasts. So instead, we wandered around the area and found a seafood restaurant that had exactly what we were looking for – food that came to the table still wriggling! Yes, I ate Sannakji - live octopus tentacle. Yes, its suckers sucked my lip as I ate it. No, I probably wouldn't do it again. It was pretty tasteless but the texture and the squirming was gross.

I’ll let the video tell the rest of the story…

On Saturday afternoon, glad to not have been eaten from the inside out by the tentacle, three of us made our way to Gangnam and jumped on a bus down to the Everland/Caribbean Bay theme park complex for Global Gathering Korea 2013.

End of Night Mess

HAPPY GLOW BAND

Fatboy Slim was headlining at 00.30 so we had plenty of time to explore and see some of the other DJs after arriving at 7pm. Our evening began at one of the smaller stages where we saw a Korean DJ called Shaun. I’d love to find some of his stuff online but Googling "Korean DJ Shaun" hasn't gotten me very far.

Next up was a special (and a bit strange for a dance music festival) appearance from a K-Pop band Crayon Pop. These girls are huge at the moment! Elementary school kids go crazy for their songs and know all the dance moves. I had been introduced to them mere hours earlier but was already a big fan.

Main Stage

We also saw Madeon and Porter Robinson and Ferry Corsten and Zombie Nation. Everything was great and we made it back onto the bus headed for Seoul at about 4.30am – bed before 6am. The next day I just wandered around in an exhausted stupor until it was time for bed again (at about 7pm..)

Grading

Chilly

On Monday, my grade 6 kids had to sit exams. Usually this means lessons are cancelled and deskwarming can commence. Alas, at my school they gave me the terrible job of completing 93 individual speaking exams and giving the students grades which go towards their mid-term reports. I felt terrible… some of the kids who I know can do the work in class just came into the room and froze!.. I had to fail quite a few of them. Oh dear…

It suddenly got much colder in Seoul this week – winter is coming! And with it comes the longing to escape to warmer climes. I am getting closer to confirming when I’ll be able to take some holiday around Christmas and New Years – It all depends on when the Principal decides we should have Winter English Camp. I've been dropping rather large hints about the fact that I’d like to go away so fingers crossed they confirm this week so I can book a flight somewhere…

Concentration

I was knackered on Friday afternoon - a full week of lesson changes, exams, teacher's conversation class catch up and not one, but TWO teacher dinners... I was fully prepared to stay in and have a quiet one but...I ended up at a bowling ally instead. Of course. The friendly Korean lady started to teach us how to bowl correctly but quickly realised how bad we were and left us to it... I was truly terrible and lost both games even after getting two strikes!

Riverside Park

Photo Op Stop

I've been cycling some more; I've been getting lost some more…
But I went for a ride this weekend in unseasonably warm sunshine (back into double figures!), with two friends Karim and Pete. We found a small Ecology Park and cycled around the financial district too. I got back to the apartment after a full 31 miles and had just enough time to shower (with a beer, obvs), change and get back out the door headed for Itaewon.

I met Katie then we were on the hunt for a bar that only opened a few weeks ago and sells, rumour had it, DECENT BEER. Cass is the Carling of South Korea – it’s cheap, it’s everywhere, and it tastes really quite bad. So we found Cargo127 and were overjoyed to find a

Cargo 127

variety of bottles and loads of different draft lagers and IPAs. Heaven. We kept it brief, knowing we’d be back all the time, and headed to Gecko’s Bar where they play Premier League games every Saturday night. We saw (the brilliant) Newcastle vs Liverpool match with more decent booze and next thing I know Katie and I are stumbling to catch the last tube home. On our own we both use the subway extremely successfully but put us together and get us talking and – POW – next thing we know we've gone 3 stops in the wrong direction!! Cue a dash up and over the platform to catch the actual last train of the night and unstoppable drunken LOLs. This has happened several times now…

Taster Trio

All change..

Today, I haven’t done much of anything – It’s been great! I watched a lot of Netflix and caught up with X Factor, pottered about the flat a bit and went for a bit of a walk. I moved some furniture around too – which reminded me I never did that apartment tour – I’ll make a video this week. I didn't do any of the planning I was supposed to do and I don’t feel guilty at all. On Wednesday and Friday this week I have no classes at all so I’ll catch up with lots of things then. I've also booked 2 nights in a hostel over on the east coast of SK for a weekend of hiking in Seoraksan National Park in a couple of weeks time!

That's it.. you’re fully updated for now.

Until next time,

Bren.

Korean Grand Prix

Waygooks on tour.

Last weekend I joined up with the Waygook Travel company and headed south to Gwangju and onto Mokpo for the 4th Korean Grand Prix. I’ve been a fan of F1 since I was 13 so this was massively exciting – my first Grand Prix!! And yes, Jen.. I know you’re reading this and loling… You can skip this first part if you like. F1 isn’t for everyone...

The trip was great. It took about 4 hours to drive from Seoul to Gwangju including a pick-up in Daejeon and a couple of rest breaks. Not bad at all. We went straight to the track so only checked into the Love Motel later Saturday night. Qualifying on Saturday was pretty much what we had expected with Vettel on pole followed by Hamilton and Webber. Webber had his 10 place penalty for hitching a lift back to the pits on Alonso’s car at the Singapore GP a couple of weeks ago so that dropped him to 13 and shuffled the rest of the pack up one space.

From 9 up to 10. Good overtaking.

Between turn 8 and 9

After qualifying we headed to the motel and 40+ of us then went for Korean BBQ – delicious. I got talking to a Hawaiian couple who were in Korea on holiday and a British guy in his 20s called Kieran who was on vacation from China where he works as an IT Project Manager…

Pre-race Korean dancing

Black Eagles

The race on Sunday was full of everything I wanted. Overtaking, spins, a car on fire, safety cars, battling for position… I loved it. In fact the least entertaining aspect of the race was Vettel who just paraded around the track in the lead without anyone seriously challenging to take it from him. The drive of the day for me was from Nico Hulkenberg who had to work hard to fight off challenges from Hamilton, Alonso and Rosberg to secure that career best 4th place finish. As well as the racing there was a K-Pop concert and an air display by the Black Eagles.  

I got back to my apartment in Seoul just after midnight knowing that Monday would be a struggle (it was) but happy to have my first Grand Prix under my belt. I’ll certainly be going to more!!

Tuesday was Open Class.
I think this is the closest Korea gets to Parents Evening. The parents can come into your lesson and sit at the back whilst you teach. Most parents will go to their child’s homeroom class so they can talk to the teacher afterwards about how they’re doing in school generally. But for those parents who’re particularly interested in their child learning English, they will come to my lesson. Oh, as well as the school principal..

So, I made special effort… I brushed my hair (rather than the roll-out-of-bed mental patient look I usually have going on) and dressed smarter than usual. I got to school and did my best to keep Seunghee as calm as possible until the lesson started at 1pm. I've never seen her so stressed before. She’s usually very calm…to the point where she often naps the afternoons away.

I made a short video (above) with Seunghee and some of the students to use at the start of the lesson. I also made a Car Race game and a Spy game with animations and music. Everything went great! We had picked our best behaved Grade 4 class and they seemed to really enjoy the lesson.

Seunghee promptly fell asleep immediately after the class – I think it was the stress!!

Biking update:

I’ve cycled. A lot.

Sunny day for cycling

Crossing the Han

1) My first route was… a mistake. I had unintentionally cycled 13 miles in the wrong direction before I stopped and checked the map. I cycled back pretty pissed off with legs (and arse) FULL of pain.

2) A few days later I cycled a circular route, about 12 miles, to check out where I’d gone wrong. It was an easy mistake to make.. The bridge I should have crossed the stream at was much, much smaller than expected and pretty overgrown with trees and bushes… Excuses.

3) The third route was a monster. Mainly because Katie and I had decided it was a good idea to cycle to a 2 hour football session that was about 12.5 miles away…and back again. Unfortunately, during the session I pulled off a save by doing the splits – not a natural position I find myself in – and I did some damage to my right hamstring. In my infinite wisdom I thought it was OK to cycle the 12.5 miles home, rather than get on the subway, just to “stretch it out a bit”. A mile would have been OK. 12 miles was ridiculous. And that last 0.5 nearly made me cry.

Football Session

A week on and I’m still giving my leg time to recuperate a bit but yesterday was (another) national holiday “Alphabet Appreciation Day”, and a group of us headed back to the bike shops where two more people bought bikes. Got a little bike gang forming!

Crimson and Blue

Other sporty things I've done since I last blogged include attending a huge varsity game between Korea University and Yonsei University - two of the top 3 universities in South Korea. Every year these two universities play a series of matches - football, baseball, basketball, rugby and ice hockey - and the winner of 3 of the 5 games is crowed champion that year. I was there supporting Yonsei (purely because Yonsei's colour is Royal Blue and KU wears crimson - I don't own any crimson clothing) who were eventually crowned the 2013 champions! Huzzah. I saw the rugby and the football but to be honest, most of the crowd weren't there for the sport... they were there to sing and dance and chant along to there school songs. It was the weirdest and most bonkers sports atmosphere I've ever been in!...Short video here to illustrate my point. This singing and dancing was none stop through both games. 3+ hours. And everyone (except the foreigners) was sober. Incredible!

In other news: I'm off to Global Gathering on Saturday – a dance music festival. Sunday I will recover.

Until next time,

Bren.

Tokyo

HEALTH WARNING: This blog is longer than usual. I tried to be succinct but.. well.. I'm a talker.

I went to Tokyo. AWESOME.

I had a great time. It was definitely different to how I thought it might be but I really liked it. It feels very different to Seoul – more fashionable and glitzy. Tokyo definitely has more tourists too! It was a strange phenomenon wandering around and suddenly hearing some English – still not loads, but enough to put a little smile on my face each time.

Morning Calm --> Rising Sun

On Wednesday morning I headed off to Incheon airport. The non-stop express train leaves from Seoul Station which is only 5 subway stops from my apartment and takes around 40 minutes to get to the airport. I checked in without any problems or any waiting around and went straight through security like a breeze – I didn't even get patted down which is rare for me!...and a little disappointing to be honest…

I flew the short 2 hour flight on Asiana Air. The service was excellent and even on a short flight there was a full meal and drinks service included – I’m not sure who I could compare them to of the European airlines really…certainly not Ryanair!! We landed right on time and I headed through to passport control and immigration – I did get quite a few more questions on the Japan side – The immigration guy seemed thoroughly confused when I said all I had with me was my little backpack and I was here for 4 nights.

“Huh?.. And then you go home?”

“Yes, I’ll leave Japan on Sunday”

“So you’re UK and you come only for 4 days”

“Yes, then I’ll go back to Seoul. Where I work as a teacher”

“But you won’t teach in Japan?”

“No. Promise. I just want to see some sumo”

“HAHAHA OK, OK, off you go, have a nice time”

WHAT IS THIS PLACE?!

I eventually got to my hostel where I was able to get in touch with my friend Sam who had arrived a day earlier. We went for a walk around the area and got dinner. We found a strange arcade where people seemed to be sat in a trance fixated on these small games machines. But they didn’t use money – everyone seemed to be putting ball bearings into the machines. I would have loved a go but the noise in there was incredible. I think it must be to stop people falling asleep… weird place.

Day 1

On Thursday we were up and out of the hostel by 7.30 am – early starts, a running theme during the trip. Unfortunately, one of the train lines was closed due to a “passenger incident” and I know from my time at TfL that could be any number of things with no definite time for the trains to be up and running again. This meant Sam and I had to contend with the hoards of Thursday morning commuters – or ‘Salarymen’ – on their way into downtown Tokyo. We arrived at Shinjuku station some time later, a little more familiar with the smells of Japanese commuters’ armpits. I wish I could have taken a picture of the train guards physically pushing people into the carriage in order for the train door to close, alas, I could barely breathe never mind take my camera out of my pocket!

Funicular Fun

Cable car crossing

From Shinjuku we boarded a train bound for Hakone, a small town to the south of Tokyo. It was a glorious day, the sun was hot and the crowds thinned somewhat as we left Tokyo central. In Hakone we were able to ride the funicular to the top of a mountain where we change to ride a cable car. From the cable car we were able to spot Mt. Fuji for the first time. It was an incredible sight but sadly the photos don’t really do it justice. We stopped for lunch at Owakudani which is famous for smelling of egg. No, really! They cook eggs in the natural sulphur that comes from the mountain. It reeked, but it was worth it to get a proper chance to look at Fuji in the distance.

Whiskey soda and Sake - ARIGATO!

We carried on in the cable car which brought us down the other side of the mountain to the shore of Lake Ashi. 20 minutes later we got on a large boat – a pirate ship! – and sailed in the sunshine across the lake whilst enjoying a cold beer. A bus ride back to Hakone station and a sleepy local train back to Tokyo followed. We were able to find our hostel after quite the walk, dumped our stuff and headed out into Shinjuku for the evening. We got dinner and went to a bar but hit the sack by around midnight ready for another early start.

Day 2

Just delicious

We were out the door by 7.30 to get to Tsukiji Fish Market as early as possible. We weren't interested in seeing the tuna auction but did want to eat sushi and see the market in full swing before it quietened down for the day. OH THE SUSHI. It was delicious. So many people had warned me not to eat the fish because of the risk of radiation poisoning since the nuclear plant radiation leak recently [SURPRISE mum and dad, didn't tell you that bit did I!!] but it was so worth the risk. We were able to wander around the fish market (being careful to avoid the carts whizzing past at break neck speeds) and we got to see some very unusual sea food.

350m hiiiiigh

We left the market and walked towards the centre of the Gumi area. We stopped for a coffee and to plan out the rest of the day. From there we got on the subway and headed north to the Tokyo Skytree. At one point this tower held the Guinness World Record for being the world’s ‘Tallest Free Standing Tower’, but I think this record has now been broken. Most likely by something in Dubai. The tower stands at 634m and has two viewing platforms. We went up to the first viewing deck which is at 350m…. that was quite far enough for me!! Even before I stepped into the elevator I could feel my palms sweating. Safe to say I did not walk over the glass floor… I carefully shuffled around the edges!

Big guys. HUGE.

Once safely back at sea level, we continued our day at the Edo-Tokyo museum where we were able to learn more about the history of Tokyo and how it has developed into the modern business and technology hub that it is today. Next door to the museum was the Ryogoku sumo arena, something I had been looking forward to seeing for a long time. As we went in we were handed a booklet that explained the rules and traditions of sumo and how the sumo fighters are ranked. I was surprised to see two white guys competing at the very highest level – whilst I still can’t understand how being that huge can be good for anyone it was clear to see that all of these guys are supremely strong. It was quite impressive.

The night wasn't yet finished. After sumo, we got back on the subway and journeyed south to see the Rainbow Bridge. Sadly the bridge wasn't rainbow coloured onFriday evening but it was still a great view from the window seat of the restaurant we ate at. We wandered outside and sat at the small beach for a while.

Click to enlarge

Sam and I stayed in separate hostels on Friday night but it turned out they were a 3 minute walk from each other! We walkedback to the Skytree to get some night shots – It looks incredible lit up at night.

Day 3

With Sam heading back to Seoul I was on my own on Saturday. I had a rough outline of some of the things I wanted to see so it was another early start to get across town to the Meiji Shrine in time for the 8 am ceremony.

Click to enlarge

No photographs were allowed but I’m glad I went along. It was so peaceful at that time in the morning with only a handful of people there. I followed that with a sit down and a large cup of strong coffee!! I wandered around Harajuku main streets and past a small farmers’. It seems don’t really get going until 11am in Tokyo, even on a Saturday. Eventually I made my way to Takeshita Street (yes, that really is it's name..) and wandered in and out of dozens of weird little shops. Everywhere was packed full of young guys and girls buying bows and ribbons and pins and things to customize their clothes. I left that area and walked for ages until I was thoroughly lost. It was quite nice really – I had nowhere in particular to be and it was a sunny day so I took my time looking in shop windows and stopping for a beer whenever and wherever I wanted to. I jumped on the train and went south of Harajuku to Ebisu and the Tokyo Photography Museum. The exhibitions were excellent and one photographer was there giving a talk (in Japanese sadly) about his photos.

Harajuku FASHION for men.

One tricky moment in my day came in the convenience store where I was trying to buy a bottle of water. I knew I had loads of money but for some reason the check-out girl was telling me “no money, no money”. I had the money right there in my hand in front of here – what was going on?! I hurriedly left the shop without said bottle of water and carried on down the road where I put a few coins into the vending machine to try once again to get the bottle of water that I really needed by this point.

An old man who looked like he’d been working on the building site next door approached me just as I was about to punch the machine for spitting my coins out and refusing to let me buy this bloody bottle of water!...

“Hahaha…”

“Ha… ummm… water?”

“No”

“Why”

“No. No money”

“Yes, this is money. Right here, this is my money”

*old man’s even older builder friend approaches*

“Hahaha”

*pointing and Japanese words I don’t understand*

And then, all of a sudden they both pointed at the coins in my hand and said one word I understood.

“HANGUK”

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU – I had mixed up my KOREAN coins with the rest of my Japanese money and so I had been trying to buy water with 10p rather than ￡1 – Idiot. I thanked the two old duffers the best I could and scampered away, fully embarrassed and still thirsty. I found the next convenience store and enjoyed not one, but two bottles of water in quick succession, feeling like a pro at the till too!

Eiffel?

Now, fully hydrated I grabbed some lunch and headed to Roppongi Hills. Here, I saw Tokyo Tower (like the Eiffel Tower only red and white and a little bit taller) and some more art work. I stumbled upon an Indonesian Cultural Festival too and stopped to listen (and obviously sing along) to the band singing Sweet Child of Mine and enjoyed a free Indonesian beer too - I think this is going to be my 노래방 song of choice!!. After that I went to see the Imperial Palace in the centre of town - it looked really great in front of the setting sun.

The last thing on the agenda for the trip was to head back across to Shibuya to watch people flood the famous intersection as the little man turns green. I've seen this crossing on films and TV clips about Tokyo so many times. I exited the station and waited with hundreds of other people... most of the foreigners (including myself) had cameras at the ready to document the short walk. The best bit was nipping into Starbucks and getting a second floor window seat to watch the action.
I know, watching people cross a road doesn't sound the coolest thing I could have done on my last night in Tokyo but... well... I never said I was cool.

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It was a really full trip. I woke up at 5am the next morning to get back to Narita airport and eventually got back to my apartment in Seoul just after 1 pm. But I wasn't ready for the Chuseok break to be over so I headed up to Katie’s and bought myself a new bike! Seoul has miles and

Beaut!

miles of dedicated cycleway – much better than the cycle “super highways” in London – so we rode from Banghak over to Nowon and back again at a very leisurely pace whilst chatting and swerving Korean joggers.

Back at school on Monday this week and it was clear the kids still wanted to be on holiday – as did I!

Thursdays seem to be a good day to try to update this blog. I have a free period first thing so, as long as everything is ready for class, I’m free to do whatever I want. I've been using this time to catch up with Korean homework and plan stuff that I might do at weekends but mostly… watching silly YouTube videos. I’m in school from 8.30 until 4.30 and I have quite a lot of free time:

This weekend I’m heading to a Varsity rugby match – Yonsei U vs Korea U. 20,000 screaming students and a few foreigners thrown in for the LOLs. Should be good! I’ll tell you more next time.

Until then,

Bren x

Ps, More Tokyo photos posted to my Facebook page HERE.