Sokcho (속초), Inje (인제), food, beach...

Here's a quick preface:  Most of this was written in late August, and I just now got around to finishing it.  Lazy.

I'm back in Korea after a month in the states.  Not really ready to teach students yet.  Not even ready to do a post right now, but I need to get one in for August.  I don't want this thing to be all passe cuz I missed a month.  Right?  Well, after a grueling 25 hour trip back to Korea with only 30 minutes of sleep before I had to wake up and board, I decided that I should probably take a trip out to the northeast coast of Korea to a coastal city called Seokcho.  The route went something like this:

Friday, directly after work, I had planned to take a 2 and 1/2 hour bus to Injae.  Injae is where my buddy Jason temporary lived until his flight back to the states.  Injae is in Gangwon-do, the most beautiful province in Korea.  Seriously!  Check the pics below.  Before I made it to the bus station to head out there, I decided it would be a grand idea to sit on my glasses.  Broken.  No...a run to the eyeglass store and they were good as...almost new.  So, I had to rush to the bus stop.  Made it!  Get on the bus.  Relax.  Tried to sleep, but couldn't.  Hopped off in Injae and I'm eating bbq with his boss and drinking soju.  Here's what we were eating below:

Here is some makchang (막창) which is the....large intestine I believe.  Of a pig....I believe.  Very good here.  This is the bbq place in the building of the bus station.

And here's the whole spread:

And below is pork meat with the bone cartilidge in it (find out the name later).  Quite crunchy and very good.  This is a pic of it before it was cooked:

Drinking and hell raising occurred on this night, and the next day Jason's girl came by and we headed out to Sokcho.  Before we got there I got a great picture of Seoraksan right here:

Beautiful, eh?  I've hiked that thing before.  Took me 12 hours, and I thought I was going to die but I did it.  And that's what's important...maybe.  Hard.  Very hard.

Not long after that shot, we ate what might have been the best meal I've ever had in my life.  Below are the pictures of what we ate and I will have to ask my friend what they were again because I've never had this meal before.

Here's the spread.  There's a type of jeon (전) in the middle next to the kimchi.  All of these side dishes were pretty great.

Below are some kind of tofu cakes.  They're in the above picture too.  Really great.

This was not featured in the above picture, but this was kind of the main course.  It's a tofu soup type of thing, and you could add some soy sauce to it if you liked.  Personally, I thought it was great without anything added to it.  Fantastic lunch.

Of course, you need some booze at the dinner table if you're gonna eat in this country, otherwise it's just not a fucking meal.  Welcome to makolli world.  Love this stuff.

After this, we headed to the beach, of which I don't have any pictures of, but that night we painted the town polka dots.  Here is some amazing amazing food we ate, and a pic of the Sokcho bridge which featured a swarm of seagulls flying above.  Really quite beautiful.  It must have been the lights that attracted them.  Unfortunately, I don't have a good picture of the seagulls, but I do have some video I posted at the bottom of the post.

Okay, here's a bottle of makolli, which I think was the Gangwon-do variety.  Each province of Korea has their own particular kinds of soju and makolli.  This was Inje makolli (인제 막걸리).

Ahh!!!!  Delicious.  What we have in the middle is squid soondae (오징어 순대) which is basically stuffed squid, and it is fucking awesome.  Above it is regular soondae which is basically a Korean sausage using pig intestines that they stuff.  Sometimes it's not that great at the street stands, but here it was great.  Below both is kimchi.  Where would a Korean meal be without it.

The main course?  Maybe, but it was some fantastic grilled fish.  A definite variety, and I don't know the names of all of 'em.  Maybe I can add that later.  Sokcho is awesome.  Everyone should go there RIGHT NOW!

And here's the finale.  A video of the seagulls flying overhead:

KBO: LG Twins vs. Doosan Bears 7/1/2011

Korean baseball.  Really, I should go to games more often.  It's an excellent excuse to get drunk and NOT drive home.  But, as is, this is only my second time to visit the ball park in Korea.  The first time was in 2007 at around the same time to see the Doosan Bears stomp the Hanhwa Eagles.  I was pulling for the Eagles, since I was living in Daejeon at the time (they name the teams after the corporations that sponsor them, so Hanhwa Eagles is the team for Daejeon).  I am still more of an Eagles fan even though they ain't good (and currently, second to last in the league), but on this night, I was a Bears fan.  Both of these teams are Seoul teams, but my understanding is that the Twins are like the equivalent of the Yankees.  So, of course I am not about to pull for them.  Hell, the Texas Rangers smashed 'em in the playoffs last year, so any team that is a dynasty like the Yankees does not get my love.  Only hate.  So, the Bears are more like the Mets, and I'm okay with that....until they play the Eagles again.

In case you haven't been keeping up with Korean weather, it's raining like a motherfucker over there.  Floods and all kinds of mayhem.  I, however, am not there.  I'm on vacation in Texas visiting folks and friends, and I guess I picked a good time to do so.  Although....it is the exact opposite over here.  No rain anywhere.  At the time of this game, the weather took a break, and we could enjoy this ballgame, but seriously, it had been pouring down the previous week or so, and continued up until I left, and apparently just got completely over the top recently.  So, excellent weather for the game.  I went with some co-workers, which was a little annoying at times.  Mostly because I went with a dude that I kinda don't like at all.  But I'm not gonna get into that.  I just focused on the game.

A few things about baseball games here:  1) the stadium is separated by which team you are pulling for, so we were all Bears fans so we sat on the opposite side from the Twins fans.  2) each side has a male cheerleader, and occasionally four ready made ladies would hop on the stage and do a jig for the male crowd.  They usually dance to k-pop hitz.  3) when one team is pitching, the other team's fans can make an ass ton of noise, to encourage their team at the bat.  4) each team player has a chant.  I've heard these things are similar to Japanese baseball teams, too.  Anything else?  No?  Well, let's sum up the game:  Bears won 6-0.  The Bears winning pitcher (with a complete game) was a foreigner named Dustin Nippert.  Nice job, and fun times.  I didn't even have a drop of beer, and it was still about 10 times more fun than an American baseball game.  Who woulda thought?  Below are some photos of it, and some youtube clips that I took from the game.

Napalm Death & more at Asia Metal Festival, 2011

Maybe my second Asia Metal Fest? There's one about every month over here, and it always seems to be organized by the singer/leader dude from Oathean. Who are Oathean? Well, they are pretty much THE SHIT when it comes to the Korean metal scene. Now, they are not the best, or most original, but they are a pretty solid symphonic/black/death metal band. Especially live, when they are at their most black metal. Truth be told (instead of untruth), I don't listen to them, or really any Korean metal band (save Pyha) in my home, but that doesn't mean that the scene sucks here. It's just that most of the music doesn't really fascinate me. Two things that seem to define the scene is: symphonic metal, and metal core (does that term still exist?), and we get a little of the symphonic, and a lot of the metal core during the Asia Metal Fest that went down on a tropical rainy day, June 25, 2011. AND Napalm Death. The Fest headliners.

Napalm Death. An old high school favorite. One of the first bands that I ever listened to, and thought "what the fuck is happening." Back in '89/'90, right before "Harmony Corruption" was released (introducing Barney Greenway as singer), I picked up "From Enslavement to Obliteration" at a Dallas metal record store called Underground Records. At the time, I was aware of the hype surrounding Earache Records. The kind of hype that Southern Lord Records was getting this past decade. (I also want to add that Earache, like Southern Lord, was getting a lot of crossover fans from other genres.) So, one day, with my pennies rattling around in my pocket, I made it to the mysterious Underground Records over in, I think, Plano. I bought the Napalm Death lp, and I believe Bolt Thrower's second album (which I never understood until about 5 years ago when I started listening to them non-stop), and Death's third. Death was already a favorite, but Napalm Death was the band that I made tapes for for the 5 other kids in school that liked metal/hardcore/punk. Obviously, everyone was fascinated. Up to that point, we all thought D.R.I.'s first 2 albums were the fastest things going, only to be blown away by the hypnotic blur of Napalm Death. These days, I can hear more of their crust influences in the guitar riffs, and I think it's safe to say that I understand their influences more, and what it has influenced (a lot).

The poster above has the lineup (which has some mistakes), and I'll go through my thoughts about the various metals that happened. First of all, because of traffic, I got there late, so I missed TerrorMight. The second band was a band from Taiwan with a North American singer dude called Revilement. This band kinda defined what would mostly be heard during the whole fest: Metal Core. Bands that exclusively worship at the alter of Pantera, and Roots era Sepultura (and thrash). Revilement were the worst of the bunch. Generic to the core, the singer at one point said, "This next song is about our two favorite things: sex and VIOLENCE!" I'm not even kidding. This is the reason why people think metal heads are stupid. Terrible.

Next was a Korean band called Ishtar. Symphonic power metal, but with lots of old school metal riffs. I think they may have been the best band of the night (besides Napalm). The (hot) lady singer sang, very, "operatic." Maybe it'll be funny to a lot of folks, but it was fucking good, and the only real change of pace during the whole show. I really don't know much about the genre to really give much reference except Queensryche has to be a big influence on them. The video down below (there's a picture, too) just happened to be their best song. Really great old school metal riffs on that one.

Mahatma, also from Korea, was next. Old school thrash (or "metal core") is what they do best. Not particulary memorable, but powerful, and fun. Here's a video of 'em from that night:

The next two Korean metal bands, Sacrifice and Method, are definitely from that Pantera/mid-90s Sepultura category. I missed Sacrifice because I had seen them before, and I really didn't give a shit. Below is a shot of Method. Method had some ripping guitar solos...I think. Or maybe that was Mahatma. Okay, Asia Metal Fest. Gimme something different.


Oathean. I'm really starting to get the impression that they just go through the motions. However, they were still great because we had just experienced 3 almost identical bands in a row. Here's a shot of them below. I had been having problems with my camera until Napalm Death so that's why the pictures look shitty.

Next, was a super powerful, but another worshipper of that early to mid 90s form of metal called Survive from Japan. I think I got some pictures, but I'm not going to post them. You will never hear about that band again, and I've already forgotten about 'em. Am I being too harsh and cynical? Yes, and you would be too if you had heard 5 bands playing within the same sub-genre.

Last: Napalm Death. They're looking older, but they ran through their entire recording career. Below is some "From Enslavement..." favorites that I filmed, so I wouldn't have to describe much. Great stuff. I'm glad I finally got to see them. Here's also a picture from when I moved closer so I could feel the power better.

Gwanggyosan (광교산) Adventures

Gwanggyosan is a small mountain located in the north of Suwon. I can see it from my school on a clear day. And by clear day, I mean no Yellow Dust. But that shit doesn't fly over usually except during the spring. If you don't know Yellow Dust (황사), it is the dirty old sand that comes from the Gobi Desert in China. Oh, it can be so fun. ANYWAY, Gwanggyosan is not a difficult mountain to hike, but it is long, and so you can get a decent workout from it (if that's what your looking for). There is also one set of extraodinairily high stairs for such a small mountain. Now, the mountains over here in merry ol' Korea are usually "custom made" for hikers, because there's not a mountain in existence over here that doesn't have things like ropes or stairs or something to help you on your hike. So, it's kinda great, but it's kinda bad if you like to do things solo cuz, man, mountains get FUCKING CROWDED sometimes. And if you're trying to get ahead of folks, there's a lot of "jamgganmanyo" (잠깐만요, meaning wait a minute, or in this case, excuse me). Anyhoo, here's some pics on this mountain, the first 3 dating from May 15, and the last 3 from June 11.

This is at the beginning of the hike. From this direction it's a lil' climbing at the beginning, and then it's just nice mostly flat ground until the huge ass stairs that go up half a kilometer. Very pretty, and a nice break from the congested cities here.

And below is my city. Wow, the dust was a bit "out" on that day. Or it could have been the pollen in the air. Anyway, you can make out some apartment blocs out of there, I think. Yeah, it's big.

Here we go. This is on one of the peaks (same as above). You can see what I mean about crowded conditions. This is the fact of life here in Asia. You just have to get used to the idea that there are way too many people in this part of the world.

This is one of the spring water wells (maybe the only one) on the mountain. Comes in handy in case you get lost and need a water refill (which I was about to do on this second hike). Water tastes especially refreshing at these wells. Here a lil child is getting a taste of the purities before she conquers the mountain and claims it for her spiritual ancestors.

And here's some stairs that helps on your hike, however these are not the super tall ones. You just get an idea by looking at these. On other mountains (including this one) you may get stone stairs or rock stairs that they just kinda build into the Earth.

Ahh!!! I told you I got lost, right? Well, this was on my lost trek, and lo and behold, a long lost Nazi Concentration Camp! I'M KIDDING! It's a good ol' Buddhist temple right there. Kinda hidden away, and I really couldn't figure out how to get to it, plus I never know what to do when I do get into those places since I'm not a Buddhist. So, I just take pictures, and feel unwanted, and then gradually make my exit.

(((10))) in Jeonju at Radiostar

Fun fact: Korea does have an experimental music scene. Small, yes, but it's there for you to dig around for. (((10))) (formerly just plain 10), are one of the players in the scene. They're made up of a Korean girl, and a Japanese dude, but for some reason have set up shop in Seoul instead of some place in Japan where they are bound to have a bigger following. And actually, they do have a following IN Seoul. And maybe Busan and Daegu, but on May 13, 2011, they played in the city of Jeonju in the North Jeolla province (전라북도) to a packed crowd of....8. Maybe. So, maybe Jeolla-do isn't ready for their experimental/electronic/psych/noise scene. But, who knows? Maybe next time they play, there will be 15! You never know. However, my Korean friend that I went with said this: "This isn't music to me." And there you have it. Open and shut case for some. But (((10))), whose new name looks an awful like like Sunn O))), but actually doesn't sound like them, gave it a good go. Honestly, I haven't been listening to much music like this lately, so I can't say I'm gonna be listening to their stuff for a while (I bought two cds), but it's great that this kind of music exists over here, AND I made a video of one of their songs and threw it up on youtube, so enjoy it. It's pretty funny, and I was laughing during the song. You'll find out why when you watch it. One more thing, these guys play in Europe fairly often, and they have, like, 4 records, so check 'em out of you dare. Here's the video:

Korean Travels and Class Reunions

Well, I'm behind on my postings. Unlike my fellow Hardworlders who have given up the fight, and apparently are never posting again. Well, I can't force 'em. Anyway, Sports Day is tomorrow at my school so I decided to fill up on Chinese Beer and do a post that is long overdue. The beer I be drankin' is Harbin and Hatepi which is made by the Harbin Beer People. Harbin is a city, too, and I've been there before. It's a cold ass city in the northeast of China. It's cold. Yes....Cold. Very cold. Did I mention that it's cold? Yes. So, here we go with photos and werdz:

Okay, so me and my Korean friend named Kim Man hwan went on a trip a couple of months ago to the magikal Gyeongsang province (경상도) for his class reunion. Man hwan is older than me, so I call him my hyungnim (형님) which means older brother in Korean. Man hwan doesn't know anything about black metal or worshipping the devil or chopped & screwed or any of that. Which is okay by me. However, he is from gyeongsang province which is interesting in and of itself. He's from a town near Andong, which is famous for their soju (which tastes like a combination of tequila and sake) and a few dishes and intellectuals. Despite the fact that Korea is such a small ass place, there are tons of interesting little things in each area you go into. I won't get into the dynamics of a small, but interesting, town like Andong for this post because I want to tell you about the trip, BUT, check it out on your own on the internet....or visit the goddamn place, asshole. Why do I gotta tell you everything!

So, we missed a lot of stuff on this trip cuz we woke up late, but we saw this which was amazing:

And we ate this not long after seeing that:

That stuff above is called chilk guksu (칡국수) which, according to my cellphone, is arrowroot. I don't know, either, but it was kinda tasty. My friend wasn't a huge fan of it, though. Anyway, chilk is formed into noodles, and then the broth is spicy, peppery, but light also. Similar to kalguksu (갈국수), but spicy, and no shellfish. Not the best stuff in the world, but it's not that common in any old place in Korea, so I'm glad I gave it a go. It could be a specialty in this part of Korea....maybe. Anyhoo....

These next few pics are from his class reunion. There was a hot 50 year old that I was kinda all about, but, c'est la vie, it wasn't to be. Basically, my friend comes from a small small ass town, and they combined the reunion with other classes, and then they would compete with each other in games on the ground as you see. The thing is, over here, they have a couple of class reunions every year, and this is the sports one. So, we drank (under class tents), I attempted some very bad Korean, I ate some kimchi, and pigs feet, and drank beer, and sat around, and tried to pick up old bitches, which is my habit. OMG! And here's some old school toilets which you rarely find in Korea. The things were IN the ground. I don't know how they clean 'em, but they were in the back of the school. Like I said, he goes to a small small ass town. I mean, like, maybe 1000 in the whole town, and that's a liberal estimate.

Moss (이끼) - 2010

Another decent thriller/mystery from last year. This time it involves a dude (played by Park Hae-il who was in The Host) who goes to a small town to bury his father. However, there's some strange circumstances surrounding his father's death, and soon our hero discovers that there's some conspiracy to cover up the cause of the father's death. The leader of the conspiracy has apparently taken control of the whole goddamn town, and the townspeople pretty much grovel at his feet. This director, Kang Woo-suk, is a huge box office draw over here. He's responsible for one of the highest grossing films ever in Korea (Silmido), and also one of the worst movies I've ever seen over here (Hanbando), which I think was a box office failure, as it should have been. This time he has scaled back a bit, and, for the most part, it works in his favor. The problem with most of his movies is the running time, and Moss is no exception. At 2 hours and 40 minutes, probably about 30 minutes could have easily been shaved off if not more. It's still a good movie, and I recommend it. For the most part, it's a straight story, and not too convoluted like some Korean mysteries can be. There's also some great acting, and for the most part, the characters don't seem to lose control and slaughter everything like in The Man From Nowhere. Catharsis is great, but, it's good to see some characters with some self control. It also builds up fairly nicely. Anyway, a good comeback for this director after that shithole called Hanbando exploded all over his face. (Incidentally, Hanbando means Korean peninsula, and by saying Hanbando blew up in his face, I meant only the movie, and definitely not Korea, so....)