Tokyo: Part 1

I just arrived back from Tokyo, after spending the last four days in that remarkable city - It was a great trip, marred with only a couple of hiccups. Unfortunately, the first one occured just as we got there.

The main International airport to Tokyo is called Narita. It's over an hour away from the city, and while there are multiple means of transportation, most are not well-explained in English. We decided to take the train-system, for which we purchased a (quite expensive) ticket.

We were told to simply go down a tunnel and get in the train. With no clear signage, though, we got on the wrong one. Two very long hours later, riding along who-knows-where, we somehow made it to the city, and were momentarily relieved.

But then came the Subway.

This is the Tokyo Subway map. You might recognize the random colored-lines as something that you drew when you were three years old. For someone to properly read it, they almost need a PhD (this picture is only a partial Subway map).
Long story short, it took:
-Some friendly people
-A lot of head-scratching and
-A ton of luck

...but we finally made it to the Hotel in one piece, roughly 4 hours after landing in Japan. Whee.

We stayed in an area named Ikebukuro, in a neighborhood called 'Sunshine City'. After our trek to find the hotel, we decided to only explore the nearby area, but were pleasantly surprised.

I might be a geek, but Japan is the land of geeks. Very near to us was a vibrant pedestrian-mall, where there were (among other geeky things) several 'Game' buildings - gigantic buildings that are essentially just huge arcades. When I say huge?

They each had at least 8 floors. Fourty to fifty machines per floor.

Geek heaven!

Each floor is dedicated to some type of gaming - The first floor in this building (which was owned by Sega) was only crane-games. There were floors for token-games (where you could win tickets), floors for racing games, floors for card games, and even game-floors that were women-only.

Men could go in only if accompanied by a woman - The sign at the entrance said that if a man was caught without a woman, he would be asked to 'prove' that he was a woman.

I don't quite want to know what they mean by that!

That arcade-floor wasn't the only thing that was Women-only. This picture is from the Subway - the first car, between 7:30 and 9:00am is Women Only.

It's a tough world we live in.

I'll update you on the rest of the trip a little later - Stay tuned!

Things to Think about

Things that have happened since I left:
-World Economic Crisis
-OC Transpo Bus Strike
-Crappy winter
-Ottawa Senators missing the playoffs for the first time in a decade
-Rainy as-heck summer (thus far)

Clearly, it's a direct correlation with me being away.

Sorry about that.

Picture Snatching, Movie Watching

I managed to snatch pictures from the GEC public hard-drive (where the 'official' GEC photos are kept) - many of them showing us 'in action', such as this one here, during one of the parents meetings.

I'd been trying to think of how to get them on my computer for a few months, 'til it occured to me that I could just upload them directly.

Picasa is awesome.

This past week was the last of two Foreign Teachers, as well as one's first week. From here on out, there will be people coming and going almost weekly - it's going to be a very strange last few weeks.


To try something new, I went and watched a Korean movie in theatres today - no subtitles. I think the edge that foreign-language films really have is that you really can't tell how deep or shallow that dialogue is. The story itself was decent enough, and everyone around me seemed to enjoy the film (It was themed on a theoretical Tsunami hitting Korea).

The genre was kind of strange, though - it seemed to be a light-hearted, comedic movie for the first half, then becomes very tragic and sad, then ends on a lighter note.

Two days 'til Japan!
See you when I get back - I'll try to avoid Ninjas.

And Now...

Video Blogging is hard.

Bullet points win.

Circle Your Calendar

Bullet-point blogging: For lazy, tired people.

-I booked my flight-ticket home, this morning - I'll be landing in Ottawa August 29th, at 2:40pm.

-I ate duck today. It was good.

-The new Harry Potter movie is okay. Movie theatres full of kids (that have to pee every three minutes), however, are not.

-It's raining, lately - alot. I don't like it.

-Job-hunting from overseas is hard.

That is all.

''Dream Park''

Ever wake up in the morning, and wonder 'Hey! I wonder where the biggest Land Fill in the world is located!'?

As it turns out, i've been living half an hour away from it for the past 11 months.

GEC took the foreign teachers on one of our 'Cultural Trips' on Friday, and headed to the Sudokwon Landfill Site - an area 6 times the size of New York's Central Park (I don't actually know how large Central Park is, but it sounded impressive when they said it).

You might wonder 'Why the hell would you go to a place where they dump garbage?', and you know what? We did too! But as it turns out, the trip was a pretty interesting one - the Sudokwon Landfill is a site managed by a company, with the goal of turning a profit. They've built contraptions to harvest the methane gases created by garbage, and evidently, it creates enough power to supply 600,000 homes annually.

They also don't leave the garbage lying around, stinking up the place. For each landfill site (there are 5), they dump 8 layers of garbage (which are actually 4.5 meters of garbage, topped by 0.5 meters of dirt, each), sterilize everything, and then grow things on them.

After a landfill site is full, they have plans to create parks, golf courses, and ecologically-friendly sites where fauna can be reintroduced. Yes - all on top of garbage. They call the project 'Dream Park'.

It's forward-thinking and innovative, but I can't shake the whole 'it's garbage' thing. I don't know if I could ever go there for a picnic.

The first site was recently completed, and the next four sites are only expected to be filled by 2044 - so Korea's garbage is well-handled.

After we finished there, we headed to a Biology museum, followed by a construction site for a future Business-district (due to be completed in 2014), called Cheongna. It was a pretty cool day, and it sure beat working.

We've got one more week to go, before another week-long session break, which will be quite welcome. I'm looking forward to seeing Japan!

Happy Friday!

Flight Plans

I gave-in my official departure date from Korea, today: August 20th. My final day of work is Tuesday the 18th, so i'll have a couple of days to get my affairs in order, clean out, and pack up.

I won't exactly be rushing home, though. The flight ticket is included as part of my contract, but management allows you to go anywhere with that ticket (as long as it's of equal-or-less value than your home ticket).

As i've been planning for a few months now, i'll be heading to France and Ireland for a few days, delaying my return to Ottawa by about a week. I'll probably book my ticket home sometime during the weekend, and figure out the exact return-date.

Before all of that, though, lets not forget there's still one more trip to look forward to: Japan! GEC is having its summer break-week in two weeks, so i'll be using up my last four vacation days in Tokyo. from the 28th to the 31st.

Let's hope travel fatigue doesn't set-in anytime soon!
Cheers

The Demilitarized Zone

Today, I went to the DMZ - The buffer zone between South Korea and North Korea. You may have heard of it!

The DMZ is heavily guarded by the North and South. It's supposed to seperate them by 4km (though both countries have built inside of it), and it's also the host of some 700,000 landmines, remaining from the Korean war.

Since there's an elevated level of tension, as of late, the atmosphere is pretty serious all around. Still, the area continues to be a draw for tourists, and has a fair bit to offer.

The first highlight was the 'third tunnel' - one of the tunnels that was dug up by the North Koreans in an attempt to invade the South undetected (by digging 73 metres underground). In total, four such tunnels have been discovered, though it's suspected that the North has built as many as 20. It was interesting for a few minutes, but truth be told, it's just a tunnel that's now blocked-off - not particularly worth the backache.

The next thing we saw was the most impressive, for me. On the outskirts of the DMZ, South Korea has already built several buildings in anticipation of (what's seen as the eventual) unification of North and South. There are empty customs buildings, parking lots, and Dorasan Station.

Dorasan Station is a new, never-used rail station, that will one day work as a hub between North and South Korea. The signs are already up, in anticipation (You can see the 'To Pyeongyang' sign in the picture above.) It's a little eery, but very symbolic. In the picture to the left, you can see (if you look closely enough): 'Not the last station from the South. But the first station toward the North'.

For the last leg of the trip, we headed for the JSA - the Joint Security Area, watched over by both Northern and Southern soldiers. It's the most well-known part of the DMZ, where in the center, half of a building belong to each country.

Quite unfortunately, the North must've had word that I was coming, and feared that my mere presence might've fixed all of their problems. While we were being given our briefing, a few hundred meters away from the JSA, we were told that three bodies had washed-up in the near river, and that a decision had been made - minutes ago - to cancel all remaining tours for the day.

Clearly, I make Kim Jong-il nervous.

It was a dissapointing end to the day, but still a great experience.

Have a good one.

The Renewal Answer

Back in March, I wrote about the ongoing debate I was having with myself, as to whether or not i'd renew here for another year. Since i'm fast-approaching the 11-month mark, I had to come up with a more definitive answer.

Truth be told, i'm happy here. I could easily see myself staying for one or two more years.

But I won't.

I'm coming home for good, the last week of August - although that 'for good' part is conditional on whether or not I can find a decent job within a couple of months. If not, I've the possibility of doing another six months here, which I certainly wouldn't mind.

It'd be easy to try to back up my decision, but what it really comes down to in the end:
It feels right.

With that said, I still have over a month left, which I'll try and make the most of. On that note, the DMZ is on the menu for this Saturday - should be great!

Happy trails!

Return to the War Memorial

I returned to the Korean War Memorial on Sunday - the same one I visited almost 11 months ago, when I first arrived in Korea. That time, I had just gone around perimeter (it's a huge building); this time, I went inside to appreciate the exhibitions.

Most of the rooms, as can be expected, are dedicated to the Korean War. Here are a few interesting things I learned:

-The North began the war with a surprise attack at 4:00 am on June 25 1950.

-Seoul fell into the North's hands in only three days.

By the end of 1950...
-Seoul had been recaptured
-Pyongyang had been captured
-Pyongyang was lost

-In the beginning of 1951, Seoul was captured again, only to be recaptured a few months later.

-The rest of the war was a game of back-and-forth right near where the war started, along the 38th parallel.

Maybe being in Korea has made this war seem more interesting than it would be otherwise, but I really find it fascinating. What's surprising to me is that, according to a recent newspaper article, many Korean youths are ignorant of the War - even though many of them still have living grandparents that lived through it.

I discussed it with my free-speaking adult class awhile back, and while the consensus was that it's definitely something that's not to be forgotten, they did acknowledge a certain level of apathy toward that part of history. It'd be a shame for any sacrifice on this scale to be forgotten (particularly when the pawns in the chess game didn't have the choice whether to play or not).

Growing up, I can't say I really grasped November 11th too well.
I'm glad that's no longer the case.

Good week, good people!

Happy Canada Day

Canada Day came and went yesterday, without much in the way of celebration. Instead of a day off, beer, and fireworks, I had a single beer and went to bed early.

It's not quite the same.

One of the other GEC Canucks, though, had the awesome idea of having her kids sing 'Happy Birthday' to Canada. That would've made a pretty awesome video.

Other than that, things are pretty slow, these days, around GEC. Everyone's nearing the end of their contracts, so they're either looking forward to one last vacation (during the last week of July), or to their last working day. The next wave of teachers should start arriving shortly, so that might make things a little fresher.

Hope you had a good Canada day.

Bryan Murray sure didn't.