Alex Quinn's Japan Journal

8/13/2005, Korea trip day 2: temple, fish market, tower

On our second day, we headed for a temple area on the outskirts of Pusan.  We found it with the guide book.  We took the subway and then walked aways from the station.

On the way, we stopped at a bakery for some breakfast.  Akemi found some bread or something like that.  And I definitely found what I was looking for.  Walnut ice cream seems to be pretty popular in Korea.  I saw it often.

Also saw a pot of live eels squirming vigorously in a painfully small metal pan.

The eels were being sold from this little variety store.

After a nice walk, we ended up at this beautiful place up in the mountains with temples and monks and trees and such.  It reminded me very much of Koya-san in Japan.

Akemi in the wooded area near the temples.

I think she looks much happier when she's standing next to me.

This woman is painting a picture of the picturesque scene around her.  I thought she was pretty picturesque, so I decided to take her picture.

Notice the rocks with peoples' names carved into them.

Rather than an act of vandalism, I think this was done by the people who manage the temple grounds.

There were various graves scattered about.

And, finally, a temple.

Have a look inside.

This kind of gateway is typical Korean style, or so I'm told.

Here's another such gateway.

I like the door on this one.

A closer look at the door.

After some temple seeing, we went back in the woods.  People were soaking their feet in the river.  Akemi followed suit.  But, after a few minutes, a foul smell came on suddenly.  It smelled as though somebody poured the contents of an out house into the river.  So, Akemi quickly retracted her feet.

After visiting the temple area, we headed into town.  We wanted to see a certain famous fish market.  It was interesting in that there were a lot of people selling fish, much of which stunk.  Big piles of dead eels on the sidewalk.  If you want to see stuff you won't see back home, then this is a good place to go.  It's well known throughout Korea and somewhat in Japan.  Supposedly, it's one of the important sights in Pusan.  I thought it was a little like an aquarium where all the fish are dead.  It was not pretty, so I didn't take any pictures.

I thought this ice cream was pretty though, so I took a picture of it.  It's like a milk shake in a pouch.  You suck it out.

Eventually, we ended up in a shopping neighborhood.  It reminded me very much of the Shinsaibashi neighborhood in Osaka.

What do you think?  Is it like Shinsaibashi?  (if you've ever been to Shinsaibashi)

I think so.

This shop sells clothes related to American universities, especially Harvard and Yale.  If only American young people were that impressed with higher education.  Well, American lawmakers, for that matter, could use a burst of enthusiasm for higher education.

Korea is a land of rip-offs, businesses which imitate something successful and use a similar name.  This company is obviously trying to be like Tully's Coffee.  The inside is very much like Tully's.

It's extra cool to me since it has a family connection for me.

Later we went up in this tower for a night view of the city.

Got a nice view of the city.

The lighting and everything was all wrong so it was hard to get a good, clear picture, but I did my best.

You'd never know it from the picture, but the city of Pusan is in the background here.

For those who are bored by looking out windows (not sure why they'd go up in the tower in the first place, but...), they have viewers where you can see other parts of Korea.

For 50 cents, this one will let you look at North Korea.  For Americans, views of North Korea are sometimes hard to come by, but I didn't bite.

When we came down from the tower, we sat down at a table and had a snack.  Behind us were two Japanese young women, just sightseeing in Korea.  A Korean man came by and tried to get the hook-up.  He was obviously sweet on one of them.  And she didn't seem to mind.  He spoke Japanese fairly well.  We were listening with great interest, while trying not to get caught eavesdropping.  When they got up, we wanted to hear the rest of the story, so we secretly followed them about 25 or 35 meters behind.

We went back to the hotel, dropped our stuff, and went out for dinner.

At this place, you grill your meat at your table.  It's like the Japanese yakiniku, which is actually borrowed from Korea anyway.

You get a bunch of greens and stuff to go with your meat.

Then you wrap the meat in a leaf of lettuce or other greens.  And, you add raw garlic (lots of it!), sauce, kimchi, and whatever else you want.

You wrap it up and pop it in your mouth.  Delicious!

We did notice some subtle sexism in Korea.  When we sat down, the people in the restaurant gave us cool towels.  Then, they asked Akemi, not me, to go get the greens from a salad bar-like place for our meal.  Very subtle.  But, it basically means that it's the woman's job to do the work associated with the meal.  At the end of the meal, they brought one - not two - cool towels and put it on the back of my neck for comfort.  Very nice.  But, they didn't do the same for Akemi.  Apparently, women don't need comfort as much as men.  Very subtle.  We had heard that Korea was a little more sexist than Japan and it appears to be true.

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