Archive for the 'General' Category

Korea

Published by Kevin & Cathy on September 19, 2008 in General.   128 views 0 Comments

We spent 10 days in South Korea visiting with our good friends Song & Joe, from Vancouver. It was a short 3-hour flight from Chitose airport to Incheon, in Seoul. We met happily in the airport, and spent our first night together in Seoul. We hopped a taxi from the airport to the love-hotel district in Seoul and dragged our luggage around in the pouring rain trying to find a love-hotel that wasn’t booked on a Friday night (not easy!). Our first night in Seoul was spent in a dirty, cockroach-infested hotel with no elevator but a giant can of insecticide in every room …Rough!

Happy night at KwangJu

The next day, we hopped a KTX train down to Mokpo, and met with Song’s uncle who drove us down to Jindo where we spent the night sleeping in the house where Song’s dad lived and her older brother, Chang, was born. This house was powered by a generator, but when it was built, it didn’t even have electricity! Song’s family built it with their own hands. It was such an interesting experience to stay in the countryside. We felt very honored to be there. We spent a few days in the very south of Korea, visiting Song’s family, paying respects to her father’s grave and eating delicious southern-style food. The southern people in Korea say that they have the spiciest food in Korea. Some even say that the food from the south is more delicious. We had some very traditional and very local cuisine. One dish that stood out was was a fish soup. The soup was thick, and textured- essentially fish blended into a pulp! It was crazy delicious and crazy spicy.

Yummy food

Our taste buds totally opened up over the course of our trip. At first, everything was spicy. 10 times spicier than the spicy food we normally tolerate. Everyday -each meal -everything was spicy! Eating was so exhilarating and addictive. Did you know chili peppers are actually addictive? The intense spice tricks the brain into thinking that the body is in pain. The brain releases endorphins, making the brain happy. It’s not on a level that would cause withdrawl symptoms or be truly addictive like a cigarette, but it is definitely something you start to crave, mentally and physiologically . We started to wake up in the morning with the first thing on our minds being…. kimchi!

After traveling around the south of the country enjoying the wonderful hospitality of Song’s family, we took a bus to Busan, which is Korea’s biggest port city, and the second largest city in the country. We continued on the pattern that we’d become accustomed to: eat, drink, repeat. We checked out Hyundae beach, where the boys, Kevin and Joe went for a swim and the girls went to TGIFridays for litre-cocktails.

Being Happy in Busan

Our last couple days in Korea were spent back in Seoul. We took the 3 and a half hour KTX trip back up to Seoul and spent the last 3 nights meeting old friends, making new friends and continuing with our rapid intake of kimchi and soju. Seoul was everything we had hoped it would be. 12 Metro-lines of sprawling urban joy. It reminded us very much of being in Tokyo, except this time- with burning mouths and wonderful companies.

All and all, our favourite part of the entire trip, by far, was to see our good friends, Song and Joe again. We miss you guys already!

random happiness
Jindo country road

-Goodfishies

Eastern Hokkaido Roadtrip

Published by Kevin & Cathy on August 1, 2008 in General and Japan.   226 views 1 Comment

Eastern Hokkaido Roadtrip - Akanko, Kussharoko, Abashiri, Shiretoko

We took a camping/onsening/feasting roadtrip through eastern Hokkaido- known to have absolutely nothing to offer but breathtakingly beautiful scenery.

We took along with us our friend Michael Tripp who also is a former Hokkaidoite. Our final destination was Shiretoko but we planned on stopping in at many other places along the way.

Massive roadtrip success!

Furano

Lavender ice-cream
Furano
花

We left bright and early on Friday morning. Our first stop was Furano. Hokkaido people live for Furano in the summer. It’s something that you hear over and over for a few weeks each summer: “Have you gone to Furano yet? The flowers are blooming.” Furano is famous for its endless lavender fields and it’s lavender related products, such as Lavender ice-cream.

Akan

we went from Furano to Akanko (阿寒湖). It’s one of the many Ainu heritage sites with lots of Ainu influence. The Ainu are the indigenous people that were in Hokkaido before the Japanese invaded. We camped at the Lake Akan lakeside campground (阿寒湖畔キャンプ場. However, it really isn’t close to the lakeside… The actual lakeside is crowded with hotels and resorts.
We had a good night of Jingisukan (ジンギスカン) and dodging attacks from giant moths and foxes.

Our daily routine for the trip consisted of: camp->eat->onsen->photograph. After waking up and packing up our campsite, we headed into the town of Akanko to see some Ainu arts & crafts. Marimo is very popular here. It’s a green algae ball that grows in the lake. Inspired by marimo is the Marimo-kori which is a green doll with a huge green marimo boner. (no joke) We enjoyed the BEST onsen all 3 of us had ever had at Tsuruga.

Lake Kussharo & Lake Mashu

We made our way to Lake Kussharo (屈斜路湖 ) and Lake Mashu (摩周湖). It was a very foggy drive. By the time we got to Lake Mashu, we saw no lake. Lake Mashu is famous for being foggy. There’s an old myth that if a couple is able to see the lake on a sunny day, they will not get married. That explains how foggy and how rare it would be to see the actual lake. We saw nothing.

グルメ (gourmet)

We did our camping for the second night at a random auto campground. Our initial plan to camp by the water did not work out as it was a weekend and the lakeside campground was packed.

We navigated around the lake on a bumpy old logging road and took us 2 hours to get out. It was an adventure with lots of deers jumping around.

We did our onsen dip in Kawayu (川湯) the next day. This whole area smells like Sulphur. The onsen was a very sulphury one. Our silver rings turned golden under the water. We also visited the Iozan mountain (硫黄山). The direct translation of the mountain is Sulphur mountain. There were yellow patches all over it with bubbling water and steam. We bought an egg that was cooked with the sulphur steam. It tasted like sulphury goodness.

Abashiri

Our next stop was Abashiri (網走). To this day, the name Abashiri to the Japanese is the equivalent of “Alkatraz” to North Americans. There’s a big prison in Abashiri and it sure didn’t look pleasant when we visited the Abashiri Prison Museum. Being right in the blast-zone for the siberian winds coming south from Russia, the winter in Abashiri Prison most be almost unimaginable.

We camped at a free campground at Lake Abashiri. (呼人浦キャンプ場) The breeze from the lake was a bit cold that night but it kept the campfire smoke consistent.

Abashiri microbrewery

We went to another Tsuruga onsen - Hokutennnoka (北天の丘) the next day after our tour of the Abashiri prison. We also tried Milk beer here…. ewwww.

Shiretoko

Shiretoko Goko

We got around 4 hours of sunshine when we were in Shiretoko. The sun shone on the ocean and it was magnificent. We visited the famous Shiretoko 5 lakes but unfortunately we were only allowed to go on the observation tower to (barely) see one of the lakes because apparantly there were brown bears in the woods that day. Shiretoko is famous for massive brown bears. We saw one when we were driving from Shiretoko to Rausu. A little cub was just hanging out in the ditch eating leaves. We contemplated getting out of the car to take some photos… but we didn’t. (phew, dodged a bullet there…) We took a little windy mountain road from Utoro to Rausu, where we had the most amazing fresh seafood in a little shack by the ocean.

Shiretoko

The second day we woke up to a beautiful view of the ocean, onsened on the cliff overlooking the ocean and drove home.

Really, it was a fantastic trip.

Hakodate.

Published by Kevin & Cathy on July 28, 2008 in General, Japan and Video.   153 views 0 Comments

Along with our camping trip to Toya Lake last month, we also visited Hakodate.
We enjoyed the freshest (wiggling on our plate) squid that was perfectly clear in color and tasted like heaven. We also had uni (sea urchin) for breakfast. Such a luxury!

It was a gourmet trip. We ate and ate and ate.

During our 3 day stay in Hakodate we managed to visit all the places we wanted to. We also had a little romantic afternoon boat rowing around the Goryokakukoen moat.

We fully enjoyed Hakodate. Being Vancouverites, and living land-locked for the past 8 months, it was really great to be back at the ocean.

Hakodate Port

Our winter in Hokkaido

Published by Kevin & Cathy on January 30, 2008 in General and Japan.   998 views 2 Comments

can you kick it

Of all the things that you have heard about Hokkaido, they are probably all true, but really, Hokkaido is all about its winter. There might be delicious diary products and ice creams here, but nothing beats the powdery fluffy snow. To keep warm in this kind of weather, we have grown accustomed to long johns and toque hair. We have also learned to enjoy a nice warm Shōchū (焼酎) from time to time.

Things we do to try to keep warm and keep ourselves lively

hmmmm beer
- We drink and hang out. Did you know that Japanese bars sometime serve beers in Big, Medium, and small size?
The dark yebisu Japanese beer is almost a meal… (almost. I said.)

- We went on the local radio station FM G’Sky to be the foreigner guests. We later on went to Taichi’s house for a new year party. Did you know, Japanese people celebrate new year with families, so the new year party is usually sometime in January with friends. This is the “party” where people drink and eat and chitchat till the wee hour. If you prefer drunken chitchats, it’s also an option.

- Cathy enjoys kicking snow/ice behind the tires and around the bumpers on the car. A lot of ice builds up on the cars around here. Cathy kicks our car, sometimes also other people’s car.

- We run around in the snow with kids and play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60KE9V-jzu8. We love these kids.

- The Costco at Sapporo finally opened on Jan 25, 2008. It was the first costco in Hokkaido. We paid a visit on Jan 26. There was a line-up for the cars to go into the parking lot all the way around the block. (which we avoided by parking in another grocery store’s parking lot) We bought blue cheese, costco muffins, san pellegrino, jelly beans, and chai tea. Between the 4 of us, Kevin - Cathy - Matthew - Kaori, we each spent around 7000Yen - equivalent to 70 dollars CDN. None of us planned to buy anything before we went in. Costco just sucked us in. Membership here is slightly cheaper than I remembered. It was 4500 Yen, with the great exchange rate on Canadian dollar right now, that’s 42 CDN dollars. it’s a ripoff if you are paying $49 in Canada!

- Sometimes we visit random small town businesses, such as, bowling alley on a Sunday night. excitementThe place was literally empty. We felt cool and lively while the Japanese teenagers gather around behind us, playing video games and taking sticker photos.

- Cathy got to go to the Sunagawa Hospital for a tour around the surgical room. my night at the sunagawa hospital “How often do you get to meet a cardio surgeon who would take you to the hospital for a private tour?” She said. I am not sure about you, but we don’t all live in grey’s anatomy land.

There are much more things we would like to do around here during the winter, but it seems that time is flying and we will never have enough time to do them all. There hasn’t been any snowman-building yet this winter.

This weekend, we will escape the cold and fly to Taiwan for Chinese new year. Delicious food awaits. We will, however, unfortunately miss the tug-a-war competition in town and the Sapporo snow festival. But we are almost certain that the snow will be here waiting for us till we are back.

On a side note, it really isn’t that cold… - 5 is considerably warm and refreshing. The coldest day of this season to date was -24. It was not pleasant.

If you are reading this post from somewhere above 0 degree, that probably means, you are one of those people we miss dearly.

p.s. All pictures are from Cathy because Kevin has been slow on uploading

Southern Sun

Published by Kevin & Cathy on October 31, 2007 in Around Taiwan Trip, General, Taiwan and Video.   551 views 2 Comments

Saturday - Kenting - 墾丁

Kenting is small, sunny surfing town on the southern-most point of the island. White sandy beaches, beautiful rolling waves, high wind and SUN. Its the end of October and its hotter than it’s ever been in Vancouver in July. We stayed in a small, funky, down-to-earth hostel called a-wu的民宿 above a little restaurant on the south bay (南灣) strip, overlooking the ocean and the beach. We stayed in Kenting for two nights, giving us just enough time to relax and wind down. (Both of us have been kind of under the weather with a sore throat and runny nose) Kenting is a town that is just so easy to fall in love with. Everything and everyone just seems a bit more chilled than everywhere else in Taiwan, or any other major city.

We visited the national aquarium & marine center in Kenting where we saw penguins, walked through the national park on the eeny-weeny southern-most tip of Taiwan - Eluanbi - 鵝鑾鼻 - it means the duck egg nose.

Monday - Kaoshiong - 高雄

We left Kenting Monday morning, and started our trek up the west coast. The west coast of Taiwan is significantly more populated than the mountainous, tropical eastern coast. Our travels were fast, thanks to a busy freeway that runs all the way back up to Taipei. We met with Cathy’s uncle in a small town outside of Kaoshiong called GangShan (岡山). He still lives in the same Japanese-style house in the retired-army village (眷村) where his mother grew up in. He treated us to dinner in a community center/entertainment hall (新生社) that was once used by the army for soldiers & their families while they were off duty. It was the same exact spot where Cathy’s parents got married years ago. Also the exact spot where both of Cathy’s grandparents, danced at night, during the war time years ago. It’s such a small town that everyone who still lives there knows Cathy’s whole family on both sides, all the way back to the grandparents. (Both of Cathy’s grandfathers were war heroes, pilots, to be specific.)

Today

We are at the Kaoshiong airport (with free wireless!), where we’ll be flying to the small island cluster of Peng-hu (澎湖) off the western coast of Taiwan (no, not pingu. It’s pronounced Pong-huu.) Peng-hu is made up of several small islands arranged in a semi-circle, and will mark the Western-most point of our around-island trip. (Technically, there is another tiny island further west call JingMen (金門), but since it’s closer to China than to Taiwan, it’s pretty much just a military base)

Peng-hu gets blasted by the Northern monsoon winds from October-March, and combined with the calm waters thanks to it’s semi-circular shape, Peng-hu has recently become one of the most world-renown windsurfing destinations.

While we won’t be windsurfing, we will be renting scooters and driving around the islands- eating and drinking along the way. We plan on coming back the next day and visiting with Cathy’s uncle again before heading back up the Taiwan west coast on our way back to Taipei. We have been feeling a little under the weather lately, and may very well be getting sick so we’re resting up, and trying to stay healthy.