Asia Update #19 - Hairy Crabs?

I am back in China and am continuing to expand my culinary repertoire. Hairy crabs, pigs ears, escargot (Chinese style), cow stomach, more snake, etc. The Chinese sure do not seem to waste much when it comes to food - if a part of an animal is edible, they eat it.

Had the hairy crabs for Thanksgiving (both lunch and dinner), plus for lunch on Friday. They literally are crabs with hair on them. Hearing about them, I pictured a crab which had gone to the hair club for men. Thankfully, it wasn't that bad - the hair is mostly just on their legs, plus a large patch on their claws. These crabs only are available for 2 months out of the year for some reason, and we are in the middle of that period. So just about every restaurant has specials for them. They taste similar to the crabs we have in the states, though perhaps a little more tender meat in them. Cooked by steaming them. The style of eating is just as messy as we are in the states - and perhaps even more so. No shell cracker or little fork to work with, just your chopsticks, fingers, and mouth. I made a bit of a mess.

Ok, here's some food that will probably gross some of you out. Not so much because it is gross, but because of emotional attachments we sometimes have for the animal. I was surprised when this showed up on the table today - didn't think it was on the Chinese menu (but it is on the Korean menu, though I hadn't seen it yet). The meat tasted a bit lamb. So, what was it? Dog soup.

Had some Cabernet Sauvignon from a Chinese vineyard. It was pretty obvious that they don't serve wines in China much - it took three waitresses to figure out the bottle opener. And the wine was served in beer glasses. Overall the wine wasn't bad, though not one I'd look for outside of China. Very smooth - kind of like a Beaujolais Neauvous.

What am I doing in China on Thanksgiving, instead of eating way too much turkey and stuffing and watching Dallas attempt to play Football? Good question. I needed to come here for work and checked my schedule for the next available time. Forgot to cross check against the US holiday schedule (I am still a US employee, so get US holidays) so didn't realize I was supposed to be off until after I had booked the trip. Bummer. I am considering taking a comp day or two to make up for me missing my holiday.

Interesting, the stereotype of Chinese is that they eat a lot of rice. But for most meals, we haven't had any rice. Have eaten Chinese food each day. Various vegetable and meat dishes, and usually a soup. Just no rice, as we would serve them at Chinese restaurants in the States. Guess having rice is an Americanization of Chinese food.

Did do some sightseeing to an Ching or Ming dynasty (the guys showing me around where not sure which) emperor's garden. Nice place. Lots of interesting architecture and such. Did also do some shopping and bought some souvenirs and Xmas gifts at great prices. Also bought a painting for my wall in Korea.

It is amazing how the Chinese use bicycles for basic transportation. Items which we would deliver by truck, they deliver by bicycle. Caught a few on film, but missed some of the best ones. Probably the most loaded I saw was a single speed tricycle loaded with 10 water bottles (similar in size to a US 5 or 6 gallon bottle). That is about 100 kilos/200 lbs. of water. Platform pedals and a heavy, single speed bike. Fred or Bob - let's see you do that on the next Pumpkin Ride. Here's a shot of a guy delivering electronics…

Flight here sucked. Thinking of it, just about every flying experience I've had to, from, and within China has been pretty bad. Crowded planes, other passengers not following the standard flying etiquette, concern about getting bumped or getting delayed by the bureaucracy, etc. Part of the fun of international travel, I guess. Isn't making me put China on the top of my list of places where I'd want to travel to.

Asia Update #18 - Japan again

Hello from Tokyo, Japan. Spending a week here visiting customers and training our new sales guys.

I go to Japan and what do we eat for the first few days - western food. Which is too bad, considering that I really like Japanese food. Had dinner at McDonalds on Sunday when I got in (went with one of our sales guys, and his little army of kids - I owed him and his family dinner, and it was the only place he felt comfortable taking them to). Pasta for lunch on Monday. Went to a Tex-Mex pub for dinner that night (and watched a band playing Hawaiian music). Chinese style food for lunch on Tuesday. Finally got out to a sushi bar on Tuesday night. Here's a picture from it… Much like the sushi bars we have in the States (except that you have to order in Japanese…).

Did get more Japanese food after that. This included a traditional Japanese breakfast, which looked more like something I'd have for dinner than for breakfast - had a bowl of rice, some cooked beef, a soup, etc. Even went to lunch one day at Denny's, where I ordered a rice bowl of unagi (eel) and some udon - not stuff you see at Dennys in the States.

Most of the nights here involved too much alcohol and not enough sleep. The Asian culture definitely places a premium on entertaining guests from out of town. In the US, when someone comes from out of town, it is hard to find someone to go to dinner with them. People would rather go home and spend time with their family (or in my case, get out for a night ride). In Asia, you automatically assume that you will be spending the evening with the guests and not get home until late. And this is after a 10 hour day (Asians average about 200 more hours of work a year than Americans). Seems like they wouldn't be able to spend much time with their families (maybe that's why they do it?).

Tuesday night (the sushi night) we went to one of the seedier parts of the Shinjuku area of Tokyo. Lots of prostitutes, pimps, people handing out fliers for various strip shows, etc. In this way it was somewhat similar to what we saw in Thailand, though a bit more conservative than in Thailand. The area had more buildings and neon lights, as opposed to open bars (explained by Tokyo actually having winters, unlike Thailand). Here's a picture from it…

My mountain biking buddies will probably get a kick out of this - there is a deliver service in Japan called "Endo Express". Saw a truck with this written on the sides. Couldn't get the camera out in time to take a picture. Cool name - just too bad it isn't the name of a bicycle or motorcycle courier company…

Asia Update #17 - Culture Shock

I've been told that after some 3 to 5 months, a stage of culture shock sets in. Around this time, the little things which the Koreans do differently will annoy the hell out of me. I think this is starting to hit, causing me to have some mood swings. I am sure this is affecting my coworkers around me, because I am not always as willing to take the time to explain things which seem obvious to me but not to them or to deal with language barriers and such. So, to help my therapy with this, I thought I'd vent a bit on my web site…

One frustration is that cars take priority in most areas over pedestrians. The roads in the older parts of town do not have sidewalks, so you walk right in the road. This makes for car - pedestrian conflict. If you are walking on the side of the road at a place where a car wants to park, they will often just about run you over and force you to quickly dodge them. Where there are sidewalks, motorbikes will often drive right up the sidewalk to get around traffic (also expecting people to get out of their way). And cars will all be parked right on the sidewalk with no thought for pedestrians, often forcing you to walk out on the road.

Koreans are often thought of as rude as compared to other Asians. One of the factors for this is that their culture doesn't queue up as much as most others. I see this every day on the subway as people who are trying to get on the subway push their way in as soon as the door opens, without waiting for those trying to get off. Same thing with elevators. And it is not uncommon to have someone cut in front of you when you are waiting at a counter for service or for a taxi (in areas where lines are not well formed).

Elevators are a weird thing. The hotel I stayed at before getting my apartment had two elevators side by side, each controlled by separate buttons. The office building I am at has 3 elevators, but only one stops at odd-numbered floors (such as where my office is). And to call that elevator when you are on the ground floor, you push what I would think of as the down button. And of course, the two elevators which go to even floors are controlled separately...

They haven't quite figured out temperatures here yet. On the whole, Koreans seem to like it a bit warmer than Americans - they definitely keep the thermostats set higher. And they pay for AC and heat based on the month, not the temperature. So if a warm or cold spell comes through outside of the planned month, you suffer. I've gotten used to sweating on the subways (and expect to freeze as the weather turns colder).

Korea, especially around Seoul, is putting more and more signs up in English. This is very useful for a foreigner like me. Only problem is that the Korean language is totally phonetic and they have a few sounds which don't match anything in English. In particular, they have a sound that is somewhere between the English 'ch' and 'j', one between 't' and 'd', another between 's' and 'sh', and one between 'r' and 'l'. This means that signs could be spelled in multiple different ways. An example is Cheju Island, which is also spelled Jeju. This makes it harder to get around using the English signs because you often have to consider alternate spellings to be sure you are going to the right place.

To add to this, the Koreans seem to like naming things with slight different variations in sounds. They seem to be able to understand these slight different intonations, but it sure confuses me. A quick look at a map of Korea and you would see the towns of Ch'onju, Chonju, Chungju, Yongju, Wonju, Kyongju, Chinju, and Chongju.

Well, I have some trips coming up in the next 2 weeks to Japan and China. Hopefully these will help me get over any culture shock I have in Korea. And if they don't work, a few weeks later I am taking a 5-day vacation to Hawaii! Yeah!

I didn't mention it last time, but I went to a show called Cookin Nanta last weekend. Awesome show. Much like Stomp, except based around a set of chefs in a kitchen trying to prepare a meal in time for dinner. A newspaper said that it was like mixing Jackie Chan and Benihana - which kind of fits as a description. Nanta is the Korean word for beating or banging, and there was lots of that. Very energetic show, and a lot of fun. Very little spoken word, so no worries about how I would understand the show. They also pull a couple of people from the audience and have some fun with them (guess who got lucky and got to go on stage…). Supposedly they will be touring, so if they hit a town near you, I would definitely recommend seeing it.

Asia Update #16 - More Misc. Seoul

Went to a coworker's house warming party on Friday. The guests were only the people from the office (no one brought their dates or wives). The wife of the coworker who threw the party didn't get to eat at all, and was Ok with it. She just kept preparing food and making sure we had everything we'd want. My coworker also was busy, but not nearly as much as she was and did get to eat with us. I don't think anyone was even introduced to his wife except for just saying hello. Definitely not usual in the American culture, but I guess it is normal in Korea (and possibly more so in Japan, so I've been told).

While she was cleaning up afterwards, the guys sat down for a bit of cards. The game was pretty easy to learn. The deck contained cards containing 4 each of cards valued at 1 through 12. Starts with each player putting money into the pot. Then the players go one at a time - with the dealer placing 2 cards face up in front of him. The player then chooses whether he wants to bet or not, and if so, how much (max is the amount in the pot). If he passes, he loses (and gains) nothing. If he bets, then another card is drawn. If the card falls between the two that were originally drawn, he wins what he bet. If it falls on or outside the original cards, he loses. Once his turn is done, the next player goes and so on around the line. If someone cleans out the pot, then everyone antes up again. I played for a while, got up by about $15 and then went back to 0. Dropped out while I was even.

There are some other rules such as if a 12 is drawn, the player automatically pays 1 (unless two 12s are drawn, where the players wins 3). But it really isn't too hard to learn. The hardest part is that each card just has a picture on it (no characters or numbers). Somehow or other, the guys knew what each card's value was. I did fine so long as someone read out the value to me - but there was no way I was going to figure out the values based on the pictures.

Hit the hills this weekend. Rode my bike down to the hill that contains the Seoul Tower on Saturday. Rode around until I found a way to the top of the hill. Involved a paved path with way too may stairs. Maybe half the stairs would be rideable downhill, but pretty much all carrying the bike uphill (seemed appropriate, given that it is cyclocross season). The path starts at about the point where I took the photo at - as you can see there was lots of climbing. Got to the top, enjoyed the view, and then found a road down the other side. Bummer - I could have ridden all the way to the top. Did get a 40mph blast on the road down the other side.

Hiked to a local mountain from my house on Sunday. Not nearly as large a mountain as the ones I did with the others - I think this one is only about 1000 feet tall (I am only about 100 feet above sea level). Had some good views of the city. Unfortunately, I was told that it is a "military zone", so no photos were allowed. Guess that would explain all the lookouts and soldiers. Another hiker told me about the cameras, so at least I didn't have some sort of unpleasant run in with any men with guns. The trails are almost all paved, and have lots of stairs built into them, so riding would be out of the question. But it is nice to be able to hike to a peak right from my door.

Below is a set of pictures spliced together, taken before I was told about this being a military zone. The hazy sky is normal for much of Asia. I am sure the high number of cars has something to do with it, but much of this is also pollution blowing over from China.

The military does have positions on many of the mountains. And even those that don't have manned bases seem to have foxholes and barbed wire in place in case they need to man the area. And the army has a lot more control/authority over the lands - an example of this is that one of the mountains which had good mountain biking has been bulldozed. I haven't seen it, but the rumor has it that the singletrack trails are completely gone. Makes MROSD look good.

I am trying to learn how to speak Korean, but it is going slow. One interesting reaction I get when I do speak in Korean to someone I know is that they often laugh. They say that my accent is good and that I am doing well, but they still laugh. I guess they are just surprised to hear a white guy talking in their language. When I speak to people who I don't know, they almost always need me to repeat it. They understand me the second go around, but don't seem to be expecting me to say anything in Korean so aren't listening for it. I've done this with Koreans who speak English - I am straining to try to understand their Korean and am not ready for them to speak in English. Then again, maybe all of these people are lying through their teeth and I really do have a strong accent/am speaking funny.

The bagels I reported about last time do exist. I stopped at the Dunkin Donuts and there was a bagel. Wow! Even looked like one (not one of those scrawny things the local department store calls bagels). I haven't tried it yet, because I still have a bunch I brought with me from the States, but I am sure I will try it out as soon as my stores runs out.