Asia Update #25 - What's behind door #1

I mentioned in the past update about it being cold in Korea. Just read that we are having 20 year low temperatures in Seoul. Low temps were down near 0 °F. Daily highs are getting up to around 20 °F. Very cold. Any exposed skin starts hurting after a few minutes outside. So I had to get out of Seoul and find some place warmer. Headed to the Island of Hokkaido, which is the northern part of Japan. Changed cold for snow. Plus only got a few degrees warmer.

Spent three days there with our sales guy visiting customers. Meetings all day, dinners and business clubs on evening. Way too much to eat and (especially) drink.

Of course, when you drink, it logically leads to having to go to the bathroom. Found this one when I was at a classy Japanese restaurant. Had to ask directions from the waitress to get to here, then had the fun of figuring out which door to go to. Do you know which it is? The kanji characters saying men and women sure make it hard to figure out.

I know I am a 'henna gaijing' (Japanese for crazy foreign person), but I really didn't want to walk in on someone without warning, so I went back to the waitress and asked again. She pointed me to the correct door. I went up to the door and found the next challenge - how to open it. Pushed first - and that didn't work. Pulled and that also didn't work. A little giggling from the waitress behind me and she signed that I was supposed to slide the door sideways. Finally got in.

Oh, it is the door on the right…

Here is a shot from my hotel of the area around Sapporo. Surrounded by hills. Even though we are basically at sea level, they get a huge amount of snow. Supposed to make for some great skiing (the white open areas in the center are ski resorts). I will have to try to get back here and allow some time to hit the slopes.

Here is an early teaser. I've started writing up a message related to the business club scene in Asia. It is quite interesting. Here's a picture of me trying to sing karaoke… I am quite bad at it… But the business club scene is very different than what happens in the US, so should be quite interesting....

Asia Update #24 - Snow Plows?

It snowed some more on Tuesday, but most of that melted. It is interesting to see how the city deals with the snow over the long term. On the whole, they seem to try to ignore it. The side roads were never plowed, so the snow was packed down and is now sheets of ice in most places. Sidewalks are often the same. Makes driving and walking a bit precarious. I haven't fell yet, but I've seen many falls. It is funny to watch the deliver motor cycles moving at 20-30 mph with the driver's feet out to each side to give them that extra bit of balance on the ice.

The above picture was taken Tuesday (while it was snowing) from my office. On the lower right of the picture (where the people with the umbrella are), the sidewalk may look like a sheet of ice. That is because it is. The other side would be better to walk on, because the layer of snow over the ice gives some traction.

I can understand if you don't think that it is a sidewalk because you see cars parked there. Trust me, it is a sidewalk. And it is normal for cars to park, or even drive on, the sidewalk. Especially normal for delivery motor cycles to just about knock pedestrians over on sidewalks.

The intersection in the picture is kind of interesting, with all the cars in (or stopped well past) the pedestrian cross walk. At the time of the picture, the turn arrows for the cross street are green, so the 2 buses turning are legal. The people heading away from me who have pushed forward and look like they are almost hitting the bus are just trying to save themselves an extra millisecond by getting that 20 foot head start when the light turns green. Oh, and there are 4 lanes on the road going away from us, but if you look closely you'll see there are 5 cars side by side up at the front of the line. This is all normal for Korea.

This weather has had some impact on my morning run. Certain areas are too slippery to run, so I avoid. But I now run up the road that heads towards the hill I often hike up. That road is closed to cars due to snow (and lack of plows) so I am able to run up the center of it. Still slippery, and cars still drive on it, so I do have to watch out. But it is better than most of my other possible routes and has fewer people. Sorry to say, I am running through the same military area I've talked about before, so I won't be taking any pictures.

I am running more now. Both because I think I've gained a coupe of pounds during my stay here, but also because I am now training for a race. I signed up for the Dong-Ah International Marathon. Actually, I am just going to do a half marathon, which is plenty long considering my last running race was about 20 years ago. The race is March 18. Should be interesting to see what a Korean race is like.

It is often hard to get myself out for a run. It is dark here until about 7:30 am and generally quite cold (highest temperature predicted for the next 5 days is -6°C, or about 22°F). It is a bit cooler than that in the mornings when I am running. I have tried to run in the evening, but I seem to end up working Korean hours (which are longer than US hours), so don't make it home until 6:30 or 7:00 and would rather crash in front of the TV with a beer than exercise. But I have been getting myself motivated (so far) and running in the mornings. Between gifts my 'friend' in CA gave me for Xmas and some stuff I had already for winter sports, I seem to have the right clothes to make running in the cold bearable.

I had an interesting web site emailed to me. It shows the world map based on NASA images showing the lights at night. Quite interesting to see where people live. Of particular interest is the difference between North and South Korea. North Korea is in the dark not because people don't live there, but due to economic factors. Check it out athttp://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/Images/earth_lights_lrg.jpg(be prepared if you are on a slow connection - the file is some 600k in size).

I found a channel on my TV which could best be described as Fashion TV. 24 hours of watching models walking the runway. I  am not a fashion hound (as those of you who have seen what I wear can attest to), but this channel has caught my eye. It seems that every few minutes there will be a woman walking down the runway basically topless. Either the designer chose see-through clothes, or chose to only button the model's shirt as high as their belly buttons. Interesting that this nudity is allowed on Korean TV - I can't even seem to find rated-R movies in Korea.

Asia Update #23 - Snow

It snowed on Sunday. Started some time during the night and didn't stop until late afternoon. The papers said we got about 8 inches in Seoul, though I would have guessed that it was a bit less. I spent the morning tromping around and taking pictures. Figured I could catch the stillness that snow brings with it, plus find some sanctuary from the hordes of tourists who are normally there. Turned out I was partially right…

This is the second time I have shown this pagoda on my web site (the first was in my first update). I had to fight my way to get a picture of this. Turned out that many other people had the same idea about the stillness, so the normal tourists were replaced by a horde of amateur photographers. There were literally dozens of people around this place with cameras. Theirs looked much more professional than my little point and shoot digital deal. The best locales were covered with cameras on tripods (plus their owners and gear bags). And it was hard to get a shot without anyone else showing up in the background. But I did get a few shots and this one seemed to be about the best.

The one above is from the palace located close to my apartment. I thought this one showed great contrast between the colors of the palace and the grays/whites of the snow covered hill. This palace is being restored and definitely has very recent paint on it, making its colors stand out even more than the other palaces. And it isn't as well known, so it is much easier to have the best photo vantage points place to yourself.

By the way - my standard jogging route takes me all the way around this palace, including on a narrow footpath through the trees on the hillside. Guess I have to wait for the snow to melt some before I use this route again.

Turned out to be one of the largest snow falls on record. Seoul sure doesn't seem to know how to handle the snow, given that I didn't see a single snow plow while I was out (though I did see a single sanding truck, but it wasn't sanding at the time). Most of the secondary roads are just packed down snow (more like ice now than snow).

Received a new AM/FM/Cassette/CD player as a gift from my company. Well, I did have to pay $20 for it. And it wasn't something I really wanted. Kind of funny, thinking back on it. Raychem Korea gives gifts to its employees on Foundation Day (the anniversary of the day that the company was formed in Korea). I heard about this, but figured I wasn't getting one because I am really a US employee. The person who ran this gift giving was the Admin Manager. We don't have a similar position in the States, so I still really don’t know for sure what his duties are. But one of them is to find out what the employees want for a gift, and arrange for it. But he doesn't speak English that well or he is afraid of me or something, so he never asked me. Somehow or other he decided that the radio was the one for me. Maybe it was the most expensive option, so was fitting of my position? Maybe the girls in the office felt I need a CD player (I have an AM/FM/Cassette player, but no CD player except my laptop)? For whatever reason, it was chosen as my gift and I was given it. Then I was told that it was over the budget for gifts, so I owed about $20. Oh, the final kicker is that I can't take the radio home with me when I return to the states - it runs off of 220 volts.

Asia Update #22 - misc. catching up

I am back in Korea after 10 days in the States. I was able to return home for the holidays. Spent the time catching up with friends and family, getting to know my bikes again, and enjoying being able to speak English.

Did get photos developed from an underwater camera we had in Hawaii. Here are some of the better pictures:

This is one of the 4 or 5 sea turtles we saw roaming about Hanema Bay. Beautiful, graceful creatures. Quite large, also, with a shell that had to be a good 2 feet long.

A sea snake. It was hard to take his picture because he kept swimming towards me.

This guy also kept coming too close to get a picture of. Sure wasn't shy. I guess people often feed the fish, causing them to lose their fear of man.

This one is from my hotel in Japan. I stopped there for a few days on the way to Hawaii. The air was pretty clear, allowing me to get my first look at Mt. Fuji in the distance.

I will be here for a few weeks before heading to northern Japan, the back to the States, and probably on to Germany from there. I should have some good fodder to write about in all of this.