This page is all about the traveling I've done outside of Korea. I've been lucky enough to do a lot of traveling while I've been here. This is a work in progress, so it might take me a long time to get everything up.
JAPAN
The most recent trip I have taken was to Japan. My friend, Ann Marie, and I decided to spend four days in Hiroshima and Kyoto. I know most of you are probably thinking that I must be nuts to go to Japan during it's nuclear crisis. But, I'd like to assure you that we stayed southern enough to avoid the earthquake aftermath.
I had really high expectations for Japan. I've heard wonderful things from friends both at home and living in Korea. In fact, some people living in Korea say they wished they were teaching there after visiting Japan. Maybe my expectations were too high. In all honesty, I was not overly impressed. Japan is a lot more international than Korea, which is evident by the clothing Japanese people wear, shopping, and diverse restaurants available. There's no denying that Japan is completely different than Korea, but it's not THAT different. I am aware that I'm contradicting myself, but I can't think of any other way to explain it.
Kyoto was as one would expect; filled with temple after temple after temple. Ann Marie and I did about as much templing as we could handle for the 2 days we were there. We were trying to save money (Japan is EXPENSIVE), so we decided to walk to all the temples we wanted to see. This worked for about the first 3 temples we saw. Then, we stupidly decided to venture out of the "tourist square" to a shrine that we thought was just South of where we were. If you know me at all, you know I'm the worst with directions, and while Ann Marie is better than me; she's no explorer. To make a long story short, we walked for ages before we finally jumped on the subway (which took less than 5 minutes to get to our destination).
Going to Hiroshima was interesting. I was definitely ashamed to be an American at Peace Park, and told Ann Marie that we both were going to be Irish for the day. As you can imagine, Peace Park is an extremely emotional place. It's hard to believe that the U.S. dropped one bomb, but even more unfathomable that they dropped two. I don't want to dwell on the politics of the situation too much, especially since everyone knows the history of WWII.
I would, however, like to comment on the irony of Peace Park. Peace Memorial Park is not only meant to memorialize the Atomic Bomb victims, but also to advocate world peace and remind the world of the atrocities of nuclear weapons. However, at the same time Japan is thinking of establishing their own nuclear program.
