Japan!

Here it is: the inside scoop on our riveting, edge-of-your-seat journey to Japan!
The students in our school have a 5 week summer vacation from July 19 until August 25. Its not really what American students would consider a "vacation" because a lot of them still go to private academy classes for 3 or 4 hours a day, 5 or 6 days a week. We taught half-day "summer camp" classes from 9 until 12 for the first 2 weeks and last week of the summer break. The 2 weeks in the middle were for our vacation - so we decided to go to Japan.
We left on Friday, August 1st, after a brief and tearful goodbye to Archness - our favorite kitten who was being adopted while we were away. we took a taxi to the Busan Ferry Terminal. The PanStar Ferry takes about 18 hours to get to Osaka. Here is a picture of the route it takes:



The afternoon we left the weather was gorgeous so we relaxed on the deck for hours and soaked up the sun and cool sea breeze. The ferry stays pretty close to land for almost the entire trip and it makes for a scenic trip. In the morning we passed under the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge - the longest suspension bridge in the world - before arriving in Osaka a little after 10.



We made our way to the Osaka station and hopped on a train to Kyoto. The Kyoto Station is huge, and a lot of fun to explore. Its futuristic design contrasts greatly with the traditional style of architecture found all over Kyoto. Here is a picture:



That afternoon we checked into the Tani house where we would spend the next 4 nights. It was a neat little guest house that has been run by the same woman for 30 years or so. Tucked away on a quiet little street with a nice bamboo garden around it, it was the perfect place to come back to and relax after a day of exploring.
Our first evening in Kyoto, we just walked around the downtown area for a few hours and had some tasty Nepali food for dinner.

The next day was long, exhausting, and extremely gratifying. We woke up early and rented two bikes from the Tani house. Our first stop was Kinkaku-ji (The Golden Pavilion). The name says it all. It was a pavilion. It was Golden. No false promises here. We went through the path twice, and tried to really soak in the beauty of it. It got really crowded with tourists, but nonetheless the place felt very peaceful and serene.



Our next destination for the day was Nijo castle and our bike ride there turned out to be a great activity in itself. The streets of Kyoto don't feel like you might expect a city of 1.5 million people to. Quiet and clean, its great just slowly pedal past all of the houses and little apartment buildings. Along the way we stopped at Kitano temple where they were drying plums:



The aroma was really amazing a we took a little break here for a few minutes.

Nijo Castle isn't one of those castles perched on a hill or towering over the landscape that has you impressed before you even get in. From the outside you are greeted only by and immense wall and moat - but as your work your way through the complex it really dawns on you how amazing it is. We were entertained by the "nightingale" floors that still server their purpose - producing squeaking sounds to warn of intruders.


After a quick lunch, we rode (and often walked) our bikes up the twisting alley of shops known as teapot alley that leads up to Kiyomizu-dera, a temple that offers you a really cool view of Kyoto.



For dinner we had a giant bowl of homemade pork ramen served in a quirky little ramen restaurant. mmm, Ramen. After that we biked back to our hostel along the river. It was nice and cool along the river, where the city has left large sections of park along both sides. By the time we got back, we were exhausted - but very satisfied with our full day.

On Monday, we went to Nara - home to the largest wooden building in the world and many, many deer. We spent most of our day just wandering around Nara-koen, the very large park in Nara where you can find the aforementioned deer and many cool temples and walking paths. The deer are very tame and have no problem letting you pet them:



the only problem is, when you buy food to feed, you'll be swarmed and if you're not careful, completely surrounded.


Its all over.

The deer have little patience and have no qualms about biting the hands that feed them to get attention. A lot of them also know how to bow, and will bow frantically at you in hopes of getting food. Its really funny.
Daibutsu (hall of the Buddha) is the largest wooden building (and in its current state, only 3/4 as bis as it used to be!) It is very impressive indeed. The Buddha inside may not be the biggest Buddha in the world - but he is the biggest Buddha inside of the biggest wooden building in the world... he's pretty big.



One of our other favorite things in Nara were the stone lanterns:



A good part of our next day was spent outside of Kyoto hiking between the two towns of Kurama and Kibune. You take a small train from Kyoto to the little town of Kurama. From there, you hike up and over a mountain with a temple at its top to the even smaller town of Kibune. The scenery was gorgeous and the path was not overflowing with tourists, so we had a really nice time.



Our last full day in Japan was full indeed. We were up early quickly on our way back to Kyoto station. From there it was an hour and a half train ride to Himeji where we visited a truly magnificent castle. It was a scorching hot day, but nonetheless we walked all through the castle and up to its very top. The view from the top is amazing, but more impressive is just to stand at the base of the castle and really appreciate its size.



From Himeji, we went to Osaka and straight to the Osaka Aquarium. Sarah and I are both suckers for aquariums, and I had actually heard about this one on the discovery channel, months before we had even made up our minds to go to Japan. It has the largest tank in the world, which is inhabited by 2 (TWO!!) whale sharks!! Spending a few hours gazing at aquatic animals was the perfect way to end our trip.





The very last exhibit in the aquarium was baby otters. Sarah died and went to aquatic animal heaven at this point.




The ferry ride home was a little bit boring, now that the novelty had worn off. Luckily we both had books to keep us occupied. I had picked up Sebastian Junger's best-seller "The Perfect Storm" at our hostel in Osaka. In hindsight, reading upon men being trapped in capsized fishing boats with ice-cold water rushing into their lungs might not have been the best thing to do on a ferry, but it did pass the time.

We arrived home the next day to our two remaining kittens, and quickly collapsed for some much needed rest.

A great trip!

MORE PHOTOS HERE
password: warren

Catching up...

I've finally stopped putting it off and decided to update the blog.
Its been over 2 months since we last updated the blog and we feel pretty guilty about it. We're now on our summer vacation so we have no excuse not to get it back up to speed.

The most recent news is that we just got back from an excellent trip to Japan!
But before we talk about our trip, I wanted to get the blog up to date with at least some of the things that have been going on in our lives these past couple months.

Sarah's title for the previous entry seems pretty foreboding in retrospect, but having six cats in our little apartment was not the only reason we didn't update the blog - the main reason for me was good old fashioned laziness. I think the Busan summer has contributed to aforementioned laziness as well. It has been quite hot and sticky here the last 2 months. What were we up to during those two months? Hopefully I can get the blog up to speed with our lives.

But... Before I can even get into that I have to mention our trip back in May. We had a 10 day vacation back in May from the 3rd to the 13th. For the first part of our trip we went up the east coast of Korea to Gangwon-do province. Gangwon-do covers a large area in north-eastern Korea (south) and is the most mountainous and least densely populated province. Unfortunately I caught a cold just 2 days before we left - this was a bit of a drag but we pressed on anyway, wanting to make good use of our vacation time. In Gangwon-do we stayed in jeongdongjin - a cool little touristy town with a beautiful beach. We followed this up with 2 days in Seorak-san national park. Hiking around the park for 2 days was exhausting - but very scenic and a nice escape from the bustle of Busan. After Seorak-san we stopped for one night and half of the following day in Chuncheon. We tried the city's famous Dak-galbi,(spicy chicken barbecue)- tasty.
The second half of our vacation was spent in Seoul, where we met up with our good friends Magdalena (Mags). It was good to see a familiar face and the three of us had a great time wandering around the streets of downtown Seoul and checking out the different sites. Interestingly enough we met up with 2 other HWS graduates who are also teaching English and a Korean girl who is still currently a William smith student. Seoul was a great time, and we hope to return sometime before we leave Korea to explore more of the huge city.
Within 2 days of returning from our exciting and exhausting trip we were bringing and pregnant cat up to our apartment, and well... see the previous entry for all the details on that.

The cats were about 3 weeks old when Sarah made that entry, and the cats have changed a lot since then. They went from being little balls of cuteness squirming around in our suitcase to ravenous beasts. If you haven't seen the youtube video, check it out here. They are about six weeks old in the video. As they got older they just got more and more energetic. We (especially Sarah) became really attached to one of them in particular - Little Archness - and even though we were getting tired of the constant litter box cleanings and coming home to find some small part of our home destroyed, we were not looking forward to saying goodbye when adoption time came.
After posting information about the kittens on some websites, we were contacted by several people - mostly other English teachers in Korea - who wanted to adopt. We now have only 2 kittens left, and someone is coming this afternoon to visit them. Soon the cat saga will over and will be a little sad without them around but we'll just have to remind ourselves that we gave them to good homes - and also that we no longer have to clean up after them!

So what else have we been up to these past few months? hmmm...
Well, aside from cat-ranchers were are still indeed working as English teachers. Teaching has plenty of challenges that we've had to deal with, but I feel that Sarah and I have improved a good deal since we arrived in Korea six months ago having no idea how we were even going to walk into the classroom in a few short days. Lesson planning has gotten easier and we know have a much better idea of what to expect from our students - although that will always be difficult.
I distinctly remember several times in middle school when I was appalled by a teacher's apparent total failure to grasp something significant to their students. It might be their sense of humor, or ideas about what might motivate us to do well that seemed totally foreign. I would promise myself to not be like them when I was older. When I was older, I would remember what it was like to be 13 and have no trouble being a "cool" adult.
So much for that.
Even without the difficulties of a different language and culture, I am still shocked at how inaccurate my assessments of students can be. Its very difficult to know what bothers them, what makes them laugh, or what they look forward to.

I've gotten to know some of my coworkers and it has been a lot of fun to hang out with some of them outside of school. After returning from our vacation in May, I found out that a new English teacher would be start working at my middle school, having just finished her maternity leave. Mrs. Yu, who prefers to be called Joy, has been a great friend. She has a great sense of humor and its easy to spend time just joking and chatting with her between classes instead of doing work. A few weeks ago she invited Sarah and I over to her apartment where we met her husband and very, very cute little baby boy.
My closest friend at Jugam middle school is Eun-Chan, who is not only one of the few male teachers at my school but also the only teachers who is within 3 years of my age. Most teachers at my school are at least 30 because of the many years of school and tests that you have to go through to become a teacher. Eun-Chan is not actually a certified teacher, but works for an animation company and comes to school 2 days per week to teach animation classes to the 8th grade students. Although his English is a bit limited, we always managed to have entertaining conversations about music, movies, or animation and realized we had a lot in common. Most importantly he is a fellow cat lover in a country with a lot of cat haters. He and his girlfriend, Ji-eun, took us to Samgwangsa temple on Buddha's birthday (youtube video!) It was a lot of fun. Last month we had them over to visit the kittens and enjoy a delicious spaghetti dinner:



We took a swing class in June and have still been going to the swing practice sessions occasionally, but we've slacked off a lot. We've also met and hung out with some other English teachers more often than we had before.

We've had some rough spots, such as the hierarchy and bureaucracy of the school system. Seeing the problems that it makes for our co-workers and students has been frustrating and it personally affected us in several ways as well. We've learned how to deal with it and make the best of it, but its still a problem.
Summer has made us particularly homesick - the hot and humid city streets have made us nostalgic for cooler days in the finger lakes.

Hopefully in the future we'll get in the habit of updating this blog more often. In the next few days we'll put up of post about our trip to Japan - and after that we'll try to update it regularly.

Stay tuned!