Shoes & St. Patty's

Just looking

I was in Apgujeong, an upscale neighborhood, recently.

While walking around I found this little hand made leather shoe shop.

Apgujeong is a pricy area to shop, so I decided to just look and try on...but not buy!

How'd this happen?!

While browsing, the shopkeeper told me there was a 50% off sale.

Who am I to pass up that kind of deal?

And I ain't never had me some handmade leather shoes before.

Shoes and a belt

There was a small, hardly noticeable, scuff on one of the shoes.

Yeah, I can't see it either.

But I did negotiate for a free belt because of it.

The Beer Call

Celebrated St. Patrick's Day yesterday. 

Since I had to work the next morning, I didn't plan on going out.

One beer at our local bar couldn't hurt though.

Self serve

No lack of selection here.

I like these self service bars in Korea.

Just head over to the coolers and take your pick.

Irish Ale

They didn't have green beer, but kept it Irish with Smithwick's Irish Ale.

Round 2

Mixing it up for round 2.

Free darts lessons

Took a little break from drinking to school some Koreans in darts.

Koreans do love them some school.

Pizza break

Winning at darts can really work up a hunger.

And it's not every day that RoboCop delivers your pizza!

Getting snooty with French beer

Free round of beers after our dart victory.

French beer tastes even better when it's free.

Celebrating the victory

Cheers to the victors!

Better luck next time chumps.

Let that be a lesson to you all, 

don't challenge us (me) to darts.

Daegu Temple Stay Tourism

One of my jobs took me to Daegu, to help promote tourism to the city.  

Daegu is about a 2.5 hour train ride from Seoul.  

There were 4 different models used for this video.

I was promoting Daegu Temple Stays.

And the other 3...who cares.

Giant Buddha stands watch over the temple grounds.  

Buddhists gather here for prayer.

I imagine the prayer goes something like "oh buddha buddha buddha buddha"

But I'm not sure, so don't quote me on that.

The nature surrounding the temple was so beautiful and peaceful. 

There were many trails to walk to take it all in.

I had to get off the beaten path to get this picture of the waterfall.  

While shooting this scene, I met a brother and sister from Sweden.

They were actually tourists experiencing the temple stay.

Lucky for them, they got to participate in the video.

Unlucky for them, they didn't get paid like I did.

While filming, I was surprised to find out that monks can drive cars and use cell phones.

I thought those modern devices would be sacrificed.

 This is an edited version of the promotional video (just of my part).  

The full video is about 8 minutes long.

It's a global campaign, so there are both English and Korean versions of the video.

Keep your eyes peeled for Daegu, Korea tourism videos.

This video has nothing to do with Daegu.

But as an added bonus I am including a recent home shopping commercial I did.

This product is called "Dr. Disk Crane"

It's supposed to help relieve back pain.

But after wearing it for half a day, it may have done more harm than good.

Hong Kong

A month ago I got to hop on this beaut of an airplane.  

Ethiopia, I barely knew the country, let alone the airline.  

They recently offered a new route to Seoul, and no I didn't fly to Ethiopia... 

I was headed to Hong Kong.

Jobs (the movie)

In-flight beef dinner

The in-flight movie and meal were nothing to write home about, but overall the flight was alright. 

Executive suite

When we got to the hotel, the Ramada Inn, we were pleasantly surprised with a free upgrade to the executive suite.  Like a boss.  

We had two nights to enjoy here.  

But with only one day to tour the city, we had to get busy.

First order of business was a night cap.  

We would need to be well hydrated for the mornings activities. 

So many activities.

Trolley car

We could easily hop on and off these trolley cars near the hotel.  

These double deckers were a fairly smooth ride around the city.

SOHO

Our first stop was the SOHO district.  This is more of an international area in HK, and you can still see some of the British influence from their colonization.

The Flying Pan for brunch

English breakfast

Seongeun had read reviews about The Flying Pan as a popular place to get breakfast. 

It's located near some pubs in SOHO, hence it being open 24 hours.  

The food did not disappoint. 

Big Bus Tour

Our next plan of action was to take a tour of the city on one of their double-decker buses.  

The weather was a bit chilly, but we were determined to sit on the upper deck.

A little windy up here

As you can see, maybe the upper deck was a poor choice.  

The cold soon mixed with some light sprinkles, but we toughed it out.

Stanley Market restaurants

We exited the bus at Stanley Market.  

It's a touristy shopping area, with an international selection of restaurants.

Mini burgers

We tried a restaurant serving these mini burgers, and washed them down with some beer.  

They were a bit over priced and under sized for my liking, but that's expected at a touristy area.

Ladies Market

As night fell, we headed to another famous market in the city, the Ladies Market.  

The name might lead you (by you I mean me) to believe this was a different kind of market.  

But this market had stalls full of designer-ish purses, wallets, etc.  

Though it did have some knock-off electronics and menswear I didn't buy anything.  

Seongeun on the other hand enjoyed this market.

Action!

To get a break from shopping we headed to the Avenue of Stars.  

It's HK's version of the Walk of Fame and Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.  

Only less famous.

Tsim Sha Tsui light show

Avenue of Stars is located in Tsim Sha Tsui, and this is also a good area to view the light show. 

Across the bay the skyscrapers light up every night for a 20 minute display of lights.  

It's pretty impressive, but I thought it'd be set to music and better orchestrated.  

I was a little let down due to my high expectations.

Nightlife area

We ended our night, and trip in HK at Lan Kwai Fong.  

It's a popular nightlife area, especially for the foreign population living in HK.  

Thai food & cocktails

Pizza & beer

After a long day of touring we worked up quite a thirst, and appetite.  Our first stop was a Thai restaurant & bar.  There we enjoyed some food and cocktails.  We were hungrier (and thirstier) than we thought though.  After touring the area, we ended the night with some pizza and beer.  We even made some new friends.  However, they happened to be thirstier than us, and probably don't remember.

Hard to believe we went to all these areas in one day, but we did everything on the itinerary.  

Our next stop (my next post) is Macau.

Yangjae Stream

Sometimes living in a city the size of Seoul, I just want to get away from the hustle and bustle and see some nature.  That's not always easy to do without a car.  Luckily for me, I live very close to Yangjae Stream, or in Korean 양재천 (양재 = Yangjae, 천 = cheon {stream}).

Almost looks like the Pecatonica River

Most people come to the stream for a leisurely walk.  Others come to jog or ride their bike.  And some come to drive their remote control cars.

Vroom vroom!

Whatever you choose to do along the stream, don't forget to stretch.  You forgot how to stretch you say! No worries there is signage along the path to remind you.

6 simple stretches to prepare yourself

There are a couple of ways to cross the stream.  Both are safe, though one is safer than the other.
Though I wrote that both passages are safe, just today while walking down the first couple of stone steps I slipped.  I managed to turn my stumble into an "I'm sitting down to take a picture" move.  I don't think anyone could tell it wasn't on purpose.  Next time maybe I'll stick to the bridge.

Stone path for the sure footed, or the bridge to be safe

The stream is very shallow at many points, so you could probably hike up your pant legs and trek across if you dared.  At other points it may even be deep enough for a shallow swim.  However, even if it is possible, it's not allowed...unless you're a duck.

Quack quack!

I wouldn't recommend swimming in these waters anyway.  Not with waterfalls like this bad boy.

Got artistic with the second shot

I admire how Koreans take pride in areas such as here.  Even though there are not many public trash cans in Korea (that's a whole other story), you will be hard pressed to find litter near the stream.  I did find this flag floating in the stream though.  Perhaps it was thrown after Yuna Kim got silver at the Olympics.  That caused a national outrage here.

Float away Pepsi flag

Perhaps nobody litters because there is a police station nearby.  And as you can see, with these intimidating images, who would dare break the law.

I would guess you get assigned to this station is you piss off your superiors

Besides the police station, the city keeps the walking path lit up at night as well for safety.  This is done in an environmentally friendly way.  The city chose to jazz up these solar panels a bit.

Those sunflowers weren't the only sign of the changing season.  I found actual proof that spring is around the corner.

Besides the walking path, there are other nice facilities around the stream.  There is exercise equipment, mostly used by the elderly.  Numerous foot-volleyball courts, which are usually busy on the weekends. And even though you may not be able to read 화장실 (bathroom), the pink woman and blue man are universal.  If you're curious of the pronunciation 화 = hwa 장 = jang 실 = shil.

You probably haven't heard about foot-volleyball; I hadn't until I came here.  The rules are fairly similar to regular volleyball, except you can't use your hands.  It's like soccer and volleyball had a sports baby. You can use your feet (obviously), your head, and your knees.  It sounds strange, but is quite fun.  I've played a few times.  Here's a short video of some guys playing today.

Bump, set, spike!

It was great weather today, and I enjoyed my little getaway from the city.  But as the sun set, a chill crept back in and the feeling of spring faded away.  Makes me glad the stream is so close to my apartment.

Another advantage of being so close to home, I was also able to head to one of the many neighboring cafes to warm up.  Today I chose BrownHaus Coffee and enjoyed an espresso and a waffle.

Yangjae Stream is a nice place to spend a Sunday, or any other day of the week for that matter.  As the weather continues to warm up, I plan to spend more time near the stream.  Maybe I'll even try to get in on some of those foot-volleyball games.

Lunar New Year

Korea was founded upon Confucianism and Buddhist cultures.  Traditionally they used the Lunar calendar.  The Lunar New Year, also referred to as Chinese New Year, lands on a different date each year.  It's one of the two biggest holidays in the country, and per Buddhist traditions you honor your deceased elders by bowing and visiting grave sites.  Koreans will also usually wear their traditional clothing, hanbok, and prepare lots of food. This includes some of the favorite foods of the deceased as an offering.  However, Christianity is becoming a more common religion in modern day Korea, thus these traditions aren't as strong as they once were.

Seoul is usually bustling with people, but during this holiday it seems like a ghost town.  Most businesses close down, and many citizens visit family in their hometowns outside of Seoul.  I was fortunate enough to be invited to Seongeun's parents home in Incheon to have a home cooked traditional dinner.

Having tea and fruit with Seongeun's mom & dad

Don't get mad Seongeun, but I don't really remember the names of all the food I ate, and since I don't have a picture of the food it's not important at this time.  But I can tell you it was very good.  After dinner we had some red-ginseng tea and various fruits.  You can also see Seongeun's mom wore a traditional hanbok dress in honor of my visit.  Just call me Buddha.

Since this holiday doesn't mean much for me, I didn't partake in too many other holiday activities.  I enjoyed the four day weekend and caught up on some sleep.  I did meet Seongeun for a little shopping, and while at the mall there was a cool display of Legos to promote the new Lego movie.

It was also fun seeing this display because I just finished reading Brick by Brick, which is a book about the Lego company.  All-in-all it was a pretty quiet weekend for me, and just like that the four day weekend is over.