THE ORIXNT by Isaiah Expedition Broomfield

The End

2014-09-07T01:33:00.002-04:00

It may have taken me a little over two years, but I've finally fulfilled my commitment to myself and finished this blog! I'm proud to have seen this project through, even if it didn't quite live up to my lofty goals at the outset. I really wanted to focus on cultural commentary, but as time continued to remove me further from my experiences, and as I became more aware of just how little I actually knew about these complicated countries and the intricate interplay of their pasts and presents, I realized just how idealistic that goal had been. Probably one of the most important things I learned is that six weeks in a new region does not at all make one an authority on anything.

Here's the heart of this blog-- the little red notebook I carried with me every second of every day while I was abroad! This page shows some of the cool tourist stamps I got in Hiroshima

I'm glad that the pages upon pages of notes and gigs upon gigs of pictures that I brought back with me from Asia have a place to play together on the internet. I hope that if you've been here before, you've enjoyed the journey, or that if this is your first time here, you'll look around a bit. Be sure to explore the tabs in the navigation bar above, and look out for the "Older Posts" button in the bottom right of the site and the "read more" buttons on my lengthier posts. Don't want to miss any of the gold!

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me here.

And here's a playlist of all the videos I've made from my travels. Check them out!

Thanks for visiting!

Highlights from Korea

2014-09-07T01:09:00.002-04:00

The End of the Adventure (6/24)

2014-09-07T01:03:00.004-04:00

Assembling to roll out... for the last time!

From my notes:

Leaving day! Bussed to the airport without a hitch, although I didn't catch the part where Dr. Yi left-- she didn't say bye! There was a huge line to check in, which then took a long time too, including an extra wait for Jack and I for some unannounced reason for our boarding passes. Jack wanted window and didn't get it, so I traded him cause I'm kind like that. Security searched my souvenirs twice, and confiscated my bike chain [that I'd found at the art district in Beijing].

Saying goodbye to Seoul/Incheon!

I spent a good portion of the flight back to the States watching movies, a few of which were Korean, trying to soak up every last bit of the culture I could. The trip back didn't feel quite as magical as the trip there, and I definitely didn't have as interesting a project to occupy myself (I wasn't able to prepare a bunch of readings or anything of the sort, like I had for my first flight). I did do a lot of reflecting, thinking, and writing. I think my mind may have traveled even more than my body did! Here's another excerpt from my notes:

CRESTING THE PARABOLA CROSSING INTO CANADIA
FLYING FROM MYSELF YEAH I'M
FLYING BACK FROM ASIA
TRAVEL ISN'T DISTANCE TIME OR MONEY
TRAVEL IS FEAR, LOSS, DIFFERENCE, RUNNING

The Me I was before is gone,
I left it there with you so long
Ago and I know the me I've been
could never make it through security
So brace yourself for change lover cause
nothing else exists,
Help me find myself and see what's left

I'm soaring while I'm sitting cause my body isn't me
Neither is my past my pad my pennies my future
Who I am isn't a question, it's a lifetime

Becoming--> being
Superficial-->substantial

Cersting the parbola
Crossing to Canadia
Flying from myself, yeah
I'm flying back from Asia

My last sight of Asia!

Studying abroad was definitely one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life. The breadth and depth of the exposure is completely unparalleled; the access and immersion were both irreplicatable. How could I go to so many places, do so many things, meet so many people, and be given so much context and history in any other context? I spent so much of my time flying back thinking about how thankful I was for the experience, and for everyone who had helped me along the way. I found myself committing to being different, to internalizing the experience, to learning and growing from it, but I knew to a degree that commitment was superfluous-- the changes had already happened, I was just figuring them out as I went along.

Flying over the Canadian tundra, if I recall correctly

The sun rises on my second day in the air

After landing, we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways without much ceremony. The magic was definitely over, and we all seemed a little shell-shocked as we wandered back towards our lives. And that is how my study abroad experience came to a close.

Even though we'd said our goodbyes, we weren't done with the academic side of things. The final for Dr. Tessman's class was a take-home essay he gave to us after we'd returned, so we wouldn't have to split our energies between it and our travels. The prompt was about the three most pressing threats to East Asian security. Because Tessman's was but one half of our education abroad, I decided to weave in Buddhist theory from Dr. Yi's portion of the trip as well, because that had been such a significant focus for us throughout our travels (particularly in Korea), because I'd taken such a liking to it, and because I wanted to prove that I'd been paying attention. It was a far better idea in concept than in practice, and kind of lead to a mess of a paper, but hey! I passed the class! Yay, me! And here's a link to the paper, if you'd like to check it out!

Last Day Abroad! (6/23)

2014-09-07T00:08:00.001-04:00

It was really hard to wrap my head around the fact that this grand adventure wasn't going to go on forever, that there would come a time after which the experiences would stop; I'd have to get on a plane and go back home and leave behind this incredible world of new places, histories, thoughts, experiences. I guess I'm thankful that that day arrived unannounced, that it didn't agonizingly creep up on me, but instead unceremoniously appeared.

I took it pretty easy on my last day in Korea. My only real excursion was a trip to the Korean War Memorial/Museum. Someone had recommended that we check it out to learn more after our visit to the DMZ, so a few of us went on our own. My favorite part was the actual memorial to the Korean war-- it was a globe split in half along the 38th parallel, with two "brothers," soldiers in military garb, embracing atop it, across the line. Very powerful.

Statue of two brothers

The rest of the memorial and museum was a bit too militaristic for my tastes. "What did you expect, going to a military history museum?!" one might ask. I don't know. I really don't know. But I do know that I was still really shaken up from visiting the Hiroshima memorial, so a lot of the museum's militarism seemed frustrating and retrogressive.

Another monument. Had a lot of really strange aggressive, masculine, and almost fascist aesthetics and themes that threw me off

The museum has an absurd amount of materiel

Look at all that machinery! Pretty intense

There were two particularly heavy moments in my visit to the museum. The first was seeing all the Korean youth climbing all over the military equipment, with smiles on their faces and lights in their eyes. I have no place to make any sort of judgments on Korean culture or parenting or anything of that sort, but from a humanistic perspective it saddened me to see war and militarism so normalized. I don't live in a divided country, though, and definitely have an extremely privileged/biased background as an American.

They're so young :/

The next moment was at the PKM-357 exhibit. This patrol boat had been involved in a skirmish with North Korea in 2002, and six of its crew were killed. The boat has been restored and now has massive red circles around each of the holes that were put through it in battle. People walk through it. I don't know how I feel about that.

Some of the many bullet holes in the boat

The rest of my time was spent wandering the museum itself, which was pretty interesting-- far less pressing or discomforting due to the historical distance between the artifacts and the present day.

One of Korea's famous turtle ships

Apparently Korean horses abused steroids

I basically spent the rest of the day chilling and reflecting, trying to soak up as much of the atmosphere I'd come to love as possible. I went back to the Art Space that had been so much fun the day before, and stuck around that oh-so-musical public square for a few more acts. Then, I headed back to my room to pack for our early departure the next morning.

A jazz group

Buddy was gettin' it on his melodica

And that, as anticlimactic as it may sound, was my last day in Korea.

Panmunjeom: The DMZ, and Nightlife in Seoul (6/22)

2014-09-05T01:30:00.001-04:00

The day had finally come to see the Panmunjeom, better known as the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), and tensions increased steadily as the day went on. We were all a bit easy from the outset, having had an orientation meeting before leaving for the illustrious site. We were told to wear decent to nice clothes, not to bring anything with us, to keep our hands empty and at our sides, and not to make any eye contact or gestures with anyone at the DMZ itself. The women in the group were given a special talking-to wherein our chaperones awkwardly danced around some sort of seemingly sexist point about the soldiers there not being able to see women often and that the women should cover their bodies to prevent provoking anybody at this intense intersection of interests. I'm all about challenging norms like these, but the boundary between someone else's country and another country with which they are technically still at war did not seem like the best front on which to make a stand. So I didn't. I just felt uneasy about walking into someone else's military and political mess, especially one in which such an orientation is necessary.

Military helicopters near the DMZ

Seoul got progressively more militarized as we approached the border. My first such sighting was the six helicopters flying in formation, presumably patrolling the area. I'd never seen so many military machines in action. I then began to notice the fences, the guard towers, the signs and roadblocks. I couldn't wrap my head around just what exactly I was getting myself into-- I mean, by essence of being demilitarized, this was probably one of the most peaceful points of contention I could visit, but the potential for that demilitarization to be broken, for the trap to snap shut and the tensions to ignite that loomed over the whole strange arrangement stopped me from feeling like just another tourist going to just another tourist destination.

The roadblock that separates Seoul from the DMZ

Bunkers and mortars just inside the roadblock

Some of the abundant farmland that acts as a buffer between these ex-belligerents

One of the most interesting aspects of the DMZ is how rural it is, as depicted above. There are acres upon acres of undeveloped farmland that, although mined, are otherwise devoid of the military presence that typifies the rest of the area. Rice crops are abundant here, and are allegedly some of the finest in the land. Rice farmers don't have to pay taxes on the land and get their land for cheaper (a small concession for being so close to such a tense geopolitical situation), and are able to charge a hefty markup due to the quality and cleanliness of the land. If you think about it, the DMZ has pretty much been left alone since the 50s, when much (if not all) of Korea's development and therefore environmental degradation has gone on. People claim there are species alive in the DMZ that are extinct elsewhere. Koreans make it sound like a pretty magical place, aside from the inescapable political shenanigans. Oh, and the landmines, which apparently wash out of their placements in the rainy season and wreak havoc on anyone brave enough to farm those lands. Allegedly animals don't set off the mines... perhaps they don't weigh enough or can smell or otherwise sense them? Who knows.

Our first stop was the border itself. Both North and South Korea have complexes on either side of an open area, in which several small buildings that serve as negotiation rooms sit. There was a smattering of guards from both countries staring intensely at each other, and the tension in the air was thick. As soon as we walked out of the South Korean structure, there was some mild commotion on the North Korean side, and out came a group of North Korean tourists. Apparently North Koreans visit the DMZ far less often than South Koreans, and their guards are only there when visitors are-- we were pretty lucky to see such a sight! I was very suspicious because of the synchronistic timing that this was no mere coincidence, but I have no evidence to indicate anything else. The craziest part was the general-looking gentleman with a massive ornamented hat and powerful, piercing binoculars staring at all of us from atop the North Korean building. The North Korean tourists, dressed in regular clothes, gestured and talked a bit (things we were explicitly forbidden from doing!), and soon left.

The heart of the DMZ, staring at the North Korean structure

The North Korean tourists, with the general-looking man in the olive drabs

Some of the intimidating soldiers on the South Korean side (note the shades-- they're part of the uniform. How intense!!)

After the North Korean tourists left, we were guided into one of the blue negotiation rooms pictured above. There, we saw the tables and mics and other adornments that facilitate communication between the two halves of this once unified country, and were able to cross from the South Korean side of the building to the North Korean side, technically crossing the DMZ into North Korea. Too bad they didn't stamp my passport!

Posing with one of the guards-- it's kind of a tradition/is encouraged, even though it felt really disrespectful of the seriousness of the situation.

After touring the negotiation room, we were taken back to the South Korean command facility, where we were shown the communication room-- the one place where North and South Korean officially talk to each other (when things are on good terms, of course). There was a very thorough exhibit of the history of the DMZ, with pictures of all the crazy crises that have come out of this perplexing situation. From civilians being kidnapped off beaches by covert submarines to an axe murderer, there have been quite a few strange happenings at the DMZ.

The South Korean command center

Our next stop was the tunnels that the South Koreans have found. For quite some time, the North Koreans were trying to tunnel through the solid granite under the DMZ to come up behind South Korean defenses. Three tunnels have been found, and to my knowledge no more are expected to exist. The South Koreans have built buildings around the tunnels and use them as tourist attractions! We were able to go down into the tunnels (they were quite tight), but weren't allowed to take cameras, for whatever reason.

More pillboxes between the DMZ proper and the tunnels

A diagram near one of the tunnels

Some of that famous DMZ rice I mentioned earlier

An awesome sculpture near the tunnels

A reminder that death waits in the wings almost everywhere you go at the DMZ

Our next stop was OP Dora, an observation post from which one can look into North Korea. Specifically, you can see the fake ghost town that North Korea made to look less terrible to the outside world!

OP Dora

And Kijong-dong, the fake North Korean propaganda city (it looked a lot better through the binoculars)

Our next stop was the Inter-Korean Transit Office, the only way by land to get to North Korea. I got to talk to a soldier there for a bit who explained that the office was a place of peace, not of tension like the DMZ. He said 73% of workers in N. Korea are ~20 yr old women who earn about $100/month. There are 123 S. Korean companies that operate in N. Korea, with 50,000 S. Korean workers and their families working and living across the border. It was fascinating to me that one of N. Korea's most profitable enterprises is a joint venture/exploitation by their capitalist enemies (but of course I was talking to a S. Korean to get this information, and would likely get a different picture if it were a N. Korean soldier I was talking to).

A sign for Pyeongyang, illustrating that the two countries aren't completely divided

We left the DMZ and headed back to the city of Seoul, where we got together to reflect not only on our experiences that day, but also to check in on the trip as a whole. It was crazy for me to think that within 3 days I'd gone from Hiroshima, the heart of the international peace movement, to the DMZ, the last vestige of the Cold/Korean War. The difference was chaotic. One was totalizing, conciliatory, peaceful; the other was tense, divisive, particular. It was crazy to think how few miles separated the two, but how much cultural, historical, and political difference there was. The world is fucking crazy.

Discussing our trip

At this point, I needed to get away/decompress, so that's exactly what I did, and my day took a radical turn. It's crazy to think that what came after these experiences was a part of the same day, but hey, that's studying abroad, I suppose! Hard to rival the diversity of experiences you find when you've got a limited time in an unlimitedly interesting new place!

BEST PLACE IN ALL OF SEOUL

My first stop was the Seogyo Art Space, which was basically heaven for me. I must have spent something like 5 hrs there! I mean that can't be possible considering all the other things I did that day, but hey, it felt like a good long time that I was there! The building was just open, which was really cool; I walked in, sat down, and just went with the flow of things! Nobody really questioned why I was there or tried to introduce me to the space or tell me to leave, all of which I appreciated. My first stop was the incredible community library; I forget what I read, but I remember loving all of it. Lots of art books, lots of theory, lots of magazines... and not all in Korean, either! Basically it was all extremely new and interesting, all of which I'm a huge sucker for.

I then wandered down to the basement, where an incredible video installation was running. It was a Pacific film festival, so I got to see experimental films from all around the region, and BOY was there a ton of diversity! I wrote down a lot of the artists and works, but unfortunately most of them aren't big enough to have bridged the culture gap just yet... which on one hand makes me sad, because their work is incredible and deserves to be seen, and on the other hand makes me frustrated that there isn't more cultural exchange in the age of the internet on things like these! Granted, there's arguably a lot more access to international art these days, but most of that still has to be filtered through gatekeepers such as blogs or journals or what have you, and that selection process not only limits how much makes it across the Pacific, but also what sorts of things, all of which I'm completely un-ok with! So at the same time that I was sad and frustrated, I was also excited that I'd found a niche that I could possibly one day attempt to fill! But I digress.

The video installation in the basement. SO CAPTIVATING!!!

A really badass sign that I randomly found lying under the staircase. Anyone care to translate the Korean for me?

And of course there was a super cool wood shop on the roof of the building! AGH, what an incredible community space!!! Why haven't I found one like it here in the states?!?!?!?!

After nerding out over art at the art space, I met back up with my travelmates, and ended up going out for some curry. Now, I grew up on some extremely non-spicy southern cooking-- maybe Appalachian is a better classification, because again, it wasn't spicy, and I know some of you southern folk get pretty stoked about spice. So I'm totally not used to eating spicy food, and often don't because of that, but of course I'm with some dudes and we all do that stupid dude thing where we feed off of and challenge each other, and against my best judgement, I find myself ordering the spiciest damn curry on the menu. Now, mind you, I'd had curry other times during the trip, and am a HUGE fan of Korean curry. Not quite sure what the technical differences are between Korean curry and, well, curry-curry, but... perhaps Korean curry is sweeter and more savory? Whatever the case, I'm a huge fan, but had never had it spicy... until now. And I'm probably exaggerating when I say this, but eating that curry was damn near close to a religious experience. I was shaking and sweating and I swear I entered another state of consciousness, not anything transcendent or enlightened (at least I don't THINK!), but my body definitely felt completely different, as did my mind and my emotions. I felt cleansed, almost, as if the spice had burnt something bad out of me. It was extremely interesting, and I'm totally looking forward to trying it again, but not for quite some time-- getting over the fiery death was not at all easy.

Walkin' around downtown

Some really crazy architecture

Gunpla at the curry place!

The curry crew

LOOK AT ALL THAT CURRY! IMAGINE ALL THE SPICE!

Another quirk of the curry was that it seemed to make me exceedingly susceptible to the affects of alcohol, so the rest of the night ended up being a rip-roaringly good time. I followed my friends (who did not finish all of their curry like me, for the record!) to a very cool bar by the name of Roots Time, which drew us in with its reggae theme. I'd never been to a reggae bar before, but it worked, was an awesome atmosphere, and was a really great time!

The entrance to Roots Time

After Roots Time, I caught some live music outside in the square-- it seemed as if there was always music going on there, it was really cool! And somehow I heard of a metal show not far away and, being that I love metal but had not yet at that point been to a metal show, I set out in search of it. I ended up finding the bar just fine, but wasn't willing to commit to the door fee, so I had to scratch that idea off my list for the evening.
There's no music like free music, though, and when I passed back through the square in search of my travel mates, I ran into some more of it!

Always music, all the time

Another act

Now I don't quite remember how the next part of the story starts, but somewhere along the way I found or was given a ticket to a really interesting-sounding club called Cocoon. I hunted it down and, for lack of better things to do, decided to check it out. I'd done some other clubbing in Korea and had been pretty blown away by how intricate Korean clubs are, as well as the intricacies of the clubbing scene, but GOOD GOLLEY, this club was on a completely different level. I was only able to snag one picture, but it may give you an idea of the scene inside.

Hands-down the craziest club I've ever been to. Three levels of lasers and fog and music and people and... agh!

And that was pretty much the peak of my night. I wasn't really feeling up to the club scene, so I set out to wandering again, and at one point ended up coming across some sort of bar that I recall trying to talk my way into, but being denied entry because I was white. I just enjoyed wandering around and taking in all the commotion that is Seoul's nightlife. It's certainly something else!

Good luck, car! It spent what felt like an eternity trying to wade through the masses. Extremely ineffective.

And yet another jazz bar that I wanted to but was unable to check out!

Korea, Take III: Hello to Seoul! (6/21)

2014-09-04T19:16:00.002-04:00

It was pouring like crazy at the airport, but thankfully our flights, although a tad turbulent, were neither cancelled nor delayed. Soon, we were back in Korea, and boy was it nice to see open space again! Japan is so thoroughly developed that it began to feel a bit claustrophobic, but the first five minutes on the road from the airport to Seoul were just the tonic I needed.

Rainy day for travel

First sights of Korea-- open space!!!

Never saw anything like this in Japan-- everything seemed occupied, developed

Downtown Seoul, outside our hotel

We checked into our hotel, dropped off our belongings, grabbed a bite to eat, and then hit the road for the National Museum of Korea! We traveled via the impressive Seoul subway system, but missing a train and getting off at the wrong stop meant we had to take an exhaustively long walk to get to the museum, leaving all of us thoroughly drained (as if a day of international travel hadn't been tiring enough!)

Approaching the museum-- it was a massive complex!

Inside the lobby

Bushed

The museum itself was exceedingly impressive, containing artifacts dating back to the 5th century BC and beyond. This is actually one of the only pictures I captured at the museum-- my phone was low on both battery and storage space. Nevertheless, they're some of the oldest artifacts in the collection.

Hand-crafted ceramic figurines from the 5th century

From my journal:

The National Museum of Korea was not awesome enough to overcome my fatigue from a 6am wakeup and a day of travel. I was very impressed with how great the english translations were-- I found myself getting frustrated when some cool things had no english to explain them, only to reflect that a Korean in an American museum would have an infinitely more frustrating experience. I have nothing to complain about-- I had it good.

The museum seemed very proud of itself--huge structures, fancy displays, etc. It was cool to see things Dr. Yi had taught us about, but I definitely preferred the way she embedded her lessons in relevant contexts to make them more than just historical trivia-- the museum couldn't compare on that front.

The trip from the museum back to the hotel went a lot easier, and we were given the rest of the evening off. I grabbed a bite to eat and poked around the downtown area near the hotel, catching some live music and finding an interesting American-themed vintage store. There's a lot going on in downtown Seoul!

The view from my hotel room

More Seoul

Live music every night!

Inside American Vintage Cowboy

Highlights from Japan

2014-09-04T17:01:00.002-04:00

the Itsukushima Shrine off the coast of Hiroshima

Here are some highlights from my visit to Japan!

Last Day in Japan! (6/20)

2014-09-04T16:52:00.007-04:00

Today was far less heavy than the day before had been. Since it was to be our last day in Japan, we were given most of the day off, with an optional excursion scheduled for the afternoon. We split into informal groups based on our plans for the day, and after a quick breakfast, went our separate ways.

Hayes had an awesome conversation with another guest, all in Japanese

My first stop was Hiroshima Castle, which dates back to the 1600s. The original was destroyed in the A-bombing, so the facility I saw was a reconstruction. I arrived before it officially opened, and killed some time on the castle grounds. The castle is right by the river, and I observed someone doing what appeared to be tai chi towards the rising sun. It was impressive to behold. I also scaled the large rock wall behind the castle, saw a stray cat that I attempted but unfortunately failed to befriend, and generally enjoyed the greenery that surrounded the site.

The castle itself was quite small on the inside, but my friend Maria and I had a good time in the history museum section, where we got to try on some armor.

The castle, through the trees

Some of the awesome stonework

The castle itself

Maria had fun with the armor

Next, I headed to the Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art. Although I consider myself a pretty big art fan, I hadn't yet been to a MOCA. Hiroshima's, I discovered, is phenomenal. The museum was hosting a huge art brut exhibit, which again I was completely unfamiliar with, but completely captivated by.

A glimpse of the collection

Then, after some lunch, we reconvened to catch a ferry to Miyajima, an island not far from Hiroshima!

Our ferry

Under way

Miyajima is best known for its extremely iconic and picturesque Itsukushima shrine, which was the main reason we made the trip out to the island. We made our way off the ferry and through the town, towards the famous shrine.

Miyajima, like Nara, is swarmed with friendly deer. Here, the deer wait for the clippings from the gentleman up above

Perhaps the goofiest tanuki yet

Itsukushima Shrine is best known for its gorgeous aquatic torii gate, which allegedly simply rests upon the sand, resisting the tides and currents and other natural forces. Again, Japan seems to have some magical fusion between human artifice and natural law that is as stunning to the mind as it is to the eye. Luckily, we made it to the island at low tide, so we were able to walk out and visit with the gate that, under normal conditions, sits safely out in the bay.

Me in front of the famous gate

A view of the shrine itself from out beside the gate

The gnarly legs of the gate

Visitors add coins to the gate; if they survive the tide, the visitors' wishes come true!

One of several gorgeous pieces of driftwood around the shrine's grounds

Another angle

The shrine's main walkway

The gate from the shrine proper

After ambling about the shrine's grounds for a time, I set off on my own. I ended up finding a river, which I followed for a delightful hike through the less developed parts of the island. I was able to stop at a boulder in the middle of the river for a meditation, was guided by a deer to an awesome mountain overlook, and generally had a great time wandering my mind and my environment at the same time.

Upon my return, I was drawn into a curiosity shop, with doors opened wide, not a sign of a single customer or staffer, curiosities spilling out into the streets, and a gorgeous pond tucked away in the back.

The pond at the back of the store

Fish swarming everywhere

A look at the store's interesting inventory

The deer that led my way, looking back to see who the hell was following it

A look out at the community of Miyajima

After our time on Miyajima, we headed back to Hiroshima for one last night on the town. I treated myself to one last Japanese meal before we were to head back to Korea.

Legit ramen + gyoza = heaven

Hiroshima (6/19)

2014-09-04T14:52:00.006-04:00

A Shinkansen (Bullet) train

Destination: Hiroshima. Means: the Shinkansen, or Bullet Train. I'd heard about it all my life, one of the many incredible things to come from Japan that isn't painted as strange but instead admirable, ingenious, or superior. I find it funny that I had to go all the way around the world to catch a train ride, especially since America was practically built and is still maintained on rails. But that's a story for another time.

First, there was breakfast, and for it, I tried my very first natto!

Natto. So Japanese

Natto was explained to me as somewhat of a Japanese inside joke-- that, although it is a traditional Japanese food, many Japanese people don't even like it, and foist it on foreigners to test their mettle, measure their commitment to Japanese culture, judge how crazy they are, etc. Natto is made from fermented soybeans and, like most fermented foods, has a potent smell, and an even more potent taste. I cannot say that I was a fan; natto ranks close to vegemite as an interesting foreign food I don't feel the need to eat more of. Come to think of it, I can't recall a Korean or Chinese equivalent... all of their food (that I tried), even the "weird" stuff, is awesome!

Our trip to Hiroshima signaled the end of our time in Kyoto-- Hiroshima was to become our new home base for the remainder of our time in Japan. We collected our belongings and headed to that fancy station I blogged about earlier. We had enough of a layover that I got to do some more exploring of the facility's eye-catching architecture.

Goodbye, Kyoto!

Stairs and sculptures

Curves and angles

More of the same

It was indeed happy

Looking down from the terrace

On the way to the Shinkansen!

Here's what my journal has to say about the Shinkansen:

16 cars. Vastly more men than women; many appear to be business types/professionals. Acceleration and deceleration are both very smooth; you can't really tell physically how fast you're tearing across the country without looking out the window. Very nice train-- clean, well-maintained, plenty of accomodations including smoking rooms which somehow contain the smoke without contaminating the rest of the car or its neighbors. Walking while the train is in motion is much like being drunk--your body moves according to unexpected forces beyond your control. I thought it was pretty fun-- kinda like a sweet challenge.

Onboard the Shinkansen

More notes from my journal:

Doc Brock and I had a sweet conversation about the Japanese train system versus America's lack thereof. Car culture, gas prices, and American individualism add to the list of systemic disincentives to invest in rail which, when multiplied by the geographical expanse of the States versus Japan or Korea, provides a compelling argument for America's lack. I was able to get a few questions in about status quo and change dynamics in an abstract sense--not just in terms of rail or business or government but also anything as large as culture/society or anything as small as any given issue-area. The search continues.

Our trip flew by despite the distance, thanks to the speed of the Shinkansen, and before we knew it, we were out and about in Hiroshima. Our hotel was far closer to the train station than our Kyoto digs had been, and we passed through a mall to grab some Okonomiyaki on our way.

The opulence of Hiroshiman malls

The group breaks for lunch

Okonomiyaki!

I like

Hiroshima

Drastic change of pace: And then it was time to do what we'd come to Hiroshima to do, to visit the Peace Memorial.

Our first glimpse of the Memorial's grounds/the A-Bomb Dome looms from behind the trees

The A-Bomb Dome

The professors and placards at the park explained that Hiroshima was incorporated in 1889, is 70 square kilometers in size, and is home to 216,000 people. Hiroshima modernized throughout the 20th Century with help from military bases (it was a headquarters/was involved in the Sino-Japanese War (1894), Russo-Japanese War, and Boxer Rebellion). Because of its military involvement, Hiroshima was one of the earliest Japanese cities to develop railroads, and became even more than a military hub. It was also involved in the Japanese "emigration" to Korea (aka Japanese Imperialism), which began in the late 1870s, and the Manchurian Incident on the eve of the "Pacific War," which began in 1941. Hiroshima had undergone an "authoritarian turn," including conscription ("spiritual mobilization") and austerity. Air raid drills were common, and the population was further militarized through education. Further, Mitsubishi had moved there in 1939 and began to build warships.

But at 8:15 on August 6th, 1945, all of that changed forever.

The intersecting bridges that were used as the target for the A-bomb

Detail of the damage on the A-Bomb Dome

Still standing in its original condition since 1945

The grounds of the park were equal parts graphic reminders and tragic memorials.

People from all over the world contributed cranes to commemorate the loss of life

One of many memorials on the park's grounds

More cranes (those pictures are made from cranes)

Me ringing the peace bell

One of the many family-oriented sculptures on the grounds

Looking at the dome through a memorial

Another ode to the families that were affected

A final memorial

My notes from the memorial:

Hiroshima's museum was fucking heavy. Felt life-changingly so, in fact. I felt quite depressed, changed, and angry at the US/the nuclear status quo. I was thinking about nukes as an addiction, an escape for states. Just like any other addiction, it's a tool used to achieve a certain desired state--in this case, peace (if one can call detente in the face of nuclear annihilation "peace"). The state is entirely achievable through other means, but why try something else when the subject at hand seems so useful in achieving what one wants? In IR, we so often attribute human characteristics to states, whether as rational unitary actors or as amalgamations whose leaders imbue them with human qualities through the decision-making process. Either way, states are anthropomorphised, thus allowing for addiction too to be applied abstractly to their behavior. Consider nukes as a crutch for world peace-- their effectiveness is anything but proven. Nukes have never been used since Japan, so the theories surrounding their pacifying affects have never been tested. True, their use has come close in some notable situations, but consider the rationale for avoiding them--they will cause too much human, environmental, economic, etc. destruction, or they will incite retaliation, neither of which is desired. These outcomes are true with or without nukes! The things that prevent a state from nuking another are still present in the calculated use of any sort of force! The nukes carry no weight!

I felt depressed as fuck after the memorial. Coming back to the hotel was a blur. I slept hard; I was mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted. ~3 hrs in that museum. I felt like a different person afterwards. I still think my opinions have been influenced by the exhibit, although I know the emotions will fade somewhat over time. I hope to make a difference somehow, someday, in some way.

The memorial museum after 3 hrs of intenseness. The clouds and lighting were powerfully apropos

The museum didn't pull any punches. It had a multitude of artifacts from the destruction, from melted tricycles to chunks of walls and ground with those illustrious charred shadows from where humans were incinerated by the blast. It was a non-stop sensory assault, and I felt guilty to be an American there. They also had an exhibit of all the letters written by the politicians of Hiroshima to every world leader about the devastation of nuclear weapons and the need to abolish them. I found myself wishing that everyone in the world could visit the memorial. I still wish that.

I took no pictures inside. I have no content to share. I wish I could share more, but I'm sure that if you're interested you can find pictures, videos, articles, and all sorts of commentary, from people with stronger stomachs than mine.

The rest of a night, as I said in my journal, was a blur. We walked through Hiroshima back to our hotel, but I was in no mood to participate in society after all that I'd seen. I was so thankful to make it back to home base and throw in the towel for the day.

Walking the streets of Hiroshima

Another cool jazz bar I wanted to check out but was never able to make it back to

Hiroshima at night

More nightlife

Nara, Land of Deer and Temples (6/18)

2014-09-03T16:59:00.001-04:00

Today was a much slower day than the one before it, for which I was very thankful-- I was still pretty beat after all the exploring we'd done in and around Kyoto! We did have a bit longer of a commute-- our destination was Nara, a city right across the border from Kyoto. We did take a train to get there, but it might as well have been down the street!

On our way to Nara

Our first stop was Todai-ji, a massive Buddhist temple in Nara. This temple lay on the other side of Nara's infamous Deer Park, through which we walked. Nara is known for its deer, which roam freely through the parks and streets. They're practically domesticated, and are so used to being fed by tourists that they'll come right up and steal brochures out of your hand (they seem to have developed a taste for paper, of all things).

Navigating swarms of deer

Todai-ji itself is reputed to be the largest wooden structure in the world. It dates back to 728, and is also known for its massive bronze sculpture of Buddha Vairocana, again the largest in the world. I think my favorite part of the temple was the "enlightenment hole" at the base of one of its columns; squeezing through the hole was said to open the door for enlightenment! Of course I fit through it with ease.

Gateway to Todai-ji, deer included

Guardians in the gateway

The other guardian in the gateway

Todai-ji

A shrine to Binzuru, an arahat with occult powers who, when rubbed, heals (hence all the people rubbing)

One of several colossal Buddhas in Todai-ji

And the other

The "enlightenment hole" consumes another victim

My lunch, courtesy of continental breakfast (food in Japan is expensive!!!!!)

Our second stop was the Kasuga Grand Shrine, near the Kasugayama Primeval Forest, through which we also wandered. This shrine was of the Shinto tradition and provided some nice variety from the Buddhism we were used to.

Wandering through the primeval forest

Tons of shrines along the way

Again, that beautiful interplay of human-made and nature

Some incredible ceremonial drums in a military museum nearby

On the grounds of the shrine

(ALL) Around Kyoto (6/17)

2014-08-28T18:31:00.002-04:00

Looking out at Kyoto from the hotel

Today marked the one month anniversary of my arrival in Asia! I woke up in a beautiful hotel in a beautiful city after a particularly beautiful night on the town and couldn't help but gush about the glory I felt to my fellow travelers as we prepared ourselves for another day of adventure. My professors tolerated my elated rambling over our eclectic continental breakfast before I wandered off to liberate a backpack-full of chicken nuggets for lunch later-- food is pricey in Kyoto!

The day's first highlight came to me in the form of a stranger at the bus stop between our hotel and our first destination, the Philosopher's Walk. I noticed the gentleman to my left paying a noticeable amount of attention to me, and when I looked his way was greeted with a kind and knowing smile. He was holding out his left wrist and casually snapped the beaded, elastic bracelet that rested upon it, nodding assertively towards the bracelet on my own wrist (the one that Myongsang Sunim had given to us at Unmunsa). Without sharing a single word, I understood exactly what he meant, and felt in that moment like I belonged to some secret Buddhist club.

Fast forward a few months-- I'm riding my bike through Athens and I pull up beside a gentleman wearing a similar bracelet. I gesture to mine, just like the gentleman at the bus stop had, and ask the biker if he's Buddhist. He cagily asks in response if anyone can call themselves Buddhist before riding off. I had way more fun with the person at the bus stop, without the words and the posturing. Was I a Buddhist in Kyoto? Was the person with the bracelet at the bus stop? It didn't matter-- we shared a beautiful single-serving moment of connectedness in one of the most temporary of places, and I loved it.

A Kyoto city bus-- not as opulent as Korea's tour busses

A glimpse of Kyoto near the Philosopher's Walk

After a brief bus ride across town, we arrived at our destination-- the Philosopher's Walk. This tour was somewhat guided by Drs Yi and Tessman who had both been here numerous times, but I passed the time at my own pace, taking in the sights and sounds beside my own thoughts and feelings.

The path was impressively scenic for its location along the edge of Kyoto

The interaction of nature and human construction was very compelling; it was an interplay that persisted throughout my tour of Japan

The path was very silent and peaceful, perfect for introspection

The greens and earthy browns were accentuated by the previous day's rains

We passed many gates and shrines along the way

At one point, I came across a gang of cats. There were about twenty of them gathered loosely around what appeared to be a dilapidated, cat-scale amusement park outside a local business. I couldn't quite get a picture of the entire scene, as most of the cats existed in a constant cat-like state of motion, drifting from cover to close proximity and then out of sight altogether. It was interesting to me that so many of them chose the same place to chill, but what the hell do I know about cats' social psychology.

I imagined this cat to be the cat ruler, perching in a place of pride above the others

This was the maximum number of cats in one photo that the gang's rules would allow

A goofy tanuki waving from the end of the path

Dr. Yi explained that Kyoto was Japan's capital for over a thousand years. The imperial government was always suspicious of religion, so Buddhists and Shintos were relegated into the same small area in the city, resulting in a unique interplay between the two traditions (such as Shinto shrines and roof styles atop Buddhist temples). Kyoto is a very planned and controlled city, which Yi argued fit in well with its Shinto origins (in which everything is a spirit, and cleaning, protecting, and honoring spirits through human interaction is worship, not interference). We didn't get much more introduction to Shinto and Japanese spiritual philosophy, but it was interesting nonetheless to infer its influences in the things we saw, ranging from the upkeep of the Philosopher's Walk itself to the Zen gardens in our next stop, Nanzenji Temple.

Again, that gorgeous interplay between human construction and nature that pervaded Japanese aesthetics

On the way to Nanzenji

Moss game strong

A shrine before a shrine

Buddy in the back left is like, "wtf r u doin". In retrospect perhaps this photo was culturally insensitive.

Nanzenji, or the southern Zen temple, was described by Dr. Yi as a reaction to pedantic sutra-based Buddhism. It advocated personal experience to find enlightenment because the long list of sutras to be memorized and recited was seen as preposterous to a younger generation of Buddhists. Northern Zen was all about facing the world and meditating; Southern Zen was that plus "riddles" (koans?) to focus the mind (Dr. Yi used the sound of one hand clapping as an example).

Dr. Yi also drew attention to the scale of the temple-- temples in Japan were state-sponsored, unlike those in Korea, which were persecuted by the state.

Gathering outside Nanzenji

Reflection room

Shrine

Illustration of shrine

A mind-blowingly immaculate rendering of the temple

One of the most peaceful meeting rooms I've ever seen

First glimpse of the zen garden

More zen

Looking over the garden

Tryna get my mediation on by the zen garden

A poet, observing and writing

Much of my time at the temple was spent walking and observing, but I was strongly drawn to the zen garden pictured above. It was the first real zen garden I'd ever seen, at a temple in Japan, no less. I'd seen them depicted in popular culture for years before, and had always been intrigued in the ideas behind them. I still feel like there's so much about them that I don't understand, which I also feel is completely missing the point of the simplicity of the gardens themselves, but the minimalism that seems to underlie much of Japanese culture and thought is not something that comes naturally to me for some reason.

I liked sitting before the garden and meditating. It was one of those few places throughout my travels that seemed to make meditation easier or more effective. It was also awesome to find the woman pictured above, deep in thought and practicing the written word. I envied her and felt connected to her as well. I wished I could visit such a glorious place and write-- I got the impression somehow that she did so regularly (or at least enjoyed imagining that she did). But I was presently visiting such a glorious place, with both pen and paper-- I could be writing, rather than thinking about/fantasizing/fetishizing! And by this point it felt contrived and unnatural and forced, and so I did not. But I did take some obtuse notes, and they go a little something like this!:

Rock garden illustrates values of zen-simplicity, spontaneity. Fullness in emptiness, balance but not monotony. Becoming wise enough to accept impermanence and change. No such thing as self.

Maybe I'll write a poem one day about the time I saw a poet writing a poem and wanted myself to do so but did not.

Behind the temple was an awesome aqueduct, or at least something that resembled one. Again, a testament to the time and money that was invested by the state into religious sites. The thing made for an interesting photo op.

An......... aqueduct?

An accidentally awesome series with my friend Hayes

The Hayesing intensifies

Hayes' picture of me taking pictures of him through the...... aqueduct?

Speaking of Hayes, he made some friends on our way to our next destination! He studied Japanese in college and these students loved talking with him.

Hayes, mid-sentence, captivating his audience

Everyone had a good time

Our next stop was Rokuonji Temple, better known as the Golden Palace. It was constructed between 1185 and 1332 and has transitioned from temple to shogun palace to zen Buddhist temple. It was restored in 1615 and again in 1867, and is much more of a tourist trap than Nanzenji was. There was nothing to go into or explore, so our visit seemed much shorter.

The palace, swarmed by onlookers

I was there too, and did the tourist thing, albeit awkwardly

There were, however, a lot of lively animals!

Fishy feeding frenzy

There was a turtle there too!

We caught another bus back to the city center and split up for lunch. I was captivated by how spacious and seemingly empty Kyoto was. It didn't feel claustrophobic like a lot of Korean architecture and urban planning; there were wide streets and open spaces between buildings and blocks and in general more acceptance of emptiness and nothingness than in any other city I'd seen. And the silence was downright eerie! I noticed that buses and some cars turned themselves off at stop lights, likely something to do with Kyoto's environmental consciousness, but not just the natural, flooded-with-carbon-dioxide environment, also the sonic one in which all city denizens exist. It really created a unique setting that was then populated by a lot of legitimate uniqueness.

Waitin' on the bus

Navigating downtown

Japanese Hot Topic

A shrine store.......?

It was interesting to wander through Kyoto's shopping district, seeing what was for sale and how people interacted with it. I actually did some shopping of my own, in search of an album by a Japanese artist called LITE I'd heard on college radio before leaving the States. I'd thus far failed to find it in either Korea or China. Neither the 4-story record monstrosity nor the single-story specialty shop I visited in Kyoto had the artist-- and this was in their home country! What a drag.

AN ADORABLE CAT! WHAT KIND OF CAT IS THIS CAT?!

I've mentioned the use of space in Kyoto, and here are some pictures documenting it. The first two capture Kyoto's relationship with transportation-- it isn't given the same primacy it enjoys here in the states, where our vehicles so often form a moat around our places of residence and work; instead, it is put away neatly just like any other possession. I feel like this spoke both to the contrast in individualism between American and Japanese culture as it did exhibitionism, but I'll spare you my baseless and ill-informed pontification.

everything in its right place

even cars, our deities in the west

a picture of the space in the center of Kyoto

and a strikingly catastrophic and otherwise unrelated depiction of disaster on the side of a bus

After lunch, we visited Nijojo, also known as Nijo Castle. Yi explained it was the place where the shoguns returned power to the emperor in the 1800s, creating a unified and nationalistic Japan.

Some traditional dress on the way to the castle

Gazing on its majesty

I was there, too

A sign along the Nightingale floor

One of the coolest parts of the castle was its Nightingale floor, pictured above. It was intentionally made squeaky to prevent assassins from sneaking in and murdering the royalty. I tried sneaking across it and did a pretty good job if I do say so myself... but then again I wasn't wearing armor and wielding a heavy weapon, either.

My favorite part of the castle was definitely the garden. Not only was it beautiful itself, but it was the backdrop to a beautiful conversation with one of Dr. Yi's friends, a prominent department head from a prestigious Korean college that she described as Korea's MIT. I was sitting by myself on a bench and mulling things over when she approached me and asked to join me. I forget how it happened, but at some point (probably when asked what I studied?) I mentioned my interest in philosophy and she reciprocated with a boatload of theory that I was completely unfamiliar with! She mentioned she was in the process of translating Deleuze's Thousand Plateaus into Korean and was doing an extremely close reading with her faculty friends. Apparently a lot of postmodern and poststructuralist theory hasn't been translated or popularized in Korean, which is really exciting to me-- the idea that there are theories and philosophies hidden behind linguistic barriers that are not yet shared across state lines. She gave me a ton of recommendations ranging from Zizek to Debord, Agamben to Levinas to Benjamin, none of whom I'd come across in my studies. I love talking to people who are wiser, more experienced, better read, etc. than myself and getting a hand up from them!

Here are some pictures of the garden in which I learned about contemporary theory from a Korean professor.

The expansive garden

Awesome rock integration

A very lively pond

Gazing out at the castle's innards

This marked the end of our scheduled programming for the day-- and what a full and fun day it had been! But a friend and I somehow caught Dr. Tessman at the right time as he was about to head out on an adventure of his own, and we were lucky enough to be invited to tag along. Our destination was Dr. Tessman's favorite sushi place, one that he made a point to visit every time he came to Kyoto, but our path took us through Gion, the contemporary "Geisha" (or more accurately geiko) district, and along the river, where we discussed differences between Japanese and Korean culture and history, as well as Marxism, education reform, and cultural change. What a day!

A sculpture on Kyoto's streets

Some awesome Rockabilly dancers getting down in a city square!

A geiko!!!!

Our chef

And his art

YUM

And here's a video from the day!

Hello To Japan! (6/16)

2014-06-29T23:27:00.001-04:00

GLOBIS in Asia prepares to depart Yeungnam for Japan!

Straight from my journal:

In Japan! Flight went flawlessly--I guess I'm getting used to this whole Asian travel thing. We weren't locked out of the Daegu airport this time around, despite leaving more on-time than last time around--less people, less partying the night before, more professors involved. Our last flight from Daegu seemed to come quickly. They were out of bananas, thus ruining my breakfast plans. Curses!

Back in Seoul/Incheon

The layover in Seoul/Incheon flew by! I spent most of it stretching, which felt great. The fact that soccer was on TV helped a whole lot! I got to watch a good chunk of Love Fiction [a Korean rom-com]-- very fascinating film, definitely deserving of dissection later. The number of Koreans has been thinning out understandably; now, i feel flung into the unknown again. Japan is definitely noticeably different than Korea, but less shockingly so than China was, I think. Perhaps having two different Asian Tigers under my belt better prepared me for this third. The weather is humid and overcast; it should be this way for most of our stay, as a typhoon is on its way. I'm exited to cross that off my list of things to experience!

First posters I saw in the Osaka airport, in anime style!

Preparing to catch a train to Kyoto

Train station...?

On my train! Look at how many yen the ticket cost!

Japan seems darker than Korea or China, probably not just because of the overcast skies, either. Buildings seem closer, plainer and simpler, and less colorful; signs are more sparse and more subdued; trains seem nicer; fields are more logically arranged and tended; apartments are wider and less tall, as well as slightly more architecturally distinct; graffiti, specifically tags,are way more prevalent so far; people seem to drive on the left ("wrong") side of the road; buildings seem more developmentally sound and consistent than either China or Korea (China is going through a painful molting of old and an uneven construction of new whereas Korea seems to be new built on top of new smashed between new next to old which is accepted and not in danger of demolition like in China); streets seem narrower and more alley-like; I've seen hentai-esque ads so far, which could indicate a fascinating difference in images of women between Korea and Japan; helmets are far more common among motorcyclers and scooterers in Japan versus Daegu especially, but also Beijing...

First sights of the Japanese countryside

Apartments...

Industry?

Economics!

[Dr.] Yi says Koreans have a larger sense of space than Japanese, which I agree with--especially apparent with farmland here, as Doc[tor] Brock [Tessman] pointed out; less opens space than in Korea, also less western-looking; saw a traditional women's archery team with like 8' bows! Very cool. Couldn't get a pic though, sadly.

Kyoto's incredible station

Our hotel had mirrored ceilings

See what I mean about Japan's use of space!

Japanese currency is HUGE

Went for a walk in the rain in search of a cheap noodle place to grab a bite for my grumbling stummy [stomach]. I'm pretty convinced there's no such thing as "cheap" here in Japan. This may just be the death of me. Ended up at a fantastic local falavel place--not as local in genre or substance as I'd hoped for, but the atmospehre and food were superbly spot-on. Really dug the place and the three others I adventured with... We decided to rent bikes and tour around but the intensified rain convinced us otherwise. Ended up walking into a swollen river for a pic before heading back. Three record stores have denied me [a Japanese album I was looking for], but I am not dissuaded! I will find that EP!

Georgia?! Reminded me of home!

A silly tanooki

A really sweet record store... THAT DIDN'T HAVE THE ALBUM I WANTED

Sweet cycle rental place-- we thought better because of the weather

Some aaaaaart

Inside the sweet Falafel joint

Maria and Jack

Kyoto!

YUM!!! Not what I was looking for, but yum nonetheless

Cycle attempt, take 2

A river, swollen from the rain

Me in the river, courtesy of Jack Spalding

At the time I'm not sure that these games had been announced in the US, so this was an exciting discovery

Manga heaven

After wandering around Kyoto for a while in the rain, the others decided to stay in for the evening and recoup after our day of travel. I, however, had seen a sign for a live jazz night, and was for some reason strongly called to check it out. After trying futilely to collect some companions, I set out by myself, and ended up having one of the most incredible nights of my life. Here's what I wrote in my journal:

Holy fuck! Had a great goddamn time at Murra Jazz/Blues bar. Takashi Kudo on piano and Yoshie Ichikawa on vox tore it up! I was groovin' so hard I broke a sweat! Awesome tiny bar atmosphere, 2000 ¥ cover + 2x 600 ¥ Kirin was a bit much, but the show was totally worth it-- super glad I could rev up some local musicians! They fed off my energy and we all ended up bonding-- "Mark" [a fellow bar-goer] translated for me, Yoshie said it was fate and dedicated "Georgia on my Mind" to me! It was fuckin incredible. So goddamn lucky! Holy shit. "Mark" lived in Georgia for a time and spoke good English; Takashi based a song of his on WWE and super-emphatically described it to me through Mark; Yoshie named her hawks after Haku from Miyazaki films; she sung phenomenal English. Very soulful voice. It was incredible to be accepted so fully into such an awesome scene!

Murra's bar

The piano

Yoshie and Takashi

Me with the band!!!!!

THE FEELS!!!

Goodbye to Daegu (6/15)

2014-06-29T17:06:00.004-04:00

Our last day of class in Daegu had finally come, and we spent it discussing Japan. The main question we focused on was whether or not Japan would rearm. Although Japan has a strong (but small) navy and air force, they've essentially avoided having a standing army since the end of WWII, when it renounced the use of force to settle disputes. This changed somewhat during the Cold War, when the US's distractedness in Vietnam and the close proximity of a potentially threatening USSR encouraged Japan to rearm, but has prevented Japan from developing significant offensive capabilities. Will the rise of China and other contemporary regional challenges change this pattern of behavior? That's the million dollar question!

Guided graciously by the Korean transit system yet again

After class, some friends and I caught a bus into downtown Daegu to do some shopping. I'm not much of a shopper myself, but wanted a chance to look around the city some more before we left it in the morning. I ended up splitting off from my friends and wandering about. I found a cool sculpture and bumper sticker!

Public depictions of homoeroticism?! No way!

Engrish!

I ended up catching a bus back to Yeungnam by myself, and not seeing my travel mates for about three more hours! Turns out they caught the right bus going in the wrong direction and got totally screwed by the transit system. I was glad they made it back at all! Public transit through a language barrier is certainly not trivial.

We hit downtown Yeungnam one more time together before packing our things and getting ready to fly to Japan first thing in the morning!

Goodbye, downtown!

Jack enjoys one last Korean hotdog

Where we'd spent so many of our nights!

This is the hutch under which we'd found that poor kitten a few days back!

Winding Down Class, Hiking Up Mountains (6/14)

2014-06-29T14:10:00.003-04:00

On what would be our second to last day of class at Yeungnam University, we discussed the institutional architecture of the East Asian region. We ran through the alphabet soup of major regional institutions, including ASEAN, APEC, the East Asian Summit, TPP, and SCO. Different countries play different roles in each of these diverse institutions, but through discussion we established some characteristics for different actors. The US wants involvement. China wants a regional block. Japan wants to stay "head goose" economically, equal with China and the US. Korea is somewhat of a go-between/glue for the US, as defense, and China, as the new giant. ASEAN, made up of the littler states in the region, is hedging-- they prefer a mesh of institutions or anything that will prevent them from being squished by the bigger players.

After class, we went on another field trip, this time to Hapcheon, a heretofore unexplored region not far from Yeungnam. Our first visit was an incredible organic bed and breakfast beside a massive man-made lake. The bed and breakfast belonged to a friend Dr. Yi had made at the Yeungnam dining hall a few days prior-- this was a very special visit for us!

Our lunch spread

The view of the lake

A special icy berry dessert!

Our next stop was Hwangmae mountain, an awesome two-peaked mountain surrounded by a beautiful park. Dr. Yi recalled spending summers on the mountain planting trees and killing invasive caterpillars after the Korean war-- battles had raged over these ridges, and much of them had been deforested, so the country mobilized youth to replant and reclaim the areas after the fighting stopped. Dr. Yi also explained that a very famous war movie had been filmed here... once I figure out the name of the movie, I'll be sure to post it here!

The view from the park

Hayes catches the breeze in his shirt

A super gorgeous flower

The view of the peaks

Looking from one ridge to the next-- there was an amazing covered trail that ran between them

Looking back from the second ridge at those who stayed behind (you can see them if you look closely!)

Selfie at the summit!

At the very top

Hayes looks out from another vantage point

Here's a video I took at the peak!

After our hike, we visited Youngamsa Temple, the ruins of a temple not far from the mountain. Apparently not much is known about the temple's history-- it was cool to visit a temple shrouded in mystery, when so many of the others we'd seen were so open about their origins and histories.

The ruins of Youngamsa

Making sense of the rubble

Hayes perches on a wall

I can't quite remember, but I think Hayes took a drink of that nasty water

Our next stop was a local clinic, where we learned about rural healthcare in Korea while enjoying the massage chairs and devices they had there. Then, we went to a traditional Kalbe beef restaurant for some high quality dining!

Preparing the meat

Cooking the meat

Dinner!

America, Art, and Animal Rescue (6/13)

2014-06-29T11:26:00.001-04:00

Back at Yeungnam-- a shot of the campus taken from the library, if I recall!

Even though a "regular" day at Yeungnam involved less travel and overt thrills than, say, a trip to POSCO, this one was pretty eventful.

In the Classroom: The United States in East Asia

The day began, as so many did, with class. Today our topic was the good 'ole U. S. of A. We took a rather clinical approach, beginning with a discussion of CINC scores. CINC scores are basically social science's way of taking the utterly baffling world of international politics and fusing it with the accessibility of a video game-- by running a state's capabilities through a nifty formula which includes factors such as population, production of strategic resources such as steel, and military expenditure, one ends up with a convenient score that can then be used to roughly compare the material capabilities of different states, as well as the world at large.

To get more specific, the total power of every state in the world adds up to 1. The United States' CINC score is .142149; as the second largest CINC score in the world, the US is, strangely enough, #2. First place goes to China, with a score of .198578 (wikipedia). This seeming inversion leads numerous western scholars to proclaim that CINC is an outdated metric-- the US doesn't need a population or military as large as China's to be as powerful due to its superior military capabilities, they claim. Nevertheless, CINC scores give an interesting insight into the military capabilities of a state.

We started with CINC scores because they are zero-sum-- since the total power equates to 1, any increase in a country's score necessitates a decrease in that of another. We used this perspective to frame our discussion of the interests of the United States within the East Asian region-- what does the growth of China and the modernization of other regional actors such as Korea and Japan mean for the United States and its power?

At the time of this class, the US had about 30k troops in Korea, 40k in Japan, and 25k in Australia-- and this was before the mysterious Asian Pivot became a thing! Most of these troop levels have been maintained since WWII, establishing a persistent US strategic presence in the region. What do we make of this? Is this gunboat diplomacy? Are we keeping the Open Door open? Laying the groundwork for the KORUS FTA? Perhaps all of the above.

Many things have changed since WWII. Institutions have mushroomed (ASEAN, plus dyadic economic and diplomatic agreements). This means that although the region maintains a hub-and-spoke alliance relationship wherein the US, as the "hub," establishes treaties with numerous "spokes," such as Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, the spokes themselves do not share such treaties with each other (wikipedia). All of this growth and development seems to be beneficial, especially from a positive-sum perspective, where advances are actually possible. But since the spokes themselves are growing, does this mean from a zero-sum, CINC-based perspective that the US is losing? That's precisely what the pessimists argue, that institutional growth is squeezing the US out of its relevance. A strong Japan balances the region, and economic increases in the leading countries threaten US power and prosperity. If the US helps China rise, what will the other actors in the region think about that preferential treatment?

Whether one views the region through a positive- or zero-sum lens, some things hold true. Over-accommodation on the US's part isn't in its best interest, as it would destroy the system as it is today. Yet neither is over-containment, as acting against the growth of the states that are growing could be nothing other than an act of overt aggression.

At the end of the day we were left with a better understanding of the workings of the region and its strategic interactions, but did not have many answers to our questions of what's next for the US. That's mostly because it's on policymakers to decide. Either way, we concluded that the chances for conflict (economic, political, etc.) are high, but the chances for war are low. And then we broke for lunch.

That's me!

On My Own: The Art of Living and Living for Art

Since practically all the rest of my time at Yeungnam had been structured, I decided to strike out on my own after class. I was feeling a bit pent up and needed some space to myself. I started some laundry in the dorm's dryerless laundry room, proudly patting myself on the back for interpreting the settings on a foreign washer, and then went for an excellent trail run on the winding trails behind our dorm. We really were lucky to have such a well-furnished place to stay, with such nice amenities in such close proximity!

After my run, I picked up some snacks at a local convenience store and set out in search of some art. This was an instinctual practice I'd developed in my time at UGA-- whenever I felt a little off and wanted to recharge, I'd simply make my way to the art building on campus and wander around it, taking in all its majestic work until I felt better. I figured I might as well try the same here at Yeungnam, but boy was I wrong! I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon searching for some art, to no avail.

My first destination was the art building itself, which, of course, was locked up tight. I forget how exactly I did it, but I ended up climbing up some railings to an inaccessible second story, which miraculously had an open door. The door let me into a stairwell that was itself locked off from the rest of the building, resulting in me climbing up and down the length of the multi-story building, peeping through stairwell doors in hopes of spotting some art. I didn't see a single piece! Yeungnam's art building seemed way more like a classroom than like a studio, like UGA's building-- at UGA there's work everywhere, but at Yeungnam, it seems like they just talk about art rather than making and enjoying it! Or at least that's how it seemed from my locked stairwell.

After giving up on the art building, I came across some english-speaking students who, after hearing about my search, directed me towards the library-- all 21 floors of it!!!! And I thought UGA's 6-story library was a monstrosity!! I had trouble getting around this building as well-- I needed some sort of access card or something to use the elevators from the main floor, but I managed to find out that by going down to the bottom floor, I was able to get around that and take the elevator wherever I pleased! I was really proud of myself for figuring that out, even though it didn't result in the discovery of any art. I'm sure there was art in art history books somewhere, but the people I'd talked to made it sound as if there was art on display in the library!

At the end of my adventure, I'd successfully navigated some pretty inaccessible buildings, but hadn't found a single piece of art. Of course I would have liked to, but at the same time, I sure did enjoy the adventure, even despite its failures.

ANIMALTIME!

On the way back from my wanderings, I ran into the rest of my study abroad group, who happened to be going downtown to get some food. I ended up going with the first thing I saw-- a cute little food truck that served delicious squidballs!

That was only the beginning of animaltime, though, because as I began to eat my squidballs, I noticed a faint mewing coming from under the foodtruck. It turned out there was a cute little kitten under the cute little foodtruck! This little fella was FREAKING OUT-- what the hell was it doing under a truck in the middle of downtown!!! It was right off of a four-lane main road! My friend Jack and I ended up spending a good 20 minutes trying to coax the poor little kitten out of its hiding spot without accidentally scaring it into the street. It seemed for so long that there was no way we'd ever get it out-- it was probably even more terrified of us than it was of the roaring road behind it. Finally, we did chase it out, and out did it ever come! It shot out from under the truck towards the student building, where it got caught between an open door and a glass window, bouncing around between the panes of glass. It was really quite painful to watch how terrified the poor animal was. We got it out of the corner it'd taken to, only to accidentally let it into the student building itself. It wasn't until after some scooby-doo level chasing that we were able to capture the darn thing and calm it down.

Jack cradling the kitten

It looked so terrified and exhausted! :'(

We had absolutely no idea what to do with a stray cat-- we considered taking it back to our dorm for the night and trying to find a local animal shelter the next day, but figured that'd be a terrible idea. We ended up asking a passerby who'd witnessed the daring cat rescue if they'd take it for us, and they said yes. I wonder if they kept the kitten or passed it off to animal control! I hope the little fella is still alive-- it was adorable, and we fought hard to keep it alive!

Field Trip! POSCO, Seokguram, and Cheonmachong! (6/12)

2014-04-13T14:11:00.004-04:00

Aboard another shockingly fancy bus

Today was a day of much traveling and sight-seeing, but unfortunately not many pictures! Whether for the sake of NATIONAL SECURITY at POSCO or simply out of awe and respect at Seokguram, my camera stayed inactive during much of this day's adventures. I'll supplement the few pictures I took with what I can find on the 'nets to try to give you an idea of what all we witnessed while bopping around the greater Daegu area.

The view from the parking lot-- before they confiscated my camera!

Our first stop was the legendary POSCO steel mill. One of the largest in the world, and with one of the most interesting histories, POSCO bears considerable significance. Basically, in the 70s, during a period of economic restructuring, Korea's president decided to build the best steel mill in the world. Korea didn't have a steel industry at the time, so such an undertaking was met with much skepticism both domestically and internationally, but Korea's commitment was so strong that it actually pulled it off, much to the benefit of Korea's economy as a whole. This is a prime example of what's known as import substitution industrialization, which has proven to be one of the most effective methods of industrialization in the modern era. By selling domestically-produced steel under the cost of foreign competitors, POSCO not only grew and profited as a company, but it also helped other businesses and industries in Korea grow and develop. POSCO was a key player at the heart of Korea's rapid rise to become the economic powerhouse it is today.

A super-cool night shot of POSCO (source)

We toured the plant's impressive museum, where we watched some swanky ads and got a historical overview. I have to admit, the company's branding and backstory definitely had me pumped by the time we left. I don't usually get sucked into advertising and brand nationalism, if you will, but I must admit that POSCO turned me into a fan. We also got to visit the mill's floor, where we watched part of the steel production process. Lots of sparks, lots of heat, lots of noise. I've never seen anything like it!

We got to see stuff like this! Action! Intensity! Fire! (source)

Approaching the temple's gate

Our second stop was Seokguram, a 1300+ year old Buddhist temple not far from POSCO. It's famous for its underground grotto, the home of a massive granite statue of Buddha at the time of Enlightenment. My camera wasn't confiscated like at POSCO, but I couldn't bring myself to use it within the grotto out of awe and respect. I kind of regret that now, but certainly didn't at the time. Thankfully, the internet has pictures to cover me!

Buddha inside the grotto (source)

A shot of the temple grounds

At Cheonmachong, the Heavenly Horse Tomb

Our third destination was Cheonmachong, a system of tombs dating back to the Silla period. As unrefined as it may sound, they reminded me a lot of the arms depot I grew up near in Kentucky-- the tombs were buried under mounds of earth, just like the nerve gas at the depot! The tombs had been converted into a museum displaying many of the artifacts found in the tombs' excavation.

A view of the tomb itself (source)

We rounded out our adventures with a trip to a local restaurant for yummy banchan!

Dinner!

Notes on North Korea (6/11)

2014-04-01T14:25:00.004-04:00

Dr. Tessman droppin' knowledge by the pond

As a new week began, we found ourselves back in the classroom, this time to discuss the role of North Korea in the region. We started with the North's Juche ideology, which our readings traced back to interactions with the Soviets, specifically their guerrilla tactics. Kim Il-sung, the Supreme Leader of North Korea, professed radical self-reliance from the nation's beginning, to which the scholars we read attribute much explanatory power. They claim this is responsible for much of North Korea's behavior as well as its isolated, security/survival-focused position in the global community, painting a picture of the North struggling to balance the pursuit of political and economic concessions from the global community with the protection of its identity, ideology, and legitimacy, both internationally and domestically.

We then jumped to the subject of Korean peninsular reunification, discussing it from the points of view of the major regional actors.

We agreed that South Korea faced a short-term disincentive to reunification due to the many socioeconomic disparities between the two countries, but a long-term economic incentive in terms of resources, trade, and human and industrial capital.

North Korea would face a huge political disincentive-- its entire regime would cease to exist, which is the last thing it wants-- coupled with huge economic incentives.

The United States would lose politically and militarily, as one less "enemy" in the region would erode its legitimacy for maintaining such a strong military presence. This reduced military footprint could also be seen as an incentive, especially at a time when military budgets are being cut.

The evaporation of North Korea would pose a territorial threat to China, as it presently acts as somewhat of a buffer between it and US interests, but this would also provide an opportunity to increase its influence and territory in the wake of unrest.

Japan would benefit from increased trade with a more robust unified Korea, but would potentially face a new regional rival, which could play poorly with historical tensions between Korea over Japanese imperialism

I'd been very interested in Korean reunification since attending peace talks at UGA and was very disappointed to realize that the significant actors in the region have a mixed-at-best opinion of reunification. No wonder it's such a politically inelastic issue.

We spent the afternoon walking and talking with Dr. Tessman about our careers and futures (pictured at the top of this post). Later, we got together for a sweet dinner downtown near the university, and otherwise were free to do as we pleased!

Slicin' up the goodies

A view of the spread

I found a bike outside the restaurant that reminded me of home! I wonder why the hell it said "appalachia"?!

Unmunsa, the Nun's Hermitage (6/10)

2014-03-13T15:39:00.001-04:00

Unmunsa, a Buddhist nun's temple in the mountains near Daegu

T H E O N E T H I N G that every person from the previous year's trip told me to do was to talk Dr. Yi into taking us to Unmunsa, a special Buddhist temple in the mountains near Yeungnam. They all said it was their favorite visit of the entire trip, so of course I was interested, given how much I'd enjoyed the other temples we'd seen throughout our travels. My other travelmates had heard the same thing, and we'd been collectively working on convincing Dr. Yi since our arrival in Daegu. Unmunsa wasn't an official scheduled visit, but because we had another day off due to the weekend, Dr. Yi finally caved and consented to taking us. Since her business from the previous day had kept her away, our plan was to catch a bus to the temple (whose location Dr. Yi explained to Dr. Tessman over the phone) and meet up with her there.

Daegu's transit system-- not at all confusing or intimidating, right?!

It was certainly nice to have Dr. Tessman as a guide-- even though he didn't know much more Korean than the rest of us, he had been to the area several times, and had the added benefit of being a Respected Authority Figure and whatnot. That, and the fact that I was far from traveling alone, calmed my trepidation towards the Korean transit system after my struggles from the previous day. Things did go a bit rockily for a while-- our bus's departure lept forward an hour unannounced, and Dr. Yi's travel plans got delayed-- but we all ended up safely at the temple's gates before too long.

On a bus again

Inside the gate of Unmunsa

The temple itself was divided in two-- it had a dharma hall, several shrines, and various other facilities including dorms and a cafeteria (because Unmunsa, like Tongdosa, is a Buddhist training school as well as a temple) in the main facility, the grounds on which we initially found ourselves; and, a short hike away, there was another set of shrines and halls atop a mountain, overlooking a valley. We poked around the main grounds for a while as we waited for Dr. Yi, but upon her arrival took off for the mountaintop hermitage, where a special lunch was being held.

Hiking to the hermitage

A view from the top

Upon arrival atop the mountain, we were ushered into a special meeting room with a few Buddhist nuns who shared some lotus root tea with us. Dr. Yi interpreted a conversation she had with the nuns to us about the history and significance of the temple. The temple was originally built to train monks, but was converted to a nun-only facility in the 20th century. This was apparently the largest nun temple in the world, with classes exceeding 300 people over four years of training to become official nuns. Many Buddhist countries don't allow women to participate in the same capacities as men, but Korea and Taiwan are unique in that women can lead ceremonies and do anything else men can, once they're ordained at a place such as Unmunsa. The head of the school, Myongsang-Sunim, is the female equivalent of the Dali Lama-- she is the head of all Buddhist nuns in the world, and we were going to get to meet her later in the afternoon! We were very lucky to be in such a closed-off environment-- although visitors are allowed, absolutely nothing is co-ed at Unmunsa-- women only!

Our private tea ceremony

Lotus root tea in beautiful hand-made cups!

After our talk, we were led around the mountaintop facilities. It was incredible how beautifully the temple's architecture blended with the surroundings. Just look at the pictures above-- the shrines are built into natural shelters on the mountain!

Some of the shrines at the mountaintop

Observing a ceremony at one of the cooler-looking shrines

After our visit to the mountaintop, we hiked back down to the main facilities, where we saw more of the temple grounds, watched the playing of the Four Instruments (which I was unfortunately explicitly forbidden from recording) and the recitation of the evening chants (with over 100 nuns), and had dinner with the nuns-in-training. We also got to visit Myongsang-sunim's private study, where she met with us and gave us all gorgeous Buddhist bracelets. We didn't have much time to talk with her, as her schedule wouldn't allow it (our visit was somewhat last-minute, after all), but we were allowed to wander through her private garden, which was one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited in my life. So peaceful and serene!

Walking to Myongsang-sunim's quarters

Myongsang-sunim handing out bracelets

Group picture!

Myongsang's private garden-- gorgeous!

Me outside the main dharma hall!

Although I didn't quite feel the same connection to Unmunsa that I felt to Tongdosa-- largely because Unmunsa wasn't meant for me, it was a women's space-- I thoroughly enjoyed and was immensely grateful for the opportunity to visit there. And to meet someone as important as Myongsang-sunim? Insane! We were very lucky to convince Dr. Yi to take us.

Our ride back to Yeungnam was uneventful, as was the evening that followed it. I was excited to get back to classes for one more week before heading to Japan!

Back to Tongdosa (6/9)

2014-03-09T16:40:00.000-04:00

The entrance to Tongdosa Temple, shot on my first visit

T O N G D O S A T E M P L E was easily my single most favorite destination from my entire time abroad. My last visit blew me away, and by this time I'd made up my mind that I needed to go back. I'd seen a particular symbol in the museum of historical Buddhist art there that stuck with me to such a degree that I knew I needed to return to capture it. The symbol was a stylized lotus design, used as a roof-end tile like the one pictured below. I wanted to record it better than the crude sketch I'd made in my notes from memory in order to turn it into a tattoo to commemorate my travels. Unsurprisingly, none of my trip mates were interested in going back to a place we'd already been, but the thought of traveling alone through a foreign country on a mission of my own design just added to my eagerness. When I heard we'd have our Saturday to ourself, I knew I had to go back to Tongdosa, and that's exactly what I did.

source: Konstantin Photography

I explained my plan to Dr. Yi, who actually had to do some traveling of her own to take care of some business. She offered me some basic directions on how to get to the temple via the train system, assuring me it was a simple task. We went together to the train station near the university, where her train promptly departed, leaving me alone in an unknown place. I killed time before my train arrived by people-watching, taking particular pleasure in waving at anyone who made eye contact on a passing train. I got a lot of elated return waves, especially from younger people; these positive interactions, although fleeting, made me feel very much connected and not at all as alone as I was.

The train station near Yeungnam

Looking out over the tracks

A look at the departures board and the challenge I faced (remember that I know no Korean!)

My first train took me to the Mulgeum station in a small city near Tongdosa. The ride took about an hour, and was actually my first ever ride on a train! I thoroughly enjoyed watching the breathtaking scenery wiz by, but had such a good time that I didn't even think to take many pictures. The station I arrived at was smaller than the one from which I'd departed, and finding a bus stop--my next mode of transportation on my way to the temple-- took a surprisingly long time. It took even longer to find someone who understood enough English and body language to inquire about the schedule, which meant wandering around the town some.

A look at the Korean countryside from the train

A shot of the town the train took me to-- look closely in the alley there!

A close-up of the alley-- my first friend of the adventure! Unfortunately didn't speak much English... but enjoyed watching me wander around lost nonetheless!

By this time my errand was beginning to feel a bit absurd, especially when I finally met someone who was kind enough to explain that I was unfortunately at the wrong bus stop. The lady who was helping me wrote out the name of either the bus I was to take or the destination I was to head towards-- either way, having the symbols on a sheet of paper made the task of finding where to go slightly less nerve-wracking, but only slightly. I spent a good while pouring over the schedules, trying to match characters and find my bus without understanding a lick of what I was reading and looking at.

My bus finally came, and I awkwardly tried to tell the driver my destination in hopes that he would tell me when to get off. I ended up getting off too soon, but the driver was kind enough to honk and gesture for me to return to the bus. I eventually got to where I was going, but having no knowledge of the area, I decided it'd be best to just hire a cab to take me what I thought would be a short distance from the stop to the temple.

Well, unfortunately for my wallet, I was wrong-- I began to worry as the cab kept driving and the meter kept running, as I didn't have much cash. By the time the driver dropped me at the entrance to the temple some 30 or more minutes later, I ended up spending almost all the rest of the money I'd budgeted for this stay in Korea. Good thing I had a round-trip ticket for the train!

Seeing the temple's gates sent my spirits sky-high, and I practically floated through the temple grounds to the museum entrance on clouds of joy. I was so relieved to have successfully (if only by the kindness of strangers) navigated the Korean transportation system and that my fool's errand had paid off.

Tongdosa's museum of Buddhist art

I remembered exactly where the design was that I was looking for and, upon entering the museum, I made a bee-line for its wing of the collection, only to find that the doors were closed and the exhibits were being changed. I still remember the explosion of emotions I felt in that instant but unfortunately am no better at putting it into words. I was almost soul-crushingly disappointed that I'd tried so hard and put so much into returning for something The Powers That Be were keeping me from and upset that the exhibit could close after what seemed like just a few days! It was, what, a week since I'd been there? Two? What are the odds that my exhibit would close and move in that time?!

And I say that I almost felt these things because in the instant these thoughts threatened to pulled my mood down, I knew that everything was out of my control and that this simply wasn't meant to be-- I knew I had to accept with a smile the humorous irony of the situation and the mysterious way in which Fate/The Universe/What-Have-You works. It felt wrong to be in such a beautiful place that meant so much to me and to feel disappointed, so I tried my darndest to wrestle with my emotions and figure out what, if not that, I felt about this surprising development. I'd invested my whole Saturday into coming for this symbol of my visit! It meant so much to me that I wanted to permanently make it a part of me! But it simply wasn't meant to be, I chuckled to myself. For an instant I wondered if I'd done something wrong to close myself off from this symbol I idolized, or if perhaps idolizing it was the problem to begin with, but it felt silly to worry about the why's of the situation. After attempting to ask around and to open the clearly locked doors for a while longer, I accepted the hand I'd been dealt and began to wander in search of something else to focus my visit on.

Two monks walk across a bridge at Tongdosa. What would they have to say about my situation, I wonder?

It's interesting to look at my notes from this day. I've written this post from memory and know it to be accurate, but there's something to be said for the words I wrote in the moment. Here's the passage I wrote on the subject:

So there are adventures and there are challenges-- adventures possess more positivity, enrichment, and excitement up front than do challenges, even if challenges are an important part of adventure-- no voyage into the unkown is without challenges, setbacks, fear, doubt, etc. An adventure, however, sounds far more optimistic than a challenge. This journey ended up being far more of a challenge than an adventure-- there's no doubt that I will (or have) grow(n) because of the expedition; it just wasn't as fun, easy, or exciting as other adventures of mine.

I spent about three hours in transit to Tongdosa. This began as an exciting adventure but slowly became more of a nightmare as travel plans complexified exponentially. The path I'd been told to follow was far more complex than I'd been lead to believe, and I didn't have the time, money, energy, or the language skills necessary to flourish; instead, my optimism decayed with each new setback-- and there were many.

Finally, after a train, 3 busses, 4 bus stops, a very expensive taxi, and a substantial amount of walking, I reached Tongdosa. My spirits peaked immediately-- I'd reached my destination! It'd all been worth it! It was all just doubt and fear; I was fine, and I was here! The weather was beautiful; the air pure. My fear and doubt vanished in an instant, swallowed up by ecstacy. Fuck yes.

I treated myself to some food first, before pursuing my objective at the temple's museum. What the lady told me was not spicy ramen and rice did in fact end up being quite spicy, but my hunger and excitement allowed me to brave the heat and scarf down every morsel more successfully than I've ever done before (I'm bad @ spicy food). Then, after some writing, reflection, and meditation on the morning's insanity, I set out for the temple's museum.
I didn't go straight to the thing I was looking for-- I decided to peruse the other exhibits out of respect. I remembered most of the items but did see some beautiful and exciting things I'd missed the first time around. Finally, it was time to see what I'd come for-- only the exhibit was closed and in process of being replaced. Excitement fled in an instant and was drowned by colossal waves of sorrow and disappointment-- had it all been for naught?! I tried talking to an attendant but got nowhere. It was obvious that I could do nothing. I tried the doors anyway when the attendant wasn't looking-- they were locked. My adventure suddenly became a lesson in gracefully accepting defeat. Should I try to talk my way in, to explain my situation and hope for help? I ended up walking out of the museum, alone and confused. I coulda used a fucking hug. I just wanted to cry myself to sleep, to give up. But, I'd come a long way, and had spent a lot of time, money, and energy to be there, so I ended up walking around for about an hour anyway. I was pretty sad, bitter, and upset, but I tried to find some sort of meaning or value somewhwere on the grounds. I felt pissed at Buddha or God or the Universe or the person in charge of closing the exhibit; I was searching for someone or something to be angry at; to blame. It all felt pretty juvenile. I was also upset with myself for getting so excited without realizing it-- for getting my hopes up and then for getting so crushed and for trying to rationalize it as someone/something's fault.

I spent an hour or two wandering the temple, but my heart wasn't really in it. In fact, I felt pretty sacrilegious being there. I didn't observe all the traditions; I wasn't a good buddhist. I felt like I couldn't be! I couldn't pay respect to any higher power that did such a thing! It was a lesson, though-- not just a lesson in gracefully accepting defeat, disappointment, and all that sort of stuff, but also a lesson in my emotions, how they come and go, and how I come and go physically throughout public space and all the things involved, including language, culture, and interactions with people. Not at all the lesson or objective I was pursuing, but an important one nonetheless. I really wanted to flip out, to rebel... but more importantly I wanted to hurry up and learn the lesson I was supposed to learn from that cosmic change of plans. I was indignant. I didn't like feeling that way, but I did!

And that was before trying to get back to Yeungnam! Getting there took 3 hours; getting back took 6. How? No idea. One long taxi ride was replaced by several long bus rides which certainly didn't help my time. The worst part was getting from the station to the school-- a journey that took a few minutes in the car in the morning; but took an hour or two that evening-- I thought I knew how to get there on foot but was horribly wrong and my stubborn sticktoitiveness sent me deep into the boonies of whatever city Yeungnam is in. Finally gave up and got a taxi. Pure day of defeat. Fuck.

So that's how I felt about it then-- clearly pretty tired and defeated. I'd forgotten how upset I felt, but outside of the heat of the moment I was able to step away from that upsetness and think about my feelings on things like Fate and Destiny and Control and Higher Powers and Desert (the deserve kind of desert, not the food). I'm still not sure how I feel about any of those things, but it's rare that I find such a vivid juxtaposition of all those topics in my daily life, and it's nice to reflect on them.

I think my trainride back summarizes my experience perfectly-- it was accompanied by one of the most breathtaking sunsets I've ever seen. Would that sunset have meant as much to me without the defeat? I doubt it. Would I have been as open to the sunset's beauty? I think not. A friend of mine explained that the trick to getting through life's tough times is to find the smile in whatever it is that's going on, and that sunset certainly made me smile, and a whole lot more. I felt so peaceful, so embedded in this beautiful world we inhabit-- the same beautiful world that'd seemed so closed off to me earlier, that had (to fallaciously ascribe agency to it) denied me what I sought earlier in the day.

The sun sets over a long Korean day

I miss gawking at the gorgeous Korean countryside

Despite the challenges, this was certainly an adventure that's stuck with me.

A clip from the day's travels:

Friday in Daegu (6/8)

2014-03-02T17:33:00.001-05:00

O U R R E T U R N T O Yeungnam University meant a return to classes, the first of which was not Dr. Tessman's international affairs class, but instead a Korean drumming class led by some of our peers.

A drum circle on a college campus? Get out!

Here's what the drumming sounded like:

We were each given a drum to use, and divided up to learn our parts. I was given the buk drum, the smaller circular double-headed drum (seen in the center of the video above). We learned several separate rhythms from the set in the video, and then learned the cues to move between them, and were given their general ordering. The small gong is the leader-- its shrill pitch can be heard easily above the others, which is useful for signalling transitions. Although we were given simplified parts, I must say we sounded pretty good all together!

A F T E R O U R D R U M S E S S I O N , it was back to the classroom for more international affairs with Dr. Tessman. Today our topic was the rise of China and its role in the region. We discussed the nature of the international system, typified by the Washington Consensus, or neoliberalism, as promoted by the US and the EU, and how China would fit into this picture. We can assume that survival and prosperity will play a big role in China's plans, as they're assumed international norms, but will China accept the international and regional status quos, or will it seek to shift them more in its favor? The point I took from the lecture was that we don't yet know, and neither do the actors in the region, which can cause unease and instability, as with any uncertain shift in the balance of power. Some schools of thought think this to be a critical issue with far-reaching implications; it reminds me of the Wilderness of Opinions.

The things you find while wandering...

I did some wandering around campus after class, where I found both a cool lil street sculpture (pictured above) and an entertaining soccer match to occupy my time. Then, my travelmates and I hopped on a bus to the city center to check out Daegu's nightlife! This was my first introduction to Korean nightclubs, which blew me away-- lots of sweet architecture and decorations, extreme lighting, and basically all the trappings you'd imagine in a hip urban club. These places seemed bigger, nicer, and more popular than the clubs I've visited in the States, but my experiences in that regard are limited to smaller cities-- it's probably not a fair comparison. I had a good time and enjoyed seeing a new side of the urban Korean landscape!

Downtown Daegu

Waiting outside a club

Andong, Part II (6/7)

2014-02-23T18:16:00.002-05:00

Our group assembles outside our camp site

W E A W O K E T H E next morning to the peaceful Korean countryside, rested and ready for another day of touring Korea's past. We boarded our swanky bus for Dosan Seowon, a famous Confucian academy not far away. I was amazed by the skill with which our driver maneuvered our massive bus through the winding and hilly roads of the countryside and was thankful to arrive in one piece! Be sure to check out the video from my last post for a clip of our winding way there!

A picture of a picture of Dosan Seowon

A map of the Seowon's grounds

Dosan Seowon was built in 1574 to protect the teachings of several Confucian scholars who had fled a warring China. It was the home of Yi Hwang, a very influential Korean philosopher of the time who had close connections to the king. It was the site of a very famous national exam given in 1792 to more than 7,000 people. Typically these exams were given in the capital of Seoul, but King Jeongjo sent government officials to administer the test there in Yi Hwang's honor.

The island on which the famous exam took place

The Seowon itself, in accordance with the ecological principles of the neo-Confucian brand of thought that was practiced there, had a beautifully elegant relationship with its surroundings. There were many gorgeous old trees and ponds and wells filled with frogs and flowers mixed between the walls and buildings. Many of these features bore names like "Purifying Pond" and "Well of Mental Clarity" that added to the grounds' peaceful and enlightening atmosphere. This was another place where you could feel both the history and the peacefulness in the air around you.

The school and its surroundings

Looking down from the lecture hall

One of the many impressive trees on the campus

A look inside one of the rooms walled and windowed with Korean Paper

One of the many historic wells on the grounds

W E S P E N T our afternoon at the Andong Folk Museum not far from the Seowon, and then headed back to Yeungnam University. There, most of us turned in early-- it'd been a busy two days, and we had class again in the morning to prepare for!

Back In Time To Andong (6/6)

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Our opulent tour bus

O U R A D V E N T U R E S A G A I N left the classroom, this time towards a traditional Confucian village known as the Hahoe Folk Village in the Andong province. Dr. Yi took back over for this portion of our trip, lecturing to us about Confucianism and its role in Korean culture on our way to our first destination: a traditional mulberry paper mill.

Korea historically developed paper not long after China, but soon refined its techniques to the point that Korea's paper was renowned as the best in the region. This paper was so durable and adaptable that it spread deeply into Korean culture, permeating such crafts as architecture and fashion. It was therefore a necessary stop on our journey to learn more of Korea's past.

A warehouse full of drying mulberry fibers

a look at some boiled mulberry fiber

T O M A K E P A P E R, mulberry trees are cut in winter and boiled to remove their fibrous bark. The bark is then bleached and ground to separate fiber, which is soaked in a large vat and strained through a bamboo sieve to arrange the fibers into flat, even sheets. These sheets are then stacked and compressed to squeeze out water, then dried on metal panels at 100 degrees Celsius (traditionally this was done on Korea's heated floors). Over 70 types of paper are produced, some thick for sound dampening, others hard and coated with oil to be used for flooring, some silk-screened or batiked and used for clothes, doors and windows, or normal papery things. This paper comes at a price, but lasts far longer than other varieties of paper, easily exceeding 1000 years. We even got to make our own!

Mulberry fibers soaking in water

Many strained layers of paper under compression to remove water

The final step--drying at 100* C

Trying my own hand at making paper!

A F T E R M A K I N G P A P E R , we toured the rest of the paper mill, which included a store that was overflowing with examples of all that Korean paper can do. It was really impressive to see clothes, building materials, and colored stationery all made from the same thing, and it was convenient that there was so much to look at in the mill's shop, because our tour bus was stricken with a flat tire, leaving us stranded there for a good while! I think we all left that store with souvenirs in thanks for letting us loiter there.

The many colors and styles of Hanji (한지), Korean Paper

Look at all the forms!

Gorgeous dresses-- all made from hanji!

Our bus and its flat

Here's a video for the first half of the day!

F R O M T H E R E , we set off for Haohae, stopping on the way at a delicious Korean beef restaurant. Apparently there's contention between Korean cattle farmers and US importers that prevents beef of this quality from being imported, so our lunch was a special treat! Another traditional aspect of Korean culture we were lucky enough to enjoy.

Beeeeeef

Our group and all our side dishes!

Cooking down the goodies

H A O H A E V I L L A G E is one of the most perfect places I've ever had the pleasure of visiting. There was something about the place that felt right, which was substantiated when Dr. Yi got to explaining a bit of the village's history. The village is said to have a perfect feng shui layout, and was carefully and meticulously placed and designed to abide by the laws of geomancy. With a mountain behind it to ground and protect it, and a river before it to provide circulation of energy, Haohae Village is idyllic, in theory and in form.

Looking at Haohae from the cliffs that surround it

And it's a World Heritage site!

Some of Haohae's architecture

W E W A N D E R E D T H E V I L L A G E for a while, marveling at the 450+ yr old buildings and the fact that they were still occupied to this day. We watched a traditional mask dance, used by the common folk to poke fun at the rigid social roles of their Confucian society. I appreciated how vulgar and accessible it was-- I could tell much of what was going on even without understanding the language. The play poked fun at the aristocracy, the clergy, and the tradespeople, leaving next to nobody safe from its taunts. While watching, I couldn't help but think that we could use such a form of expression in our stratified culture today.

The play's gorgeous open air amphitheatre

One of the play's many characters

A bull, which was later castrated in the play

A lecherous priest

The town drunk

F O L L O W I N G T H E P L A Y , we toured the village some more, surveying the local sculptures, visiting the tree shrine at its center, speaking with a resident who was weaving a reed rug, and admiring the ancient red pines that lean to and fro at the village's edges.

A sculpture garden near the play

The fertility shrine at the center of the village

Weaving a reed rug

An offering to travelers-- if your hand fits, what's inside (often money) is yours

Swings said to be used by skirted women to taunt their lovers as a part of courtship

You can't tell from the picture really, but these pines are an awesome shade of red

O U R N E X T S T O P was a Confucian academy not far from Haohae-- another incredibly and viscerally engineered space that simply felt sublime. We spent some time down by the river, then took off for the campsite that'd be our home for the night. There, we kicked back, reflected, enjoyed some crafts and some food prep, and finally hit the hay.

Climbing the stairs to the Confucian academy

A view of the academy

'Bout to get DUNKED

Making rice cakes!

The finished product-- our snack for our next day of adventures!

A mask from the play, which we decorated with colored putty

And here's a video from the second half of the day!

Highlights from Beijing

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Click below for a slideshow of highlights from my time in Beijing! Or view it here on G+!

And enjoy these video clips (also available on youtube)!

East Asian Regional Politics and Korean Language (6/5)

2014-02-09T16:23:00.004-05:00

D A Y S L I K E T O D A Y granted my wish for academic rigor. Our East Asian Regional Security class was followed by an introductory class on the Korean language, meaning we had a day full of educational gold! I was a very happy student, but not a very happy photographer-- it's hard to take interesting pictures when you're in class all day!

Lectureface.jpg

In our first class, we took an extremely valuable regional-level look at East Asian security. Dr. Tessman outlined the abundant sources of potential conflict in the 21st Century. Much of this tension is readily apparent about the region, but doesn't necessarily register as a reason for pessimism, at least to my non-realist eyes. Regardless, there's a lot to worry about if one's really looking for it, and Tessman eloquently arranged these threats into five areas:

Radical differences in economic and political size and power that throw the concept of the balance of power to the wind;

A lack of inclusive institutions for collective security and cooperation (think NATO or the EU)

A mix of regime types including new democracies, quasi-democracies, authoritarian and communist states

Historical animosities, such as Japan's colonialism, political tension between China and Vietnam, the Korean War, and the growth and prominence of the regional giants India and China

Resources, including the Spratly Islands (those islands in the South China Sea that everyone is always sabre-rattling about), the region's Rare Earth minerals, and, as populations increase and our environment changes, the availability of water

All of this, from a realist international relations perspective, is reason to write the region off as unstable and dangerous. What do these pessimistic views predict? That Japan will rearm and that the region will devolve into balancing/power politics, both because they're the rational, self-interested thing to do! Yet we don't think of the region as on the brink, do we? I certainly don't! And there's reason to argue against the pessimists, as Dr. Tessman went on to explain.

First, Asia doesn't react towards hierarchy the way Europe seems to. Historically, Tessman argued, it's been most stable when China has been strong enough to stand above the rest; this seemingly natural position doesn't evoke challenges from other actors in the region but instead leads to regional stability. Asia doesn't seem to need a NATO or EU to keep things civil, its ad hoc network of regional institutions don't cause the friction there they seem to in other regions. Next, Japan doesn't act like a realist state-- it could have rearmed long ago, especially given the strength of its economy throughout the 90s, but it has chosen not to. And finally, the region seems to tend towards bandwagoning and hedging rather than the balancing that realism predicts-- many of the smaller countries in the region have benefited from the tension between the US and China, as aligning with one or the other comes with economic and political perks.

I W O N D E R to what degree we were falling into Orientalism by concluding in part that "'Asia' is different", or, more importantly, how terribly irresponsible it is to project realism and eurocentric international relations theory onto the world's diversity, but these are the things that distance me from many of my peers in the field-- you sort of have to accept these things to play the international relations game, at least as far as I can tell by now.

Korean language class!

S P E A K I N G O F O R I E N T A L I S M , one of the fascinatingly sticky things about the idea is that it isn't just "westerners" or "foreigners" who are responsible for its inaccurate generalizations-- those who have historically been orientalized have also been known to self-orientalize, often to exploit opportunities created by the perceived differences between East and West. An example may be a Chinese vendor of trinkets who capitalizes on a Western tourist's orientalism by playing along and selling them caricatured parts of their culture for profit.

I bring this up because the impression of the Korean language I got from the class I took seemed extremely rosy and favorable, to the point that I wondered if I wasn't being fed exactly what I was looking for, like the Westerner in the example above. It's extremely unfair and not at all my intention to bring the teacher of this class and her representation of the Korean language into a conversation about Orientalism, and to be blunt I do not mean to accuse my teacher of such. However, it's interesting to consider representations across differences, and to wonder who gets what impression of something as immense and unintelligible as a language and its roots. How similar is the impression I got of the language's background to the impression given to a native speaker, and how accurate is that representation compared to the "objective" nature of the historical "facts"? Language, History, and Difference are all deceptively political; I can't help but wonder about their interplay at an intersection like this.

Commentary aside, the impression I was given of the Korean language was, simply put, awesome. According to the telling, King Sejong, a people's king, decided to forsake the exclusive monopoly the Korean aristocracy had on language and literacy by assembling the greatest minds of the age and tasking them with creating a people's language. I'm such a sucker for anti-exclusive populism like that, I couldn't help but love the tale. The Korean language, then, was made to be accessible to all, in order to lower sociopolitical boundaries. Its characters resemble the positions of the throat and mouth necessary to produce the sounds, rather than the esoteric and endless symbolism of a language such as Cantonese, and its grammar and structure have been compared to the elegant simplicity and functionality of binary. Not only did the language come from great origins, it is also said to be at the root of Korea's technological and economic second-coming, as its structure allegedly enables a logic that aids math, science, programming, and all those other fancy things the global economy seems to favor.

I didn't retain a lot of the language itself, but the context from which the language came really stuck with me. It's certainly something I'd like to pick up at some point in my life (if I weren't so bad at learning foreign languages -__- )

And, other than some meals and minutiae, that was my day!

Back in Korea (6/4)

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O U R R E T U R N T O Korea came with a radical change in the pace of the trip-- no longer were we tourists visiting historical sites, we were students whose class took place within and beyond the classroom. We arrived in Daegu, the city that would be our home for the next leg of the trip, quite late the night before, and were up and at 'em quite early this morn.

From what I'd seen in transit between the airport and campus, our borough of Daegu appeared to be far smaller than either of our previous two cities, Busan and Beijing. It was more like your medium sized college town, not unlike Athens, the heart of UGA. We were to stay at the guest houses at Yeungnam University, which was our host in Daegu. Our rooms were very nice-- they slept two, had balconies with wonderful views, and even had a fancy entryway to a nice raised wooden floor! Yeungnam did a wonderful job of making us feel welcome and comfortable.

The formal entryway to our room

Our home at Yeungnam!

The view from our room

A F T E R A Q U I C K breakfast at the dining hall next door, we walked to the heart of Yeungnam's campus to visit their Korean cultural museum. They had some incredible artifacts, including multi-story texts, gorgeous pottery, and adorable historical childrens' toys. It was nice to revisit some of the history of Korea's dynastic past that Dr. Yi had alluded to in our time in Busan-- we weren't completely ignorant like I'd felt in China; we'd heard enough previously to have some familiarity and understanding about the context of what we learned.

A colossal text preserved on Korea's incredible Mulberry paper

Joseon Dynasty pottery

An incredible wooden vessel used for cooking

Y E U N G N A M H A S N O T O N L Y an incredible history museum but also its very own traditional Korean village! This village is made from the buildings from several traditional locations that were moved to Yeungnam to be preserved and used as examples of Korean folk life. We spent most of our time at the Confucian school house, where we learned about education in traditional Korea.

The entrance to Gugye Seowon, the Confucian academy at Yeungnam

A view of the common area of the village, including the colossal swing used in wedding ceremonies

O U R M O R N I N G O F H I S T O R Y was followed by an afternoon of modernity. First, we hopped across the street to visit the downtown area that accompanies Yeungnam's campus. We visited a delicious noodle place for lunch, then looked around at the shops--mostly restaurants, some small boutiques, and a grocery store-- before heading back for our first class with Dr. Tessman!

Downtown at Yeungnam!

Delicious!

In class, Dr. Tessman laid out the framework for our class-- we'd be considering each country we'd visit on the trip, Korea, China, and Japan, and the role they play in the regions sociopolitical stability. We talked mostly about the different levels of security, ranging from human security (the well-being of the individual and their welfare, healthcare, and environment) to regional security, including states and non-state actors.

Paused for discussion

Classmates

I R O U N D E D O U T what ended up being a pretty long and busy day with a nice nap and a walk about campus. Already it felt great to be somewhat more settled than in Beijing, and to be learning again!

Dusk at Yeungnam