The Ryo World: Seoul

Departure Day + 8

2008-01-01T01:48:00.000-08:00

Happy New Years to you and Balls. We had New Years Feast at my Aunt and Uncles in Tokyo. Grandma and Grandpa. Uncle's mom. Cousins and respective spouses. Also My Cousin's uncle + wife + kids.

Pre-feast start

Part of Feast

More segments of feast

A New Years game. The cards on the ground have a segment from the Tale of Genji. So do the cards in my aunts hand (foreground). Theres two teams, right and left. Aunt reads and the two teams try to find the segment card. I cant read.

A few more pictures to come...

Departure Day + 7

2008-01-01T01:26:00.000-08:00

The day was December 31st. Me, Cousin, and Cousin's new Bride took a day trip 1 hour outside Tokyo. We went to a hot spring. Its loosely translated as Neglected Bath. Not as poetic, it has a more joking tone. The baths are outside on the hill side overlooking the valley. If it was clearer out we would've been able to see Fuji clearly.

Overlooking the building where you buy your bath pass, change, and shower before going out to the rock tubs. (No photos of baths)
Cousin Takashi, Me, Cousin in law Masayo

The food window had: deep fried boiled egg (hahaha) and a fried potato. It was fuckin good.

이hotspring은많이외국인도있었어...kidding. he was a mannequin

외구긴없어지만,감이많이있었어
They were being hung out to dry. Dried 감(pronounced Kum) is very good.

Departure Day + 6

2008-01-01T01:16:00.000-08:00

So its the 30th of December. I met Jennepuh, Camille, Annie, Kathy, and Steve! Western representation. I was supposed to meet Steve. I however, did not know they all knew each other. They're all from Western, they would know each other, they're all inbred.

We found Baby cans of Beer. In a word: Adorable
Steve, Me, Jennipuh

The Tokyo Tower. My granda has never been, and hes really really proud of it. He hates it.

Outside of a Supermarket. Drinking like we drink it in front of Buy the Way. This has been an Ryo Kato produced public drinking instance. I hope you all are drinking, Buy the Way (pun)

Departure Day + 4

2008-01-01T01:02:00.000-08:00

I went from Chiba towards Nagoya to visit my Grandma (mom's side). I stay for one night in the old folks home. Outpops my Uncle and two cousins, who i havent seen in ages. Grandma forgot that Uncle was coming. So Reunion! Surprise!

Me, Kyoko, Yuuki, Grandma, and Uncle Hajime

In a word 시골

I stayed for one night. The next day I left for the Kanto region again. I was supposed to go more inland to my Grandpa and Grandma's home region. I was sick. So I couldnt. I was supposed to meet my dad's cousin + family at my Great Grandma's old house.

Departure Day + 1

2008-01-01T00:55:00.000-08:00

So this is the second day I'm in Japan. I landed at Narita the same day as I took off from Incheon. Here is Grandpa in some of his nicer clothes. We drank and ate with Grandma.

The globe makes him look like a Tokugawa Era Scholar

Me and Grandma

Yum.

Departure Day: Reflection II

2008-01-01T00:30:00.001-08:00

The Friday and into early Saturday before departure was James' 생일. It was Ill (일). Pun.

Lets get the ball rolling. We made James a Happy Balls Day ball. Everyone signed it.

Heres the Chings signing eachother's "Ching Books"

Pat drawing on his balls. Pat gnawing on his balls. Pat clawing at his balls

Silvia and her friends.

Gelli-Gels, Ames, Silvi-ahhh!

James' favorite food is 비빔밥. 제임스씨의체일좋아하는음식은비빔밥이갓가다요(butchered).

First Stop: Just Red. We wrote in Ching Books. Then we went to Ho Bar. Then my camera broke. Hit up the teammates for details...

My conceptual understanding of Ho Bar III (? II? IV?)
For that matter, this is a visual representation of SkaII as well.

Heres an extra bit.

We went to Painters. I got the Charisma (Stamina). It was huge. no picture (wtf)

Departure Day: Reflection

2008-01-01T00:08:00.000-08:00

Grilled Meats, Cheers, and Greets,

The Thursday before departure we went out for the samgyapsal. We also went to T12 and Anna's. It was stupendously drunken. Revelry, my god.

James and Shiraz: Waiting for some Porkin'

Straight to Ice Cream on the 지하철

After meat and ice cream, I stopped by the dorm and grabbed some gear. This is my walk towards 신촌.

View of the NMI (New Millennium Hall) at night

만두-esque bird? crescent? croissant? in the woods on campus

The big tree in the middle of campus was lit-up.

Met up at T 12: James, Jake, Amy

Awwwww. Couple Look. Inadvertent?

Then we high tailed it to Anna's. I dont have a single picture of that. Theres something about a giant dog pile. Look it up in the teammate's section. So that was Thursday, heres Friday babies.

Day of Departure

2007-12-31T22:58:00.000-08:00

So it has been almost 10 days since our departure. There will be some reflections and also things Ive done since. Here we go. Me, Gelli, and Amy had similar take off times. Hannah and Pat were 친구 par excellence, and so saw us off to Incheon (I owe Pat 만원 for the bus). Amy's flight was later than me and Gelli. So we went through the security gates first. Bye Seoul! See you 친가린구스 later!

So me and Gelli's gates were side by side. How fitting. It allowed us to have one last hurrah for public drinking. We drank Cass Light. "Dont worry guys, we still drink like we're in Shinchon." "and and... we have a blueberry muffin for anju."

Proof. In a word: the muff

When I arrived in Narita, I was frantically looking for some hangul to read. If i can read it it means it did actually happen. I was actually in Seoul, learning me some Korean.

Tears were shed and I nodded several times. Mouthing to myself, "엘리베이터"

So yup. We left Seoul!

The Kin of Amy

2007-11-20T11:44:00.000-08:00

So Amy's sister Shannon is here. As well as Joe, Hannah's friend...

We took them to the Chongechyon. First we ate at Chai (a bibimbap joint. it has good cheese veggie bibimbap). Then at the stream we lost sight of Hannah, Amy, Shannon. Joe, Gelli, James, me went to get booze. On the way back it started to rain, sleet, thunder. We tired looking for them but with no avail.

First Sighting: Amy and Kin of Amy: Shannon

The Conch at Night

Water at Night

The Delahanty's and Gelli and Hannah

Under the Bridge at Night

Its all Soju under the Bridge

The Sleet at Night

In a Word: Downtrodden at Night
Thats Joe, and Gelli, we all know Gelli

Two Ajushis Fighting at Night and Making our Day by totally making Friends afterwards at Night

Recent Development at Painters

2007-11-18T21:05:00.001-08:00

Seth gets his own item on the menu...

So Seth apparently had a conversation with the proprietor of our favorite Donkasu 집 (house). The gist is that now there is a something you can order by the name of Seth's Hawaiian.

In a word: Exemplary

Gist:
Seth: In America we put pineapple and gochu (jalepenos) on pizza
Proprietor: -Silent Skepticism- Really...?
-Later on-
Proprietor: Seth I tried your suggestion of Gochu + Pinapple in donkasu. Its poised to enter the pantheon. Because Seth made it, it shall have Seth in its name.

SETH'S HAWAIIAN DONKASU

Stuff of Legends.

Post Script:
I am Legend comes out on December 14th. Very excited.

The Cool Kids

2007-11-18T20:54:00.000-08:00

Meandering in Shinchon or These are my Friend : D ...

Pat, Jason, James, Amy, Gelli, Felix, Hannah

This is the band Transubstantiation is Hematophagy
Felix - Vampire Bat
James - Leeches
Gelli - Vocals
Pat - Assassin Bug
Jason - Nematode

Sophistication

Sophistication of sorts

Time Travel: <<

2007-11-18T20:41:00.000-08:00

The first time at Chongechong...

By City Hall and the Gyeongbokgung Palace, theres this little stream. In the past 20 yrs or so (?) they built up the banks of the stream. It looks very nice, even better at night supposedly. Me and Gelli found it accidentally when we were looking for a showing of some North Korean film.

By the starting point of the Chonggechong, theres a giant conch

The starting point of the built up stream

Looking back at the starting point from bank

Theres steps intermittently to provide passage

After awhile theres trees on either side

Another view of the starting point

Rundown of Places we Like

2007-11-18T11:41:00.000-08:00

Episode 3: Over-vealotry

So tonight we will run down three places we like to go. First, Mushroom Restaurant. Its a veggie friendly Shabu Shabu joint. Second, The Painter and Cook, a very good donkasu (tonkatsu) place. Then, the-so-called "Lodge." An underground cafe that serves beer, nice couches, and coffee. Finally, a proper introduction of our favorite 다방. Enjoy..

At Mushroom Restaurant

Gelli, Hannah

At Painter and Cook
Seth from Minnesota, more to come
Hannah, we all know Hannah

At "the Lodge"
Katharina von Austria

The 다방

At the 다방: "Welcome"
Amy, James, Gelli

The Counter

A rendition of Van Gogh with the Owner of the Cafe in Bear Costume

These a glimpses of places we like here.

Time Travel: >>

2007-11-18T10:45:00.000-08:00

So we fast forward like a month... 11-18-07

Today we went to our favorite 다방 (cafe). There we drank copious amounts of coffee. The man who works there gives tons of service (freebies). So as you will see later we were strung out on coffee. James and Pat worked on shit on their computers. Me and Gelli drew stuff. After that we headed to our favorite ラーメン (ramen, 라면 아니고...). We witnessed a real 식선수 (Food Player aka eating champion). I asked the かわいいお姉さん who was working there（기옆은누나?) what the deal was. The deal is, you eat a toilet bowl sized ramen serving under 20mins, you eat for free. However, if you can't you have to pay 2만원 ($20, ２０円）After, witnessing a true hero, we witnessed true brutality in the form of Park Chan-Wook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. The pictures are telling of the draining ordeal. Enjoy...

다방James and Gelli (Angelica), as status quo we are together on this episode

Gelli and Pat. Pat is our chingoo from the BC. You will hear from him more often. Yes that is Guernica. in the background

Heres the bill for the fight between the Windshield Viper vs Gelika Plasmatic.

... In a word: strung-out

Ramen: 三丁目

Eating! Drinking! Fighting!

... In a word: hero.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

In a word: Down trodden...

Post Scriptum:
Our friend from back home (Seattle) has a new band Grave Maker. Check them out.

Places we Like

2007-10-11T05:21:00.000-07:00

This is the Downstairs Lounge...

International Cooperation

This is our dear chingoos Amy from Kentucky and Roberto from Monterey. No not California, Mexico. Habitual characteristics 1: Amy punches/pumps arms expressing approval. Me and Roberto have a certain pose we make consistently for pictures and in real life (photographic proof to come)

Ramen Robot: 1000 won

You put in a 1000 won bill and this ramyun (Korean for spicy top ramen) comes out. It was broken so some people were repairing. I snapped a picture of the naked ramen robot.

Tons of Studying: Lies

A lineup of Macs...

Lots of Takeout: Truth

Hannah!!! from San Jose/San Francisco and Maricarmen from Monterrey. No not California, Mexico. They are enjoying our favorite 4th meal, jyajyangmyun and jyajyangbap or tangsoo. Its Korea-Chinese food. Black bean with noodles and rice. And also fried pork with sweet-sour sauce (detailed photos to come).

Study Lounge stats

So this is the study lounge. We meet chingoos here. We occasionally study. We watch movies here. We eat food here. We need to leave the Downstairs Lounge now.
Study Lounge Rating: 1/10

Places We Lik

2007-10-02T05:58:00.001-07:00

So this is Chobang...

Teammate Gelli

Teammate James

This is our favorite cafe. Its really close to our dorm. Chobang is a children's book publication that happens to run a cafe/children's book gallery. Theres tons of original or translated works. Also they sell cool nicknacks. I like Nicknacks. We come here and study for hours and hours. Sometimes we meet Giggle Fitzgerald here. They also project films onto the far wall. This particular time had The Balloon playing. Lets go banging! Chobanging... (sorry)

Fish 하고 Cake 하고 Beer

2007-10-01T03:13:00.000-07:00

They went to Doctor Fish Cafe...

FISH !!SYMBIOTIC RELATIONS PIMP!! FISH

So, you pay the equivalent of 8-9 dollars. You get choice of cake and coffee, tea, or beer. We opted for choco-cake and beer. Then, you go to the feet bath to wash your feets. After the feet ablution you take a hike to the middle of the Doctor Fish Cafe and theres a pool. You sit on the edge and dunk your feet. Fish begin to nibble on your feet. It tickled. A lot. Great.

The one where they go to Gyeongju

2007-10-01T02:58:00.001-07:00

So we went to Gyeongju...
This is what i saw...

This is the Bulguksa Temple. We stayed here for a good hour and a half. Taking Pictures...

This is Namsan of Gyeongju. Apparently everyone has a Namsan.

Some more pictures to come for Gyeongju...

Chingoos: Meet Them

2007-09-29T05:32:00.001-07:00

Meet My Chingoos: One

-Sascha: Dutch. 21. Tall and Hapkido
-Jesus: Ami. 20? "What it do?"
-Angelica: Ami. 20. "YO! SAMIES!"
-Katharina: Austrian. 21? Rating: 20 out of 3
-Silvia: Austrian 21?. Special Ability: Is game to try different foods
-Hannah: Ami. 22. Scale of 1-10: RAWSOME!
James: Ami probably. 20. Haven't seen him since 3rd grade.

More CHINGOOS to come...

Situation: Living

2007-09-29T05:02:00.001-07:00

So this is my Living Situation...
-I have a laptop
-I have a bunch of KRW versions of $10
-Toothbrush
-Handphone made out of paper
-Tons of hydration
-Pen

Thank you.

So this is my blog...

2007-09-29T04:06:00.000-07:00

So this is my weblog. You can have:
-Updates of how I'm living
-Stuff that I'm definitely doing, or something
-Stuff that I eat, drink, and see

If you don't want these things:
-Give it back
-Borrow it then give it back

Thank you