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Well darlings, it's been a few days since I updated here. The reason for this is my schedule suddenly got very hectic as I gained access to several museums in a row, and I had to work my arse off to get to all of them before I left Korea. Since monday, I'd been waiting for various permissions to go through, and I had sent out multiple emails before this trip contacting various people, but it was still a shock to get an email from the director of the Seoul Baekje museum literal hours after I'd finished visiting her museum. I quickly sent her an email in return requesting access to the bronzes and beads in her museum, and we set up a meeting for Friday afternoon. Before that though, I had a date at the Bucheon museum in Busan on Thursday. (I spent Weds setting up all these appointments.) Busan is on the south coast of Korea and is 3hrs away by the Korean equivalent of the bullet train (at a much nicer price of $50... compare that to the $100 I'm paying right now for just going from Tokyo to Niigata). My meeting was at 3pm, so I took a train that would get there by noon, allowing me enough time to eat some lunch and find my way to museum (which involved the subway and a taxi, all while dragging along the XRF scanner). It was insanely hot and humid in Busan - my camera and glasses immediately fogged up upon going outside and you could barely see anything that was further away due to the haze. I was drenched in sweat, but I eventually made it to the museum. There's a whole hill full of excavated tombs attached to the museum so I went to look at those first since I was an hour early. See?
My meeting went well in that I got several good articles to read and access to the artifacts, but the XRF scanner wouldn't work at all. I had forgotten the converter, but the batteries were charged and it should have worked. This was very frustrating considering the long trip I'd taken. I was there for a few hours to try to get it working, but in the end I just recorded the other aspects of the artifacts and had to be on my way. I caught a crowded train up to Seoul and read HP fic on my kindle the whole way. I got into Seoul station around 10pm, and dragged myself to my hotel where I plugged the XRF scanner in and it worked fine. *headdesk* I went to bed because I had a long day ahead of me.
The next day, I headed back to the Hangang Cultural Heritage institute. I couldn't do the bronze analysis I wanted because the artifact had been covered in a protective coating so I confined myself to beads. The XRF scanner worked perfectly fine the whole time while plugged into a converter to US voltage. I was then taken out for pulgogi (strips of sweet-salty beef) and bibimbap. We had a good time eating good food and chatting. I can understand a lot of Korean even if my skill at speaking it is crap so it was funny to see how shocked they were when I responded to things they were saying correctly (it's like I was reading their minds! lol). I'm amused to say that I actually have better chopstick skills than most Koreans. There's no problem in South Korea using a spoon if something is hard to pick up, so they don't have to be as precise as you have to be living in Japan. One of the people I was eating with was actually an expert on the archaeology of chopsticks so it was fun to pick his brain. They put me on what turned out to be a slow bus to Seoul Station. I think I would have gotten their faster taking the subway, so in the end, I was a half hour later getting to my 3pm appointment at the Seoul Baekje museum, but luckily no one minded. There, I discussed my research in detail and was allowed to do/demonstrate the non-destructive lead isotope method I'm using. I made an appointment to come back the next day to look at their beads since I'd dropped the XRF scanner off at my hotel - it being a pain to drag across the entire city.
The next day, I met an archaeometallurgist who was luckily visiting Seoul for the day. We had lunch and networked quite successfully. I then took the 1 1/2hr trip to Seoul Baekje museum. The weather was very nice that day so it was a pleasure to walk through the park staring at the weird sculptures. Lots of people were playing and picnicking. At the museum, I was served tea and grapes, then brought down into the vault to look at their curved beads. The XRF scanner behaved for 6 beads while plugged into Korean voltage, but refused to scan the last two until I plugged it into a power converter. That done, it was 8pm and I was taken to dinner by two of the curators who were helping me and interested in seeing the XRF method. I made the mistake of telling them that I liked neng myun and pulgogi which meant I was served an extra large bowl of neng myun with my pulgogi on top of the usual soup, salad and appetizers you get at a regular Korean meal. I was stuffed, but the pulgogi was amazing. They cooked it right in front of us on bricks of charcoal under a cone-shaped metal plate. There was a ring around the edge which caught the juices and cooked vegetables and cloves of garlic. I must have eaten several cloves of garlic, mushrooms, spring onions and tons of delicious meat. So tasty. I also had my first taste of some (pronounced so-may) which is a heavier soju shot mixed with beer. They dropped me off at a slightly closer subway station, and I headed back to my room to collapse with exhaustion. Sunday was my only free day and I resolved to visit one of the palaces (there are four in Seoul, I believe). The one which was recommended to me by three different Koreans was Changdeokgung so I headed there around 11am. (I slept in to the late time of 8:30am!) I walked through a traditional neighborhood to get there where there was a warren of alleyways off the main street. I discovered a gorgeous, small, painted temple and took some pictures before finally making it to the palace. I bought a ticket for both the palace and the tour of the secret garden (which is more like a forbidden garden rather than secret), but the tour wasn't until 1:30 and seeing as it was 11:30, I figured it was a good idea to get lunch before I headed in.
I walked towards another subway station before spotting a map and realizing that I was only a few blocks away from the touristy/crafty area of Insadong. I hadn't planned on visiting there during this trip since I'd been told it was expensive, but since I was there, I figured I might as well look around and find somewhere for lunch. Since it was my second to last day in Korea, I had my heart set on having some dissolved eel soup, chu-o-tang (called loach, I believe), but I couldn't find it anywhere and I wasted a lot of time wandering around trying to find it. Finally, since I was running out of time I settled on a seafood spring onion pancake (mostly octopus and shrimp it seemed). This was a bad choice since it took awhile to make so I was watching the clock the whole time and gulping it down. It was very tasty though. I headed back to the palace and made it to the secret garden entrance five minutes before the tour started. All tour guides at these places are women wearing traditional hanbok so they look very pretty if possibly sweating to death under their layers and makeup. The secret garden is very pretty in places, but had a lot of hills and stairs. I was shocked the tour took 1 1/2 hrs and my feet were feeling it by the end. I then had to see the rest of the palace despite my aching feet. I got lost in the bureaucratic area, visited the main halls and personal quarters of the king and queen, then decided that it was time to leave before I started limping. Of course, I had planned on visiting the nearby Jyongno shrine while I was in the area. I got there and all the English tours had finished for the day so I hopped on a Korean one (you couldn't explore on your own). I was disappointed that it was not a very well decorated shrine and my eyes kept glazing over as the tour guide went on and on about each king whose tablet was kept there or discussed the architecture (not that there weren't huge gaps in my understanding but what I could understand was quite boring). I ended up just finding a place to sit at each stop and letting the words wash over me. Once the tour was over, it was around 5pm or so. I bought a drink and sat in a dunkin donuts for an hour to rest my feet. I'm not sure if it helped because I was still near limping when I got up an hour later, but I was determined to have some eel while I was out. I finally found a seafood restaurant and ordered their eel lunch (despite it being dinner). This involved several appetizers, salad, and soup along with a plate of broiled eel. It was delicious even if I never did find my eel soup. Thus satisfied, I headed back to the hotel, stopping only for some ice cream from Stone Cold Creamery (they're all over Korea, oddly enough). I then had to prep for my trip the next day before collapsing into bed. I really need to learn to stop killing myself on my days off. I am such an overachieving tourist.
Monday was a trip to Daegu and Kyungpook University museum. Daegu is about 2 hrs from Seoul by train and I had an appointment at 1pm, so I set it up so I arrived in time to each lunch again. I then caught a taxi to the university. Museums are closed on Mondays in Korea and Japan, but they were still at work in the curatorial department. They brought me several gokuk to look at, but once again the XRF scanner refused to work, this time no matter what I plugged it into. I have since possibly sorted this (apparently there is sensor which doesn't like small samples, so I've been told to cover it in tape and it should work, but since I've been in transit for the past day, I haven't had a chance to test it yet. I hope it works. Edit: it does), but on Monday I was once again thwarted after dragging the XRF scanner with me for a long trip *sigh* I was left to record the artifacts the old fashioned way (if a digital caliper and camera can be considered old fashioned) before departing a few hours later. I arrived back in Seoul at 7:30 and met a friend at the station. We chatted for several hours before I realized I needed to head back to my hotel and pack.
I was up at 5am on Tuesday to catch the 6am express train to Incheon airport. I had a harder time going to Japan than from it and had to get one of my bags inspected (you are only allowed one can of aerosol spray (in my case bug spray) apparently so they made me throw out the other one). Oh well. This time on the plane, I watched most of Casino Royale. Once in Japan, I caught the train to Tokyo station where I had lunch with one of my friends who works in Tokyo atm. I then had a gruelling trip to Ayase station (my bags are far too heavy atm) made worse by a lack of elevators/escalators at certain stations. I had this problem in Seoul a lot, so I was surprised to have the same one while in Tokyo. I made it and decided to use the afternoon getting Japanese money and doing some laundry. I headed towards the bujinkan class on time, but when I got there, I found out it had been inexplicably cancelled for that day. This was very disappointing since I only have one more time I can try to make it to training and that will require missing some of the conference I'm attending and lots of arrangements which is a pain. I will probably do it though because I want my fifth dan, dammit. I ended up eating at a very tasty local Indian place with an 80 year old Japanese man who also does bujinkan training. He was fun to talk to but they started smoking inside the restaurant and I had to leave before I had an asthma attack. I accidentally wandered into Book Off on my way back to my hotel and bought the next two volumes of Saint Young Men I needed (they were only $3.50!). I then went back to my hotel and did another load of laundry. Then I had to repack my whole bag and I've consolidated it all into one heavy bag and the scanner. By this point, it was late and I needed sleep, so I went to bed.
This morning, I woke up at 7:30am and answered some emails before doing even more repacking. I headed out around 9am to catch the shinkansen (bullet train) to Niigata, and that is where I am writing this entry now that I've finished my fulbright draft.
Edited to add: I made it to Niigata and my cheap hotel, but I've since discovered that I probably should have bitten the bullet and stayed in an expensive one that was an hour closer to where I'm going tomorrow. I may be saving a bit of money, but it's probably not enough to make it worth it. Plus, I'm far from the onsen *pout* Nevertheless, I made it to Niigata, dropped off my bags, had some sushi (from a convienience store) for lunch. I asked at the front desk where the nearest onsen was, and they showed me on a map so a little bit of research in google and I was on my way on a tiny little local train to a place about a half hour away called Casul (or maybe Casue... I forget its Japanese name) which was right next to the dinky little local station. I paid their rather high fee and went inside. They had the usual two saunas - wet and dry, plus a ice cold pool, two hot pools (one outside and one inside) and one warm pool. The warm pool was called a meditation pool because it was off in a little chambered passageway and was kept in low lighting with soothing music. I loved it but was disappointed that the water jets in it weren't that strong. The hot pools were nice to sit in and after washing my body, I did the usual hopping between hot, cold, sauna, hot, warm, etc. I still can't decide if I like the freezing cold pool that much, but it does make it easy to survive the sauna for longer. Once I was relaxed and drowsy, I did a final wash off and conditioned my hair before heading out. It felt really nice to soak because my muscles are killing me from walking and dragging along my heavy bags. I have so many bruises right now from them hitting me as I walk, and even a blister (I haven't had one of those since 2002 so I couldn't even figure out why there was a stinging pain in one of my toes until I had the time to examine it). I caught the train back, then grabbed a standing dinner of kitsune udon (udon noodles with two pieces of fermented tofu floating in them). This is one of my favourite Japanese meals and since it is only 350yen (about $4), I get to eat it a lot on this trip *g* I've since been answering emails and checking out the XRF scanner fix, plus planning my trip to the only jadeite source in Japan tomorrow. Ja ne!
My meeting went well in that I got several good articles to read and access to the artifacts, but the XRF scanner wouldn't work at all. I had forgotten the converter, but the batteries were charged and it should have worked. This was very frustrating considering the long trip I'd taken. I was there for a few hours to try to get it working, but in the end I just recorded the other aspects of the artifacts and had to be on my way. I caught a crowded train up to Seoul and read HP fic on my kindle the whole way. I got into Seoul station around 10pm, and dragged myself to my hotel where I plugged the XRF scanner in and it worked fine. *headdesk* I went to bed because I had a long day ahead of me.
The next day, I headed back to the Hangang Cultural Heritage institute. I couldn't do the bronze analysis I wanted because the artifact had been covered in a protective coating so I confined myself to beads. The XRF scanner worked perfectly fine the whole time while plugged into a converter to US voltage. I was then taken out for pulgogi (strips of sweet-salty beef) and bibimbap. We had a good time eating good food and chatting. I can understand a lot of Korean even if my skill at speaking it is crap so it was funny to see how shocked they were when I responded to things they were saying correctly (it's like I was reading their minds! lol). I'm amused to say that I actually have better chopstick skills than most Koreans. There's no problem in South Korea using a spoon if something is hard to pick up, so they don't have to be as precise as you have to be living in Japan. One of the people I was eating with was actually an expert on the archaeology of chopsticks so it was fun to pick his brain. They put me on what turned out to be a slow bus to Seoul Station. I think I would have gotten their faster taking the subway, so in the end, I was a half hour later getting to my 3pm appointment at the Seoul Baekje museum, but luckily no one minded. There, I discussed my research in detail and was allowed to do/demonstrate the non-destructive lead isotope method I'm using. I made an appointment to come back the next day to look at their beads since I'd dropped the XRF scanner off at my hotel - it being a pain to drag across the entire city.
The next day, I met an archaeometallurgist who was luckily visiting Seoul for the day. We had lunch and networked quite successfully. I then took the 1 1/2hr trip to Seoul Baekje museum. The weather was very nice that day so it was a pleasure to walk through the park staring at the weird sculptures. Lots of people were playing and picnicking. At the museum, I was served tea and grapes, then brought down into the vault to look at their curved beads. The XRF scanner behaved for 6 beads while plugged into Korean voltage, but refused to scan the last two until I plugged it into a power converter. That done, it was 8pm and I was taken to dinner by two of the curators who were helping me and interested in seeing the XRF method. I made the mistake of telling them that I liked neng myun and pulgogi which meant I was served an extra large bowl of neng myun with my pulgogi on top of the usual soup, salad and appetizers you get at a regular Korean meal. I was stuffed, but the pulgogi was amazing. They cooked it right in front of us on bricks of charcoal under a cone-shaped metal plate. There was a ring around the edge which caught the juices and cooked vegetables and cloves of garlic. I must have eaten several cloves of garlic, mushrooms, spring onions and tons of delicious meat. So tasty. I also had my first taste of some (pronounced so-may) which is a heavier soju shot mixed with beer. They dropped me off at a slightly closer subway station, and I headed back to my room to collapse with exhaustion. Sunday was my only free day and I resolved to visit one of the palaces (there are four in Seoul, I believe). The one which was recommended to me by three different Koreans was Changdeokgung so I headed there around 11am. (I slept in to the late time of 8:30am!) I walked through a traditional neighborhood to get there where there was a warren of alleyways off the main street. I discovered a gorgeous, small, painted temple and took some pictures before finally making it to the palace. I bought a ticket for both the palace and the tour of the secret garden (which is more like a forbidden garden rather than secret), but the tour wasn't until 1:30 and seeing as it was 11:30, I figured it was a good idea to get lunch before I headed in.
I walked towards another subway station before spotting a map and realizing that I was only a few blocks away from the touristy/crafty area of Insadong. I hadn't planned on visiting there during this trip since I'd been told it was expensive, but since I was there, I figured I might as well look around and find somewhere for lunch. Since it was my second to last day in Korea, I had my heart set on having some dissolved eel soup, chu-o-tang (called loach, I believe), but I couldn't find it anywhere and I wasted a lot of time wandering around trying to find it. Finally, since I was running out of time I settled on a seafood spring onion pancake (mostly octopus and shrimp it seemed). This was a bad choice since it took awhile to make so I was watching the clock the whole time and gulping it down. It was very tasty though. I headed back to the palace and made it to the secret garden entrance five minutes before the tour started. All tour guides at these places are women wearing traditional hanbok so they look very pretty if possibly sweating to death under their layers and makeup. The secret garden is very pretty in places, but had a lot of hills and stairs. I was shocked the tour took 1 1/2 hrs and my feet were feeling it by the end. I then had to see the rest of the palace despite my aching feet. I got lost in the bureaucratic area, visited the main halls and personal quarters of the king and queen, then decided that it was time to leave before I started limping. Of course, I had planned on visiting the nearby Jyongno shrine while I was in the area. I got there and all the English tours had finished for the day so I hopped on a Korean one (you couldn't explore on your own). I was disappointed that it was not a very well decorated shrine and my eyes kept glazing over as the tour guide went on and on about each king whose tablet was kept there or discussed the architecture (not that there weren't huge gaps in my understanding but what I could understand was quite boring). I ended up just finding a place to sit at each stop and letting the words wash over me. Once the tour was over, it was around 5pm or so. I bought a drink and sat in a dunkin donuts for an hour to rest my feet. I'm not sure if it helped because I was still near limping when I got up an hour later, but I was determined to have some eel while I was out. I finally found a seafood restaurant and ordered their eel lunch (despite it being dinner). This involved several appetizers, salad, and soup along with a plate of broiled eel. It was delicious even if I never did find my eel soup. Thus satisfied, I headed back to the hotel, stopping only for some ice cream from Stone Cold Creamery (they're all over Korea, oddly enough). I then had to prep for my trip the next day before collapsing into bed. I really need to learn to stop killing myself on my days off. I am such an overachieving tourist.
Monday was a trip to Daegu and Kyungpook University museum. Daegu is about 2 hrs from Seoul by train and I had an appointment at 1pm, so I set it up so I arrived in time to each lunch again. I then caught a taxi to the university. Museums are closed on Mondays in Korea and Japan, but they were still at work in the curatorial department. They brought me several gokuk to look at, but once again the XRF scanner refused to work, this time no matter what I plugged it into. I have since possibly sorted this (apparently there is sensor which doesn't like small samples, so I've been told to cover it in tape and it should work, but since I've been in transit for the past day, I haven't had a chance to test it yet. I hope it works. Edit: it does), but on Monday I was once again thwarted after dragging the XRF scanner with me for a long trip *sigh* I was left to record the artifacts the old fashioned way (if a digital caliper and camera can be considered old fashioned) before departing a few hours later. I arrived back in Seoul at 7:30 and met a friend at the station. We chatted for several hours before I realized I needed to head back to my hotel and pack.
I was up at 5am on Tuesday to catch the 6am express train to Incheon airport. I had a harder time going to Japan than from it and had to get one of my bags inspected (you are only allowed one can of aerosol spray (in my case bug spray) apparently so they made me throw out the other one). Oh well. This time on the plane, I watched most of Casino Royale. Once in Japan, I caught the train to Tokyo station where I had lunch with one of my friends who works in Tokyo atm. I then had a gruelling trip to Ayase station (my bags are far too heavy atm) made worse by a lack of elevators/escalators at certain stations. I had this problem in Seoul a lot, so I was surprised to have the same one while in Tokyo. I made it and decided to use the afternoon getting Japanese money and doing some laundry. I headed towards the bujinkan class on time, but when I got there, I found out it had been inexplicably cancelled for that day. This was very disappointing since I only have one more time I can try to make it to training and that will require missing some of the conference I'm attending and lots of arrangements which is a pain. I will probably do it though because I want my fifth dan, dammit. I ended up eating at a very tasty local Indian place with an 80 year old Japanese man who also does bujinkan training. He was fun to talk to but they started smoking inside the restaurant and I had to leave before I had an asthma attack. I accidentally wandered into Book Off on my way back to my hotel and bought the next two volumes of Saint Young Men I needed (they were only $3.50!). I then went back to my hotel and did another load of laundry. Then I had to repack my whole bag and I've consolidated it all into one heavy bag and the scanner. By this point, it was late and I needed sleep, so I went to bed.
This morning, I woke up at 7:30am and answered some emails before doing even more repacking. I headed out around 9am to catch the shinkansen (bullet train) to Niigata, and that is where I am writing this entry now that I've finished my fulbright draft.
Edited to add: I made it to Niigata and my cheap hotel, but I've since discovered that I probably should have bitten the bullet and stayed in an expensive one that was an hour closer to where I'm going tomorrow. I may be saving a bit of money, but it's probably not enough to make it worth it. Plus, I'm far from the onsen *pout* Nevertheless, I made it to Niigata, dropped off my bags, had some sushi (from a convienience store) for lunch. I asked at the front desk where the nearest onsen was, and they showed me on a map so a little bit of research in google and I was on my way on a tiny little local train to a place about a half hour away called Casul (or maybe Casue... I forget its Japanese name) which was right next to the dinky little local station. I paid their rather high fee and went inside. They had the usual two saunas - wet and dry, plus a ice cold pool, two hot pools (one outside and one inside) and one warm pool. The warm pool was called a meditation pool because it was off in a little chambered passageway and was kept in low lighting with soothing music. I loved it but was disappointed that the water jets in it weren't that strong. The hot pools were nice to sit in and after washing my body, I did the usual hopping between hot, cold, sauna, hot, warm, etc. I still can't decide if I like the freezing cold pool that much, but it does make it easy to survive the sauna for longer. Once I was relaxed and drowsy, I did a final wash off and conditioned my hair before heading out. It felt really nice to soak because my muscles are killing me from walking and dragging along my heavy bags. I have so many bruises right now from them hitting me as I walk, and even a blister (I haven't had one of those since 2002 so I couldn't even figure out why there was a stinging pain in one of my toes until I had the time to examine it). I caught the train back, then grabbed a standing dinner of kitsune udon (udon noodles with two pieces of fermented tofu floating in them). This is one of my favourite Japanese meals and since it is only 350yen (about $4), I get to eat it a lot on this trip *g* I've since been answering emails and checking out the XRF scanner fix, plus planning my trip to the only jadeite source in Japan tomorrow. Ja ne!
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