Some Korean palaces and people

Saturday and sunday were spent in various locations with various people. First, i took some time to walk around the namsan park, which sports a famous tower.

Some pics from Namsan

Then in the evening, i met up with my friend Jina and her boyfriend:

And they took me on a korean barbecue!

On sunday, i met up with my friend Anders, who took me palace-visiting.

The southern gate

The main palace

War memorial of Korea

One of my first places to visit was the war memorial of Korea, a museum commemorating the modern wars of Korea - specifically the Korean war.

The frontside of the memorial

The memorial is very blatantly focused ob building a common korean national identity. The parts of the museum about earlier wars focus on portraying Korea as constantly assailed by others such as japan and China (to be fair, that is a valid perspective). Likewise, the Korean war is portrayed as a family tragedy, a conflict between brothers.

The two korean brothers, north and south.

More disturbing, in its way, is the short shrift given to the colonial period: the japanese occupation is glossed over, merely mentioned as a shameful experience, and Korean opposition against Japan is highlighted.

This means that those who collaborated with Japan aren't mentioned at all. And that silence, in turn, makes the kind of identity-building the memorial works toward, exceedingly fragile. Like all master narratives.

Oh well. At least they have a pillar hall! And a B52!

Seoul: first impressions

It took me about 16 hours travel time, but at least I managed to arrive in Seoul by Friday evening. A few pictures may give a few impressions:

The view from the Incheon-Seoul train. Incheon houses the airport (and the port, for that matter). 

This is my base of operations, quite close to Seoul Station. 

A very Asian street view. 

Sunset, July 3

Place ranking

So, the trip is soon over. What are the pros and cons of each place I visited? Which did I like, and why? What were the drawbacks? Let's try to list the pros and cons, eh?

Kyoto
Pros: A city of great historical interest, Kyoto sports several amazing temples. Most notably the Daigo-ji, the kinkaku-ji, ginkaku-ji and Sanjusangendo. These should all be visited. Kyoto is also quite close to Nara, which certainly should be included in any trip here.

Cons: I feel that Kyoto is a bit overrated. Yes, the temples are beautiful. Yes, they have a nice commercial district in the Gion. But then that's pretty much it. I'm an avid fan of temple vissits, but I was sick of them after five days here. So yeah, I still agree that Kyoto should be visited, but maybe just for 2-3 days.

Rating: 3/5

Hiroshima
Pros: Also of historical interest, Hiroshima has its Peace museum as the general attraction. But there is also the beautiful island of Miyajima, plus the fact that the food here was brilliant. Everything was delicious!

Cons: besides those two sightseeing things, there's really not much to do here that makes it stand out.

Rating: 3/5

Osaka
Pros: Osaka is quite charming, and is placed in a central position which makes it an excellent base for exploring the Kansai region. Osaka also has a quite nice castle and a good historical museum, as well as lots of commerce.

Cons: Sure, there's nothing really wrong with Osaka, but there really isn't much about the city. Instead, it's all about the possible daytrips. If you include Koya-san and Ise-Jingu, then Osaka becomes interesting.

Rating: 3/5 without the daytrips, 4/5 with them.

Takamatsu and Kagawa prefecture
Pros: Northern Shikoku is well worth a visit, with a number of good temple grounds, a beautiful garden in Takamatsu, and the Seto inland sea to explore. They also have great udon!

Cons: Well, really, Takamatsu only suffers in relation to Tokushima.

Rating: 4/5

Matsumoto
Pros: a charming city with surprisingly much in it, despite its rather small size. It is also brilliantly placed to be the base of any exploration of Nagano prefecture. The people is very friendly, and you can easily get to talk to some of them at a local izakaya.

Cons: At the time, the railroad was damaged by that typhoon, making some trips more difficult.

Rating: 4/5

Tokyo
Pros: The city to visit. Tokyo has everything the other cities have, and much much more. It is easy to spend many many days here, no matter what you are interested in.

Cons: A truly international city, there a quite a few touristy areas. There are also a LOT of people here :S.

Rating: 4/5

The two locations of special notice though, the ones that really got to me and really didn't have any cons, are the following two (they both have 5/5 of course):

Tokushima: the cosiest town I visited, with crabs running on the pathways in the park, and access to the fabulous Iya Valley.

Norikura: the most beautiful nature experience, and an excellent complement to the more tropical sense of Iya valley. Norikura was incredible in every way.

For me personally, Tokushima also has a special place in my heart because it became my completely own experience, and Norikura has an equally special place in my heart because it to a high degree was not my own experience. And if that was cryptic you are not meant to understand it.

The music of this trip

For various reasons, these have been my go-to songs during this journey:


Beautiful World


Bullet Train - Stephen Swartz


It's all understood


Counting Stars

Wastelands


Ice Age


In your Atmosphere


Various Methods of Escape


Puppet grudge seeing, it scatters



And this:

Odaiba again

They say Odaiba is a great place for dating.

But every time I'm here, crossing the Rainbow Bridge in either direction, it seems I'm missing a loved one.

So maybe they're right.

And maybe I should follow John Mayer's advice and just not come around anymore.

But then again, he probably didn't follow his own advice, so why should I?

Ikebukuro

I went to Ikebukuro, a part of Tokyo I haven't been to before. It's said to be a little like Akiba Electric town, and also is the setting for the anime series Durarara.

However, when I came to Ikebukuro, it was hard to find any of the places from the anime. No Russian sushi, for example :(.

Also, the connection to Akiba seemed tenuous at best. Sure, there were some electronic stores, but nothing really special that assoicated to otaku culture.

However. There were of course, places like... eh... these:

So maybe the connection to Akiba and Otaku culture is the porn part :-/