Kia Ora from New Zealand

Auckland skyline:
Hello from New Zealand! In Maori, hello is kia ora. We arrived here last Monday without much of a plan, other than to tour the North Island. I had toured the South Island many years before, and although it is stunning, the landscape is very similar to parts of western Canada. We were undecided about our route right up until the day we left Sydney and then we heard of flooding and terrible weather in the south so that sealed it. No regrets; the North Island is beautiful.

We set up another Servas homestay for Auckland. We were lucky to be received by a cool couple, Katherine & Andrew, and their two daughters Emma and Melissa. Katherine & Andrew are both professional musicians and lead a busy, creative existence. It was fun to be a part of their world for two days. Katherine, who plays cello in the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, has been in rehearsals for a production of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro. Too bad we would not be in town long enough to attend a performance. On the plus side, we did get to see Andrew teach a clarinet lesson and both kids got a chance to try their hand on Katherine's cello.

In Auckland, we learned about Maori culture and volcanoes at the Auckland Museum. The boys were especially fascinated by the exhibit on volcanoes. According to the exhibit, New Zealand straddles two great tectonic plates and is a real volcanic hotspot. The last major volcanic disaster was in 1886 when Mount Tarawera erupted; about 120 people were killed. It seems it is only a matter of time until another eruption occurs (hopefully not in our lifetime).

Another cool place we explored was the North Head Historic Reserve in the Devonport region of Auckland. North Head was a significant historical coastal defence site, set up in the 1800s when fears of a Russian invasion began to take root in New Zealand. It has amazing views over the Haurakai Gulf to the Auckland skyline. We were able to explore the many tunnels in the mountain and the "gun batteries".

Here are a few photos, including some of our action-packed last day in Sydney when we visited the Sydney Aquarium, Sydney Wildlife World, and the Sydney Tower.

Our last night camping . . . Flat Stanley will miss sleeping in the "penthouse":

Rex, the large saltwater croc who lives at Sydney Wildlife World:

Sharks swimming overhead at the Sydney Aquarium:

Our Servas hosts in Auckland, Katherine & Andrew:

Katherine gave both boys an impromptu cello lesson:

Maori art on display at Auckland Museum:

Boys and guns - the military site of North Head in Auckland:

One of the tunnel entrances at North Head:

As you can imagine, we are eating lots of kiwi these days:

After Auckland, we passed through the small village of Matamata. Why Matamata of all places, you ask? Because it's an incredibly important part of Middle Earth of course! Matamata is the actual Hobbiton (The Shire) you see in the Lord of the Rings movies. As I sit here writing this, Jackson is asleep but Ted & Mitchell are raptly watching LOTR: The Fellowship of the Rings. I will have to ask our resident major LOTR fan to write about our tour of Hobbiton the other day (that would be Mitchell of course).

SeouLong

Ted making kimbap, which he promises to make back in Canada also: Soon offers helpful instruction:

Ingredients close up:

Voila, the delicious finished product:

Today is our last day in Seoul. Tonight we board an overnight flight for Sydney, Australia where we will meet up with old friends and hopefully make new ones as well. Some last thoughts and observations about Seoul. . . obviously Seoul is not the whole of South Korea. Had we more time, it would have been great to explore other areas, especially the south which is supposed to be stunning and more rugged in scenery. Our hosts, Soon & Won, recommend that if we ever have opprtunity to visit Seoul again, we should make sure to see the island of Jeju in the south as well as the city of Busan. This Servas homestay experience has been great and we hope Soon & Won will visit us someday in Canada. In the photos above, Soon is instructing Ted in the fine art of making kimbap (rice wrapped in sheets of dried seaweed - called kim or gim - along with strips of finely sliced carrot, cucumber, pickled radish, and whatever else you like). Looks like sushi but technically not. Best of all, the kids ate it and liked it!

One day-trip we could have done, and regret not doing, is a trip to the DMZ (the de-militarized zone that straddles North and South Korea). Our guidebook mentions a few options for seeing this heavily fortified area but cautions that if one were to step outside the one permitted building, one could "die in a hail of bullets". Hence, I was initially not so keen on going. But after reading more about it, I think it would have been interesting and, in all likelihood, perfectly safe. Won mentioned to us that South Koreans cannot visit the area so he thought we should take advantage of the chance as there is no place like it in the world. When we did call to get on the tour, it was fully booked for the week so we missed out.

Some last words about the world's biggest church. Yoido Full Gospel Church, also sometimes spelled as Yeouido, actually seats 26,000 if you factor in the overflow seating. I think I said 15,000 in my last post. Everything about it is large-scale. The choir takes a full 5 minutes to file in and there is not just a "band" to accompany them but a full orchestra complete with strings, brass, wind, and percussion instruments. The senior pastor's message on the Sunday we were there was simple and direct - "do not lose hope". He talked about depression, which was interesting and appropriate since South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Soon came to church with us, although she said she found it too big. We were happy she tried it out, though. She explained to us that in Korea, there is so much pressure to succeed that there is therefore a high rate of depression and suicide. The society here is very hierarchical. The language is particularly challenging for a foreigner to learn because you speak one way to someone above your class, another way to someone at your level and another way to someone beneath you. It goes way beyond vous and tu as in French. Different vocabulary, different grammar, different intonation, and of course it affects how deeply you bow as well. In essence, you are born into a society in which you are very conscious of your station and you try to improve upon it. Children go to school 6 days per week and often go after school to "cram school" (extra tutoring). Parents strive to ensure their kids go to the best school and later university. If you feel you are failing, you cannot really seek help as there is such a stigma about depression and mental illness.

Back to the sermon. It was an uplifiting message that was translated into nine languages via headsets, so it is a very foreigner-friendly place. One last significant thing about this church. This was the church that originated the "cell group" phenomenon; that is, small groups of Christians meeting in homes outside of the weekly Sunday service, in order to foster relationships and encourage each other. Virtually every Christian church in North America now has a network of home-based cell groups as part of their ministry. So, all in all, it was very cool to visit there.

People wearing masks:

Here's something else surprising that Soon shed light on for us. We assumed so many people in Asia wear these face masks because they are being germ-conscious and trying not to get sick. Actually Soon tells us that this is not the case at all. It is because they don't want to get tanned or freckled from the sun!

Lost in translation: Lastly, I have to share some funny English translations we've seen. We saw some funny T-shirt mistranslations in Japan, including one Ted bought ("too waste to good"). Also at the Yomiuri Giants baseball game, we saw people who had Giants T-shirts with this motto on the back ("impossible is nothing"). Same thing here in Seoul. Here's one coffee-shop ad from a magazine: "I would like to recommend a cup of hot coffee to you who will close a day in Seoul that is not abundant but it is able to feel trivial mind and sincerity". To which one can only respond, huh??

Here's the text from a poster promoting the 4th Inwangsan Marathon Festival for Children Breadwinners: "in this spring filling with the fragrance of cherry blossoms, this contest has been informed as a big festival of running for health of citizen and people interested in marathon are particpated in at the natural place that it is able to run enjoying forest bath. It is a very meaningful event for the sake of keeping citizen's health and reminding the life together with neighbourhoods because the earnings will be used for children breadwinners". Children breadwinners - Ted and I were wondering exactly where we do get those? We're not sure how these mistranlations occur as it seems there are plenty of people in Seoul who speak fluent Korean and English (such as our host Soon), yet we see these funny mistakes all over the place in print. But as I remind the kids, their English is far superior to our Korean.

Next stop: OZ!

In the Seoul of Asia

We have now been in Seoul, South Korea for three full days and are especially enjoying staying in a real home with a Korean family versus a guesthouse or hostel. Here are some photos of our host couple, Jongsoon or Soon for short (wife) and Dongwon or Won for short (husband). They have been Servas members for about four years and have hosted over 20 travellers. Soon tells me she loves to travel vicariously through people and feels "refreshed" after meeting people from a different place. We were only supposed to stay two nights but they insisted we stay for the whole five nights.

They are wonderful hosts. Won is a retired banker and Soon is a high school English teacher. They have two children, a daughter studying industrial design at university here in Seoul and a son finishing his required two years of military service. They live in a very large apartment by Korean standards (five bedrooms) in a central neighbourhood. Soon is an amazing cook and she is teaching all of us how to make certain traditional dishes.

Soon and Won preparing samgyeopsal - grilled pork with some other ingredients eaten wrapped in lettuce:
This was the spread of food our first night here! You can see kimchi in the centre, a traditional dish of spicy fermented cabbage:
Soon and her daughter SungEun. When I asked how old she was, she said "23 but 22 in your country". Explanation: when Korean babies are born, they do not start at zero but at age one, since they have been living inside their mother for almost a year. Makes sense!

We have strolled many downtown neighbourhoods in Seoul. Like many of the larger Asian cities we've visited, Seoul is a mix of the old and new influences. But even expecting that, Seoul is more modern and westernized than any of us expected. For example, Starbucks (shown below) is everywhere:

The boys crossing Cheonggye Stream in downtown Seoul. This stream used to be buried underground but now flows again:

One of those fun signs pointing to everywhere:

Changdeokgung Palace (Palace of Illustrious Virtue), originally built in 1405, a World Unesco Site:

Interesting temple angle (Ted takes lots of these type of pictures):

The Secret Garden behind the Changdeokgung Temple:

Hitting some drums on a stroll down Donhwamunno Strret:

Flags at the entrance of Namdaemun Market, a traditional outdoor market selling everything from tacky souvenir crap to pig's heads:

This lady sells only socks - we bought Mitch 5 pairs for a pittance as he has worn out most of his pairs:

All kinds of tea:

Good street eats in Seoul - some sort of fried pancake:

Mountains surround Seoul, making a beautiful backdrop and contrast to the modern wide streets:

Just another cool piece of architecture:

One of the five remaining city gates:

An artist doing calligraphy on the sidewalk:

Areas we explored included Samcheong-dong, Insa-dong, and Myeong-dong:

A tradition we have had since before we even had kids has been to to collect a Christmas ornament from any place we visit. It makes it fun to reminisce when we decorate the tree. Often the "ornament" isn't really an ornament by design, just something representative that happens to be hanging from a string. This is our Korean ornament, bought at Namdaemun Market, the spicy red pepper needed to make kimchi:

Today was a gorgeous sunny day (23 degrees) so we spent it outdoors with Soon at Seoul Grand Park, which is also home to a very large zoo:

Mitchell goofing around at the Seoul Zoo:Jackson & Flat Stanley at the zoo:Jackson & Flat Stanley - the thing he wanted to see most was tigers. Way back in Africa, Jackson was a bit disappointed to learn to learn that tigers are Asian, not African, animals:

We thought we should check out the Australian section of the zoo since that is our next big stop:

This morning (Sunday), we also went to what is described as the world's largest church. The Yoido Full Gospel Church has something like 800,000 members with about 15,000 each at a total of seven services every Sunday. The Pastor is the famous Rev. David Yonggi Cho. I will write more about this experience next time. Annyeonghi gaseyo! (Good-bye).

Go Giants!

Here is a page from Jackson's journal about the exciting Yomiuri Giants game. In case you're wondering, like I was, Yomiuri is the name of the newspaper corporation that owns this Tokyo team. Above is one of Jackson's many drawings in his journal: a 17 foot green Yomiuri Giant holding a baseball bat in one hand and the flag of Japan in the other.

"We got tickets to a baseball game. We saw Yomiuri Giants vs. The Hiroshima Carp. It was crazy. There was lots of runs in this game. The Yomiuri Giants are best in Japan and fun to watch. The Tokyo Dome is very big and every game is almost full. The final score was 6-2 for the Giants! "

A mass of people passing the Giants banner along:

This was kind of interesting - instead of carrying a tray of already-poured cups of beer, these girls have a keg strapped to their backs like a backpack, with a hose and nozzle to spray it nice and cold into a cup:

Fans swing their orange towels wildly when there's a good play:

A few last photos of Japan - we leave late this afternoon for Seoul, South Korea where we will have our first homestay thanks to our Servas membership. . . we did almost all of the things Mitchell predicted many months ago in this post.

Hama-Rikyu Gardens - reminded us of Central Park in some ways, being an oasis of green in the middle of an urban area surrounded by skyscrapers. In fact, our impression has been that Tokyo has way more in common with Manhattan than other parts of Asia such as Vietnam, Cambodia, or even Thailand:

We loved the onsen experience. This one, Oodeo Onsen Monogatari, Is particularly foreigner-friendly. An onsen is a Japanese hot springs. Baths are gender-segregated because you have to be naked (aack!). But after a day of walking around in the rain, it was wonderful to sit back in a 42 degree outdoor pool. We met up later in the communal foot bath hot spring:

Peeking from behind the curtains that often act as doors to shops on Nakamise-dori in Asakusa:

We spent one sunny afternoon exploring the area called Asakusa, home to some of Japans's oldest streets with some buildings preserved from the Edo period. Entrance to Senso-Ji temple below:

Takeshita-dori (dori = street) - A well-known shopping street in the Harajuku district for the uber-cool Tokyo youth: