Slivovice & Hagelslag: August 2010

We're at summer's end in Korea and school has started up once again. Normally I would greet this juncture with some resentment, though the heat and humidity of the Korean summer has left me waiting anxiously for the cooler temperatures of fall, and the dry cold of winter. An injured shoulder, marathon training, heat and humidity, not to mention the veritable jungle which has engulfed the mountainsides for the past couple of months has meant a break from climbing, or really any activity in the mountains besides afternoons spent hanging out at the river with an ice cooler of beer. As I mentioned though, it's really been too hot for much else, and besides this, we're getting ready to run a marathon in October so lots of time has been dedicated to hitting the pavement.

To beat the heat in summer there are a lot of fun things to do. Among these are going to the beach in Busan, as well as visiting a number of riverside swimming holes in the mountains near Miryang. One of our favorite places, in the aptly named "Ice Valley," shares locality with a strange phenomenon in which Ice forms in a scree field during the hottest summer months, and then correspondingly melts with the coming of winter. This is called "The freezing place," and is understandably popular with visitors.

At the beach with friend Mike - in between Iraq adventures

Mountain swimming hole

Obvious

Hanging at the river in the mountains

Swimming at the river in town

Besides teaching summer classes, running at 5am, and hiding from the sun, we managed a short trip to Japan where we visited Tokyo, Kyoto, and Kawaguchiko at the base of Mt. Fuji. Before going to Japan, I'll admit that I had a lot of preconceived ideas of what it would be like, and I've got to say that by and large, these were met with near exactitude. Japan is remarkably - perhaps overly- safe, clean, and expensive; not to mention carefully manicured to present just the right combination of tradition, culture, and cutting edge modernity. It is an incredibly easy country to be a tourist in and despite our initial woes at being taken from small town Korea and dropped into the sprawling chaos of Tokyo, the trip left us both with a very positive impression of Japan, and definitely an interest in going back to explore the country's interior.

That's a lot of sake

Highlights of Japan include:

1.) Fireworks - on our first night in Tokyo we saw the end of the annual Firework Festival which culminated with a massive showing of multicolored fire over Tokyo Bay.

Fireworks

Kimono - people actually do wear kimono, it seemed

2.) Temples, Temples Temples - There are a lot of temples in Japan, each with a unique character and history. In Kyoto we visited three of particular note. Higashi Honganji - one of the largest wooden buildings in the world, Kinkaku-ji - 'the temple of the golden pavilion' which appears to float serenely over a glassy pond, and Kiyomizu-dera, a temple overlooking the city and filled with shrines said to impart an abundance of benefits to their visitors. On our final day in Tokyo we visited what is the oldest temple in the city, Senso-ji. This was definitely not a calming experience though, due to the throngs of people swarming the temple grounds and the innumerable souvenir sellers who had set up shop in the streets surrounding the edifice. Interesting, nevertheless.

sitting in the temple, looking towards the temple gate

children with pigeons, Higashi Honganji

Kiyomizu-dera

Kinkaku-ji

Senso-ji

3.) Mt. Fuji- Initially we were unsure if it would be either possible to climb the mountain but weather sided with us and we were able to make a quick jaunt to the summit and back down. We were even able to see the mountain from a look out point the next day, which is apparently a rarity during this time of year due to persistent cloud cover. The hike up is not too hard, but it is steep. As one might imagine, the trail goes up, and up, and up, but only for 6km. By walking around the caldera one can reach a meteorological station and the true summit of Mt. Fuji. The brightly attired crowds, buildings, and erosion control barriers don't necessarily lend themselves to a particularly serene walk up this sacred mountain, but it was certainly a fun way to spend a day.

True Summit of Mt. Fuji

Mt. Fuji Caldera Rim

Mt. Fuji Summit

Mt. Fuji

Heading Down

4.) Beer/Whisky - there are many good things about Korea, but beer is not one of them. In fact, Korean beer is probably, no, without a doubt, the absolute worst beer either of us have ever had. Japan on the other hand enjoys a wide selection of palatable options including a growing craft brew scene which we were sure to sample. One beer purchased in Kyoto was of special interest to me - it was brewed using ancient, rejuvenated Egyptian barley found in Egypt. Through a collaborative effort between Kyoto University and Waseda University, the beer was brewed to produce what is thought to be an accurate reproduction of ancient Egyptian beer. Exciting? I should say so! Japan is also home to a number of Whisky distilleries producing award winning Single Malts with a particularly Japanese twist. All in all a fair bit more impressive than the swill consumed by the general populace in our current place of residence...

Kyoto Craft Beer

5.) Bike riding around Lake Kawaguchiko. On our first day in Kawaguchiko we rented bicycles to ride around the lake. This was a nice, and hot, way to see the area, leaving us both with a definite nostalgia for the Netherlands! On our last day in Kawaguchiko we rode a gondola to a lookout point for a view of the mountain and then took a pleasant, tree covered trail back to town. Visiting this town was a nice break from our "city-time" in Tokyo and Kyoto.