Quick Korea trip and new life back in Japan

Greetings everyone!

It’s indeed been too long since I’ve written. I’ve been here for 15 months now. Eating rice on average 2.5 times per day and 1.3 portions per meal since I always overeat, I’ve eaten 1,462.5 servings of rice by now. Amazing I haven’t died a rice death yet. There must be some merits to this staple of rice, however, because to the Western eye, Japanese people often look exactly 10 years younger than their actual age (seriously – no exaggerations here). How fortunate!

December 25^th was my last day teaching at the large English School that brought me here. Overall, the company was very well run, the staff was excellent and the experience gained there was invaluable. Afterwards, I took a quick trip to Korea for 9 days and now have returned to Tokyo.

Before heading to Korea I used couchsurfing.com and ended up doing a home-stay with a wonderful Korean family; it was an excellent cultural experience. For example, I learned that when drinking alcohol in front of your father in Korea, it’s best to use two hands and to turn your head to face away out of respect. I also slept on a “stone bed” there, a slick sheet, which is literally stone, that is heated from below. The heat was a terrific refuge from the ~12 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures outside. I used a thin pad on top, but some in the family used no pad at all - I was too wimpy and could only handle that for a few minutes.

Playing lodging by ear throughout the trip, I ended up in the most unexpected places. In Korea there is something called “jimjiban.” These are big public bathhouses with hot tubs (sometimes scalding), cold tubs, showers, saunas, steam rooms, warm rooms, ice rooms, computers, food and a big floor space used as a communal sleeping area with blankets and pillows that are provided in a big pile in the corner. I quickly learned that these brilliantly conceived local joints are a backpacker’s paradise and sought them at every place. At ~$9USD per night they were a superior option over hotels. Other lodgings included a shared room with some traveling Korean students and, through a connection from Egypt, a night at the home of the President of The Ritz Carlton.

Now that I’ve returned from Korea I am teaching part-time at a school with high quality private lessons and the opportunity to have a flexible schedule. The truth is, however, that I’m aiming mostly to have my own private students and after countless hours of painful computer coding, two fevers and plenty of confusion in communicating with outsourced coders and artists in India, Croatia and Bangladesh, I’ve finally gotten my teaching website live! It is here: 東京英会話.

One last mention: my dream for quite some time has been to compete in the salsa world championships as a pair. I’m happy to say that I’m finally pursuing this dream and have just found a partner with lots of attitude for the stage (a scarce commodity in Japan) and excellent dancing skills. This is a great motivator for me to improve. Keep your fingers crossed for the qualifying competition in June!

At last, enjoy some recent photos posted below.

Sincerely,

Danny

REMEMBER - YOU CAN CLICK ANY PHOTO TO MAKE IT LARGER

Korea's portions at restaurants tend to be very large and come with several side dishes. This was a welcome change from Japan's small portions. Here, my friends are pouring alcohol for each other, which is polite in Korea.

Breakfast with the family I stayed with. They eat like this on a daily basis.

Homestay family

Dirty backpacker going for big stakes at the casino. A 10,000 bill! (Okay, it's 10,000 won, which is about $9 USD...)

Coming away with 150%. Oh yeah!

Fried larvae anyone?

People sleeping in the communal room at a "jimjiban." The full service bath houses in Korea that double as a hotels.

Taking advantage of a more private sleeping spot in the hallway...

Robin at a shrine in the south

Danny and Robin conquering

Victory!

Making an important phone call

Getting ready to visit Kim Jong Il in North Korea.

The guard wouldn't let me walk to North Korea and I didn't know what to do.

Back in Japan. On "coming of age day," guys and girls of age 20 dress in kimonos, go to big public ceremonies with notable speakers and old friends and then spend the evenings with their pals.

A recent trip to the area of Hakone where there's an Onsen (hotspring) with a wine bath, tea bath, bubbling coffee bath, chocolate bath and collagen bath. Atsuko and I got drunk in the wine bath (okay, not really).