Return: Kyushu Through Fresh Eyes

While I had thought that my first trip back to Japan would be made to Shizuoka, it ended up being Kyushu.  My friend Sean had long wanted us to travel there together, and when we found out that a chunk of our time off for the Korean spring break coincided, we jumped on the opportunity.  Rather than a plane, we instead took the JR Beetle, a jet foil ferry running between Busan and Fukuoka.  The ride was only three hours, port to port.

Sean had never been to Japan, so in a way I felt able to see it all for the first time again, vicariously recapturing some of the experiences and feelings I had back in 2008 when I first set foot there.  I planned for us to go directly from Fukuoka to Nagasaki, from Nagasaki to Saga, and then return to Fukuoka for the last days of our trip.  Though I had been to both Fukuoka and Nagasaki before, it sometimes felt like an entirely new experience and at other times was tinged with nostalgia and stark recollections.

Our short trip was great from start to finish, with many highlights.  Without realising it, I had booked us spots at the same hostel in Nagasaki (International Youth Hostel AKARI) that I had stayed in on my first trip there.  It was impossible not to recall it as we disembarked from one of the city's signature trams and walked into the old part of the city, where stone arched bridges still span the river and the ground rises gently toward a nearby four hundred year-old temple that survived the 1945 atomic bombing.

Winter in the Land of Morning Calm

It's been a fairly quiet time here in Yecheon this winter, post-Taiwan.  I've stuck pretty close to home and had a nice season so far, which has ranged from bitter colds, snow and ice to surprisingly spring-like warms with meltwater running in the streets. 

One recent highlight was speaking at the 2013 Secondary English Teachers Association Workshop in the city of Gyeongju back in early January (my presentation, Global Language, Global Access: Utilising Technology to Facilitate English Acquisition, was a fancily labeled talk putting forth some ideas for incorporating smart phones, the internet and online resources into the EFL classroom).  I also had a visit last month from a great friend of mine, Chris, who I studied with in the Dalhousie Acting program, and who I've managed to reunite with four times in three countries since we graduated in 2008--something neither of could have ever foreseen during our hectic university years in Halifax.

Anyway, I've been out and about with the camera as well, so I'm putting up some select shots from the last few months, mostly from around Yecheon county, starting with woodpeckers in the mountains.

Taiwan, or There and Back Again

And there's a fake part of me

that comes off so you can read

I was made by the Taiwanese in Taiwan

but they don't like that much

because it's called Formosa

-Matthew Good Band, The Workers Sing A Song Of Mass Production

Taiwan is a place that, as far as I can remember for most of my life, if I thought about it at all, I associated with the Made in Taiwan stamps on the bottom of a dish or plastic toy here and there.  Naturally most people with that kind of simple indoctrination to the word "Taiwan" are going to envision it as a place of sprawling factories, maybe interspersed with sweat shops, all wreathed in the heavy clouds of smog synonymous in our collective consciousness with the parts of the world who make all the odds and ends for the parts that don't.  I can't speak for the past, but modern Taiwan, at least, does not fit that picture.

Taiwan was formerly known as Formosa, as a result of Portuguese sailors terming it llha Formosa, or "beautiful island" after first catching sight of it in 1544.  Their ocean-weary eyes clearly didn't betray them, as beautiful it is.  After rapid industrialisation ("Made in Taiwan") and economic growth in the latter half the 20th century, Taiwan has now become an advanced industrial economy.  Unlike its big brother to the east (and southeast and northeast) across the Taiwan straight, Taiwan is a multi-party democracy, though still officially  known at the Republic of China, or ROC (as opposed to the People's Republic of China, or PRC, as the PRC refuses to recognise Taiwan as a sovereign state).

Taiwan was mostly inhabited by the Taiwanese indigenous peoples when the dutch showed up, after which Chinese began immigrating to the island, the descendants of which now form the majority of its populace.

Now that you know the same scant amount about the country's history as I do, let's get down to business on the trip itself.

Autumn in Gyeongju

A trip to the city of Gyeongju, as an extracurricular field trip with students from Daechang high school and various teachers, gave me an opportunity to capture some of vibrant fall foliage around Cheongmachong (천마총) royal tomb area and the Bulguksa (불국사) temple complex.  Gyeongju was the capital of Silla (the united three kingdoms) during the long dynasty of the same name, from BC 57 to AD 935.  The city is filled with historical relics from that period.  It was a fortuitous weekend to have gone, as the leaves have reached their peak in color there and will soon be on the ground, as most already are here in Yecheon a bit further north.  In particular the maples were out in force, most spectacular in their range between fiery oranges and blood reds.

The Dokdo Trip

Thursday, May 24th:  by 7:30am I was already on a bus to the coastal city of Pohang.  From there myself and a group of other teachers selected for the annual Dokdo trip boarded a boat bound for the island of Ulleungo in the East Sea (Sea of Japan).  The purpose of the trip, organized by the Gyeonsangbuk-do Provincial Office of Education (POE), was somewhat twofold.  For one, it was an opportunity to present lectures and promote discussion on the history and issues of international law involving the twin islets (dongdo and seodo) known jointly as Dokdo, and it was a series of photo-ops to document this large presence of foreigners learning about the issue and setting foot on the island (or at least the concrete dock we were limited to).  Case in point, I was interviewed by a TV crew about my thoughts on the island a few moments after disembarking from the ferry.

In brief, the issue surrounding Dokdo is that both Korea and Japan have both long laid claim to it, still without resolution (it sits in the ocean 87.4 km southeast of Ulleungdo and 157.5km northwest of Japan's Oki island, off the coast of Shimane prefecture).  To this end Korea has built some facilities to house and support a fisherman and his wife, as well as about a dozen or so police officers stationed on the island.  South Korea is desperate to raise international awareness of the issue, as it has been largely ignored outside of the country and certain groups within the Japanese government, which is the main reason efforts are undertaken each year to bring teachers currently serving with EPIK to Ulleungdo and Dokdo.  In terms of a legal battle, Korea is not confident in going with Japan to trial in international courts over the dispute because they (apparently) feel that Japan, as a larger and more powerful country, will hold more sway in such an arena.  The risk of losing Dokdo is absolutely unacceptable to most Koreans.

Springtime in Korea; Trekking and Tromping

Cherry blossoms near the riverside in Yecheon

Ji Hye and I take an afternoon trip out to the small farming village she grew up in.  It's small and quiet enough that when we arrived an old woman near the taxi we were getting out of cried: "oh, looks like we've got a special guest here today!"

A statue of King Sejong, who created the Korean alphabet, Hangul, sits in front of the now-closed elementary school.  Children from the village now attend classes in a more populous area.

The old slide evidently still sees lots of use from children in the village.  These girls are all sisters.

Cherry Blossoms and Plesiosaurs

A trip to Jinhae this weekend (April 7th-8th)  on the RoK's southern coast, revealed a big white explosion of Spring.  Jinhae is the cherry blossom capital of South Korea, and as you'll see from the pictures, it didn't disappoint.

Cherry blossom blooming tends to be quite regular each year here in East Asia, and the beginning of the season can usually be predicted down to within a few days.  In both Japan and Korea, the blossoms generally bloom first at the most southern areas of the country (there are exceptions in the case of micro-climates), and then sweep up through the country over a period of weeks.  In Japan this is called the sakura zensen (桜前線) or "cherry blossom front."

Cherry blossoms are always the surest sign that spring has come to the land once again.  It was a weekend of warm weather and flawless blue skies.  As usual there was nary a downtrodden face to be seen beneath this part of the world's most beautiful, yet fleeting, confirmation of new life and the passage of the seasons.