Day 3 in Korea

January 10th was my third day in Korea. The weather was once again nice and sunny.

That day Miwa wanted to do something that she often does in Korea: have her own picture taken. Before we had gone to Korea, Miwa showed me a book of costume photos she'd had professionally taken several years ago. She wanted to go back to the same studio and have photos taken again. In the book there were seven photos: two in a wedding dress, one in a black dress, one in kids clothes, one in chinese clothes and two in traditional Korean clothes. Miwa asked me if I wanted to have photos taken too. At first I thought No. I mean, a wedding dress? I'd rather not . . .. But then I started thinking about the traditional Korean clothes, and I thought that I could put up with having my picture taken in a wedding dress if I could also have a picture of me in the Korean dress.

The studio we went to was a professional studio, if a little shabby. The makeup artist came to our hotel in a taxi to pick us up. It was a shiny black expensive taxi with leather seats, and we didn't have to pay for it. The studio was on the other side of the Han River, and took a little while to get to. When we got there, we went down to the basement-level studio and met the photographer. He was a middle-aged casually dressed fellow who, unlike the makeup artist, could speak Japanese. He had quite a forceful personality on him (like most Koreans do; compared to the Japanese, at least) and he tried to talk us into having our photos printed large and presented in a large hardback-sized book. But we had, quite on purpose, only brought enough money for the smaller paperback-sized albums. It is a good idea to split your money up like that in Korea. If people get really insistent you can say "Look inside my wallet. I really don't have enough money for that." That shuts them up.

We changed into robes and had our makeup done while the photographer was in the actual studio surfing the net on his rather expensive-looking computer with a huge TV-sized flatscreen monitor. Even though the studio was looking a little worse for wear, it seems as if he is making a decent amount of money. Then the costume changing began. We did not have much choice in clothes (the makeup artist chose everything), and no choice in scenery. First was the two Korean outfit pictures. I managed to avoid being put on a hot-pink top and instead chose a nice teal coloured one. There was only one other time that morning that I managed to make my own choice of clothes, and that was for the last photo.

After the Korean clothes came the black evening dress. There was no hairpiece to match my hair colour, so my hair looks rather weird in that photo. Then came the two wedding dress photos (bleh . . .) and then the 'casual clothes' photo. The makeup artist was going to stick us in clown wigs, but luckily I was sitting near the wig drawer. I reached in and pulled out a slightly more flattering wig (although it was pink) and managed to change her mind. Bizzarely, the pink wig suited me, just a little (I will post the pictures later).

Last was the 'summer clothes' photo. At first I was given a pink floral sleeveless figure-hugging top to put on, but I wanted to wear a something Chinese, and I knew from seeing Miwa's old photos that the last photo can be Chinese-themed if the customer desires. And as I did desire so, I went hunting through the Chinese wardrobe for something I could fit into. Miwa also chose a Chinese themed top. She got to wear two fake bundles of hair on her head and look very cute, but because the fake Chinese hair was only available in black I could not wear it. Actually, I went in with my own hair, which unfortunately was looking rather messy after being stuffed into wigs and such for several hours.

When we were all done, Miwa went to see one of her friends. Because she had no idea what she and her friend would be doing, I decided to go my own way. I took a taxi back to Meongdong (for the third time - it was the only place I shopped in Seoul) and did a little more shopping. I went back and bought a belt I had seen the day before, but did not have enough money on me at the time to buy. Then I scoured every floor of Migliore looking for a t-shirt with something in the Korean alphabet written on it. Maybe I would have had some success if it had actually been, y'know, summer.

I forgot to take a watch with me to Korea, and I didn't have my cellphone with me so I had no idea what the time was. After what seemed like hours of window-shopping and eating street vendor food (sausage on a stick and crab-meat in spicy pancake on a stick) I thought that it was about time to go back to the hotel. Another thing that convinced me it was time to go back was that I still had all the makeup from the photo studio on my face and I felt like an idiot. So I took a taxi back and when I got back to my room, found that it was 3.20pm. I had thought it was at least an hour later than that.

I didn't really have enough money to take a taxi somewhere else, so I just stayed in. I sorted out my suitcase for the trip home, I went down to the lobby and spent an hour on the internet (which was complimentary). I got all the silly makeup off my face. Then I spent an hour making the globe puzzle I had bought the day before. After having a long shower and double checking my suitcase, it was late enough for me to concievably think of it as bed-time. About that time Miwa came back drunk and pottered around having showers and stuff, but I got an early night.

Changdeok Gung

These are pictures from my second day in South Korea. They were all taken at Changdeok Gung. I don't know what anything is because I could not understand the tour guide, so I will not try to explain any of the pictures. With one exception: the second photo from the bottom, the one with the tree. That tree was half concrete. That's all I have to say.

Day 1 in Korea

Well, I was going to talk about my trip to Korea with pictures, but blogger and the Nikaho City school network are not communicating very well at the moment and I can't seem to upload any pictures. Instead, I will just write and then post the pictures later.

Last Monday morning, Sayaka's friend Taisuke who has now become Miwa's friend drove Miwa and I to Akita airport. I was expecting there to be snow at the airport, because it is in the mountains an hours drive north of here and in winter is usually snow-bound (as in last year Amanda couldn't find her car in the carpark when she got back from Australia because it was buried under the snow). I don't know how so many planes can still land and take off at Akita during winter, but they can. Although, not all of them to be sure. Cancellations are frequent. Anyway, instead of the mountains of snow and the climbing over snowbanks to get into the terminal like there is most years, there was just a sprinkling of snow on grassy areas and none at all on any concrete. We checked in, drank coffee (no tea available) and were in the air by lunch time.

We got to Incheon by mid-afternoon and were picked up by a guide from the travel service we used. She was holding a card with Miwa's name on it. I've always wanted to be met at an airport by a card-wielding person. Next time it will be my name written there! (BTW now I think of it Mum, if you pick me up at Wellington airport when I return to NZ, please bring a card with my name. With the frequency that your hair changes colour, I might not recognise you.)

We were taken by van into Seoul with another family. We were dropped off at our hotel at about 4pm. The first thing I noticed when I entered the lobby was the twinkling tree and the next thing was the 8 foot tall inflatable snowman that was behind it. The hotel room was well and truly tacky too. I will post pictures later.

We went to a convenience store around the corner for snacks and then back up to the room. It was at this point that Miwa noticed that she no longer had Atsuko's camera, which she had borrowed for the trip, in her pocket. She remembered walking to the store with her hands in her pockets, so the camera couldn't have been there then. She spent 15 minutes tearing the hotel room apart before ringing the guide to ask whether a camera had been found in the van. The guide told her to wait while she checked. Twenty minutes later she rang back to say that the camera had not been found. No doubt either the van driver or the guide pocketed the camera, because it never did turn up in the hotel room, and we hadn't been anywhere else at that stage but the store.

We couldn't do any more about the camera, so we went into Myongdong, a famous cheap shopping area to spend the rest of the evening. I bought a few eye shadows at a pharmacy and got a free eyeshadow case, face cotton and if you believe it or not, a free Gucci rip-off cosmetics purse, with 'e's embroidered on it rather than 'G's. I mean, those things are illegal, and have to be smuggled out of the country. And I got one for free. I don't particularly want it - I don't really like Gucci.