Korea!? I think the guy’s in Japan! This is what some of you might have thought after this article title. Well, on a short notice it turned out I should be going to Korea for a symposium. We flew via Central Japanese Airport in Nagoya . The airport is located on an artificial island in front of the city itself. Since I was also mainly busy at the conference and the supporting program, there are not so many pictures of places of tourist interest. More like pictures of food. I couldn’t remember
all names of them, because we mainly ate Korean food. What I noticed in general was that you are driving on the correct side of the road, the right side, in Korea;) Unlike Japan. In addition, there is generally more space between everything than in Japan, even if there is also a little lack of space. For bigger people like me it was also a bit more pleasant than in Japan, at least as far as I can judge because of the few days and the limited environment. Besides, I had been crying for a while. The shopping situation in Korea is considerably better than in Japan. I thought, OK, other culture, you just don’t get everything. But in Korea yes….. The supermarkets are comparable to Famila or Edeka, so they are large, wide and with a wide selection. Even Western food. Clearly not everything and then maybe not in large selection, but more than enough. For comparison, I could buy real cheese, even Greek feta. Not so in Japan. Or the selection of cornflakes was at least five times as large. And the most important thing, at significantly better prices. The prices are roughly comparable to ours (if I have the correct estimate, because the Korean won has another 0 and conversion from the exchange rate to the next exchange rate…), except for the more unusual/imported products, but that was also totally ok. * cry*
The transport costs are also incredibly cheap, on the one hand I saw it myself and we were told so. For the express bus from the airport to the city (rapid journey, approx. 1,5 hours) the seat only costed about 10€. Other things comparable to Japan are the English language skills. Outside of the university are not many which speak English, but I had the impression that the English language skills within the university are much better. I had very nice conversations, even if it can be that only the group was disproportionately good (there were also some whose English is much to be improved).
By the way, the flight to and from Korea was quite a challenge. To Korea there was bad weather in Japan, so we had turbulence. Besides, both times it was just a small plane. After we left the turbulence behind us in our outward flight, the air hostesses already looked quite pale…. On the return flight, the weather was much better, but again over Japan there were again (less) turbulences. Once we crossed an “air hole” which caused a stronger feeling of falling and the stewardess who happened to be in front of my row also looked a bit panicky for the moment. Both flights have reminded me why I don’t love flying and why I prefer to fly bigger planes. In Korea itself there was finally a real winter in Korea. So that the temperatures were between – 5 – -14°C. I could even run on a frozen pond, but not (yet) completely in the middle. So now simply a collection of pictures.
This is kimchi, traditional fermented vegetables. Several species are well used, but mostly seemingly Chinese cabbage. This is then rubbed in with a chili paste, depending on the different processing process, as we were shown on a tour of the company. The kimchi is often only slightly spicy, but especially for Japan there is also a smoother, sweeter variety. Generally speaking, food is hotter than in Japan. The kimchi can be seen in the following picture in the upper round bowl.
The university where we were is so big that it is a city in itself. That’s no exaggeration. It has about 30000 students and all dormitories are also on the campus. There are also impressive entrances. There is also a 17-floor building. It contains many restaurants, and at the end we were also in one of them, which is on the highest floor. There is an impressive view of the city from there.
Back in Japan, there was snow in Nagoya and the Shinkansen was late because of too much snow on the tracks near Kyoto. Of course there was no snow in Shizuoka. However, there was a small pseudo-snowfall, because the wind had thrown up snow from Fuji san, which then fell over Shizuoka. Generally I enjoyed the short visit to Korea, which is good, because Korea is one of the countries I want to visit anyway in the future (if possible also over a longer period of time).
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