Tradition

Jesse & Inhae

Wedding day

7:30 am. The hotel room was hot last night, and not as comfortable as the SeaCloud hotel.  Wonder of wonders, Jesse called before mom and I were ready.  So I took a long-ish shower in hot water.

Breakfast was McDonalds.  I had the pancakes, while mom and Jesse ate McSomethings.  Not very memorable.

Afterwards we walked to the Hyundai cultural center on the hill, where Inhae was getting ready for the big day.  Jesse, too, had to put on his tux and makeup.

11:30 am.  Mom and I are getting ready for the wedding, ironing our clothes.  The gold suit has a stain--or three--and mom is annoyed.  $10 would have bought much more attention to detail in Korea.

12:15 pm.  I go downstairs and find the party in full swing; After watching the three photographers pose Inhae in a small salon with a couch, I go to fetch mom.

Mihee, Inhae's mom, is wearing a traditional Korean dress, and it turns out that mom could have also worn one, if we had known.  When  I get married in Korea, I'll be sure and ask questions about traditions and dress.

Mr. Shim is greeting people, much like a reception in the US, and I think that both parents are expected to be there, but they are too polite to mention anything.  I stand by him for a while, and he introduces me to several people that come by, but not others--I assume that they are work colleagues.

By the entrance to the banquet hall is an interesting dispay with a couple of pictures of Jesse and Inhae.  In one, they stand side by side hugging teddy bears.  How cute!

1:00 pm.  People are getting seated.  There is a spot reserved for the groom's family, but the seats are empty.  There's a korean emcee as well as an american emcee, who direct the crowds--or mom and I.

I sit in front, in what would be dad's seat, if he were here, and wait while the procession begins.  First, the mothers arrive, light candles, and bow to each other.  The room laughs as mom nearly forgets to bow to the audience.

The crowd claps as each person enters.

The Groom--that's Jesse--then enters, walking down the aisle.  He bows to various people, then stands and waits.

Inhae's father escorts her down the isle.  When they arrive where Jesse waits, they bow to each other, and Jesse then escorts Inhae to the front in a cloud, with bubbles raining down upon them.  The bubbles that landed near the CO2 sat on the green ballroom carpet until the mist began to die away, when they would slowly pop.

After this the officiator begins saying a lot of things that Mom and I cannot understand.  It doesn't go on very long.

There is more bowing, to both families this time, and then Jesse is told to pick up the bride, address her, "Inhae", sit, then stand and say "I love you.".  He does it, but the Emcee tells him to say it louder.  The third try he finally uses a voice that projects to the audience.

And that was the ceremony.  No kissing, and very polite and formal.

After that, photos.

2:00 pm.  We have a small, more intimate ceremony with both Inhae and Jesse in traditional dress--Jesse in blue, which seems to represent the groom's family, and Inhae in red.

First up is Mom.  Mom sits behind a low table, with nuts and sweets arranged on it.  Jesse pours a traditional alcohol into a cup which Inhae holds and hands it to her (also adding in sotto voce that it's alcohol, and not to drink), where, with some prodding, she mimics drinking the cup. 

She gets to take a handful of dried plums? and chestnuts, and tosses them onto a kerchief that the bride and groom hold between them.  4 sons, 5 daughters.

Then she is told to give the newlyweds some advice.  And she mentions to always think of the other person, and to avoid criticizing.

Next I'm up, and before we I mimic the driking routine, we bow, head to the floor, as a sign of respect.  I don't get to add any more children to the mix, but do get to eat the candy.  Unfortunately I didn't get my chance to give advice, or I probably would have said to never go to bed angry at one another.

Inhae's parents are next, and by now Jesse has moderated the amount of alcohol he pours.  They both eat a sweet and give some advice.  Treat others with respect.

Finally comes Mr. Shim's cousin, who is a bit older than he is, and I couldn't understand his advice; It must have been something about always listening to Inhae because she's the boss...

And this is where the kissing comes in, as the newlyweds share a dried fruit, with Jesse holding it in his mouth to start with...

2:40 pm.  Lunch in the same buffet restaurant as last night.  I ate more sushi, mostly, and noodles.  Also a small salad and some bread pudding for desert.

3:05 pm.  Mr Shim takes mom and I on a driving tour of Hyundai Heavy Industries, which includes a shipyard, engine manufacture, large transformers & electrical components, and construction machinery.  The boat yards were amazing--very large sections of the side are built one at a time, and then welded together to form a hull section, like a slice of a watermelon.  Multiple hull sections are then joined together in drydock until the ship is completed up to above the waterline.  After that some of the upper hull and decking can be completed with the boat floating.  This is aided by 1200 ton cranes, movable buildings, and lots of people.  They build about 100 ships per year, at least 1 per week.  

The whole factory was huge, with a lot of ships being built at once.  I counted at least 2 dozen that looked like ships already.  Both mom and I were very impressed.

3:55 pm.  Tour's over, we say good-bye to Mr & Mrs Shim, and arrange a ride to Pusan terminal tomorrow.

5:00 pm.  After changing, Mom, Jesse, and I run errands... I'm looking for chapstick, and Mom is looking for mint Xylitol candy.  I find the chapstick, and Mom does not find the candy.

We then hike up a small hill behind the hotel.  I thought that it was a loop, but it doesn't look like it.  It looks out over a soccer pitch, but didn't offer an unobstructed view of the city.

Inhae calls when we're at the top--she has been off with friends and is now back at the hotel.  We walk back, past the hospital, and then decide to go downtown.

7:30 pm.  The Lotte department store has a huge ferris wheel on top of the 7 story building, and so we rode it.  Inhae is a little bit afraid of heights and on the sides you look down over the edge of the building.

9:05 pm.  Dinner time at pizza hut.  PizzaHut in Korea is a nice, sit down restaurant, and the pizza is expensive.  In additon to the pizza, we ate the salad bar, which had an interesting sweet potato salad, like a potato salad, and both apple and watermelon Jello.  The pizza was a bulgogi and bbq, and around the edges were interesting rolls of bread around cheese and sweet potato filling, that you dipped into the fondue cheese filling.

10:30 pm. At home.  Uploading photos.  Calling the US.  Writing up notes.  Getting ready to leave at 7 am for Japan.

Ulsan Whitehouse Lighthouse

Dolphins in Ulsan

Meeting the inlaws

The jet lag is not as bad this morning.  I tossed and turned, sure, but didn't abandon hope of sleep until 6:30.

Spent some time writing about yesterday's adventures.

7:00 am.  Mom and I went on a walk to the lighthouse along the beach (about 1.5 km).  We walked in the sea foam, and took it easy.  A swimming team was swimming the 2 km lap from the beach to the light house.

9:00 am.  Jesse tells us that we can be seen from a mile away, after he sneaks up and tries to grab me.  After a quick shower, we have breakfast, same as yesterday.

10:00 am.  Repacking our suitcases; I have to remove everything and refold it, any ineffeciency would make my suitcase too large.

11:00 am.  Inhae's father--our ride to ULSAN arrives, and we check out.  His new car is very comfortable, and we speed down the freeway.  On the way we decide to stop at the whale aquarium, where there are 3 dolphins.  The tank has an underwater archway, where we watch them doing tricks.

There is also a retired whale vessel, and across the street... Several shops selling whale meat 12 ways.

1:30 pm.  We met Inhae's mother, who is very busy putting together a feast in the kitchen.  There was a chicken salad, barbecued beef short ribs, noodles, fried battered zuchinni and mushrooms, etc.  Desert was a plate of very delicious strawberries and fruit.

I spent the next hour trying to get the slideshow to work on the televisions.  Finally success, though some of the photos are sideways.

Inhae's sister arrived, and then, off to the hotel.

5:00 pm.  After checking in, we change our dinner time from 5:30 to 7:30, since the feast at lunch hasn't left us with much reason to eat yet.  Then we went to walk down to a little white lighthouse near the beach.  The beach was a little torn up--new roads appeared to be in process, but slowly.  We had a lovely walk to the lighthouse, which is still in use, so we were turned out at dusk.  So we walked out to the rocks that it is warning about.

8:00 pm.  Dinner is at the buffet.  It's Parent's Day--the strawberries were a parent's day gift--and so the buffet is special.  This appeared to involve crab's legs and additional dishes, more sushi / sashimi.

Dinner in Busan

10:30 pm.  For dinner we eat bolgoi, where we barbecue pork on a little grill built into the table.  It was nice.  Then a walk back to the hotel along the beach.  The beachgoers are nearly all drunk or drinking, mostly in small groups of 2-5.

11:30 pm. I can't keep my eyes open any longer.

Busan: Geumjeong

6:00 pm.  Legs and feet are tired, so we've headed for the old fortress of Geumjeong, now a shrine, on the subway.  It's about 20 stops away, so it takes about 40 minutes.  At the exit we have a taxi take us to the bhuddist shrine where we find them performing their evening rituals.  We hike up the mountain for a few minutes, but it will be dark soon, and there's not enough time to make more than 1 km along the 2 km path to the peak.  As twilight deepens, we hurry down the granite boulders, as we've been told that the last bus leaves at 8 pm.  When we get back to the temple many of the paper lanterns are lit.  Another temple complex looks off the ridge to our north with more lanterns.

While waiting for the bus a taxi arrives, which we quickly catch for the base fare (2200 won).

8:00 pm. Subway back to the hotel.  Quite a few stops.

View Larger Map

Busan: Nampodong

4:00 pm. At the international market we could have bought a Louis Vitton for much cheaper than the department store. In the buildings and alleys they sell all sorts of goods: lighting, pots and pans, cloth, clothes, curtains, shoes, etc. You name it, they sell it. Most of it is low quality, but not all.

One of the coolest spots was a shop that sold art supplies. A classical calligraphy brush was over 100000won($100). Watercolors were also available; the prices were comparable with the US.

Another shop had a man who sold wooden plaques with designs that he wood burned onto them. A tiger. Celebrity faces. Whatever you wanted.

Jesse waited in a long line for a sweet fried doughball filled with nuts, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Mom and I had another coke.

After wandering long and hard, we bought a few very cheap ties.

Busan: Jagalchi

3:00 pm. Fish market.  Walking down towards the waterfront is a large fishmarket.  The fishwives stand over baskets of flounder, snapper, eels, crabs, squid, octopus, clams and other types of fish and shellfish, some alive, some dead, while people walk past, most of us just looking.

It was quite interesting to watch the fishmongers prepare eel:  First, fasten the head, make a slit up the abdomen and remove unwanted parts, then slice through the neck and peel the skin off.  They were quite quick.  Their technique was good and they were fast; imagine how many hours they have spent practicing.

A large, square building has more stalls, with fishwives spending their time--when they're not selling anything--cleaning squid or eels.  Upstairs are a series of korean restaurants where they serve sashimi.  Apparently you can select the fish at the market and have it served upstairs.  All we bought were a couple of cokes and some dried squid--squid jerky.

Busan: University

12:00 noon. Down, out, and off to Jesse's university, and our first coca-cola of the day. We stopped in at McDonalds, where Jesse says that he spent countless hours studying and getting free refills. We order a bulgogi burger, which is a pork sandwich with a bit of a sweet taste, and our sodas. McDonalds plus coke equals more energy for walking down the street.

Right outside the university the sidewalk is full of shops catering to students, mostly the hungry kind. Sandwiches, bakeries, coffee shops, bars, cell phone shops, and a small hole in the wall (decorated with brick-print wallpaper) that sells ice cream on a waffle.

We walked through the university campus, which was much nicer than I expected, level, and in the heart of the city. The university has added 4 buildings in the last year. We visited the student building, which is beginning to look a little run-down, with some cracks in the facade, and then Jesse took us to see if any of his professors were out and about. Since it was 1:00 pm, we're sure that the lack of professors was an indication that they were in class.

After school we bought a waffle cone for less than 1000 won. Great deal, and very tasty. Then back to the subway, headed for the fish market.

Busan: Shinsegae

10:10 am. The Shinsegae department store in Busan is billed as the world's largest department store.  It does not open until 10:30 am, though, so we wander around doing nothing for a while. Finding the street entrance, we wait until the doors open.

10:30 am. Doors open, every salesman and worker is at their station, cherrfully greeting the customers. Inside the escalator carries us up 9 floors, past all types of stores & departments, such as Tiffany's, Loius Vitton as well as local brands. The 9th floor had a performance hall, about a dozen restaurants (3 japanese, several korean, italian, chinese, etc.), a bank, and a rooftop park. Jesse really liked the bathrooms: "Probably the best bathrooms you will ever see", he says. There was also an ice-skating rink, a preschool, and a huge spa inside the store.

They didn't have everything--the bookstore was missing an english-japanese phrasebook.

Busan: Around Town

I was awake by at least 4:30. It was dark outside, and I couldn't keep the sandman around.

5:30 am I went for a mile walk on the Haeundae beach to the lighthouse, watching the waves come in and out, and later passing the rocks along a wooden walkway. I ran up to a small buddhist temple on the point before returning. Joggers were about, as well as groups of people, a few of which, at least were exercising, but others may have been performing some sort of early morning Buddist ritual.

6:30 am. Back to shower and get ready for the day. Mom is awake, and I soak in the little tub for a while. The lump in the bottom is well placed as a seat.

7:30 am. Breakfast. The buffet has a variety of korean foods, since a typical korean breakfast is kimchi, rice, etc. I tried the bulgogi, and I don't think that it goes very well with ketchup. There was also eggs made to order & scrambled, potatoes in chips and tots, sausage & bacon, which tasted steamed, bread, muffins, croissants, juice--grape, orange, and apple--and other morning drinks, cereal and milk, drinkable yogurt and fresh cut pineapple. We called the other kids, who tarried until 8 to come down.

The news of the morning was that England had a major parlimentary upset, and the CNN feed was shown on one wall of the restaurant. At breakfast I explained parlimentary government to people, about how the parties in power had to achieve a majority--in most cases--to seat a government. It turns out that England's constitutional monarch has the authority to appoint a prime minister when no coalition can be reached, and that is called a minority government.

9:00 am. After breakfast we left for Busan. It took us a while to leave, since along the way we stopped for a drop-in clinic visit to an ENT, and had mom's ear examined. I stayed out, but Mom and Jesse said it was fascinating. The cost of the visit & prescription was about 20000 won.

SeaCloud hotel, Pusan

We stayed in this room of the SeaCloud hotel, Pusan. To get to the beach we had to cross the street, so it was quite accessible. The breakfast buffet included continental-style breakfasts of toast & jam, American-style eggs, sausage, and potatoes, European muesli, yogurt, and fruit, as well as Korean kimchi, soup, and bulgogi.