Korea Trip, Part 15: Love Locks!

Continued from Part 14: Seoul Food P0rn
To start from the beginning go to Part 1: Flying to Tokyo

Gun-chun Reststop

I was really excited to do this post because this was an unexpectedly memorable moment during my time in Korea (almost exactly a year ago in June 2010...I can't believe I'm still writing this).   On our drive from Seoul to Busan, we stopped by this large, fancy rest stop called Gun-chun Reststop.

A peek from the way we came:

And to the left:

Food!  This is only a small section of the eateries.  Where the roof ends is a porch/deck-like area (which I shall show you in a sec). But first, on the very end of this long building:

A pity I didn't take a proper picture of it, but this reststop building is very wide and long and in the middle there is a roofless section aka a wide deck.  While scenery is quite lovely, the real centerpiece of this place is this little love nest!

Sign says: Love Swing

Romantic huh ^_^? Lives up to the whole romantic image K-dramas like to give out ;)  As if it couldn't get more lovey dovey, the wall is covered with little love notes:

Love is....starting and ending with 'thank you.'

Love is....becoming one.

Love is....being considerate and respectful.

Love is....like tending a plant; you must nurture it.

In green: 

My heart hurts watching you be hurt.
It brings tears to my eyes.
Could you know of my love (for you)?

(must be one way love >_>)

Under the bear
Forever. Always. Don't change!

I must admit my cynical heart gave a little chirp of envy looking over the innocent, somewhat naive declarations of undying love ~ ;)  This seating area overlooks a pretty nice view too although my camera (as usual) doesn't do it much justice:

It was a dreary day so it didn't capture well, but the scene was very peaceful and relaxing even though there were quite a few people milling around.

And what's this?  If you look closely at the deck railings you will see....

Locks! They actually sell these in one of the little shops in the reststop building. Why?  Why for romantic couples to "lock" their love together forever ;)! (I guess declaring your love on a wall isn't enough).

Definitely among the most adorable locks I've ever seen.  The rust and worn writing 

shows that these locks have been here for awhile...I wonder if they are still together~

Joong-myo, In-hae 

Best!! (I think.  It's spelled weird)

Let's live well together.

SH <3 HK

Love you forever.

2010.4.4

Left: 

Jin-gook <3 Kyung-hwa

Pretty/beautiful love forever.

2010.6.24

Right: 

I love you.

2010.6.12

Uncle. Aunt. Mom.

Enemy Jae-bum. (jokingly said I'm sure ^_~)
Going to the wedding. Don't fight.
(hmmm how random!)

I know there are lots of little love spots in Korea you can chain locks together :} Kawaii Nails did a post with some pics she took in Korea of more love locks at Seoul Tower:

Credits: Kawaii Nails

Yeah....a lot more lovin' going on in Seoul ;)

P.S. Best Love ended today!  But My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho was a tad better think ^_^  It's too hard to resist Lee Seung Ki's smile and Shin Mina's dimples :}

Totoro reference!!  That will never get old for me ^^

Can we say cutest couple eva :D!?  Speaking of, does anyone know where I can get that CHICKEN LEG PILLOW??? I MUST HAVE IT!

....yeah....^_^ So that's it for this post!  Been busy lately but will be back soon~ It was Father's Day, then my mom's Bday, then my bro's graduation *whew* But even though I do not say it enough - thanks to all the peeps who read/comment/etc my blog :)!    I am happy to be able to share this wee slice of my life with you.

Korea Trip 2010, Part 14: Seoul Food P0rn

This is a continuation of Part 13: Emergency Road Services + Samsung AnyCall MVs
To start from the beginning go to Part 1: Flying to Tokyo

So this really just a mashup of some of the food I ate in Korea...yum :}  Not much reading to do for a change ;)

This is a Japanese sushi restaurant on the top floor (6th I think) of Seoul Shinsaegae.   The whole 6th floor is a food court, if I recall correctly.

A little salad that seems to accompany most meals in Korea - Korean or non-Korean.

It's an amusing nod to Western salads but with a light vinaigrette and composed of mostly just iceberg lettuce, carrots, and other "mild" tasting veggies.

 Lunch special: Bento Box

We also ate at this place called Hana Restaurant, which specializes in dol-sot bap (rice cooked in a stone pot) dishes and tongkatsu (the Japanese fried pork cutlet).

It still amazes me how cheap food is in Korea. And no tipping is required either ^_^ To get an idea of the prices, just move the decimal three places (aka 5,000W = ~$5.00...actually less, more like $4.50).  So whole entrees are $5-7 :D

I adore stone-pot rice, it tastes so good compared to rice made in a rice cooker!  It tastes deeper and at the bottom and edges the rice is crackly (like a cracker) and after you eat all the rice, a waitress pours some water into the pot to lift off the slightly burnt/scorched rice making nu-rung-gi (누룽지)!  Asians eat scorched rice as a snack too - the Western equivalent is essentially a rice cracker.  Good stuff!  Scorched rice-flavored candy is really good btw - check it out next time you are in an Asian market ^_^

They also sell one-person (and bigger) sized stone pots at market places.  They are mad heavy but totally worth lugging home if you eat rice every day.  You can cook the rice in it on the stove just like a regular metal pot :)

Tong-kat-su (pork cutlets).  I'm not a huge fan of tonkatsu and this one was fried out of its mind (I like mine a little softer).  But the taste itself was pretty good :)

I forgot where I ate this but it was good stuff :) I love fat noodles, it's such a comfort food ^_^ I went to Busan after this for a few weeks and went around to a lot of museums/landmarks and took SO many pictures...I kind of dread picking through them ><

Korea Trip 2010, Part 13: Emergency Road Services + Samsung AnyCall MVs

This is a continuation of Part 12: A Buddhist Temple in Seoul
To start from the beginning go to Part 1: Flying to Tokyo

This was originally a food post....but I got carried away (you'll see what I mean) so this post mutated into a short anecdote with a massively long tangent about Samsung's AnyCall commercials.

Anyway, I'm sure many of you have heard of (or experienced) the miseries of dealing with road-side emergency auto repair services....having to wait several hours by a high way in the middle of the night for a tow truck to come, the expenses, the unfriendly service people etc.  Consequently, I would to share this story with you....

Stupid camera :(! So blurry...

My aunt's car wouldn't start in the parking garage.  It had been fine a couple hours ago but since she might have left the lights on or something, the car had completely died.  So my aunt called her car service on her cell and literally within 10 minutes the Samsung AnyCar arrived.

Massive Tangent: And yes, Samsung AnyCar as in the famous Samsung AnyCall AnyMotion, AnyClub, AnyStar, and AnyBand music videos.  I quite enjoyed these infamously long "commercials" (crazy long MVs) so here they all are :D Oh man, Hyori was is so hot....  It's no wonder Samsung phones got so popular xD These were my favorite MVs back in the day~  So fun to watch!  And oh boy does Hyori bring out all my body image insecurities xD~  Btw sorry about not being able to find subbed versions of all of them, but they're all pretty self-explanatory.

The first 3 are all one storyline arch - mostly about making it in the dance world and lurve~   AnyBand was a project group (BoA, Tablo, Junsu, Jin Bora) using music to break free of a dystopian world.

Part 1: AnyMotion
Feat: Hyori, Eric Mun

Oh Eric, why so cute ^_^?

Part 2: AnyClub, Part 1 (2005)

Feat: Hyori, Eric Mun, Kwon Song Woo (lookin' all sleezy if you ask me xD)

Part 2: AnyClub, Part 2 (2005)
Feat: Hyori, Eric Mun, Kwon Song Woo



Part 3: AnyStar (2006)
Feat: Hyori, Park Bom (2NE1), Lee Junki

I love Park Bom either way...but PB looked SO much better before she went nuts with the collagen injections :( She looks so fresh, spunky, and can show actual facial expressions in this MV.  *sigh*

AnyBand (2007)
Songs: Talk Play Love (TPL), Promise U, Daydream
Feat: BoA, Tablo (Epik High), Jin Bora, Junsu (DBSK *sigh*)

I forgot how good Tablo's lyrics are "music she saved my life, so I'm loving her both day and night" :} I always thought AnyBand could've done with a sequel (what with BoA and Tablo doing the whole "staring at each other longingly thing") but oh wellz.   Jin Bora is a jazz pianist for those who don't know who she is btw.

That's got to have been the world's longest tangent ever...

So to continue: Even with crazy Seoul traffic, the Samsung AnyCar dude was there in 10 minutes.  Apparently he used some sort of GPS device to find my aunt's car so there was no need for her to even say where she was.  This dude drove up, took a look in the car, fiddled around, and the car was working in 5 minutes flat.  He also brought us bottles of ice cold water as a service - yeah, I don't this would even occur to American auto services - WITH NAPKINS (to wipe off the condensation) to drink while we waited since it was a summer day.  My aunt told me during the winter they bring tea since it's cold -_-;;   While my mind was busy processing the bottle of water that the car dude was telling my aunt that her car was fixed and commented that he was glad we didn't need a battery replacement although he had brought an extra battery just in case.   My aunt tried to give him a tip for coming so fast but he turned it down and said that it all a part of the company philosophy (hear that, that's the sound of my mind being blown), thanked US for being so patient (cuz we waited for a grand total of 15 minutes from start to finish), hopped in his car, and that was it.   As we drove away I commented to my aunt that I was very impressed by the service, to which my aunt replied that the kind of impeccable emergency repair service I had just witnessed came free with her car for as long as she owns the car.  Maybe it was just me but my mind was boggled by the whole event.  I feel like you'd have to pay a small fortune for that kind of auto service in the States.

Anyway.  That's my story ^_^ I hope this post wasn't too random xD

Continue to Part 14: Seoul Food P0rn

Korea Trip 2010, Part 12: A Buddhist Temple in Seoul

Continued from Part 11: Namdaemun Marketplace, Part 2
Or start from the beginning, Part 1: Flying to Tokyo

I was quite excited to do this post because the place was so peaceful and lovely.  My pictures really don't do the place justice; partly because my camera sucks and partly because it was very cloudy that day.  Anyway, by my aunt's apartment, there was a little Buddhist temple.  It was a very peaceful place even though it's sandwiched by immense apartment buildings on every side.  The vibe is a bit like how Central Park is a patch of greenery in NYC, on a much much (much) smaller scale of course :)  The pic above is the temple gate and in the background you can see the modern apartments of Seoul.

Dragon :D!

Once inside (apparently anyone can wander in and out as they please during the day), there were steps that led up to some beautiful buildings (my aunt said they're renovating so they were all freshly painted) and a Buddha statue :}

There was marble alter and you can see the swastika that Hitler misappropriated :P

Little buddhas that were inset along the walls of the pavilion :)

Here's a view of Seoul from the pavilion :)  I love the type of pine trees that grow in Korea - it's cute how it's all branch-less at the bottom and bushy on top ^_^ Like tall bonsai~  I wonder if I could plant a tree like that here.... 

Off the pavilion were little temple buildings and bunch of lanterns strung up on poles.  

On the left was an alter?-ish looking thing with candles lit inside. Those are names and wishes written on the candles; I can barely read it but one of them is wishing someone will fall in love with her -____-;;

 It's like being in a sae-guk drama ^_^! Love the bright colors.

Maybe I should finish watching Dae-Jang-Geum (Jewel in A Palace)....  I got through 30 episodes (it was really good) so I still have 20 some left to go~ I would've finished but finals got in the way and I never got back to it :P  Anyway, the focal point of the temple grounds was this building:

The car ruins the effect a bit eheh but even monks have places to go ;)  That's my mom up there ^_^

From the front.

These are three different drums and my aunt told my that they are rung (or 'bonged' may be more appropriate) a couple times a day (I don't think it's every hour...maybe it is. Don't remember).

This dragon is behind the metal curvy edged sheet-looking drum on the right.  It swings back and forth and hits the curvy thing and makes it ring :}

And here is me by my favorite drum ;)   I am fond of this pic because my legs look so slim but I must confess that it's the flattering angle and lighting >.<  And is it just me or is it not amusing how the top of the drum is all dusty xD?

I did a run through of the pictures I have left to post....holy smokes, this series is going to be well over 20, if not over 30 posts long O_O!  *sigh* But I'm motivated because it makes me so happy that people actually read them ^_^v Thank you!