We have made it to Korea! After the typhoon-induced delay of 2 days at Shimonoseki, which gave me chance to try fugu (blowfish - potentially deadly due to lethal levels of tetrodotoxin) and survive (if you're interested it tasted of slightly haddocky sardine to me!), we borded our ferry, slept for most of the journey and arrived in Busan in the morning. High-tailing it to Seoul we did some orientation before headig out to a dormitory town (Bundang) to stay with a lovely family we met while at Lake Baikal. we turned up horribly late due to going in exactly the opposite direction to their town for an hour on the subway before realising, but we were still fed, watered and given a bed in what would turn out to be the start of much incredibly kind and heartfelt generosity.
Thursday was spent mostly finding the just-relocated Chinese embassy, applying for a visa and arranging ferry tickets towards Beijing. We had to settle for a single-entry 30 day visa just to be sure of getting it, which means staying here until 17th October so that we can travel fully with Ellen's sister when she gets to China. This is quite frustrating for me, as China is a huge reason for doing this trip and I'm itching to get stuck in, but on the other hand Korea, of which I still know very little, looks amazing (beautiful, very friendly, extremely different to anything else I've experienced) and now I have the chance to explore it in more detail.
Aside from doing organisational things we had time to amble around Namdaemun market, very interesting and the ideal introduction to Seoul life, and see the 'number 1 national treasure Sungnyemun city gate. Korea like Japan has an excellent prize system for its things: places areas or buildings get to be national treasures, people still alive get to be 'living treasures', and (my personal favorite) cultural or artistic things get to be 'Intangible National Assets'. Fantastic!
First impressions of Korea are very positive - the countryside is gorgeous and varied, the people seem very down to earth and relaxed (nice change from Japan!) while sharing with the Japanese an incredible sense of kindness, and the food is out of this world. Any meal consists of rice, soup, and a large number of side dishes containing anything from bean paste, salads, meat and fish but always the traditional kimchi - cold fermented chili peppers and vegetables. As a rule Korean food is pretty spicey, which suits me and is good preparation for South East Asia. My favorite thing so far is the ubiquitous bibimbap - rice mixed with vegetables and meat, served with an egg on top and some very hot bean paste. The way food comes with different items in different bowls is great for Ellen too, as she can be pretty sure of a vegetarian meal in most places.
Today has been pretty fantastic, as the family we are staying with decided to take us to the Korean Folk Village. This huge outdoor museum in beautful grounds with gardens and lakes was a repository for Korean heritage, and contained many traditional buildings and crafts. There were over 260 buildings and it was a real living history lesson - we learnt loads about Korean traditions and culture as well as seeing some pretty impressive displays of acrobatics, horse skills and a traditional wedding; head to the gallery for weird and wonderful pics!
If that wasn't enough we were then driven to a restaurant near to our host's home, where we were sat at a low table and instantly brought out 38 - thirty eight - dishes to share, practically all of which were sublime. The family clearly thought they had not yet done enough for us at that point so we then drove off to a friend of theirs who is a professional calligrapher, who gave an impromptu demonstration, a lesson to us both, and a prsent of our very own scroll wishing us (I think) love, open heartedness and good luck throughout the world on our travels. She practiced a very beautiful art and yet again I feel incredibly honoured to have had these experiences. I end today exhausted but very happy that our Chinese visa arrangements are such that we get to spend almost a whole month in this wonderful country.