Korean Finale

On the last Saturday of the stay in Korea we met our colleagues at 1:00 Saturday afternoon. First of all, on Friday night they took us out for a nice dinner of tubes. Then after dinner we went to a karoke bar and sang a few songs, for 2 hours. There were about 10 people including my boss and I. The karaoke bar has private rooms that hold 10-15 people and have a large TV screen for the karaoke and two microphones. There is a large book with thousands of songs. Most of the songs are Korean but there are also Japanese and Chinese songs. There is even a section of English songs from both the US and the UK.

When each song was finished there was a rating of how well the singer did. In my only other experience with karaoke, which was Sing Star on a PlayStation 2, I did not do so well. The rating I received was “Tone Deaf.” At the time that was the worst rating anyone in our group had seen.

During this second foray into the depths of Karaoke, the rating system was a score which I think went from 1 to 100. The highest rating I saw was 100 and the lowest rating I remember was 92. I sang two songs and scored a 95 and a 96 so I think the rating system is more like a random number generator weighted to greater than 90. I have not been practicing any singing other than in the shower and then only when the Chief is not home or downstairs watching TV very loudly.

Besides singing, there is drinking, and some of the people that were with us took that as the main point of the evening. During the course of the night (6ish hours) I drank 4 beers and a shot of whiskey. I was not even a little buzzed by the end of the evening. I did not want to drink too much because I had a 12 mile run the following morning that a hangover would not have helped. Two of our number were having difficulty walking. One of them picked us up on Saturday afternoon. He did not appear to be bad off. He seemed his normally cheerful self.

He and another colleague took us first to the Korean war memorial. I thought it would discuss the Korean war but it was much more than that. It goes back to the conflicts from 5000 years ago up to the present day. It seems for some reason many different people have wanted control of the Korean peninsula with Japan being the latest occupier.

Outside the facility is a large monument that lists all the people who were killed or lost in the conflict of the most recent Korean war. The United States provided the most personnel and equipment and also lost the most lives. Every person that died is listed by home state in alphabetical order. Here is one wing of the monument.

It continues around the corner. There is also a mirror image on the other side of the complex (behind me when I took the picture). One of the most touching things is a statue in front of the monument that is based on an actual event. Here is a picture of the monument. It is called the Statue of Brothers.

It shows two soldiers embracing. We asked about the statue and were told that during one of the wars between North Korea and South Korea, two brothers met on the battlefield. One was fighting for the North and the other was fighting for the South. They met on the battlefield and put their countries differences aside and embraced. It kind of puts things into perspective doesn’t it? Family is the most important.

Another interesting feature of the memorial is a monument inside called The Drop. Here is the plaque and below is the monument.

After visiting the War Memorial, it was only fitting that we went to a gun show. It was called Drum Cats. It is a show where 6 Korean women play the drums and do a little dancing. There is one woman that plays the violin and there were two men that provided comic relief between acts. It was very interesting. Kind of like a cross between Blue Man Group and Stomp. The music was good and all the girls, especially one or two had very large arms. I would not want to arm wrestle them, even a little. I guess that is what happens when someone (man or woman) hits things with sticks for a few hours a day.

The rhythms of the sets were very precise. The choreography was very good as well, even down to the synchronized hair flipping. It wasn’t that all the girls flipped their hair at the same time, it was quite the opposite. They all flipped their hair at different times and almost in specific order. It was all very carefully coordinated.

I took one picture before I was told not to take any pictures. I looked around, there were “no smoking” signs and “no eating” signs but there was not a “no pictures” sign anywhere. Here is the picture. I didn’t want to use the flash because it was very dim in the theater and I didn’t want to blind anyone, especially when they were beating on things with sticks.

The show was good and I recommend going to see it if you have the time. It is not terribly expensive and worth a couple hours. Here is a link to the show. If they moved to the USA or came to put on a performance they would need to first register with the NRA...

After the show we went to a Thai restaurant and then back to the hotel. Nothing exciting happened… we were tired from drinking the night before and walking around all day. Sorry...

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Out and About in Korea

Here are some pictures for us being out and about in Korea. These were taken with my camera so I can download them... unlike my phone...

Don’t lean up against the elevator doors. If you do gravity will instantly invert and you will be flipped, forced to run upside down with your feet dangling in the air and your head on the floor until your hair catches on fire. Don’t do it.

Our next entry comes from a restaurant:

Frid Chicken & Hof? What is Frid chicken? Is it chicken that has been in a redneck refrigerator? "Hey woman, go get the Chikn out the Frid!"

What is Hof? This is the Hof that I know of:

If you go to this place do you get to eat Frid's chicken and meet the Hof? Sign me up! It turns out that Hof is beer as in the German word Hofbrauhaus which is where they keep the beer... slightly better than my guess, maybe.

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Different foods that I consumed on this trip:

• Pickled plums – cured in salt for 6 months and tasted like nasty plums that have been in salt for 6 months
• Teriyaki pizza with mayo – I normally like teriyaki chicken except it is a little salty. This version is not very good, a lot of salt. 
• Cod fish egg pizza with mayo – this was surprisingly good. I went back for seconds on this 
• Chicken with rice that smells like fish – it turned out the fish smell came from seaweed paper that was put into the bowl with the rice and chicken. 
• Hoarse tartar – I still like it. 
• Deep fried octopus and flower balls – These were a little scary at first. They were put on a plate with a garnish. I don’t know what the garnish was but it was very light and the heat coming off of the deep fried balls was causing the garnish to move. When they said octopus, I thought the octopus was still alive. It was not. It was hot enough to destroy your mouth. This was also pretty good. It wasn't fishy. And a lot of things deep fried are good 
• Bacon wrapped grilled cherry tomatoes – this is good in theory but it actually tasted like feet 
• "Tubes" - what are "tubes" you might ask? "Tubes" are pig intestine. At this restaurant there was also pig stomach. They were brought out raw and cooked Korean BBQ style at your table. They were seasoned and tasted pretty good. The "tubes" were chewy. 

Intestines, the other chewy meat.

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Are You Hungry?

Now we have moved to Japan in our Asian trek. The hotel we are staying at is in the Hyatt family of hotels and is pretty nice. In comparison with the hotel in Seoul, the beds are more comfortable in Japan. The Japanese hotel room is smaller. The workout center was better in Korea, it had a full 25 meter indoor lap pool, many treadmills of high quality and a big selection of free weights and fitness aids, such as balance balls etc.

Breakfast at the Korean hotel was roughly US$42 per day. That is a lot even if the company is picking up the check. We did not have a lot of time in the mornings so I ended up eating there most mornings. The selection of food was very good. A lot of choices including, salad greens, broccoli salad, bean salad, sushi, sirloin steak, barbeque chicken, barbeque fish, scrambled eggs, made to order omelets, fresh fruit, breads, pastries, cereal, and other things were available in a buffet.

The Japanese breakfast is less expensive at about US$32 per day. I have not tried it yet. In the evening when we return from working and arrive at the hotel we visit a 7-11 and stock up on some food for the next morning and some ice cream for dessert.

Last night I tried green tea ice cream thinking it might be decent. It is not. I did not like it at all. I asked around today and the quality of the ice cream depends on the restaurant. Maybe I should not pass judgement since I purchased it from a convenience store (even though the brand was a very well known company with the initials HD). I also purchased a salad and a sandwich for breakfast today.

On the first night, the clerk at the store gave me a small spoon for the ice cream and a fork for the salad. The second night I received a small spoon for the ice cream and some chopsticks for the salad. I can use chopsticks with salad, that is not a problem but I was surprised by the change. Maybe they ran out of forks. Last night I returned back to the room and ate the ice cream with the small spoon provided and put the sack containing the salad and sandwich into the refrigerator for the night.

This morning I woke up and went to the gym to run on a below average treadmill. Then I returned to my room and ate breakfast while I was cooling off before the shower. I was fine with the sandwich but I had a little problem eating the salad. This time they did not give me a fork or a set of chopsticks. I was left to forage for utensils to eat within the room. Here is the only thing I could find:

It is a spoon for use in the tea service that sits in the room. It is slightly undersized based on a normal teaspoon from the USA. Here watch me try to eat with this bad boy…

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On a side note I think safety in the workplace is one of the most important things. We don’t want to become injured during work especially when there are so many ways to become injured outside of work. I’m not sure if this qualifies as an unsafe work environment and it might not look to bad from the picture. 

What you don’t realize is that the white and orange adapter does not fit into the plug very well and with slight movements the power goes off or on. Plus the extension cord is not grounded. I haven’t heard any electric arcing yet. I’m holding my breath when we leave for break and we move the table a little…

Safety first… or as in Dirty Jobs… safety third.

I have taken a lot of pictures with my phone that I would love to put up here but since I have a dumb phone, I have no way to get the pictures from my phone to my computer. I will put them up after I return to the USA…

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Something New and Nutritious?

I'm now a few days into my Asia tour. I visited our partner's manufacturing facility today to discuss some of the issues they are encountering. The plant is way out in the middle of nowhere. As a result we eat at the plant's on site cafeteria. Today there was a special treat for lunch... this. It is a type of seaweed soup with oysters. If you click on the picture it enlarges here. The dish I had was very similar to this except there were no large chunks of green. Only the very fine pieces were in the soup I had.

Taste and consistency were very bad, slimy fishy nastiness.The smell was not good either. I don't think very many people would say that oysters smell good. I didn't eat more than a couple spoons full of it. That was all I could take. At least I tried it and didn't toss my cookies in the process. Before I ate it the dish was explained to be very nutritious and good for the body. I guess that is only if you can overcome the gag reflex when eating it.

I also think the cooks knew I was coming for lunch. They made French fries and chicken fried steak - the same thing they made during my last visit. These dishes are good but not necessary. I can eat the normal food, and I can use chopsticks...

One side note, the heating systems here are slightly different for Korea versus the USA. For instance, I know in the USA at my company some people (mainly hourly) take excessively long restroom breaks so they can sit and read the paper, or sleep... I am sure that is not a problem in Korea. The bathroom here smells very bad and also the windows are open to the outside. The high temperature yesterday was close to 22°F and the bathroom, while not that cold, was definitely a a bit chilly. If our bathrooms in the USA were kept at 35-40°F I bet there would be no napping... it is also a bit of a challenge to use the urinal. There are the two competing forces: trying to remove it versus the force of shrinkage. Sometimes the force of shrinkage wins and you end up peeing all over yourself, luckily that is rare.

Thursday night we went to the seafood buffet. There were a lot of different kinds of seafood: sushi, steamed crab legs and claws, steamed snails, mussels, oysters, and various salads. The things that I did not expect to find in a sea food restaurant include: sweet and sour pork, Hawaiian pizza, chicken wings, and French fries. Really? Chicken wings on a seafood buffet.

Tonight we are going to the semi-famous "tubes" restaurant. I guess it is only famous within our company. What are tubes you might ask? Tubes are pork intestines and stomachs. I don't think I have ever eaten pig stomach but I have eaten pig intestine before. As long as it is cleaned very, very well it will likely be good. Probably a little chewy.

The plans for the weekend are still up for debate. I will run first thing on Saturday morning but Saturday afternoon is still up for debate. Some of the options are: skiing, a Korean musical, a Korean comedy show (I think this is similar to Stomp or Blue Man Group), or a movie. I have not skied in nearly 20 years (since high school). Another of our colleagues says he cannot stand up on skis, another says she cannot stop at the bottom of the hill, and another can't start. From a purely entertainment value, skiing might be the best option as long as we all stay in a group.

During a past trip to Korea I had the misfortune of trying this product. It is a sports drink that is supposed to replenish electrolytes lost when sweating.

I don't know who the Pocari guy is but his perspiration is being collected and put into drink cans.

And finally one last thing, when driving today I found this:

Let's all storm the building!!

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Drinking in Japan

I am getting ready to leave for a two week business tour of Japan and Korea. We will visit a few companies in Korea and then have some internal meetings. Then we will go to Japan and have some more meetings. In honor of this occasion I decided to post the following story about a previous trip to Japan with our Research Manager. 


First a little background... The company I work for was a wholly owned family company founded in the early 1900s. It was recently sold to a Japanese company for a hefty ransom… Before this acquisition both our companies were greatly involved with each other by licensing each other’s technologies for their respective markets. As a result I have been to Japan a few times. One particular trip stands out from the others.

We were visiting the coating technical center and had been working on defining a process for Coating A. The coating technical center is about a 90 minute train ride outside of Tokyo. This was lab work and some of the equipment and process found in the lab were less than ideal based on how our customers would use the coating. I also had to bring some measuring equipment to ensure the coating was going to meet the required specifications once it was applied at the customer's facility. 

The last day of our work was a customer visit to the technical center. This was an important visit and we wanted to make sure a good impression (and good test parts) was made. The test run went pretty well. We finished late in the evening. Late enough that the train schedule changed. Most of the day there is a train about every 15 minutes going back towards Tokyo. In the evening, after the rush, the train schedule changes to a train every hour or later every 90 minutes. The trains actually stop running at either 10:00 or 11:00 pm for the route back to Tokyo. We were catching this last train at either 10:00 or 11:00.

We finished the trial and just missed the next to the last train so we had about 90 minutes to wait. What better way to wait than to have a snack and do some drinking.

This seemed to be a meal I like to call “Let’s See What the Gringos Will Eat” type of meal where nothing is off limit, think Fear Factor with chop sticks (at least the eating part). This is never one of my favorite meals but it happens every time I visit Japan. So I go with it. My policy is that as long as someone at the table (Japanese) will eat it I will also try it. This policy has not failed me yet but I have eaten some interesting things that I never would have ordered off the menu by myself.

Normally this consists of various raw fish items. Some of the more notable things I have eaten on Gringo night include: fish testicles, sea urchin (nasty), salmon roe, and glow in the dark squid. I caused a bit of a laugh when eating the squid. I of course asked what it was. Once I found out it was glow in the dark I did what anyone would do. I put my hand over the top of the bowl and looked inside it through a small gap to see if it was glowing. I was disappointed. It was not glowing. Apparently this particular squid only glows when it is alive. I felt ripped off…

The only thing interesting in this “Gringo” meal was sushi style horse. The dish consisted of a few small pieces of uncooked horse meat placed in a bowl with a kind of cocktail sauce. It was not too bad. Oh, did I mention that we were drinking a lot as well.

I was matching them drink for drink, kind of. We started with beer. Next we drank some Sake. After the Sake we drank some Tennessee style whiskey. Then we went back to beer. Then Sake again and I’m not sure what else, all in the course of about an hour. Needless to say by the time the horse arrived it didn’t taste too bad. I actually remember thinking it was pretty good.

Now it is time to go and catch the train. Did I mention that I had a large case full of tools? I did and I carried/drug it along the sidewalk and through the train station to the train. We made it with a few minutes to spare for the 90 minute ride back.

By this time I have to go the bathroom pretty bad. A wise man once said, “One does not buy beer, one only rents it.” This saying is also true for the other types of beverages I consumed during the evening. I think I had to use the restroom at least 2 more times on the train. None of my Japanese colleagues went once. I felt a little silly for not being able to hold my liquor, but not enough to try to hold it/pee myself on a public train.

We finally arrive back at the train station for our final night. We have a short walk to the hotel and check in. Since all the drinking was pretty quick, I am feeling better and better as the night goes on. We manage to check in and I make it to my room.

The next thing you need to know is that I get motion sick from time to time. My worst time was fishing with my grandpa on Lake Erie. We went the morning after a large storm passed through and the waves were about 5 feet tall. I made it through about 4 hours when I had to toss my breakfast over the side of the boat. On the bright side, I still will eat biscuits and gravy... Then I lay down and went to sleep for a couple hours, long enough to get a nice sunburn on my right ear and on the rest of the right side of my face. Oh what a trip especially since we did not catch any fish to speak of.

I have been made sick from a spinning carnival ride and I have felt some nausea from a roller coaster or two. I didn’t throw up on those last occasions but my stomach felt very bad. Here is the first ride I remember being sick on. 

The ride is still there today if you are interested. It is in operation at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, California. My family visited there every summer to visit my grandparents. 


All the other times that I have thrown up from motion sickness are drinking related. Once I get to the point when the room starts spinning I might as well go and sit on the floor next to a toilet because I will be making a deposit/refund. I won't go into details about those instances. 

After checking into the hotel room I turn on the TV and find CNN, nearly the only English speaking channel available. Then I decide to call my boss at work. It is late in the evening in Japan which makes it early in the morning in Indiana. I don’t have many memories of the call to my boss. Then I call another co-worker and I also don’t remember much of that conversation.

My third and final call is to my wife at her work. I don’t remember too much that we talked about. I am getting most of the details from the Chief after I returned home. At some point I yelled “raw horse” into the phone. I received a “What?” in return so I changed it and yelled “Horse tartare!” I did not know it but the Chief had put me on speaker phone in her office and I was entertaining the entire office staff.

By this time all the drinking has caught up with me and the room is starting to spin pretty badly. I sign off the phone call with the Chief by saying, “I gotta go and yak now. Bye.” (Abrupt hang up of the phone). The Chief says that is a pretty good start to a morning because a good laugh just hits the spot.

Meanwhile, back in the hotel, I go into the bathroom and sit next to the toilet. Sure enough I refunded. I will spare some of the details but I didn’t know I had eaten a pair of boots. As with most yak sessions, there is some action followed by a pause, then some more action and another longer pause. This cycle continues for a while. The question I always have to ask is if this is the last yak and is it safe to brush my teeth to get the taste out of my mouth. During one of the longer pauses I notice the toilet is pretty fancy. I don’t mean gold plated or anything like that. More specifically I mean the toilet seat has some features unknown to me, being from Indiana.

First of all the toilet seat is heated. I noticed this when I first checked in had to take care of business. What I did not notice is the control panel on the side of the toilet seat. This thing has more features than my car.

Here is a picture of a similar seat.

There are other buttons that I’m not sure what they do because I don't read Japanese. So since I have some time I decide to try them out. There is a button controlling a fan that takes the grumpy air and makes it happy. One button gives a kind of courtesy flush. The next button made a little wand come down in the back of the toilet seat. I was intrigued by this and stared at it a little closer. Once the wand was fully extended it squirted water straight into my face.

It was warm water. I thought that if I was sitting on the toilet, instead of praying to it, the washing action might be OK. 


I now have this at home:

It has a heated seat that gets very hot if it is set on the hottest setting. It also has a remote control with buttons in English...

Also, one feature that I was not counting on, it will not squirt water unless someone is sitting on the seat. The first thing I did after installing it was to test that feature. 


Now I really like the home field advantage.


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Returnables

I had a very good Christmas and I hope you did too. I gave and received some cool gifts. There was indeed something to do with a squirrel... so it was a very good Christmas. On the down side our friends all got sick and we didn't get to visit over new years as is tradition we Pepe, Red Hat Jef and our families. Hopefully we will get to plan a spring visit somewhere warm...

I only have one present that I need to return and I talked my mom into doing that when they come down to visit for their annual migration to Arizona. One shirt was too small and the store is in Kokomo and since we were driving through on the day after Christmas, it was a zoo. Also, there is not one of this store within a 2 hour drive of our house.

Some things that did not make my original Christmas List, or the "Christmas - don't list" are below. You can decide which goes where...

I would really be concerned with this if I was both a tea drinker and a smoker. Also, gunpowder does not sound very tasty. Even if you go back to the starting ingredients: sulfur, charcoal and saltpetre, it still does not sound appetizing as either a food or a beverage.

This snake stand, with snake is something that if I did receive it for Christmas, I'm not sure if I would be able to return it unless the venom antidote came along with it. Or at least some really thick Kevlar gloves.

This looks like a very good product and it gets some good reviews both on BB&B and on Amazon.com. However, when reading the instructions I now have some reservations. I don't want to screw any type of kitchen appliance, especially not if the appliance is cold. (you can click on the pictures to enlarge them)

On a side note. I found out how the get the Chief excited about using a vegetable tray. If you don't know what the Chief thinks about vegetables you should read this first. Here is how I got her excited about the vegetable serving tray.

I'm not even sure why we have this...

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