Tanks and Trucks and Other Army Things

Last Monday was a holiday here in South Korea. It was the anniversary of the foundation of the Korean nation.

While I was riding in a bus on the east coast, we suddenly passed a whole bunch of armored vehicles and trucks with soldiers . . . it turned out that there was a commemoration of a battle with North Korea (and of the North Korean invasion, since that was one of the places where it happened).

Please excuse the quality of the photographs, as they were taken out of the bus window, but they will give you an idea of what we saw as we were travelling. The sight of all of this was a surprise to everyone on the bus (mostly Koreans), and the mood was very supportive.

Food Delivered

There is a wide range of food in Korea that can be delivered to one's home or place of work, including what you see here: noodles with black bean sauce, fried rice, pickled radish, stuffed dumplings, onions, and some soup. We ate it outside on my friends' porch, since it was such a nice fall morning:)

Naksan Temple's Scenic Views

When we visited the Buddhist temple in Naksan (see next post), I took a lot of pictures, both of temple building and of the beautiful views. These are the scenic pics:) Enjoy!

Naksan Buddhist Temple (Naksansa)

Last weekend I visited a famous Buddhist temple in Naksan, Gangwondo, South Korea. My friends had been there before, but I hadn't. It is a sprawling complex, mostly on hills and a cliff overlooking the East Sea. The entire place was burned down a number of years ago in a forest fire, so almost everything you see here has been painstakingly rebuilt, and quite wonderfully so. Naksansa is very popular, and it was crowded on the Saturday that we visited. Some of the views are beautiful! I already want to go back.

The Terrible Noise

I had just left the foreign food store in Itaewon, and was heading down the hill towards the intersection where I would hang a left and go on to the subway station.

I passed the newish Halal bakery, and was headed across the dungy little alley/sidestreet, a few steps behind an ajuma (older Korean woman), when this terrible sound erupted from somewhere nearby.

It was obvious immediately what it was: two cats fighting.

Not just regular fighting, as in a hiss and snarl, but territorial and food fighting, as only street cats can do. It was a noise I had heard before here in Korea, where cats are not popular as pets.

The woman in front of me gave an involuntary jump of her shoulders, as did I; the deathly noise was very close by.

There were no cats visible, however. We were on a sidewalk, up next to 3 or 4-story buildings on the left side, the two-lane street on the right.

I kept on walking, as did she; it isn't really a very nice neighborhood.

Suddenly, just as we crossed the sidestreet--this was all happening very quickly, you understand--the cats' screeching erupted again.

Before a reaction was possible from either of us, two cats, locked in deadly combat, fell off of the second floor ledge above us and tumbled onto the sidewalk next to the woman, just missing her.

I noticed several things together:

*the cats were in a death grip with each other

*the cats were surprised

*the woman, scared witless, managed to jumped sideways

*I had managed to jump backwards

The cats landed with a meaty "thump!"

Ugly and dirty, they immediately disengaged. One got up and moved off a bit quickly while the other sat, half-stunned.

The Korean woman looked back at me as if to say, "Did you see what the hell just happened?"

I nodded to her, mentally assessing myself for damage.

While she moved off into the street, away from the cats, towards some bystanders who might have witnessed the feline catastrophe (we always want to share such experiences, don't we?), I kept going, though I detoured around the mangy-looking cat that seemed to be on the losing end of the fall.

I just wanted out of there.

Scary cats falling from the sky do give one a certain haste in life.

New Cheese Packaging

Cheese comes in a plastic wrapper, right? Wrong!:

I thought I was opening a can of cat food . . .

August, Korea

I know I read in the Korean news--either The Korea Times or The Korea Herald--some time in early to mid Jul,y a reort that "the rainy season is over" here.

Not true. It's warm, humid, and rainy.

But it is still nice to be back.

It is good to be able to walk to places, though I have the impression that some people think I am a Buddhist monk since I am shaving my head these days