関西大学佐治スタジオ Kansai University Saji Studio

A few months ago my barber suggested that I go around the corner and meet the folks at the Kansai University Saji Studio. So I did!

Saji is one of the neighborhoods in Aogaki. In fact, it is theneighborhood. It is certainly the most densely populated part of town and is home to several schools, the bank, the post office, and many vending machines. It's sandwiched nicely between the river and mountains. Thus, it was a good place to house the Saji Studio.

The Studio (if I understood correctly) was a joint project between Kansai University and the town government. The University asked what was needed and delivered it. The University uses the Studio as a sort of mini base of operations. Students might spend the weekend there while they participate in some hands-on projects, research independently, or attend seminars. Saji neighborhood gets a bunch of young and willing volunteers to renovate select buildings, a way to bring in interesting speakers, and cultural events. Strawberry picking, knitting, cooking, gardening, Nordic walking ... you name it!

It's somewhere between a community center and a university laboratory.

It also brings a lot of younger people and ideas into the town. Not to mention, people I can hang out with and relate to a bit! I usually stop by after work at my base school to see what's going on. It's a good way for me to practice my very poor Japanese and meet some new people in town.



This weekend the Saji Studio hosted a certain Mr. Yoji Inoue, a landscape architect, who went on a tour of Aogaki with us on Saturday (followed by a great dinner) and then had a presentation on Sunday at the community center. I wish my Japanese were good enough to be able to understand everything, because the handouts were certainly impressive, but I have to admit that I had little idea what was being said. Still, the visuals were enough to get me by and Mr. Inoue was kind enough to banter with me in English a little bit. He asked me what I thought about Aogaki and gave me a little insight into the layout of the town.







His current (or latest) project is Art in Farm in Tachikawa outside of Tokyo. Check it out!

I got Seoul

There were several options available for filling up my Golden Week vacation. I could go to Toyo-Oka, just a few hours away. I could go to Sasebo and finally see the island of Kyushu.

But just a month away from Golden Week I decided I was going to go to South Korea. I have a great friend teaching English there, family of a friend, and lots of other JETs in the area had been there before, so I could glean some information and recommendations from them.

So I ordered up my ferry tickets, my shinkansen/bullet train tickets, found a host on couchsurfing, and was off!

April 29th, Showa Day
I got into Fukuoka, bought my ferry ticket, and then chilled around town. There was a very nice, practically free museum (Fukuoka Prefectural Museum) that I hung around for several hours. Very comfy chairs, let me tell you. That evening I met up with my couchsurfing host and we went out for some dinner and drinks with other couchsurfers. Some passing Japanese even decided to join our little picnic of dried squid, Pringles, and sausage.



April 30th
I hopped aboard the JR Kyushu Beetle ferry from Fukuoka to Busan. Slept most of the way there. Got into Busan and dropped my luggage off at the apartment of friends of a friend.

Busan is the second largest city in Korea and is a port city and everything is built into the hills. The apartment complexes are huge and tower above all else. There are restaurants on every street and lots of them have tanks of baby octopus, flounder, eel, and other sea critters in front of the storefront. Streets are busy. Cars will not slow down to squeeze through pedestrians and other cars.

Went to Beomeosa Temple, where I had my First Middle Aged Asian Stalker With a Giant Camera. I managed to shake him off a bit when I struck a pose complete with peace signs. No, sir, you do not possess ninja powers of invisibility. Yes, sir, I noticed you about 20 minutes ago.

The temples were preparing for Buddha's Birthday and hanging lanterns. Lanterns with chibi-Buddha.





Beomeosa also had a lovely path (walking towards the temple you'll see it on your left) with hundreds of wisteria vines. It was a bit mysterious that they bothered supporting some of them with metal scaffolding when they had hundreds of trees to cling to.



That evening I went out with Lisa, the friend of a friend, to a kimbap restaurant.



I was really only in South Korea for the sake of eating everything I could.



I don't think this cost us more than 10,000 won ($8). Egg, rice, kimchi jjiggae soup, mandu dumplings, side dishes, kimbap rolls, kimchi, and more soup.

It was the best damn stuff I'd had in a while.

People were pretty friendly. Someone actually paid for a subway ticket for me when I couldn't get through the gate because my ticket was 200 won short (the fare map lied to me, I'm sure of it!). People were always eager to make sure I knew where I was going.

May 1st

I got on a train from Busan to Seoul. This train went 301 km/h and the ticket cost me 48,100 won ($37). It was a 2.5 hour ride. The same will cost you about $150 in Japan.

I met up with Mary (fellow AYFer and MSU grad) and her workmates and we went out for a dinner of galbi, which is Korean BBQ beef wrapped in a leaf with garlic, mushrooms, kimchee, red pepper sauce, and anything else you care to eat with it.



This meal cost 0 won, because Mary's Newfoundland workmates treated me. They also treated me to some Hoegaarten at a Canadian bar that had just relocated and reopened. There were bagpipes. I was pleased.

May 2nd

It was a rainy day, so I went to the Gustav Klimt exhibit at the Seoul Arts Center, which was pretty neat.

I also went to Jogyesa Temple as it was Buddha's Birthday.



I really dig Korea's approach to buildings. They are always very open.

May 3rd

I went to the amazing Korean National Museum. It was huge. Not just the museum, but the grounds. I checked out their first floor of pre-historic artifacts and their Buddhist statues.




I met up with the brother of a friend from MSU. We went out to dinner, saw a palace, and he told me a good amount about Korea and Seoul.



May 4th

There was a belated Buddhamas Miracle when Mary was feeling better and we had a great day out. The weather was beautiful. We went to Itaewong's foreign district where there is an amazing English bookstore with new and used books. I got some pretty neat stuff. I also got some souvenirs and loads of stationery. Lunch at The Foreign Restaurant included a free side of Bollywood music videos.

I will not tell you how much I spent on books. But I will tell you what I got: Y The Last Man, The Sandman, Takarazuka, The Habit, Anansi Boys, Making Money, Biomimicry, The Story of English, and Everything is Illuminated.

There was also street food. Delicious, delicious street food.



May 5th

Packed, ate breakfast, and said my goodbyes. I got in a taxi cab at about 7:40AM and I arrived in Aogaki at about 10:15PM. I was very lucky to get a shinkansen ticket once I got off the ferry. I did not want to spend two days on local trains. I didn't have to do too much walking, which made me happy.