memory & place

the tao of South Korean barbecue

Ted was invited to speak at the July 2009 PiFan - 13th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival in Bucheon South Korea. He accepted their invite and we made the 16 hour journey.

We arrived in Bucheon, dropped our bags in the hotel room and walked across the street to a restaurant for our first taste of Korean food with Thomas one of the conference organizers.

Bucheon looks like an industrialized city and it was a humid 90 degree evening so I assumed AC would be everywhere. There was no AC in the restaurant but there was a barbecue grill sitting in the middle of a small table. I thought the place must be packed so they seated us at a table with a grill but we're not going to have barbecue, inside, in a heat wave? Silly western girl... don't assume anything.

Korean's love their barbecue. Rightfully so - Korean barbecue is very tasty. They love it so much that they barbecue inside even in a heat wave. A waiter cooked this wonderful piece of Korean beef on what felt like a blast furnace inches from our hands and arms. 

While it cooked we started on our side dishes. Kimchee, cold soup, green veggies; all very good and very, very, very spicy, washed down with Soju. This is what it must feel like dining on the sun yet enjoying every bite.

After dinner we went to opening night ceremonies for PiFan. We walked into a ballroom where this big party was going on. People were talking, drinking, eating, talking on cell phones, checking everyone else out.

A swirl of socializing continued as various people got up on a low stage to give opening remarks, which were barely audible over the sound of the crowd.

Fashion was eclectic; casual to office dressy. But there was one small clique of women in long black evening gowns, beautifully accessorized, strolling through the crowd.

Ted and I left for a walk around the neighborhood. The sides of office buildings seem to double as billboards. Vertical space gets rented for neon ads making the office districts insanely bright.

We found old arcade amusement park gaming machines scattered around the neighborhood. The stuffed bears looked sad trapped in their glass cases waiting for someone to drop a coin and rescue them.

Gundam one week ago in Tokyo

It was our last night in Tokyo and Ted wanted to see Gundam. So with the super power of the Tokyo public transport system a block from the hotel, we walked to the train and headed for Tokyo harbor. The ride there was enough for me. At dusk we changed trains to a 'private' line which means you pay a bit more but it's still a public line. It moved us across Tokyo harbor to Odaiba Island. Amazing.

We crossed the Rainbow bridge which holds car lanes as well as train tracks. The bridge has this ridiculously beautiful loop that turned us around over the water before continuing on to Odaiba. This wasn't an amusement park ride. It wasn't scary. It was wonderful. What this bridge symbolizes to me is the amazing Japanese can do it attitude that has given Japan possible the best public transportation system in the world. I'm bowing deeply here.

Imagine riding over I-5 in a train from Seattle to Tacoma heading to the Tacoma aquarium for an afternoon. You could take your car but why would you if you could get there without worries about sitting in traffic near the Tacoma dome, spending a fortune on gas, parking or a flat tire. You glide there and you glide back. If you like nap on the way.

America's deep attachment to the auto makes us dig in and say we can't do it when it comes to creating a local, state, and inter-state public transportation system that can compete with our beloved auto (sigh).

Back to Gundam. I've pulled a brief explanation of what and who Gundam is from its Wikipedia entry.

"Gundam (ガンダム, Gandamu^?) is a metaseries of Japanese anime created by Sunrise studios that features giant robots (or "mecha") called "Gundam." The meta series started in April 1979 as a serial TV show called Mobile Suit Gundam."

It's the 30th anniversary of the Gundam meta series. So what do you do to celebrate? Well if you are the Japanese you pick a great location and build a giant replica of Gundam.

There were workers in three cherry pickers giving Gundam a check up. The replica has no moving parts so we really had no idea what they were doing but it looked cool. With the heavy duty flood lights and lots of people at Gundam's feet (which were mighty big) it was another amazing night in Japan.