Come travel and explore these lovely countries with Viv and Rod on our various trips
Fire extinguishers are a mundane, but necessary, feature in most buildings. They are also usually not very attractive. So, we thought this way of “decorating” them was very inventive and you have to admit that it does make the fire extinguishers look less intrusive and unsightly.
We found these in a building on the Seoul National University (SNU) campus.
Yay for flowers!
When we were staying at the Hoam Faulty House at SNU our friend Mi Kwon, widow of the late Jongsoo Chang (see here https://vivskoreanadventures.wordpress.com/2023/11/02/remembering-a-wonderful-friend-jongsoo-chang/ ) came to visit us late one afternoon. We spent a few hours at the small café in Nakseongdae Park, having coffee and reminiscing about Jongsoo. It was lovely to see her again, but sad that it was in such circumstances.
Then she wanted to take us to dinner and chose Hanam Pig House. One of my Korean students here at the university had recommended this restaurant, so we were very happy that Mi took us there.
Hanam Pig House is a restaurant chain in Korea with over 260 branches nationwide and is one of the most famous restaurant chains in South Korea. It is famous for charcoal-grilled pork, especially pork belly. Unlike most BBQ restaurants in Korea where the customers grill the meat themselves, in Hanam Pig House, the pork is grilled in front of customers.
The ambience inside was very relaxed and happy, with wooden tables and padded bench-like seats that lift and hold tableware, and the walls have posters, framed pictures and various sayings painted directly onto the wall. Young people sit and eat, and use their computers. Servers bring a grill to the table to cook the meat that you order, and the service was really good. And, of course, the food was delicious as it always is in Korea! Our menu: the meat, with a dipping sauce, soup, kimchi, side dish of pickles, soju (a popular Korean fermented rice drink). In Korea we are always fascinated with how the person doing the meat cooking uses large sharp scissors to cut the meat, rather than a knife, as is the usual custom in western countries.
The branch we went to is near Seoul National University station, 3 Gwanak-ro 17-gil, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Thank you Mi for making the time to come and see us on our last visit to Seoul.
A lesson on the Importance of Language and Communication, and the French Cuisine Influence in Korea
On our last trip to Korea, when we were staying at Hoam Faculty House at SNU, we had a free day. So, we decided to go to Nakseongdae Park and then have lunch in the shopping area close by, on our way to the Nakseongdae subway station. I wrote about Nakseongdae Park before (see here https://vivskoreanadventures.wordpress.com/2024/01/19/celebrating-general-kang-an-ancient-local-hero/ )
Our Korean hosts have been wonderful about taking us to various restaurants and sharing stories about the dishes, but we thought that we could do lunch on our own, and we got some recommendations.
We decided on La Bab, a small place that specializes in bibimbab, a Korean favorite and one that we’ve had a couple of times before. We got a table and then I realized that we had to order at an automatic machine. At other times in Korea, at various places (like the café in a museum), we’ve managed to order and pay with a combination of a part-English menu, pointing, body language, and watching what other people did. But, this machine experience didn’t go well! Everything on the screen was in Korean and, even though there were also pictures of the dishes, I couldn’t figure it out. Plus, the machine didn’t seem to accept my credit card. Luckily, a Korean lady with her young son at the next table saw my dilemma and came over to help me. She spoke quite good English and walked me through the whole process. It was very kind of her and I was really grateful.
It made me realize again how many of the international people who come to our campus in Illinois must feel when they don’t understand the language or how things work in society—sometimes ordinary things like ordering a coffee at the coffee shop.
Anyway, we enjoyed our lunch and then went next door to a famous bakery that many of the SNU students recommended. It’s been there since 1996 and is always very popular, as evidenced by the frequent long lines. It’s called Jean Boulangerie and has many French-inspired baked goods for sale. Here, it was easier to buy something, as we could just watch what other people were doing and then look at the cash register when the cashier rang the purchase up.
I’ve written before about how many Korean people really like French-type pastries and baked goods (see here https://vivskoreanadventures.wordpress.com/2016/05/03/love-of-french-names-in-korea/ ), and there’s even a branch of a Korean chain—Paris Baguette— in Paris. https://vivskoreanadventures.wordpress.com/2016/08/25/a-korean-bakery-in-paris/
On Saturday February 10th, 2024, the Lunar New Year will begin. In many East Asian countries, the New Year festival lasts for 15 days and ends with a Lantern Festival.
For countries that use the lunar calendar, they have a zodiac of 12 animals, and 2024 will be the Year of the Dragon. The dragon is an auspicious and extraordinary creature, symbolizing power, nobility, good luck, strength, and health. It is the only mythical creature in the zodiac and, because of its allure, many Asian communities have a “baby boom” during the Year of the Dragon.
I’m told it’s forecast that 2024 will be a year of opportunities, changes, and challenges. Let’s wait and see. There will certainly be political changes, as more than 50 nations around the world will elect new leaders in 2024.
Happy New Year to all. Let’s hope it’s a good year!
Nakseongdae, “site of the falling star”
“Catch a Falling Star
And put it on your pocket.
Save it for a rainy day.”
“Catch a Falling Star” was written by Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss and made famous by Perry Como in 1957.
Nakseongdae, the neighborhood just outside the campus of Seoul National University (SNU), certainly must have caught a falling star. This is the birth place of the famous Goryeo-era General and scholar, Kang Gamchan (948-1031). It is said that when Kang Gamchan was born, a star fell from heaven and landed where he was born, so this place was named “site of the falling star” (Nakseongdae).
The people of Goryeo erected a 3-story stone pagoda at the house of his birth to praise him for his great deeds—he supposedly defeated 100,000 Chinese invaders with only a small army in the Third Goryeo-Khitan War. Korea has a very long documented history, so it’s amazing that these details are well known.
Damaged portions of this pagoda were restored by the Seoul Metropolitan Government in 1964, and designated a Seoul Tangible Cultural Property in 1972. Two years later a shrine—Anguksa Shrine—was constructed for him and the pagoda, which was originally close by, was moved here, close to the shrine on the hill.
Nakseongdae Park is the memorial park to General Kang. It’s in the Gwanak-gu district of Seoul, just outside the gates of SNU. It’s a lovely park, with large open spaces well used by the local people. A huge equestrian statue of General Kang dominates a large central square, which kids use to ride bicycles or skateboards. Another square connected to this has a small café on the side and many free exercise equipments around the edge, very well used, especially by older folk. It’s a place to meet, chat, have a picnic, watch kids learn to ride bikes etc.
While staying at the Goam Faculty House in SNU, we visited the park a number of times, walked up the hill to the shrine, wandered the peaceful green leafy paths, and had tea in the café. It was fun to just wander around, absorb some of the excited vibes, and soak up some sunshine. There are a number of information boards, some serious, some more cartoon-like, but we realize that many Korean people love cartoon characters, so this is likely a good way of catching people’s attention, and of imparting a bit of history.
It’s definitely true that Korea has one of the great cuisines of the world and, for us personally, French, Japanese and Korean top the list. Of course, they have adopted some of the typical western-style dishes, but they still have wonderful dishes and styles that are unique to that country.
Over the years, we’ve had many amazing meal experiences in Korea, and it was true of our last trip too.
As I mentioned earlier, we were staying at the Hoam Guest House on the SNU campus before, and after, moving to Pyeongchang for the JRS symposium. We had many of our meals in the Guest House dining room—always breakfast, once for lunch, with the group, and a couple of times for dinner. But, often for dinner our hosts would take us out, as they were very eager to showcase Korean meals and dishes for us. And we were willing participants!
One such memorable meal was to a Korean-style beef house, called Kyungbokkung. It’s supposedly named after the huge and beautiful Gyeongbokgung, the “Palace of Shining Happiness”, completed in 1394 by Taejo, the first king of the Joseon Dynasty. It’s regarded as the #1 palace complex in Seoul, so this restaurant presumably wishes to be regarded very highly in the restaurant world too!
Our host, Myunggi Baek, took Rod and I, and Anne and Chris McSweeney (he was another of the invited speakers) to Kyungbokgung, which is within easy driving distance of Hoam Guest House. It’s on the top floor of a building, and has a series of private rooms leading off corridors.
The room we were in had a long table with two burners that are used to cook the special beef. But, the meal was so much more than beef. As is usual for Korean meals, we started with a bowl of soup each, and there were many small side dishes—kimchi, pickles, rice, sauces. A salad plate arrived, and then two amazing plates of sashimi, real works of art, as they were decorated with genuine plants and the raw fish was wreathed in an icy mist (from liquid nitrogen). The beef was a huge slab of meat, beautifully cooked by our server on the center grills, and carefully cut with a pair of large scissors. We’ve seen this cutting of cooking meat with scissors before, and it seems like a really sensible idea to us. The final plate was a whole highly salted, fried fish (I don’t remember the name, unfortunately).
We feel very honored to have been treated to such a special meal.
Hoam Faculty House, in Gwanak, south Seoul (Hoam, pronounced Ho-am)
As I posted earlier, we visited Korea and Japan again in August/early September and had a wonderful time. The main reason for the visit was a conference Rod attended in Pyeong-chang at the SNU (Seoul National University) agricultural campus there. But we spent our first 4 days in Seoul on the main SNU campus, and then our last night, after Pyeong-chang, back in Seoul on the SNU campus again.
Rod’s contact at SNU, Dr. Myunggi Baik, booked us into the Hoam Faculty House on the edge of the Gwanak SNU campus, the main campus in south Seoul. We had stayed there for almost a month in spring 2016, when Rod conducted a special workshop at SNU, and we enjoyed it a lot. Here’s a link to my blog post at that time:
https://vivskoreanadventures.wordpress.com/tag/hoam-faculty-house-snu/
So, we were happy to be back in the Hoam Faculty House, a great place for international visitors to the university to stay. The guest rooms in the building next to the main building are comfortable, there are two restaurants, various conference rooms and a convention hall for international conferences and seminars. We enjoyed a number of very good meals in the restaurant there.
It is also the final stop for bus 6017 that goes to and from Incheon Airport, which is very convenient. In addition, a 20-minute walk takes you to a shopping area (with convenience stores, coffee shops, noodle restaurants etc) and the Nakseongdae Subway stop—Green line—part of the extensive subway system in Seoul.
This visit, we found out more about the history of SNU and the origin of the name “Hoam”. Seoul National University originated from various educational institutions established by King Gojong of the Joseon dynasty in the late 1800s. SNU of that name was founded in August 1946 as the premier national university by merging these 10 institutions of higher education around the Seoul area. During the Korean War some classes were held at Busan Wartime Nations University, and after the Korean War there was reconstruction and expansion, 1954-1960.
At that time, SNU had multiple campuses in different parts of Seoul. In the 1970s the president of Korea was Park Chung Lee, the army general who ruled the country until his assassination in 1979. There were many student protests during his time in office. President Park disliked student protests to such an extent that he requested a new SNU campus be built with all the downtown campuses moved to one place far removed from the downtown. In March 1970 Gwanak Mountainwas selected as the site of the new SNU campus, and in April 1971 construction of the newly integrated campus in Gwanak started. Apparently, the Gwanak mountain site originally belonged to Samsung CEO Lee Byung-chul and part of it was a golf course. President Park ordered Lee Byung-chul to donate the land.
Starting in February 1975, most colleges of the university relocated to the new Gwanak campus and campus integration was complete when the College of Engineering moved to Gwanak campus in January 1980. Gwanak is the main campus, but SNU also had Yeongeon medical campus, and Suwon agricultural campus about 40 km (24 miles) south of Seoul. The Suwon campus has now been mostly replaced by a new agricultural campus in Pyeongchang in Gangwon Province.
Hoam Faculty House opened in 1990 and is named after the Samsung CEO Lee Byung-chul, whose nickname was Hoam.
We visited Korea and Japan again in August/early September, 2023, and had a wonderful time. We love going to Korea and Japan—they are beautiful countries and the people are very warm and welcoming to visitors. So, I’m happy to be able to open up this blog again with lots of new content.
The main reason for the visit was a conference Rod attended in Pyeong-chang at the SNU (Seoul National University) agricultural campus there. But we spent our first 4 days in Seoul on the main SNU campus, and then our last night, after Pyeong-chang, back in Seoul on the SNU campus again.
The conference is called JRS (Joint Ruminant Symposium). It is made up of researchers and students from Korea, Japan and China and rotates every two years among those countries. They also invite three or four international invited speakers and their spouses or significant other. The invited speakers also serve as the judges for the student paper presentations and decide on two winners from each country.
This time, some researchers from Hokkaido University in Sapporo added on a satellite workshop after the JRS conference, and we were lucky to go to that too. Because of that we were able to spend 6 days in Sapporo, which we have visited a number of times before.
Lots more about our adventures to come, but here are a few photos, giving a brief summary of some of the things that we saw and did.
Korean Culture: Icons, Symbols, and Legends/Myths
Magpies and Roses
A few times lately with one of my Korean students the subject of Korean symbols and icons has come up. All cultures have symbols and legends, but some of the Asian countries seem to have an abundance of these, and I find it fascinating.
I’ll try to cover some of these in the next few posts. For today, we talked about the Korean, or oriental, magpie and the Korean special flower, the Rose of Sharon.
The magpie is called “gachi” in Korean. It is a symbol of good luck and of good news, such as the arrival of very nice visitors. So, people are very happy to see and hear a magpie. It also represents harmony, making a symbolic bridge between love and understanding between people. It’s the “official bird” of many Korean cities, counties and provinces, and many say that it is the national bird. One day a few years ago in spring at Seoul National University I was having coffee at a coffee shop on campus and, as I left, I saw two magpies hopping around in the gardens. I followed them, trying to get good photos and loved watching them, without quite understanding why I was so interested. Maybe I was picking up on the good luck!
The Rose of Sharon, or Korean Rose, is called Mugunghwa in Korean. Mugung means “forever” in Korean, and hwa means “flower”, so a forever flower. It is a type of hibiscus (hibiscus syriacus) and is regarded with great affection in Korea. It became he national flower in 1945 after Korea was liberated from Japanese rule, even though for many centuries before that it was treasured as a “blossom from heaven”. The flower easily flourishes after transplanting or cutting, so the Koreans see it as an enduring plant that requires minimal maintenance. They see it as a symbol of their country’s wish for prosperity and of the tenacity of Korean citizens.
It usually grows as a shrub or bush but can be trimmed to grow tree-like. We saw many of these plants during our various visits to Korea and always remarked how pretty they are. They can be white, red, pink, purple or blue-ish, often with intense red or pink centers. Here are just a few of the photos we’ve taken over the years.
KOREAN FIRST BIRTHDAY, “Dol” in Korean.
Recently, the young son of our Korean friends in Urbana had his first birthday and we saw him in his birthday hanbok—so cute! This got me thinking about the Korean first birthday traditions. I wrote about this many years ago in an article published on Fiesta, part of Just SayGo, a travel website that is now defunct.
I have the text of that article, as explained to me by a number of Korean friends and students, but especially Jaeyeun. Sadly, I don’t have the original photos, except one of Jaeyeun’s daughter, a great pity, as Jaeyeun did a wonderful job with all the decorations and traditional trappings. However, I do have a Dropbox link, so I think you can probably see a PDF of the article.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hczgkmqch8kw4fl/Korean%201st%20B%27day.pdf?dl=0
But, for easier reading, here is the article text again.
In Korea, the first birthday and the 60th birthday are very important milestones. Both are carry-overs from days gone by when infant mortality was high, and people believed that if a baby reached the first birthday, the baby would probably live. As Jaeyeun said, “Long time ago, babies got diseases or died, so people celebrated that they were alive. People want the baby to eat well and to have good fortune”. Life expectancy then was much shorter than now, and so reaching 60 was also very special.
For both these birthdays, the family plans a huge celebration.
The first birthday party is especially interesting as it has many symbolic elements and is very colorful.
All Koreans want to have a special celebration for their child’s first birthday. Some families use a party planning company, or rent a hotel hall or golf club hall, but many prepare all the elements of the party at home—as Jaeyeun did.
The most important element of the celebration is the specially prepared table, called “dol sang” in Korean. This low table has unique decorations in front, between the tabletop and the floor, called “dol go-im”. They consist of a series of tubes stacked vertically. In ancient times, the royal and rich people started this, and filled the tubes with candy: at that time, ordinary people couldn’t afford candy, so they made piles of apples and other fruit. Nowadays, the table has both the tubes and the fruit. Jaeyeun made her own tubes by using empty paper towel cardboard tubes, which she decorated with hundreds of multi-colored, square-shaped pieces of gum. She glued on the pieces of gum in symbolic patterns. These designs are often used in Korean interior design, on window frames, and on bed linens. It took her about 2 weeks to decorate the 5 tubes.
The arrangement of items on the table is also very important. The parents put the baby to sit in front of the table. In front of the baby are a spoon, chopsticks, a rice bowl and a bowl of seaweed soup. Behind that are small piles of “dok” (rice cakes), both white and rainbow-colored. “Dok” is important as it symbolizes a long life. There is also fruit, arranged in towers—usually apples, oranges and Korean pears—and these days many families add an American-style birthday cake.
Perhaps the highlight of the celebration is the “Choosing Game”. Parents lay out certain items that, depending on which the baby picks up, will hopefully predict the baby’s future life. The traditional items are; a piece of thread (for long life); some money (for wealth); a pencil (for a studious or academic future); rice (for much food in life). Nowadays parents often also add toy stethoscopes, golf clubs, or computer games—hoping for that future profession. Jaeyeun’s daughter, Yoonhyung (Kate) first picked up money, and then rice. Her older son picked up a pencil and then rice at his party.
The baby wears a ‘hanbok’, traditional Korean clothing. Kate’s hanbok had a red silk skirt with iron-on gold patterns at the bottom, and sleeves with many different colored stripes. She also had a special traditional hat, the kind that both girls and boys wear. Nowadays parents and guests tend to wear regular clothes but in the past they would also wear traditional hanboks.
It’s also traditional to bring gifts for the baby. The most traditional, and still given by grandparents, are baby rings and charm bracelets. Kate received a gold ring decorated with a pencil engraving and a red painted flower (for good luck) and a charm bracelet with bells and pigs (pigs symbolize wealth and good fortune).
Besides the table, other decorations are fairly simple—lots of balloons and a banner. After the baby has eaten at the table and done the “Choosing Game”, the parents serve food to all the guests, who are likely to be numerous. Favorites are rice, seaweed soup, bulgogi (a meat dish) and salad.
Jaeyen said it was a great party but a lot of work and very tiring but she would never consider breaking with tradition.
Experiences in Korea and Japan 