2006/11/08

Trip Trip Trip

bamboo
I went to the south of Korea with some of my friends. First we went to a bamboo forest. Actually was it a bamboo mountain?? At the entrance we were greeted by a panda (if I look closely the eyes of it were really scary!).
We looked around the forest to find it's actually really big. In addition the map was really rough. So we lost our way easily. We asked the way back to the entrance but everyone else was lost too but we learned which ways not to go from those with the unfortunate experience of doing so. Finally we
found our way out, yay!

Traditional
house
That night we stayed in a small traditional house. It was pretty good but I could only stay there for one night really. That night we could hear the sound of bugs and a lot of them entered our house as uninvited guests. Also the toilet wasn't fully installed yet so we had to use the toilet the natural way... outside! It was a valuable experience.

Steam train
The next day we went to a train station which was used by the Korean film called "Brotherhood". We took a steam train from there. Initially we rode in the carriage of the train but the experience wasn't enough for us so our Korean friend lets stand on the area between the carriages. A ticket inspector told us that area is off limits and dangerous but our Korean friend confidently said that we were foreigners and convinced that man to let us stay outside. He said if we get hurt he takes no responsibility but we took the risk. It was a pleasant ride!



友達と一緒に韓国の南のほうまで旅行に行ってきた。最初に向かったのは竹林の公園。
・・ってゆーか山??。入り口で私達を迎えてくれたのがパンダちゃん(よく見ると目つきがかなり危ない【写↑】)
『あ~ 竹だからパンダね・・・』と一人で納得・・・・。ん??あれ!?まてよ。何かおかしい・・・竹?? あっ!! 違う 竹じゃなくて・・・ 笹じゃん!!!パンダって笹だよね?? あれ? 竹も食べるのかな??よくわかんないし・・・。疑問は置いといて、とにかく中を探索することにした。実はこの竹林結構広いくせに地図が超アバウト・・・思いっきり道に迷って、山中を行ったり来たりして遭難寸前の中、たまに出会う人(同じように迷った人)に『こっちに行くと行き止まりだ』とか『あっちは別ルートにつながっている』とか、さまざまなヒントを得つつ出口にたどり着いた。

その晩私達は土でできた家で寝た。友達のお父さんが避暑地用に作った家で、実際に住むとなると一日が限界だけどなかなか可愛い家!夜は虫の大合唱!もちろん色んな虫がゲストで家の中に入ってきます。トイレも大自然の中お外で・・・かなり貴重な体験でした。

次の日映画『ブラザーフット』で撮影に使われた機関車を見に行ってきた。機関車の走行中、暗い室内で「外の空気が吸いた~い!!」「これじゃ普通の電車と変わんない!!」なんてブーブー言ってると、韓国人の友達が「よし!連結部分に行こう」と言った。実は乗車前に連結している部分は危ないから行っては駄目と言われたんだけど、なぜか友達は「大丈夫、大丈夫」と自信満々!!案の定、車掌さんが注意しにきた。すると友達はおもむろに私達が外国人(国籍;日本・香港・ウェールズ)だということをアピールし始めた。すると車掌さんも『それならしょうがない!楽しんでくれ』と、なぜか快諾!!了承してくれたのはいいけど、安全じゃないんだよね?いいのかな~??でもまあ親切な車掌さんのおかげで外の空気を味わいながら30分くらいの機関車の旅を楽しんだ。

2006/11/07

Robot Museum

robot museum
I went to the Robot Museum in Seoul. When I entered the museum Ja...Japan!? I expected there to be a lot of Korean robots but it seems Korean doesn't have that many. The main robots on display were Astro Boy, Gundam, Majinga-Z and other Japanese robots like this. As we went through the museum we found a famous wooden doll and an extraterrestrial... uhh are they robots?!
More besides on that day was just me and my friend. Also I realised something... a girl was following us into every room we went in and locked the doors behind us. I was a little bit worried but finally we could exit. It seems security was strong. Nice though.

ロボットミュージアムに行ってきた。『ロボットってどこの国にもあるもんなんだな~』なんて思いながら中にはいると・・・に・・日本!? そこには『鉄腕アトム』『ガンダム』『マジンガーZ』などがメインで ど~ん!!と飾られていた・・・。少し進むと何やら見慣れたものが・・・そう あの有名な木の人形と地球外生物!!・・・ってゆーか、これってロボットなんだろうか??
しかもこの日この館内にいたのは私達だけ!!すっかり貸しきり状態を満喫していたら、ふとあることに気付いた。そう、常に従業員らしき女性が私達の後をつけてくる・・・そして私達が部屋に入ると入り口の鍵を閉める。私達は無事に入り口に戻れるのかという不安を抱きながら、さらに奥へ奥へと進んでいった。最終的に奥の部屋に出口があって無事!?脱出した。セキュリティーなのだろうか?

2006/11/06

Traditional Village

traditional village
I went to a traditional Korean village near Myeong-dong... actually I was dragged along to a traditional Korean village. After wandering around the village a little, without notice I was dragged into a little room and suddenly dressed in traditional Korean clothes! My friend too! Then we were pushed into another room and they took our photo. So does it suit us?
Next we were led to a traditional Korean hospital and had needles stuck in our skin! It was so scary! Actually it was acupuncture to help our blood flow and not a random attack of a crazy lady with needles.

ミョンドンの近くにある民芸村!?に行ってきた。・・・っというか連れて行かれた!!そして、一通り見たところで小さな部屋に入れられた。いつの間にか韓服(韓国の伝統的な衣装)を着せられ記念撮影。どう?似合ってる???