Tom Hanks and Wayne Rooney's Whacky Adventures

A strange a title for a post...but perception is reality, and many Koreans think that Brian Daniele (who came to visit me for two weeks over summer vacation) looks exactly like Wayne Rooney. This is a much more accurate comparison than a few Koreans telling me I look like Tom Hanks (which makes me assume that they can't tell white people apart). Anyways, I will share some highlights of the trip we took as our alter-ego's, Wayne Rooney and Tom Hanks.

First, Wayne Rooney and Tom Hanks went sightseeing around Seoul. Rooney visited the DMZ Tour, and visited the UNESCO Suwon Fortress in my city. The fortress includes the walls that went around the original city (which is completely swallowed up by the urban sprawl and development that happened over the years.

Next, Hanks and Rooney took a trip to the Hawaii of Korea, AKA Jeju Island. Koreans love the game 'rock,paper, scissors.' We all know this game. We're all familiar with it. It's a petty, meaningless game. However, Koreans use this game to decide the outcome of different situations (anywhere from who pays the bill to who has to stay at work later). Our entire plane played a huge tournament of rock, paper, scissors. Most Koreans were surprised that Tom Hanks had the skill and/or luck to beat an entire plane full of Koreans in their own game. My prize was a Korean comic book.

We stayed in Jeju for three nights. The island is one huge volcano. In the middle of the island is it's peak. The peak is the tallest point in South Korea, so naturally we had to climb it. Once we reached the top, it plateaued into wide rolling hills of grass. Quite a sight to see. There are plenty of things to do on Jeju, and it was a shame we didn't have more time there. The island itself is stunningly beautiful.

Hanks and Rooney stopped over in Busan for a night before continuing on to Japan. We visited the beach, and were introduced to Korean-style beach wear; large t-shirts, and no one was morbidly obese. It was confirmed from what we saw that Koreans are afraid of the sun. The beach experience for Westerners is to be outside in the sun and relax. Koreans try to make the experience as much as like being inside as they can. They hide under umbrellas, cover their bodies with clothes, and eat fried chicken. That's right, fried chicken! Probably the most ingenious concept for being at a beach. A man dressed up in a wonder woman suit (no joke) comes around with boxes of fried chicken, already with the array of sauces and a few cans of coke. Of course we had to indulge. We didn't even have to leave the safety and comfort of our umbrella to eat some delicious fried chicken.

The next day we left for Fukuoka, Japan. I can't say enough great things about Japan. I absolutely loved it. This was my first time being out of Korea in nearly five months, so I was apprehensive when I noticed how aesthetically different it was from Korea (not to mention major societal and cultural differences I learned about later). The streets are immaculately clean (although I never found a public garbage can while we were there). Fukuoka is a major city, and the largest in Western Japan. It was also named the 14th most livable city as of this year. I don't doubt it, as the city has many nice parks, and a significant amount of people get around on bicycles.

Japan's version of Miller or Budweiser is called 'Asahi.' The brewery is located in Fukuoka, and BD and I wanted to go on the tour. Our hotel called Asahi to set up a tour time. Asahi told us there was only one more English tour left that day, so we rushed across the city in less than 30 minutes to make the...Korean Tour?! We were surprised that no one was speaking English, but only Korean. They were even more surprised that one of the two white boys in the group could speak a little of their language. A fun time indeed. The greatest part of Japan was all the people we met. We had people take us to a sushi restaurant, a different group took us to KARAOKE, and even another man bought us souvenirs and food during lunch. These were all people we met randomly in a restaurant or out on the street. They were very curious towards us, and not at all shy (even with a limited English vocabulary).

All in all a fantastic time that exceeded high expectations for summer vacation. Tomorrow I'll have my first day of classes of my 2nd semester at Donghak Middle School. It's pretty amazing that I've been here five months and am practically half-way through my contract. I won't have much time to rest...Korean Thanksgiving is coming in September (a week long holiday) and my friend Mr. Pat Stahl will be joining in on the festivities. Stay tuned.