回転寿司 in Gwangju, South Korea

It’s not unusual to see conveyor belt sushi in Japan, but this was the first time I saw it in Korea. The location was particularly unusual as it was in a department store of all places. With double-rows of sushi (and some Korean food items) going around and around, and having eaten nothing but a piece of bread and a bag of chips all day long, I was ready to give it a try. However, there were no empty seats (the above photo shows only about a one third of the filled seats) so I had to opt for something else.

Posted on July 4th, 2013 under Korea. Tags: food, gwangju, Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR G lens, Nikon D600, sushi. Comments Off on Kaiten Sushi in Shinsegae Department Store basement

Gwangju’s new baseball stadium

Let me introduce you to my bike while in Gwangju. This is Squeaky. I call my bike Squeaky because it squeaks, a lot. Squeaky isn’t a comfortable bike to ride. Nor does it do well on even mild inclines. But I’m still glad to have Squeaky as it allows me the opportunity to see much more of Gwangju than I otherwise would.

The big stadium behind the river is still under construction. It is scheduled to open for the next baseball season in 2014. They haven’t named it yet. At the KIA Tigers game I went to fans were given stickers to place on the name of the stadium they preferred. Since I can’t read or understand Korean, I’m not sure what name I voted for, but I was thanked for voting.

Posted on July 2nd, 2013 under Korea. Tags: baseball, gwangju, kia tigers, Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR G lens, Nikon D600, panorama, photomerge. Comments: 1

Bulgogi or sukiyaki?

I was checking out Gwangju’s Lotte Department Store the other night, and when I got to the top floor there were a bunch of restaurants–not unlike how Japanese department stores are setup. Also, unlike the restaurants everywhere else in Korea, these had displays showing what the food would look like and English titles. I saw one that said bulgogi and looked no further. I went in and ordered. Unlike bulgogi in the states, this version came in a bowl of boiling soup. It looked and tasted more like sukiyaki than any bulgogi I have had. I love sukiyaki so I was happy. This hot pot bulgogi had sukiyaki ingredients like enoki mushrooms, Chinese cabbage, negi, and jelly noodles. It was a perfect melding of my favorite Korean and Japanese dishes. It came with kimchi (of course), a couple other pickled sides, and rice for about $6. I will be back.

The department stores in Korea are rather interesting. Instead of being organized by type of item, like in the states, they are organized by brand. So you go to one part of Lotte for Gap and another for Uniqlo and another for Zara, etc. There were probably 30+ mini stores from all over the world inside Lotte. Based on my experience with Lotte in Japan, I was expecting 7 floors of gum. 😉

Posted on July 1st, 2013 under Korea. Tags: food, gwangju, Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR G lens, Nikon D600. Comments Off on Bulgogi hot pot

Moss-covered stone lantern surrounded by Japanese maples

Posted on June 30th, 2013 under Japan. Tags: japanese maple, lanterns, miyajima, Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR G lens, Nikon D600. Comments Off on Momijidani Park (紅葉谷公園)

The Island of Jeju (제주)
I’m not sure the name of the small island off of Jeju, but it appears to be inhabited as well.

I could see why they call Jeju the Hawaii of Korea when I was in the air. On the ground the similarities disappeared, but perhaps if I had a car and could have seen some more remote locations outside of the city of Jeju the comparison would become more apparent. The weather wasn’t good either–overcast and rainy which is how it is much of the time I hear.

Posted on June 26th, 2013 under Korea. Tags: aerial photography, East China Sea, jeju, Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR G lens, Nikon D600. Comments Off on Jeju (제주)