Chungjangsa Shrine (충장사)

Posted on March 8th, 2014 under Korea. Tags: gwangju, Mount Mudeung National Park, Nikon 24mm f/2.8 AF-D nikkor lens, Nikon D600. Comments Off on View through the doors

Train heading for the Osaka Airport (KIX or Kansai Kuko or 関西国際空港) and then on to Wakayama (和歌山)

The scene on the day I left Japan for Korea last summer as I stood on the platform in the Tennoji Station in Osaka…

It doesn’t look like I will be going to Asia this year, but I will likely be spending a couple weeks in Mexico in August, my first return to Mexico in about eight years.

Posted on March 3rd, 2014 under Japan. Tags: Nikon 24mm f/2.8 AF-D nikkor lens, Nikon D600, osaka, trains. Comments Off on All Aboard!

Jagalchi Market (자갈치시장) Busan, South Korea

The guidebooks said to watch out for the smells at Jagalchi Market in Busan, but I found it to be one of the least offensive markets, smell-wise, in the many that I visited while in Korea last summer. However, that may have had more to do with the fact that it had been raining all morning. A much smaller Korean market with raw fish, slabs of meat (not on ice and covered with all manner of bugs), and live chickens can be far more offensive to the nostrils on a hot, humid day without a breeze than a gigantic market like Jagalchi which has been doused in rain.

Posted on February 23rd, 2014 under Korea. Tags: busan, Jagalchi Fish Market, Nikon 24mm f/2.8 AF-D nikkor lens, Nikon D600. Comments Off on Jagalchi Market

Metal Rock Bar in Nagoya, Japan (Scum)

Since the first time I heard Outrage in 1989 I always wanted to visit Nagoya. Despite living in Japan for three years, the opportunity never presented itself (despite having passed Nagoya on the train several times) until 2013. I asked Shinya Tange, Outrage’s drummer, if there were any metal bars or clubs he could recommend. He recommended Scum. The place was much nicer than the name suggests. The owner is super nice and can speak English having lived in California for a while. We spoke in Japanese though. He hands you his iPad and let’s you pick the music. The cover of the album of the currently playing song is projected on the wall. As you can see, I must have picked something off of Mastodon’s “Crack the Skye.”

The other customers were wonderful too. I chatted with a young local who had never even heard of Outrage. I found it rather ironic that I, a foreigner, was able to introduce a native from Nagoya to Outrage.

Posted on February 2nd, 2014 under Japan. Tags: beer, mastodon, metal, nagoya, Nikon 24mm f/2.8 AF-D nikkor lens, Nikon D600, outrage. Comments Off on Metal Rock Bar (メタル ロック バー) “Scum” (スカム) Nagoya (名古屋)

No Swimming sign in UN Memorial Cemetery in Korea (재한유엔기념공원)

There were two things that I packed for Korea that I never used. One was a long-sleeved shirt. I’m not sure if I ever encountered temperatures in the 70s during my two-month, summer stay in Korea, let alone the 60s (even after midnight). The other was a swimming suit. I never saw a swimming pool. I did see a couple of beaches, but several people told me that Koreans can’t swim, at all. In fact, while I was there a group of Korean kids died after their boat capsized just off the coast of the Boryeong Mud Festival (보령머드축제). Sad, but with no swimming pools it isn’t too surprising that the chance to swim or that the swimming skills of the natives are slim to none.

I found this sign to be a bit humorous. Is it really necessary to have a sign saying “no swimming” in a dry ditch that is less than one foot in depth? Maybe it is not always dry, but still…

BTW, this was in the UN Memorial Cemetery in Busan. I will have more pictures and stories from there later. It was an emotional experience for me despite the weirdness of this sign.

Posted on August 27th, 2013 under Korea. Tags: busan, Nikon 24mm f/2.8 AF-D nikkor lens, Nikon D600, UN Memorial Cemetery. Comments Off on No Swimming (Korea Tuesday)