My Vizor's Bigger Than Yours

As we all know, last week was eventful in Asia. Last Friday, the 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit Japan and triggered a tsunami, killing over 7,000 people, with 11,000 still missing. Alerts were sent to Taiwan, the Philipinnes and Russia where it was feared the tsunami would also hit, and an explosion at Fukushima nuclear power plant caused concerns of serious radiation leakage. It remains a huge crisis for Japan, which was met with global aid and attention.

So we should be thankful that Korea, being Japan's closest neighbour, has been so unaffected. On the afternoon of the tsunami, some younger students were worried that a 'big wave from Japan' was going to hit us, but as soon as I pulled up a world map and showed them that despite being so close, Japan acted as a land shield, they were fine. Actually, the children were more than fine...with at least 2 students cheering the devastation in every class. Crikey-malikey! Are kids always this mean? Well, no...I understand that Korea harbours bad feelings against Japan for historical injustices (some of which Japan still refuse to apologise for), but really....children should not think that applauding such devastation is acceptable. I tried explaining that lingering hatred towards another country is not productive or fair, but I think the stream of English just confused them and I ended the lecture facing ten baffled looking 9 year olds.

But despite the chaos nearby, life in Korea went on as normal. Infact, we undertook one of Korea's favourite hobby's.....hiking! Hiking is one of Korea's most popular activities, not suprising, given that mountains cover 70% of the peninsular. It's so popular it has even bred it's own hiking clan......sportswear clad adjimas with matching jackets, trousers, gloves, boots, trekking poles....and most importantly....the vizor.

The vizor means a lot. The bigger the vizor, the better the wearer. Competition takes hold for the biggest, most impressive headpiece. I've seen an adjima sporting three vizors at once. She must have been the clan leader. So Korean's always find it hilarious to see us westerners plodding up the mountains in jeans and flipflops. And we find it pretty amusing to see them marching up the man-made hiking trail with sports garb that would conquer Everest. But with all this mutual laughing at eachother, it soon turns to laughing with eachother, and makes for a very friendly excursion. We stopped by a huge Buddha carved into the rock face, and after paying her respects, a woman called me over to give a bag of walnuts as a gift. Very nice. At the top of the mountain were people selling Makoli (rice wine) and cucumbers for refreshment. We had conquered the mountain!

 Pumped with energy and enjoying the glorious weather, we took up our old spot on top of my building's roof, with drinks, fruit & guitars, and toasted the return of our good friend, Nat, to Korea. Dinner and drinks ensued. We then ended it all with a (slightly drunk) trip to the 24 hour sauna, where we spyed a somewhat suspicious looking room dedicated to.....dare I say it......Vagina Steaming. Yes. A tea-steam for your lady parts. OK, I might be on a mission to try everything new, but I think the downstairs facial can wait for another day. So feeling fresh, but not as fresh as I could have been, the weekend closed to another week.