Nagoya, Japan

I arrived in Yokkaichi on Thursday evening and met my crew for dinner. Takeshi (Sekine-san) from the Tokyo office, the chief Perry Ho, and his wife Susan went to a okonomi yaki place, which means something like you choose, we grill in sort of a pancake way. Pretty delicious. After working two days, we got Sunday off so Sekine-san, Susan and I went to Nagoya for the day.
Nagoya Pictures

We took a train about 35 minutes, and then a bus to Tokugawaen, which is a Japanese garden with a pond in the center. Apparently it is characteristic of daimyo gardens from the Edo period.

After the garden, we went into the middle of Nagoya to see a parade commemorating an ancient wedding of Princess Hiro to one of the emperor's sons.

There were lots of people dressed in traditional garments. The parade ended at Nagoya Castle, which is a historic place also built during the Edo period. It was home of the Owari Tokugawa clan of the Tokugawa family until the Meiji Era (I read that on Wikipedia). Story has it that the castle sustained tremendous damage during WWII (by some guys called the USAF, whoever they are), but it has been largely restored and is a huge tourist attraction now.

Before the trip to the castle, we ate at a restaurant in a huge mall. Nagoya is also known for its kishima which is a type of long chewy noodles in a fishy broth. Sounds gross, but it was pretty tasty. You have to slurp them up...it's cool, though. That's not considered rude here. Plus my chop sticking is getting good. Solid tourist day in Nagoya.

Gyeong-Ju, South Korea

Woj and I took the Lotte Hotel monthly trip for extended stay guests to Gyeong-Ju on Sunday. The tour group was mostly foreigners working at other refineries in the area. It was a lovely half-day outing that started with an hour long bus ride to a Korean bbq restaurant. The food was really good, aside from the kimchi that stared at me the whole meal. We had some pork, spicy soup, rice, strange sides, fishy stuff, etc.
Gyeong-Ju Pictures
Apparently Gyeong-Ju, along with lots of cities in Asia it seems like, as 'famous' for their cherry blossoms which were in bloom when we arrived. It was alright, I guess. Anyways, the main purpose of this trip was to see a Buddhist temple in Bulguksa.

The temple was pretty sweet. They had Buddha statues there.

More importantly is the habit that Matt and I picked up here to photograph unsuspecting older ladies with stale-faces. You know, those women with strange expressions on their faces? Maybe it's a strange expression, sometimes it's just plain ugly, but usually it's permasteyl. That's the look. What can I say. I like people watching.

Mythbusters

All women in the Philippines participate in the sex trade.
Myth. There are plenty of respectable women. There are also plenty of men who dress up like women and participate in the sex trade.

All people in Spanish speaking countries sound and look like the Mexicans portrayed on South Park.
Myth. At least in Argentina, there is a lot of diversity and influence from other countries, like Italy. I didn’t eat a taco the whole time I was there…but lots of empanadas.

All people from Italy are named Aldo.
Myth. Although I believed this to be true since the first person I met was in fact named Aldo, the second person I met was named Pietro, and then another named Luciano.

It is possible to be away from your own country long enough that when you do return, you get traveler’s diarrhea from eating home cooking.
Fact. DEFINITELY a fact.

All Chinese people are good at math because they cheat.
Fact.

Chinese people cannot pronounce the letter ‘L’.
Seemingly True, but only when it’s in the middle of words. Today alone, I met 3 people named Mr. Lee and they pronounced that L fine.

Kimchi is delicious.
FALSE!

The last names Kim, Lee, and Park make up 50% of the surnames in South Korea.
Fact. Unbelievable.

Ulsan, Korea

One hour flight from Dalian to Seoul, 40 minute bus ride to change airports in Seoul, one hour flight from Seoul to Ulsan, then a short taxi ride, and I arrived at my hotel. It was a seemingly uneventful Wednesday night, until you realize that my summer roommate from Wrigleyville is also in Ulsan. For those of you who don't know, Matt is/was/forever will be the main driving force to staying out late and drinking in any situation, no matter the country. This is Matt, affectionately called Woj, occasionally called drunk asshole, steyl-master, or hey Vinny. He put this picture on my door and I left it there until I checked out. I have no idea what the hotel staff thought about this bizarre, yet savvy move.

Lucky for me Matt had already scoped out the bar scene in Ulsan, which is actually a pretty nice city with a lot of industry. After meeting Chief Mezera and teaming up with him and fellow coworker, Alex, our group of 4 went out for dinner. A night of Maekju and Soju commenced that ended with a karaoke bar at 3am. This led to possibly the most uneventful first day on-site ever on Thursday. Stringing this together with a 5:30am debacle on Friday, and I had a good first week in Korea.

Ulsan Pictures

The food here is a bit of a guessing game. I mean, it's going to be spicy; you don't have to guess about that. The Korean BBQ is really good, lots of good meat, and a lot of food with good flavor. I just never liked spicy food too much, particularly kimchi. Kimchi is aged (rotten) cabbage in some sort of spicy chili bean weird pasty sauce that is applied to a lot of foods. I happen to think it's one of the most disgusting things I have ever eaten, but that's just me. Good thing it is served as a side every single day. Mezera has adopted the habit of taking one piece everyday and then never touching it. Woj insists that it is an acquired taste, so he gets a piece everyday and forces himself to eat it first while he is still hungry. I doubt he has gotten any closer to acquiring this taste. I like to try everything once and follow it up with "That's the last bite of that I'll ever take."

Bitter Kimchi Face

To get an idea of what kimchi is, as well as the hilarity surrounding this food, watch the following youtube clips.

Korean Kimchi
Kimchi Burger

Another rookie mistake I made was in purchasing toothpaste. The toothpaste said "Cool Green." Sounds like a minty blast of freshness, no? Guess what? It has the flavor of green tea. That's not a good toothpaste flavor just to let you know.

Hands down, best part about Korea...Jewelry. Jewelry is a pop band with some jams. Sure I have no idea what they are saying, but they are sexy and some of their refrains are in English. Check another youtube clip here to see what I'm talking about. Jewelry - One More Time Try to go out for 15 minutes without hearing this song. You can't.

Oh, I didn't mention that we found a bar called Purple Haze near the university with a beer pong table and occasional tournaments. I was not there for a tourney, but we crushed some people in the bar a couple times. Check my pictures to see more.

This is an intense stare down at a karaoke bar. Like two suitcases. JACKED! I think I won this round. My face is more serious.

I hate to incorporate work into my writings, but the irony is funny to me. My company specifies a 150mm insertion depth of thermocouples into vessels, but the Koreans accept 75mm. If you aren't very good with metric dimensions, I'll just put it this way: Americans require at least 6" of insertion, but the Koreans are satisfied with 3". Booyah!!! Walking into the men's locker room at the hotel gym is like venturing into a field of baby carrots. Booyakashaaa!!!

I have to head to Japan for a short job now, but hopefully I will return to Korea. Woj is supposed to be in Ulsan until Fall, so if I can come back we can have more 'who's more jacked' contests.

Dalian, China

I am currently on a Tour of Asia with several short jobs in the Far East. First stop Dalian, China. Long flight...upstairs Business Class of the plane...same crappy movies as the flight back from Argentina (I watched Alvin and the Chipmunks and Why did I get Married...yeah it was that bad)...arrive in Beijing to stay the night. I step off the plane onto the jetway which is lined with advertisements. The first two I see were for the Beijing 2008 Olympics; one with Yao Ming and the other with Jackie Chan. How stereotypical. I met with some lovely United flight attendants at the Holiday Inn Lido and walked around Beijing for about an hour. It was too late to see anything worthwhile by the time I got in, but I REALLY want to go back. The next morning I got back to the airport to take a domestic flight to Dalian.
Dalian Pictures
A driver from the hotel picks me up and takes me to the hotel: Shangri-La. The nicest hotel I have probably ever been in, and its where I am staying. To put things in perspective, there is a Louis Vuitton store in the lobby. Upon arrival, a bellhop opens my door and takes my bags and greets me by my name. Nice, he has done his homework. Then I walk inside to a Gauntlet of hotel staff who all know my name, which I really didn't expect. I relish the coincidence that my last name starts with an 'L' as it resonates through the lobby. "Good Morning, Mr. Resniak." "Herro, Mr. Resniak." I try to smile politely and say good morning behind my clinched teeth hiding a huge grin. Then, apparently a Chinese tradition, I take a picture with two ladies from the hotel staff by the elevator "as remembrance." Again, strange, but very welcoming.

The town is alright, but the streets are really dirty and weird smells slam you from around the corners sometimes. The food at the refinery is edible if you choose wisely. I am working through the hand cramps from chop sticks every day. There are lots of foreigners here due to refinery work, the shipyard I can see from my window, and international hotel staff. There are plenty of restaurants close by, which is nice since the hotel is outrageously expensive. It costs $1.70 just to wash a pair of socks, so I went ahead and bought some new socks instead. Here are a couple pictures from walking around town.

One of the nicer aspects of this particular job was the people to hang out with. A couple of coworkers as well as contractors from other companies were on site and we all stayed in the same hotel. Here is a shot of Nick from Denmark, and my coworker, Mariana in the hotel bar, F2. There is more about the Filipino band that played at F2 if you look at the rest of my pictures.

The Chinese people seem to add "err" on the end of words ending with k, so this was Nickerr, and we sometimes rode in a Buick-errrrrrr. On a related note, instead of saying um, er, or uh during pauses like in English, Chinese people say the words for "and." So basically when thinking, stammering, or at a loss for words, they fill the gaps with and, and, and (and thennnnn). All of this is fine, except that the words for "and" translate in English phonetics as nie ga. So these people are talking all day long, and to me it sounds like nigga, nigga nigga...filling the gaps of their sentences. It's unbelievable. I can't keep a straight face while they are talking.

Anyhow, on my last night, Nick-err, William (another contractor from Houston), and I went to Olive Garden, which was lovely. No, its not the Olive Garden from the US...just an Italian restaurant with the same name. Afterwards, we went to Alice Bar which turned out to be pretty dead when we got there. Apparently it was too early, because this place turned into a hopping place. (Don't you mean jumpin, like 21 Jump Street?) There was billiards, the place was packed, they handed out fireworks, and live entertainment...and by that I mean a singing group and a 2 scantily clad dancing groups...which danced on the bar...and on poles. It happens. We went into the place just to see what it was like, and I would definitely go back.

Buuuut, I don't get a chance to go back now, because I have to go to Korea.