W.I.P

2010-09-21T07:47:00.001-04:00

"Shop With a Reusable Bag, Bitch!"

2010-09-19T23:20:00.002-04:00

"In truth, to have her with me once more was like a taste of heaven to a damned soul, the sweeter for the inevitable doom that was to follow; and I rejoiced in being able to waste two whole days with her."

2010-09-12T12:35:00.000-04:00

Experimenting.

2010-09-11T09:02:00.003-04:00

The neurons in our eyes are silent in light, and fire in darkness.

2010-08-28T00:08:00.003-04:00

Because you can't deny that she looks like she wants you to tease her, while at the same time she looks most chaste. Can you reconcile a face that gives two conflicting impressions, while at the same time there is no expression, no hint of a smile, to be seen?
A Mona Lisa on four legs. Every minx of a woman in feline form. And maybe through some trick of evolution, there is a bit of cat in every female biped.

2010-08-01T22:07:00.005-04:00

Part 9

The final installment.

First hand at a panorama of the "heart" of the Tongdosa temple back in parts 1-4.

A famous Dongaksu (fried breaded pork cutlet) place we went to. Honestly, not so great. I am not a big fan of sauce and it was slathered all over my plate. Amazing portions though.

Despite being a great "meatetarian", I could not finish this.

Trip around National Congress buildings. With NO explanation whatsoever about what we were looking at, and unbelievable glare cutting into my eyes (even though it doesn't look sunny) so I didn't care to ask, it was pretty damn boring.
That was the worst sentence I've written anywhere here. I'm ashamed to call myself an English tutor.

One of the supporting pillars of the KBS building. I don't know if it was because we went on a Sunday, but it's a pretty unused and almost derelict building. I did have a little stroke of inspiration for an article later about how famous people are not really famous. All these Korean superstars are limited to this little peninsula. I'll bet even George Clooney is only known by half the country, and even that half only has a vague idea of who is he (and this guy is a superstar). It's kind of...humbling I guess, to know that fame is so limited.

But holograms are always cool.

The National Palace Museum of Korea in 경복겅 (Gyoengbokgung) Palace. It is massive.

Changing of the guard. One of the guys actually swatted a kid's hand down when she made a pose. I guess he was feeling irritable that morning.

Part of Jogyesa Order Headquarters.

Cute baby Buddha after he's been born. I don't recall what the hand symbols mean, but the nine dragons on the bottom are from the story of how he was born (the dragons bathed him in foam/water).

Ceiling decoration. I put the camera on the floor for this shot.

Old post-office exhibit.

Postman's hat.

We made "lotus" lanterns.

And as I was laden with luggage, all alone, waiting for my flight, I wandered into a souvenir shop at the airport. I'd believe Koreans drink enough to actually use these charms.

The end!

I was skeptical of the trip at first, but I think it was one of the most meditative experiences I've ever had. That was not because of the Buddhist overtones, but because I got to get away from everything and everyone I knew and could think about whatever I saw for once. I'm not sure when the next opportunity for that will come. When I came back, aside from the intense jetlag, I felt mentally refreshed. I got down a lot of observations about life and people in my journal. I learned a bit more about what kind of person I am and what kind of people I like. And I like to think that I learned a little bit more on how to be more confident of myself.

All in all, good things. Here's to another trip!

2010-07-31T17:36:00.007-04:00

Part 8

52 pictures is too many for one post, so it's going to be split in two.

Last photo from Insadong.

Okay, this is the real last one. Strange seeing mountains in the distance.

Nice steps up to National Museum

Some great artifacts.

Cheonggyecheon (청계천) Creek. This river is like an avenue, it just stretches on and on and on. It was actually a very good landmark for me as I wandered around early in the morning. According to wikipedia, there was a lot of public opposition. I really can't see why. The river was here before and my parents told me it was a hobo-dump before. It's good for tourism and gentrification, who would want that?

What's surprising is how wild it is despite all the concrete. There are some sections of the creek that are so surrounded by tall bush that you can't see over it and some cranes find shelter there. It's a nice place to stretch out and relax, but not much else to do.

I finally figured out how to deal with this weather. I need to use either a polarizing filter or a neutral gradient density filter and longer exposures. Finally, I understand what that thing is for!

A bit saturated in photoshop to give more color.

River at night. A lot more exciting than in the daytime.

Along the creek-avenue, a momument to King Sejong the Great, who invented the modern Korean alphabet.

A drive through the most beautiful upscale neighbrohood in Korea I saw so far, and we came here. It's a tea shop once again. I think it was actually a headquarters for the late Myung Won, responsible for reviving Korea tea culture. I'm a bit confused as to if her real name is that or if that's some sort of a title since I'm pretty sure 김미히 is her real name. The man leading us through the demonstration was from New Jersey, good joke.

Putting on the traditional dress. I thought the guy's costumes were so handsome.

I have the most incomprehensible notes in my journal about the tea ceremony, let me try to dechiper them:
"I had the best green tea while I was in Korea. I had no idea we even had a tea culture, let alone a really strong one that people seem to take seriously...
...green tea needs water at around 80 degrees, so you usually have to let the water cool down a little...

My one-handed painting

"Always using 2 hands and closed fingers, you take water and put it in the cups to wash them out, then the water is dumped into the waste bowl.

Oh, also, you put the stands down near your right knee, and the lids of the pots on those. To pour, you hold the lid of the pot down with your thumb.

Then you really start, pouring about a third into the cooling
pot, then the teapot, then a third into your guest's cup, yours, yours again. and your guest.
Place this onto the nearby serving table, then take 3 sips, contemplating the taste.
After, I don't quite remember, but you share the tea again..."

The end, we got some 술떡 (beer rice cakes? or maybe just alcohol rice cakes). They smelled a storm, but didn't taste like anything dangerous.

I antiqued a picture of these two.

This picture courtesy of 금빛언니, who also served as a tourguide for us. Her name was really striking, it means "gold light". This is us in a bowing contest, haha.
I swear, it took me 5 minutes to ask my mom how to spell "Gold" in Korean because she kept misunderstanding and writing down the phonetic Korean spelling for gold in English, (Gol-Duh). Finally, I had to yell at her, "No, REAL KOREAN GOLD!" and somehow that made a lot more sense. Good laughs afterward.

2010-07-27T00:38:00.004-04:00

Part 7

The artsy edition.
Insadong, Seoul

Sustained jetlag made me get up at around 5 AM consistently everyday. The streets of Insadong (where we went next) were completely empty.

There are no public trashcans in Korea?! All this garbage was on the ground and was swept up by cleaning men while I was walking around. Incidentally, I had some coffee with me and had no choice but to put it on the street after I was done.

The guys who pull these carts remind me of people who collect massive amounts of plastic bottles. I'm assuming its for more or less the same reason.

Jongno-Tower. Incredibly fancy looking office-building.

This is what my apartment is starting to look like.

Name-stamp shop.

2010-07-25T21:10:00.005-04:00

Part 6

I neglected to mention that as soon as we arrived in Gyeongju, we dormed at the Dongguk University (Buddhist, of course). I'm not sure which building this is, but beyond it to the left is the temple. If you can make out the white specks in the treeline, those are cranes. In the summer, there are tons of them here. So many that photographers often come to shoot them. I don't know how they ever became the Buddhist poster-bird, because they're not very graceful-looking and sound like a bunch of hoarse ducks.

We visited a small temple called 불국사 (Bulguksa). Apparently the only original Silla temple standing today, ironically it was left intact because it was a minor temple that the government did not have as much a vested interest in (and likewise enemy forces didn't see its destruction as a huge blow to morale).

Scale is difficult to see, but the structure is rather large. It reaches at least 15 ft up. Famous pagoda called 다보탑 (Dabotap). It is supposed to exemplify all the aspects of male energy (yang energy), with its box-like contours and more austere decorations. Its yin counterpart is on its right, and displays more feminine and ornate decorations and carvings.

Brochure tearout time:
"...built in 751, the 10th year of King Gyeongdeok during the Unified Silla Period. The pagoda stands 10.4 meters tall and was build in an ornate style not seen in other Buddhist countries...It has a staircase on each of the four sides. Four stone square pillars support the pagoda's first roof, where a square stone railing is built. Inisde the railing is the body of the pagoda, and aboce it, standing on the second octagonal-shaped roof surrounded by an octagonal-shaped lotus stone carved with sixteen petals...It is believed that there were four lions in four directions. Of the four stone lions guarding the top of the staircase, only one remains."

There is some sort of a story here that I'm now forgetting about being able to find a golden boar. If you do, you get good luck. Clever architects put the boar behind the nameplate of the building!

I don't think any amount of Level-tinkering could salvage this picture save pasting in a new sky. Damn you, low battery and cloudy weather. But we went to a "warrior monk" area, as I like to call it. I'm also a genius, the part of the brochure I ripped out and put in my journal does NOT have the same of the place. Anyway, we got a demonstration of some very impressive 선무도 (Sunmudo) by the monks. I thought it was very cute how they had massive statues of angry Buddhist monks with bulding biceps and abdominals growling at you at the entrance. The real guys are much scrawnier. Even though they do this kind of demanding exercise, it's startling to realize that they're very weak. They hardly have any muscle on them.
The demonstration was something though. They showed several different stances, each based on animal formed (a lot like Kungfu). They made us do drills of fancy kicks. It was a disaster. A flaming disaster on wheels.

That evening, a lovely walk through the Half-Moon fortress (Banwolseong (半月城)), in central Gyeongju. Called so because from the sky it's shaped like a crescent moon. The pond is Anapji Pond. One side is structured like a staircase, while the other is more rounded and wild like nature, another dichotomy.

Next day, tea-ceremony training. While bored out of my mind, I looked around. This doesn't look like it going to be used, some of it looked way too old...but I think there were corn-husk strings and orange peels on drying racks.

They made us tie-dye shirts, Korean-style. We used the tea-houses' all-natural dyes, which required all of us to donate some manpower. I can't foresee myself ever wearing this shirt though.

Look how excited everyone is. But good advice from the woman...have a face like a sweet grandmother (especially after several classmates told me I seem incredibly unapproachable haha).

I'm comparing this procedure to the next time we had a tea-class. I guess it's different when you're just serving yourself. She compared the pot holding the tea leaves to your parents, and the cup as yourself. As you pour the water into the cup to cool, then into the tea, then back into the cup to drink, you're supposed to contemplate all these things.

Our last night at the university. They had some graduate students and supposedly incredibly good people to play some traditional Korean music for us. Honestly, I hate this. I was in Korean-drumming once, and the one thing I couldn't stand was the "tin-pan", Kkengari. It reminds me of a baby just crying and crying and crying, and it really just makes your head ring. Every instrument here, except for this very delicate flute, was like the double-reed pipe and tin-pan from hell. Also, the drumset was completely unnecessary.

Last sky before we leave.

Onwards to Pohang, and more specifically, POSCO, a steel factory. I might have complained about bad shooting conditions before, but this by far was the worse I've ever encountered. We were on a tight schedule so there was no time to walk around and we were in a bus with tinted windows. We were in the bus 90% of the time, the other 5% we weren't allowed to have cameras, the last 5% was pretty much garbage since this place is all pipes. This is perhaps the one time I really needed and ached for a 10-20mm lens because I needed a super-wide angle to be able to convey the magnitude of industrialization in a small area.
When I say pipes everywhere, I really mean pipes everywhere. It made me think I had walked into a steampunk novel. All of them are also color-coded, so you know what they hold inside. Everywhere you turn it's guys with hardhats on bikes, behind them are massive machines. You can hear pounding of the machines in the air, and no one looks up from what they're doing.
The PR lady was incredibly frightening. If ever I saw the perfect PR-automaton, it was her. She had the perfect, most noncomittal response to everything we asked. What she kept trying to slyly say about the factory not introducing any environment disruption was a blatant lie. So what if the schoolhouse from 20 years ago is still in the same place? You destroyed the entire bay.
POSCO was probably one of the pivotal companies that made Korea into a competing world power, but that doesn't mean it was good for little children, plants, and cute animals.

2010-07-22T23:33:00.006-04:00

Part 5

Yet another lotus field. This time just white.

We stopped by a tea-making workshop, then came back at the end of the day to see how they were doing. The temple harvests lotus stems and leaves to process into tea. The leaves have the stem attachments cut off, and then are chopped up and fed into a machine. The stems are also treated similarly. We got to taste the tea afterwards. It has a very distinct, but soft smell/taste to it. Not exactly to my taste, but pretty "Buddhist" in selection since the flavor is very easy to overpower.

Zee machine.

Toasting the leaves/stems is HOT work, especially during the summer. I felt kind of bad enjoying the tea while she was sweating.

We got to go to this creek in the middle of the day, between the two trips to the tea workshop. It was arguably the BEST part of the trip! I am the kind of person who hates to get immersed into nature, but the creek was so beautiful that I couldn't help myself. It's funny that it ended up being a monk who "tempted" me to take a dip. He led us to the far end of the riverbed where the water is deepest. I love clear water, that I don't have to be afraid about. I've been to a few South American countries where they tell you to stay clear of the water, and I keep having these thoughts that a ringworm or something is going to drill its way into my foot and infest me. Here I got to let go completely, and chill out. (Literally, the water was cold too). We lay here for the whole day, and there was alternating light and shade as the sun moved across the trees. We shifted from place to place, chasing and hiding from the light to dry off or cool down. Lots of Chinese Poker, and Gin Rummy going on on one huge rock. People lying down and sleeping on another. A couple kids caught these frogs in a water bottle. People from the temple actually brought lunch TO US, which I was completely astounded and humbled by. Rice and seaweed never tasted so good. We had a watermelon hanging in the river too, and cut it up later. I wish I could have taken more pics, but I was glad I left the camera behind since I jumped in the water.

After walking back down the creek, picking up all our clothes (haha), we stopped for tea, then headed back to the main area to check out the founder's temple. This is a Buddha carving there. Instead of relying on unreliable and incomplete memory, I found some information about this place:

"Master Ja Jang first built a small hermitage on the mountainside, where he lived while supervising the temple's construction. It still exists today and is called Jajang-am. He designed a large granite "budo" (funerary-monument) on a stone platform behind Tongdo Temple's Main Hall, enshrining within it the holy relics of Buddha he had received from Munsu-bosal.

He named this monument the Geumgang Gyedan or Diamond (Vajra) Altar, honoring the classic Diamond-Cutter Wisdom Sutra. He issued a directive that every monastic in the nation must have their ordination ceremony in front of this monument, and this custom is still maintained by the dominant Jogye Order almost 1,400 years later.

He designed the Main Hall as a Dae-ungjeon having only a window in its rear wall above the wooden altar with no Buddha statue, at that time a unique architectural innovation (but now copied in other similar shrine-temples in Korea). His intention was that those who worship in this hall direct their attention directly towards the monument filled with relics, symbolically towards the Buddha himself, with no intermediating statue. This is why people call Tongdo "the Temple without a Buddha" ― one mystery solved.

But then there comes another: Ja Jang is also said to have built and lit the "Beopdeung" (Dharma-candle) in this Main Hall, and the monks claim that it has never gone out, becoming an "eternal flame." "
Source: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2010/07/293_62578.html

We really did a fly-by of the place, probably since people were tired and getting rowdy there. It was actually a very cute establishment. I tend to like smaller spaces better, so it definitely would have been a place I would have liked to stay in.

Perhaps this was Jajang himself?

According to legend, Jajang found a golden frog here and imbued it with magical powers so that it could change into all kind of animals. It also had the ability to always come back to its home (the hole the girl is looking at), no matter where it was taken. They say that being able to see the frog means you're enlightened. I was reading someone else's essay on this same place and they said that they were able to see the frog. I blame loud kids.

This might have actually been the next morning, while we were leaving for 경주 (Gyeongju). Funny statues.

Now these, I should have asked about. The carvings are all over the place. I can't pick out any meaningful characters, but it looks like pretty recent traditional Chinese.

Far shot of Emile Bell at the Gyeongju National Museum.

So, gruesome stories really are the most vivid.
"The Divine Bell of King Seongdeok (성덕대왕신종), the largest Korean bell ever to be preserved, stands 3.75m tall, has a lip diameter of 2.27m, and is 11-25cm wide. In 1997, Gyeongju National Museum weighed it at 18.9 tons. The bell was cast to pay tribute to the memory of King Seongdeok."
Source: http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=804389

A bit of background before the good part. So according to Sherwin, the bellmakers attempted to cast the bell 3 times. But every time, the iron would shatter. This prompted some supernatural investigation to be done, and it was found out that the spirit of an angry dragon was inside the bell. To appease it so that the bell could be made, they sacrificed a baby girl into the iron. The name of the bell, sounded out "Eh-meh-leigh" is apparantly the sound a baby makes for its mom back in the Silla dynasty.

Inside the museum. I thought this rooftile was arresting. I realize I like faces the most out of the human body, so naturally I was attracted to this. It actually reminded me a lot of Grandmother Willow from Pocohantas. Incidentally, they use the image of this rooftile for ALL kinds of advertising in the area.

Lots of Buddhas.

Reminds me of Edvard Munch.

Miniature of the 9-story pagoda, aka 황뇨사 (Hwangnyosa), built in the Silla period. Unfortunately, it was razed 3 times by invading forces, so there's nothing ontop of the ground now. Sherwin said there were some rumors floating around that there would be a reconstruction effort to promote tourism, but that's still hazy.
The legend related to this temple talks about how Buddhism was not favored by the nobles of Silla since it would take power away from them. The king's grand secretary Ichadon suggested that a forgery of the king's seal be made to decree that people follow Buddhism instead. The king supported Buddhism secretly and agreed, and of course, Ichadon also had to become the scapegoat when it became apparant what he had done. In order to prove the the strenght of Buddism, Ichadon made three predictions before he was executed: that there would be a rain of petals, his head would fly over to the far edge of the city, and that white water would shoot out of his neck. These things happened, and his death became a strong reason for building the temple.

I can rationalize that the white fluid could definitely be CSF, the other things just coincidence. T

2010-07-19T23:07:00.006-04:00

Part 4

This was probably the second day. It was sweltering hot, and we had to hike around the place again. When we got back to the temple, I used the Fahrenheit to Celsius conversion formula for the first time in my life. 18 degrees is a nice cold breeze. But, we got to see some more lotus ponds, this time pink. I'll admit it was a shoddy editing job, but the shadow before was worse. I'll learn to fix it in a month or two. You can eat the middles!

Coming back, we passed by a huge dumping field for rocks and wood/wooden structures. So, I wonder how long it will take to decompose, or maybe they have it burned later (but I haven't seen a furnace that big yet).

That afternoon, we made lotus cup-lanterns. It's so stupidly clever. You have a small Dixie cup, and paste these paper petals onto the outside rim. They ask you to put them on in multiples of 5 because that's the most aesthetically-pleasing number of petals. We got a pretty limited palette of colors: pink, yellow, and green for leaves. The paste was mushed up rice, which brought me back to when I was in nursery and I saw a white thing on a table in school. I ate it because I thought it was rice...but it was glue, and I never put anything like that into my mouth again. Life teaches you good lessons. But I also used mushed up rice as an adhesive.
I found out simplicity is what makes for beauty in this activity. My lantern is on the right, and it just has too much stuff going on. That night, we lined up and walked around what I think was the sarira of Buddha. Unfortunately, I couldn't take any pictures because I was following a chanting monk with my hands occupied by a blinking lotus lantern. Hopefully, I'll find the chaperone who was with us to post those later. The area we walked around is supposed to be the most important/holy part of the temple, and a strict silence is enforced there.
If I'm right, and the monument is housing the sarira, then it's holding the so-called burnt remains of Buddha after he died.

Third and last day at Tongdosa, SUNLIGHT, finally! I love how the light exposed the conifers.

Face of the main temple of Tongdosa. Monks pray on the 2nd level. The office and dorms are on the lower level.

Close-up of the roof. I wouldn't believe it if someone told me a machine painted all those designs.

I didn't spend as much time as I should have to properly combine the two, but considering what I started with, I'd say that's not a bad photoshop.

1 hour of free time. So I went running around myself.

People make these minature rock towers as ways to make their wishes and hopes come true. It's hard to build taller towers, and I saw some really impressive ones later on.

On the other side of the river were the steepest set of stairs I had ever laid eyes on. I was honestly afraid that I wouldn't be able to go down again. Luckily there was a hill down on the other side.

At the top of the steps, this view! Being in Korea during the start of the monsoon season really make me appreciate the clarity of blue skies that the sun brings.

The pine trees here are much more impressive looking that the ones in the states. They twist in a really pleasing manner, and the bark is awesomely large. For some reason, it reminds me of scales on a turtle. I think some pieces were definitely almost as large as my hand.

A pagoda also.

And this.

The glorious way down. Still pretty steep though.

Lovely field of grass which I'm sure is filled with snakes.

It turned out that the back path leads to a totally different area. I think this was another temple and dorms for people visiting or maybe even the monks themselves. I think a guide later on told us that dragons were used as decorations because they were water beasts, and they became a protection sign for wooden temples (to fire/arson). Actually, let me pimp this guy's blog because he was incredible knowledgable and amiable: http://www.sherwinvjones.com/gyeongjublog/

I ran back up the old country road because I thought I caught a glimpse of a green tea farm down this path here.

It turned out to be a pine tree farm.

2010-07-18T21:42:00.003-04:00

Part 3

I have a new charger!!!!

The way down. The pots are so far away now...

We stopped by a ceramics shop. I'm tempted to say these were rooftiles, but they really look more like books almost. The next shot is a closeup of the stacks.

Apparently all these workshops are closed to the public, but since we're a special group they let us in.

Pretty crappy picture, I know. At this point I was struggling with low battery life, a cramped room, and low light (worst conditions ever). But I couldn't find a single clear picture, ugh. There was one little room where this guy was sitting in, decorating the teapots by dipping his finger in the colors and flicking the ink at the pots. The monks were joking around that the ceramics looked like pieces of art done by a master hand, but if they did it they'd just be flicking paint everywhere like little kids.

We had a rest stop at a nearby souvenir shop. They made us this really refreshing tea, and I kept expecting hot tea, but of course it was cold. They had these cutouts in it and I didn't eat them because I thought they were radishes, but when I found out they were Korean pears, they disappeared in a snap.

A white lotus field we passed as we went up and back down the mountain. They grow in watery places, so underneath all that stalk is a pond. Buddhists looove lotus flowers, so we soon found out they were all over the site. The leaves are wonderfully waterproof and have a fine furlike covering to them. We played a game with waterdroplets. You spun the leave around to see how many revolutions you could get before the drop flew off.

The leaves are also gigantic.

I swear, I took this on the way up... but I'm following my assigned shot numbers.

For scale. I think the sheer scale of landscaping is arresting. It's a shame that the weather was constantly overcast. I need to figure out how to shoot in cloudy weather without completely blowing out the sky.

There are very few things in the world that I am really fascinated by. I think the last item was a very old model vacuum-cleaner. It didn't run on electricity, but it was kind of like a velcro-lawnmower, and as you pushed it across the floor, it picked everything up, and stored it inside. I think I vacuumed for the entire 4-day vacation because I thought it was so drop-dead awesome. This too, I thought was amazing. There are rice paddies all-throughout the place, and they need to be constantly kept wet. They're all placed in a terrace-pattern (like stairsteps), and because of gravity/potential energy, the water from the higher level flows to the lowest. I didn't see any pumps or hoses, so I really wonder where the water came from. In any case, the fact that they don't have to use any devices to maintain the irrigation system for parts I saw is really cool.

Korean version of a scarecrow! So it seems that we took another detour for lunch.

Part of the farm we stopped at. I think you see the lettuce I was clutching here. Not the most flattering picture of our monk friend, but behind him are the greatest looking sesame leaves I've ever laid eyes on. I took a lot of those for lunch. He was saying how we should pick all the hole-ridden ones because they have the least pesticide spayed on them. While that makes sense, I can't get over my hate of any bug, so pesticide it was.

Cucumbers.

This guy was a real mongrel, but so starved for attention it was cute. He kept jumping up at us the whole time. One of the girls in the group named him 짬뽕 (jjam-bbong), which is a type of noodle-soup that has all sorts of junk in it, since his coat is a mish-mosh of colors.

2010-07-17T11:05:00.003-04:00

Part 2

I just want to say, holy crap. My charger short-circuited somehow, and my laptop has been unusable ever since. Thank goodness I uploaded the next set of pictures before it died (even though I only thought to check today). Augh, I'm using my sister's Mac, and it doesn't have the language pack, so no Korean writing for this post.

I wish I remembered exactly what "mini-temple" this was, but...I don't. I think it had something to do with kings. You can see the table with the "wooden fish" or moktak (in Korean). It's used to pray, and I noticed that the monks hold it in a funny way. Instead of with the main four fingers holding the handle like most people hold things with handles, the bottom end of the handle is gripped with the thumb looped around the handle. When we had a contest who could beat the moktak the best, the monk described the sound as a basketball falling. So it's like tok.............tok..........tok......tok...tok..tok.toktoktoktoktok. Sounds easy, but it takes a lot of concentration to make it come out right. Needless to say, I did not have the clarity of mind to make a good basketball-falling sound. There's also a bag of rice inside the temple, which I'm assuming is an offering. I wish I had bothered to ask while I was there, but I was so busy trying to make time to take pictures, oh the irony. I did find this on the internet though (incidentally from the same Buddhist order that hosted our trip):

"In addition, most participants will take one bag of rice to donate to the visiting temple. This is an offering from their own home. Each member of the pilgrimage group has a bag to fill for the rice offering each month. This adds up to a large quantity of rice, which is used to feed monks and nuns of the temple."

There is a mural on the back walls of the room that the statues mimic. You can see the man with the tiger in his lap. I asked around why there are so many tigers in Buddhist art, and the response I got was a bit lukewarm. I was told by a monk and museum guide that since Korea practiced shamanism way back in the day, some of the animals survived into Buddhist art and culture. There was also the mention of some kind of Bodhisattva/diety that came down from the mountains on the back of the tiger, which is also why tigers seem to be a valued animal. All I could find online was that the original god came from Chinese mythology was was Bi Gan or Cai Shen, and the god of prosperity, who was "erroneously" converted into a Buddhist diety.

There were some spectacular rooftiles here. The particular building was low enough for me to take a satisfactory shot. I think the temples at Tongdosa are supposed to be as close to the original-style temples as they could be, so it's really amazing that they could make castings like these around the Silla era (7-10th century).

For all the talk about Buddhist simplicity, none of the temple decorations were simple.

More wooden floral doors!

This looks like we're deep into a hike already, but I think it's actually just a few meters away from the main temple. That bridge from the last post is over looking the same creek. If I didn't know better, I'd be so fascinated by the tree with the pink flowers, but they're actually also at the Flushing LIRR station! I wouldn't know where they're native to since I'm not a botanist, but I'll take a wild guess and say they were imported into the US. The chaperone for the trip was saying how she had very vivid memories as a child of playing with the feathery flowers and eating baby eggplants.

It's probably because I'm a city girl that I am constantly shooting spider webs. It's a shame that scale is hard to see in a lot of my pictures because this web was pretty impressive. The spiders are not that large at all, maybe 3 cm in length, but they can somehow jump such long distances. The web here was made over a huge gap! Being the countryside, we saw plenty of arachnids. I don't know which I hate more, mosquitos or spiders. I wasn't allowed to kill anything though, so both parties were safe from me under the monks' watchful eyes.

Our first hike.

I was told by my mom the temples and the area were totally modernized, but I still felt like I was in the boondocks. The sign is pointing to a "parking lot". Not having right of way here as a pedestrian was also new. I don't like having to look over my shoulder for cars all the time, but I'm sure they aren't too keen on avoiding idiots walking in the middle of the road either. And it as overcast for most of the trip.

Rather large beetle we found with amputated front legs.

Not so wildernessy outside, we found another small temple. The room was maybe 8 m x 2.5 m, all lined like how you see in the picture. I can't imagine what it would have been like before electricity was used. The entire bottom row is lined with electric candles. Since all the temples are made out of wood, I can see how fire would be a huge hazard to the buildings.

Mountains in the background were really a new sight for me. I think all these pots are filled with daenjang, or bean paste! I hate how in English, all the food sounds really disgusting. I'm not a big fan of daenjang, but I don't think it deserves "paste" in the name. "Paste" reminds me of glue and tomato paste, which is really nasty. I tried to eat it one time because I had nothing left in the dorm, big mistake. In any case, back to the pots. They had to have some kind of fermenting food inside of them since the temple is mostly self-sustaining. I asked a monk if the government subsidized the temple, and they said that a little money was given, but it was mostly run by donations. The temple also serves free food to everyone who comes in, and it has a really distinctly salty flavor to it likes its been sitting too long in a pot somewhere.

Higher up, as we climbed hills.

Ontop of the hills, finally. It was a sticky, humid day, and we were just waiting for it to rain (which it didn't). The temple here is a little different since it's built in a more Chinese style. I personally like this more austere style better. The place was being renovated (or maybe even being built) when we were there. According to my parents, the stones in the courtyard are a completely artificial touch. I realize now the streetlamp is also completely out of place. It's trying to be some strange kind of Buddhist Narnia.

2010-07-14T00:17:00.009-04:00

7.2.10-7.12.10
Part 1

I signed up for a trip to Korea via a program called "Templestay", which is supposed to educate people on the prevalence of Buddhism in Korean history. We had a group of 16 people, all ages, from 11 to 21 (me). Overall it was an incredible experience that will get better the more I think about it. This was my first time to Korea so _.
We got on a 14 hour flight through Asiana Airlines. The food was pretty good, I was prepared to eat garbage and call it a day. Steak was hot and medium rare. I also don't think I ever ate a more relaxed meal even though I was on an airplane with the A/C blasting overhead. We touched down at Incheon airport, which I later learned was on the westernmost tip of Korea, and drove to Tongdosa (통도사), Korea's largest Buddhist temple.

A very creepy ad in the airport. Notice the double-entendre, 1. "here for good" as in here for forever. 2. "here for good" as in here to do good. But having the silhouette of DNA in the background is reminiscent of GM foods and more scifi things.

On the way from the airport to Tongdosa, what looks like a fishing boat with a long net cast out.

Outskirts of a city. They were building a "Seoul Tower" nearby.

The first glimmers of light over the mountains.

Dawn-breaking.

Finally, we're here. This is one of the gates into the main temple.

This was probably my favorite part of the temple grounds we got to see. (The territory is enormous, I think we might have covered less than half of the total area!) The bridge is over a clear shallow creek that extends a long long way out.

They had these buddhas engraved on all the doors, and I thought they were so nice looking.

One of our groupmates, in a huge blanket closet where we slept while we stayed at the temple.

Fresh springwater. These were scattered all over the place with ladles so you could drink out of them.

Flower diptych

The four guardian generals who protect temples.

As we go further in, this was the building where the monks played the drums and bell every evening. There are several monks who go up there and beat a drum with a constant rhythm line. When one is done, they step to the side, and allow the next person to start. After the drumming, two monks go to the right side (from this picture) and drum on fish that make a clack-clack sound. One monk is on the ground floor and rings the bell at the end. The sound is just incredible. Once they start to ring the bell over and over again, not allowing any time for the sound to disperse, you start to hear this strange pitch surround you and the bass runs through your body.

People are not supposed to throw coins into the ponds, but the tradition is so strong that people do anyway. The money is cleaned out every so often and donated to the temple. People try to get the coins to land on the lotus in the middle, but as water is relatively viscous fluid and there's that element of refraction, it's still pretty hard.

The temple was selling rooftiles for about $10 apiece (10,000 won). Once you buy one, you write a wish onto the tile and it's used in the construction and maintenance of the buildings here.

The ceiling of 4 Guardians house. Intricately decorated. If you can see, there's also a carving of an elephant and tiger there. I amped the colors a bit in photoshop because the exposure was so dark. Believe it or not, the colors are real. I read on the airplane that green and red are prominent colors used in Buddhist temple because they are contrasting colors. Red also symbolizes people, while green symbolizes nature.

The decorations in the temples are amazingly detailed. Even though some of them are a bit rundown, it seems that the people here take very good care of maintenance here. Here's a door with what looks like lotuses.
The floral door-making process seems pretty involved. I was wondering about it since wood has the tendency to warp (as I found out from the $300 bow I destroyed by letting it warp). To prevent this, the trees used at red dwarf pines that are between 100 and 300 years old. (I'm taking this from a book, but it seems strange that I can't find it online, anyway-). The logs are then buried in mud for a while, and then taken out to cut and carve.

The left lanterns are original.

Ceiling of the main temple.

I love this picture, and thank my ability to stop all body tremors for fractions of seconds. We joined the monks for evening prayer. The ceiling is covered with lanterns in the shapes of lotuses, and the papers hanging from them are the names of people who donated money to the temple.

Another shot I'm glad I got.

Incredibly cute. In Asian culture, you leave your shoes outside of a house. These are all the monks' shoes. I noticed that since they're all the same rubber shoe, they drew little pictures to differentiate them.

2010-07-01T21:05:00.003-04:00

We'll believe it when we see it.

2010-06-29T21:10:00.003-04:00

Spirits don't emerge in the dead of the night. They need sun like any living creature, sun to make lines, giving shape and form. The universe is held together in the most graceful balance by opposing forces. The principle extended: Light to create darkness. Shadows on the sidewalk, stretching out far to make taller giants of ourselves may be more than just shade, but eidolons of our thoughts, aspiring to greater heights.

*In Korean and Chinese, the number 4 (사, "sa") sounds likes the word for "death".

2010-06-29T00:29:00.007-04:00

Memorial Day was last month, and this place is still covered in red, white, and blue. In a quaint neighborhood like this one, bars are invisible fixtures that just seem to melt into the sidewalks. The doors are never open. You never see people walking in or out. And for a kareoke bar, it's strangely quiet...not a single sound is heard from it all night. It makes you wonder what kind of people need a place like this in such a wholesome area.

[Note: Back to little vignettes, they're kind of a nice challenge. Actual descriptions will come up if something was particularly interesting]

2010-06-27T23:57:00.008-04:00

Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Iris.

Douglaston train tracks, overlooking Little Neck Bay.

Train weeds.

Relic found in the muck next to the tracks. Bottle reads "Pluto Water. America's Physic". According to Wikipedia, this was a laxative that was popular in the US in the early 20th century. Interestingly, the bottle was advertised with a devil on the bottom.

2008-06-29T10:00:00.003-04:00

The Lover's Brush is a very ordinary looking plant, a weed even. But it earned its name from being a mischievous tool in courting a young woman or man. A person could pick this off the side of the road, for it grows everywhere, and tickle the person they sought until they gave in to having a cup of tea...

2008-06-28T09:54:00.002-04:00

"You see this wall, it separates us from them. The wall is never to be crossed. Remember that, Jacob"
"Who are they, grandfather? Why are we afraid of them?"
"That is not for you to know, or ever find out. Just remember that if you ever cross this wall, you will never be allowed to return to your home"
But as curiosity is the companion of all small children, Jacob could not stop thinking of why he could not cross the wall, or more importantly, what was behind it. He resisted for several days, but those days were hard lived through. All his thoughts turned to the world beyond, and finally, he packed his bags and some provisions. He approached the wall during the twilight hours, and crossed.

2008-06-27T09:53:00.000-04:00

The sun peeking behind that continent of a cloud made her think of the disaster to come in a billion years.

2008-06-26T23:11:00.003-04:00

They sleep now--
Watchful guardians of the night.

2008-06-25T23:33:00.002-04:00

Does Ophelia float or sink?
Does she swim in Water, or does she fly in Ether?

2008-06-24T20:02:00.001-04:00

Two flourishes of paint.

2008-06-23T23:56:00.000-04:00

"You're not afraid of the dark? You're weird," said Ashley.
"But that's the only time I can see Pik!" said Ellen.
"You're weird," repeated Ashley, and gathered her dolls t0 play elsewhere.

2008-06-22T19:58:00.002-04:00

They try to remember days when the train would blow new white clouds into the air, cables criss-crossed the sky, and it all seemed greater than the earth they stood on.

2008-06-21T21:58:00.003-04:00

There was a whole lot of screeching and crashing going on. Jason couldn't see straight. His head was all fogged up, but somehow something told him to get out as fast as possible. He crawled, he must have, out of the wreckage (even though he had no idea what happened). The quality of the air was suddenly different, changing radically from smoke and charred bits to clean air. The scratch marks on his elbows said that he had dragged himself away from the crash site. He rested his head on the ground with a thud. Everything was horribly blurry.

2008-06-20T23:47:00.002-04:00

It's dark at night.

2008-06-19T22:22:00.001-04:00

Ever wonder what squirrels see when they look up?
...a long way to go.

2008-06-18T23:12:00.003-04:00

Back one hundred years ago, the city used to gleam under the high-noon sun like a daytime constellation-- each star a gold-tone roof. Nowadays, patina and verdegris have taken over. It seems as though those ambitious days are over.

2008-06-17T08:13:00.000-04:00

For some reason, Peter couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching him. He turned the tap off as he finishing washing the suds off his hands and went for the paper towels. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing, and his left pinky tingle with anticipation. He whirled around suddenly to catch whoever it was in the act, but no one else was in the bathroom. Thoroughly embarassed, but that much more suspicious, he returned to drying his hands, then tossing the paper towel.

Then something caught his eye. There was a statue up near the ceiling. It was some crude gargoyle-like thing. He stared at it for some time before finally releasing the breath he had been keeping inside (for a scream?).

He could feel the wind pushing against the building. Skyscrapers were built to sway these days to survive gusts of wind like these.

He knew this, and still, as he left, he couldn't shake the feeling that something else had moved in that room.

2008-06-16T23:37:00.002-04:00

Everyday she stared into his room, hoping that he would and wouldn't notice her. At every moment where he might turn, she scurried away from the door, terrified that he would see. She stayed today, after he had gone home. She pressed her lips up to the window. If she could leave something, just the slightest residue of her existence, she might be able to peel herself away from the darkened room nextdoor to his.

2008-06-15T10:02:00.002-04:00

Running into the train, people always stop and stare--but don't help.

...typical city people.

2008-06-14T10:00:00.001-04:00

If he fell asleep in his office, he'd know the weather by checking on this one room.

2008-06-13T22:30:00.002-04:00

"I hate abstract art"
Harry stopped in midstride and looked around. He was puzzled.
"What do you mean, abstract art? I don't see any"
His friend motioned distractedly to a wall.
"Look over there. It's really terrible, there's no point to it! I could make an easy million is someone paid me to be an "abstract artist"!"
"It's crooked..." said Harry.
"No, it's abstract," said Raymond.
"I don't know, it looks like someone put it up while he was drunk"
"No, it's abstract! That's supposed to be the beauty of this sort of garbage. It's so bad, it's good! In fact, it's glorious! There's a whole freaking movement devoted to it! ...depraved bastards," raved Raymond, "You know me, Harry, I'm fucking crazy. Because it's crazy to think that things should mean something. What would happen to the world if people just did every little thing that popped into their head, but didn't have a reason for it? You need to have a reason for doing something, or it's meaningless! Why did you vote for Cooper instead of Harrison? Oh, I don't know... I just felt like it. Our entire world would go to shambles! I'll go with voting again, we blame the new generation for not doing a damn thing about their situation, but you see old folks glorifying this junk! Oh, it has such emotion, such passion, you can really feel the artist speaking to you! Now tell me, Harry, how the hell do you feel someone speaking to you anyway? I'm sure you hear them!"
"Well um...maybe it's relative, Ray" said Harry, not sure what was going on now.
"Relative," Raymond snorted, "If I were going to use that excuse, I'd have to say that we should just kill ourselves, because relative sucks, Harry. 'Relative', is the worst thing you could call something. You know why?"
"Why-?"
"Because it has no meaning!" barked Ray, lunging at his friend, "It's the same argument again! Sure, it's relative, I like this but you don't, you see this but I don't. But what does that mean?! That practically means that it doesn't matter what this is or what that is. It means that anything could be anything! Is killing wrong? Gee, well son, I don't know, I'd have to call that 'relative'. I'm partial to it, but your mother simply abhors it. Say anything is relative, Harry, it means we can do any damn thing we want because we might see it as good, while someone else might think it's bad--"
"So hold on, you are tell me that this painting is actually supposed to be like that," said Harry, finally managing to break in.
"How many times do I have to tell you--?" Raymond started, but saw Harry motioning with his hands straight, then leaning over to the side.
"Yeah, no...that's probably not supposed to be like that"
"Well, I thought you said it was abstract!"
"It is"
"Isn't that abstract?"
"It's what inside the frame that's abstract"
"But why can't it be outside? I mean, doesn't the artist put the frame up too? So that means the painting can sort of be outside the frame too"
"Stop being a crazy"
"I think it's relative"

2008-06-12T23:19:00.002-04:00

Love so old that it's been left forgotten on the sill.

2008-06-11T08:31:00.002-04:00

The claddagh pointed outward means that I am not in love. But pointed inwards, it means that someone has captured my heart.

2008-06-10T08:17:00.002-04:00

"Give me strength lord Buddha, and tell me the secret to being serene."
"Listen to me, my child, and you shall have no fears"
"Listen to me, my child, and you shall be content"
"Listen to me--" "Listen to me--" "Listen to me--"
"Please, from whose lips do I take advice from? I am but one man, you are many"
"Listen to me--" "Listen to me--" "Listen to me--" Listen to me--"
"I am the one and the true way, listen to me..."
"I am the lord and the god almighty, take heed of my words..."
"Be wary of the others, for they are false. I am the one you seek..."
"Do not be confused, I am he that you wish to speak to..."

"Only you--" "Only you--" "Only you--" Echoes
"It is only you--" "...you--" "you--"
"who can distinguish which one of us--" "...which one--" "which one--" "which one--"
"...is your guide--" "guide--" "guide--" Echoes

"Why does he cry, this man of all men?"
"Why does he cry, he who has already chosen his master, me?"
"Does he cry? I cannot see"

2008-06-09T09:12:00.000-04:00

The peacock of the future has fiber-optic feathers, so much brighter and longer-lasting than the old kind.

If the client desires, she can also have long, thin, human legs, and a crooning voice to match.

What is a peacock but a bird?

2008-06-08T08:31:00.000-04:00

By the time children are in high school, they're worth quite a bit.
Don't let them out of your sight.

2008-06-07T08:48:00.000-04:00

"Say bye-bye to train! Say bye-bye to train!"
She kept repeating this phrase over and over again as if he hadn't heard the first time.
It wasn't that he didn't know what the train meant...he just wanted to play with his daddy today.

2008-06-06T07:33:00.000-04:00

Ever since Ella had gotten her new and expensive camera, she had tried to live by the photographer's rule: always carry your camera with you. But even though she faithfully lugged the device with her to all places, she was too preoccupied with keeping it safe that she had never managed to snap one photo with it. Ella looked down at the shiny black body, which hadn't lost its luster due to her watchful guard over it. She almost wished that it were beaten and scratched up instead. It looked as if she had swiped it from the store counter just the other day.
She was in the car now, with her mother driving. The steady thrum of the engine was comforting, and Ella looked outside to try and distract herself. Everything was rushing by, the cars, the trees, the cloud, the wind. It was all a blur, and suddenly she felt as if she had lost something very precious... Her hands gripped the camera suddenly, and she brought it up to her eye and the window, and took several shots in quick succession. Had she managed to capture what her eye couldn't see? Had she managed to preserve something of this moment? Something, even if it were infinitesimally, of the world now just as she was speeding past it? She quickly checked the photos she had taken, and found blurs blurs and more blurs. It was only when she came to the very last photo she felt the knot in her stomach unwind a bit. At the very least, the ocean and the city were constant. She stared at the miniature skyline, and the gaping maw of the sky. It was a start.
Her mother spoke for the first time during their ride.
"Would you look at that, there's a storm coming"
The sky undulated with colors that only a fierce thunderstorm could bring. Ella gripped her camera tightly as she rolled down the window.

2008-06-06T02:13:00.000-04:00

The orchard was surreal...a strange word for something more natural than the granite city they had become accustomed to. The ground was a burnt sienna; the grass and trees were a vibrant almost envious green; the sky seemed a bit overzealous, too blue, too serene, too perfectly arranged with clouds to be called natural.

Note: Putting up an interesting photo every day was (surprisingly) getting the better of me. I'm going to try my best to keep on schedule now and not have such high expectations. What I wanted out of this more than anything else was just to train my eye when shooting. I drove myself a little crazy. So I'm going to try this again, and please be forgiving. Not all promises are kept despite best intentions.

2007-12-31T20:19:00.000-05:00

"Oh god, the spiders are coming! Please, everyone, go into your houses and bolt the doors. You know they will stop at nothing to get to us! Remember, they do not like fire and high-pitched noises. Yes yes, you boy, for once start making that awful shrieking sound when you whistle. The choir, yes, the choir! They too must start making music!"

2007-12-30T19:44:00.000-05:00

His mother always kept the good stuff in the closet. Last time his handheld game was "confiscated", he had found it safely nestled between all the odds and ends in the massive storage-place. He wasn't looking for anything in particular now, but he did like looking at the stuff that had been taken from him over the years. The boots were obviously a present for his older sister, the little "christmas-wrapped bombs" were for his cousins that the family didn't get to meet this year due to some unfortunate circumstances, and the hideous mask next to those was his. He had loved pretending to be some barbaric Hun or something. Not that he knew what a Hun was exactly, but it sounded like a foreign and ferocious name so he liked it.

2007-12-29T22:38:00.000-05:00

What jewels there are in plain sight.

2007-12-28T21:35:00.000-05:00

My family buys a magnet whenever they visit someplace, whether it be down the block or across the country. I guess it isn't so special because you would think, who doesn't collect magnets (purposefully or not)? But it's kind of nice seeing them all together. It makes you feel kind of, well, accomplished. It means you've been somewhere, and this photograph is my proof.

27.12.07*

"Dammit. Did you bring your camera? I forgot to bring mine"
Abe patted down his pockets one last time before throwing his arms to his sides in disgust.
"Who the hell forgets a camera, huh?" he asked aloud.
"Yeah...I don't have one either," said James, somewhat sheepishly.
"Well it's not a national disaster," said Abe, trying to calm down, "We've got cell phones. Those count for something, right?"
He fished out his phone, pressing buttons to get to the camera option. Once there, he held it up to the light.
"God, this is awful," he said.
"I paid 100 for this crap?" quipped James.
Abe snapped a few pictures, trying to keep his hand steady. The light was tricky. Sometimes the sun hit the phone just right, other times, it was like there was an explosion. He made a noise, disgruntled, but there was nothing he could do. He'd rather be begrudgingly thankful that he had a phone-camera than no camera at all.

*Apologies, I was away. Vacation tends to harbor bad judgment.
Today's entry contains a reference to Duane Michals.

2007-12-26T13:56:00.000-05:00

The child found holes where he least expected them. Was this the one that led to the other side of the world?

2007-12-25T22:03:00.000-05:00

She opened gifts half-heartedly, thinking more of the money behind them than any potential worth. This was a dreary holiday, marked in her mind by the tracks of the capitalistic machine. Oh America, she thought with no trace of endearment. She had no doubt that the presents bought were tailored for her tastes, and yet, there seemed to be no purpose behind it all. She took a look at the tree, and for a split second, all she saw were heaps of dollars all bundled up in string.
"That bottle of Chanel-- your father sent it over to me when he was in the US"
"What?" she asked, taken off guard.
Her mother nodded, smoothing the ripped up wrapping-paper.
"Mm hmm. He said this was the first thing he wanted me to experience from there. It's older than you. Twenty years"
Christina took the small glass bottle in her hands. Past the aged yellow label, she could see sediment swimming in the treasured yellow perfume. The bottle was half empty. Half full.
Twenty years of memories hung around this bottle. From her mother's first curious touch to her first romantic memory of the West and her husband. Longing. Wishes. Waiting.
"Why is everything so expensive these days?" her mother suddenly, mostly to herself. You know, the way that most mothers will make a statement to no one but mean for someone to answer.
"Do you know how much this wrapping paper was?" she said again.
Christina set the perfume very gently back onto the table, not taking her eyes off of it.
"You know what, mom? I really don't care"

2007-12-24T19:11:00.000-05:00

Families seemed to gravitate towards lights during holidays. Christmas Eve was no exception. Nearby neighbors saw the decorations from their windows. Those from farther away had read about a wondrous exhibit in newspapers and ads. It was strange though, as the myriad of people came together, how they all looked exactly alike in the glow of the lights. Entranced. Utterly bewitched.

2007-12-23T14:53:00.000-05:00

He had fallen so hard, so fast-- the only thing he could remember was darkness and pinpricks of light in the distance. Something about them was familiar, and yet...he couldn't place them in his brief continuum of memory. Somehow, he felt himself rising from the abyss...and he opened his eyes. His mouth opened, but no noise came out. His eyes were barraged by light and shapes and colors, he didn't know what was going on. How glorious it was, and at the same time, how terrible. He saw ghosts. He saw patterns. He didn't know what he saw, but he was alive and grounded. He was finally here. He was finally flesh.