Men in Nappies!

So we decided to head to see some Sumo.



In Japan they hold only 6 big tournaments each year where the professionals strut their stuff so we counted ourselves very fortunate to get a ticket to the tournament held in Nagoya. Sumo is the one traditional Japanese sports that still makes it onto primetime TV and draws in the crowds consistently.


We queued up very early in the morning for a ticket and watched sumo from 8:30am to 6 in the evening. It was a long day, but it was great to see these guys all over 25 stone plough into each other. These guys are absolutely massive. The photos do not do their size credit. Jeanette called it the MOOB convention - Man Boob, and you couldn't argue with that assessment.



Each sumo tournament lasts 10 days. Each wrestler has one bout per day which can last a matter of seconds.


So the amateurs start off at 8:30 in the morning and then the standard slowly gets better right through to the main action around 5pm. Its like going to watch a junior c hurling match at the local field in the morning and then finding yourself in the Cusack Stand at the All-Ireland Senior hurling final come 6pm.


We spotted the amateur (junior c) sumos coming on the subway to the venue with us, whereas the pro's arrived in their chauffeur driven mercedes.

There is a whole lot of ceremony and tradion still prevalent today in the sumo bouts. In fact sometimes the ceremony lasts longer than the bout itself. The sumos begin by facing up to each other with a bit of posturing. They lift each leg up alternately off the ground and the crowd really loves it when they lift it really high - one guy had his legs almost at 180 degrees at one stage - see the photo.



Try this at home. I'm telling you its really difficult!

The the sumos go to the corner of the ring to pick up some salt which they duly throw into the ring - apparently to purify the sumo ring. Then they proceed to slap their big bellies a number of times. I loved this bit! After some more posturing the bout begins. And sometimes its over in a few seconds if one of these mammoths slips, or sometimes the battle can go on a matter of minutes which the crowd really appreciates. These guys can be real entertainers.

Its amazing how many non-Japanese sumos their are. On the programme we spotted Russian's, Bulgarian's, Mongolians' Hawaians etc. all they all seemed to win their bouts.

Another thing we learnt about sumo was that the referee carries a small dagger with him as he officiates. Apparently in the olden days the referee was expected to commit suicide if it was determined that he had made a wrong decision during a bout. Hence, the dagger was kept by his side. Sumo is serious stuff. Today, the referees only carry the dagger to continue the tradition but thankfully not the act itself.

By the way, the front row is a dangerous place to be seated. We saw a few groups getting clobbered when a sumo was pushed from the ring.

All in all it was a great day.



Sumo out shopping!

Lena's last day at school!

So first stop in Japan was to meet Lena (Jeanette's sister) and stay with her for a few days. Lena has been teaching english on the JET programme in Japan for the past 3 years and is finishing up this year. So Lena took us to school one day, which happened to be her last day at Yakami high school.

It was great to go to one of Lena's school and see what her life has been like in Japan for the past 3 years. Its clear that the kids love her.

Lena gave a speech to all the staff and students in the morning. The school brass band even played "Danny Boy" for her, which they had learned in only one day! See the video below.

We had a great time at school and were absolutely exhausted when we came home.

See Lena in action below.......

The Irish of Asia!

South Korea is great!

We really struggled with getting a Mongolian visa so decided instead to travel to South Korea. We caught the overnight ferry between Dalian, in North East China, and the Korean port of Incheon, just 60 km from Seoul.

Before we came to Korea we had read in a few places that the Koreans were known as the `Irish of Asia`. They love singing, dancing, drinking, watching movies etc. and out and out are full of craic. So obviously this whetted our appetite for the place. On the ferry from China we met a group of Korean retirees who were just returning from holiday. When they asked us where we were from and we told them Ireland, they responded with `....... ah the Koreans of Europe`, so apparently it works both ways.　

The Koreans retireees invited us to try some local snacks with them which consisted of seaweed and a food called kimchi which is sort of like fermented cabbage, actually quite nice. They also tried to ply us with some local spirits, soju etc, which was great fun. The following morning we met the retirees again and they proudly announced to us that they drank the two vending machines on the ferry dry of beer last night. Definitely the `Irish of Asia`.

The first thing that struck us about the place when we arrived is that it was so clean. I suppose when your last port of call is China it would be the first thing you notice. The second thing you notice is that you can see the sky. We could not see the sky for about the last 3 weeks of our stay in China. In some cases in Beijing you could not even see some of the skyscrapers close by because of the smog. The third thing you notice is how organised and efficient everything is - the signage, the public transport, tourist information etc. We arrived in Korea without a guidebook so were literally winging it, but talk about picking the right country to wing it. This place is easy! Tourist information is in abundance. I think we were give about 10 different maps of Seoul - the walking tour map of Seoul, the bus tour map of Seoul, the metro map of Seoul, the bar and restaraunt map of Seoul, and on and on. I think you get my point. And finally, almost every local has some english it seems. At anyone time on a trip on the metro you see hoardes of people with english languauge text books in their hands. There seems to be an all consuming urge to learn english here which of course makes it easier for us.

Our visit to the ICE Bar in Seoul:

Another thing that struck us in South Korea was how polite people are. When you enter a shop every single member of the staff says hello to you! But the traffic attendents take politeness to another level. Very often shopping malls employ traffic attendents beside their car park exits to direct traffic out onto the road. The traffic attendents, normally pretty females, make an elaborate hand signal to the cars to say that it is ok to move out onto the road and then, wait for it, bow to the car!!! I honestly stood still for half an hour watching this in amazement. See the video below and then compare it to the North Korean equivalents.

North Korean Traffic Attendent

Seoul is surrounded by mountains and it being over a month since Nepal I heard them calling me! So I headed off one of the days to climb Mount Dobongsan, one of the holy mountains. I was getting on great until too old women decided to ply me with rice whiskey on the way up. I thought it was milk!!! This slowed me a little. Then I met a local `Kevin` half way up who told me I was very fast??? and so I could trek with him if I liked. So away we headed together. Well `Kevin` was a flyer, and it wasn`t long before my tongue was hanging out. Kevin didn't believe in taking breaks. When I did get him to slow down he did tell me that he has climbed the mountain almost every Saturday and Sunday for the past 7 years. In total he reckons he has climbed it over 500 times. It was a little too late to refuse the invitation at that stage. We made it to the top ahead of schedule where we enjoyed some great views. On a clear day you can seen Seoul from the top. Jeanette opted for shopping that day and highly recommends the shopping in Seoul!

On two of the nights in Seoul we met up with two friends we had met 6 months previously at the start of our trip in Borneo. We had all gone adventure caving in Mulu National park, Borneo, together. Cho Ok is a native of Seoul and Chad is from New York with Korean parents. It was great to be introduced to Korean food by some locals. The food is fantastic. Afterwards we went to a karaoke house and rented a booth and sang to our hearts content before heading dancing in a local club. Another thing we saw which is pretty unique to Korea is the DVD booth. You can rent a little room with a projector and DVD of your choice and watch away. It's like your own private cinema!

Something else that we were both taken by was the Korean version of a hotdog. Basically its a sausage on a stick but covered in french fries. Delicious. We both thought that this would go down very well in Jackie Lennox`s.

And of course it being olympic year and all we visited the Olypmic Stadium in Seoul, got out on the track and pretended that we were Carl Lewis competing in the 100 metre final!

We also paid a visit to the World Cup stadium where the opening game of the 2002 soccer world cup was held. Pretty impressive.

On one of the days we headed out to the Carribean bay water park just outside Seoul. We had some great fun on the slides, water bobsleds. Then we headed over to the Everland theme park where we had a great time on a few of the rollercoasters. Scary!!!

After Seoul we headed to Sorekson National park which one of the Koreans favourite places to go on holidays. It had some lovely walks and apparently some great mountain views but unfortunately the day we were there was quite foggy and we couldn't see a whole lot. Sorekson is only a few minutes drive from Sockho where we stayed. We had some great korean food there. The squid stuffed with fried vegetables was definitely one of the highlights.

Next, we took a 8 hour bus ride to the southern port city of Busan. From here we took the ferry to Japan. We didn't do a whole lot in Busan apart from go to the largest spa in Asia. Korean spas are interesting. Lots of types of baths here - grape baths, jasmine tea bath, salt bathsand well as the regular hot and cold baths, indoor and outdoor. You must go au naturale! There are separate male and female sides to the spa. Very liberating...... and a great way to spend a morning.

Our accommodation in Busan was an apartment on the 29th floor of a tower block. It was great if a little different. I don't think Jeanette was too comfortable with the height and was hanging on to her bunkbed at night, just in case......

After two days in Busan we caught the overnight ferry to the Japanese port town of Shimonoseki.

Beijing and North East China

So then it was on to the big smoke of Beijing where we spent over a week in the Lama Temple youth hostel.

The first day we were pretty tired we just had a walk around Tiananmen square and outside the Forbidden city where we saw an army of people cleaning chewing gum off the footpaths in preparation for the Olympic games in August. No stone left unturned.

The following day it was off to see the Olympic Stadium itself. There was a whole hoarde of people taking photos of it but from behind the fence as they are still carrying out work on it, mostly landscaping etc.

The "Birds Nest"

Ciaran and Dave from Cork arrived in Beijing shortly after us so we spent the next few days hanging around with then. We first met Ciaran and Dave in Nepal and then in Guilin, China.

One of the first things we did was the lads was go visit the Great Wall. We had been told to avoid the busier sections of the wall, particulary the sections that had McDonalds outlets at. Luckily we were given a tip off about a really quiet section of the wall and the tip-off turned to be true. See photos below. For me this was one of the highlights of China.

One of the must-do's in Beijing is of course the Forbidden city. We employed the services of a tour guide called Vanilla. Young Chinese often chose to use an english name as they understand that their real names are too difficult for westerners to pronounce or remember. Hence, Vanilla.

We spent many a night with Ciaran and Dave playing cards, chatting, relaxing, slagging. It was great to be able to spend time with some people who you could hurl abuse at and know they would not get offended.

The Chinese love convening on the street for many things. They love there street food, love flying their kites on the side of the street and love playing chess on the side of the street. When I saw the below scene for the first time I thought there must a fight going on or something. No, just another game of chess. As far as I could see there was normally a few wagers being passed. Maybe this is what draws the crowd! This scene is so typical in China.

We normally choose to eat at place that had english menus otherwise who knows what could end up on your place. Sometimes a restaraunt would have a sign up to signify the fact that they had an english menu. Some got a little confused, see the picture below.

Who are they trying to kid?

One of the highlights of the stay in Beijing was a trip to the temple of heaven where we stumbled across the echo wall. It was a wall built in a perfect circle. We would stand at opposite ends of the circle and whisper something. The receiver about 25 metres away could here the whisper perfectly. Here's Jeanette "talking to the wall"!

So it was time to leave Beijing and we decided to head north east. We were having difficulty getting the Mongolian visa so decided that we would go to South Korea instead. So the plan was to slowly make our way to Dalian in North East China over a number of days and then get the ferry from Dalian to the South Korean port of Incheon.

Our stop on our journey north eastward was at Shanhaiguan - the place where the great wall meets the sea. Again we had an entertaining train journey. You could see that the locals were very curious to talk to us but of course they had no way of communicating. We were seated with young and old but none had any english. Eventually were got talking to a young student who was able to translate for the entire train carriage. It was funny when a guy came over to the kids who were sitting opposite us to give out to them for not practising their english with us.

On our first day we went to the sea to see where the wall ends/starts?! See photos

Shanhaiguan is also home to what the Chinese call "the first pass under heaven". Basically it is the first gate or pass in the great wall and was of strategic importance for various Chinese dynasties. The Chinese come in their droves to see it.

We ate some great noodle soup at Li Jiangs parents place where her father cooks the soup in the biggest pot I've ever seen.

Another amusing thing we saw in Shanhaiguan was what seemed like the entire town dancing/doing aerobics in the town square with music blasting from the loud speakers.

We dropped off at the nice seaside resort of Xincheng on our way to our next destination of Shenyang.

On our train trip to Shenyang we had some more fun with the locals. First they were offering us some hard boiled eggs and some spirit of sorts for supper. Then they were amazed at how hairy my hands (Brian's) were and were putting them next to mine to compare. It hadn't really occurred to me before that but the Chinese don't really have too much body hair. When I pulled up the leg of my trousers they nearly fainted!! Good fun.

We got talking to a Chinese english teacher on the train also. She invited us to stay with herself and her husband at their apartment in Shenyang and also to come visit her students. Unfortunately we couldn't stay around long enough to make it to the school as the students were on holiday but we did take her up on her kind offer of accomodation. We just spent a day in Shenyang looking around the palace before we took the train to Dalian.

We spent 3 days in Dalian just relaxing, bowling, organising our ferry to Korea etc. We did have ago on the "Worlds first land-sled" however. This was great craic racing down the side of the mountain overlooking Dalian city. Dalian is noted for being China's most liveable city! In fairness we were able to see the sky there for 2 of the 3 days which was a bit of a feat in China. Dalian is noted also for its soccer team who apparently are Chinese champions on many an occasion.

So then it was off to Korea on the boat!