Change Of Journal Name
I decided to change my journal's name from "Between Sleeping and Studying Hard" to "Yesterday Daily: Bringing you the leftover news of yesterday". This is because I'm not studying hard (at least not for now), and I have a tendency to write about things that actually happened a few days before. So I guess my jornal will now start with telling when this stuff actually took place, like this:
Yesterday, I went on a ride with dad to pick up my mom from her English class at women's center. Suddenly, he decided that we'd go eat out for lunch, and somehow, it was decided (mainly by my dad) that we'll go to Im-Jin-Gak. It is still a mystery to me why he'd think that there are restaurants over there.
By the way, Im-Jin-Gak is a place at the border of South and North Korea. You can see North Korea right over the Im-Jin River. Literally. It is a tourist attraction that has a sad historical background. Speaking of tourists, there were a lot of Japanese tourists there, one of whom was in trouble because she couln't find any toilet paper in the public bathroom. (Lesson of the day: always carry tissue with you.)
And since we got there, we thought we might as well go on a tour. Fortunately, we all had proof of identity (in our case, driver's licenses. Foreigners had to show their passport), and we signed up for a cave tour. Then we ate soup and rice, and waited for the tour bus (which was scheduled for 1pm).
The tunnel tour takes you into the De-Militarized Zone, so Military Police stopped our tour bus on the way and re-checked our identity. Then our bus passed over a super-cool bridge that was blocked by stuff. The bus driver had mad skills and he drove the bus through the obstacle course quite speedily, without a single scratch. (Yahoo!) There were lots of barbed wires and lands fenced off, saying "MINE" (not yours. teehee.), but surprisingly, there were people living there, in a town called the Unification Village. They farm (but not in "mine" areas).
We watched a short movie before going into the tunel, and we learned that DMZ, while it was left abandoned for 50 years, had grown into the best habitat for wild animals, weird plants that don't grow anywhere else, circle of life, etc. I hope that, if two Koreas ever get united, citiplanners don't just bulldoze over this place and build stuff over it. It needs to be preserved, really.
We finally got our yellow helmets on, and walked into the tunnel. Dad couldn't go because the slope of the way going down there was too steep (and quite long) for a wheelchair, and he coudln't possibly walk all that way (at least not in time). Later we found out that if we had signed up for a different tour bus, we could've gotten on a mini train to go down there, and get to wear a white helmet. (But yellow is the classic, yo.)
Down in the tunnel...well, it was cool. Really. Couldn't believe it was summer.
The tunnel (The "Tunnel #3) is located about 75 meters underground. It is a man-made tunnel dug by North Koreans, and a third one at that. It is designed so that water will drain towards the north, and 30,000 soldiers per hour can march through the tunnel. Isn't the purpose of the cave obvious enough? yeah. The tunnel was discovered when someone heard the little explosives (used for digging the tunnel) going off. About 45 holes were drilled around the area, and 7 of them went right through the Tunnel#3. I don't know why North Koreans thought they could invade South Koreans by digging a tunnel -- every one of them were discovered.
General atmosphere was wet, dripping, and dark. I had to hunch because the ceiling was really low. I banged my helmet on the ceiling one time. Japanese girls behind me laughed. Fun fun.
You can't go to Noth Korea by this tunnel (it is blocked by gates and guarded well), but by the time I get as far as a tourist can go, I'm supposed to be under DMZ area. Whee. I even drank DMZ spring water.
Walking out of that tunnel nearly killed my legs.
Then we got to Dora Observatory. The MP there -- who happened to be a Han -- explained very stiffly about things we can see from there. He even kindly (but still very stiffly) answered my mom's questions. (Squee! I've never been so close to MP before. They're cool. I want to visit those proud sons of Korea and give them chocopies.) Mom gave me a 500won coin, and I got to see lots of stuff through binoculars: Southern-most border, Panmunjum (the Joint Security Area), Northern-most border, DMZ which was a forest, little parts of North Korean City, and even the empty apartments (but they were very pretty). I was hoping to see North Korean soldiers walking along the Northern-most border across the barbed wire, but I didn't see any. (But Why? Why? On TV I see South Korean Soldiers walking along the Southern-most border all the time! ALL the time!) It was a beautiful view, even after the binocular blacked out on me.
Then mom bought me a yellow DMZ hat (on the side it says JSA), which cost 8000won. It is my cheapest hat by far, and I love it.
Then we got to Dorasan Train Station. Actually I can get here from the train station near my home. (Though I'd need a proof of identity, again.) If North Korean railroads could be opened up to South Korean trains (which is physically possible), I could take a train trip to Europe. Imagine that! All the way across Asia to Europe!
The tour bus took us back to the Im-Jin-Gak. We came home, part of the way on the first national road. It was weird how fast we came home, I guess we do live pretty close to the North after all. Actually it's a common thing to see soldiers strolling about around here. I think there's even a general or somebody living in a nearby apartment. (I saw him hop off his car pool. Military Jeep. Oooooh.)
As for today, I decided I'm going to start taking herbal medicines, which I love, which is weird.
And I ate a whole chicken. Today is the initial "Bok"day, so it's going to get hot starting tomorrow.
"Bok" means something like lying down, spread over. On a Bok day you eat things to fill the body with energy you've lost to heat of summer. Some people eat dogs. My family ate chicken.
Yesterday, I went on a ride with dad to pick up my mom from her English class at women's center. Suddenly, he decided that we'd go eat out for lunch, and somehow, it was decided (mainly by my dad) that we'll go to Im-Jin-Gak. It is still a mystery to me why he'd think that there are restaurants over there.
By the way, Im-Jin-Gak is a place at the border of South and North Korea. You can see North Korea right over the Im-Jin River. Literally. It is a tourist attraction that has a sad historical background. Speaking of tourists, there were a lot of Japanese tourists there, one of whom was in trouble because she couln't find any toilet paper in the public bathroom. (Lesson of the day: always carry tissue with you.)
And since we got there, we thought we might as well go on a tour. Fortunately, we all had proof of identity (in our case, driver's licenses. Foreigners had to show their passport), and we signed up for a cave tour. Then we ate soup and rice, and waited for the tour bus (which was scheduled for 1pm).
The tunnel tour takes you into the De-Militarized Zone, so Military Police stopped our tour bus on the way and re-checked our identity. Then our bus passed over a super-cool bridge that was blocked by stuff. The bus driver had mad skills and he drove the bus through the obstacle course quite speedily, without a single scratch. (Yahoo!) There were lots of barbed wires and lands fenced off, saying "MINE" (not yours. teehee.), but surprisingly, there were people living there, in a town called the Unification Village. They farm (but not in "mine" areas).
We watched a short movie before going into the tunel, and we learned that DMZ, while it was left abandoned for 50 years, had grown into the best habitat for wild animals, weird plants that don't grow anywhere else, circle of life, etc. I hope that, if two Koreas ever get united, citiplanners don't just bulldoze over this place and build stuff over it. It needs to be preserved, really.
We finally got our yellow helmets on, and walked into the tunnel. Dad couldn't go because the slope of the way going down there was too steep (and quite long) for a wheelchair, and he coudln't possibly walk all that way (at least not in time). Later we found out that if we had signed up for a different tour bus, we could've gotten on a mini train to go down there, and get to wear a white helmet. (But yellow is the classic, yo.)
Down in the tunnel...well, it was cool. Really. Couldn't believe it was summer.
The tunnel (The "Tunnel #3) is located about 75 meters underground. It is a man-made tunnel dug by North Koreans, and a third one at that. It is designed so that water will drain towards the north, and 30,000 soldiers per hour can march through the tunnel. Isn't the purpose of the cave obvious enough? yeah. The tunnel was discovered when someone heard the little explosives (used for digging the tunnel) going off. About 45 holes were drilled around the area, and 7 of them went right through the Tunnel#3. I don't know why North Koreans thought they could invade South Koreans by digging a tunnel -- every one of them were discovered.
General atmosphere was wet, dripping, and dark. I had to hunch because the ceiling was really low. I banged my helmet on the ceiling one time. Japanese girls behind me laughed. Fun fun.
You can't go to Noth Korea by this tunnel (it is blocked by gates and guarded well), but by the time I get as far as a tourist can go, I'm supposed to be under DMZ area. Whee. I even drank DMZ spring water.
Walking out of that tunnel nearly killed my legs.
Then we got to Dora Observatory. The MP there -- who happened to be a Han -- explained very stiffly about things we can see from there. He even kindly (but still very stiffly) answered my mom's questions. (Squee! I've never been so close to MP before. They're cool. I want to visit those proud sons of Korea and give them chocopies.) Mom gave me a 500won coin, and I got to see lots of stuff through binoculars: Southern-most border, Panmunjum (the Joint Security Area), Northern-most border, DMZ which was a forest, little parts of North Korean City, and even the empty apartments (but they were very pretty). I was hoping to see North Korean soldiers walking along the Northern-most border across the barbed wire, but I didn't see any. (But Why? Why? On TV I see South Korean Soldiers walking along the Southern-most border all the time! ALL the time!) It was a beautiful view, even after the binocular blacked out on me.
Then mom bought me a yellow DMZ hat (on the side it says JSA), which cost 8000won. It is my cheapest hat by far, and I love it.
Then we got to Dorasan Train Station. Actually I can get here from the train station near my home. (Though I'd need a proof of identity, again.) If North Korean railroads could be opened up to South Korean trains (which is physically possible), I could take a train trip to Europe. Imagine that! All the way across Asia to Europe!
The tour bus took us back to the Im-Jin-Gak. We came home, part of the way on the first national road. It was weird how fast we came home, I guess we do live pretty close to the North after all. Actually it's a common thing to see soldiers strolling about around here. I think there's even a general or somebody living in a nearby apartment. (I saw him hop off his car pool. Military Jeep. Oooooh.)
As for today, I decided I'm going to start taking herbal medicines, which I love, which is weird.
And I ate a whole chicken. Today is the initial "Bok"day, so it's going to get hot starting tomorrow.
"Bok" means something like lying down, spread over. On a Bok day you eat things to fill the body with energy you've lost to heat of summer. Some people eat dogs. My family ate chicken.