Today we left Seoul for Sangju. Most of us white guys skipped breakfast, knowing the huge meals awaiting us. A wise decision. We departed the California Hotel about 7:30 a.m.
A long drive, around 2 hours, in a very comfortable van, to our first stop in the large city of Taejeon (also spelled Daejeon). It’s the home of many government agencies, and we stopped at a branch of the dept. of transportation responsible for roads and rails. We were shown a PowerPoint presentation about the road network in Korea, followed by what became the usual exchange of schwag and business cards.
That was followed by lunch at a very traditional and very nice Korean restaurant. Biggest meal so far. We were joined by various officials. Non-stop food kept coming out. Too much to describe. I took pictures. Most of it was very good.
That was followed by a walk in nearby gardens and local park, which was very flower-filled, lots of water features, and many Korean pre-schoolers, usually wearing some kind of too-cute matching outfits, on an outing in the park.
The city we were in is noted for its hot baths with naturally-heated spring water. There was a place downtown, sort of a plaza, where they had a public foot bath which we participated in. You took off your shoes, rolled up pant legs, rinsed off your feet, sat on a low seat wall and soaked your feet in about 115 degree water. Very nice. The bottom was alternatively smooth cement and surface with embedded small stones to invigorate your feet as you walked around.
Our last stop in Taejeon was with a company, KoRail, that builds high-speed bullet trains. Richard, in our group, is a lobbyist and one of his accounts is pushing high-speed rail promoters in Calif. This company will bid for the account, I'm sure. We met with their bigwigs, were given a PowerPoint demo and brief talk. Then, we went to the top of their very new, very fancy, skyscraper for coffee and tea and a fantastic view of the city through large glass windows on 28th floor that wrapped around the entire building. Very impressive. Then they took us to the main floor info center, sort of a museum of displays about their trains which are already running in Korea. Then we went into a small theater where we were shown a 4-D movie about the trains --in English, thank goodness. It was very impressive. All animated, 3-D with motion effects in the seating (we experienced an earthquake, landslide, braking and acceleration effects). These guys cut no corners.
We re-entered the van for the remaining drive to Sangju where we arrived sometime between 5 – 6 pm, stopped briefly at the Sangju Tourist Hotel to drop off our bags, and headed to the highlight event of the day.
There is an annual Sangju Persimmon Festival which started the previous day, I believe. At a large riverfront park they had a huge permanent stage set up with lights, strobes, etc. We had reserved seats in the 2nd row behind the mayor and other local dignitaries. When we arrived, there was a trio of very attractive young women performers on keyboard, electronic cello and elec. violin. They were really very good. They were followed by 15 kids, about 10-12 yrs. old on drums and "gongs", which they beat with sticks. I guess the Korean equiv. of taiko. They were amazing. They did a very long piece that was great. They sat on the floor throughout but were very animated and choreographed. I had no idea how they kept track of the music and the moves.
They were followed by a local choir who sang a brief song about citizenship. Needless to say, everything is in Korean and despite the Jumbotron, no translations to English. The whole event was being broadcast on local TV and appeared to be hosted by local TV celebrities.
The choir was followed by speechifying by mayor, head of city council, equivalent of a congressman, etc. That went on for a while. Then locals were awarded "citizen of the year" type awards. Our host, Sung, sat next to me and kept me informed. Then it was our turn. First our spokesman, Richard Harris of the school bd. went up and gave brief remarks (in English which were translated).The rest of us then went up on stage and were presented with "honorary Sangju citizen" certificates by the mayor, given large bouquets, pix taken, etc. It was really quite wonderful. We kept referring to ourselves throughout the day as rock stars, and because of Peter Wagner's long white beard, I dubbed us "DMZZ Top".
That was followed by more K-pop with young lady backup singers and dancers, fireworks, and featuring 2 pop singers. A woman, probably in her 30s who Sung said was not a huge celeb, and a young man who, because of his glasses and slight stature looked like a Korean Harry Potter, sort of. He, apparently, is a pretty big name in Korea. We left about 7:40 and went backstage to await our van. Then it was back to the hotel, changed, and went to dinner. I guess the show went on until at least 10 pm when we could hear fireworks.
Next it was dinner at another restaurant with a lot of sashimi, cooked fish, etc. It was described as being Japanese, but it was clearly Korean. A lot of Korean food, not surprisingly, is very similar to Japanese, but is often much spicier. Wasabe often accompanies dishes, but you choose your dose. Kimchi is always there, but not to the extent I expected. Rice is served near the end of the meal in a small bowl into which you may choose to put some other saucy stuff and eat with a spoon. Every meal comes with chopsticks and a long-handled spoon. Last night we had abalone, crab, various fish, sea cucumbers, no beef. All good, although some of their soupy things don't appeal to me much. Had Korean beer (similar to Coors), soju and the two mixed (plus some scotch that Richard brought). Lot of drinking, but I've been pacing myself. Nowhere near having too much.
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