Daegu: Mountains, E-World and Downtown
The mountain
About a 30-minute walk south of our neighborhood lies the beautiful Apsan Park, which is actually a mountain with several peaks. There’s an observatory at one peak with breathtaking views of the valley which Daegu City lies in. I walked up here alone twice and it’s absolutely magical. After enjoying my “Kimbap” for lunch on the peak, a security guard offered me an energy drink – Koreans are so generous. As I was in the midst of self-congratulating myself for making it to the top, several older ladies showed up in full exercise mode with sun visors, shattering my ego.
Downtown Daegu
To walk downtown from our apartment we take the major roads. We pass the strip club neighborhood, then the U.S. Army base with 15-foot tall walls with rusty barbed wire at the top. After 45 minutes we arrive at downtown Daegu. Downtown Daegu is a real assault on the senses, especially on Sunday afternoons when we head downtown along with the youth crowd to experience the sights, sounds and smells. Chalk full of young couples on dates (wearing matching attire, see below), loud pop music, outdoor concerts and tons of trendy teenagers in the latest fashions. Sometimes we can hear three different pop songs playing at once from various restaurants and stores. It’s all shop shop shop, full of energy.
E-world
One of our best experiences in Daegu, Sarah and I walked about 1 km north and went to E-world. E-world is like a Disneyland of sorts and boy what an experience. The matching couples were out in full force. Young couples wear matching clothing to show off their love for each other in public. I can’t think of any other place in the world where couples do this and Sarah and I love it. Too many to count as E-world is a very date-y place.
E-world is set up for photos. An old London bus, a giant romantic chair, a couples swing, you name it, it’s all about getting the perfect photo. With the cherry blossoms in full force we picked a perfect day for photos.
Before leaving we checked out the zoo, which, complete with squirrels, raccoons and chipmunks, felt more like a park back home.
Every great climb with a staircase begin must.
A gym halfway to the top of Mt. Apsan. In use on both my visits.
Observation deck at the top of Mt. Apsan overlooking Daegu.
View of Daegu from Apsan Park, looking east. The tram is visible in the hills below.
We were feeling old downtown. So much shopping. Had to drag Sarah out of the stores.
Perhaps a famous K-pop star. He was surrounded by adoring fans.
Matching couple. Extra credit for shoes and shopping bag. 9.0/10.
Grandparents are important in South Korea!
Giant ice thing, downtown.
The main subway stations have underground malls that stretch on for ages. Filled with shopping and restaurants.
Rallies are common. Not sure what this one was about.
Fancy looking firetrap restaurant.
We had a couple drinks in the bus-bar.
One of dozens of busy markets in Daegu. This one was a short walk away from our apartment.
View from the Board Game Cafe’s rooftop bar.
People come from all over to see E-world! Let’s get this party started!
The entrance is yet another photo op! Our first matching couple of the day.
More photo opportunities!?!?! Note the two tripods on the right.
Elves reporting for duty.
Finally had a chance to see a squirrel!
And a raccoon!!!
Couples or lonely singles may put a lock on this tree to show their devotion to paying $7 for a lock they can never use again.
Tribute to the website!
Looking down over E-world and Daegu.
Tram ride across the theme park at dusk.
Nighttime photo ops.
Intro to Daegu
We stayed for two months in Daegu, a city of 2.5 million residents in southeastern South Korea. Daegu has a large student population, a U.S. Army Garrison and a bustling downtown filled with trendy stores and restaurants. Unfortunately the air quality in Daegu is about the same as Busan – generally bad. So sometimes we planned our day around the pollution.
Our Neighborhood
Our apartment is in a charming little neighborhood of random alleys well outside the city center in an older part of town. A group of older ladies gather in the basement of our neighboring building to wash sprouts every day. Trucks drive by every few hours on sunny days selling vegetables, eggs or knife sharpening services. They let you know they have arrived with a megaphone announcement on repeat. Early morning walkers take to the gym equipment at the nearby park.
We will continue with more Daegu in our next post.
Street markets are the best place to get cheap veggies and fruit.
We didn’t recognize all the fruit.
Busy market near downtown Daegu.
Lady putting together sweets at the downtown market.
Yes, I want my Nuclear Steak!
Our humble apartment.
The monorail is driverless, and yet there’s an attendant that sits at the front looking very bored. The windows automatically fog up when approaching an apartment building – for privacy.
Our neighborhood’s school zone.
One is never far from a golf driving range in South Korea.
Restaurant worker taking a smoke break.
Some sidewalk murals.
Took this neat photo on a long walk around Daegu by myself.
Airplane restaurant…of course!
Sarah at the lake in our neighborhood. The location of our daily walk.
I love these little vans and I’m taking one home.
Vending machine.
The Audrey Hepburn cafes are a South Korean chain.
Daegu Tower behind us.
These flower vending machines are everywhere in South Korea.
Beautiful Mt. Apsan, as seen from our roof.
We risked it and got some haircuts. The price was under $10USD so we couldn’t complain! I love looking like a K-pop star anyways.
We had a few days of snow before the temperature shot back above 20degC.
U.S. Army Base, in case you couldn’t have guessed.
There is a large U.S. military presence in Daegu.
Free mattress.
The Korean coffee shops are super best. We spent hours.
The ‘veggie dishes’ have cooked beef, the ‘meat dishes’ have raw beef. No idea!
Another absolutely beautifully designed cafe in our neighborhood.
Waiting for my fried treats while sportin’ my K-pop haircut.
To Korea by Sea
We left Japan via ferry from Fukuoka to Busan. The ferry was very similar to B.C. Ferries; however, the passengers can hang out in little compartments where they spread out and sleep on mats on the floor. The ride took about 6 hours and most of the passengers ended up sleeping this entire time even though it was a mid-day ferry. The ferry has all the usual restaurants and arcades, but also a captain uniform to be borrowed for photo ops. This was our first introduction to the importance of photos in Korea!
My first thought after our ferry unloaded in Korea was where are the vending machines? Japan has them on every corner, even in rural areas. After this initial vending machine shock wore off we realized Korea was not at all what we expected. We were expecting it to be similar to Japan, with perhaps more trendy fashion and music (like the world-renowned K-pop). Instead we found Busan to be similar to China: the roads and streets are busy and cluttered with potholes, old ladies are selling vegetables on the sidewalks and the street environment is not manicured to perfection as it is in Japan. The Busan air was also very polluted, the worst I have experienced since I was in Beijing two years ago.
The Koreans we met in Busan seemed straightforward and authentic. On the trains, people relax, listen to music and even talk and laugh with each other. This was very much welcomed after three months in Japan, where fitting in and being respectful takes priority in all social situations, especially the trains, which sometimes seemed more like zombie-transporting machines.
Overall South Korea feels like a country in transition. Developing as fast as it can and constantly changing. The country is the opposite from Japan in many ways but we both have come to love the down-to-earth nature, creative fashion and energetic feel. However, we have not been to Seoul yet. Since arriving and spending a few nights in Busan, we have spent almost two months in a second-tier city called Daegu, which I will write about soon. So we are looking forward to seeing how Seoul compares in a few weeks time.
Leaving Fukuoka, Japan by ferry. It’s about 130 miles and five hours by sea to South Korea.
Ferry sleeping quarters.
Dress up like the captain!
On the ferry, Korean islands in background.
Beer on the ferry. It was cold and windy outside.
Arriving in Busan as the sun sets.
Welcome to Busan! The air pollution was pretty bad.
Dystopian apartment buildings.
The Lotte Castle! (The Lotte Group is South Korea’s 5th largest business conglomerate and consists of over 90 business units and employs 60,000 people in diverse industries such as candy manufacturing, beverages, hotels, fast food, retail, financial services, heavy chemicals, electronics, IT, construction, publishing, and entertainment).
A lot to take in visually on these Korean streets.
Sarah chilling in Busan. Reminds us of China in this photo.
Lotte Department Store. It’s huge.
This one’s bigger.
Potato chip chocolates.
Mall entrance is quite done up, to say the least.
Found a vending machine!
Amazing food street. We love Korean food…meals are under $10.
Yep, amazing food.
Our little apartment. Fully functional with a nice view of the strip club across the street.
This is our street. I think we ended up in the red light district.
Fukuoka
Fukuoka is on the Japanese southern island of Kyushu. The island definitely feels more relaxed than Tokyo and Sarah and I loved our two weeks here. The city feels like the Japanese version of Vancouver. There’s a busy harbour with beautiful ocean views and wide streets with trees running down the sidewalks. Every couple of days we walked downtown along canals towards the beautiful downtown tree-lined boulevards to explore the malls, restaurants, temples and parks.
Sarah and I spent a day with a Japanese family that hosted my mum and me in their apartment during a 2014 Japan trip. They drove all the way from Kagoshima on the other side of the island to show us a temple (a three hour drive each way for them). It was so great to see them again after a few years…thanks so much for spending the day with us and we hope to see you again in North America!
This ended our time in Japan. Next post we are off to Korea via a ferry to Busan.
View of the barbershop across the street from our Airbnb.
One of several hot/cold beverage vending machines right outside our apartment, so convenient!
The streets remind me of Vancouver.
Heading downtown, beautiful canals.
The dark spots are fish in the canal.
Harbour view.
More beautiful canals on our favourite walking route.
Another photo from a walk.
Downtown Fukuoka.
I think these barricades are One Piece, a popular anime show.
A well-used running route along the canal, with a woman feeding birds in the background.
Alleys in our neighborhood.
Little tent restaurants, a popular place for a meal on the way home from a long day at the office.
Art supplies. So many beautiful pigments.
Super Cookie Land. A popular Japanese comedian. People were lined up for the exhibit.
Sarah perusing one of many stores.
Cosplay stores in the downtown fashion malls.
Buildings with graffiti downtown.
Neighborhood Association poster.
Temple, right downtown.
Small walking street near the Dazaifu Shrine.
Lining up to pet the bull statue for good luck.
The parks and shrines were so beautiful. This tree was carefully propped up.
Reminds me of Spirited Away.
With our friend at the Dazaifu Shrine.
Walking up the shrine.
More beautiful torii gates.
Kyushu National Museum, where we saw a beautiful calligraphy exhibit with my friend from Kagoshima.
Inside the Kyushu National Museum. It was a great day with Sarah, my friend and her family.
Into the Woods
Sarah and I spent two weeks in a cabin near Ogawa-machi, Saitama Prefecture. With a population of 31,000, Ogawa is a small town located a couple hours by train northwest of Tokyo. There’s a hot spring hotel and several organic restaurants but otherwise not much for tourists in the town. We spent quite a lot of time sitting and reading in a locally famous cafe run by an old lady with three cats. I’m positive the cafe’s decor hasn’t changed in thirty years.
Our cabin, up a hill and in the middle of a bamboo forest, was located one train stop outside of town. Without a car, we had to brave the snow to take the the train into town for groceries every couple days. The cabin was well-built and spacious. We rented it through a local Japanese woman (via Airbnb) with an ecological mindset. That brings us to the toilet….it is a “composting toilet” and requires daily drum rotation. After several weeks the excrement is turned into fertilizer for the garden (not a vegetable garden). This wasn’t as bad as it sounds and we got pretty used to it (and the smells) by the end of our two-week stay. The cabin was spacious but so cold. Once the sun set over the bamboo trees we had to start up the kerosene heaters, a traditional Japanese method of providing heat, to keep the temperature bearable. At night it was utterly silent except for the rattle of the train passing by every hour or two – quite a difference from Tokyo.
We spent a lot of time at home working but also made time to explore the surrounding area. At the top of the hill behind our cabin was a planetarium and down the other side a Honda factory. We were surprised to find that in Japanese towns and suburbs there are no people milling about on weekday afternoons. One would expect the occasional mum pushing a stroller or retired couple out for a stroll, but there was almost no activity. This small village, of course, was no different. We loved our cabin experience and the chance for quiet contemplation and solitude in this beautiful town was welcomed.
Our cabin.
John’s workspace.
Cabin’s spacious living room. Kept warm by kerosene heater.
The cabin seemed very well built.
Composting toilet.
Arriving in Ogawa-machi.
Ogawa-machi’s downtown.
Cosmos, our favourite cafe.
Inside Cosmos there are three friendly cats.
More Cosmos excitement.
By the river, downtown Ogawa.
Kindergarten buses.
Old Gashapon machines.
Abandoned creepy house.
Apparently each part of Japan has their own manhole designs.
There were more run-down homes here than in the other parts of Japan we’d been to.
Kept pigeons at a house.
Our daily walking route.
Nearby Honda factory.
View from hill behind our cabin overlooking the village.
The small village we stayed in near Ogawa.
Snowy day at the train station. Nothing stops the trains though.
The town becomes so beautiful in the snow.