Category Archives: Travel

Films, Movies and food, sex, Travel

Only In Asia

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Crazy Rich Asians

Credits:

Director: Jon Chu

Starring:
Constance Wu
Henry Golding
Gemma Chan
Lisa Lu
Nico Santos
Awkwafina
Ken Jeong
Michelle Yeoh

Not long after it was announced that the book by Kevin Kwan was going to be made into a movie the internet started talking. Were they going to do justice to the book? Were they going to go the way of Ghost in the Shell and whitewash the main character? Fears were laid to rest last October when the magazine Entertainment Weekly revealed that all the characters were to be played by Asian actors. From there, the buzz just grew and what looked like a fairly small romantic comedy has now become on of the year’s biggest hits (in October, the film had grossed over $236 worldwide). By now several of the film’s actors have gone from relatively unknown to huge stars, and Constance Wu has become the poster child for the Asian American acting community,

How did we get here? Remember when the film The Joy Luck CLub did something similar? Or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon? Or even Memoirs of Geisha? But Crazy Rich Asians feels different. Whilst those earlier films felt tied to a sense of the exotic Asian culture that probably only exists for westerners, this is very much an Asian film made by Asians on their terms and not pandering to western ideas about what Chinese culture is about.

From the beginning, we’re in familiar romantic territory, with the central couple Nick and Rachel cooing over a shared dessert plate. As in the book, Rachel is an economics professor, and there is a very neat scene where she uses a poker game to demonstrate the rules of game theory. There is a touch of wonder about the film, with fantastic scenes of characters jetting off around the world in private jets, helicopters and top-end sports cars. The director is no stranger to magic, having made both editions of Now You See Me.

Rachel and Nick are in love, both work at NYU, and seem to share everything including dessert. It’s is going great but she has never met anyone from Nick’s side of the family, so Nick suggests she comes with him to his best friend’s wedding in Singapore.

The term rich can mean anything from well-off to loaded and it’s with the typical modesty of the truly loaded that Nick refers to his family as ‘comfortable’. In fact, Nick comes from one of the most successful families in Asia, the Young family. In a brilliant scene, Rachels best friend Peik Lin (Awkwafina) explains how they came from China and bought the first buildings of the city state, becoming the old money kings of Asia.

In another scene, we see the family having just taken ownership of the stuffy Calthorpe Hotel in London. Having established just how rich the Young family are, the film wastes no time in showing us how much fun they have with it, and the stupendous luxury they live in. Maybe we’re not supposed to be impressed by such conspicuous consumption, yet I felt both exhilarated by the wealth on display and so happy to see the characters enjoying it.

I doubt that Singapore will look so good or has ever looked like this on film before. From the airport, Nick takes Rachel, along with his best friend Colin and Araminta to one of the Hawker markets in Singapore. All of the chefs have spent their lives making the same food and some have even been awarded michelin stars. Yes, a bit of travelogue maybe but the scenes cement the film’s Asian location firmly in our minds (in fact the film spends a mere 5 minutes of screen times in New York before zipping to Taiwan, Singapore and the mysterious sounding Samsara Island.

Rachel’s college roommate has her own mansion, but it’s nothing when we see the family home of the Youngs. Inspired by the Hall of Mirrors and Donald Trump’s toilet, Peik Lin lives in a garish new build, perfect for her father who looks like an Elvis impersonator, but Nick’s family live in a house so  grand that it has no GPS signal and is guarded by turbaned soldiers carrying bayonets.

The central drama is how Nick must convince his family and friends that Rachel (American born Chinese) is somehow good enough to be his wife and to be part of the Young family. Ever since Nick was raised by his Amah, he had been brought up to become the new CEO of the family company (this part was more detailed in the book, and the film perhaps wisely ignores the business side of things). Rachel’s reception is hardly warm, and it only gets worse as she fails to appreciate the sacrifice made by Nick’s mother, and the sense of duty of being married. But if anything, Araminta’s friends are even worse. Not only has Rachel committed the crime of being American, she’s also not even ‘that’ pretty, and hasn’t had the surgical enhancement of many of the women in their social circle. While the women Rachel meets are pretty ghastly, Nick’s cousin Astrid becomes Rachel’s guide to surviving the horrors of the bachelor party. Indeed, Astrid serves to remind us that life in high society is not so perfect; Astrid’s husband is having an affair.

Finding American-Asian actors who could play the parts must have taken some doing. The producers revealed that they could have chosen hundreds of actors for the part of Rachel Chu alone. Constance Wu made the Asian stereotype of the tiger mother in Fresh off the Boat a completely likeable character. Whilst Rachel is in some ways a little too passive, there’s no denying that Wu has done an admirable job in creating an emotionally engaging character, and there’s some pretty snappy remarks made by Rachel, even if they get slightly drowned out by the background noise, the soundtrack is fast like the best comedies that Hollywood used to make. Henry Golding (Nick) was a slightly controversial choice –  some felt that it was wrong to use a half British actor – but his English accent is made plausible when you consider that half the scions of Chinese CEOS are educated in English boarding schools. British actress Gemma Chan plays Nick’s cousin as a slightly tragic figure: a woman married to a less successful man who feels she must hide her designer purchases so that he won’t feel intimidated. In a lovely scene near the end, she leaves him behind in their house, but not until she has picked up a secreted pair of earrings which she had bought earlier on in the film but never felt she could wear them. 

Peik Lin (hilarious) is like the fairy godmother character, helping Rachel to choose not one but two perfect dresses to wear, first at the party to mark Colin’s wedding and again at the wedding itself. Frankly, I’d be surprised if the film doesn’t win at least a best costume award at the academy’s next year. I’ve not seen so many beautiful dresses since the Devil Wears Prada and the film is as stylish and beautiful as any film from the fifties. The scene where Peik Lin and Edison select designer dresses is going to be one of the scenes endlessly re-watched, and it should be: it’s hilariously over the top and camp, whilst allowing Sally Yeh’s extremely jaunty mandarin cover of Material Girl to be played.

If much of the attention is given to dresses, there’s a fair bit of partying going on too. Bachelor parties are usually hookers and drugs, declares Bernard Tai, but that’s boring. How about a party on a yacht, with hundreds of dancers and a flare gun that shoots off into the ocean? It’s gloriously excessive and fun in a tasteless way, and the actor who plays Tai knocks every scene he is in out of the park. He’s played by American comedian Jimmy O Yang, and I can’t see wait to see what he does next. The fact that he alone of the male characters has a stomach that overhangs his belt is even funnier.

Alongside all the dresses, the film whips along at a cracking pace, and then the wedding hits us by surprise, being unexpectedly moving, touching and beautiful. The film achieves another brilliantly emotional and real scene when Rachel’s mother arrives in Singapore after Rachel has left Nick.  In the world of Mrs Young – and the numerous aunties that spend their time in bible meetings and making dumplings with their children – it’s family that comes first. The message for Rachel is clear – you can’t understand, because Americans always think about their own interests rather than making sacrifices for their family.

It is a very shallow film in lots of ways but ends up telling more about Asia than the well-meaning but turgid Joy Luck Club. Sometimes the frivolous and trivial can be very serious. By now, I should make it clear that I loved everything about the film and I am booking my next holiday in Singapore.

Closing comments: a wonderful film that does justice to a classic novel. Some wonderful moments and feelgood ending make it the perfect film to watch with family or as a romantic evening with a loved one.

sex, Travel

Flight attendants

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=Do you like flying? Although most people hate it, I think there are a number of reasons to love it. Apart from being the fastest way to travel, allowing us to get across the globe in less than 24 hours, it’s very cheap, probably the cheapest per mile of any transport. But for me the number one reason to love flying has to be the flight attendants. Sure, it would be nice to have a little more legroom and space, and I’d prefer it if the flight had fewer people (how are they always full even mid-week), but once I am onboard and I’m greeted by the sweet smile of a sexy young woman, my travel complaints all but disappear.

Snacks and dinner (as well as drinks which can be refilled several times) make the flight extremely comfortable, and when else do you get such attentive service? The narrow seating is actually a positive because it means that the flight attendants have to move closer to us. The other thing I should mention is that most of these women are beautiful and young. I don’t know about Easyjet or RyanAir, I haven’t used them for years. But if you take any Asian airline you won’t go wrong. It’s rare to see a male flight attendant, although it’s more likely on the long-haul flights. the uniforms are good, usually skirts and a tight-fitted jacket. Many flight attendants prefer to wear heels because of the height advantage. All of this means that I’m particularly motivated to fly and often board the plane early. Unfortunately, some passengers couldn’t care less about the service they receive onboard.

Do you greet the attendants when they are welcoming you onboard? Or do you ignore them and carry on looking for your seat? I’m astounded by how many people ignore this basic courtesy. And this rudeness continues onboard, with passengers ignoring requests to follow instructions, keep there seat-belts on, and generally behaving in a unpleasant manner. Like the character Nick in Crazy Rich Asians, (a self-professed airline geek), I always follow the safety demonstration in case their is an emergency, but many airlines don’t do this anymore, preferring to show a video on the seat TV screens, or totally ignoring it. A shame, as I particularly enjoy watching attendants mime the inflation of life jackets and showing us the emergency exits. I guess I’m not alone, because there’s a scene in Chungking Express where Valerie Chow strips out of her uniform and blows into an imaginary life jacket to seduce Tony Leung. The film also has Faye Wong dress up in a flight attendant uniform in the second part of the film.

Actually, a personal fantasy of mine is to fly alone on a small jet with a group of women from Korean air or JAL, just stopping off at airlines to refuel, and enjoying the food and drink onboard. I think there is a real niche out there for people like me who don’t care about where they go, only how they get there. I guess there is first class, which allows for a few passengers to enjoy better service and food, as well as boarding earlier. But my dream is to see these women in and out of their uniforms, to see what happens when the plane lands and the passengers leave. Mostly the attendants have several hours between flights and end up hanging around the airport. All this means you should feel much more positive about flying.

 

Korean Culture, Personal, Restaurants, Travel

Ten things I hate about South Korea.

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In no particular order:

Bars and restaurants

One of the worst things is going to restaurants and bars on your own. Koreans have a hatred of doing things on their own. Don’t expect to be welcomed by other Koreans when you go to restaurants as a foreigner, they will completely avoid any interaction with you. Although I enjoy eating Korean food, the pressure of sitting in a restaurant being glowered at is too much sometimes. The bottom line: Korea can be very lonely place for a single person.

Korean language

Aaahh, the Korean language. When I was England I was serious about studying Korean. I took lessons, went on language exchanges and used apps to improve my Korean. THe worst thing is when you have a conversation in Korean and people ignore you, or laugh, or answer you in English. I have learned very little Korean here and I am convinced my Korean is going backwards.

Dating

Wow, is dating hard work here. Its not that dating is unpleasant, it’s mroe the attitude Korean women have towards dating foreigners. For example, a common excuse is “I can’t speak English so I won’t date anyone who isn’t Korean.” It’s hard to approach someone and simply ask them out, at least, in my experience.

Traditional culture

I visited the Korean palace in Seoul. Apart from a nice garden and a pond, there was little else to see. As for traditional culture, Korean’s traditional music, pansoori consists of a drum being banged loudly for half an hour whilst a woman makes a noise like she is being slowly impaled. Apart from concerts and Koreans wearing Hanbok, I see very little signs of traditional culture here. At least in Japan you can easily see kimonos and visit traditional restaurants.

K-pop

When people talk about Korean Wave, Hallyu, it’s K-pop that often comes up. Now, I like K-pop. I think some of it has been good fun. What I don’t like is that for most people K-pop is the only music they will hear in Korea. There are some great rock and Indie bands but due to the large record companies that produce and distribute music its very difficult to hear anything but the Melon 100.

Work

Korea has the most miserable work culture in the world. But at least Koreans can talk to each other and share food at work. As a foreigner, I feel excluded from most work activities. For some reason, it doesn’t occur to my colleagues to ask me any questions about my life or pay any interest in what I am doing, or invite me to lunch. Although many Koreans teach English, they would much rather talk to their colleagues in Korean than speak English to me.

Old people

Encountering old people is one of the hardest aspects of life here. For example, there are seats marked for use for the elderly, one of the many areas where old people have privileges over everyone else. It’s quite common for older Koreans to take up every seat in a carriage while young people who have been working all day must stand.  Korea has a real problem with age. There are places where you won’t see anyone under thirty. At other times, you can visit an outside market and it will be mostly be seniors. It’s hard to reconcile the behaviours of older Koreans with younger people. It’s a problem that is going to get worse as Korea has the lowest birth rate in the world.

Clothes and fashion

I try not to buy many clothes here. It’s hard to find clothes of very good quality. Unfortunately Koreans have a mania for new things. It’s not socially acceptable to wear old clothes here. everything has to be brand new and up-to-the minute. I can’t deny that Koreans are well-dressed, stylish people, but the desire to follow the latest fashions seems exhausting.

TV

This is certainly the least serious problem because there’s always the option of simply turning the TV off. There are typically three types of popular shows here:

1: Lifestyle and travel shows. A group of foreign tourists visit Korea and try kimchi, wear hanbok, etc. I can’t watch without cringing, but there are at least five programmes I can see which follow this theme.

2. Wacky and zany variety programs, the most popular is Running Man. They sometimes feature famous Americans such as Tom Cruise and Steven Youn.

In the last category are dramas. The good ones are ‘The Good Wife”, “The Return” and “Mr Sunshine.” There are also Korean soap operas which usually revolve around family relationships. A very common trope is a mother-in-law who criticises her daughter for not being a good wife, or making bad food or something. These are the least interesting programs on TV. There are several news programs which seem to be exclusively focused on domestic news. Which brings me to…….

Attitude to foreigners 

As many have pointed out, Koreans have a strange attitude. On the one hand, I think they want foreigners to know about Korean culture. I see that they have a lot of information about Korean attractions on line. On the other hand, a foreigner could easily come to the conclusion that Koreans don’t want to have any interaction with foreigners unless it involves money. Come on Koreans, you can do better!

Korean Culture, Restaurants, Travel

Jangyu Cafe Street, Gimhae

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‘Finding the perfect coffee in Jangyu Cafe Street

Besides being home to Busan’s International airport , Gimhae has many other things to recommend it as a place to visit. There is the excellent Gaya museum and the tomb of King Suro. For shoppers, there is a large Shinsegae department store and next to the Lotte Water Park there is a massive outlet store.

Last week I visited Jangyu Caffe Street. Busan has its own well known café street in the Jeonpo area of Soemyeon, but I was interested in somewhere off the beaten track. After a stuffy bus ride through the countryside, I was sure I was heading in the wrong direction, but eventually I saw the twisting tubes of the water park and realized I wasn’t far from my destination.

The area is known alternatively as Jangyu Café Street on Instagram hashtags. Most of the cafes were located in a street by Yulha canal in a long stretch of shops. I counted more than 15 cafés, which were impressive looking and the street is free (mostly) of the identical franchises such as Caffe Bene and Tom N Toms. There were so many that I wanted to try but I chose Labelles Heidi because it seemed to have the nicest atmosphere of all the places I passed.

Inside, the design was modern and light. There was a decent selection of cakes and yoghurt. But it was coffee I was there for. They offer a selection of roasts with guidance on the roasting, blend and flavour profile. Bitter, tart, sour, earthy are some of the words used to describe coffee. I could tell it was a great cup with out knowing too much about which coffee they used. It was spacious enough to find plenty of free seats, and much quieter than the more hectic cafes in Jeonpo. There were several ladies yakking away in the comfortable chairs downstairs whilst on the mezzanine the ever present young Korean girls were furiously tapping away on their phones.

Ice Americano
Inside Labelles Heidi

A few doors down is Café Stein. I went there to try some very good Gelato, and chilled out for a while reading the Korean books on the shelves. Finally I tried one more coffee in Café 1001. The mood was a little cold so I ordered my coffee to go. But with so many high quality places I am sure to be going back soon.

Japan, Travel

Two Film museums in Japan

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Two film museums in Japan.

Studio Ghibli Museum

Juzo Itami Museum

As one of the most popular attractions in Japan, tickets are very hard to get hold of. You can only get them in advance. You are given a time slot. And that’s it. Bow, I have no issue with popular places and I understand perhaps the need to make a reservation.

The first big downside is you must enter a queue before you can even enter. So imagine arriving at 4pm, waiting for your poreciuos slot, and then finding you have another ten minutes before you can go inside. Then your ticket must be verified with your name, and it might cause problems if you are not the same person as the one who booked it.

I t looked like there were people who hadn’t left from the previous showing. Why on earth do you give people a particular time slot if they aren’t going to have the museum to themselves?

When we went inside we were told not to take photos of anything in the museum. This didn’t bother me and I can understand why they ban them. Now I’ve been to a lot of famous museums in my time and I m used to being told what I can and can’t do.

But this has to be the most overly monitored museum I have ever entered. Although there’s nothing particularly fragile on display, there are staff at every turn, ready to admonish you for not taking your shoes off in the right place, or for not putting them on again properly.

I thought that calling it a museum is not truly accurate. Most museums offer some explanation of their subject and follow a logical theme. This is really just a theme park, with one or two museum-like areas. There is very little information and only one or two exhibits. One of the most disappointing experiences was the short film shown in the cinema. Although we had to queue for ten minutes (valuable time which could have been spent actually looking at things) there was no idea of what we were waiting to watch. By the way, these ‘films’ are not shown anywhere else. I’m all for giving customers a unique experience, but I can’t imagine why they would only show a film in a museum if, oh, wait, it’s not going to be any good then, is it? iNDEED, Those expecting to see some kind of lost masterpiece will be bitterly disappointed.

I’m not sure if the short film was even by Ghibli, so poor was the animation.

Next to the cinema is a room containing carousels of some of the famous Ghibli films which light up when they are spun. It’s titled how a film is born. Fair enough, but aren’t most of the Ghibli films taken from existing ideas, such as children’s books? So why not show how the book’s were developed into the movies?

There are several staircases leading to the second and third floors. After failing to get any thing from the short film (which wasn’t short enough), I left, eager to see what was so exicting for people to make a special visit for. A room upstairs contains books and type writers. It’s charming but I can’t see the link with Ghibli. Are these items belonging to the famous directors Hiyazaki and Takahata? We don’t know, because there aren’t any captions to tell us. At this point I was feeling frustrated and a little fed up. It was a lovely day and I was thinking of skipping the museum for a walk on the park. But there was finally something worth looking at on the third floor. Titled food and film, it contained actual storyboards from Laputa, Spirited Away, and Princess Monoke, showing frames of characters eating food. It was the only part of the museum containing any real substance.

The museum also feel somewhat dumbed down. Yes, Ghibli make films for families, but so what? I don’t consider the films themselves childish. For example, the explanation of menstruation in Only Yesterday, or the effects of war in Grave of the Fireflies. The museum doesn’t even mention the 1993 title Ocean Waves, despite it being some people’s favourite Ghibli movie.

There are two shops, one which was so crowded I couldn’t go in to. I have heard that there wasn;t much to buy and that the manga shop has better merch. But I didn’t go to buy things. I wanted to learn more about Ghibli, but the museum failed on this front. There were far too many people for such a small space. Tourists crowded together, families with crying children who looked as though they were bored, and yet again, too many staff who seemed to interrupt anyone from enjoying things too much.

 

Finding the Ghibli museum a little bit of a turnoff, I had low expectations for other museums. But I found a second museum that in some ways I liked more.

For starters, this one had some things in it and contained a stronger theme. The name Juzo Itami might not have the same meaning for foreign fans as Ghibli but he was one of the first directors to really make a name for Asian cinema internationally (at least after Kurosawa).

His most famous film is easily Tampopo. It has some of the most fabulous scenes of characters eating and is perhaps best known for an incredible sex scene involving various food items.

The museum can easily be seen in one hour. Easily, because there are few people attending. There aren’t many exhibits in English but as it’s all visual, this won’t be a problem. Starting with a video of his wife Nobuko introducing the museum, there are exhibits of some funny sketches the young director made. Helping to give a sense of who he was as a person, the museum has old family photographs.

There is a café where you can enjoy tea and try a cake popular with the direcrtor himself. These were really overpriced but at least they could be reasonably associated with the films. As opposed to anything at the Ghibli museum, which I couldn’t try anyway due to the lack of time.

 

 

 

 

Juzo Itami museum

Studio Ghibli museum

 

 

 

sex, Travel

Japanese Girls

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This holiday I was feeling lonely after my girlfriend left me.

With several days on my own, I was facing difficult times. So I set myself a little challenge. I decided I would approach as many girls as possible and ask to take a photo of them. My task taught me a lot about Japanese women and I even made some new friends in the process.

As you can see, they smile a lot, although the business lady kept it sexy and very cool. The fashion in Japan is diverse.You rarely see two girls who look the same way.

I identified a few trends, for example the baggy jeans as in photo one. But the women in Japan are as individual and different as the stars in the galaxy.

 Yuki, Clothes shop

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I saw her in a clothes shop. I asked if I could take her photo and she agreed, I got her a vanilla crepe from Dipper Dan for her trouble.

Matsumoto, Narita Airport

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Female flight attendants are one of the reasons I never complain about flying is being able to see women like her. I’m very happy that they always wear skirts and some kind of heeled shoe.

Two schoolgirls, Kamakura station.

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I briefly considered not approaching them but did so anyway. They were both very tall with short skirts and I’m sad that you can’t see them in the photo. Japanese school uniforms are considered the best in the world and a popular fetish item. You rarely see girls wearing trousers.

Miho, Matsuyama

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She swept across my path as I was walking to the bus station. She looks amazing.

Lisako, Hakata Ekimae

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One of an army of women I kept seeing in the Hakata business district of Fukuoka. She didn’t mind posing in the slightest, even though it was raining.

RISA NAKANO, BUS STOP

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Reona Yamasaki, Kitakyushuu City

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She kept laughing and smiling, I took a photo as she was eating a red bean bun.

Mina, radio announcer

She had a knock-out body and perfect makeup.She was so friendly and open.

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Haruka and Yukie, Dogo Onsen

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Woman on the bus to Canal City Hakata.

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My top turn on? Two words: wedge sandals. For some reason they drive me crazy. I think women know this, which is why they wear them.

A hairdresser

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Travel

Making waves in Matsuyama

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My most recent trip to Japan to Japan took me to some new and interesting places.

There was the small city of Matusyama. It’s actually the largest city of Ehime prefecture. As well as having Japan’s oldest onsen (bath house), it’s famous for a beautiful white castle high on the hill.

I arrived in Matsuyama just after dark, as the residents (and a few tourists) were getting ready for their evening bath. The view of the Onsen is very impressive, lit up by lanterns and street 20180421_170807.jpglamps. To add to this peaceful mood, you will see many visitors walking to the spring wearing brightly-coloured yukatas (a lightweight version of a kimono). Just outside the Dogo station is an old electric train and there is a robot clock that comes to life every hour.

The tram running from the main JR station connects the city’s main areas of interest. Taking line 5 allows you to pass the city’s main shopping area. Right outside Matsuyama City station is the Takeshimaya Shopping centre. The roof is home to a 50 metre illuminated ferris wheel (moved a few year’s ago from Hiroshima). In a lovely gesture of good will, the city allows foreign passport holders the opportunity to ride it for free (normal price is 700 yen). It’s 15 minutes for it to make one turn, and the views are as impressive as the structure of the wheel itself.

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The city is famous for udon noodles, slightly chewy and very thick soup noodles made from wheat flour. At about 400 yen for a medium bowl of ‘dons in a light seafood broth, they were some of the best value food I had here.

If you want something more fancy, the Michelin guide has for the first time published it’s ratings for the city. It covers most of the city’s expensive restaurant, but a few cheaper options are recommended. With everything from ramen places (Shiosoba Maeda) to very expensive Kaiseki restaurants, it admittedly favours places at the latter end of the price scale. But reading the guide does at least give a good indication of the range of food available.

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Although famous, due its age, and also its connection with the Studio Ghibli film Sprited Away, the Dogo Onsen is actually has very little options for bathing, with only one bath. There’s a much more impressive onsen near the JR station (Hibiski). There are several different waters including foaming baths. Walk around naked, but put your pants on if you’re getting a massage.

If it sounds like Matsuyama is a bit of a sleepy place (bathhouses, trams and castles) there’s a large red light area in Okkaido where you can go if you’re feeling sexy. And with some of the best looking women in the whole of Japan , this might be the number one reason to come here.

Getting there 

I flew with Jetstar, a budget airline from Narita airport.

There are many alternative ways to get here; for example by bus, train, or across the cycleway from Hiroshima.

Korean Culture, Restaurants, Travel

Vegan restaurant in Busan: review

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Recently I have been thinking a lot about my diet. It’s hard to say why, but I’m beginning to lose interest in meat. Although I’ve eaten meat my whole life, I find myself questioning whether I should continue to do so.

But in Korea at least 90% of the restaurants serve meat, and it’s hard to find anything which is strictly vegetarian. But, after some searching online, I came across this small vegan restaurant in Namcheon, which is one of the most pleasant areas of Busan. The area happens to contain a number of excellent bakeries too, but I didn’t try them today.

The name of the restaurant is 재크와콩나무 (Jack and the Beanstalk Vegan. We took our shoes off outside and were led to some simple wooden tables in the main restaurant area. The first difference between this restaurant and other Korean restaurants is that there is no music. You can focus on the conversation with your companion in a peaceful environment. The menu was printed in English which was helpful.

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It’s easy to make jokes about vegan food without really understanding anything about it. People who think that vegetables are less interesting than meat are forgetting that meat is  pretty boring too until it is seasoned or fried/roasted/baked.

A Korean woman came to tell us more about the menu and later a second woman, the chef and owner gave us her recommendation. She said that the kale and banana smoothie  was delicious so I ordered it. Her suggestion was correct. They are known for a ‘steak’ that is actually made from soybeans but this wasn’t on the menu. Instead I ordered the Burrito set (rice and salad in a tortilla wrap) which came with falafel and hummus.

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The food was extremely fresh and completely organic. I’m always interested in the line between healthy and delicious. For example, bread or pasta made with wholewheat instead of plain flour. It’s really a sign of a chef’s talent that they can make something healthy taste good. Having worked as a chef I can attest to the amount of salt, oil and butter that chefs use to make food taste good.

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The best thing about vegan food is that you don’t get the uncomfortable ‘blow-out feeling’ which often comes from eating meat. This food is light but it doesn’t mean it won’t fill you up or leave you feeling unsatisfied.

The restaurant offers yoga classes in the mornings and evenings in the back room, which is where we ate out lunch. At this point it would be very easy to make some jokes about hippies and people in sandals and hemp and whatever. But I won’t, because it was all done in the best possible way. The chef/owner graciously posed for a photo after our lunch. They serve alcohol  (wine and beer). The price was reasonable at 30000 Korean won for two people.

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Restaurant information.

재크와콩나무

수영구 로 16번길14.

Travel

My trip to Fukuoka

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I took a short trip to Fukuoka just the other day to see my girlfriend for Christmas. I got there on Christmas Eve Eve. We stayed in Nishi ward the first night.  I wasn’t impressed with our Airbnb stay at all. Firstly, our host kept us waiting for twenty minutes in the cold. Then we found that there was not any food for us or any place to cook.

The next day was better. We went back to Hakata which has several big department stores. I find the service in these shops to be first rate and you can eat dozens of free samples if you are so inclined. We went to a doughnut shop I had read about online called Canezee’s. It was nothing like Krispy Kreme at all and the doughnuts tasted natural and fresh, as healthy as it is possible to get.

There was a Christmas market opposite Tenjin station with traditional stalls and a J-pop band performing. It was pretty funny to watch as the fans were made up of 40 year old men copying their dance moves and singing along.

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We took the bus from Hakata to Tokurikikodanmae, a district of Kitakyushu. When we got there it was raining but our lovely Japanese host was there to pick us up. She drove us to her house where we were staying for the night.

It was an incredible experience which exceeded my expectations. We stayed in a large bedroom with a balcony overlooking the misty mountains.  Then a couple of hours later we sat down to eat a delicious Christmas dinner that Kimi and her mother had prepared for us.

First we had a kind of chicken pie with puff pastry topping. Then they bought out roast chicken with several plates of vegetables. I was getting full but we had tomato pasta (the first time I have eaten pasta since leaving UK three months ago). There was bread to follow which the guests really enjoyed dipping into olive oil.

 

Throughout the meal I drank sake which I had purchased that morning near the Dazaifu shrine. The other guests were not drinking much but they drank plenty of non-alcoholic beers and sweet plum cocktails.

I was especially excited to try the Christmas Cake. Unlike the traditional English rich fruit cake served at Christmas, which has marzipan and sugar frosting, it’s traditional to eat a cream roll cake with strawberries. It wasn’t very sweet but it was wonderfully light after the rich food we had just eaten.

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I took a bath with my my girlfriend and then we slept on wooden beds with thick futons. The next morning our hosts gave us breakfast of toast and black tea before driving us all the way to Kokura station.

We walked around the castle and then spent time in the museum looking at costumes and swords from the Edo period. It was more fun than I expected and we spent a long time there.

Kokura
A nice souvenir from Kokura castle

The museum has the largest diorama in Japan – a recreation of Kokura town with 5,000 dolls and to scale buildings. A funny experience was the theater, where they had a robotic doll who came on the stage and narrated a video presentation about the Gion festival.

Kukora Castle

We stopped off in a branch of Coco Curry, ordering a scrambled egg with curry sauce. I’m always impressed by the Japanese way of ordering lunch alone. It’s totally different from the Korean style of sitting on a table in a large group. We had to leave soon after to get the bus back to Tenjinm.

I nearly missed my flight because the bus was delayed in traffic. Thanks to the kind actions of an Asiana worker, I was rushed through security and I made it to the departure gate minutes before boarding the plane.

I can’t say anything bad about Fukuoka. In fact I enjoyed everything we did here. Just doing simple things like going to a 7 eleven, which is their convenience store, is better than anywhere else.  You feel comfortable taking the subway trains because the seats are made of soft upholstery, similar to the old-style London tube trains.

I will try not to use Airbnb on my next trip. I don’t like the extra charges they add (for 1 more guest, cleaning charges, cancellation). Couch-surfing is often better because you can have a deeper interaction with your host and really learn about them. And isn’t that what travelling is for?