October Asia Trip - Part 2 - Osaka, Japan

I arrived at the Osaka Airport the evening of October 11th. After collecting my baggage I bought a ticket for the JR train, the express "bullet train" that goes from the airport to the center of Osaka and on to Kyoto. In order to ride the express train, you purchase a regular ticket plus an "express" ticket for an extra 1150 yen. Somewhere between purchasing the ticket and before the conductor came to stamp tickets my express ticket disappeared. While I had a receipt showing that I had purchased both tickets, they wanted the actual ticket, not just the receipt. I hadn't converted any cash yet, and they didn't accept credit cards, and just when I was afraid that they would haul me off in chains, a kind Japanese lady who spoke English offered to take my American dollars and give me the required amount. I was very grateful for her kindness and will look for opportunities to help visitors to America to pay her back.

My hotel in Osaka was the Laforet Hotel, which is adjacent to the train station, within walking distance.

Here are some pictures of the view outside my hotel room.






I spent Monday in my hotel as it was a national holiday and I had lots of work to do. I also had time to nap and recover a bit from jet lag, and went for a walk around noon to see the neighborhood. There was a lovely doll at the train station.

I was also amused when a small Japanese child noticed me and pointed me out to his mother. It's a bit of a twist to be the stranger that is different and gets noticed.

My hotel wasn't a typical American tourist hotel, but catered more to Japanese business travelers, and so the experience was quite different than I expected. The staff was very gracious. The lobby contained some beautiful flowers - the yellow blooms were unusual and quite striking. The lobby was also immaculate and spacious.




The area around my hotel is a major intersection, with the Shin-Osaka train and subway station close, so there was a lot of traffic. The sidewalks between the station and the hotel were elevated, as were the highways. I found out later that the "regular" streets were on the lower level. You can see some of that in the next set of pictures.







I took a taxi to the office on Tuesday. Japanese taxis are nice and tidy with lovely doilies on the seats to keep them and you clean.




The Japanese also drive on the other side of the road. Here are some shots from the back of the taxi. There were also many people on bikes - school children, people on their way to work, shopping, etc. Most cyclists rode on the sidewalk, especially the school children.







Close to the office is a tennis club - the building design is shown in this shot:



On the first trip to the office, the driver stopped on a small street in front of a shop that looked like a car mechanic or welding shop. He was quite puzzled and had to finally call someone to find out where the office was. It turned out to be on the other side of the block, and we had to go around, as there was no way to get through the block. The 2nd day, the driver did the same thing, but this time I knew where I was and indicated that we had to go around the block. I'm not sure that he believed me until we pulled in the driveway of the office and I pointed to the sign and said "AKT!"

The area surrounding the office is quite industrial, but there are occasionally blocks which are planted in rice.


After working in the office all day the Japan Sales Team took me out to dinner, where we were served "shabu-shabu." Before entering our room, we removed our shoes. The room had tatami mats on the floor, and a low table, which, luckily for me, had a space underneath so that I didn't have to sit on my feet. The waitresses were clad in kimonos. Shabu-shabu literally means "swish-swish." Thin slices of beef were swished briefly in a pot of boiling water or broth and then dipped in a sesame or soy sauce. We also ate various kinds of vegetables which were cooked in the broth - onions, carrots, tofu, and even slices of pumpkin. Both rice and flour noodles were cooked in the broth and eaten, as well as steamed rice. Dessert was "maroon" ice cream - ice cream made with slices of chestnuts.






On the 14th I also worked in the office. At noon we went to a noodle restaurant about 10 minutes from the office. On our return we walked through a park or green-belt area, where we saw some local kindergarten classes on a field day. We also saw lots of pretty flowers and some fountains that have water in them during the spring, but were dry at this time of the year.






One interesting difference in both Korea and Japan is the arrangement of buttons on an elevator. I was on the 14th floor in Seoul and on the 11th floor in Osaka. Here's a shot of the elevator buttons in Osaka:


My first reaction was to wonder where the button for my floor was, until I figured out the arrangement went from bottom to top in 2 columns.

The sales team also took me out to dinner on Wednesday night, to an Italian restaurant. I didn't take pictures, but the food was Italian with a Japanese twist. For example, one of the appetizers consisted of eggplant slices topped with cheese and tomatoes, but done up to look like sushi.

On Thursday I checked out of my hotel and took the bullet train back to the airport. I was careful to make sure that I had both tickets - the regular and express tickets. As I was departing during the day I was able to get pictures of the train.





I enjoyed seeing the city and country between Osaka and the airport. There were many industrial areas, but also apartment buildings with balconies where the people hang their clothes and bedding to dry. Other areas gave views of city streets and buildings. As we got farther outside the city there were also many rice fields, several of which were being harvested.






The flight from Osaka to San Francisco took around 9 hours, and after a brief layover the flight to Boston took another 6 hours. I arrived home at 10:30 PM on October 15th, and woke up to snow the next day, with more on Sunday.

October Asia Trip - Part 1 - Korea

On Monday, Oct. 5 I caught a 6.5 hour flight to San Francisco where I changed planes and flew to Seoul, Korea. I arrived in Seoul at about 6 PM on Tuesday night, travelling 5,660 miles in about 12.5 hours. Korea is 11 hours ahead of Boston time, hence the missing block of time.

The Incheon Airport is a good distance away from Seoul proper, requiring a long bus ride to get to the JW Marriott, my hotel in Seoul. Two years ago the bus dropped us at the hotel's front door, but now stops across the street, which means that we cross the expressway on a pedestrian bridge in order to get to the hotel. This is a shot of the bridge from my hotel window the next morning.



While hauling my roller bag up and over the bridge I realized that I didn't pack as lightly as I should have, but I was immediately introduced to how nice the Korean people are. A gentlemen caught up with me and helped me pull it up over the highest point of the bridge. It made me think of handcart pioneers and helpful angels.

The reason for my trip was to work with engineers on a computer simulation of a tool used for chemical deposition on glass panels, turning them into solar panels. Here is a little video of the model.



The main purpose of the trip was to demonstrate the model and work with the tool engineers to make the model more accurate and useful for customers purchasing the real tool. I spent Wednesday and Thursday working in the AMK office in Bundang, a city southeast of Seoul. I got to see Seoul rush hour from the back of a taxi, also a lot of construction of apartment buildings in Seoul. After leaving the city, we pass through lovely green countryside before reaching Bundang.







The office in Bundang is on the banks of a river, and as I found out later, is accessible from Seoul via a series of bike paths that follow the rivers. The government has been working to improve the environment by encouraging people to walk and bike rather than using cars, and as part of that process, has completed a large number of interconnecting bike paths. More on that later, but here's a picture from the conference room window.



My Korean colleagues treated me to authentic Korean food for lunch, including bulgoki, or Korean BBQ. Thin slices of beef are cooked in a broth, along with vegetables, and then served with rice. The meal was also accompanied by Korean delicacies such as kimchi - fermented cabbage served with a hot red pepper sauce, acorn pudding, and other salty or pickled vegetables.

The JW Marriott Hotel is in the Central City area in Seoul and is connected to the Shinsegae Department Store, a very nice, very pricey store. My favorite items were a couple of lacquer boxes.




For your information, 550,000 KRW is around $470 US, and 80,000 KRW is about $70 US. Very pretty, but too rich for me!

On Friday I met with one of our distributors to discuss their uses of our software. They have some beautiful simulations and have lots of exciting things happening. After our meetings, Mr. Lee took me to lunch and shopping in Itaewon, which is a shopping and tourist area near an American military base. I found some fun coloring books and Korean folk tales for the grandkids.






On Saturday I met with another friend whose name is also Mr. Lee. (The most common Korean surnames are Park and Lee, like American Smith and Jones.) He worked at our offices in Mass., and was willing to take me biking along the Han River as his family hasn't yet moved back to Korea. We walked from the hotel to the Banpo bridge area, but couldn't find a bike rental shop, so we ended up driving to the Yeouido Island and renting bikes in the park. The Yeouido Plaza used to be a landing strip for airplanes until they built Incheon, and has been turned into a lovely park which connects to a large riverside park and to the bike path.

The bike that I rented had the possibility of several different gear settings, but in reality only had one setting - the gear shifters didn't work and I didn't realize it until we were on the path and it was too late to turn back.



The riverside park had some lovely flowerbeds, including a field of cosmos. They also had the Korean version of swan boats. As near as I could tell, the swan boats were the "pedal-it-yourself" kind.




The N Seoul Tower is a famous landmark. It serves as a communications and observation tower, but also helped us to know how far we had traveled along the river. We rode out past the Olympic Stadium so that the tower was just a small point on the western hills.


Here's a shot of the crazy biker woman we saw on the path.


Along the path we rode by the Banpo Bridge. This is a double-decker bridge that has been fixed up with a series of water spouts along the top level. Every hour or so they have a water show where the water sprays out over the river, accompanied by music and lights. We saw it during the day, so we didn't see the colored lights, but apparently it is quite spectacular at night. Here are a couple of shots of me at the bridge - you can see the water spraying in the background.




Mr. Lee told me that Koreans are very serious about their recreation. Many people have joined bike clubs, and purchase expensive bikes and custom uniforms. We saw many teams of bikers, all in the same jerseys and pants, biking together along the path. We also saw many people with masks or scarves across their faces - partly to keep the smog out and partly to protect from sunburn. In addition to the biking teams, there were many ordinary people biking, parents and children, mature couples, teens and young people all out enjoying cycling. There was even a large group of school children in uniforms on some kind of field day.

Here are a series of pictures from various locations along the path.

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At one point on the way back I took a wrong turn, but Mr. Lee got me straightened out before I had gone to far. Turns out that the path that I mistakenly turned on leads out to Bundang and connects with the path that is visible outside the office. Maybe on my next visit I'll bike to the office!

Coming back from Yeouido the Saturday afternoon traffic was at a standstill. Apparently Saturday is the day when there are lots of weddings, family meetings and other activities, and all of Seoul is in cars out on the roads. There were even people standing in the middle of lanes on the highways selling snacks and food to people stuck in traffic. When we got near the hotel, Mr. Lee let me off at the subway station so that I could walk to my hotel, while he turned right into his apartment building complex, otherwise it would have taken another couple of hours to get through the traffic. The Marriott is built over the Express Bus Station, which includes a subway stop, and also has a food court containing an Outback Steak House and the usual Mickey-D.

After a shower and a rest we ate at a Korean restaurant near the hotel. I got to try galbi, which is marinated beef and pork braised on a grill right at our table, and bibimbap, rice with veggies and meat and an egg on top, covered with as much red chili sauce as you can tolerate. Korean red chili sauce is hot and a bit sweet - very different from Mexican red chili sauce. Korean cuisine includes lots of veggies with small amounts of meat - the galbi was eaten wrapped up in lettuce leaves, with bean sprouts and other veggies tucked into the packet with it.

Sunday morning I took the subway from my hotel to the Seodaemun Station to go to the Seoul English branch. The subway was very easy to navigate, as the ticket machines have a button for English, and all the stations are spelled out in English as well. In addition, several Korean people saw me clutching my map and tried to be helpful to make sure that I was on the right train and going in the right direction.





The scary part for me was getting off the subway and then finding the church, as two years ago when I took a taxi, the driver got lost. Luckily as I was getting off the train and leaving the station, there was a young American couple, and they turned out to be LDS also, so they took me in the right direction. For future reference, you take exit 1, then walk around behind the exit to a small street, walk up that street until it ends, turn right and then almost immediately turn left. There is a sign "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" in English, with an arrow pointing up the narrow street. The church is about half way up the hill, behind a white cement gate, with a parking lot that doubles as a basketball court.

One of the senior missionary couples were the Biesingers, people that I knew when I lived in West Jordan, whose kids were the same age as Lisa and Tiffany. It was fun to renew acquaintances with them. For church we watched the morning and afternoon sessions of general conference, with a pot luck between the sessions. I felt very blessed to 1)find the couple that got me to the meeting from the subway, 2) to listen to conference and feel the Spirit, and 3) to find friends half-way across the world and 4) to be warmly welcomed and fed physically as well as spiritually.

After church I returned to my hotel and took a bus to the airport to catch my flight to Japan. The airport had some beautiful flowers near my gate.






The flight left on time and I was on my way to Osaka, Japan.