Seoul Day Five
Whoo hoo! Day 5, baby!
Well, it’s about time, I know. Can’t help it. Had a really busy weekend and yesterday was spent standing, bowing, and sitting in that order over and over again. Yup, we had school entry ceremonies yesterday. Ugh. Anyway, here’s the last entry in my Seoul series. (Excluding the video that I’m working on. That’ll take a bit, though.) So…let’s get to it.
Early in the morning, Wendy and I crept out of the hostel, trying not to wake the neighborhood as we caught the train to meet Jon. We met up, grabbed a quick bite to eat – 2 coffees and 2 free boxes of Peppero (which is basically Pocky) for me, Spam-musubi for Jon (spell check), and something less memorable for Wendy. Wendy, if you remember, please feel free to add it. Anyhoo – we sauntered on down to the meeting point, signed in, got on the buses and took a long ride out to the DMZ.
When we arrived we walked into the bunker and sat down for a fun slide show. We also signed a waiver that said we understand that death is a distinct possibility on this tour and won’t hold the UN responsible. We took a quick potty break and piled back on the buses. We rode up to the DMZ and first toured a few buildings on conference row. We got to enter the meeting room and cross over the military demarcation line. Technically speaking, I went to North Korea for a few minutes. Ha ha. The biggest complaint we had afterward was that they didn’t stamp our passports. Oh well. We continued along inside the 2 km corridor on our half of the DMZ and saw Propaganda Village and its South Korean counterpart, we saw the Bridge of No Return and heard about the yellow poplar ax murders and then Operation Paul Bunyan. It was really fascinating stuff. After this, we returned to the gift shop.
We made our way back on the buses, and drove out to the Dora Observatory, which was really lousy. The view was cool, the binoculars worked surprisingly well, but the camera rule frustrated everybody. (And again, it was pointed out that Google Earth makes those efforts null anyway.) We ate lunch at some point – though when exactly I have forgotten. It was lousy food. The kind of food that stays with you for the rest of the day and reminds you about itself frequently. Fine while you eat it, but yeah. We also went to the 3rd tunnel, which Jon and I entered, bumped our heads upon, and dead-ended in, just like everyone else. We were jaded that the electronic coaster-style car ride wasn’t for us. That would have redeemed the experience somewhat. Walking down into a hole and then dead-ending with nothing visible is kind of lame. Then the really long walk up the steep incline was our reward for having seen nothing of interest. Actually, the coolest thing that happened there was that one of the military guys who was touring as a civilian broke into a chorus of “Peanut Butter Jelly Time.” No kidding. Really happened. We didn’t start it. It was glorious. Wendy got the good end of that tour, sitting and having a good chat with a new friend as we came walking up sweaty, tired, and disappointed in the tunnel. Oh well.
Once more we piled into the bus, and headed back to Seoul. The best part of the trip was conference row, in my opinion. Anyway, we got back to Seoul, goofed off for a while, and later met up with Jon’s predecessor as well as Melissa. Yes, Melissa didn’t go with us, because she had a massive fabric shopping spree to enjoy. She ended up with a really nice haul, too. We saw Seoul Tower at night, went up it and marveled at the blurred, smeared sights. (I marveled at the bathroom, where the urinals were right on the glass, so you could see everything while peeing. Cool.) We all partied and ate at an izakaya type place afterward. Drank a bunch of fruit juice and soju. My ranking of the flavors we downed pitchers of, from best down: Kiwi, Pineapple, Yogurt, Orange. Mmmm.
The next day we jumped on the airport shuttle bus, took off, landed in Matsuyama, and then I made a mad dash home for Hakata. I made the last ferry with about 5 minutes to spare. Thank you, thank you, I know. I’m amazing. So yeah, it was basically a wonderful last day in Seoul. Great trip, guys! I loved it. We’ll have to do something again. Thanks for having me along. I am lucky to have made such good friends and to have shared such a cool experience with them. Thanks for putting up with the incessant bad jokes. 
Jon wraps up his take on the DMZ. Wendy remembers the highlights, and some other fun moments. Melissa beats everybody over the head with her blogging prowess and does all five days in a single entry, she also dumped the good stuff in her photobucket. 
