East Sea
March 26, 2006
Today I went to the East Sea of Korea with Jin's
family. I'm not a geography expert, but I had never heard of
the East Sea. It turns out, that's what Korean's call the
ocean to the East of South Korea. Which, of course, makes
sense. But, Japan calls the same body of water, the Sea of
Japan. Now that, I have heard of. Odd isn't it?
Just another example of the many differences that Japan and South
Korea have had for quite a long time...but I digress!
We visited a few different beaches and it was a
lovely view. The sand looked like a cross between American
sand and Bermuda sand. The water was more blue than the west
coast of USA, but not as blue as Bermuda or the Bahamas. There
weren't any seashells either and it didn't smell as "salty" as some
oceans I've visited. There were a few Korean families enjoying
the beach, but not like you would see in America. The weather
isn't quite warm enough for towels and bathing suits, but a humorous
thing I saw was a Korean girl walking on the beach in high heels.
Many Korean girls wear high heels almost daily.
After walking on a few beaches, we went to a
waterfront village full of seafood restaurants and a fish market.
The restaurants seemed to all specialize in crabs. In front of
the restaurants, there were many tanks with crabs swimming around
trying to escape their fate of our dinner. You can actually
choose which crabs you want to eat! We had "bamboo crabs,"
sushi, soup, and rice. It was quite yummy. The soup
tasted a little odd for me and I decided to not eat much of it.
As I tasted it, I thought it tasted like a fish head or a how a
fish's butt might taste. I never tasted a fish's head or butt,
so I'm not quite sure why I thought that, but that's the thought
that ran through my mind. A little while later, I noticed an
eye staring at me in the soup! It was half the fish's head!
Ah ha! Fish head soup....I knew it!
After the yummy lunch, we walked through a fish
market. It was literally a market full of fish. Rows and
rows of people sat and sold their goods that seem to come from the
sea that very day. There was everything from long silver fish,
to small funky fish, octopus, clams, and many types of fish I had
never seen before. It was quite an experience. Our walk
ended on a pier with a red lighthouse where people fished off the
side.
Overall, I had a great time, but I felt a little sad
for some of the fisherman that I saw manning the boats. Their
faces and souls seem beaten by many a harsh wave and I got the
feeling that these people work harder than most people in the whole
world for very little money. Just so we can enjoy fish and
seafood....it's a tough life for sure.
What I learned
today about Korea: 1) If you're not careful, your food
will look at you when you eat.
