Cherry Blossom Festival
Greet’ns,
First, an announcement: I was accepted into teacher’s college in North Bay, and so our plans are to move there in August, and I’ll be in good shape to establish a decent career before I turn forty. Looking good!
Last weekend, Nic, myself, Sujeong, and Tim drove up into the countryside, near reknowned Jirisan National Park, to see cherry blossoms in all their pink and white glory. Aside from two things, the trip was a gigantic success, the cherry blossoms awesome, and the company tons o’ fun. Those two things were: 1) yellow dust, which made both respiration and visibility difficult, and 2) some of the worst goddamned traffic I’ve ever seen! To follow, as usual, are some photos spiced with words for your enjoyable consumption.
The first night we got in, we had a chance to see the cherry blossoms in spotlights from the bumper-to-bumper traffic. They were awesome, but I didn’t have time to set up a tripod, so below is the best of that batch.
The next morning we got up and went to a nearby temple: Hwaeomsa. It was the most remarkable temple experience I’ve had. We visited at the best possible time, as every temple was filled with chanting and drumming. At one point, I could see and hear three or four different monks, standing in their doorways, doing their things. Incredible.
Above: at the temple entrance, Nic, Sujeong, and Tim. Tim’s very self-conscious about his teeth, so don’t bug him.
Adam and I left the temple reluctantly, myself content to listen to chants and take photos, and Adam nearly ready to don the grey robe and renounce the world once and for all. But we had driven a long way for blossoms and the festival dedicated to them, so we headed into town to see them. One thing we hadn’t expected was the amount of others doing the same. We all knew it’d be busy, but not this! The below view was how we spent a good deal of our day. Good thing the scenery and company were good.
Thankfully, in Korea, snacks are available in the most unlikely conditions and places.
The festival itself was alright, kind of anticlimatic following the temple and scenery enjoyed enroute.
Above: you decide what’s going on in this picture. Ha!
Below: a bowl of the local specialty, a kind of crab soup.
Above: these hermaphrodites were on display in front of alcohol venders.
Nic with a colourful backdrop. Shame about the sky! Busan was nearly shut down because of the yellow dust in the air, which floats over every spring from China and Mongolia, carrying with it all kinds of toxic treats, heavy metals, and other crap, making some of us a bit unwell. Apparently, it was the worst in history that day. On top of that, getting out of the festival and into the traffic home was beyond incredible. For example, it took us 1.5 hours just to get from the gravel parking lot to the road to begin our long and slow crawl home! Nobody foresaw this, including many Koreans I talked to afterwards, but Hell, the blossoms are in their glory once a year for a brief week or so, so all-in-all, it was well worth it.
Later cats and dogs,
suteebun
