Fawg

'Twas a foggy eve on the soggy side. I like fog. Lately, I like The Smiths. Not much else to report.

Yellow dust from China

Have I mentioned that I hate it?

Chicken Ass

I think this is a chicken ass restaurant. I passed it while rampaging 'round Jeju City on a raucous St.Paddies Saturday. The chicken looks miffed, but he did have his anus removed for consumption, so can you blame him? Here's another sign put up by a chicken ass monger, this one from The Philippines. I've eaten chicken ass, not bad, if you can get past the sphincteriness.

WE ARE JEJU!

Went to Jeju United's home opener against Gwangju on Sunday. Wicked! As might be gathered from the pictures, it was a great excuse to dress up silly and act like a loud moron in public. There are Koreans everwhere who wonder who the idiot behind them in their pictures is. It's me!
My throat hurts from hurling abuse at the ref and other team. The stadium is awesome, and it was a glorious day. Jeju was looking shaky in the first half, but they perked up after 45 and won with an perfect goal in the second half. Good times.

Hunter S. Thompson faked his own death, and is living on Jeju

True dat.

Found out last night that a young Canadian guy on Jeju just died. I met him briefly at frisbee about a month ago. He had a perma-smile, and was super helpful, taking the time to show me a tricky frisbee throw, and was understanding when I kept mixing his name up. We only had a couple of short conversations, but he managed to tell me about his 2 kids and wife, and I could tell he was so proud of them and geninely happy. He got encephelitis all of a sudden, and died on Friday. I was pretty messed up about this last night, and I still am. I can't think of anything to say about it, and my mind is racing. Life is short. Said often but it's true. Quit your jobs, and go do whatever you want to do. Today. Be happy, and carpe diem. Nice meeting you Nathan. There, I got your name right this time.

The Korean Han Solo

Was frozen in carbonite-uh by Jabba the Hut-uh for an outstanding soju tab. He shot first.
The weather's been rainy as a dog on fire lately, which is ok, because I happen to like rain. Brings back memories of being 9 years old and alone in the green woods in an outsized military rain poncho, sitting on a mossy log a few feet back from a path, listening to rain hit my hood for an hour. I like being alone in the woods. That's not wrong, is it?
Had a disturbing dream the other day. I went and got impaired, then got a face tattoo - it was Buddy Holly's glasses, tattooed onto my face. I woke up (in the dream) and was like 'Oh no! How will I hide this from my boss?!'
Maybe this is repressed 'being stared at constantly' feelings bubbling to the unconscious surface. Whatever, nevermind.
Also a had an equally disturbing dream about watching NorkNukes roll in across the Jeju countryside towards me, like a scene from Dr.Strangelove, or Terminator III. Might have been due to my repeated listening to the song 'I Fuck Mountains' by Pink Mountaintops. Ominous and beautiful. Ok, whatever nevermind.

Like an Iraqi go-kart

That is rotting away in the weeds and snow (from January) in a laneway, in a resort city on an island in Korea. Poor little Iraqi go-kart.

Ghost or senility?

I must finally be losing my mind. I walked into the bathroom this morning, and opened up the medicine cabinet. Inside, a bag of pistachios. When did I take the bag out of my 'kitchen' cabinet, walk into the bathroom, open the medicine cabinet, and put in the nuts? Also, why? I'm convinced someone broke into my hovel and is messing with me. Or a ghost did it. Why would I do that?

Rhymes with diarrhea

So E.T. and Elliot are flying formation with some of Santa's reindeer, on the window of a crappy Korean fast food place, Lotteria, in March. No promotion, no explanation, just 'here it is'. Way to impress me! By the way, never eat anywhere that rhymes with 'diarrhea'.

W.T.F.

Someone thought this was a good idea.

Hotel unBeach

Technically accurate, as there is no beach anywhere near this hotel. I got get a wicked unburn the other day. Haha.
I've taken to falling sleep in public places. Long week. Listen to Fleet Foxes, they will hover you around town on a shimmering bubble made out of happy dirty hippies.

Randoms lately

Wee truck

For several days after being weaned, the baby truck still tries to return to the mother truck's teat to feed.
Animal Planet rules. There are no cuter animals than meercats, caracals, and serville cats.
Watched Resident Evil 3 last night. In Korea, sometimes you have to settle for whatever is on in English. I have to say, it wasn't bad. The gore was satisfying, and Milla Jovovitch is ever so foxy. She was great in 'The Messenger'. She has some kind of wacky mumble/lisp that I enjoy.
My other TV girlfriend, Kristie Lu Stout, has been looking very shiny and sparkly lately. I'm not sure if she ever received the shoebox of mummified squirrels I sent her. I haven't heard anything one way or the other, so hard to say what's going on there.

Mara-do III

Riding around on a golf cart for 90 minutes is exhausting work. Take a nap, ferry-load, you've earned it.

Mara-do II

This is a picture of my foot as far south as it can get in Korea. One more step, and I'm back in Taiwan.
I guess I should have read the "...they are unwilling to climb on the rock in awe of its sanctity" part before I climbed up and did the 'Heineken Man' pose. Oh well.

Mara-do

Mara-do is an island south of Jeju, and Korea's southernmost territory. I went there on Sunday with some co-workers. I would have loved to have stayed for the whole day, but one ferry was broken, and another was canceled due to high seas, so we had an hour and half to see everything Mara-do had to offer. Even though you can walk around the island in 45 minutes, most Koreans chose to see the island from the comfort of an enclosed golf cart with opaque windows. Whatever, Koreans are known for their strange decisions.
For such a small place, with a permanent population of 40, there was an unusually high number of holy houses. Three churches and a Buddhist temple I think. There was also a baffling number of Jajangmyun restaurants. Jajangmyun is a mess of noodles in greasy brown sauce. I didn't want any, yet there were 5 identical little restaurants dishing it out.
Marado is windy and grassy. We plan to go back in the summer to drink, fish, camp, and maybe look for a bird or two. I'm too tired to be funny these days.

More coast ghosts

Across the bay from Songaksan Mountain there are cliffs riddled with caves. These were built by the Japanese, using local forced labor. They were intended to house naval kamikaze units that were to attack American battleships with human torpedoes. In one cave, there were candles and offerings of food, I'm assuming in honor of locals who died building them.

Kamikaze ghosts

Spent the weekend on the southwest coast of the island. This place just gets gorgeouser and gorgeouser(sic). I spent part of Saturday wandering around an old Japanese airfield that is now a series of potato fields. This was an airfield that Kamikaze attacks were apparently launched from, so it felt creepy to walk around the hangars, which are now used by farmers to store stuff. Plowshares perhaps. Reminded me of the end of Empire of the Sun (watch it today). Can you spot the Blue Rock Thrush perched on a hangar? His name is Waldo. For those in the UK, his name is Wally. Also went to Mara-do. I'm sunburned. Nose.