Singapore River VS Korea Han River

I visited Singapore last week and could look around many places.:) I saw the Singapore River flows the central Area as the Han River in Korea runs through the center of Seoul, and got an idea to compare both rivers. Today I will compare two rivers and especially will introduce more about the Korea Han river.

Common

1. River cruise

Singapore river and Han river both have river cruise.

This is the Singapore river’s cruise.

This is the Han river cruise.

But when you are taking the cruise in Han river, there are one thing you should be careful. The water flows from the bridge at night that when the boat passes under the bridge, go inside the ship. Before when I took the cruise in Hans river at night, I saw some guys were standing in the rail of a ship and got wet from the bridge fountain which you can see in below.

2. Many people are around the river at night

It would be a bad ideas to walk around the dangerous cities at night. However both Singapore and Seoul are all safe that many people are exercising or sitting around the river at night.

This is the view of the Han river at night. You could see many people are around the river.

3. Many people exercise around the river

I could see many people are exercising around the river both Singapore river and Han river. I think the most reason of this is both cities are all high in the population density. Singapore and Seoul are all within top 10 of the density that many people are living in cities.

But in Han river less people are exercising in Winter, because it is really really cold. If you want to exercise in winter, mask and the gloves are essential!

Difference

I will specially introduce about the Korea characteristic.

 1. Wearing Suncap and mask when exercising

If you walk the Han river, you could find some people are exercising with wearing the suncap. Also what you can see in the woman’s arm is cooling arm sleeves which is called cool tosh(쿨토시) in Korean. This is for protecting your arm from the sunshine and to feel more cool in hot summer.

 

 

 

This is the typical suncap which many middle aged Korean women wear. Suncap is to protect from sunshine.

 

 

 

2. Restaurant around the river

I could see many restaurants around the Singapore river. Some of them were right aside the river.

This is the picture which I took in Singapore and you could see the restaurants in the right side of the river. Meanwhile, in Hans river most restaurants are little way off from the river. Instead the convenience store and the park are right aside the river. If people want to eat food around the Han river, they order the delivery food. Korea has the delivery culture that you can order almost all food like chicken, Jajangmyeon(black-bean-sauce noodles), pig’s feet…etc any food you want.

What you can see in the picture is the Korean pig’s feet food which people got from the food delivered. If you order food around the Han river, the food is delivered within 20-30 minutes.

3. Weather

Singapore is always warm but Korea has 4 seasons that the river froze in winter and normally it snows from December to February.

This is the winter view of the Han river.

4. Camping around the Han river.

In summer many people do camping around the Han river. There are four major camping spot in the Han river and Seoul city lend the camping equipment in cheap price. Some of the camping place provides swimming pool and baseball diamonds that you could also do other activities.:)

Thanks for reading.:)

Pali pali culture- best known hot tempered Korean’s action

There is Pali-Pali culture in Korea, which means “Hurry up!” or “Faster!”. It is one of the Korean’s way of life. You can easily see people are running or walking fast that they won’t miss the buss or train. However, some Korean’s hot temper is excessive that this character easily appears in their daily life.

Today I will introduce the best known quick tempered Korean’s action.

1. Put hand inside the coffee vending machine before the coffee in done.

2. Busy for finding the short line in Mart, ATM machine and fast food restaurant.

( “That line will be better than this line”. 3 seconds later “No! one next to that line will be better”…3 seconds later “No, no, no. let’s move to the other line….”)

3. Can’t wait 3 minutes after pour the water in the cup noodle.

(They think ‘I’m hungry right now. How could I wait 3 minutes?” and just start eating.)

In the above picture, it is written “Quick tempered Korean”.

4. Remember not only all the transfer station name but also the most fast moving route and the number in the floor.

In Korea subway, there are numbers in every subway gate’s floor. Many Korean remember the gate number where is the fast spot for the exit or the most close gate in the way of the subway transfer.

5. Start packing the bag before the school bell ring.

When I was in high school, especially when the school bell ring just before the lunch time, many boy students start running in a full speed to eat lunch. Students ate lunch in the school restaurant building which is different from the classroom. Restaurant was not that big that someone who arrive late, they have to wait in the long line.

6. Melt the candy in the mouth only the very first time and then chew the candy totally.

7. After press the microwave start button, looking at the plate spinning until finish.

8. Constantly flipping the meat over and over again for checking if the meat is done.

9. When the other person’s line is busy, keep calling more than 3 times without waiting.

10. Turn off the music only after the first verse of the song is finished in the Karaoke room.

This action is for quickly starting the next music. However, there are people who want to sing until the two verses that this is not a good manner. Need to ask first before pressing the next button, but sometimes hot tempered person press it right away.

There is an evaluation checking whether you are hot temper or not. 🙂

1. Do you feel you have to finish the work in a hurry?

No (0)

Sometimes (2)

Frequently (5)

2. Do you have a tendency to walk fast?

Yes(0)

No(5)

3. Do you have a tendency to speak fast?

Yes(0)

No(5)

4. When there is a heavy traffic, do you feel nervous or get mad to other driver?

No(0)

Sometimes(2)

Frequently(10)

5. Is it hard to sit still with daydreaming or thinking of the past?

No(0)

Sometimes(2)

Frequently(10)

6. Have you ever heard “Don’t rush”, “Take your time” from your partner or friend?

No(0)

Sometimes(2)

Frequently(10)

7. Are you getting impatient when waiting in line?

No(0)

Sometimes(5)

Frequently(10)

8. Do you cut people off when they are talking?

Never(0)

Sometimes(5)

Frequently(10)

 

Total score

0-1: Excellent

2-10: Sometimes impatient

11-30: Middle, often impatient, need to relax

31-70: High, chronic impatient, need a treatment(bad to health)

Thanks for reading.:)

Tips for Skiing in Konjiam Resort

I went to the Konjiam ski resort on Saturday. The most big reason why I visited here is because the winter season of ski is almost over. I wanted to snowboard one more time in this season! Konjiam is near with Seoul that it is easy to go there. It took only 1hour with car from Gangnam district where is the central in Seoul. One month ago, I visited the Yongpyong ski resort where the biggest ski resort in Korea, and today I want to introduce about Konjiam with partially comparing with the Yongpyong ski resort.

The Pros and Cons which I felt after snowboarding in Konjiam ski resort are in below.

Pros

1. Starting time and finishing time for skiing is flexible that you can choose any length of time, and can

pay money depend of the time. It is called “Me-TimePass” in Konjiam resort. Also the starting time is from the time when you enter the door which you can see in below picture.

Meanwhile, Yongpyong ski resort’ ski ticket time is divided in Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night/Twilight that you can only choose the time among them. Accordingly even I want to take ski about 1-2hours, I need to buy 4hours ticket. I definitely think the ski ticket system of Konjiam is much more reasonable and convenient for the customers.

2. Don’t need to worry for losing ticket.

Yongpyong Ski ticket

Yongpyong ski resort’ ski ticket is made of paper that I had to ring in the clothes. However, it might be possible to loose the ticket, if the ticket’s ring get fall out. Actually one of my friends loose the ticket, and could not snowboard more on that day:((

Konjiam Ski ticket

Meanwhile, Konjiam ski resort is using the E-tickets that when you take the lift you just have to touch the machine with the ticket. Accordingly, you can use the ticket just by putting it inside the pocket, and you don’t have to worry about losing ti.:))

3. Reservation system in Konjiam

Konjiam started the reservation system for the first time in Korea’ ski resort that they give the admission to the limited people. So once you ski in Konjiam,  you don’t have to worry about the excessively crowded. The time for waiting the lift is not that long.

Cons

1. Konjiam ski resort is not that big. Officially Kanjiam says they have 9 slopes but actually it seems to have only 4 slopes.

So comparing with the Yongpyong resort which has 20 slopes, Konjiam is small. If you’re someone who prefers to ski in diverse slopes, skiing in Konjiam would be little boring.

2. The quality of snow

Konjiam snow quality is not that bad, but Yongpyong’ snow is better than Konjiam. This is because of the location and the temperature. Konjiam is near with Seoul that the average of January temperature is -3.1degrees(26.4). On the other hand, Yongpyong resort is in the highlands that the average temperature of January is -12.6 degree(9.3).

3. The distance of parking lot and the slope is quite far that you have to walk that distance with carrying the ski or snowboard.

Who will be good to visit?

If you live in Seoul or Gyeonggi(provinces surrounding Seoul) and want to ski only for one day, I recommend you to visit here. I came here about 10 times, but only for one day or half day without sleeping in the ski resort. Accordingly, it doesn’t cost the lodging expenses that I could saved money. 🙂

You can check more information in Konjiam homepage.

Thanks for reading.:)

Tips for Skiing in Yongpyong Ski Resort

Yongpyong is the biggest ski and snowboard resort in Korea, and 2018 Winter Olymics will be held in Pyeongchang region where the Yongpyong ski resort is. Also, the view is beautiful that Yongpyong ski resort is the most preferred ski resort for me. 🙂 Until now I went to the Yongpyong ski resort more than 15 times, and in this year I visited twice in February.

Today I will introduce about the Yongpyong ski resort and tips for skiing or snowboarding in this resort.

1. Place you should go in the ski resort

There are two ski resorts that one is Yongpyong and the other is Alpensia. Alpensia is the brand new ski slope but it only runs about 6 slopes, meanwhile Yongpyong has 20 slopes that if you like to ski or snowboard in diverse slope, I recommend going to the Yongpyong.

If you took the Gondola in Yongpyong, you can go to the top of the mountain.

In the top of the mountain, there are coffee shop, restaurant that it is good for enjoying the view and for taking a rest. It takes about 20 minutes to arrive there with Gondola and the slope is long that usually takes 10~20minutes to go down with ski or snowboard.

This is the view in the top of the mountain. There were no clouds in the sky that the view was beautiful.

2. When taking the ski lift

The left picture is the Yongpyong ski lift and the right picture is Tahoe ski resort which is in border of California and Nevada. The difference is in the footrest bar. In Korea it is common for having the footrest bar as you can see in the lift.

However, many of the Korean take down the safety bar quickly that after you took the lift first make sure you are in the right position when the safety bar comes down.

Also some of the ski lifts in Yongpyong have the conveyor belt that it is convenient to take a lift. 🙂

3. Ski ticket

Yongpyong ski resort is still using the paper ski ticket that make sure if the ticket ring is locked well.

Before one of my friends lost the ticket during skiing, but it was impossible to reissue the ticket for free. 😦 What they said is “There will be some of the customers who sell the reissued ticket to other people and we made the ticket to be fully locked if you locked the ticket well. So we can’t reissue the ticket”.

 

 

In my opinion, they should change the ski ticket to the electronic card as the other ski resorts that this will help people not to worry about losing the ski ticket.

Whatever, Yongpyong resort’ snow quality is good that I really enjoyed skiing and snowboarding.

Thanks for reading.:)

 

 

How Koreans celebrate Valentine’s Day?

In Korea, Valentine’s Day is simply a way for women to show their interest and affection to men by giving them chocolate. This custom of gifting chocolate started in Japan in 1936, and this Japanese style of Valentine Day came to Korea. Although Valentine Day is used to cater more towards couples, or those wanting to confess their secret loves using a romantic day as an excuse, in recent years, Valentine Day has expanded to include family, co-workers and pretty much anyone you come into contact with on those days. Accordingly, female coworkers give the chocolate to the male co-workers and female students give to the male friends.

However the presents in Valentine Day’s are not limited to the chocolate. Recently, Korean man’s wish lists have changed, due to the current economic climate. The research, which you can see in below, is the list of the presents what Korean men want in Valentine Day.

As you can see in the survey, majority of men would prefer to receive cash.

However, giving the chocolate is the most common presents in Valentine Day and many women (or girl) are interested in, making the handmade chocolates.

Hand made chocolates and the hand written letter are also the good way to impress the Korean boyfriends. 🙂

Then what about the men? The men get their turn to give presents to women on March 14^th-White Day. Men are expected to reciprocate with non-chocolate candy to the women who remembered them the previous month.

Consequently, you can see all kinds of candy offering in all the same places in Korea as you saw chocolate in Valentine Day.

Thanks for reading:)

 

 

 

What is Chopstick Diet?

Have you ever heard the “Chopstick diet”? It is quite common in Korea, Japan and today I will introduce about the chopstick diet. If you don’t know how to use the chopstick? Don’t worry! Then it will be more effective for doing the chopstick diet. 🙂

The way of doing Chopstick diet is only using the chopstick during having a meal. There are 3 reasons why the chopstick diet can help you the diet.

1. Eat slow and less

If you use the chopstick, you can control the speed of eating that can eat less and slowly than using spoon, knives and fork. This is because the amount of the food, you can grab with chopstick, is less than the spoon or fork. Also the time of grabbing the food with chopstick is little longer than spoon or fork that you will chew more and eat slower during grabbing. 🙂

 

The reason why eating slowly helps you to eat less is in the body system. After you eat the food, it needs time until the message “I’m full” travel from stomach to brain. Normally it takes 30minutes for the message to arrive to the brain and then you will feel full.

So using the chopstick is good for eating slowly and will help you to eat less. 🙂

2. Eat less salt

In Korean food, soup is always in the dish, and even some of the Korean drink all soup liquid. But there are lots of salt in the soup that it can raise your blood sugar level. Also the salt is the enemy in diet that eating less salt is important to lose weight. If you do the chopstick diet, you can’t drink the soup and only can eat the ingredients in the soup what you can grab.

FYI, in Korea one of the eating etiquette is you should not raise the soup bowl with hand to drink. People only can have a liquid of soup with spoon. This is different from Japanese’s food etiquette that they can drink the soup with hand.

3. The time you feel hungry will come later

Eating pace effect the blood sugar that if you eat the food fast, then your blood sugar will rise sharply. However, once the blood sugar goes down which raised quickly during the eating, the feeling of hunger will come fast. This is because, blood sugar also will go down quickly and then the body will feel nervous that it will make to eat.

4. Food you choose with chopsticks have calories less.

In Korean food spoon is for rice, soup and chopstick is for side dishes. People also eat rice with chopstick, but it is quite hard to pick up the rice with it. Accordingly, if you can only use the chopstick, it will make you to eat less rice and eat more side dishes. The main component of the rice is carbohydrate that eating low amount of carbohydrate is important to do the diet. In my experience, when I only use the chopstick, I tend to eat side dishes more rather than the rice. The good thing is many Korean side dishes are vegi, fish, tofu..etc that these have less calories than the rice.

Why don’t you try the chopstick diet and also learn how to do the chopstick? If you try eating salad, noodles or other food with chopstick, it will help you to eat slowly.

Thanks for reading.:)