Puttin' on the Ritz / Trip to Korea...town?

Boy, things are really winding up.  My role as evening instructor is finished as we head into the final three weeks of the internship.  I am now solely responsible for the morning class students, many of whom I will see on Monday for the first time since the start of the internship.  Our Saturday trips are all planned out from now until the end of July.  And what is it that was planned for this week?

How about playing dress up? Yay!

Okay, but seriously, apparently last year the interns here (they were all girls last year) had a dress-up party and got all decked out in kimonos and took pictures and stuff, and so the coordinators thought it would be fun to do that again this time around.  Since there are two strapping young men as interns this year, however, they brought some some fancy mens clothes for us.  And they were pretty darn cool.  Behold!

 Bow before us, peasant, or feel the wrath from the Fans of Authority we grasp!

Even though it's pretty darn hot here, we made a quick jaunt next door to the shrine to take more pictures.

We couldn't stay outside for long in that garb, though, so we quickly went back in to change out of the formal garb, though I did just snap one of me and my sideburns, with which I have been becoming reacquainted recently.

It's been awhile, there, Mr. Chops.

The rest of they day was left up to us interns.  I had been wanting to go to the Koreatown located in Osaka, so we figured out how to get there and left after lunch on the train.  It was the farthest we've gone away from "home" on our own, but all in all it wasn't that complicated.

I knew we had arrived when I saw a sign in Korean for "Ms. Yoon's Hair Salon."  This got my hopes up that I would find a thriving village of Koreans with whom I could converse and reminisce.  What I found was a small Korean-esque shopping center, filled mostly with clothing and bedding stores, and most of the stores were all Japanese anyway.  There were a fair number of Korean restaurants, but we had already eaten lunch and weren't feeling particularly hungry (plus the price tag on the dishes was outrageous!).  About the only thing worth taking a picture of was this spiky lamppost we happened upon.

He looks like he's in to death metal, but I don't know of any death metal lamppost bands.

Eventually we stumbled upon a small mom n' pop kimchi store, with a couple of guys advertising their homemade products.  I took a small sample of chapchae (veggies and noodles) and found an excuse to talk in Korean to the guy ("wow, this stuff is really good!").  As I expected, he was surprised that this pasty American was speaking Korean. Ahhh, I thought, those were the days, when everyone I spoke with was surprised that I could speak their language....  We had a short conversation, but the fact that I could speak in Korean with a Korean was very refreshing.  

On the way home, Sarah wanted to make a small detour and visit a park near the church, called Hamadera Park.  The late afternoon breeze was blowing in from the bay, so the air smelled of the sea.  It was also partly cloudy, so the sun wasn't as hot.  It was actually quite comfortable, walking around the park on a July afternoon.  Enough to fake a nap for a photo.

We walked right up to the bay and spent a few minutes watching rowboats amble by, trying to catch a glimpse of the occasional fish jumping out of the water.

We continued winding through the park, and eventually came across a playground with the longest slide I have ever seen.

Even more unique was the fact that it wasn't just a long piece of sheet metal.  It was actually made up of small, multicolored rollers.

I was too big to fit, but Sarah went ahead and rolled (?) down the slide for fun.  By that point it was nearing dinner time, so we hopped back on the train and went home.  This Saturday, a relaxing contrast to the typically hectic tourist-y Saturdays I've been having, was quite welcome.