Rich and Strange Aeons

I complained about the A/C in these two units taking forever to cool. They share a problem, causally unconnected but conceptually related: the bathroom water faucet does not respond smoothly. Start in 'hot', wait for it to get really hot, then turn it toward cold: the water stays hot, rather than cooling gradually. I verified this with my cooking thermometer today. Turn the water off in a mid position, then on again (these are faucets where temperature and volume are independent), and voila, the water is lukewarm. Same behavior coming from cold, you can turn it off lukewarm, turn it on in the same position, and get it hot.

This makes it really hard to get a good temperature, and may actually be part of why I was taking a sponge bath every other day in the previous place, along with the sheer cramped bathroom. I miss Japanese tankless heaters: you set the temperature you want, and that's what you get, within a degree Celsius of error. The 40 C safety feature many Japanese baths have is nice too.

Tangentially, I think this bathroom may actually be smaller than the previous one in total area, though I didn't measure the old length precisely. But going from 3 feet to 3.5 feet in width makes a huge difference (plus not having an oversized toilet seat eating up leg room): having the same or even less area in a more square form helps.

Current bathroom length is 58 inches, or 4 foot 10, 17 square feet. 1.47 m long, 1.07 m wide,, 1.57 m^2. Not huge, but doesn't feel cramped like the old one did. (Both are toilet + sink + shower.)

Aug 6 -- Seoul Station -- City Hall

I did not go back to the museum; I did get out again, to Seoul Station, figuring I should try to explore the center. Or a center. Album. I didn't get far outside, the heat was dreadful, and you leave the station onto the side of a very wide and busy road, with not much obviously along or across from it than scattered high buildings. And some other stuff, but between "wander around in the heat" and "explore the mall" I went with the second one. Also, Kakao suggested that even crossing the road would be a huge pain taking more detour distance than it should.

But why listen to me? Behold! ( Read more... )

Finally Went Somewhere today. Album But first, some complaints!

Line 1 trains really are ugly. Noticed it outbound, then homebound line 4 was fine, but 1 hit me again. Stark white light. Better A/C than 4, though.

Seoul Metro doesn't believe in A/C for its stations.

Transferring at Dongdaemun continues to be a war on accessibility. Broken escalator, no escalator, stairs up, stairs down. And this is a modern system! Not like some century-old Underground.

Not a complaint, but, maps said my bus from train to museum would take 9 minutes. I thought that'd be a lie, the first 5 minutes were crawling through traffic, slower than walking. But then we got out and zipped and voila, after 9 minutes I was getting off.

So, the museum. The permanent exhibitions are free, though you have to go through X-ray if you have a bag. Signs say "no food or drinks" but they don't seem to care about water bottles. The museum is HUGE, you could probably spend two full days there to see everything in detail. First floor is history: prehistoric, early kingdoms, Silla et al, Goryeo, Joseon, Korean Empire (a brief modern period where Korea was claiming to be as sovereign as China, until Japan invaded again.) First floor was also CROWDED so I bailed out in the Iron Age and went up to the 3rd floor, hoping there'd be fewer people.

2nd and 3rd floor are all art, in various ways. One side of 3rd is Buddhist sculptures (closed), celadon, buncheon ware, porcelains. Other side is foreign art: Greek and Roman(!), Japan, China, India, Central Asia, Islamic.

The Greek and Roman halls are surprisingly interesting. They managed to get some good -- and large -- stuff.

Double herm of Sappho and Erinna:

Japan and China actually felt smaller, or less full. Also the light was dim, so I had trouble reading placards and gave up. I skipped India for time. Central Asia was partly Afrasiab murals, I also saw mention of Gandharan stuff. Islamic was better lit, I took photos of a bunch of art with human or animal figures, because that always amuses me.

Second floor is part calligraphy and paintings, part old Korean records, part random donation collections.

I might go back tomorrow, or I might go to Seoul Station and check out the center, because I haven't actually done that. By Friday morning I'll be in Bucheon, further out (toward Incheon), but cheaper.

I got my McD app working again, so I can peek at prices in the US. They seem to have responded to price outrage. Most items are still around 100 cal/$, but some Philly prices:

sausage mcmuffin: $1.70 for 400 calories (236 cal/$)

(but adding an egg jumps to $4.40 for 480 calories, lol. Pay $2.70 for one egg.) ( Read more... )

Went for walk despite the weather, enjoyed the river environment, came home and got to literally wring sweat out of my T-shirt. But stopped at Green Farm Mart before home, got some food, including drinkable yogurt. Which says "Plain" on the label, in Korean and in English. Simple enough, right? Though it shows mint leaves on the label.

Well, I got it home, and tasted it, and no it doesn't taste of mint, but it is sweet. So I look at the label and it's milk, syrup, ... milk protein... pectin... sucralose...

I guess they think 'plain' means "no specific flavor". I was expecting fermented milk plus some extra water to make it drinkable, not a syrupy concoction.

I also got some sweet potato chips. As in (sweet potato) chips. But also (sweet chips) it runs out: label says "91% sweet potato" and the other two ingredients are oil and... sugar.

Like, why? Sweet potato is pretty sweet all by itself! Thus the name!

Summary: Korea barely does frozen vegetables; people ride motorcycles on the sidewalks; Emart is big and annoying but useful; all the rivers have walking paths.

Last night I mentioned a market north of me. I checked it out, Grand Mart. My prediction was correct, it didn't add much to my life. It might have a bit more variety of cheap pork than Gold Mart, but I wouldn't swear to it.

Then I walked to the big Emart Hypermart. I crossed multiple rivers/creeks/canals, all of which had footpaths, that's pretty neat. I also encountered a couple of heavy e-bikes or light motorcycles on the sidewalk, not at high speed, but still.

( Read more... )

Random bit: when in Taipei and exploring convenience stores, I discovered that they tended to sell lube. KY Jelly or something, I forget. Once I looked, it was pretty pervasive. Back in Japan, I looked out of curiosity but did not find, and the web told me that you have to go to the adult level of Donki, or maybe a drugstore, for those.

I was checking out convenience stores today just to see what they have (mostly not much, though one last night had fruit and eggs and tofu), and whoops, one GS25 had lube (in helpful English) and condoms. Taiwan and Korea, united in cheap rice and convenient lube.

(And good parks and missing 4th floors and supermarkets less attached to train stations and a shortage of balconies.)

Moved to new Airbnb yesterday, took trains. Elevator down to ticket level, entered ticket gate... no elevator or escalator. Staff had to let me out and lead me around to a different gate with an elevator. Slow elevator.

Transfer started alright, escalator up! ...to a mezzanine level. I need to go up one more level, whoops, stairs. Or an elevator, but the elevator was sloooow and also full of people from the platform level. Figured my options were go back down to stand in line, or haul my luggage up two flights (which I did.)

I think Japanese stations don't have any better elevator access, but they tend to have better escalator coverage, and also aren't nearly as deep, so you have far fewer people trying to use the elevator. Also, the "close door" button works in Japan; it did in the love hotel elevator, but not in subway ones.

Oh right, I never mentioned that the 4th floor in the love hotel was missing. The stairs were scary so I never took them, but between the elevator timing, and then just looking outside at the building, I think there was no hidden floor -- they just go from 3 to 5.

( Read more... )

Change of plans: run out my time in the hotel, switch places tomorrow. More time to figure out and enjoy the massage chair, and the really dark bedroom. And to explore the area. Took the train east, not many stops before it ended at Deokso, though other trains go further. Walked along a wide river: ( Read more... )

Didn't leave the building yesterday. Lots of rain, plus had things to do, including searching for new housing. Procrastination works well in Osaka: I just did a search for July 11-18, and there are over 600 units under $300 for the week, and the first one I picked had high rating + elevator. Here, not so much. After combing through the much more limited last-minute options, I ended up taking an actual hotel (off of Booking) for the weekend, then what's hopefully a nice Airbnb Monday-Monday, and maybe a few more days after that if it works well. I think I'm spending a bit less than I would have for a straight Airbnb, and better. But planning ahead is looking like a much better idea.

Even with that, the cheap month-long places in Incheon seem gone, apart from a few on an island to the west. It's not that there aren't cheap places, it's that they're all booked at some point in August or late July, so nothing's open for a month. Feh.

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One positive observation: most of the cars on the road seem to still be cars. Compact sedans. Some SUVs or crossovers, but small ones, not much bigger than the sedans. Even Japan showed more signs of invasion by US childkillers, especially further from the two big city centers.

Edit: was exploring convenience stores near me. Lame 7-11, lame GS25, surprise CU25 with cherry tomatoes, fruit cups, and eggs. Not as good as the grocery GS25 from the other day, but a step up.

I haven't talked about masking in Korea. Not a ton of data yet. But when I took the subway from first to second Airbnb, my availability sample of passengers was like 3-5% masked, one tenth of what you'd seen in Japan. And yesterday I'd have said that bus drivers, as seen through their windows, were one maybe to several unmasked. But today I saw five masked drivers, and maybe another maybe or two; I wasn't counting the unmasked ones, but not a ton. Today's sample might have been a third masked, if not close to a half. So I dunno!

As for people outside, it's mostly unmasked, but frequent enough that you'll see multiples in 10 minutes. Including two bicycle riders together on the river trail today. ( Read more... )