the ultimate in korean graduation

here's the video. it's outrageous. truly, truly, truly outrageous. i love these kids. the fans. the swords. seriously serious out there on stage. enjoy!

you caught me smiling...again

so, this past weekend was our graduation blowout extravaganza. 120 Korean kids. 10 English plays. 10 Korean dances. speeches, bubbly floaty backdrops, smoke machines, some tears, a giant rocket ship, a larger-than-life cheeseburger and a LOT of smiling. these kids were amazing. for those of you who haven't gotten the run-down before, here's the deal: every year in February (the end of the school year in Korea) students across the country gather to perform ridiculous songs and dances in totally outrageous costumes for their parents and teachers. ours were no different. munchkins running amok in all manner of hilarious vinyl, sequined costumes. little vegetables, slices of bread, chickens, Korean devils, warriors, Power Rangers, mermaids, etc. etc., etc. You really have to see this to believe it. It's hard to describe the insanity of the moment. More like 8 hours. We were there from 9 until 5. Lots of waiting around and trying to entertain. Many costume changes. Exhausted by the end.

But my kids rocked it. I cannot begin to describe the feeling of elation at watching my 11 students completely steal the show. They worked so hard for so long (and so did I), and they nailed every line and every dance. Our play was "The Adventure of the Cheeseburger in Paradise" where three explorers go in search of the mythical meat-lovers dream and find bumble bees, cats and cowboys along the way to help them. They sang and danced to such hot hits as "Cheeseburger in Paradise," Good Vibrations," "Mr. Mistoffelees," "Ghost Riders in the Sky," and the grand finale: "I'm So Excited" by the Pointer Sisters. Seriously, you've never lived until you've watched 11 6 yr. old adorable Korean kids shake it to the Pointer Sisters. Here is the motley crew in costume:

We had a number of camera snafus, so we didn't really get a complete set of shots from the day, but I did manage to get a full video of my kids' AWESOME Korean dance, smoke machine and all. It doesn't do it justice to talk about it, so check out the video.

This was an amazing experience. I'm glad it's over, but I feel so lucky to have gotten to bond with my kids like this before they go on to their new schools. Tomorrow is our last day as a class. We're having a party and I've made these gorgeous little photos books for them. It's really sad to have to say goodbye, but I'm glad they get to leave first. I may see some of them as afternoon students, but it's definitely not the same as the 5 hours a day we've gotten to spend together in the mornings.

Two more months left. It's certainly bittersweet. Two teachers will be leaving this weekend--dear friends of our who I will miss quite a bit. Four new teachers arrived last week. Things change all the time. Can't say I'm not looking forward to getting on a plane myself. But two more months. Incredible how time flies.

day five: beijing

Day 5
January 3, 2008
(our last day)

The Summer Palace, the Lama temple, Houhai’s Drum Tower, a hutong tour and a secret stone boat

This was our last day of touring Beijing, and perhaps my favorite. The first stop for us was the Summer Palace, a place where the emperor and empress and their family and concubines and eunuchs and such would spend their time during the summer. It’s pretty much right inside the city but slightly further from the center where the Forbidden City is. This place was incredible. We entered into a wonderland, a playground for the ancient rich. As we walked past the first building, the space opened up onto a large lake, frozen over and rimmed by a winding walkway. Covering the stones in the open space leading up to the shore were long lines of Chinese characters. I scanned the area and noticed that these characters paved the entire space. Some were dark and well-formed, others were fading in the sunlight. Then I noticed about a half-dozen old Chinese men and women holding long poles at the end of which were sponge tips. A water bottle was attached to the side of the pole, slowly dripping its contents to the sponge which was used like the tip of a brush. The men and women were drawing with water. Others had gathered around to watch their art, slowly gliding over the stones, making brush strokes of ancient words and ideas, flowing in lines towards the frozen water of the lake. It was meditation. It was art. It was beautiful. We stood and admired the words fade into dry stone and then made our way towards the other side of the lake. On one side of the walkway, a series of small picture windows lined the wall, each their own shape and each decorated intricately with small paintings of flowers.

At the end of this walk, we entered the series of buildings that were the Cixi's sleeping quarters and the Hall of Longevity. After exiting this area, we discovered one of the most magnificent walkways I have ever encountered. Along the lake, a covered wooden walkway called the Long Corridor lines the shore. At over 700 m in length, every inch of the walkway is covered in traditional paintings – intricate, detailed paintings of ancient scenes with the Monkey King, monks, emperor’s weddings, gardens and other palaces. And we were forever trailed by a very large group of Russian tourists by whom I was, of course, forever intrigued. So, between the spectacle of the walkway and the spectacle of Russian wealth and hair do’s, I had more than enough to take pictures of for quite a while. About halfway down the walkway, a large gate opened up onto an open space. The gate, through which one entered from the lake, welcomed the emperor and empress into the palace when they would arrive for their stay. In front of the gate was the entrance to the Buddhist temple built onto the hillside of the garden. The Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty, for whom the palace was built, was a deep believer in Buddhism, despite the fact that she was a vicious despot of an empress. She did fun things like hold her sisters and various concubines in the palace inside large water tanks with only their head left above the surface for weeks at a time. She ruled over China from 1861 to 1908. She was forced out of her rule through the Boxer Rebellion. Cixi is a fascinating human being. Check out the Wikipedia site if you want to know more.

The water was gorgeous in the winter light. Boats were docked at various spots along the shore, and many people were lounging around on the walls and in the pavilions surrounding the lake. I came across a man who was playing the flute beautifully at one dock. Traditional Chinese music emanated from the instrument as I walked up. I was doing some audio recording at that point, so I managed to catch some of it. As soon as I passed by, he changed his tune to Auld Lang Syne. Ah, to be Western in China. Such a funny thing.

As we rounded the last stretch of the walkway, we came to the end of the lake where the Stone Boat sits in the water. This is a very large marble boat which sits at the water’s edge. It’s a two story boat with stained glass windows on both floors. There is a huge mirror on the second floor where the Empress Cixi would “sit and admire herself while eating cakes and drinking tea,” as my tour guide pointed out. The boat was wooden originally, I think, but for some reason, the emperor decided to make one out of stone. Hmm. Not sure.

At this, we wandered just a short way to the exit of this entrancing palace. To think of the way the space was when Cixi walked the hallway in her great silks and headdresses. This place was incredible. I could have spent all day there. I left with such a sense of wonder and enchantment, like every stone and painting, every hall and gate, was holding tightly to secrets you could hear whispered on the cold January wind.

And from here to the yet another amazing meal of Sichuan food in a more modern Chinese restaurant. The place had a much sleeker edge to it than the other restaurants we had been to but with hints and touches of vintage China peeking out from behind the crisp lines and angles of the interior space.

After lunch, we headed to the Lama Temple (Yonghegong Temple), formerly an imperial palace that now serves as a Tibetan Buddhist monastery. Again, breathtaking. I cannot believe I stood in such a sacred place. Altogether, there were maybe 7 different halls in one line preceded by a long walkway. Situated right in the middle of the city, the incense from the temple burns continuously and permeates every inch of the surrounding area. It wasn’t too busy while we were there, which was nice. We had a chance to wander aimlessly and listen to our guide explain all the different shrines and Buddha statues. Each temple left me in greater awe than the last. Running my hands along the prayer wheel. Looking up into the sky to see a tree barren save for 60 or so persimmons clinging to its branches. Watching the thick plumes of smoke reach up into the clouds above. Candles flickering, offerings being made at every moment. Such a sense of calm. As we got towards the very back of the temple site, we entered the Hall of the Wheel of the Law in which the monks come to study and meditate. Buddha sat in the middle, of course, surrounded by two or three rows of pillows with small reading lamps set on long tables for reading. To the far left were various statues of monks parts of the world, all seated in a row under a line of windows. In front of them was the first and only Buddhist sand painting that I have ever seen in real life. I have seen them created in films, but I have never laid my own eyes on one. It’s beyond description to see one in person. Beyond imagination the intricate details, the colors, the shapes and patterns. The impermanence of such a work of love – created as an offering meant to be present for only a short time. I moved around the painting which was contained within a Plexiglas cube and hit every angle I could. No photos allowed within the temples, so I have only what is left in my memory. I feel so fortunate to have even glimpsed something so ethereal and sacred.

I happened to walk back around to the front of this particular temple as Jim and Tina wandered out the back. I came across a Chinese woman who was giving a tour to 4 people from Spain. She was speaking Spanish, and since she was speaking slowly and deliberately, I could understand everything she was telling them. I immediately turned on my audio recorder and eavesdropped for as long as I could manage. She was explaining to her tour group the story of the Dalai Lama and why the current Dalai Lama does not live in Tibet or China but is in exile in Dharmasala, India, and is in search of the next chosen one. In this temple, to the right of the Buddha, there is a photo of the Panchen Lama, a man who was chosen by the People’s Republic of China, not by Tibetan Buddhist, but in the space where there should be a photo of the 14^th Dalai Lama, to the left of Buddha, there is nothing. He remains in exile, where he has been since 1959, seeking independence for Tibet from Chinese rule. In September 2007, the government ruled that all monks must be approved through their channels, a process which would include the selection of the 15^th Dalai Lama upon the death of the current Dalai Lama. Fascinating and crazy. I was thrilled to be listening to this in Spanish. It was too amazing to be standing in such a place and listening to a language I can only speak half a world away.

On the approach to the final temple, all I could see was something massive and gold standing in the space. I hadn’t bothered to really look at the height of this temple before I entered, but when I walked fully into the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses and looked up, I saw that the Buddha standing before me simply had no end. Its body reached so high in to the rafters of this temple, its face was barely visible. Fully gold, fully wooden, and fabled to be carved out of one solid tree, I had never seen anything with such solid weight in my life. It’s a 26m tall statue of the Maitreya Buddha carved from a single white sandalwood tree. It’s 18m above the ground, 8m below the ground and 8m in diameter. It’s immense and so spectacular. Humbling to stand in front of such a thing. It blew my mind.

We did some mild shopping on our way out. Jim found a woman who makes traditional Chinese paintings using her fingers and sides of her palms. Fascinating. And then, after quite a while of aimless strolling, were suddenly jacked up into speed mode by our tour guide. There was somewhere to be, after all, unbeknownst to us. We were rushed over to the Houhai area for our hutong tour. We piled out of the car after crisscrossing the neighborhood and winding our way through the maze of rickshaws. We stood waiting for our next tour guide, also named Tina, who would take us through the hutong. She showed up and we were packed into our rickshaw. She took off with her bike and went a different direction. So, we were a little unclear as to what we were supposed to be getting a tour of. We were on the rickshaw for a total of like 10 minutes and went about 4 blocks. Then, just as suddenly as she had left, there was Tina #2, pulling us along to our next destination. Over the Houhai foot bridge we went, and as I stopped to take a shot or two, Jim and Tina #2 were almost out of my line of sight. Moving quickly through the hutong, I had to run to catch up to them. Um, could we maybe slow down? Well, no, actually, we can’t. You see, there’s a drum ceremony we have to catch in 10 minutes at the top of the Drum Tower, so we’ve just got to keep moving. Oh, well, then. In that case. Because we were definitely informed of the Drum Tower ceremony we had to get to at 4:40 when we were basically in total leisure more 40 minutes earlier at some silly souvenir shop. Ok. Sure. So, off we went, towards the Drum Tower at a brisk walk, to say the least. We hoofed it up the very steep, very uneven stone steps leading to the top of the tower, and we made it just in time for the drumming of the drums.

The towers houses one of the oldest drums in China as well as the alleged largest drum in the world. Every day, the drummers come in and bang on these gorgeous traditional drums. I got some great audio of the experience. Such a powerful, deep reverberation in my body standing in that room. From the walkway around the outside of the tower we could see clearly down into the hutong below. Obvious scars of urban development visible from our height. I could see where one neighborhood had been flattened right up to the wall it shared with a bordering neighborhood. Inside the tower, across from the drums, there was this ancient time-telling device that used a series of water activated levers to record time. In Korean history, the invention is credited to one of this country’s emperors, but perhaps it was taken from China. Not really sure. The basic premise is that a constant stream of water flows into a series of cisterns, causing a level to be raised on a measured dial which records the time. At a certain time interval, the water causes a statue of a guard to bang a set of cymbals together to chime the time. The Chinese have created a replica of this device which sits in the Drum Tower. It’s pretty incredible and ingenious.

After the wild Drum Tower ride, we had some down time to wander through Yandai Xiejie again, one of the main drags in Houhai. Jim picked up a sweet mahjong set and I found some hot Mao t-shirts for the preschoolers in my life. It was back to the hotel for us where we proceeded to create an elaborate and extremely artistic display of all our fabulous finds in Beijing. This was fun. To see all the amazing things we managed to find in our travels in the city all in one place.

We made it out of the hotel for our last night on the town. Jumped in a cab to find the Stone Boat Café in Ritan Park. Hoping for a tiny, cozy spot to eat a bite of food and play some mahjong, we were so very pleasantly surprised when we found what we did. We made it to the neighborhood and quickly realized we were definitely in Russian territory. Russian signs, Russian department stores, Russian restaurants everywhere. The café is actually inside the park, so we had to get the guards to let us in since it was after 9:30 by the time we got there. As we wound our way up the path in the dark and deserted park, we found this wonderland of ponds and open courtyards. We noticed that the row of restaurants along the street that we had just passed on out way in shared a backyard with the park. Totally gorgeous in the winter moonlight. We were all alone in there. It was so peaceful. Pretty soon after passing the restaurants, we started to hear some music carry through the air. Further ahead, we could see the orange glow of another space. As we got closer, we realized, wow, they’re playing Dylan. This funny café in the dark inside a park in Beijing in the middle of the winter where no one else is is playing classic Bob Dylan. Too cool. We walk in and it is tiny. Like maybe four booths altogether. It’s just us, two people who work there and a guy who must be a regular. They’re sitting around talking quietly, reading the newspaper, when we walk in. They were incredibly kind to us and got a real kick out of the mahjong set, which, of course, we have NO idea how to play.

We ordered some soups and set up our very own special twisted version of a solitaire-style mahjong that Jim played by himself. Our hosts could not figure out what the hell we were playing. The soups arrived and were just about the most delicious meal we had on our whole trip. The whole place was just so simple and so elegant. The boat looked out on the small pond in the park. Its lights and heat lamp a welcome respite from the bitter Beijing cold. I felt so transported in that space. To another age, really. So far away from the buzzing of the city streets and movement of the life of a city undergoing so much change and upheaval and transformation. As Dylan washed over us, we ate our fill, played a very random, surely never-before-achieved 2-person game of mahjong solitaire and made our way out of the place so that the poor guy who was waiting on us could go home.

Needing to use the bathroom, we spotted a bar right next to the park entrance. I’ll just duck inside and use the bathroom. You get a drink. We’ll stay for a bit and go home. Well, after winding our way through a construction wall that served as a temporary entrance to the bar while renovations were underway, it didn’t take us more than a few minutes to realize where we were. We were in a hooker bar. In the middle of Russia town. In Beijing. Seriously. We walked right into a hooker bar. It’s called Maggie’s Bar. And from the swanky velvet couch in the corner and the trashy blue and orange glow of strip lights lining the walls and ceiling, to the standard set of overweight white guys and scantily clad, doting Chinese girls, it was pretty clear. We saw some funny sights that night. White guy dancing at its finest, people. These pretty girls fawning all over these rather nerdy and unattractive guys turned out to not be so pretty after all in the rather harsh light of the ladies’ room. I was a little shocked to turn to see one of the girls I had seen on the dance floor standing at the mirror. Not quite the flawless skin and perfect body that I thought I saw. The DJ set was incredible. Totally appropriate and priceless. Madonna’s “Who’s That Girl” into Steely Dan’s “Hey 19” and off without a hitch to “What a Feelin’.” That one got me up on the dance floor and me and this really sweet, well-dressed Chinese girl tore it up. It was just us. We were in heaven, singing the song at top volume to each other. And then this song by some Mongolian boy band came on, and all the girls stormed the floor (another girl told us who the band was that made the girls go wild). It was a strange and slightly creepy place, but we had a total blast. What a way to end our Beijing extravaganza.

And so concludes my tales of Beijing. We left the next morning for home. I landed back in Gwangju to a blanket of snow, the only one of the season. I made it out the day after our return to catch the snow in the park and enjoy an afternoon of tea and solitude.

It was an epic trip, to say the least. I’m so very fortunate to have had the opportunity to go there and to have this kind of trip. I would definitely go back in a second if I could. It’s a city of conundrums and paradoxes, like Korea, really. So much change in such hyperspeed. I’ll be interested to hear from folks what their experience in like for the games.

day four: beijing

Day 4
January 2, 2008

The Great Wall, Ming Tombs, the Sacred Way and street food at night

We headed out to the wall on Wednesday – out to Badaling, one of the more popular spots to climb the Great Wall of China. On the way to the wall, we stopped at a cloisonné factory to see the process by which the Chinese have made this famous pottery for the past thousand years. It was a quick tour punctuated by an extreme shopping opportunity at the end, but it was really fascinating to see the creation process. The process goes like this: first, the base piece is created in copper. Then, women using very careful hands bend and shape strips of copper that will be applied to the base piece to create the actual design and pattern of the pottery. The strips are glued to the base piece in shapes of dragons and flowers and pandas and such. Once the base piece has been painstakingly designed, it is ready for glazing. (on to the next room) The glazing process is multi-stepped. After each layer of glaze is applied, the piece is fired in an uber-intense kiln like no other I have ever seen. This pattern of glaze and firing happens about 7 times, until the thickness of the glaze matches the height of the copper design on the base piece. (on to the next room) Once firing is complete, the piece is ready for sanding and buffing. And this was the craziest thing we saw – 5 people bent over 5 different sanding machines, using a steady stream of water and fine stones to smooth each piece of cloisonné. The piece is spun at rapid speed while the stones are used to grind it down. The sanders use only finder cots for protection. No masks. No gloves. Just little pieces of rubber on fingertips. It seemed odd to both of us that it wasn’t a good idea to wear even a small mask of sorts for the work. Who knows.

After the whirlwind tour of the process, we were ushered over to the factory showroom where we could spend thousands of dollars if we wanted to on cloisonné pieces for, um, well, perhaps the foyer of our mansion on Crete. Or the winter garden of our chateau in France. I have no idea what you’d do with all this cloisonné.

Off to the wall we went. Thankfully, the temperatures had warmed up a bit, and the chances of frostbite were pretty slim. Again, that feeling of, ohmigod, are we really here? are we really seeing this? Amazing. Couldn’t really grasp the idea that we were on the wall. We spent about two hours or so bouncing around the wall, jumping, climbing, running, being silly. Just enjoying being out on this incredible structure. We found great handmade art along the trek and met a nice couple who took our picture. We climbed up and down some of the steepest stairs ever. We had a good laugh at one of the graffitied names we found on one part of the wall (graffiti has been a big problem there for a while). The name read: “Pol Pott ’88.” Seriously. You think he might have been there in ’88? I dunno. Maybe. Ha!

After the wall, we headed off to our next lunch at the Auspicious Restaurant. A huge space with a very old structure and heavy, dark wood tables and chairs. We at delicious Sichuan food there. Yummy stir-fried pork and chicken. Jasmine tea. Watched a group of acrobats practice a pyramid and back flip for their show that evening.

And then, off to the Ming Tombs and the Sacred Way. So, in one area outside of Beijing, there is a site of 13 different Ming Emperor tombs. They are located in many different spots all in the same valley – which seemed to be slated for redevelopment as a golf course or some such nonsense. There are only four tombs that are open to the public. We went to Ding Ling and walked around the grounds and into the tomb site. The grounds were far more interesting than the actual tomb, though the whole concept of the place was truly fascinating. The grounds were covered in these amazing dragon trees, stripped bare of leaves by the cold winter. Scattered throughout the grounds were small marble and stone tables encircled by small marble elephant chairs where people could sit to have picnics. As we entered the space, we walked through a large archway. In ancient times, the emperor believed that passing through this archway signified moving into a different world – the world of the spirits. When you exited the tomb site through this gate, you would return to the world of reality as you knew it.

The emperor Wanli was buried at this particular tomb. Excavated in the 1950’s, this tomb was created in a vast underground chamber. Within the chamber, there were two main sections – the actual tombs and a long hall leading up to the Diamond Wall where the entrance was ultimately sealed. The tombs were large red coffins containing the emperor and empress’ bodies along with all manners of goodies such as bolts of silk, gold, jewels, and various other bouillon sundries from the empire. Today, when people visit, they throw money at the replica tombs to bring themselves good luck. The deal was this, after the emperor and empress died, the tomb was set up properly and the entire space was filled in with earth, all the way to the Diamond Wall. The wall was self-sealing, and once it was sealed, the rest of the chamber leading back up to the grounds was also filled with earth. I was pretty nonplused with the tomb itself but impressed, I guess, with the trouble and effort it took to seal those people up with all their riches inside the earth. Strange, I think.

The best part of this experience was, again, the great signs we spotted all over the grounds. Thoughtful, anachronistic, cheeky even. Signs such as “Luxuriant grasslands. Please don’t trample.”

We left the Ming Tomb and headed to the Sacred Way, the long walkway that lead funeral processions to the spot of the tomb where their emperor would be buried. The walkway opens with an archway to a stele atop a mythical tortoise-dragon creature called a bixi. The walkway is guarded on either side by 12 sets of officials and animals. We hit it right at sunset, and the effect was so ethereal. Jim happened to notice that all the people and creatures on the left side of the walk from where we approached were smiling just slightly. All those on the right hand side weren’t. A very odd thing, really. So subtle, so slight. You’d never have known it if you weren’t looking carefully. And Jim is always looking carefully. We stood in front of the same elephant that Mao stood in front of sometime in the 1950’s. We walked past these amazing stone creatures at sunset. Truly gorgeous.

Back to the city for us. Exhausted and ready to pass out after a very long day, we hit the hotel and decided to get some rest before we headed out for the evening. We were headed first to the Silk Street market and then to find some good street food. But, who knew that we would get there at 8:45, with only 15 minutes until absolute closing time. Seriously insane. The place was like 6 stories, I think. Anything you wanted you could get there. Women were walking out with full sets of faux D&G and Louis Vuitton luggage. Custom-made dresses and suits are a favorite here. There were just aisles and aisles of bolts of fabric. Gorgeous silks. But there was no time to browse. People throwing sheets over their stalls, hundreds of people being ushered out of the building. Vendors making a mad dash to nab the last customers. Jim had his heart set on some silk shirts as the crazy Korean washing machine has torn his shirts to shreds. We found a stall that was open and, with his mad bargaining skills, he managed to get out of there with a lovely shirt for less than $20, I think. She wanted about $100 at first. So, off we went with all the other shoppers, out the front doors, but not before we found this fabulous sign:

We made it to our next destination just around 9:30. Wangfujing Snack Street, not too far from the Grand Hyatt hotel where we eventually ended up for a last drink. A tiny little series of back alleys that are home to all manner of treats on a stick – lamb, scorpions, starfish, sea horses, chicken, squid, and a variety of other unidentifiable creatures. And, alas, we arrived there exactly at closing time. And just like the Silk Street market, these people were no joke. Gates shutting in our faces, buckets of soapy bleach water being tossed at our feet causing us to scurry away to the next stall trying to catch someone who would feed us. We scarfed down a lamb kebab, which was amazing and delectable, and then found a stall at the end of the alley where Jim bought himself some scorpions on a stick. He gnawed on a few and then I went for it. They were, as we had been told, quite delicious. And crunchy! So, as we were swept out of that place, we headed down the street to yet another street food venue, the Donghuamen Night Market. Made it there just about 10 pm. And, again, with just minutes to spare, the vendors were tearing it all down. So, we hurriedly bought a bunch of random things on sticks and scarfed as much food as we could and ended up spending all the cash we had on us. It was a hilarious night of near misses. I was disappointed that I didn’t get to have the full, relaxed street food experience I had hoped for, but we got the speed tour. And that was just fine. The food still tasted good.

We wandered across the street, and Jim spotted a market he wanted to check out. We made our way into a sea of colors and smells and treats to buy. There were huge troughs full of all kinds of strange candies, one wall covered in packaged meat treats, and a back wall with nothing but expensive and exotic liquors. While I was focused on examining all the strange dried meat-like things on the shelves, Jim managed to find the strangest thing in the store – bottles of wine containing ginseng and snakes. Yes, snake wine, indeed. Bottled in Russia, no less. So, he talked the woman down from her original price, as is the customary game, and he walked out of there with a bottle of snake wine which now sits on display in our living room. We were warned not to drink more than one small cup, to be measured using the top of the bottle. I don’t know that anyone will ever actually drink this stuff. But it’s an awesome and rather disturbing conversation piece. It occurred to me as we were leaving the store that the airlines might have a problem with the bottle. Not necessarily because it’s a snake, but rather because of all the craziness around liquid on flights these days. Surely we were over the 3 fl. oz. limit, or whatever it is. Jim successfully wrapped and padded that thing in his luggage such that we wouldn’t have to deal with Chinese or Korean customs agents inquiring as to whether it was actually legal. And it made it home in one piece.

I unwrapped some of the candy I had bought as an experiment in the store. Popped a chocolate covered somethin’ in to my mouth and was definitely not amused by the taste. Bad liquor chocolate. Not so yummy at all. We made our way back towards the Grand Hyatt where there was a fancy bar I had read about in the Wallpaper guide. Figured we’d walk into fancy land, but I thought a lovely cocktail might be nice. And oh, it was! We walked into the Red Moon Bar and found a very high end sushi restaurant where you could definitely drop like $1000 for dinner and wine and such. We had ourselves some rather amazing cocktails and ordered some tiramisu which had to be “fetched” from the café. It occurred to me that there might be a “fetching” surcharge, but whatever. We were hardly spending any money as it was. What the hell. The tiramisu arrived and was absolutely divine. Truly. And cost a fortune. I think we paid $16 for the dessert which came in a small porcelain cup. But it was all worth it. We sat on our red velvet couch and had a photo shoot with the snake wine. What else do you do in the most expensive sushi restaurant you’ve ever seen but take pictures of snake wine perched on their very plush red velvet pillows?