Day 2: Downtown Tour – Part 1

Translated by Ian Haight and Hwajin Kang (orginal: http://blog.naver.com/mahabira6061/70135005135)

I don’t know how these two pictures are attached together. It is not my work…the top one is taken from my room. I like the feeling of it. But the room is in a mess now. I am pretty sure even if a robber comes to visit my room he will just turn and run away, surprised by the mess. Please don’t tell anyone that Korean monks are all dirty. The bottom picture is a sign which indicates special “bicycle access” streets. Those roads are usually very smooth with few bumps. There are also bicycle-only lines in the middle of crosswalks. I find crows and seagulls more often than people and cars.

I took this picture at a grocery store. I see not even one skyscraper. In the midst of little hills, I found some houses that could be found in Seongbuk-dong in Seoul. The store looks gigantic and had pretty much everything. The products were pricey (the cheapest toothbrush cost $3) and were usually single-units. Once I came out of the store, it was drizzling outside. My backpack got heavier and my wallet got lighter; the weight had shifted from my wallet to my backpack. I experienced the feeling of “no gain, no loss” Prajñā-Paramitā (trans. note: Prajñā-Paramitā means “The Perfection of Wisdom”). It is unfair to pay so much for just a couple of products. I have been taking it easy on bread and juice that I purchased at this store, so that I could eat for a while. It’s been three days of eating only juice and bread. I need to thank my parents for giving me a healthy stomach. 

I don’t know if the subways were clean because they had just been built, but they seemed quite small. They are called “skytrains” in Vancouver, but they are similar to regular Seoul subways, except for the fact that they usually run above ground. They have three different lines, but I don’t recall the names of them. Also, there is a bus called “Sea Bus” which goes to North Vancouver. Regular buses of course exist on this side of the world.  The bus routes are broken into three zones according to distance. One zone named 1zon cost $2.50 (Canadian) and has no limit on the number of transfers, including buses, subways, and Sea Buses.

I went into the station without having passed through a ticket gate, but those ticket inspectors were standing nearby. They randomly come to you and ask for your tickets. They even came up to me and asked for my ticket, so I thought, “How come they don’t notice this good-and-kind-looking face? They must not have gotten married yet because of their heartlessness.” If you have an expired ticket, as you go through a machine that looks like a vending machine, the machine will sound an alarm, give off a red light and spit out your ticket.