Wholesale fish market in Gunsan

Gunsan (population 280.000) is a seaport on the midwest coast of the Korean Peninsula. Once a small fishing village, Gunsan now boasts an Industrial Zone and high-tech manufacturing industries. Gunsan still has a thriving fishing fleet and is an excellent place for fresh seafood. The old fish market can be found in town, the wholesale fish market has moved to Saemangeum, about 20 kilometres from the city center. Gunsan is known for saengseon hoe (생선회), raw sliced fish. The first evening I was walking along the waterfront of the old fish market when I met two men eating saengseon hoe and drinking soju. They invited me to join them and managed to feed me about half their saengseon hoe dipped in spicy chogochujang (초고추장) sauce made from gochujang by adding vinegar. 

The next day I took a taxi to Saemangeum to try some Korean seafood, like meongge (멍게), gaebul (개불) and San-nakji (산낙지). In English: sea pineapple, a species of marine spoonworm commonly known as penis fish and raw octopus tentacles, still moving on the plate. 

I arrived two hours early,  the market only opens at 10:00 am, which gave me the chance to roam about in a deserted, eerie fish market.

The meongge (멍게), gaebul (개불) and nakji (낙지) were taken from the fishtanks and were killed right before being served.  Meongge is a sea squirt and lives attached to rocks. Mine was served as meongge-hoe: raw. The taste is hard to describe. It is definitely salty but the description "rubber dipped in ammonia" in the Lonely Planet is way off the mark. Gaebul is chewy but doesn't have that much taste. You definitely need chogochujang (초고추장, vinegared gochujang) as a dipping sauce. Although I read that gaebul straight  from the sea has a sweet taste, which is lost when kept in a fishtank. The san-nakji was interesting. Raw octopus tentacles also do not have that much taste, chogochujang to the rescue! I can use metal chopsticks fairly well, but with this these wriggling  food items using chopsticks was a challenge.

Jirisan Ridge Hike - walking with bears

Jirisan is the start point of the Baekdu Daegan, which is a 1700km more or less continuous ridge that forms the backbone of the entire Korean peninsula. The Jirisan section of Baekdu Daegan is about 40 kilometers. I started on the west side of Jirisan National Park in Gurye, sleeping in a small guest house. I had planned to sleep rough but I soon learned Jirisan is also home to about 60 Asiatic black bears. 

I had to sleep in a mountain shelter. It is not allowed to just turn up at a shelter, so you need to make a reservation - even weeks in advance in peak season. I wanted to start my hike the next day, so I was lucky I could make a reservation for Yeonhacheon Shelter at the Jirisan National Park Southern Office (511-1, Hwangjeon-ri, Masan-myeon, Gurye-gun, Jeollanam-Do). Apparently June is considered off-peak season. 

Day 1: Gurye - Nogodan shelter - Yeonhacheon shelter

The hike from Gurye starts with a 7 kilometer and 3 hour steep walk up to Nogodan, the first shelter along the ridge hike. I left at sunrise and soon walked past Hwaeom-sa, the head temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, one of the Seon (Zen in Western thought) sects dating back to the Goryeo Dynasty (918–1392).

Hwaeomsa 華嚴寺

The distance between Nogodan and Yeonhacheon takes about 5 hours. The path is walkable but there is a hardly an horizontal stretch. The path is mostly hidden under the canopy of the trees. Clear views are not common and my views are often blocked as clouds drift in. The temperatures are very nice though and I can hike the whole ridge just dressed in a T-shirt.

The park authorities warn for bears by big warning signs every kilometer or so. In the unlikely event of encountering a bear you have to curl up and lie still on the ground. That is:  if you haven't been able to scare the bear off, which is your first line of defence. 

I arrive at Yeonhacheon Shelter in the late afternoon without seeing any bears. There is no food at the shelters. You have to bring your own supplies for the duration of the hike. Instant noodles are cheap, weigh next to nothing and provide plenty of energy. I also brought some precooked Ottogi rice and canned spicy tuna.

Day 2: Yeonhacheon shelter -  Seseok shelter - Uisin village

This trip I was not able to climb the highest peak Cheonwangbong (1915 meters). I wake up in Yeonhacheon with the sunrise. I have no more reservations for a shelter so I need to make it back to my guesthouse in Gurye in the evening. I decided to continue along the Baekdu Daegan and walk far as possible.

The first stop is Byeoksoryeong Shelter. The hike between Byeoksoryeon and the next shelter, Seseok, is simply beautiful. This part of the hike is black labeled as "expert level" and at times you are really hiking on the ridge. When I arrive at Seseok Shelter I have run out of time. I am still on the Jirisan ridge and have to make it down to a village. I opted for Cheonghakdong but somewhere along the scramble down, the signs for this village disappeared and after many hours and many rocks I ended up in Uisin.

Uisin is a tiny village and there were no buses so I ended up taking the longest taxi ride in my life - 50 kilometers back to my starting point.

While I didn't hike the full Jirisan ridge, I still had a feeling of personal accomplishment. In the early springtime of 2018 I discovered why I had been feeling so tired after working days. A blood test unveiled a dust mite allergy and since I work in a very dusty environment my physical condition had been severely compromised. This was my first longish mountain hike in quite a while (18 hours in two days) and there was no trace of tiredness, just very sore muscles due to lack of training.

Finding a Tokyo address

One day my 4G mobile internet connection refused to work and my battery had almost drained to 0% while looking for an address in 台東区 (Taitō-ku), one of the 23 special wards (kanji: 特別区; tokubetsu-ku) of Tokyo, in English referred to as cities. I had just gotten off the Odeo Line at Shin-Okachimachi Station and I quickly memorised the address but then my trouble began: how to read a Japanse address?

Japanese addresses start with the largest geographical entity first. But in this case I got the address from a website written in English and the address was adapted to western style: 4-25-10 Taito, Taito-ku, Tokyo. I knew I was in Tokyo and to be more specific in the city of Taito (台東区) so then I had to look for the next geographical entity, which in this case was the number 4, which refers to the city district 4 or 4-Chome (四丁目). Luckily I was already there.

Next is number 25, which is the banchi (番地) or city block followed by number 10, which is the gō (号) or house/building number. This can be written as follows: 25番10号 (25-ban 10-gō) or simply 25-10 on the gaiku-hyōjiban 街区表示板 or town block indicator sign. Sometimes this is followed by another number, which is the apartment number, necessary in big apartment buildings.

In this case that number was missing and I soon found city block 25 with the help of a kind lady in front of Takecho Park. Now all I had to do is find building 10. In the photograph below you see I'm standing in front of building 3. Very close! All I had to do is walk around city block 25 to find building 10.

From large to small. City of Taito, 4-Chome, City block 25, House/building number 10. For administrative purposes a postal code (〒) and prefecture is added in front of the full address. In this case the prefecture is 東京都 (Tokyo-to). The address I was looking for is written in Japanese as follows: 〒110-0016 東京都台東区台東4-25-10.

Taito-ku 台東区

4-Chome 四丁目

City block 25 番地.

Building 10 号.

Why was I looking for this particular address? I wanted to visit Shinohara Maruyoshi Furin, a small glass blowing and glass painting studio that produces Edo period furin, or wind chimes (fu=wind, rin=bell). During the Edo period (1603–1868) the Dutch introduced the technique of glass blowing in Nagasaki and in the 19th century glass furin became quite popular in urban Edo due to the low price. I bought two Edo furin. One with a painting of a brown robed Daruma and a bright red furin with a painting of a ship and the character 宝 (treasures) written on the sail.

Tsukiji Fish Market

Next to the famous Tsukiji Fish Market, where tuna and many other marine species are being sold wholesale, there is an outside market for the public with plenty of fresh fish, pickled vegetables, knives and kitchenware. My hotel was practically around the corner of Tsukiji so I headed to the market for breakfast every single day. There were plenty of restaurants catering to locals for a hot breakfast soup.

Some days I preferred raw tuna. The more fatty the tuna, the lighter color of the flesh and the more expensive the fish will be. The fatty part of the tuna is called toro, which is divided in two cuts: chutoro and otoro. Otoro, the fattiest portion of the tuna, is found on the very underside of the fish. 

I was just as impressed by the selection of pickled vegetables at the outside market.

From Otoro.com

Akihabara (秋葉原)

The district of Akihabara in Tokyo has its fair share of adult stores. These stores are intriguing, the higher the floor, the more adult the merchandise. The first floor is basically family friendly Studio Ghibli merchandise. One thing, which struck me was the noise of hardcore porn soundtracks being played on the adult themed floors. I resisted spending any money in these stores. Outside the leaves of the trees were golden. December can feel like autumn in Tokyo. The figurines interested me, though.

The figurines are sculpted in 3D before being produced. I am still upset for not preordering the below figurine based on cosplayer Iiniku Ushijima (うしじまいい肉). Illustrator ERIMO drew up the concept art, and model sculptor Sakurako Iwanaga brought that concept art to life in 3D.

2D concept art by Illustrator ERIMO

3D sculpture by Sakurako Iwanaga.

Miso 味噌 heaven

In Tokyo I decided to bring back one recipe back to Amsterdam. I chose miso soup (味噌汁 misoshiru). It is a deceptive simple soup.

First you need to make the stock called dashi (出汁, だし). It is a stock made from kombu (kelp) and kezurikatsuo, shavings of preserved, fermented skipjack tuna (katsuobushi).

I bought two types of kezurikatsuo. One made from 100 percent katsuobushi for a clear (ceremonial style, I was told) broth, and one made from a mix of skipjack tuna and cheaper unknown fish. The latter makes dashi for miso soup since the miso will mostly overpower the dashi. For each batch of 1 liter stock you need 30 grams of shavings. There are many variations. You can add niboshi (煮干し) or shiitake.

Basic dashi recipe
Clean a postcard size of kombu with a damp cloth without removing the white powdery "umami" substances. Put the kombu and 1 liter of water in a saucepan for at least 30 minutes up to half a day. kombu’s flavor comes out naturally from soaking in water. 

Slowly bring to a boil over medium low heat. Just before boiling remove the kombu. Turn off the heat to let the dashi cool down.

Add the katsuobushi and bring it to a boil again. Once the dashi is boiling, reduce the heat, simmer for just 30 seconds, and turn off the heat. Let the katsuobushi sink to the bottom, about 10 minutes. Strain the dashi through a sieve lined with a cheesecloth set over a bowl.

Furikake
You can use the left over kombu and katsuobushi to make furikake. Chop up the kombu into small pieces, combine with katsuobushi, and cook it in a saucepan. Optional: once the katsuobushi separates, add in a mix of sugar, mirin and soy sauce. Cook until the liquid evaporates and the flavor is absorbed, then sprinkle in sesame seeds before removing from the heat.

Miso
Miso comes in many forms. In Tokyo I found the shop Sano Miso which specialises in miso.

Sano Miso address:
1-35-8 Kameido, Koto-ku.
東京都江東区亀戸1-35-8.

I bought three types of miso. One made from uruchimai (粳米; rice), one from genmai (玄米; brown rice) and a miso paste from several grains including barley.

Below you can see the suggestion for each particular miso, which solid ingredients to add in the soup, like: potato, clams, fish and mushroom.

Garden of the Six Principles of Poetry

Rikugi-en (六義園) is a park in Bunkyō, Tokyo named after the Six Principles of Poetry. The poet-monk Shinkei's 'six principles' are: Allegorical Mode, Direct Mode, Panegyrical Mode, Mode of Precise Delineation, Metaphorical Mode, and Symbolic Mode.

Matcha 抹茶 for two.

Land Bar artisan

Walking into Daisuke Ito's Land Bar in the Shinbashi 新橋 district in Tokyo must feel like walking into an original 1920s speakeasy. A narrow staircase leads to a door in the basement of 3 Chome-15 Shinbashi.

The bar is tiny. Three guests were already sitting at the bar. Two empty seats remained. Daisuke Ito became a bartender to learn how to make the gimlet he tasted in Hisashi Kishi's Star Bar when he was visiting Tokyo from his native Sendai. Ito persuaded the master barman to hire him and learned the trade working 10 years under Kishi. Because of this reason I first ordered a gimlet. It was fun to observe Ito make my gimlet. While mixing he carefully tasted my gimlet twice to make sure the balance between the gin and the lime juice was just perfect. A gimlet can be sweet with added syrup. I was pleased Ito made my gimlet with just lime and gin.

For my second drink I asked Ito to recommend me what to order. Since I told him I was from Amsterdam he made me a cocktail with London Dry Gin No 3. This gin is distilled in The Netherlands in one of the oldest Dutch distilleries. For this cocktail he used two use huge blocks of clear ice, which has brought me to Land Bar in the first place. I wanted to observe this ice from close by. It takes 48 hours to make this type of ice. You have to freeze the water very slowly.

Notice the bottle on the right. Because I told Ito about my fondness for German wines he pulled out a bottle of Monkey 47 Schwarzwald Dry Gin. I never heard of German gins and even though I didn't drink Monkey 47, I sniffed from the bottle and this gin smells amazing!

The complementary glass of water also contained the clear ice. It is a beautiful sight. The roasted almonds and rice crackers complemented the experience. Ito pays attention to even the smallest detail. Perfection in 12 square meters.

Address:
東京都港区新橋3-15-6 村上ビル B1F.
B1 3-15-6 Shinbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo.

Standing sushi bar

You can eat sushi in many ways. Famous are the conveyer belt sushi restaurants, you can get take away sushi at convenient stores and railway stations, and then there are the sushi-ya manned by the itamae 板前 or sushi chef. Eating in a sushi-ya can be very expensive. But then there are local standing sushi bars, where the itamae might concentrate less on presentation and more on taste. I was invited to eat in such a local sushi-ya. Since there was only space for six people, we had to wait outside for 15 minutes or so. Behind the counter were two itamae. The powerful smell of fresh fish made my mouth water.

We ordered okonomi style: a few pieces at a time. The itamae prepares the tane 種 (topping) and takes the sushi rice, moulds it into shape with his hand and puts the tane on top and serves it - up to two pieces at a time - one a wooden geta 下駄. This process repeats itself until you are completely satisfied. We ordered a sake taster with three different kinds of sake and we managed to drink six glasses of sake each.

I didn't even photograph half of all the sushi we ate. I concentrated mostly on the experience. Also, I cannot exactly tell the names of all the sea food. I was told the name of the fish or shell fish with each order but I couldn't remember everything. Trying to name different types of fish you can find yourself in a bit of a quagmire anyway. There are already 20 terms for members of the mackerel family. You really have to be an ichthyologist to name all the fish correctly.

Most sushi we ordered was nigiri 握り, which means 'shape by hand'. It is hand moulded sushi rice with a piece of (mostly raw) sea food on top. If the nigiri needs wasabi the itamae will add a little wasabi between the rice and the topping. The nigiri below looks like it was topped with Japanese seabass 鱸 Suzuki (Lateolabrax japonicus) but I cannot be sure. There is plenty of amazu shoga 甘酢生姜 or gari ガリto eat between the courses - ginger slices aged in rice vinegar and sugar.

The type below is called gunkan maki 軍艦巻き (battleship maki) which is sushi rice wrapped with nori 海苔 and a topping. In this case salty baby sardines. Fish eggs are also a popular topping.

Below: Kujira 鯨 nigiri. Illegal in most countries except Japan, Norway and Iceland. 

A small saucer with shoyu. Soya sauce can also be referred to as murasaki (紫) in a sushi-ya. It is good custom to quickly swipe the nigiri - fish side down - through the shoyu just once. Don't draw circles in the saucer with your nigiri.

We also ordered a cloudy rice wine which reminded me of makgeolli 막걸리. I am not sure how I should refer to this rice wine in Japanese. Is it simply unfiltered sake called doburoku (どぶろく or is there a more specific name?

Bowl of Sushi by Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese: 歌川 広重; 1797 – 1858).

Bamboo Nest

Living in an apartment with no garden in the inner-city has made longing for a house in the countryside. I have been following the tiny house movement with interest. In Thailand I stayed in a little bamboo hut west of Chiang Rai. The place is called Bamboo Nest and is located above a small village. The owner Nok picks you up in Chiang Rai and after a smooth ride along the river Kok the last few kilometers are so steep her 4x4 drive could barely handle the road.

The huts have one room, the only furniture being a double bed with mosquito net, a separate shower and toilet in the back and a spacious veranda with a hammock, also completely made of bamboo. There is no kitchen, so these huts are mainly constructed for sleeping. 

A tiny house is a residential structure under 46 m2 so I guess these huts could be considered tiny houses. Personally I think a living space smaller than 46 m2 is too small for permanent residence unless you downsize your stuff radically.

Chiang Mai night food

The main attraction of Chiang Mai is certainly the many street stalls and night food markets. I choose to ignore the usual three meals a day routine for a new five meals a day regime. Just to name a few: clear beef broth soup, deep-fried garlic fish and koi neua (ก้อยคั่วเนื้อ), which is a raw meat salad of Isan origin.

Chiang Mai is a very colourful city at night.

And yes, I did spent one night on the toilet of my hotelroom. Probably a plate washed with dirty water. But even then my inner Cartman-voice was going: "Awesome!"

Bangkok / Krung Thep (กรุงเทพ)

A new city can be quite overwhelming on the first day. It is hard to find your bearings. The best thing is to avoid taxi's and explore on foot. However, in Bangkok the crossings are not very pedestrian friendly. My hotel was not far from the river Chao Phraya and I soon ended up taking the Chao Phraya Express Boat and mingled with the commuters going to work. The color of the flag indicates the line. Looking at the city from the water gave me a sense of scale.

Chinatown

Bangkok's Chinatown is one of the largest Chinatowns in the world. Since I live near Amsterdam's Chinatown - if you can call Zeedijk 'Chinatown' - I just had to visit. The Bowring Treaty signed on 18 April 1855 between the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Siam liberalised foreign trade in Siam. As a result businesses flourished in Chinatown, which was founded in 1782.

By the turn of the 19th–20th centuries Chinatown had a red-light district hosting opium dens, theatres, nightclubs and gambling houses. In 2017 Bangkok's Chinatown is certainly less interesting, but I still spent half a day in this district roaming the narrow alleyways, eating a soup with very fresh pig intestines and visiting Chinese temples, like Wat Mangkon Kamalawat, the largest Chinese Buddhist temple in Bangkok. It was a delightful place to hang out.

Wat Mangkon Kamalawat

Now everyone can fly

Moving on from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. Domestic air travel is astonishingly cheap in Thailand. I paid the equivalent of € 86,02 for my flight from Bangkok Don Mueang International Airport to Chiang Mai International Airport with Nok Air. Thai Airways owns the second-largest stake in Nok Air.

Aéroport Nice Côte d'Azur - Saint-Martin-Vésubie

A travel story from early springtime in 2010. This was a time you had to mask the bad quality of the iPhone camera by applying heavy filters to the image. It renders the images both a little tacky and evocative.

In 2010 I had been running for a couple of years. On this trip I decided to ditch the heavy mountain shoes for some light trail running shoes. I had planned to go hiking, instead I found myself running most of the time. I guess in the springtime of 2010 I discovered trail running. In the summer of 2010 I ran my first 50k trail run in The Netherlands.

In that year I must have also read Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall for the first time. This book catapulted running from the sports category to something which was actually cool.

Flight: Amsterdam Schiphol - Aéroport Nice Côte d'Azur.
Bus: Nice - Saint-Martin-Vésubie.

Boarding on the tarmac at Schiphol Airport. Flight time is about 2 hours. In 2021 it took me 2 days to reach Nice by car. By train the journey can be done in 11 hours.

Camping A La Ferme Au Verge Saint Joseph. The camping is basically a fruit orchard.

So early in the season I had the fruit orchard almost to myself.

View from my tent: moon at night.

View of Saint-Martin-Vésubie before storm Alex in 2020.

Ditching the boots to start running.

Lunch break in the mountains consist of mainly canned food, cheese and dried sausages.

When the snow melts, crocus flowers appear.

Wild trout from Lac du Boréon.

What did I bring to read? The Mind of Wall Street: A Legendary Financier on the Perils of Greed and the Mysteries of the Market by Leon Levy apparently.

Busstation Saint-Martin-Vésubie. In 2010 I didn’t own a car. My wheeled travel bag had to fit my tent and was so big KLM considered it oversized cargo. I had to check in my bag at a special counter. Quite a hassle.

I’m pretty sure I didn’t sleep in Nice. I had an evening flight so I just spent the day in the city. The whole trip lasted four days.

View from Colline du Château in Nice.