돈까스 (Donggaseu in romanized Korean/トンカツ Tonkatsu in romanized Japanese) is basically a fried pork cutlet drowned in a brown savory sauce. In Korean restaurants that also sell Koreanized Japanese food (sushi, etc.) it's pretty good and Dahin, especially, loves it. Yet, we stumbled upon a restaurant run by a woman who lived in Japan for years and who makes 'real, authentic Japanese ramen and tonkatsu." The ramen, I will say, was the best I have ever had. This is not your Safeway/Kroger cup ramen. Korean ramen (라면/ramyeon) is really awesome stuff, especially when served with kimchi. But, Japanese ramen beats Korean ramen by a long shot. It is soooooo good and actually tastes healthy--buckwheat noodles, little slivers of pork, lots of veggies---heaven! The Japanese have taken ramen to a new level; it is culinary art, Japanese style. While the same cannot be said for tonkatsu (which probably is some remnant European culture importation--see more at the scholars' anti-Christ, Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonkatsu), it was still really, really good. I can say without hesitation that it beats the Korean style stuff which is usually drowned in tons of sauce and, these days, also stuffed with cheese (although you can order a plain cutlet). Above and below, Dahin has her first taste of Japanese tonkatsu and can't believe her taste buds. She kept saying, "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! This is so good." Now we know where to take her on her birthday.
I and my friend Heather will be taking turns MCing a series of concerts at Deoksugung palace in Seoul. It's a place that has an interesting history, in that it has been a site for royal rest and politicizing and has been in the middle of many changes in korea (from the push for Western culture in the 19th century to the Japanese colonial period) over the past 300 hundred years. The architecture on the palace grounds is also very unusual in that you see the typical style of Korean palaces combined with 19th century Western architecture. I am MCing this Saturday and Sunday and again on June 6 and 7. I am very excited about seeing and meeting the performers, but pretty nervous about MCing, which I have to do in both English and Korean. I will be posting more about it here later, but for now, here are pictures of the poster, brochure, and artist info. The pictures are pretty small, but you can click on them to see a larger version and, thus, see the details.
I 
We decided to take a trip to the hanok maul (traditional village; hanok is a style of house that people now call "Korean traditional house") in downtown Seoul. We took one of Dahin's schoolmates, Daisy with us. Daisy lived in Vancouver for a while and can blabber in English with Dahin about Hannah Montanah, High School Musical, and all those other 8 year-old blabbery things. The village, while it contains real buildings, is really just a museum. You go from building to building to see the different rooms and in the central courtyard they had games set up like see-sawing and swings. Above, we're on the subway headed there and, below, Jack and the kids rest on the steps that lead to the central courtyard.
Below, Dahin and Daisy try the seesaw. It takes some skill since you have to balance while jumping up and down on the plank. 
Above, Oliver strikes a very Korean pose. The kids have learned this well.
This wishing well was very cool. I couldn't resist taking a photo. The kids next to me were talking about all the money in the well and wondering how far down they would have to go down to get it. 
Say "Kimchi!" people; kimchi. In the central courtyard, there was ddok (rice cake) for sale and a 'you can take a huge hammer and pound some rice flour' activity next to the ddok stand. There were also people walking around in costume with whom you could pose. So, we did.
The highlight of the folk village was not the people dressed in costume nor was it the games. The highlight was this really, really beautiful pond filled with huge koi. We sat and watched it for a while. 
