Welcome to Korea!!

Well, we had our final day in Japan which we ended with a few random karate moves in our new Karate Kid headbands! We had a fantastic stay in Japan, it is so clean and the people are very respectful and friendly, plus the facilities at the Japanese Olympic centre were brilliant so it was excellent preparation for us.

We have now travelled to the Island of Jeju, South Korea. We arrived on Wednesday and we were all eager to go and have a look around. It is a very interesting place but very different to Japan! The food on the plane was very unusual (see pic below) and then on the streets, all the restaurants have strange looking creatures in huge tanks, this is so you can choose your main course! We are clearly not used to that and it made us all feel pretty queasy! (see pic.) The shops are priced about the same as England but they have some really unusual trainers and sportswear, lots of bright stuff!

The Island is filled with bars, shops, restaurants etc, it is a little like Blackpool but a Korean version! Ha  I know there are some beautiful parts to the Island though and we had some glimpses of this on the way into the centre from the airport. Hopefully we’ll get to see some more of that whilst we are here. The hotel we are in is brand new, the owner is a big fan of art, so the hotel is called Hotel Leo… Leo is the word in Korean for ‘gallery.’ There are paintings, sculptures and random artistic furniture and décor all over the place, it’s pretty cool.

After some sightseeing we had dinner and then went to a spa at the big hotel in the city; the spa had a sauna plus three pools which were all different temperatures. We walked in wearing our swimwear and a lady came running over shouting at us, then one by one all the ladies starting shouting things at us and getting out of the pools, they looked at us with disgust. It is the culture over here to be naked in spas, they have separate ones for men and women and it is considered dirty to wear clothing in the pool areas, so they were very angry and hostile towards us. Luckily, there was a lady who spoke really good English, so we were able to negotiate with her and they allowed us in the pools so long as we wrapped towels around our heads. We understood the difference in culture as it was the same in Japan, however, since we are all team mates with coaches as well, it isn’t something we felt comfortable with and it’s certainly not something we are used to. It did however give us an insight of what it’s like to be different and to be judged for it, sometimes in a very abrupt and hostile manner. I think this is an important aspect of travel, it helps us to understand what others go through in our country when they are judged for their difference, when actually, it is their ‘norm.’ We managed to finish our experience in the spa despite the angry looks, and very awkward atmosphere and got our stuff and got out of there sharpish! Another interesting encounter on this particular adventure.

Tomorrow we will visit the competition venue and get registered so I will update again then and also send some more photos.

Thank you for following our journey, the training is all done now, it’s almost time to do what we came for, time to fight!! Hope you are all okay in PACE and back at school

Bye for now

Miss Copeland. xx

Wax on, wax off!! Karate Kid moves 

Our unusual meal on Korean airlines 

View of Jeju Island from the plane

Airport at Jeju Island 

 A few photos from the main streets around our hotel in Jeju

 Some of the little shops down the side streets in Jeju

And here is one of the creatures in the tanks outside the restaurants!!

Would you fancy this guy for tea??