When you are traveling in a foreign country, you sometimes find words that aren’t in your dictionary. After leaving Jeonju, we went to a port city called Gunsan. One of the local dishes is “champon,” like Nagasaki “champon.” Gunsan noodles are spicy and full of seafood like mussels, clams, and squid. The restaurant near our hotel had a tablet for ordering. There were two pictures that looked the same, but the prices were different. The names were the same in Korean, but there was one more word after the more expensive “champon.” I couldn’t find the word in my dictionary, so we switched to the Japanese menu. The Japanese names were almost the same, but one was written in katakana and the other was written in hiragana. Why were the hiragana noodles more expensive? We decided to order both and see. When we got them, we saw that the hiragana portion was bigger.

We stayed in the old part of Jeonju. It is called “hanok village” because most of the buildings are “hanok,” traditional Korean houses with nice wooden doors and tiled roofs. We stayed in one because it had a traditional heated floor. The “ondol” kept us warm at night even when the temperature went down to -10 degrees. Korea has been very cold, but the people have been warm and friendly. Our “hanok” manager spent a lot of time talking to us about everything from sightseeing and restaurants to life in Japan and Korea. When we had breakfast there, we talked to travelers from Indonesia and the Philippines. Even the taxi drivers in Jeonju were happy to talk. One gave us some candy after we gave him advice about traveling in Japan!    (126 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

My wife and I are traveling in Korea now. We decided to come to Korea because we like Korean food and because I am studying Korean. On the first day, we flew to Seoul and took a bus to a city called Jeonju. It’s about 3 hours south of Seoul. We chose Jeonju for its history and for the food. Jeonju reminds me of Kyoto, especially the area around Kiyomizu Temple. There are many old buildings, but there are a lot of small shops for tourists. Jeonju is also a UNESCO City of Gastronomy. That means that it is a city with a lot of great food. It’s perfect for my wife and I because we are foodies. We love food and remember the places we have been by the food we ate. We are trying something new and tasty every day!   (142 words) You can send me a comment or your own

The Jaremaga Essay Contest for high school and junior high school students is now over. We received 49 essays this year. I want to thank Kitahara Nobuaki and Nakanishi Tetsuhiko for helping me to choose the best essays. We wanted to choose the best three, but the essays were so good that we ended up choosing five. I want to send out the winning essays before the end of February, so I will start tomorrow. You will get two essays each week, one on Thursday and one on Friday. I will start with the high school essays and then will send out the junior high school essays. I’m sure that you will enjoy them as much as we did.   (119 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com