The Themed Pavilions~

(Apologies for the incredibly late entries! I have had a crazy week!) 

So after visiting the SKY tower, we decided that since it was already packed and there would be even more people coming on the Saturday, it would be best to get all the popular things done on the Friday. 

Flashing our press passes like pros, we walked into the LOTTE pavilion like we owned the place...I'm just joking! (but the press pass does have a secret-self confidence-inducing power!) 

This plus our high-vis press jackets gave us amazing queue-jumping powers

 The Lotte Pavilion itself was pretty nice and it had a nice welcome sign! ^-^ The pavilion opened with a rather peculiar performance (obviously child-orientated~) featuring 4 performers dressed up as...well, I'm not exactly sure what they were meant to be but a cross between cute insects and fairies...right. They sang, played some instruments and danced around interacting with the audience - I think this was to kill the time while the people ahead of us enjoyed the second part of the pavilion.  

The performers...I'm still not sure what their purpose was..?

 The main part of the pavilion involved riding in a huge air balloon...supposedly! We all entered this room that had been decorated to look like a hot air balloon (photography not allowed~ sorry guys!) In fact, it kind of was. We were surrounded by these enormous floor-to-ceiling screens that presented a mini-movie of us, in the hot air balloon, flying through different weather systems (even through the sea at one point!). With the floor moving, it felt very simulator-esque and I found my somewhat sceptical self laughing and swaying like the 5-year old next to me. What can I say? I'm young at heart! 

Next, it was on to the Hyundai Pavilion. I personally really liked the Hyundai Pavilion - it was well-presented, the staff were polite and aside from the people who glared at us with a mixture of understandable frustration/curiosity (who are they? why can they just skip the 90 minute queue?!),  everything was pretty awesome. 

It started with a little history lesson, taking us back to the beginning of the company's work in the automotive industry which was quite interesting. Suzy got really excited when she was able to find her first car among the display models~!  

While there's nothing particularly wrong, I love the English in this...it's just cute~

I felt the Hyundai Pavilion was really well managed and overall, was very impressive. The main feature of the pavilion includes a wall made of blocks which protrude at different times to the beat of the backing track, to form specific words or pictures...to do all sorts of things~ While it's very difficult to describe to someone who hasn't seen it, it's very exciting to watch and had the entire audience captivated from start to finish. 

Next, came the Daewoo Chosun Marine Robot Pavilion. I was really looking forwards to this one. I mean, who doesn't love robots? Anyone who has seen iRobot or any other somewhat-robot related films will secretly confess to wanting to get to know a robot or to have one (a nice one) as a friend. 

I have to say I left the Pavilion feeling rather unimpressed- especially compared to the professionalism of the other pavilions. Despite boasting one of the longest queue times in the entire Expo (aside from the aquarium), the pavilion was surprisingly lacking in any form of organisation. People ran in and crowded round very small platforms meaning many people couldn't even see and a lack of any kind of subtitles in any language for the majority of the performances rendered it incomprehensible to non-Korean speaking foreign visitors. 

Meeting one of the earlier robots - she's capable of holding a conversation and of movement. She blinks too. 

I, too, barely understood what was going on even though my Korean isn't bad. Somehow talking about robot technology was never a vocabulary topic in class...Obviously, we should be covering this, I'll take this up with the faculty when I'm back in London. 

I did, however, learn a new Korean word, which I heard frequently around the pavilion. 어굴하다. (o-gul-ha-da) which roughly translate to "to be not worth the time, not fair".....says it all really.  

Some things don't need subtitles - a robot football game. 

The main focus of the pavilion was actually looking at the extension of research into the use of robots to explore deep-sea territories. Robots can be used to lay power lines, gas pipes etc as well as the excavation of certain resources as well as the basic purpose of exploration. The photo below shows one of the robots used in under-sea building projects. He's huge! I don't even come up to his knee! 

After the somewhat-lacking robot pavilion, we moved onto the Samsung pavilion. Here, people also queued for at least an hour to see the performance. We, too, were made to wait albeit not half as long as most of the other guests...but we did have to stand in the wind and the rain! 

In the way I guess many of the queueing guests felt, I had high expectations when we were finally let in the pavilion. Unfortunately, my camera battery died just as we went in so I don't have any pictures to show you. 

The adjective that comes to mind is "nice". Nothing special, nothing particularly memorable..."nice". 

We entered the main section of the pavilion which is strangely reminiscent of a car park. A two and a half floored, concrete looking structure, overlooking an open area in the middle where 4 performers do a mix of ballet and acrobatics...I'm not sure with what purpose. A young girl comes in a dances around while a variety of images are projected onto the floor around her, she is joined by a man who seems to be dressed as the moon and two others...but I have no idea what they are meant to be..and together they dance around. 

I don't think anyone quite got it!

We all walked away thinking...and what does this have to do with the environment? 

Hyundai centred on it's history in the automotive industry, Daewoo Chosun looked to the future potential of using robots in deep sea exploration, I'm not quite sure what Lotte and Samsung were playing for...but it was fun! 

If you're going with kids, the Lotte pavilion is definitely most child friendly and will keep them well-entertained as will my favourite, the Hyundai pavilion.   ^-^ 

Just beware the queues! 

Yeosu Expo 2012: Sky Tower

We quickly realised we weren't going to be very good at sticking to the schedule. A combination of hunger and poor weather left us heading straight for lunch on our arrival! So, after a hearty bowl of bibimbap, it was time to start exploring what the expo had to offer! 

First stop on the list of things-to-do was the SKY tower and we were on our way there when we came across a rather exciting looking procession but we didn't hang around too long! 

On the introduction on the Yeosu Expo website, there is a German legend that tells of a mermaid named 'Lorelei' who used to sit on a rock and bewitch passing sailors with her enchanting songs. Once a cement silo, the SKY tower observatory is now a heart shaped pipe organ which actually holds the Guinness World Record for being the world's loudest pipe organ! 

It was from here onwards that we began to realise how vital our press passes would be if we were going to see more than one or two exhibitions during our trips. Faced with queues varying in length from 1-3 hours depending on the exhibit, flashing our press pass gained us instant access. 

Thank goodness! 

  Aside from functioning as a pavilion, the observatory, which stands at 67m ( ~220 ft) high above the ground, offers superb views across the expo. At least I'm positive it would have done, if it hadn't been incredibly overcast as you can see from the photos.

  

Now, I've never been someone who is scared of heights but then again, who really loves heights? Faced with the prospect of a transparent floor panel, I think everyone's knees went a little week. The panel offers a view all the way to the ground...and a quick look shows you the panel isn't very thick either. I have no doubt it is made of some super-strong material but still, it's strange how we react to something like this, even when we know it's perfectly safe. 

Brave Anna disappeared and cowardly Anna made a somewhat shy appearance... 

Then, the rain really took a turn for the worse. It poured, the temperature dropped and I thanked myself for donning jeans over shorts! 

Interestingly, the tower also serves as a water filtration and desalination system. 

First, the water is passed through is passed through a sand filter to remove large particle impurities and algae, then it passes through an active carbon filter that absorbs any organic matter. The third step passes it under a UV lamp, sterilising it. The fourth stage is a UF block, the elimination of impurities at a micro-organism level before carrying out reverse osmosis and finally, the fifth stage which involves the removal of any ionic substances in the seawater. When this is all done, the water is remineralised to produce drinking water by adjusting the pH and adding certain minerals.

You can even try the water! 

After rehydrating ourselves with the desalinated seawater, it was time to move on to the participant' pavilions (Samsung, Lotte, Hyundai and Daewoo). 

The moment I realised.. I didn't know my alphabet.

This blog post will be as much a learning experience for me as I hope it will be for you.

I was sitting in a coffee shop (ok.. it was Starbucks ><) with my Korean language partner, Wan-Soo, earlier in the week going over some past papers for my Korean exam (which I had today!). He was dictating an answer to me when he said a word I didn't recognise. I asked him to repeat it, trying to work out how to spell it. Seeing my struggle, he said "yes, next put a ji-eut" ... I looked at him blankly, thinking "a what?!" ..

*This isn't me by the way....

When I started learning Korean, I learnt the script off a website before I went to Seoul for the first time. I practiced a bit and later, cemented the alphabet and syllable structures into my head by hours spent following hangeul subbed Korean music videos (and numerous trips to Karaoke while in Korea!).

It was only then, as I sat utterly confused in Starbucks, that I realised....I'd never actually learnt my Korean letters. I mean, I knew my letters. I could recognise them and I knew what sound they made...but I didn't actually know they're names.

I guess a similar parallel would be like saying being able to recognise the letter 'z' in a word and knowing it made a 'zzzz' sound ... but not knowing that it was referred to as 'z'. With me?

With this in mind, I vowed to take a step back and actually go and learn my letters!

At omniglot.com, I found these two fantastic little pictures which present all the consonants and vowels in the Korean script with...wait for it.... yes!...their Korean names!

Firstly, we have the consonants! 

And then, the vowels! 

The Korean alphabet is fantastic and really easy to learn. It was implemented in order to enable the country to attain literacy. Prior to its' invention, the Korean's had used Chinese characters to write and learning them took years of dedication and education...something most people couldn't afford - time-wise or financially. 

While learning to read and write may take a bit of time, the letters themselves can be learned in a morning/afternoon (if you're ambitious) or a day (if you want a more relaxed pace!). 

I now know that a "jieut" is in fact "ㅈ" or the "j" sound.... 

(at least that's one down...) 

한여름밤의 꿈 ~ A Midsummer Night's Dream

A while back, I decided that I was somewhat disgusted and outraged with myself for the fact that, despite having been living in London since September, the cultural outings I'd made could effectively be counted on one hand. Tut Tut. 

So, when I saw the Globe theatre was running a series of productions of Shakespeare's plays in various languages - I couldn't resist booking tickets for the Chinese production of Richard III and the Korean production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was even more exciting for me I guess as, somewhat embarrassingly, my previous interactions with Shakespeare had surmounted to performing Much Ado About Nothing in secondary school and later, trudging through Merchant of Venice as one of my GCSE compulsory set texts. I'd never even been to the Globe. 

Having seen Richard III earlier in the week and been overwhelmed by the atmosphere of the theatre (as well as becoming well acquainted with what happens at an open air theatre when it starts to rain....a lot!), I couldn't wait to head back to the theatre for my second Shakespeare instalment of the week. 

Armed with a general understanding of the play (thanks Sparknotes!) and joined by my Korean language partner, I figured I had a reasonably good chance of 'getting' most of it! 

Well. The performance was stunning. Absolutely breathtakingly, fantastically awesome. If there was ever a Shakespeare play that was just asking to be thrown linguistically and culturally into a new language, it is A Midsummer Night's Dream, or 한 여름밤의 꿈 to give it it's Korean title. 

Performed by the wonderful cast of the Yohangza Theatre Company (극장 여행자), A Midsummer Night's Dream is electrifying and bewitching, drawing on Shakespeare's original plot line and weaving in various themes of Korean tradition and folklore. 

Oberon and Titania become King Gabi and Dot, Queen of the Dokkebi (Korea's own mischievous fairies). Puck undergoes his own transformation into a pair of twins called Duduri (played by double-act Sang-Bo Kim and Jung-Yong Jeon, shown below) and a twist in the translation sees the incurable womaniser King Gabi placed under a spell by his wife, making him fall in love with the first woman he sees. Upon his awakening, she ensures he sees - not a bottom turned into an ass but instead an ajumi (old woman / herb collector) transformed into a pig! - a fitting punishment for a man with a roving eye~!

Queen Dot with Duduri 

The protagonists are dressed in plain, traditional clothes to reflect their personalities. Byeok (Hermia) enters the stage donned in an eye-catching red top, the beauty, beloved by all (at least before entering the dream state). Next on is her opposite, Hang (Lysander) dressed in royal blue. I really enjoyed the symbolism here  - red and royal blue are the colours of Korean Yin-Yang (or Eum-Yang in Korean), illustrating her unwavering loyalty and his attempted betrayal - until everything is back to normal after leaving the dream state. 

Ick (Helena) performs in a bright yellow top that connotes royalty, propriety and luck. At the outset, she is left alone, neither lucky or in love, but Queen Dot soon sees this put right. Her opposite Roo (Demetrius) is dressed in dark green, representing a nasty, untrustworthy person. He is true to his colour, abandoning Ick in   the woods after being particularly mean to her. 

After entering the dream state cast by Queen Dot, our main characters are stripped of their coloured tops and don white ones instead - symbolic of immersion in nature according to Buddhist culture...and enter the forest, where purity and innocence may be found! 

One of the Dokkebi. 

Yohangza's style is as much dance as drama and is comic to almost Pantomime-extremes in some parts. The  fantastic choreography of movement and speech combined with strong visuals  blends magnificently to produce a production which is easy to follow, even for those who speak no Korean whatsoever - of which there were many in the audience. 

Actors interact on a large scale with the audience, mingling among the standing, teasing them, tormenting them, as well as flowing fluorescent rings out into the audience - apparently this is to create a sense of unity between the cast and the audience, the rings given out as a small token of their appreciation. 

Some moments translate particularly well. Ick's "I am your spaniel" is rendered hilariously unmistakeable by her on-stage puppy-like portrayal - with barking, pawing and panting included. 

At the end, Dot removes the dream state and all of our couples end up back in their rightful pairs. King Gabi   learns to  appreciate his wife once more and at long last, the old ajumi is transformed back from a pig to her old self. As a reward, the next day when she awakes, she finds a "valuable" herb, screams something along the lines of "shin-bad-da" and runs off stage, marking the end of the show.

However, some moments are a little tricky for a non-Korean audience to follow. I will confess to being one of the many people who had no idea what the significance of this end scene was. Unsurprisingly, it seems the meaning was not lost on the Korean audience. My Korean friend told me that basically, as a present / thank-you for participating (although unknowingly) in the Queen's scheme to teach her husband a lesson, the goblins rewarded the old lady with a very precious type of ginseng (traditional Korean herb) called Sansam, a herb she'd apparently been searching for all her life. The Korean phrase "신밧다" (shin-bad-da)  is used upon discovery of such a herb (and only in this case - so I have since forgiven my dictionary for not containing it ... I don't think I'll be finding Sansam any time soon!). 

In conclusion, the play was terrific. I walked away incredibly happy with myself, not only for having understood about 70% of the Korean, not even just for having finally gone and done something cultural but for the simple fact that I loved the show. It reignited my love of the theatre and deep down inside, a little part of me yearned to get back on the stage (I acted a lot as a child) - however, this feeling quickly disappeared when I got home and saw all my revision waiting for me :( 

Anyway, with a Korean exam tomorrow, I must return to my little world of study. 

Tonight will be the last performance and if anyone is going, I hope you have a wonderful evening- I guarantee you will enjoy it. If you're not yet going, then there is no reason as to why you should not! 

Book now! 

Shakespeare's Globe to Globe runs until the 9th of June. 

The Globe Theatre Box Office : 020 7401 9919

Picture Credits - The Globe webpage, The KCC 

The day I went a little crazy and hyper for Japan!

So last weekend, courtesy of my work with United KPop Entertainment, I was lucky enough to be able to get a press pass to attend the HYPER Japan! convention at Earls Court. 

Now, I'll be completely honest. I have never seen an anime in my life (I didn't really even know how to describe them ... "are they a series? can you have plural 'animes'?" I pondered on my way there!).  The closest I have ever been to J-pop is K-pop artists who have reworked their songs to enter the Japanese market. Studying for a degree in Chinese and Korean, I rarely have the time or energy to step outside this little Asian sphere I've created for myself and yet here I was, at 9am on a Saturday morning...at a convention for something I admittedly knew remarkably little about. 

I arrived and met Michael, a fellow UKP Ent'er, who was there with me as the photographer for the day. Despite what some would call terrible planning and organisation  (for example the press not being allowed through the press door!) we eventually were all let in and the "show" began. 

The agenda for the day was pretty packed. After we were eventually let in, it was time for the sake awards show. I don't know about you but personally, I did feel 9.30 am was a little early to start on the sake but I wasn't about to complain ;) Just kidding~ we weren't actually allowed too- it seems press benefits don't quite extend that far! Girls dressed in lolita fashion ( = a Japanese fashion sub-culture mostly based on Victorian-era clothing) strode down the runway carrying and posing with various bottles of sake which were then formally introduced by their producers. We stuck around for a while until we lost count of the bottles before wandering off to see what else the convention had in store....  

On my wanderings I bumped into the lovely, very..brightly dressed young ladies in the picture below who were modelling (L-R) Sweet Lolita fashion, Fairy Kei fashion and Pop Kei fashion. I have to admit, in a somewhat peculiar way, they looked really awesome. They were exceptionally nice and we got chatting where Kairi (far right) revealed that she must have spent well over £500 on hair clips alone despite the fact that she began wearing Japanese fashion only a year or so ago. (I will now be using this as my reply whenever my mum reprimands me for spending too much ; "But Mum!" I will say "There are girls who spend much more than 'X' amount on hair clips alone - at least I diversify my spending!"~ )  I did nearly burst out laughing when Rachel (in the middle) described her outfit further as "rather informal" with a perfectly serious expression ... when I asked her if she wore it out regularly, she replied "Hmm..sometimes". While I have no doubt that Japanese fashion has a growing following in the UK, I'm not sure I'd be ready quite yet to tread the streets of London in Lolita fashion.....

Wai Yi Lee, Rachel Claire and Kairi Mori 

At 11am it was time for well known, Japanese pop-anime artist Natsuko Aso to perform - for more information, photos and videos from her performance and our interview see my next post! 

Here's the photo she insisted on taking with the crowd after her performance for her facebook page~ 

After her performance, we had some time to kill until the Japanese streetwear fashion show (note- streetwear >.<) so I went on a hunt for people in cool costumes. You know when you see someone dressed really strangely and you can't help but look...well for me, it was almost the reverse. As one of the (very) few people not in costume, I stuck out like a sore thumb and started to feel a little left out in my jeans and leather jacket. I should have donned a costume like some of our fellow convention goers as shown below! Well, I've learnt for next time I guess~  

Well, I donned a mario mushroom hat as my contribution... at least I tried! (kind of!~) Then getting up and close with ...well I'm  not entirely sure what it is...but everyone else was taking pictures with it so I felt I should join in.

Then it was time at last for the Japanese fashion show exhibiting all the different Japanese fashion sub cultures including all the different types of Lolita fashion (country, shiro, punk, classic) as well as various Kei fashion styles. It was amazing the amount of commitment the participants have to their various chosen styles. Many have made their own outfits having been unable to find fitting clothes on the high street while others have spent hundreds of pounds importing dresses and accessories from Japan.  Now that, even if unconventional, is a commitment to fashion.

They even held a competition inviting all the girls dressed in Lolita fashion to join the models on stage with the chance of winning accessories from some of the leading Lolita brands in Japan. However, I don't think they'd anticipated anywhere near this many participants - the photo is somewhat deceptive as you can only see the girls at the front- there were at least another 15 girls out of shot on the right! 

After the fashion show, it was time for us to dash off for our private interview with Natsuko Aso.....