Saturday was a fabulous weather day. I was planning on teaching some private lessons, but those got canceled at the last minute. So, with nothing planned for the day I decided to take SaTang to Ulsan Grand Park and play a little. The park is very large (almost 900 acres – no Central Park, but large enough for a city of 1 million) and is filled with people riding bikes, skating, strolling and playing. I took a ball and found a quiet grassy area where I could take off SaTang’s leash and let her run. I soon had a crowd of Koreans watching and snapping pictures of my dog playing fetch. I let some of the kids watching throw the ball and decided to snap some shots myself. She was running so fast that I actually got her making two different trips on the same exposure.
She was the perfect pal. She was very good with all the kids who wanted throw the ball with her. If they were afraid (quite common – Koreans don’t have all that many dogs) and acted as if they didn’t want to take the ball from her mouth, she’d drop it and then nudge it towards them as if to say “here, just take it – I don’t bite.” Apparently, playing fetch is not a typical activity. Many of the Koreans seemed amazed that the dog was smart enough to chase the ball and bring it back.
I’m trying now to teach her how to bow, like Koreans do when they great each other. If playing fetch is amazing, a dog that bows should get me on whatever show is the equivalent of Letterman’s Stupid Pet Tricks.
Sunday, I had planned a trip down to Busan for a day of climbing. There are supposedly a couple of climbing areas on My GeumJeung, but we could only find one. We went there in April and found one of them, but the directions to the second wall was vague enough that we spent the afternoon hiking. My friends found one small spot with a single bolted route, but we never found the place that is rumored to have over 25 routes. I did get a couple of nice pictures of Busan from the mountain top. Below is a link to a large panoramic picture.
Geumjeongsan, Busan, South Korea
Click on the thumbnail above to get the full picture. In the center of the picture, there are several people standing on a boulder overlooking Busan, which sits in a valley between two mountain ranges. These people make for a nice perspective scale of the view. On the left, looking north, north-east, the city begins its sprawl. On the far right is the East Sea (or Sea of Japan, depending on whose map you look at.) To the right of the boulders in the center of the picture, the remnants of the fortress wall built in the 1600s are clearly visible. After having been invaded by both the Chinese in the 1500s and the Japanese in the 1600s, the Koreans decided some national defenses were in need. They built a fortress (destroyed again by the Japanese in the 1910-1945 invasion) and wall that runs along the top of the mountain for nearly 17km. It’s no small wonder they refuse to call the East Sea the “Sea of Japan,” which is what most other maps refer to the body water between the Korean peninsula and the Japanese Islands.
On the mountain, SaTang was again the perfect pet. She kept up with me as we hiked around. If she got too far ahead, she turn around and wait with a “hurry up, old man,” look on her face. If I got too far ahead of her, a short whistle and she’d come running. If we happened across some Koreans having a picnic, she’d politely inquire if there were any snacks to be had, but would happily come running back to me if they didn’t want her there. It was about a 50/50 split, so I couldn’t blame her for trying. Once some of them gave her a bite, she had to try them all.