We hopped on the overcrowded bus in route to the Sintanjin Cherry Blossom Festival expecting an uncomfortable ride. Immediately, we grasped the orange "oh sh*t bars" as the driver's spastic braking jarred our bodies back and forth like pinballs. The warm bus was filled with suffocatingly stagnant air accompanied by wafts of fermented kimchi breath. We gagged while the cozily seated passengers refused to open the windows - it might mess their hair of course. This 30 minutes of fun was enhanced by a little old woman belching loudly in my ear and elbowing me to get by as if the 2 seconds she saved by getting off before me could save her life.
Luckily, we arrived at the festival of blooms unharmed. The skies were cloudy and the cherry blossoms had only started blooming days before. But while few trees boasted their cottony buds, we did find plenty of entertainment. There were endless booths soliciting mystery products. We were struck by boiling eggs creating solar energy, or was it solar energy boiling eggs? Another stand had a host of food items accompanied by jars to illustrate the true amount of oil, sugar, and salt you insert in your body when consuming them. I think Jake just gave up his two favorite Korean fast foods - dankaseu (fried pork cutlet) and chocopies. Oh boy! Since we can't communicate much, we were just handed the free waters and gifts with a smile for our visit. By the end of the circuit Jake's pockets were bursting with wet tissue packets; big score in a city of squatter latrines often lacking toliet paper. Bonus for me!
Across the park, nuclear families decorated the hillsides with picnic baskets and paint sets. Every other person was dotting impressionist style landscapes of the blossoming trees with hot pink watercolors. Inspiring to see children's imagination at work.
Queues of Koreans also lined up for 200 meters at wheel of fortune type games with dreams of winning gift bags of wonder. We considered the lines, but moved on to the prospects ahead. Countless, traditional Korean games, mostly made of wood, were scattered across a large field. Perhaps the most exciting event was the catapolt launch. It looks like a tetertauter, but with the right moves, you can launch your opponent several feet in the air. We have some videos for your entertainment. Other events included, wood carving, creating acorn animals, tea sampling, splatter painting, giant tanagram assembly, jacks, and more. Jake also spent some extra time being chased around by groups of six year olds screaming with joy as they stalked the giant foreigner. We laughed so hard.
After we got our fair share of entertainment, we headed to the food tents to sample the festival delights. Jake and Jesse scarfed down the pork roast and stuffed squid while the rest of us stuck to noodles and pajeon (green onion pancakes). The fare was tasty, but not worth the price tag. Who spends $70 under a tarp with plastic seats? It is actually quite hard to spend that much on lunch in Korea. Woopsies, I guess we will ask questions first next time.
The ironic part is that this festival was held on the KT&G grounds. We came to find out that this stands for the Korean Tobacco Company. Our guilty consciouses cursed us for supporting the retched industry as we wouldn't be caught dead at a Marlboro company convention in the US. But we readily laughed about the circumstance and recalled that we lived in a mundane city where events are not quite accessible to foreigners -- anything potentially intersting was worthy of exploration. And it was.
