Korean Traditonal Stage A Real Treat

When visiting Seoul make sure you go and see the Traditional Korean Stage at the Chongdong Theater. This is a great way to see and hear the instruments and music that are a part of Korean history.

The theater is very intimate with seating for just under 300 people. Their is only one show per day and tickets are more readily available on weekdays than weekends. There are two types of seats A and S. The only difference besides the price is that the A seats are off to the side while the S seats are center row. But, you can get a front row A seat which is a good as an S seat for $10 less and there isn't a bad seat in the house so save your money.

While you can't take pictures duirng the show which lasts just under 1 1/2 hours, the performers go outside where you can not only dance a little with them but have your pictures taken with them as well.

One word of warning, the music can be very loud especially when the percussion instruments are being used. So if you are sensitive to loud noise, you may want to bring along some earplugs.

Quality Inn Gamagori Japan

If you are staying in the Nagoya area and looking for a reasonably priced hotel think about the Quality Inn in Gamagori.

While it isn't exactly nextdoor to Nagoya, it is a relatively short train ride away ( 45 minutes using the Rapid line or 75 minutes on the local ). The hotel itself is a short walk from the station and you need to look for the tall building as the sign is at street level only and can't be seen from a distance. The train station closes at 7 pm each day and that means you can buy a ticket to the station for the 140 yen minimum when returning to Gamagori instead of the 950 it would cost otherwise if you arrive after 7 pm. Pay attention to the train times as the station isn't served as often as other more popular stops.

As for the hotel itself it is clean and comfortable, but the bathroom and bathtub is the smallest I have ever seen. This is not for tall or large people. Also they use liquid soap so bring your own bar of soap unless you want to bathe with the liquid variety. If you need yen, come with your own as the hotel doesn't exchange currency and the banks don't open until 9 am.

There is a 99 yen store across the street and they sell a variety of food and goods so that you can probably have a very simple breakfast for almost nothing if you want.

To get to the Centrair airport terminal you can take the train to Kamayama and transfer to the line that goes directly to the airport or go to Nagoya station and catch the airport bus on the Marriott side. The bus is 1000 yen and takes an hour so plan ahead.

World Expo 2005

My memories of attending the 1964 World's Fair in New York and the World Expo 1970 in Osaka, Japan were very dim so I looked forward to attending the 2005 Expo in Nagoya, Japan.

My wife and I started our trip to the expo early as we were staying at a hotel in Gamagori. The train ride took a little over an hour and when we arrived at the station we faced hordes of people also going to the expo. The cost of the ride was about $15 per person. Then we had to buy a ticket for the maglev train that would take us to the expo site. That was another $1.50 but it was worth it. It is the smoothest train ride on earth. Next it was buying tickets to the expo, another $42 each. The line to get in was long and thanks to security it took what seemed an eternity to get in.

We went to the corporate pavilion area and the lines were already long, averaging 2 hours or more and that was before a half hour had elapsed from the parks opening.

After touring the Mitsui-Toshiba pavilion we moved on to the global village and the country pavilions. Most were fine, but many were just not that interesting. Beside the waiting, the worst part was all the walking that was required to get around. We didn't try to make it through the entire expo as we tired fast in the heat and found the whole experience a little dull.

If you haven't been to an expo before, consider going as long as you understand that it is a lot like Epcot Center, but larger. If you are looking for excitement go elsewhere. This is more of a cultural event and in this case the Japanese themed the expo to make a point of how ecologically sensitive they are and what they perceive to be the real threat to the earth which is global warming.