K-Performance Supporter: 1st Batch Thank You & 2nd Batch Opening Ceremony + Gangnam K-Pop Concert

I cannot be thankful enough to Korea Tourism Organization for they have spoiled us, the K-Performance Supporters, by giving numerous opportunities to experience variety of performances. I have experienced events that I even did not know before such as Yeosu Expo 2012, Formula 1, Hwacheon Ice Festival, Inkigayo, and not to mention performances such as Jump, B-Boy Kung, Vinari, you name it. Not only I got to experience so many things, but also I got to get many new friends who come from different parts of the world. The last one year was priceless.

The ceremony was awesome. What to whine? We got picked up from the station, luxury ceremony hall, delicious buffet, gifts, plus rare chance to watch concert by the next generation of K-Pop stars. As the gifts, we received some bookmarks, a very cute USB flash drive, and for the first batch members, we got a pair of koreanish-patterned jewelry box.

The gifts: jewelry box, USB flas drive,
and KRW 400,000 worth coupons 

I, myself was very grateful to have been chosen as one of award grantees from the last batch. I was very proud to stand there on the stage and receive my prize. I actually have no idea how big was my contribution to this program, although I always try my best to review honestly, good or bad, about whatever I experienced from this program. I really hope my reviews were indeed a big help for th
em to make K-Performance better.

Even though I did not stay for the concert until it was done, I think it was a pleasure to see the next generation of K-Pop stars. Who knows in the near future they will be everywhere and I would be "hey I have seen those guys' concert". How cool that would be?!

퍼스트 (F1RST) on stage

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More: http://mkfestival.com/gk/index1.php?gubun=en

[Korea Performance] FantaStick is really Fantastic?

Fantastick is a non-verbal performance. It has story and they mostly play instrument such as drum, flute, etc. I went there with a friend from Indonesia.

The opening and the ending were actually pretty cool because it was really a party. I liked it. The story is actually really general, about love, man and woman, problem arises, they get separated, then they try to solve the problem, more conflict, climax, then they meet again and live happily ever after.

You really should know the introduction of the story, otherwise you will have no idea what is going on. I will give you a head start. The story is about a man and a woman, they love each other. God gave the man a drum and a woman a flute. Too exciting with his drum, the man forgets about the woman. The woman then gets really jealous and broke his drum. God angry and curse the woman and her family (why brings family? lol) to be haunted ghosts and takes her flute. The only way to be human again is to play a perfect song. And the performance starts from here.

Once in a while they give really funny scenes. The story itself is kind of depressing in the middle of the play. Therefore, if you are one of the audiences you will notice that once in a while audiences laugh, then it is silent, then more laughter again. And like any other performances in Korea, they do interact with audience.

Wanna see this one? The theather is located at Kyunghyang Newspaper Building second floor. Take line number 5 and get off at Seodaemun Station and take exit 5. Go straight until you find intersection. It is just across the street. Ticket is KRW 40,000 - 50,000.

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[Korea Performance] World Beat Vinari: Worth Watching?

Before you are judging me, I would like to say that this is only from the perspective of me as an audience. As everyone knows that everyone has their own thought about this performance. 

From what I saw Vinari is a performance that emphasizes in traditional music instrument and singing. The songs are actually telling about some different stories. The performance itself does not really have story. To be short, the performance is just a collection of traditional music instrument and - you can say - concert. 

The one that I quite like is actually the concert part, where one of the girls sang with a really powerful voice. I think that's only it. The instrument play was also good, but nothing really special. You can really see it at some places in Korea. I have seen it in Namsan Tower. They played right in front of Namsan Tower. Also you might see it on festivals in Korea. They played traditional music instrument while doing some acrobat action.

It is true that they try to be interactive with the audience by asking us to yell or clap our hand. Nothing really special about it. No cool acrobat actions, no funny moments, it was very dull and really standard.

The theater is pretty cold (it was winter) and I had to keep wearing my jacket. The screens that explain about the story of the songs are placed at the side of the stage, it was pretty uncomfortable to see it, some people might not notice it. 

I would not recommend this one, but if you want to see it, the theater is located at Cine Core 4th Floor. Take line number 1 and stop at Jonggak Station and take exit 12, walk until you find intersection, cross the road and turn right. You should see the poster.

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Special SBS Inkigayo For Celebration of Over 10 Million Foreign Tourists

2012/11/25 - It was just like dream came true. I have always wanted to go to this famous TV Music Program in Korea. Inkigayo is a South Korean music program that is broadcasted by SBS. It shows the performance of latest and popular artist. The one that I attended was a special program to celebrate over 10 million foreigner tourists. The show was aired live from 2 places, the one that I attended which is SBS Prism Tower and Gwanghwamun. 
There were actually many artists that came and sang at the program, some of them are Sistar, Secret, Teen Top, CN Blue, Infinite, KARA, Son Dam Bi, Kim Jong Guk,G.Na, B1A4, etc. But since it was held on two different place, so the performers also divided into two. Some of them performed at Gwanghwamun, including Sistar T.T. Some of them even did the pre-recording which means it was not really "live", but some of them was still there even they did the pre-recording I think to satisfy the fans. I guess they had to do it because they had to organize and decorate the stage. And we can't take picture during the show, so sorry there is no proof lol.
Overall it was pretty entertaining and I was so happy that I finally get to watch inkigayo from its studio and I was also captured by camera and a friend of mine took a screenshot from her TV and sent it to me! Thanks again KTO, I am so glad that I became a member of K-performance supporter and get to see events like this. Congratulations for Korea for the great achievement!

Me: second row gray shirt lol

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A Walk With Hallyu Stars

Not really ... they actually promised an event where we can walk around with invited hallyu stars, but no, it was just only the beginning and the next event was actually walk by your self, or your friends if you came with you friends. It was a total disappointment, but hey, look at the bright side! A free concert ... yayyyyy!!
I can't thank KTO enough for this. I loved the concert since I could see it really near (I was at the front row!). Alright, first thing first. I got this invitation and I went with several Indonesian friends from my university and then later I met some cool friends from Indonesia who study in Suwon. We did the walk with friends thing together and kept complaining about how we can't walk with hallyu stars but everything changed once the concert started. I actually sat on the right side but I decided to sit at the front row! and I could watch the concert really close and of couse I got many great pictures.
The concert was open by performances from some kind of martial arts. Then the crowd started to scream when Infinite came out and sang several of their songs. For guys, there were the sexiest Sistar came and it really heated up the atmosphere. There was not as exciting as the others when Nine Muses came out, I guess they are not really well known by foreigners. The crowd started to scream again when ZE:A entered the stage. And the concert was closed by the cute little kid who were on the Gangnam Style MV.
Overall, despite the cold weather, a very far place, and a disappointed feeling because we did not really walk with them, it was so much fun to see their concert from a very very close distance. Thanks KTO!

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Jump in Korea

Several days ago, I went to Seoul to watch a very famous comic martial arts performance called Jump!. I went with a Mongolian friend and we were really expecting a good show from this performance since we heard a lot about this. As the genre says that this is about martial arts, therefore they were showing some fighting scenes and martial arts demonstrations. They are focusing on Taekwondo and Taekkyon.
There is one big family consisted of a grandfather, father, mother, uncle, and a daughter. Grandfather is the most powerful in the family, mother can do Taekwondo, the daughter is pretty, and uncle is a drunken master. Also, there is one guy character who wears a pair of glasses in which if the glasses is taken off from him, he became a really strong person. There are also two robber that come to the house and this is where they fight.
There is this one unrelated character which is a really old man that even barely walk. If you have ever seen the movie Ice Age, there is this one cute character that always chases apricot, I think this old guy character is kind of copying the Ice Age character. The show lasts about 1 hour 20 minutes and I think the most interesting scene is when they have to fight in the dark.
The place is big and it has a lot of chairs. It is located near Jongno 3 Ga Station. I really recommend this performance, especially for girls who want to see some muscles ^^.

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A Trip with Rural20: Chansaem Village and Dueokhaengbokdeurim Village

President Council for Nation Branding as the implementaion of Rural20 project gave us an opportunity to visit 2 of the villages in Korea which are Chansaem Village in Daejeon and Duekhaengbokdeurim Village in Wanju. Before going the trip story, let's get to know what Rural20 is. The Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries of Korea  made this project and they chose 20 rural villages to let people experience their scenes and tradition. They categorized them into 4 different themes which are experience, nature, tradition, and wellbeing. If you go to their website, you will get many information regarding this project.
Our first stop was at Chansaem Village and it is categorized under wellbeing theme. It was a 2 hour trip by bus from Seoul and it is located in Daejeon. It was not like a village that I was expected. I think the village is built only for the experience purpose. I do not know but regardless it was a really nice place. They have fresh air, really nice paddy rice field view, hills, and really good food. As soon as we arrived, we directly went to an experience house to make by ourselves our dinner: Bibimpab!

It was not as simple as I had always thought. You have to put certain amount of spices to the ingredients. I used to think that Bibimbap is only rice with variation of vegetables. Anyway, we did it! And the taste was awesome!
The next activity was to harvest sweet potato. We had to go to a hill but instead of walking, we took a ride by a truck. Pretty awesome. I saw people sitting on the truck many times when I was in Indonesia, I had never thought I would the one who was doing it. It was pretty thrilling and fun, though.
We actually also learnt about how the farmers plant the sweet potato and how it is different from potato. There is also certain way to harvest it, so that we will not slice the sweet potato with the tool. It was a little bit frustrating because while everybody was happy getting really big sweet tomatoes I could not even find many small ones. But, we could take our potato home!

Happy with our sweet potatoes, we went down to get some rice. At a small field of rice, we got two handful of  rice stalk(?) and then by using a very traditional instrument, we separate the rice from its stalk. Not that difficult. But I wonder if you do it for the whole field, must be a really hard job.

We then took our bus again to have some experience in making Korean paper which is called HanJi (한지). I actually have witnessed the making of HanJi when I was visiting Jeonju and it was similar thing. Therefore I was not really surprised of what was going on. The fun thing was that I could make my own paper.

They actually explain the whole thing in detail, but I did not really understand. I think the process goes like this: they take the wood which is called deoknamu, then they reap it, clean it and take the white part of it, boil it, mix with with the glue, shape it by using some big instrument, and dry it. Korean paper is really famous for its quality and how it is made. There are many crafts made by Korean paper. I have once decorated a paper fan made of Korean paper when I was in Jeonju. It really has a very good quality.

With an empty stomach, we continued our trip to our accommodation in Wanju which was actually also the place we would have our next day activities. It is called Dueokhaengbokdeurim Village. Once we entered the gate, there were some people wearing traditional clothes greeted us. I recognized the clothes because I have seen a lot of Korean traditional music instrument performances. I knew we will be served a performance.

After having a really good and satisfying dinner, plus a bowl of hand-made makkoli (막걸리), a traditional alcoholic beverage of Korea made of rice, we were spoiled by traditional dances and music instrument performances. We spent a night at a traditional Korean house called Hanok (한옥) and the sleeping style is sleeping on the floor with heating system. It was a really great night under stars and fresh air, with great performances, food and drink, and most importantly, a very nice people.

Dueokhaengbokdeurim Village falls under the category of tradition. Last night we experienced traditional food, beverage, performance, and house. The next day, we experienced some other traditions. First activity of the day was to make a necklace. We had to draw our wish or whatever we wanted to draw on the necklace and we will take it to cemetery and pray for it to come true. 

The next few activities were really fun. We made rice cake! It was fun because we had to hit the compound with wood hammer. Then we had this competition of which team can make the most creative rice cake. Did not matter because in the end everybody won and got the prize. We also had game competition. We had to throw stick to the basket. I actually am really good in playing basketball at the game center, but really bad in this game. My team got the second place among 3 teams. Then before having lunch, we again showed our craftsmanship by making our own jegichagi.

Before going back to Seoul, we stopped by a place where a really famous Korean TV show called (translated) 1 Night 2 Days (1박2일) had been took place. I do not really watch the show but I know it is a really famous entertainment show. 

I think I have my own really amazing 1 Night 2 Days experience. I live and play in these big cities with asphalt road, concrete buildings, bunch of people. Sometimes it could be really stressful with study. Traveling and experiencing rural area was really an effective cure both physically and mentally. I really believe that rural20 project has reached its goal and it should keep going. 

Thanks to President Council for Nation Branding and Rural20 Project. I have really great experiences and to have met very great and interesting people was really a pleasure in my life.

Thanks for everything guys ^^

Visit Rural20 Project Official Website: http://www.rural20.kr/en/

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