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

Hwacheon Sancheono Ice Festival 2013

Since it is the region where the water freezes the fastest in the country and Sancheono (Trout fish) live here, the Sancheono Ice Festival is held every year in Hwacheon, Gangwon-do. Sponsored by BNBHero and Korea Tourism Organization, I had a chance to visit and play at the festival.

Transportation
Have you read my article about BnBHero? It is a website that allows you to search for homestay with local people. Apparently, they have started another feature which is called BnBHero Activity. Here you can choose among activities provided. I actually really like the idea of this feature. One thing that quite difficult, though, is the payment process. I do not know about international cards, but cards that are issued in Korea have a really complicated process, well .. at least for me.

After finish with payment, BnBHero will send email about details of the activity. They even sent me a complete how to go with pictures. They made it so easy to find the meeting point. We met the staff from BnBHero at the bus terminal in Seoul and then went together to Hwacheon.

The Big 5

As soon as we arrived in Hwacheon, we were welcomed by a lady from the festival. She was so sweet and kind. I felt really welcomed in Hwacheon. We got our ticket with 5 recommended places/activities we should go/do.

The first one is illuminated ice sculpture. Before going in, I sort of thought it would be like ice gallery in Insadong which I have visited before, but not really. It was huge and the sculpture were really well made. And it was not as cold as I thought.

There was one extreme thing I did at the festival. Catching the fish on the freezing water with nothing but a T shirt and a short. My feet were literally frozen. The worst part was I did not get any single fish. The best part was I am glad that I did it. It was such an experience

Then we had our lunch which were sushi and fish cutlet plus makkoli (Korean traditional rice wine). I ate so much while actually we had to go fishing after and had to eat fish that we caught.

I thought fishing is a boring thing to do, you just sit there and wait for fish to eat your bait. I did it, i was just waiting and no result. But actually in there it was not supposed to be waiting and catching. You have to hook the fish. You have to constantly pull your string until you feel heavy. I got two fishes and yeah it was water under thick ice and I fished from a small hole. You can imagine it :)

The other things are like sledding and bobsleigh which were ok. I know it was not as fun as the other activities, but since I already there, so.

Other Activities
The one that I like is cart race on thick ice. I have tried the one on the asphalt circuit, but this one is on thick ice! It was pretty slippery but I enjoyed it very much.

There are also hockey and soccer. Surprisingly at the day I visited the festival, there were a lot of soldier having fun with in the festival. It was more like a military camp, lol.

Back to Seoul we then had a barbeque and some drink with BnBHero and KTO. It was a lot of fun back there in the festival and at the barbeque. Thanks to BnBHero and KTO.

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[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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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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F1 Korean Grand Prix 2012 and Arounds

F1 Grand Prix this year is held at the international circuit located at Yeongam city. It is actually really far from the capital city which is 4-5 hours trip by bus. I went there with the other K-Performance Supporters that were really excited about this. I also put a lot of expectation on this, but maybe I put too much. 
We got two days tickets. The first day was to see the preliminary race and I just saw on the brochure that they had drivers fans sign time. We totally missed that! And then we went to some breakwater place which was apparently unavailable due to some construction. We ended up hanging out in some kind of square in Mokpo city. It was kind of fun because there was some performance from European countries. The great thing of the day was to eat seafood!
The second day was the final race. It was 55 laps and the winner is Sebastian Vettel from Red Bull team. But before watching the race we had a brief visit to Dr. Wang-in Historical Site. I do not really know about this place, but I will find out and get back to that.

To be frankly, I think my friends were right when they said watching F1 from television is way better than watching it live. We can only see it in a glance a.k.a we can only see it when they pass the track in front of us, and it only lasted for only what? 2 seconds each car? There was actually a screen, but not big enough to see it clearly. There were opening ceremony and performances, but we had no idea what was going on since our seat is so far away from the seat near the start line. Nevertheless, being able to see it in reality was an amazing chance. Being said it was not really excited, but it was a rare chance and I felt somehow lucky.

Putting aside all F1 related things, I would like to share my homestay experience. Just like when I visited Yeosu Expo 2012, we did not sleep in a fancy hotel. I had this opportunity again to sleep in Korean's house. This time was different, though. His name was Choi Jaeshin and he lives with his wife. He owns this house in a village and he has a garden full of persimmons trees, apple trees, ducks, chickens, and a little dog.

The room is really traditional Korean style. We slept on the floor with only blankets and it has floor heating system. The air is really fresh and the view is green. It was a really stress-less life. We also had a very delicious breakfast and many gifts such as candies, spam, tuna, and a bag full of persimmons. But more than all of them, we got their hospitality. They even invited us to go there again if we do not have anything to do on holiday. It was a great experience and I can't thank them enough.
Thanks once again to KTO for giving us another experience. It is priceless.

angga | 앙가 

B-Boy Kung

As a K-Performance supporter and also as it was Korea In Motion Festival Period, I got a very rare chance to watch a performance called B-Boy Kung plus to learn a little bit of K-Pop dance. I actually had already guessed what the dance would be, and yes it was Gangnam Style by Psy.

Gangnam Style has taken the world. It has spread like virus. Everyone knows Gangnam Style and its very famous horse dance. I actually have already learnt the dance, so no surprises, yet it was still pretty interesting. At the very end, we split onto two teams and had a little horse dance battle. Of course my team won and we got a pair of socks.

Now the main dish: B-Boy Kung. If I had to make this short, I would summarize everything in one word: Amazing. It was really beyond my expectation. B-Boy Kung is a street dance performance. Also, there is a story that in my point of view as an audience is pretty well constructed. It was really easy understandable even without words.
The story is about a group of dancers called Gorilla that lost their place to practice and hang out. Also, there is this very rich guy who I think bought that place. With the power of money, he also succeed to take one of the members of the group. He, the dancer, then becomes the rich guys member. The story goes on until finally they meet at one dance competition which prize is USD 500,000.

The scene that I liked the most wast when the main character was in dilemma between his dance group or his job. He did really good acting and his popping skill is undoubted. There was also a scene where several dancers wearing black clothes and white masks on. It was really scary because the room was dark and glowed everything white. The story  and the dance was really good.
The place, oh I love the place. It is very small room with the quota of not too many audience. It really gives us a private feel and closer view of the performance. I would say that the place is the best one among the performance room I have ever been. It is located at Samjin Jaeyak (삼진제약) Building B1 floor. If you know Hongik University, go to its main gate and turn left until you find B-Boy Kung posters.
Overall, it was a very exciting, interesting, enjoyable one hour and a half. I was really lucky to be able to watch the performance. Also, the KOINMO team took some videos and made it really neat. Check it out!



Thanks KTO! And for you who desperately want to watch this performance, hurry up! you could get cheaper ticket as it is still KOINMO festival!

KOINMO: http://www.koreainmotion.com/eng/
B-Boy Kung : http://www.sjbboys.com/

Me and the main character
of the performance

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