Jincheon's day in the sun.

Jincheon has a few claims to fame. It is very proud of its rice. Last year the government gave Jincheon an award for the quality of its rice. There is a giant rice statue by the bus terminal waving hello to all travellers coming through. This Saturday was the opening day of three festivals. Firstly Jincheon is hosting the World Taeekwondo Championships all week. In the past it has gone on for a month, this year it is just a week as a neighbouring city is also hosting something similar. Also it is the Jincheon city festival and the Jincheon Rice festival. All lasting a week. All at the same time. Typical in a way; nothing happens all year then three events come at once. So, today there was a ceremony to mark the start of the week's festivities. There was a parade through town. I'd been shopping in Cheongju and just happened to come back into town just as it was all about to start so I managed to hop off the bus and get a good spot on the high street. Korean parades seem to have a lot in common. Historical costumes, characters from history and scenes being reenacted. Our parade had fiersome-looking historical characters on horseback followed by fiersome soldiers with big swords. There were traditional dancers with big fans and fantastic (no pun!) dresses. There were the pompom headed musicians and some Confucian (not confused..)-looking characters on a cart. One of them was in a cage. Next came a van which had the Jincheon Taekwondo championship equivalent of the Olympic flame on the back of it. If you looked closely you could see the gas burner making sure the spirit of the games stayed lit. Each town in Jincheon county contributed a mini float to the parade decked out or designed to represent their town's symbol. Ours, of course, was Mr Happy Rice. A giant grain of smiling waving rice. Shades of "Its a Knockout" as he wobbled down the street, looking a bit unsteady and top heavy on his wheels. Jincheon is also famous for the rose, and chivalrous men were enjoying the task of giving roses to all the ladies in the crowd. Mr Happy Rice was followed by a giant papiermache watermelon. This was impressive as it had an opening and closing mouth action like pacman and they were giving away slices of fruit. Then there was a Korean barbecue float. They too were giving away food, but only it seems to friends.. Last came a bizarre turtle costume. It was unlike any turtle i'd seen. It had a grass skirt and an extendable neck, for some reason. Perhaps this was to allow for the interesting dance it was doing, Hawaiian hula crossed with Maori Haka. No free turtles were given away though...

In the evening I'd arranged to meet with Young-Hun and a couple of the Kindy teachers to go the Night Market. This had been set up next to the river and was going to be a week of, yep, a night market. Food stalls, fairground rides and attractions such as pop a balloon with a dart to win a teddy bear, or shooting range (a very easy game for those Korean guys not long out of military service..). With Saturday night being opening night there was a firework display and a concert featuring some special guests. The fireworks were pretty spectacular and the river area was completely transformed from its usual empty state... Most of this though Young-Hun and I saw from the car as we drove round and around, and around and around looking for somewhere to park. Every man and his dog had driven out for the evening and the roads in town were packed with badly parked cars. But, park we did and headed off to watch some of the show, with "special guests" the Mayor of Jincheon and some trot (a kind of Korean "country" music) singers. Young-Hun won something on the shooting range and I popped enough balloons with darts to with a cuddly bone shaped cushion embroidered with the words sweet love on it. Once we found the Kindy teachers and another teacher and Young-Hun's friend with strange fringe, we headed to an orange food tent. Soju is usually the drink of choice along with side dishes of dried fish or squid. We were in the mood for something a bit different and the special drink that was on offer here was, I think the name is, Dong Dong Ju. Similar to Soju, but different... It arrived on the table in a bowl with a ladle, we drank it from small bowls and it was caramel in colour. I thought it was soup, until I tasted it obviously. But it was actually quite nice. So, we sat and whiled away the evening with our Dong Dong Ju and our side dish of haemul pajeon a kind of seafood omelette.. A fun evening.

Mr Happy Rice was followed by a giant papiermache watermelon