Competing in Seoul 2014 - Day 2, Oct 11, 2014

The competition site for horseback archery in Seoul was the dressage arena for the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.  Today the site is dominated by a huge race course that is the main draw (the towers in the background below overlook the ends of the racetrack).
 

Day 2 of competition featured an opening ceremony that included a representative from each country.  A fun part of mounted archery is the costumes competitors wear.  Often these are rooted in the traditional garb of the competitors' countries.  I say rooted because historically women did not participate in what was an exclusively samurai activity in Japan.

For some countries, like the USA, "traditional garb" is tricky because, while mounted archery is a part of the history of the country, few competitors can claim a personal connection to Native America.

As a result, competition garb becomes more a reflection of personal taste, imagination, and/or comfort. (Go Teen Team USA!)

Go Horse Archers!

Competition - Day 1

The first day of competition was the single and double shot competitions.  The glorious thing about these competitions is getting to see old friends and meeting new...

...Doing some shooting...

And doing a lot of waiting...

(The costumes are a fun part of competition and everyone adds their unique flair.)

Typhoon Vongong

And of course, there's another, BIGGER typhoon headed for Japan.  We're supposed to fly out of Narita, hopefully, just ahead of when Vongfong hits Tokyo.  Sheesh...

Seoul 2014 - sights to see

My mom and I said farewell to the horde and we headed into the neighborhood to see what there was to see.  We ended up walking a couple miles or so over the course of the day up and down the hilly streets of the Itaewan area...

...perused the street fare...

...and ended up at the lovely Leeum Samsung Art Museum

Seoul 2014 - dining out with the horde

The first evening meal in Seoul with an amazing representation of the world with Germany, Poland, US, Australia, Iran, China, Japan and South Korea represented here for a dinner featuring kim chee soup.  The less stout of the stomachs around quailed a bit at the spice but it was very tasty to my point of view.  Jet lag was definitely hitting some of the travelers hard as they struggled to stay awake at what was 3:00 AM home time.  At least there were foot wells here so our legs weren't asleep, too!

Seoul 2014

Well, Typhoon Phanfone passed through Tokyo right on time so that the skies cleared and the sun came out just about an hour before we were due to head out of our little house to catch the train to the airport. Many profuse apologies could be heard along the way for the little delays caused by the weather. The plane was late leaving Tokyo and we ended up landing about 10:00 PM in Incheon.

Beautiful airport...poor defenseless cacti...

Typhoon Phanfone

Oh by the way - we're taking bets whether we'll be on our flight to Seoul tomorrow evening...  (story here)  ... We narrowly missed a typhoon last year leaving Seoul for the US; that one turned inland to China at the last opportune moment. Phanfone looks to park itself over Tokyo either 12-24 hours before we leave OR just as we're leaving.  Tokyo seems to be taking it relatively in stride with the big complaint being the cancellation of a Grand Prix Formula 1 race.