Fun in Osan

We took the opportunity this veteran's Day Weekend to drive down south and visit the town of Osan. There's another Army post down there, so we parked on post and walked off into the town to check out the shopping. Osan is like a little Seoul, with plenty of knock-off purses and DVD's, but at small town prices. They have custom tailors and shoemakers that are a lot cheaper than they are here in Seoul. I'm going to get a couple of suits and maybe some shoes made while I'm here, but I need to scout out some pimp styles first. Maybe I'll get the Napoleon Dynamite suit made...
There are a couple of things in Korea that I still think are so funny. One of them is how everything, everything, has a little cartoon mascot. The subway, the census, towns, parks, every possible commercial item, everything. They are everywhere; all smiling, giggling, pointing to their product and inviting us to take part. It's a little strange. On our trip to Osan, we saw the town mascot for Osan wishing us a fond farewell as we left the city. Observe...

What is that? Some naked flower man?? How does a town go about deciding that they want a nude man-child with a flower head to represent their city? Can you imagine what characters didn't make the cut? I'll see if I can get more pictures of strange Korean mascots.

While we were in Osan, we all ate at a little Korean restaurant and had authentic Korean food. Here's Jessica enjoying some kimchi and pork dumplings.

Whenever you go to a Korean restaurant, doesn't matter what kind, you always get four or five little dishes of kimchi with it. Could be a Italian place, Indian place, fast food, doesn't matter. They put kimchi with everything. For those that don't know, kimchi is a [the ed. Jessica] Korean national dish. It's a vegetable dish, usually cabbage, that is pickled with tons of garlic and hot pepper paste. They put that stuff in a clay jar and either bury it or seal it and let it sit outside for a long time. It takes some getting used to, but it's not half bad. The Koreans will eat it for every meal, to include breakfast. It's a silly, silly place.