Inner Journey

  2023 marks the 50th anniversary of Bucheon's promotion to the city. Looking back on the last 12 months, I realized that there were many events celebrating it, but I had never been to. The overall population of Bucheon is declining, and it is understandable because major manufacturing sectors moved out of this city for some other places. Other than the anniversary, nothing much had happen to the city. Hospitality industries went to through tough time even after COVID19 year and we do not know yet if this is the end of the ordeal of service sectors. I however think this place has potential of being more attractive for both people at home foreign tourists. As I mentioned in the very first post, while Bucheon has not so many places for sightseeing, here We do not have tourist traps thus you expect to find out things available in Seoul at cheaper price in this city. This is the charm of Bucheon with its convenient location of being between main entry point to Korea, Incheon, and...

  For Saturday night outing, we tried gin highballs and the most exotic Korean food (but it is not an exotic for us because hagfish dishes are not rare in Korea at all!) hagfish restaurant. Certainly, highballs remind us of whiskey and izakaya. But recently, many also recognize gin-based highballs too. This is because gin highballs, which seems to be fresher than whiskey highballs, have appeared and started to gain popularity in Korea. In the late 1800s, as carbonated water was invented in the United States, Scotch whisky and cocktails mixed with carbonated water began to be called Scotch highballs, and later in Japan, whiskey highballs were introduced when Western culture was imported in the early 1900s. As I mentioned in the past post, it became very popular in Japan, resonating with Japanese consumers who hate the strong taste of whiskey and later the influence of the depression, people tried to seek something cheaper than pure whisky. In Japan today, highball is a combi...