DPRK-10

2014-9-10 Wed.











[ 答礼宴 ]
The party for returning a courtesy to
the North Korean association which invited us
was held at an exclusive restaurant.




[ 音楽教育のレベル ]
# The tenor who sang " Arirang " is one of
our members.
He majored in " tenor " at
Tokyo University of the Arts and
specialized in " countertenor " at
the graduate school.
He has a range of four octaves.

According to his opinion ,
the level of the music education at school
in North Korea is higher than that of
Japanese school.


* The guides sang vigorously with
very nice voice arm in arm.
It reminded me of my young days.









[ Appendix ]
















( to be continued )

DPRK-9

2014-9-10 Wed.









[ Pediatric Hospital ]

Products made in Germany monopolized
the medical equipment in this newly built ,
big and beautiful hospital.
Speaking of a monopoly , most of the cars
which ran on the road were German ones.

This hospital is the biggest and the newest
Pediatric Hospital in this country ,
but it's very odd that I could see
very few patients.

The children seemed to be made to do
rehabilitation against their will.







[ National Theatre ]


We went to the concert by
the National Symphony Orchestra.
They played in a full orchestra with more than
60 players.
But they played military marches except
" Salute d'Amour " by Edward Elgar.


Mother and child who sat in the royal box
must have been mobilized.
They didn't match there.









[ Appendix ]











( to be continued )

DPRK-8

2014-9-10 Wed.






Early in the morning ,
I　sneaked out of the hotel
and went out for a walk alone in secret
( without my passport , cos the guide kept it ) ,
but the guide
, who was the de facto watcher ,
had followed me before I noticed him.

When I was going to enter
the Pyongyang station , the guide told me ,
" As you might cause a trouble with a citizen ,
plz don't enter the station. "

The guides were extremely nervous
for us to contact with the ordinary people.













[ Factory ]
The Factory was neat and tidy ,
but the workers did't seem to work hard.



[ Good Harvest ]
I didn't see any fallow rice fields.
Rice grew heavily and
they will have a good harvest of rice this autumn.




[ Kim Il-sung Square ]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Il-sung_Square

September 9th
was the 66th National Foundation Day , so
a military parade
should have been carried out here ,
but this year it was called off.
This country seems to be
awfully poor economically
because of economic sanctions.


And the Square was smaller than I imagined.










[ Appendix ]












( to be continued )

DPRK-7

2014-9-9 Tue. National Foundation Day








[ 太陽宮殿　　Kumsusan Palace of the Sun ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumsusan_Palace_of_the_Sun


The embalmed bodies of
Kim Il-sung and Kim jong-il
lie inside a clear glass sarcophagus.

Videotaping , smoking , talking
are not permitted anywhere inside the palace.





[ Dolphinarium ]
Performance played by Dolphins
was dull and boring.



[ 平壌冷麺　*　玉流館 ]　　
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%86%B7%E9%BA%BA

[ 冷やし中華 ]

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%86%B7%E3%82%84%E3%81%97%E4%B8%AD%E8%8F%AF

” 平壌冷麺 ”　　was not so yummy.
I prefer Japanese " 冷やし中華　”　to " 平壌冷麺　”.




[ Riding Club ]
Riders seemed to be mobilized in order to show
to the foreign tourists how the ordinary people
were enjoying riding.




[ Swimming Pool ]

Though it was 3 consecutive holidays ,
there were only few swimmers
in this newly built swimming pool.




[ Buses ]
Every trolley bus was flooded with passengers.













The female employees of the hotel danced
" barndance " to celebrate
National Foundation Day
at the open space in front of the hotel.

They were wearing " chima jeogori " ,
which is the Korean women's traditional outfit
consisting of a " chima " skirt and " jeogori " top.










( to be continued )

DPRK-6

2014-9-8 Mon. / Bon Vacation







[ Juche Tower ]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juche_Tower




# At the observatory of Juche Tower ,
the guide explained proudly abt the newly built
condominiums and the sports stadium which
can accommodate 150,000 people ,
but he didn't take us there.
The guides seemed to avoid
for us to meet the ordinary people.


Here I couldn't see the ordinary people.













[ 万寿台 ]

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%87%E5%AF%BF%E5%8F%B0





* The association which planned
this tour to North Korea seems to have
a thick diplomatic channel with DPRK.
Kim Yong-nam 金永南 , who is
the chairperson of the national assembly and
No.2 in national ranking , greeted us
with smile and shook hands with each of us.

And he recommended us to sit at
the delegate seat rather than the gallery seat.









[ Appendix ]












( to be continued )