Day 1 in Korea: 10 February 2012 A tiny tour through Lee Hyukjae and Kim Junsu’s neighbourhood in Gyeonggi-do, Ilsan (Ilsan Hosu Park (Lake Park), Neunggok Primary School, Hwasu Middle School, Hwasu High School)

So after leaving Crebeau Belle (yes I know I haven’t even posted about going to Crebeau Belle yet nor have I even typed it out but let’s just pretend I did and I’m continuing the story) feeling a little meh because me waking up late meant getting there late which meant all I got to see Bakira and Leo do was sleep their afternoon nap, I headed over to the Ilsan Hosu Park that Hyukjae always talked about (besides the Jazz cafe which.. I forgot about) — How he used to perform there all the time together with Junsu, Minseok and Taejun as SRD. And I believe even after becoming SM trainees, they still did at times.

It was pretty dull looking because it’s winter after all and most of the lake was frozen over (very prettily so, too) with small streams of still, clear, icy water around the edges, but still I was quite overwhelmed by the serenity and the fact that some 13 or 14 years ago, my biases performed here every other weekend or so. There’s a picture up there of an empty ampitheatre looking place, on the park map that’s the “Outdoor Concert Hall”, which is where I presumed they performed. On that small stage, unless a bigger one was put up. And yes that’s me trying and failing to do a jump shot on that stage. (Come on, I had to run down those steps in ten seconds and flail around in my bundle of clothes while the camera went off on continuous shots, give me some credit!)

And after that I decided to leave the park because well, relevant as it is, it was also pretty boring. And just then it started snowing. A little at first, then really really strongly and heavily as I neared the train station, so I decided to seek refuge at Crebeau Belle again (and well, hopefully get to take a few pictures of Leo thinking he would be awake) and buy that pink We Love Xiah wrist band that I was eyeing before —- but that’s another story saved for my Crebeau Belle picspam so!!

After talkng to Junsu’s daddy for a while I said bye bye to the nice staff who allowed me to stay longer than we’re technically allowed to, and after paying my last respects to the Junsu shrine room, I left Belle for.. tadah, Neunggok Primary School which is, the legendary primary school of my darlings Kim Junsu and Lee Hyukjae. We have pics of them in their high school classrooms, outside their high school building, but we rarely have any of their primary school itself (besides those SRD performance videos and pics), so there you go! There’s a picture of one of  two classroom blocks, and the fifth grade classrooms are all up on the 4th floor. Junsu and Hyukjae were in different classes then, next to each other but they never knew each other until one day when Hyukjae was dragged by his friend to play at a soccer match with Junsu’s class. So that’s why I chose to post these two photos — Note, they probably didn’t have such a well groomed soccer field back in those days nor a nicely painted building with such an adorable rainbow, so they would probably be really butthurt to know that their juniors are so fortunate now.

Don’t get me started on how much of a pain in the ass it was to get to Neunggok Primary School from Crebeau Belle. Really if you ever want to get from Jeongbalsan to Neunggok, just take the same Metro Line 3 to Hwajeong Station and don’t attempt to change to the Kyeongeui Line which gets you much closer to Neunggok but then I got told off by a cab driver for taking a cab for a distance of 150metres. Lol. Why am I even telling you this, as if anybody would really bother going to their primary school. ;__; ANYWAY.

And now I have to cut this short cos this is getting a little long, though it’s my favourite part. The first picture up there, familar? That’s where they took these pictures~ There are more as you would have seen before but yes, just to demonstrate a point. And also the picture with the field and the blue and green border… you’d recognize it from this picture of Hyukjae and this video of Junsu and Hyukjae playing soccer on New Years with their friends (Incidentally I also just found out that Junsu and Hyukjae’s team won that particular match, 10 to 6). And that picture of the carpark is.. the place where this video was taken. Incidentally these two pictures were in fact taken at Hwasu Middle School which is funny because Hyukjae and Junsu never even attended Hwasu Middle School (they attended Neunggok Middle School). ^^; But it seems they hang out there more often than their high school.

I guess that’s it, it was really fun stopping by these places, some of which I found by luck. I know, people might think it’s a little too ‘intense’ to go all the way to see these places and are going to label me (yet again) as a diehard stan but no— I’m doing this because I don’t want my Korea trip to be all about Seoul, Seoul and Seoul doing typical things. Getting out of the city was fun and of course yes, these places do have a special meaning to me. Just like how some people go out of their ways to watch their idols’ concerts or fanmeets, I have my own way of stanning my biases. It’s just that I have more things to treasure that linger in the past and in these places, so they were really worth a visit since I was going to Crebeau Belle anyway. ^^; And at least since I’ve been here, in future when I stop liking them, it’s still cool to have done something like this, travel to an unfamiliar neighbourhood. Ah, this took longer than expected, so I shall write the Crebeau Belle and Kona Beans diaries tomorrow or another day instead~ Goodnight!