Howdy Korea!

It has been nearly a decade since I've been to a rodeo back home. On Saturday, Amy and I explored the world of bull fighting in Korea. The rodeo was hosted in the town of Chung-do, about an hour train ride from Busan.

We raced through the low-lying rice farms west of Busan toward the event. Until then, I had never seen any of the boundless rice supply that feeds Korea. The train station was a ten minute taxi ride from the train station. I always find it surprising when very small towns have taxis. Could you imagine a taxi service in Junction?

We've read and heard about this bull fighting in everything from Frommer's to friends stories, and so it is a huge attraction for foreigners. I did not expect to see so many clumped together in the middle of nowhere-Korea.

The arena was surrounded with shops of local farmers, traditional Korean food and drinks, and games. We found tons of dried persimmon, which I wasn't a huge fan of. We also found some homemade Macali (rice wine). It was nice to get something hand made, but it was really gritty, with tons of rice pulp...not as fulfilling as orange pulp.

There was also a mechanical bull. However, the operator seemed to only want to spin people until they were too dizzy to see straight and then fell off. No go.

After lunch and site-seeing, we took our seats for the main event. I had no idea what to expect. So, bull fighting in Korea is bulls fighting each other. It's not people fighting and killing the bulls....I'm pointing at you Spain! The bulls are led with a rope through their nose by their trainers. As soon as they enter the ring, every bull knows what is about to happen. They dig in and kick up dirt over their backs. It was like watching a cartoon depiction. Then the owners pull the bulls together until they reach the event horizon. Once the bulls make eye contact, they stick to each other like magnets. Some of the challenges last a few seconds, and some last for nearly ten minutes. It all depends on the equality of the aggression. Eventually, one of the bulls realizes they won't win, and runs away. Essentially, these Koreans have found a way to get these bulls to fight the same way they would in the wild over a cow. No one gets really hurt, but it is still entertaining.

Apparently this festival used to only happen once a year, but after they built this huge stadium, they are supposed to have bull fights and other events year-round....just in case you were in the neighborhood.