Asian Games Tour by KTO

Asian Games Tour by KTO.

September 2014 in Korea was well awaited for me and many others as Korea hosted the Asian Games 2014 at the lovely metropolitan city Incheon. As huge number of tourists planned to witness these games, it was indeed a good opportunity and yet the responsibility of Korean Tourism Organization KTO to facilitate these tourists.

KTO arranged a one day tour to watch one of the exciting games from Incheon Asian Games 2014, to visit main stadium built for Asian Games in Incheon named as ASIAD, and to visit the village and the festival held near the ASIAD stadium during the Asian Games 2014, including the Korean Cultural Festival and Asian Food Festival, with some great Korean Performances.

Yes it was indeed the package tour having all things which were mentioned above.

The day stated when we reached to the KTO headquarters in Seoul, having our snacks to eat we entered one of the two buses arranged for us. Lucky to have my friends with me as the travelling for me is a bit boring and a naughty company of your buddies, makes even the punishment, exciting and enjoyable.

First destination was a match venue of game Spektak kraw, the game may not be familiar to many but sooner it will be. It was unknown to me as well, so in short, I called it a foot volleyball. Yes it was like volley ball and you cannot use your hands. That’s why acrobatic skill are required and players should fit and flexible like of gymnastic players. There were three matches, and two were very close. The match between Korean women and Japan was too close and full of ohhz and ahhzzz. We all enjoyed the game and had a group photo outside the gymnasium.

The next destination was the ASIAD main stadium of Incheon Asian Games 2014, It is stadium where the spectacular opening and closing ceremony of the Incheon Asian Games were being held. The stadium is huge and magnificently build. The whole venue is designed splendidly and architecture is of no match. There were stalls and marketing events by the official sponsors of the Incheon Asian Games 2014 neighboring to the stadium. There were also many stalls of different handicrafts and like local market of any Koran festival. There was live performances stall as well broadcasted live by Incheon city television channel. The stall by Hyundi and Kia was very inspiring. There were public trial and demonstrations of next generation video games using brain waves. It was a unique experience for all of us. The stall by KTO was also full to crowd. KTO stall was providing information materials for tourists, then some cultural handicrafts. There was also a card making table with cultural stamps. We made some for us. There was medical checkup camp inside the KTO booth providing full body scan with individual diet and exercise plans along with some massage facilities.

There were two halls, one having segments of Korean culture experiences for all the visitors with a lots of segments like Korean marriage, Korean food making etc. The other hall was Asian Food Festival, having food stalls of many Asian countries like Thailand, Indian, Chinese, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Iran etc. Iranian food was Halal, and Arabian styles food. We enjoyed the delicious Iranian kebab with rice in the afternoon.

KTO arranged a dinner for all of us at a nearby Korean restaurant. There was special food for vegetarians. After dinner we came back to the ASIAD main stadium venue for a free showcase performance NANTA,  at the open stage. NANTA is famous in Korea and also worldwide because of its unique type. The comic musical of NANTA was indeed the best way to end a full day of excitement.

It was indeed a day full of memories and enjoyment. Thanks KTO, and Incheon Asian Games organizers to arrange such a tour for foreigners here.

R 16 Finals 2014

Like last time year, I made special plan to attend the world championship of B Boys and other dancing named R 16 at Olympic Park in Seoul.

R 16 is becoming more and more famous worldwide, as expected there were a lot of foreigners to enjoy the competition and to support their country. I attended the first day out of this two days grand world level championship.

I reached with my friends after a long journey as Ansan city a bit already far from the place and Olympic Park is also not in the center of Seoul. We took our tickets arranged and sponsored by KTO then had a little visit of the Park to have some fresh air to capture some photos.

The competition started on time with a most memorable showcase performance by Kenny Muhammad Ali known as The Human Orchestra. His performance was the mouth beatbox but it was more than that as he has the talent to make sounds and voices not only within the normal range and styles of beatbox but also many different light and heavy sounds simultaneously. All enjoyed his performance and he lift the atmosphere at a certain threshold needed for this competitions.

Firstly there were competitions of B Boys individuals. Then there was locking competition followed by the Popping one. International players were very sharp and competing well with local but previous world champions of Korea.

The judges were great with their showcases and performances but te players were dying for the win showing their every move, few were quite confident and other were desperate but no body loses the sportsman spirit and the Respect for each other.

In the end Issei, won the title of B Boy Individual while Cio for the Locking and Kid Boogie rocked it off for the Poppoing.

Nanta

Nanta with no doubt is one of the most famous shows in the Korea and also recognized by the whole world by its successful world tours. So you may easily expect the world class performance of diverse flavors and colors.

Nanta is different with other non verbal performances in Korea, like Sachoom, Kaboom and Jump, as it involves real cooking along with basic ingredients of a successful international performance like comedy, music, dancing, a story line, thrill, and characterization.  Yet the show also involves acrobatics, magic tricks, pantomime and audience participation.

Nanta is creative and unique as music is made and played with simple kitchen and cooking stuff like cutting boards, water canisters and kitchen knives. The show is more mesmerizing when this music is played with sharp knives and vegetables are like torn into pieces and the music beats get fast and the whole show is put on another level.

Comedy is the integral part especially in a non-verbal performance, it becomes more and more important when the show is of international level, and your audience is also foreigner and also dpressed by the language barrier. Comedy is the common language to make all the mood light hearted over all. That what I like in all such performaces in Korea.

in Seoul you can experience this worth seeing must watch event in theater at Myeongdong & ChungJeongno

For more detail

Homepage

www.nanta.co.kr (Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese)

Myeongdong theater http://nanta.i-pmc.co.kr/nanta/en/about/nantaTheater02.aspx

Chungjeongno theater  http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_2_1.jsp?cid=1792935

Location: Chungjeongno, Chungjeongno 3(sam)-ga, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Kaboom

Like many other live performances event in Seoul, Kaboom is unique as it has many diverse performances with wide range/ Like if there is a classical cultural Korean music played by a professional females band then on the other hand there is a thrilling, exciting supersonic performance by frees style B Boys dance moves, similarly some astonishing magic tricks are also there to make you wonder and at last but not least there is a whole laser show in the end. So Kaboom has all the x factor.

Near Insa Dong, the famous downtown of Seoul’s heart, this event is there throughout the week and especially on weekend. I had a chance to witness it as sponsored by Koran Tourism Organization with my friends.  

As I told there are many segments in this event beginning with Va Va Voom, the girls group playing and singing the traditional Korean Music fused with modern style, beautifully and ceremoniously. This girl band then perform in between different other performances.

Performances of magic tricks, named Magic Trunk, were also quite impressive and were unique there is a whole romantic, love and revenge story to be performed during some quick as flash magic tricks.

I have been following the B Boys competitions in Korea, for more than a year and a half now, and world champions B Boys Group, from Korea, named Morning of Owl, also performs in Kaboom showing there winning moves in the world championships. There are very professional and creative in there team moves and formations also are quite artistic with respect to Choreography they have included.

PID (Performance in the Darkness) - "You can't take your eyes off it, black light laser performance!", is the trim card of the Kaboom to me, Waow what a great laser show it is. Really fascinating, captivating,  A must see performance that will you surely make you wonderstruck. The run time of this laser show is also long enough so that you can enjoy every bit of it. The performers in the laser show are very hardworking as I witnessed there were sweating off at the end of the show.

So Kaboom making a mark in my memory book of my Korean life.  

Sachoom

SACHOOM" is a one of the famous nonverbal performances of Seoul down town. It is purely a musical dance performance. Like K pop, K dance is one of the most emerging dance performed with music and song in groups with some simple to dynamic but highly synchronized dance moves. so if anyone want to see true K dance with some K pop music live then he should go to Insa dong, a famous down town spot in Seoul and grab the Sachoom tickets.




It was a hot summer day of 14th June, I went to Seoul to enjoy Sachoom on the honorary tickets i got from Korean Tourism Organization as its registered member. The place was easily found by me and my friend. We were just a few minutes late but entered the already going on performance.
There were different styles of dances by some young boys and girls who amused the audiences with their singing and dancing. The songs were subtitled in different languages also in English, 
Overall show was divided into different segments with some story lines. Main story line of the show was life, like from its birth till the climax. All phases of life and various issues in each phase were beautifully performed there. 


Choreography was awesome with respect to the story line. There were characterization of performers according to the need of story like there were mainly three characters throughout, one girl and two boys, who compete each other for her love, since their childhood then through school, high school then in college. All these eras were performed with music and K dance. 
Overall the show was very colorful and diverse, it was quite funny and entertaining, audience interaction was also very interesting and was there till the end. Performances were very dynamic, colorful and unique in their own styles.
I liked couple of acts very much which have more comic flavor. After the show there was sometime to interact with the performers and capture your photos with them as some golden memories of your visit to Korea.
Overall It was a vivid and worth seeing musical performances package so i thank to KTO for providing this opportunity

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R16 Eliminations Korea 2014

After a long wait, at last this year’s R 16 eliminations came at the same place as that of last year’s. Uijeongbu city. This city is one of the nearby cities of Seoul, and surrounded by beautiful lush green mountains. It was 14^th June, initially I was not willing to attend this event as the place is too far from Ansan but then my friend and another K supporter, Arsalaan Ansari, was also selected for this and we both decided not to miss this one. It took more than 2 hours just on subway to reach there, we took taxi as we were getting late. After having tickets we waited for the grand event to start. The stage was all set and the all the participants were ready to give their best.

First round was of Popping, there were 8 Dancers competing against each other. I personally like this style of dancing and try not to miss this segment. Among this the judges short performances are always worth seeing and you get satisfy that these judges are capable enough to judge and decide about each performer. There were three judges, Popbong, Popkun and Super Dino (China). Hoan won the hearts in his very first performance and then J one was also very impressive in the end the Poppin DS won the competition with his some very technically accurate popping moves

Next was the solo Locking dance battle, this hip hop style of dancing moved the spectators and we enjoyed the music and atmosphere. There was a female judge for it also named Yukari from Japan. Her judge performance was also very impressive. There were some really good locking dancers in the competition like Luffy, Rebel, the lady Luna, but the battle was won by Loking Khan, who was consistent yet very diverse till the end.

The next round was the real team b boys free style dancing. There were 5 judges: Physicx (Korea), Snake (Korea), Katsu (Japan), Menno (Netherlands), and Venom (USA). There was proper scoring of different categories and so the judging the close competitions were not so easy. There were many of new crews and groups. Honestly speaking I missed the last time winners Morning of Owl. The level of dance and synchronization was not there for a couple of groups being there, yet all others were very competitive and professional. TG breakers and Fusion MC were good as well as the Drtifters Crew but The Goonies and Gamblerz Crew were the best for me, and so Gamblers Crew won this time R16 Eliminations Korea.

Recompose

Promotion

Yet another musical performance at National Theater of Korea.

It will be the blend of modern and the historical Korean music

June 13, 2014