South Korea's got Seoul!

Sunday I woke up bright and early (5:00am) to give myself plenty of time to catch the bus to Kansai International Airport. I made it there with two hours to spare, so I sat and listened to podcasts until I boarded my plane for Seoul!


Amanda met me at the airport, and we took the subway into town. After a wonderful lunch (Mexican!) we walked around the Korea War Memorial Museum. They have a lot of tanks and planes outside, and you can even climb on a few of them!

The view from Amanda's apartment in Haebonchong oogori.

Korean War Museum

Creepy super realistic painting of North Korean soldiers.

Later on, we met up with Amanda's friend Matt and ate Korean barbecue. It was AWESOME.

After dinner, we hung out at the local bar Amanda and her friends go to, and played foozball for a few hours.

The next day, Amanda had to work for a few hours in the middle of the day, so I wandered around Itawon, the foreigner area. Also, there are lots of shops, literally any store you can think of in the States is here. So I wandered around, and bought a purse.

Delicious Korean porridge.


Tried to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace, but it was closed on Tuesdays.... so I went to the National Palace Museum of Korea, conveniently located right beside it.

Skyscrapers in Myeong-dong.

The fountain in Fountain Square.

My best friend Mary has this same car.

Me and Amanda at a rooftop bar.

Earthquake

I took so many photos at the wedding Sunday, that I'm having a hard time editing them! Please be patient, I will post them soon...

In other news, I woke up at 6:19am to an earthquake. It only lasted 2.6 seconds, and it wasn't sever at all, but my immediate thought was: I'm not wearing any pants. I don't want to be discovered in the rubble without pants. Luckily, it wasn't bad, and was over quickly, and my sanity returned, but it was ok, since no one got hurt.

Oli and Nika's Wedding

Sunday, I rode my bike from my apartment to Minatogawa Shrine, to shoot some photos for Oli & Nika's wedding. Oli is a friend of Gordon's, and I met them both last year at the Suma Beach Party. It was incredibly hot, but a beautiful wedding, and the reception was a blast!

Oli & Nika and their families, before the ceremony.

Walking into the shrine.

Oli's mom said it was her right to thrown flower petals at the happy couple. I couldn't agree more.

Making an entrance at Fish Cafe.

Everyone was clapping and cheering.

Nika's cousin, who's a newscaster from Tokyo.

Oli's parents dancing.

Oli's sister singing.

Hannah and Matt, Oli's best man.

Jun making crazy faces.

Mojo Hands.

Looking Forward

40 more days of work left. Jackpot.

I'm pretty excited to be coming home soon, although lately it seems it's not nearly soon enough.

But! It's not all homesickness and blues over here, I'm looking forward to going to Korea for four days in a couple weeks, vising a university friend, Amanda. Then I work two half weeks, and I have a week vacation, Obon! My friend Janet and I are going to Taipei, Taiwan! Yessssssss!

Last weekend I stayed home, weeded out some old clothes and basically threw away some of the junk I've accumulated thus far. I went to sing karaoke with Tim and Nana on Monday. She loves singing 90s power ballads, so you know I was rocking out the backup vocals to some Lisa Loeb.

Next week is dodgeball and BBQ in Osaka, and then The Great Japan Beer Festival at the Kyocera Dome! I promise to take lots of photos and post em soon. Have a great week, can't wait to see yall (and I mean that from the bottom of my heart).

Happy 4th of July!

Sunday looked like rain, but Tim and I went out near Kansai Airport to Riku Town, and went to Jason's BBQ. Everyone I knew was there. It was fun, hot and humid. We drank, played with sparklers, and waded in the ocean.

Me and Spencer

Kelly and Jessica

Then, a group of us went back to Umeda and sang karaoke!

And this morning Janet and I went to the travel agent's and bought tickets to Taipei. Here is the actual conversation:

Janet: We want to go to Thailand, on these days, and we can't pay more then ¥70,000.
Travel Agent: Let me check.... hmm, I'm sorry, but we don't have anything in that price range.
Me: Well, where can we go for under ¥70,000?
TA: How about Taipei?
Me: That sounds great! We'll go! Where is it?

Seems I have quite a bit of research to do....