Flexibility is key!

Here we are in the Incheon Airport once again. One of the nicest airports that both of us have ever been to. We're off to China for the next week. Taylor is super excited to take me to some of the places he experienced during his year in China. He also really wants me to meet his former students.

As always with us, we've experienced plenty of twists and turns in this adventure and we haven't even boarded the plane yet. Let me explain...

We left our tiny little town of Eumseong yesterday around 6 pm, expecting to get to Cheong-ju around 7. The plan was to eat dinner at Outback Steakhouse and then catch the airport bus that is a direct non-stop route to the airport. Little did we know, the last bus leaves at 6:30 PM. We arrived at Outback around 7:45. Taylor ran to the bus station to try and buy tickets. That was just the beginning of our night's adventures.

We ate dinner at Outback and decided to stay in Cheongju rather than driving 1 hour back to Eumseong, only to turn around and come back around 4 am. We had 2 other people with us. We decided to stay at a Jimjilbang- a Korean sauna. You can read all about Jimjilbangs here.

The Jimjilbang is a naked sauna pretty much. The men and women are separate. In addition to the saunas, there are places to sleep. For only 7,000 Won (about $6.30), you get a shower, pajamas, a towel, a mat to sleep on, and a pillow. Plus access to all the hot/cold saunas that your heart desires. That's quite the bargain but at what cost? Well, mostly at the cost of sleep. From people snoring, to ridiculously hot temperatures (I swear it was 90 degrees in the area we were trying to sleep in) to people talking and televisions blaring....well, we all got about 2 hours of sleep. It was so blazing hot in there!

We got up around 3:45 and decided to catch the 4:30 (AM) bus. We arrived at the bus station at 4:25 and were greeted by an attendant who seemed quite eager to practice his limited English skills. He knew enough to tell us, "4:30 bus SOLD OUT, 5:00 bus SOLD OUT, 5:30 bus SOLD OUT." We stopped him at 5:30 and told him we just had to get on the bus. The trip from Cheong-ju to the airport is about 1.5 hours without traffic. Our flight leaves at 9:15. He says, "Standing room only." We say, "Okay, let's do it!"

So on 2 hours of sleep, we got on an overbooked bus and sat down in the aisle for 1.5 hours. I actually ended up laying down on my bag and falling asleep the whole time. Taylor and Yemi, our friend travelling with us, weren't so lucky. We made it to the airport, where I am sitting now, waiting to board our flight for China. It took us about 25 minutes to arrive at our gate. We spent a lot of time walking across the airport and even had to get on a shuttle tram at one point. I'm convinced we're at the complete opposite end of everything else in this airport. When we finally took the last set of escalators down a flight to get to our gate, the area was completely dark and there were about 3 people sitting there. I've never been in a completely dark departure area before.
One essential travel tip that has carried us thus far is being flexible. When you live in another country with unfamiliar culture, customs, and language, flexibility is crucial. And a great skill to put on a resume, don't you think?

China, here we come!

Adventures in Eumseong

Last Sunday we went on an accidental adventure. We decided to go for a drive and explore the town of Eumseong. I noticed something that I have seen many times in Korea- what appeared to be a swastika on a sign.
I did some research and found that the swastika symbol has been around long before the Nazis. It's widely used by certain religions including Buddhism and Hinduism. Korea has a strong Buddhist population. Apparently, it is commonly found in Buddhist texts, Buddhist temples, and on the actual Buddha. In Buddhism, the swastika signifies auspiciousness and good fortune as well as Buddha's footprints and Buddha's heart. You can read more about the history of the swastika here .

As we were winding around the mountains, we drove past what seemed to be a frozen lake. Taylor had to go out of course.

I've always wanted to walk on a frozen lake, but I think it would have to be somewhere like Minnesota, or Russia. Somewhere WAAAY up North. For about the past week, it has been a little warmer, and by warmer I mean 40s instead of 0 or 5 degrees. The lake was a little slushy in parts, and with the recently warmer weather, I didn't think twice about just staying up on the bank.

We saw some men ice fishing out on the lake so that is why Taylor figured the ice was safe. Even if they weren't out there, I have a feeling he still would have gone. He ventured out with my camera, after my warning him not to get it wet if he fell through the ice. He took a few pictures of the men fishing.



On the way home we stopped by possibly the only thing that Eumseong is known for- the birthplace of Ban Ki Moon (current UN Secretary General). The road was blocked so we parked and walked. I guess a hay bale and some big rocks do the trick for a roadblock.

There was a museum or information center of some sort but everything was closed down. We assume that this little thatched roof traditional Korean home was Ban Ki Moon's birthplace, but we're not sure.
On the way out, I noticed this little pagoda. Quite modern, don't you think?

Pizza! Pizza!

The other day we had our first homemade pizza. Well, last year while living in Tulsa, we made homemade pizza but this one was a little more difficult I'm sure. I have such limited kitchen/counter space, not to mention a lack of kitchen utensils. We FINALLY have an oven! The only problem is that all the buttons are in Korean but I think I've figured it out by trial and error.

I made the dough and the sauce myself and I think it turned out pretty darn good. Dough is not easy to handle...the yeast, the stickiness, the hours spent letting it rise, punching it down, rolling it out, etc, etc. I still had fun. Our week off was the perfect time to make something so time-consuming.
Last Friday, we went to the nearby city of Cheong-ju with 2 of the other teachers, Della and Yemi, who happen to be cousins. We ate this REALLY spicy beef/sprouts dish. It was mainly sprouts. I'm still not used to the spiciness of Korean food.
I like the look on the girl's face next to Taylor. I'm not really sure what her face says. She kind of looks disgusted. Any ideas for captions?

PS: notice the mirror and cell phone on the table in front of the girl. More on this Korean phenomenon in a later post but I will suffice it to say that it is a very normal and common thing to see girls pull out mirrors in restaurants, coffee shops, whenever, wherever, and check themselves out. As for the cell phones, well, I guess you might see that in America too. I've just noticed at restaurants that everyone has their phones out on the table.

Let's go Pirates!

How do you get a bunch of Korean students to fall asleep really quickly? Put on the Superbowl on the Monday morning after a week-long break. I thought I was doing them a favor by not having class on the first day back from their Lunar New Year holiday. At one point I counted 18 out of 20 heads down, fast asleep.
I guess it was still a win-win though. The other 2 students and I enjoyed watching, and all the others got some sleep in I guess. From time to time their heads would arise. At the halftime show, almost all of the heads were up.
I'm convinced that one of the students, who happens to never pay attention during class, was really into the game. In the first picture, it's the guy in the back right corner. Even though he doesn't speak much English, I'm pretty sure he knows something about American football. He was cheering for the Packers right alongside me.

All in all, it was a good morning. Taylor and many of the other teachers also showed the Superbowl in their classes.

At one point, a student from another class came running in and said "Let's go Pirates." What he meant to say was "Let's go Steelers!" But as we all know, the most deserving time won. Yeah, Packers!

Haircut in Daejon

We have the week off for Lunar New Year (a big deal in Asia) and it has been so wonderful! This past weekend we took the girl's basketball team to Seoul to compete in a tournament. We lost and had a whole bunch of injuries but we still had a good time. I wish I had pictures but I couldn't find my camera before we left for Seoul.

We just got back from a day trip to Daejon. Daejon is where the nearest Costco is. Click here to read about our first Costco trip in Korea. What was meant to be a shorter trip turned into an all-day adventure as we drove around and looked for a huge yummy bakery that Rachael had recommended as well as an Italian restaurant. Those were never found. We also attempted to find a hair salon that I found online that actually spoke English! That was never found either. We ended up finding another hair salon that did the job just fine.

This was at the beginning of the haircut. All I wanted was a trim but I got a lot more than that. I was planning on growing my hair out until it got warmer then chopping a lot off but it still has time to grow before it gets warm.

Did I mention that NO ONE at this place spoke English? Well, that's not entirely true. Between the 2 girls that washed/cut/dried my hair, I think I heard maybe 5 words of English- "Cut? Natural curl? Beautiful." Good thing I had a picture of what I wanted. I tried telling the girls that I have thick hair but I don't think they understood until it was time to blow dry. All of a sudden, two people with 2 blow dryers were surrounding me. I like this picture because the girl on the left was trying to make herself look picture perfect when she saw Taylor pull out the camera. It was a funny moment.

I was definitely nervous about not being able to communicate what I wanted, but in the end, I was very very pleased. This haircut is just like one I got last year in the States, except for the difference in price. Today's haircut, everything included was 12,000 Won, which is roughly $10.80. I paid almost $50 last year for the same cut in the States. We've found many things in Korea to be overpriced but haircuts are definitely not one of them.

Overall, the haircut was a success!

Hello, Hello

I had to post this video. This is a little taste of what we hear in all the stores/malls etc. This is one of the many pop groups here, called K-Pop. The group is Shinee. Whenever I see their faces plastered over every window advertisement, I can't help but think that Korea is about 10 years behind with their boy band craze. They also have girl bands. Enjoy the video. The song is catchy.

Fast forward to about 20 seconds to see the video.

Nagasaki

Life is all about perspective. I am currently sitting in the Fukuoka airport waiting for our flight back to Seoul and I am still amazed at the people I have the privilege of seeing. One reason for that is because I am sitting on the ground, not the seats. This was the nearest plug that we could find. It also happens to be next to the trashcan that screams, “Yes!” and “No!” at us to ensure we do not throw away our trash in the wrong container. One side is for burnable trash; the other is for cans or bottles. If I mess this one up who knows what could happen! In the last 15 minutes a man has walked past twice at a range so close that I could kick him, a boy was amazed that I was using a computer, and the same man that was staring at me (Ashley thought he was in love) has passed us by twice. The invasion of personal space and the constant staring has become a normal thing for me since I have been in Asia. In order to be comfortable with all of this you must come with the right perspective. The first time I came to Japan, I failed. This second trip turned out to be a much better experience.

I am not sure if I can describe the moment when Ashley and I discovered it was a national holiday in Japan on Monday morning. We were 30 minutes into our second journey to Japan when the guard at the Korean consulate pointed to a sign that told us the consulate was closed. Our reaction was not frustration, but joy! I still remember coming back to the hotel excited that we would get to spend one more day in Japan. I am not sure if I would have reacted the same way when we came a month ago. This time, I knew that Japan was going to be expensive, so I prepared mentally for that. Although the school had not researched the Japanese holidays very well, they did take care of us. They rebooked the flight and extended the hotel stay another night. I am very thankful to have a school that would watch after us.

Most people might think that we have bad luck or have a curse because all of this stuff keeps happening while we are trying to get our visas. Well guess what- I have my visa and I got a three day vacation with my wife! With all of the schoolwork we have to do, the extension of our trip to Japan was a gift from God.

Since we had a day to kill, we took advantage of our time and took a trip south to Nagasaki. Yes, this is the same city that the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on. The bomb was dropped only 66 years ago. How do you recover from something that completely leveled 1/3 of a city destroying steel factories, schools, hospitals, businesses and most importantly people? It was hard to swallow the fact that the country I was from was responsible for so much destruction. After touring the Atomic Bomb Museum, walking through the Peace Park and seeing this beautiful city many of my thoughts about Japan, Korea, and the U.S. have changed.

Many of my students seem to express their anger for all things relating to Japan because from 1910-1945 Japan invaded and colonized Korea. While living here in Korea, I have heard claims by the Korean people that the Japanese forced Korean men and women to learn the Japanese language, to work in labor camps, and many women were forced to sleep with Japanese men. Many of these claims are true and I read a news article that discussed how just recently (within the last 10 years) Japanese comic books were permitted to be sold in Seoul. I was also shocked to learn that a large number of Koreans had been moved to Japan for labor purposes and many thousand of them died in Nagasaki when the atomic bomb went off. Many Koreans ask for an apology from Japan and claim that no apology has been given for the 35 years of colonization. After finding a monument made for the Korean people with an apology written I thought I would show it to my class. They have told me they just want an apology, but would that really satisfy them?

After showing them the monument constructed for the Koreans who died in the blast, they said it was not enough. I knew this would be the case, but maybe this helped them realize something. Would an apology from Japan really heal their family wounds? Would they ever truly forgive the Japanese people for what they have done? Being a white American I have not had to experience another country oppressing my race. Maybe I don’t understand, but can we justify hate? Do two wrongs make something right? We can try and justify hate, but if we do, the the cycle will never end. With each new experience that I encounter I feel that I am learning more and more about the love and forgiveness that God shows us. When Jesus died on the cross at the hands of men, he had every right to show hate to those that put him on the cross. Instead he chose to forgive their sins and love them. I want to live my life like this.

At 11:02 am on 8/9/1945 the atomic bomb exploded 500 meters above this spot. The black stone monolith marks the hypocenter. This is located in the International Peace Park.

The child in this sculpture is supposed to represent Japan on the day of the atomic bombing, while the mother represents the support provided by the countries of the world in Japan's efforts to rebuild the nation into a peaceful nation.

This is the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, nicknamed "Fatman."

The fountain is in the shape of a pair of wings, meant to evoke the dove of peace and the crane after which Nagasaki harbor has been named, because of its similarity to the shape of the harbor.

Words from the Sculptor:

After experiencing that nightmarish war,
that blood-curdling carnage,
that unendurable horror,
Who could walk away without praying for peace?
This statue was created as a signpost in the struggle for global harmony.
Standing 10 m tall, it conveys the profundity of knowledge and the beauty of health and virility.
The right hand points to the atomic bomb, the left hand points to peace,
and the face prays deeply for the victims of war.
Transcending the barriers of race and evoking the qualities of both Buddha and God,
it is a symbol of the greatest determination
ever known in the history of Nagasaki
and of the highest hope of all mankind.
-Seibo Kitamura
Spring 1955

Hello again, Japan.

We have now been to Japan twice. The 2^nd trip was MUCH BETTER than the first. The first time we were so shocked by the prices, not expecting everything to cost so much and had several disagreements on spending money. It made the trip rough. This time both of us had a much more relaxed approach, realizing that money is just money. Yes, we are still diligently working to pay off student loans, but it’s all a matter of perspective. We should be completely debt free in less than 6 months. Sometimes you just need a break. Another important thing to realize about our trips to Japan is that we did not have to pay for the flights or hotels. That’s a huge savings! We also got reimbursed for most of the money we spent on our first trip to Japan on food and transportation. I’m not sure exactly how much we spent total, but for our 2 days there, they reimbursed us about $150 in addition to paying for our round-trip flights and hotel. We’ll see how much we get reimbursed this 2^nd time around. I think that we will have to cover some of the expenses, especially since we took a day trip from Fukoaka to Nagasaki. But hey, we’ll submit all the receipts and see how much they pay us back. Even if we have to spend a couple hundred of our own money, that's not bad for a trip to Japan. Another stamp on the passport, right?

So here’s what happened on our most recent trip to Japan.

Sunday, January 9: leave Eumseong at 1:30 pm and head to Seoul. While in Seoul, we went to church and grabbed dinner before we took the cheapest way to the airport- a 1 ½ hour subway ride from the city to the airport. We decided to stay overnight in Seoul on Sunday because our flight left at 8 am on Monday and we didn’t want to wake up at 2:30 am Monday morning in order to get to the airport on time. We stayed at a guest house/hostel 2 minutes from the airport. It was actually some former apartments that had been renovated as guest rooms.

This room had space for more than 2 people. Taylor obviously isn't claustrophobic!

Monday, January 10: took the free airport shuttle at 6:15 AM. The shuttle bus passengers included us and a whole bunch of Asian flight attendants. We were informed at check-in that the flight to Japan could be cancelled or delayed because it was snowing in Fukuoka. This didn’t turn out to be a problem. The flight to Fukuoka from Seoul is right around 1 hour- you barely have time to get a drink and a meal before the plane is preparing to land. I’m actually surprised they even serve a meal. We flew Korean Air which is an excellent airline- one of the best either of us has been on. I watched part of Eat, Pray, Love (disappointing) and Taylor watched part of Scott Pilgram vs the World (he said it’s funny).

The first time we went to Japan, we exchanged money at the airport money exchange office- bad idea. They totally ripped us off by charging around $10 in service fees to exchange about $60. I remembered that when I was in Spain, the best exchange rate I got with the lowest fees was to pull out cash directly from an ATM. That's what we did this time in Japan.

Check out Taylor's face when he thought that the ATM had charged us about $35 to pull out cash (that wasn't really the case).

We arrived in Fukuoka and headed straight for the Korean Consulate only to find that they were closed for a Japanese holiday! Apparently, the HR department at our school didn't think to check for holidays...

The visa processing takes 1 day which means everything was pushed back by a day. This was a problem because we only had 1 night booked at the hotel and our flights were supposed to return the next day. We headed to our hotel to check-in and found out that Japan does not have wi-fi hardly anywhere. So we eventually found an internet café and Taylor paid 290 Yen (about $3.50 USD) to use the internet for 30 minutes (did we mention that Japan is incredibly expensive???). They wouldn’t let me go with him without paying so I stayed in the lobby and found wireless internet for free. This was it! We found the free wi-fi. For the rest of our trip, whenever we needed internet, we went to the stairwell outside the internet cafe to use the free internet.

Taylor didn’t get much done in the computer room because there was no microphone for him to call our school in Korea and let them know what was going on. Little did he know that I had found a signal for free and called the school myself from our computer (at the risk of all the front-desk people looking at me funny as I sat there and talked to myself).

We got everything straightened out with the school, they changed our flights and added an extra night onto our hotel stay, then we set out to find lunch. We went back to the main station and found a huge hallway of restaurants. One thing that's really nice about a lot of restaurants in Korea and Japan is the display cases of meals. Often, the menus aren't in English, but it is pretty easy to look at a dish and decide whether you want it or not.

Fukuoka is famous for its Udon Noodles. I got some spicy chicken peanut noodles, which were good except for the spiceness and the fact they they were cold! Taylor got some noodles in broth which he seemed to be pleased with.We found a convenience store and bought some Pockey- this is our new tradition when we come to Japan. It’s SO good!

Then we headed back to the hotel to rest. Taylor slept while I watched a Korean drama called Spring Waltz.

Before I came to Korea, I hadn’t heard of Korean dramas, but some of you may have. They’re apparently really really good. Several of the teachers here had already been hooked before they ever came to Korea. I decided to check out what all the fuss was about. I asked a co-worker which one I should watch and she said the Spring Waltz is a must-see. You can watch online for free at www.mysoju.com .So I have been watching and loving it so far. I got a couple episodes in while Taylor caught up on some sleep then we headed off to dinner.

We went to the Hard Rock Café which was a nice treat, but at a high cost. The total cost of our meal with 2 drinks, 2 entrees, and 1 dessert was 6,100 Yen- about $74 USD. I don’t think that’s quite the same price it would have been at a Hard Rock Café in the U.S.

As we were paying for the meal, Taylor asked the cashier about a bar he read about online called “The Anchor Bar”- apparently a must-see (according to people on Dave’s ESL Café). He could probably say more about it, but this is a pro-Japanese bar from WWII. It contains WWII artifacts and it is essentially a Japanese victory bar, celebrating the victories of Japan during WWII (think Pearl Harbor). He was interested in just checking it out; I was far less than interested after I saw the reaction of the cashier. We told him we were Americans and asked if he thought it was okay if we went there. He sighed a big sigh, and said, “Um, maybe it’s okay?” as more of a question rather than a statement. Lucky for me, since it was a holiday, the bar was closed! So instead we walked around the area by the Hard Rock and window shopped. I found a Gap store so I did more than window shop. I found some really great deals. I got a couple of shirts with a huge markdown. I paid about $50 dollars for 3 shirts that were originally over $200.

This sweater was originally 6,800 Yen (about $82 USD), on sale for 1900 Yen (about $22). Another sweater I got was originally 8,800 Yen ($106 USD)- who would pay that! See, I can even get a deal in Asia. I was easily able to convince Taylor to let me get them when I said I wanted to use my Christmas money to buy them. Next we headed into an arcade. We wasted a couple dollars before we realized that we could just walk around and find coins on the ground. That’s how we ended up spending about 45 minutes there and not very much of our own money at all. Finally, we went to Toys R Us and looked around. We bought a couple small gifts for the teachers that were subbing our classes for 3 days. I posed for a picture for my cousin, Macie, who loves animals.

We ended the night back at the hotel with 1 episode of Home Improvement from Season 1- classic!

Tuesday, January 12- we’ve discovered that the part of Japan we are in is way way warmer than Korea. The day we left Korea was 7 degrees Fahreinheit. Japan was probably in the mid-upper 40s; maybe even 50s? I’m not really good at judging temperature but I do know that it was a heck of a lot warmer in Japan. Our #1 goal was to get visas so we set off straight for the Consulate after experiencing Japan’s version of “American breakfast at our hotel. It consisted of a glass of milk, white bread, a roll, uncooked scrambled eggs (I could still taste the runny egg white and yolk), sausage, and fish soup.

Yes, I said fish soup. We have this in Korea, too. It’s actually made by boiling anchovies. The soup in Japan was far fishier that Korea. One sip and I was done. One other thing I noted- Japanese tea tastes better than Korean tea! I have yet to taste any tea in Korea that I like (shhhhh don’t tell them that).

After breakfast, we got to the Consulate, turned in our paperwork without any problems, paid the 9000 Yen fee for both of us ($108 USD) and were told to come back the next day to pick them up at 10 AM. Yippee.

Since we had an extra day in Japan, and more than likely this might be our last time to go to Japan (hey, we’re not gonna go on our dime), we really really wanted to go some place exciting, somewhere that was well known. I don’t think Fukuoka makes it on that list. We did some research at our free wi-fi spot (the stairwell right outside the internet café) and discovered that Nagasaki is only 150 kilometers away –about 1 hour by train, or 2 ½ by bus. After comparing bus and train prices, we decided that the bus was definitely the way to go. The price of a roundtrip bus ticket was the price of a 1-way train ticket. We were a little nervous on the bus ride there, because it rained the whole way. It was still lightly raining when we arrived so we bought an umbrella. We ate lunch in the bus station at Nagasaki. For dessert we found fish pastries (similar to the Bungeoppang we have in Korea but not nearly as good) and Bubble Tea!!

We spent the whole afternoon in Nagasaki. I am going to let Taylor blog about that in a different post.

Wednesday, January 12: Since we weren't so impressed by Japan's version of "American breakfast," we decided to try Japanese breakfast. Both of us liked the Japanese breakfast a whole lot more. I will eat a lot of things for breakfast, but fish has always been on a forbidden breakfast food list for me. Not this day.

The breakfast consisted of a cold egg spongey-thing, bland tofu, some weird vegetable-looking things, fish soup, rice, salad, and fish. After breakfast we picked up our visas from the Consulate without any trouble (yay!! Hallelu!), Our flight was rescheduled from Tuesday at 3 pm to Wednesday at 8:50 pm. We had another whole day to spend in Japan. Unfortunately, I did not bring any schoolwork, although I had plenty to do. I thought the trip would be a lot shorter than it ended up being. Taylor did bring work, but we only had 1 computer.We headed off to spend all morning/part of the afternoon in Starbucks. I was so bored.

I went back to the Arcade and hunted for more free coins. Around 3 pm, we headed off to an area of town called Canal City. Canal City is pretty much a giant mall with lots of stores. We even found a Barbie Store- but it wasn't what you expected. We didn't go in the store, but I didn't see any Barbies. What we did see was some scandalous clothing with grown women buying it. How interesting.

Taylor got noodles from "Ramen Stadium," an area on the top floor of Canal City with tons of noodle restaurants. I found a place on the bottom level that was truly an experience. Apparently, the Japanese are very serious about their noodles. This restaurant had individual stalls. Eating is almost like serious business at this restaurant- you go in and get the job done, without leaving any time for socializing. I think the point of the wall dividers between each stall is so you can truly enjoy your noodles, but I'm not sure.

The noodles were really good- that's all I know. After dinner, we found dessert of course. Taylor wanted to try this waffle-looking thing with what looked like whipped cream in the middle. Turns out is was more like yogurt and whipped cream mixed together. It was a little tart but really good!

We split one of the waffle thing so we could each get a filled crepe. That's what I had my heart set on and boy they were good!

At the end of the night, after we have reserved enough for a subway ticket back to the airport, we spent the rest of our money. One of my favorite stores in America is Lush. Fresh, handmade cosmetics, soaps, lotions, massage bars, the list goes on. The first time we ever came across a Lush store was on our honeymoon. Maybe that's why I love it so much. I have fond memories. There is one particular product I like to buy there. Although I can live without it, I don't want to. I was going to stock up before we left for Korea but after visiting their website and learning that they had stores in Korea, I decided to get it here as I needed it. One weekend in Seoul, we stumbled upon the store without even searching, only to be disappointed. Something I paid $7 for in the U.S. was now $15- more than double. I just couldn't do it. I've been telling Taylor until he finally gave in and let me go to Lush that it is destiny that we go there. Since the first encounter with Lush in Korea, we have run into Lush stores in both Korea and Japan about 4 or 5 more times. This last time in Japan I finally won! Taylor caved in. Surprisingly, the price in Japan was far more reasonable than Korea, about $9 instead of $15. I can deal with a $2 increase in price. We just chalked it up to supply and demand and went along our happy way. At least I did.

We divided the remainder of the money- I spent mine on Lush and Taylor spent all of his on a few more boxes of Pockey at the airport. That pretty much summarizes our trip to Japan, minus the day in Nagasaki. Taylor will (hopefully) be blogging about that trip in a few days.

P.S.: flights to Korea aren't terribly expensive, you know? One of the teachers here got a round-trip flight from Seoul to LAX for $850. Just wanted to throw that out there. ;-)

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