Hong Kong Adventures

This year was relativity big in regards to my birthday.  I hit the big "3" "0" this November!  Hubs went totally above and beyond with a trip to Hong Kong to celebrate!!  Not only that,  he surprised me with a cake ordered ahead waiting for me in the hotel room!

We spent a wonderful weekend in Hong Kong and I really wish I had more pictures to show you but alas our hands were so full of shopping bags the whole time we didn't get many photo ops!!  We did get a number of great bargains at the markets though so if you got a Christmas present from us this year there is a good chance it came from a Hong Kong market (we have a stash too so that goes for the next few years as well :)).


The food was great and the city was bustling and impressive.  We were very surprised at how familiar everything seemed.  We barely felt like we were in a foreign country at all with all the fluent English speakers and English signs posted everywhere!  The money exchange did take a little getting used to though since they also use the dollar but one of their dollars is worth almost 8 US dollars.  At first glance that can make price tags seem very shocking (" $17 for a cup of coffee?!?!?!!?  ARE YOU NUTS?!?!?!?! Oh. . wait. . never mind.  Sure, I'll take two").


One thing that did make a lasting impression was our ride across the island on one of the many double decker buses.  Can you say CRAZY!?!?!

Here is shot from the vantage point of the first row on the top level.  Some of the turns were downright terrifying.  . .and the whole left side of the road thing certainly didn't help!

Since a picture really can't give it a worthy description I thought this video clip borrowed from one of the Harry Potter movies might give you a better idea of the experience.  Granted their bus had three levels, but other than that it is pretty much right one.  I think our driver may have even used magic a few times to keep us from crashing.

More Engrish Adventures

Just thought you might like to check out some more "Engrish" we come across on a daily basis here in South Korea.


On store signs:

On pencil boxes (no I don't have any idea what otters have to do with Audrey Hepburn either):

On clothes:

On tour buses: (this one was so hysterical I was going to offer proofreading services for free but by the time we had stopped laughing the bus was already gone. . I mean of ALL the available acronyms to describe their tour why would they choose that one?  )

Japan Adventures Part III

What do we recommend after two days of non stop walking and exploring Japan (not to mention sleeping on the floor the night before?).
Definitely get a hotel on the top (33rd) floor of an amazing hotel in downtown Tokyo, complete with a high tech massage chair, and enjoy the view!

And then on the way to the airport the next day swing by a sushi counter to get a fresh lunch prepared right in front of you.  Yum!

Japan Adventures Part II

By far the coolest part of our Japan trip (and definitely near the top of all our Asian experiences so far!) was spending the night in a Ryokan (traditional Japanese Inn).  It was so quaint and with such an "off the beaten path" location we almost missed it from the outside!

When we arrived we were greeted with a great deal of bowing while they whisked our bags away to our room, took our shoes at the door and gave us slippers to wear throughout the house.  They didn't speak much English but managed to give us a very welcoming tour of the house (which included communal bath rooms and shared sink/mirror areas in the hallway rather than facilities in each room) before showing us to our very large but sparsly furnished suite complete with ratton floor mats, wooden screens and walls, and hot tea and fresh fruit to welcome us!

 Next they brought us some yukatas (traditional Japanese robes, like a Kimono but in more light, summer weight cotton material) to change into while we waited for our room service of a multiple course traditional Japanese meal!  These robes were incredibly comfortable. . even Hubs thought so!  Turns out he might be half Samurai. :)

Our meal was amazingly yummy. . and confusing!  The lady who brought it to us kept referring to this bilingual menu to show us what course she was bringing in,  It wasn't as helpful as she thought it was. . I mean yeah. . .I could have picked up that it was "hot food". . and "fried food".  But the thought was nice! :)

Here is a few pictures of various courses to show some of the "amazing yumminess"!

And here is a picture to show some of the "confusion"...


"Are you telling me I'm supposed to cook this over this open flame on this giant leaf thing?  For how long?  Am I supposed to eat the leaf thing or just the stuff inside?  Oh that's right. .we don't speak the same language. .. ..hmmm. . ."

After our meal they had reserved one of the communal bath house rooms for us! We got 30 luxurious minutes in the hot steam room and sauna all to ourselves.  When we returned to our room they had put out our futon type floor beds complete with origami paper cranes on the pillows and a resupply of hot tea.  Awesome!


As you can see the overhead clearance wasn't always exactly "Hubs- sized". . .but we made it work. :)

Overall, this was one of the most out of our comfort zone. . but FUN experiences of all of our travels.  If you ever have a chance to stay in a Ryokan, do it! :)

Japan Adventures Part I

Our latest adventure was a trip to Japan!  Unfortunately it was such a quick trip we didn't get a chance to  explore Mount Fuji.  However we did enjoy this lovely view of it from the comfort of a high speed bullet train!

We found Japan to be much harder to navigate than other parts of Asia that we have visited.  There were considerably less signs than in Korea and of the signs around, few of them have English translations.  However the Japanese people were incredibly helpful and there was always someone around to help point us in the right direction.  Plus, lucky for me, Hubs is a fabulous navigator!  And super cute too. :)

 

This was also my first experience with left side of the road traffic patterns.  A bit disturbing.

"Hey wait. . who is driving this taxi?!!?"

We spent a day exploring Kyoto, the historical capital of Japan.  It is an absolutely charming place with a stretch of cobblestone streets lined with lots of shops and tea houses as well as a number of beautiful temples and shrines.

Not sure if these were real Geishas (traditional Japanese female entertainers trained in cultural dancing, art, etc) or "tourists ones" (we saw a few shops were tourists could pay to be dressed up as a Geisha for a fewhours).  Either way it was pretty cool to see their make up and costumes up close!

No Parking Adventures

This is a small back road leading from the train station to our apartment.  We walk it quite often.  It pretty much always look just like this.

We have come to the conclusion that maybe that sign has a different meaning than what we are interpreting?  Or if we learned to read Hangul (the Korean alphabet) maybe the word "Suggested" is in there somewhere?

Korean Race Adventures

Hubs and I have been casually training for a half marathon.  Really I've been training and he has just been keeping me company on the runs.  So basically I was trying to train him up for the race without him catching on.  I may have not been sneaky enough though because just a few days before the race he got an unexpected Army tasking to be gone for a few weeks.  I'm still a little suspicious that he volunteered for this to avoid the race but haven't been able to prove it yet!


I was a little bummed to run without my running buddy/cheering section but hated to see the training go to waste.  Plus I had been excited about this particular race for months because of it's unique SWAG.  And by SWAG (Stuff We All Get) I am referring to the free goody bags that are almost always passed out as part of a race expo.  I do like distance running.  But I also REALLY like SWAG, the more random the better!  Sometimes I'm not sure which is my motivation to keep signing up for races.  For example, once I ran a race sponsored by 3M and got us enough sticky notes and organizing tabs to last for years.  Seriously, that was 3 years ago and I go through sticky notes at an alarming rate yet we still have a decent stash left.  When we run out I'll probably be tempted to buy a plane ticket back to TX just to run in that race again and stock up. .


Anyway, all this build up may have you curious what the SWAG for the Pyeongteak Port Marathon of 2011 was?!  In case you can't tell from the below fuzzy cellphone picture, we are now the proud owners of a free 2kg bag of Super Owning (a rather prominent brand in our area of Korea) rice!

How awesomely Asian  is that?!  I also got a great bag of post race snacks that included a ramen bowl and a choco-pie, ( kind of like a moonpie but without much taste. . Koreans are pretty stingy with their sugar).  Oh and of course the standard T-shirt (nicer than most!) and finisher medal.  But did I mention the bag of rice?! :)


The race was a pretty nice, flat course and it was a great cool morning for a run!  Here is the race layout.  I was hoping to check out the "snake place" but never found it. . . .just some stupid bananas and stuff where they were supposed to be.  Go figure. :)

Usually the first thought I have when I am done with a long run is "Must. consume. massive. amounts. of. calories.  time. now."  A nice greasy Korean green onion pancake was the perfect thing to take the edge off!

 That is until I could get home and cook my bag of rice. .