Happy Chusok Day!

25 September... Korean Thanksgiving Day...CHUSOK! Most of the Korean stores were closed today AND Marc had the day off! We went and found some hiking trails about 5 minutes from our house. VERY FUN!

This picture doesn't do it justice. SO BREATH TAKING beautiful!

SO we are walking up this hill on this hike and we start seeing work out equipment. All the Koreans are along this path working out. Kind of a cool concept. Working out in the fresh, clean air. So we joined them!

Doing crunches...

A little chest press action....yep, weights just out in the open like that! There is not much crime here in Korea and this is one example of how safe and trust worthy this culture is!


Also along this trail was this really neat "resting spot" where families were eating and playing.

One last exercise before we headed back down the hill to the car!

HAPPY CHUSOK!

War Memorial Museum - Seoul

The Bremer's had given us a weekend at the Dragon Hill (Army Resort) for a thank you for watching their sweet children while they had baby number 3! What a WONDERFUL weekend! We did some fun shopping and went to this museum. So many people had said what a great museum it was but how fun could a WAR museum be? It was SO interesting and very neat! There was a HUGE static display as you walked onto the museum grounds. This F5 looks just like a T-38 BUT gray with a gun and bombs! Marc explained to me that it is the T-38 and that we use to fly it (the F5 that is) but the Koreans still do. We are still waiting to hear about our next assignment but MAYBE Marc will be flying this next...again. The T-38 that is! SO confusing huh?

Gotta take a picture of the tanks for Grandad!

APC's...Armor Personal Carriers...FUN to climb in and on anyway!

I knew she was just going to keep climbing until she got up on top! MONKEY!

NO FEAR...Marc get her please! :)

Had to get a picture of the helicopters for Uncle Lloyd!

Inside the museum was ALL military/war history. Going back 5000 years! Amazing...being that our great nation is only 200 years old.

Korean military uniforms from the 1600-1800s. SO different from ours.

US uniforms from the same era.

This "teardrop" is made of dog tags of the fallen United Nations soldiers who fought and lost their lives in the Korean War. The iron thorns wrapped around it symbolizes the horror, suppression, and danger of war. I just thought it was neat. I just realized within the last couple of years how much I really do enjoy history. I'm very glad we took the time to see this museum! Thank you again Bremer's for our weekend!

Fall/Halloween at Everland

Last week the McKee's and Banana and I went to Everland for the day! ALWAYS a BLAAAST! Everland has already begun to celebrate the Fall/Halloween season...very fun!
Olivia and Ana having a wild and crazy time.

How cute are these pumkins?

Ana was VERY excited about having braided BLUE hair....she even sat still!

I'm glad she loves it because I can't figure out how to get them out! I'm hoping they just unravel after a while....


THIS is a break through! This is her FIRST character she went up to by herself. Not Santa, or the Easter Bunny, not even Chip and Dale at Tokyo Disney could get a hug...BUT strange Korean Halloween Bear is ALL GOOD! Funny!

Off to Japan!

We started our day at 5am on our city bus to the Seoul airport. See how chipper and pleasant this little girl is? She is SUCH a good little traveler!



We flew into Hiroshima, Japan. We checked into our hotel and took a street car to the "A-dome" and Peace Park. This is the exact area that the atomic bomb went off right above. It was a very sad/quiet place and it was CRAZY to be standing on that ground. It really wasn't that long ago in the big scheme of life and being Americans, standing there, it was a weird feeling.

The area right around this building was completely destroyed, but this building stayed standing. Turns out it was the building RIGHT below where the bomb went off. They have decided to keep it exactly as it was that day.

This is the Peace Park. This is a mass tomb for lots of people who died there. It was a beautiful park and we did take pictures in front of these buildings but we are standing there in these pictures smiling and it seems odd when I look back at them.

This is a watch that they had displayed in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. On Aug. 6, 1945 the first atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima at 8:15am. The museum was VERY interesting. I knew lots of WWII Europe history but not much Japanese. It wasn't a "we hate Americans" deal at all. They even mentioned "starting it" at Pearl Harbor. But it's bottom line message was to get rid of all nuclear weapons.


This is Ana still hanging and being sweet!

Our first Japanese meal! YUM! (Ana's about DONE!) :)

It was a very long, kinda sad way to start our Japan trip, but I think it was important to see and do!

First day in Tokyo!

We flew in from Hiroshima and got to our hotel after a long, drawn out subway, train, AND bus ride to the hotel. WHICH then we still had to walk a good 15 mins. with all our luggage! BUT we made it and an hour later our great friends the Barasch's (who are stationed in Misawa, Japan) meet us in Tokyo for our three days there! We were stationed with them during our "no children" Alaska days and now we both have sweet little girls who clicked instantly! After we got settled in the hotel we ventured out to an area called Rappongi. There was a WONDERFUL observation deck in this crazy high building in which you could see miles and miles of Tokyo....on a clear day I guess some people could even see Mt. Fuji.

The girls had so much fun together and were so good!

There was also an aquarium that we went through (no pics allowed). Then to dinner in which the boys had beers and we all played the "remember when" game and discussed our futures! FUN TIMES!

Asakusa in Tokyo

The Barasch's have a Frommer's Japan guide book which had GREAT suggestions for walking tours to do. Karen had found this information about an area called Asakusa. If anything remains of old Tokyo this is it. We spent all day in this area and it was really neat. This is Kaminarimon Gate, and entrance to a shopping area. That lantern is 220 lbs!
This is Nakamise Dori, Nakamise means "inside shops". This was a huge shopping area with stores on either side. It goes back to the 17th century and many shops are owned by the same family for generations.

At the end of that shopping area was this temple. Sensoji Temple is the oldest temple in Tokyo.

This pagoda was right next to the temple. Allie and Ana became great friends!

This was a GREAT Japanese lunch. Don't really know what we ate but it was yummy, and the atmosphere was fun...had to take our shoes off and sit on the floor!

We did a rickshaw ride! Yoshi was our guide and he spoke great English and was funny. He plays "American Football" and he likes this job because it helps him stay fit to play. I'm telling you, this man is in incredible shape to be able to do this!

I just thought it was neat to see random traditional Japanese attire within the "regular folks". Very neat area...the photos just don't do it justice!

Then we headed back to the hotel for a swim...it was a hot day!

Tokyo Disney Sea

We spent our last day in Tokyo at Disney Sea. They also have a Disneyland but Disney Sea is special to Tokyo and we figured we could do Disneyland/World in the US someday! Disney Sea revolves around the more modern Disney movies ie Little Mermaid, Aladdin to name a few. The girls are playing "choo choo" while we were all trying to figure out the game plan. Ana is SUCH a monkey...LOVES to hang on anything! This was on the "Mickey Train"!

They had the COOLEST underground Little Mermaid area! Rides, a show, food court, shopping, Aeriel's Playground, etc! We seriously could have stayed down there all day. We did for a long time because this was also the day the typhoon hit Tokyo. It wasn't too bad, but when it was raining we just played here. We had just as much fun as Ana!

Ana and Marc wild and crazy on the puffer fish ride!

Can you see Marc, Ana, Greg, and Allie?

This was while we waited for the train to Kyoto. Ana got these two souvenirs from Disney. A "Mickey train" and a "diamond Mickey". VERY typical of her interests nowadays! They kept her entertained the rest of our Japan trip. Disney was fun day for all of us! You notice that Marc did all the rides with her practially? THEN he did the big kid rides too with Greg. :)

Off to Kyoto, Japan!

We took the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto. THIS was our favorite city in the orient so far! Out of China, Korea, and Japan...Kyoto was AMAZING! It was one of the cities that wasn't bombed in WWII and from the places we have visited, was the neatest "old world" city yet. Gion is an area in Kyoto that is still an active running Geisha entertaining area. Look at those old buildings, with all the traditional lanterns and writings on the doors. Very neat!

We saw about 6 Geisha within the hour we were there. I had read the book Memoirs of a Geisha years ago and that was all I was thinking about when we'd see one hurry past us. It was just like how they explained things in the book. Very mysterious too!

Us walking around looking at the different restaurants and buildings. However, I felt like it was really inappropriate to have Ana out in this entertaining district after dark. Kinda like Vegas when the sun goes down...so we went back to our hotel for dinner.

On the way to our bus to get to the hotel we ran into random Japanese people walking around in Japanese garb so I went up to them and asked if we could take a picture with them... hee hee!

In our hotel there were 5 restaurants and Marc asked me to choose. So we had had an authentic Japanese Steakhouse meal in Tokyo and I loved it so I was excited to do it again. The menu was posted outside the door and a meal for two was $27. Let's do it!

The meal was AMAZING! It ended up being an 8 course meal and I'm thinking the entire time...WOW for $27 ya can't beat this! The chef was the best too. Ana was loving our tomatoes in one of our courses so she asked for more and we told her we didn't have anymore. Well, without us knowing he was even paying attention, let alone spoke English...he comes back with a bowl of tomatoes just for her. So sweet! THEN this shrimp is on a skewer and he puts him on the grill and Ana says, "Mommy he's movin"...sure enough that shrimp was and Ana gets upset so the chef covers him with this spatula. BUT he sure was yummy! Then the chef gets Ana a "special" bowl of ice cream to end the meal.

SO at the end of our meal, Ana asks to go potty and I take her. Marc pays the bill, we take this picture of our amazing experience and head up to our room. On the way Marc says, "So Jenna how much did you think that meal was?" WELL, I did the conversion wrong...in Korea it is $1 to 1000 Won...BUT in Japan it is $1 to 100 yen....I was off by a zero! BUT that $270 meal was GREAT!!! AND we got extra tomatoes and ice cream! Ya gotta appreciate the jeans, pony tails, and 3 yr old in a 5 star restaurant! Never was good at math...and for Marc to be that laid back about it...I thank God everyday for this man!