Goodnight from the Bus....all 48 of Us.

The wheels on this bus are going to Beijing! We planned to be there a few days ago, but it seems our most memorable experiences have been when we haven’t planned at all. The bus isn’t as bad as it seems though—we’re over halfway there, and everyone seems to be reclined in their beds…well, the people who have beds that is. The rest are all crammed on mats in the narrow isles. Yeah, real comfy.

A lot has happened in the last few days as we’ve moved from Korea to China. We spent our last day in Korea hiking up a mountain to see the Seoul Tower. On our way up, we came across a hotel where a huge group of Koreans were outside in matching outfits (apparently, this isn’t uncommon!). They were all in their late 50s doing choreographed danced moves to hip hop music—it was quite the site! When we made it to the top of the mountain, there were thousands of different locks on the fences surrounding the Seoul Tower. Everyday, love-struck couples put on a lock together and throw the key over the edge. I think we saw one guy keep his key. Just kidding.

Time to head to China! We took an overnight ferry from Korea with a group of women with larger than necessary visors and their husbands who got to drinking their 2L of beer before the ship had even left the harbor. We ended up catching up on sleep and waking up to find ourselves in Qingdao, China with no plan of staying. Luckily we met two Colombians who informed us of the International Beer Festival taking place that weekend! It was a good thing too because they knew the language and took us to a traditional Chinese meal where everything is shared and nothing is off-limits on the menu…Pigs tongue anyone? I don’t know about you but I don’t want to eat anything that tastes me back.

Full from our lunch we headed to the beer festival only to find opening night consisted of music, but no beer. Beer festival. No beer. We don’t get that either. Not to be deterred, our new Colombian friends showed us a good time with their classmates. We became very familiar with the term “Ganbei”—meaning finish your glass.

We did stay in a couple cool guesthouses--one was in an Old Observatory on the top of a hill, and the other an Old Church turned into a cool, hip lounge. Besides the festival, we found two other ways to really appreciate Qingdao. We strolled the boardwalk where the sailing events had taken place for the recent Olympics and stumbled upon a live show. Two scalpers reeled us in with cheap tickets from their pockets of what looked to be “O” (like Cirque de Soleil) but later found out it was “Q”---Ohhh, the mermaid’s fin, I get it. To our surprise it was AMAZING—acrobats, ballerinas, martial artists, rock violinists in latex, rollerbladers, scuba-divers coming down from the ceiling, dancing starfish, you name it…all in an attempt to celebrate the city of Qingdao.

Oh, how we love the unexpected! We’re currently in Beijing and up next is, well, we’ll let you know when we get there! Ganbei!

A Night at the Water Park...

Our impromptu stay in Busan, Korea ended up more interesting than we could’ve ever imagined. Our first night came with gold embroidered pillows that read “Hotel Dong Shin”. There was also a rather large complimentary can of bug spray—needless to say, we didn’t stay a second night; the mosquitoes were hungry. In need of a new location, we headed to the Aqua Palace Hotel where we were introduced to our first “JimJillBong” (sp) experience. We were given matching uniforms and swimcaps, a day pass to the indoor water park and spa, and a night stay for under $9 in….well, the water park. We spent the day in the techno wave pool, trying the 3 story water slide, the ice room, the hot pebbles and hot salt spas. We can't forget to mention the "onsens". These are basically many hot tubs and soaking baths where being naked is not optional. For lunch, we decided on prepackaged Ramen-esque soup bowls and chocolate chip cookies since that’s all we could make out from the menu.

As the evening came, fireworks began to go off outside of our hotel; after all, it was the celebration of Thanksgiving across Korea! Our hotel sat on the beach, giving us a gorgeous panoramic view of a cove that connected the city skyline by a giant color-changing bridge. Upon seeing the lively atmosphere outside, we convinced a younger staff member to let us go out for “food”. We ended up lighting off fireworks on the beach and a seeing a fish market, but we did make it back in time for our curfew… apparently, $9 a night comes with some unforeseen restrictions. When we did get back, we were obligated to put back on our gender specific pink & mustard-yellow striped uniforms…which became matching pajamas. Heading to our room, we discovered our room was really everyone else’s room too. Put simply, it was a huge open floor. Don’t get us wrong though, it was a clean, marble one. And there were movies going on until 1AM. Ok so they were in Korean but Justin kept himself busy by giving geography lessons on the location of Iowa. When it came time for bed we opted for the “soft pebble spa” over the floor, so we spent our night in the rock ball pit with a few other locals.

Apparently we couldn’t get enough of being on the floor because when we got our train ticket to Seoul everything was booked except standing room only. We took the tickets anyways and opted for the handicap corner where we could sprawl and lay out. Good thing it was near the bathroom and the floor only flooded once (thank god it was just the furnace). However, we did meet a lot of interesting locals on this 6 HOUR ride and two little girls drew funny pictures on our Whiteboard.

Our search is over…we made to SEOUL. Up next Beijing!

Seoul Searching...

Greetings from Pusan, Korea! Oh, and we mustn’t forget Happy Thanksgiving here at Hotel Dong Shin! Apparently we missed the memo that it’s holiday weekend across the country and all trains, planes, & automobiles are booked until Tuesday. Here’s to an unplanned adventure—more on that once we make it to Seoul!

Recap on Japan—Although we weren’t able to get past “hello” & “thank you” in Japanese, it’s been a blast having the locals and other travelers write messages on the whiteboard. From geishas near the historic temples, to the owners of traditional restaurants and the amazing world travelers we’ve met along the way, the photos sum up the trip perfectly.

Kyoto is definitely known for its elaborate pagodas, but we also found a monkey park at the top of a huge hill. These happy creatures have quite the set up looking out over the city, and Justin even tried out their long mountain slide.

Next stop was Hiroshima! The local cuisine was amazing. Sushi and ice cream from 7-eleven often hit the spot but it couldn’t compare to the okanamiaki at midnight surrounded by boisterous locals. We also saw the Peace Memorial Park and Museum. It’s astounding to see a city so vibrant when just 60+ years ago it was wiped out by the first Atomic bomb.

Our last day was spent on the island of Miyajima —where the low and high tides crash in and out of a popular gated temple. This small city is also known for having the worlds largest rice scooper and chocolate filled treats…mmm, delicious. That evening we couldn’t make it to South Korea and didn’t reserve another night at the hostel so we ventured out for a place to stay (DUN Dun dun...) We stumbled upon the Aster Plaza “Youth Hostel”. After receiving the room key we made our way upstairs to find giant chandeliers and a private corner room with views of the city skyline and riverfront. We quickly put on the complimentary kimonos and took action photos while jumping on the beds...

Great finale to Japan!







NEW People Whiteboarded!

SEE PHOTO ALBUM TOP RIGHT OF PAGE

Mt. Fuji & Kyoto!

We arrived in Mt Fuji Sept. 7. We rented bikes to tour around a gorgeous lake, but shortly into our trip it started to rain. We made a quick turn-around for town. We found a supermarket where Justin’s dinner consisted of free samples. Oh yeah, and a corn dog, sushi, a donut and ice cream. How he came up with that combo, no one knows. When it came time to check-out, the lady kept talking to us in Japanese. Luckily I was giving Justin the play by play on what it all meant which went something like this… “Corn dog. With donut. How creative. Soy sauce for sushi? This needs a price check. I love price checking. Hold one minute. Time me while I check!"

…On another note, our hostel that night was great. At the door, we had to take off our shoes and they had cool bamboo slippers for us to wear. We didn’t end up seeing Mt. Fuji because of the cloudy weather, but let me tell ya, our post cards look amazing!!

Next stop Kyoto! Within a few minutes of getting on the bus, the bus driver flies by an old woman at the next bus stop. Someone shouts something in Japanese and the bus driver stops in the middle of traffic, gets out, and zig zags through cars & two parking lots. He and the old lady run together back to the bus! What a Kodak moment.

We later realize after being in Kyoto and having to ask for directions several times, the people are always there to help. Locals literally biked blocks for us to find the right bus stops; what a cool part about Japanese culture.

Kyoto has been an amazing place. We’ve had fun seeing traditional temples, hiking up hills to shrines, trying on kimonos, seeing Giant Buddahs, and of course whiteboarding with the locals & travelers alike!

Up next: Nara & Hiroshima!!

NEW WHITEBOARDED PEOPLE:

Yokoso Japan! Let the adventures begin

We skipped a day! We left Iowa on the morning of Sept 4th and woke up Sept 6th in Japan. That's a very surreal feeling especially when we went to breakfast and everything was in Japanese, and hundreds of people were hustling around that didn't quite look like us. Once we figured out the elaborate metro system--serving the 34 million people in Greater Tokyo --we were well on our way to see what this city had to offer...

*ATMS don't take our debit cards
*Neither does McDonalds
*Menus in "appetizing" plastic outside
*Impolite to put soy sauce on rice ...Whoops!
*Free Origami at the bank! (Realistic panda)
*Optional musical flush button on toilet
*Plus heated seat & bidet function
*The primped & styled hair...on men

<--Notice the capri jeans, fur hoodie, & man purse!


And the cool things we checked out:

*Busiest train station in the world, 2 million passengers/day
*Busiest intersection in the world, AKA "3 minutes of happiness"
*109 Building, uber-trendy fashions for pretty boys...& girls
*"Electric Town", 7 floors of the latest electronic gadgets & gizmos




Up next: Climb up "on" Mt Fuji!!





WHITEBOARDED PEOPLE WE'VE MET:


<--Woman from Osceola, IA, recently traveled to Tokyo. <---Jim, diving coach from Mizzou, also world traveler
<--Amy from Heath, TX; just moved to Tokyo!