KOREA-Seoul

Seoul was amazing and will now take up the next few blog entries. The first entry: Pitchers of Beer and the Korean War Museum.

Makoto with the Giant Pitcher of beer...yes it had been soooo long since we'd seen pitchers and beer that wasn't Chinese we all had to take a picture with it!

me with the pitcher

Richard with all the NOT Tsingtao beer

Clayton enjoying the Pitcher

When we exited the Korea War Museum the city was beginning to light up...Seoul is really quite beautiful at night

Memorial to brothers seperated, fighting for different sides during the Korean War (a true story)

More Memorials to the Korean war

The Memory Room in the War Museum...this was Richards favorite place (he spent FOREVER here)...we moved on...then thought we lost him...looked at most of the 1st floor and then found him JUST exiting the room.

Replicas of sweet ancient ships

Memorial outside the war museum

Watch out!

Now the communists have Makoto too!

another earlier shot of the monument to the brothers

Soldiers monument

This was not at the war museum...but it was very close (right outside the metro stop)...it was a HUGE statue/sculpture thing made of straw of a dragon! No idea what it was for, but it was really cool!!

Our Amazing Adventure across Asia (or more acurately Korea, Japan, and China) began in Qingdao where Clayton (eventually Makoto) and I met Richard. Qingdao was much better this time around...we knew the hot spots and I managed to avoid food poisoning! Qingdao is now my favorite city in China...even after visiting Shanghai! After a few days in Qingdao, staying at a sweet hotel that Richard hooked us up with, we got on the Weidong Ferry and made our way to KOREA!! (Highlights of Qingdao: Le Bang (French/Chinese/English bar with a great atmosphere) and Hole in the wall Restaurant with AMAZING french fries chinese style and spicy!)

Best Bathroom Sign in a bar EVER!
(In the "Jazz" Bar in Qingdao...fun place, good foozball and fries)

We ate Turtle...it was slightly disturbing and not too bad tasting

In Qingdao before leaving on the Ferry to Inchon, Korea
(one of the only pictures of just the 3 of us)

Me on the deck...it was cold and foggy but fun!

This one's for all the Clayton fans out there...here's Clayton on his first boat trip EVER!



Makoto hanging out in our 4 person room...yes, after picking up our student IDs (they insisted on keeping them for an hour or so to "check"them...bets on if they actually called Skidmore anyone??) we were able to convince the Ferry company to let me stay with the boys in a 4 person room (we even tried telling them that Richard and I were married, hahaha...but in the end they let us anyway)

Weidong Ferry! coolest ferry EVER (our favorite part...the "movie theater" that showed the quality filme "Alien V. Predator" with out Chinese or Korean subtitles, so as the only English speakers on the boat we were the only ones who could properly enjoy such a masterpiece

travels continue

as i am in a hostel in Hiroshima at the moment i will refrain from posting tons of pictures because i shouldnt take too long... and the japabese keyboard might be the end of me!!

but a quick update on our travels!
I LOVED KOREA! Especially Seoul! Great city...everyone should go! Nice people, great fashion, FANTASTIC food, good things to see, fun nightlife! All around it was a great time
Gyeong-ju was also great...a really nice hitsorical city with SO much to see...we only saw a small fraction of it and boy would it be nice to see in the spring time! i will definitely be back there!
So far Japan is a lot of fun too. Makoto's university town yamaguchi is really cute! and best of all his friend becky who we stayed with was awesome!! she was the best host ever...especially because she didnt know us before we arrrived! :)
now we are in hiroshima which is a beautiful city and spent the afternoon at the peace park and museum. it was all very interesting, and being the big history nerd i am i loved it!
we are headed to Kyoto tomorrow afternoon after spending some more time in hiroshima...maybe going to a cultural festival or a castle.
all in all everything is going well...except i have a bit of a stomach thingy...which i hope goes away soon because its hurting my enjoyment of japanese food!!!