First days in Japan

We arrived in Fukuoka, Japan by boat in two hours from Busan. After settling in our hostel, we took an evening stroll along the very clean and quite streets to find some late night street food. We finally settled on some noodles with some new friends from the hostel sitting under red flags blowing in the wind. I was so excited to finally be able to slurp up my food loudly with the locals. Afterwards we finished our meal with a group round of sake shots.

The next day we were on the road again this time by train up to Hiroshima. We knew this stop would be very emotional but it was a must see on our quick journey through Japan. We quickly found our way to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum after arriving. After only being there for ten minutes our eyes were already tearing up. This city has been through so much and it now stands as a global city of peace. inside the museum it had the some of the remaining pieces of clothes from school children, a replica of the bomb and letters asking for nuclear programs to be stopped all over the world.

While not wanting our trip in this fun city to only be about the museum we also spent the night playing games trying to win candy and anime figurines from claws. After spending ten dollars we both walked away as winners. The next day before leaving we hopped on rickety old bikes and visited a castle with a mote. I'm still amazed I didn't die since my handle bars were loose and they slid up and down on every slight bump. View the entire gallery here.

Technology meltdown...

When Cassie and I started this trip we decided it was also time to finally update our 5 year old iMac, so I was very excited when we finally bought our new MacBook Pro. While it was something I would have to carry around with me, I had all the best intentions to take wonderful care of it. Unfortunately, good intentions don't save computers from a bottle of Sake. While enjoying a few drinks on our patio in Kyoto, Japan a slight tip of the bottle looks like the end to our computer. Hopefully our reservation at the Beijing Apple store will save our computer but we don't have our hopes up. I'll still write a few posts about our week in Japan but you will have to imagine what the images would have looked like.

On top of that we also bought a faulty Fuji X100 camera before leaving for our trip. It was a manufactures error but since we bought it on Craigslist without a receipt it also looks like it will be a lost cause. I have since bought a new point and shoot but with no computer to download the images to it, I'm running out of ideas.

While most of our technology has failed us we are still in high spirits. We celebrated our new computer less night singing karaoke at the expense of every bodies ear drums. We both apologize to all of Japan for how bad our voices are.

Final thoughts on South Korea

Wow, our first two weeks in South Korea passed with a quickness. We had a blast exploring Seoul, Busan, and Gyeongju so I'm not surprised it went so quick. I thought I would finish up my posts about this lovely country with a few final thoughts. The people are so sweet and genuinly concerned about you having fun in their country. The older men loved talking to us whenever they had a chance. I think they really like to practice their english. The older ladies are a fiesty bunch which was the extreme opposite from the men. They would not hesitate to drop a shoulder to get in front of you or make their way thru a crowd. The younger kids were obsessed with their phones. The larger the phone the better it seemed. The young professional women dressed very dainty which was cute to see. 

The cities are thriving and still building at an unblievable rate. The public transportation is something to be jealous of in America. It was cheap, efficient and got you anywhere you wanted to go in the country very quickly. All in all, I loved my experience in South Korea.

I have also round up one more batch of photos from a night market that we found while getting lost walking around. View the entire gallery here.

The Silla Dynasty

The Silla Dynasty was one of the longest sustained dynasties in Asian history. They occupied most of the Korean peninsula, for nearly 1,000 years of rule from 57 BC - 935 AD. We were very excited because while touring the Silla museum, a guide came up to us to give us a personalized tour, while explaining all the artificats which it held. Over 3,000 artifacts! I'm sorry but we have no pictures of the actual musem, but we do have photos of the tombs where the kings were buried. The tombs where there are two mounds would be the husband and wife. 

Busan Cinema Center

Here's a little something different than the usual temple posts that will be littering this blog. The Busan Cinema Center was built for the Busan International Film Festival. I fell in love with this building the moment I walked up to it. There is an outside theater which is covered with a glowing roof. Cassie and I visited this building twice since the first time we were hoping to get some tickets for their international short film festival with no success, but we did catch The Avengers a few days later.