We're Feeling Very Asian

When we first arrived in South Korea, Denisa had to learn to make and drink green tea.  She would tell Katrina that she was "feeling very Asian" as she sipped her hot tea.  The two and half weeks have flown by and we are sad to be leaving South Korea.  Alexia shared some of the pictures she had taken of all of us while we have been here.

We have also worked on our chopstick skills when we ate that delicious Korean BarBQ.  We were "feeling very Asian" that night as well.

Our last morning was filled with packing our suitcases, one more load of laundry, and our last chance to two-step to live music in the living room.  We will miss all the fun of the South Korea Engelmans.  We were glad to be there when the children were trying on their Halloween costumes.  There will be trick-or-treating at the foreigner's compound for Miss Peacock, Mario, and Luigi.

We left Ulsan over their new bridge, getting our final view of the port and the industry that has grown this little town into a large city.

We headed to the airport in Busan, another new city for us.  Because the Korean alphabet has fewer letters, it can be translated as Pusan or Busan.  A little over an hour away on a very nice highway, it is also filled with apartment skyscrapers and a great beach along the Japan Sea.

We don't have time for the beach today, but the Japan Sea looked beautiful out the car window.  We have a plane to catch, and a precious family wishing us bon voyage today.  We will certainly miss these smiling faces!

It only takes a little over an hour to fly from southern South Korea into the Osaka, Japan airport.  Going through customs and immigration only took 30 minutes, and we had officially entered Japan for the first time.  We stopped by the train station to buy a Nara access pass for 1230 yen.  This pass allowed us to ride the express train into Osaka, and then a local train to our destination for the first night--Nara.  Changing trains in the huge Osaka station was confusing for two people new to the country and its transportation system.  We had to walk close to a mile to get to our new train's platform, and we asked for directions more than once.  We found that the Japanese people will go above and beyond normal to help visitors find their way.  

We rolled into the Nara Kintetsu station after dark, but found our lodging at the Tenpyo Ryokan easily since it was only two blocks away.  We were thrown directly into the traditional Japanese lifestyle with our short-legged table and chair seats directly on the floor in our room.

A ryokan is a traditional Japanese hotel, so we had to remove our shoes before we walked on the tatami mat floor.  As with all the places we stayed, we were provided with slippers to wear inside, as your outdoor shoes are never supposed to be worn in.  We would be sleeping on futons laid on that tatami mat floor.  Since our room could sleep four people, we cheated just a little and used the two additional bed mats to make our beds a little more padded.

We were right at home with bathroom, which looked much like one in an RV that was molded out of one big piece of fiberglass.  Most of our Japanese hotel bathrooms would all look the same.  Most of them would also provide a kimono to wear for the evening.  

Drinking green tea while sitting on the floor, sleeping on a futon, and wearing a kimono . . . after just one evening in Japan, "we're feeling very Asian!"