Korea

This last holiday weekend, Mike and I decided to take the family to Seoul, to visit our very close friends that we met here in Japan. They are mentioned a lot through the years in our blog. We went to Hida Takayama with them and to the Navy Ball. Nathalie was a very close mommy friend of mine. Always inspiring me to do more and see more all the time. They left Japan last year and moved to South Korea. We promised ourselves that we would go and see them. It took us a while to get up and go though. It feels like just recently we've come out of the baby haze. Plus, it's not really a great destination to go to during the winter unless one like to ski or snowboard or, just freeze! When spring hit we knew that it was the right time especially because during the Summer they go back to the States to visit family every year.

Our original trip was to just see our friends but we ended up doing so much more. DMZ, Lotte World and the SHOPPING!! The DMZ was definitely educational and it was really amazing to see how much of a tourist attraction it was. Strange. Despite the overall sadness of a divided country. There was a museum and even amusement rides located there. Lotte World is one of the largest indoor amusement parks in the world. There's an ice skating rink, roller coasters, kiddy rides, monorail to connect to another island, and shopping mall. Speaking of shopping, I have to conclude by saying the shopping was really a lot of fun. After being in Japan for so long, it's refreshing to go somewhere where I can spend about $100 and walk away with more than just one thing in my hand, especially now that the value of a dollar is in the toilet. The Korean people are very different from the Japanese... much more westernized. Needless to say it really was a fun trip. I recommend it to anyone living in Japan whose getting a little island fever! Pictures will follow soon and I'm sure that Mike's version of our trip will follow soon as well.