Seoul

Check out the bruise I brought back from Seoul! I slipped and fell on a rock while I hiking. Given the fall, I am actually pretty lucky that it was all I ended up with, the alternatives being a broken camera or a twisted ankle.

I also brought back a stomach full of angry gerbils, but I won't go into that! But just a warning - Japanese food, as healthy as it is, makes your stomach weak! Korean food toughens it up really quickly though :-)

So yes, I went to Seoul last weekend for a visit with my old friends. It was a fantastic trip, and I was surprised by how much I missed the place. I got to see tons of people and eat all my old favorite foods, plus stock up on girlie supplies from Face Shop and Skin Food! Ah, Seoul...I really did come to love it, and it took a visit back after a year to really realize that. As Taejin put it - "Korea is in your blood now!" The country really has a way of doing that! I didn't expect it at all, but I was sort of bummed that I had to come back to Japan. Mostly because Japan is still new to me and has not yet made it into the "home" category - I think it takes almost a year for that to really happen. So going to Korea and then leaving was like leaving home all over again, only it is the home that I really don't know when I will return to.

Sun's new look: This is what happens when you let me do your makeup.

A few new things of interest in my old neighborhood - a Ferrari dealership,

and a Hooters! Wow. Apgujeong is really complete now.

These are the people teaching English to the next generation of powerful Koreans:

Ryan

Sean

Aaron

Taejin and Sun after climbing Dobongsan. Take a guess which of the two forced us to go all way to the top, and which one was ready to kill her for it :-)

The beautiful view of Seoul from the top of Dobongsan.