Finally updated

After not adding to this site for about 8 months, in the last week I caught up!! I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures. Sorry for the mistakes!

Hiking Houmanzan

Although Golden Week is traditionally the time us JETs leave the country for another south eastern asian country, I had already used all but three hours of my paid holiday so stayed in Japan. And because every Japanese person and their dog goes traveling I opted to stay at home. That was until Ayumi and Kyonkyon from work invited me to go on a day hike with them. The shrine on top of the mountain is supposed to be where you pray for good luck in love/relationships. Not sure how much luck it gives you but what the hell....
The mountain is 830m high but was a tough rocky climb. It was easier than the Kirishima and Yakushima hikes only because I only had day pack and it was shorter in length. There were a fair few people but not as many as I thought there would be being Golden Week. But I was right about one thing... there were 2 families there with their dogs and also a dog who decided to belong to anyone who was friendly. The view at the top was nice although because it was around 1pm the Japan haze had set in. I am still surprised that they built a shrine on top of the mountain. That meant someone had to drag up all the materials. Poor buggers.

After the hike we went and got a ice cream/slushy/green tea float and headed back to Yukuhashi bypassing the airport where we had a foot spa for 100 yen ($1)!

Korea with the family

Mum, Jetty, Poppy and Melva (grandparents and great aunt) came to visit me in Japan again. I was really happy that they could come because I hadn't seen any family for over a year since I was unable to home for Christmas. By this stage I only had 3 days paid holiday left so couldn't take off a lot of time to spend with them. I went to Fukuoka to meet them at their hotel and got them settled in. Lucky for me one of my monthly Monday meetings was scheduled in Fukuoka the next day so I stayed the night and spent the morning with them. We met up with Andria who took us to a shrine and a arcade area for lunch. We had to leave for our meeting but exploring the arcade area. After the meeting I met back up with them for dinner and to make sure they knew what they could do the following day without me being there, as I had to go back for work. They spent the day in Ohori Park and the museum there and had a great time. By the sounds of it, I must visit there myself before the 'year' is out.
Their request for coming to Japan was actually to go across to see Korea because they had heard how close it was from when I went. So as me as their non-Korean speaking guide we went there from Wednesday to Sunday, on the last of my paid leave. The first day was basically in transit, catching the 3 hr hydrofoil ferry to Busan and then catching the train to Seoul. Although there was warnings about hitting a whale, we made it there incident free. Once settled in our hotel we went out for dinner and gladly to me sneaky persistence we had "bulgogi', my favourite Korean food. While Poppy relaxed in the hotel, Mum, Melva, Jetty and I had a little look around the markets areas of Dongdaemun.
The following day we went to Gyeonbukgung one of the main palaces in Seoul. We were in time for the 25 minute changing of the guard ceremony before spending most of the day exploring the grounds and the National Palace museum. As coincidence had it we ran into a man that we had met on the train the day before who had talked to us. Pretty amazing in a city of 10.4 million. After that we headed to the famous Namdaemun Markets. These markets are pure craziness. There are so many people and so much stuff crammed into this area. We bought a few bargains but were soon tired of its intensity. We then headed back to the hotel and relaxed before finding another very nice but cheap restaurant for dinner.

On Friday we went to the War Memorial Museum. I would recommend this place to everyone. I have never seen such as extensive collection of information that is not only informative but interesting. Contrary to the information I was given before going, there is plenty of information in English. Even though I though we would only spend the morning here, we spent the entire day and we still didn't get to see everything. In the museum, they had not only information on the Koreans that had been in the Korea-related wars but from all countries. I had arranged that we would would come on Friday to see a military band performance. I had assumed it was one band playing but it included a display of a traditional music, a traditional military band, traditional swordsmanship, modern military marching band including a drumline performance and a gun drill performance with people from the navy, army and airforce. It was very entertaining. We ended up having dinner at the same place again after not being able to find a different place with a menu that was readable, ie. had pictures. That wasn't too bad considering it was great value for money. Again the four girls went looking at shops while Poppy was left stressing in the hotel thinking he had been robbed only to discover Jetty had moved all their things to a different place. Bit of a worry!

On Saturday, we went to the Insadong area, which was very nice. In hindsight, it would have been nicer to come here than go to the crazy Namdaemun markets, but it's all experience. There was a man there who did beautiful wood carving (see pics) and also a beautiful small gallery where we met the very talented artist. After we headed back to Seoul station for lunch before catching the train south to Busan where we staying the night.
Sunday, we only had the morning and after ruling out the first few possibilities I had of morning we decided to go on a boat ride around the coast of Busan. Unfortunately because of bad weather (too windy - big waves) it was canceled which gave us great enthusiasm for our journey back to Japan. A few people were sick on the hydrofoil on the way back but I was glad we were in a hydrofoil above most of the waves or else I may have joined them.

We headed back to Yukuhashi that night in order for me to work the next day. I hired a car, which mum drove down to Beppu where they got to see the hells of Beppu. Except for a few occasions of getting lost, one time actually finding an unknown castle, they went well by themselves. I think they would have enjoyed it a little better if I had only remembered to tell them how to shut "Mary" up, which is the name they gave to the Japanese female voiced navigation system. Before leaving we had an enjoyable dinner out with my work colleagues. Good times.
I must say if you go to Korea, you must have Pizza Hut! It was so unbelievably good. Not that I eat fast-food regularly, throughout my travel I have decided.... Pizza Hut is to be eaten in Korea, MacDonald's is to be eaten in Japan and KFC chips are to be eaten in Australia!