Map View of our Travels

To give you all an idea of where we have been (up to March 21st), below is a map of our travels. Each number represents the day of travel. Click on it so you can actually read it!

Miyajima and Hiroshima - March 21st

The boys are gone and I miss them so much, but I suppose I will finish what I've started and keep blogging about the days spent with them.


In Miyajima, we stayed at a nice quaint inn.



It was run by a motherly old woman. When I called her to make the reservation:


Woman: When will you be arriving at the hotel?

Me: Some time at night.

Woman: Well night time, that's a long time, you have to be more specific, dear.

Me: Well, we'll definitely make it by the last ferry over.

Woman: Well the last ferry, no I think you should aim for the second to last ferry, because what if you miss the last one? In my experience, better safe than sorry.

Me: Yes, Mommm.


And then when we got there:


Me (to Phil and Steven): I bet she's going to say "Why hellooooo. So you did catch the second to last ferry, good gooood."

(Upon us entering) the woman: "Why hellooooo. So you did catch the second to last ferry, good goooood."


So we have a Miyajima Mom now. :)



After we checked out of the hotel, we went to Itsukushima Shrine again for the day view.

Here's me and the boys in front of the big gate:



Phil really loves the deer...



Inside the shrine:



Miyajima is known as one of the three great beauties of Japan. It's not hard to see why, with the shrine beautifully submerged in water when the tide is high.




After a full morning of Miyajima, we ferried back to Hiroshima for the Peace Memorial Park and Museum. To see the destruction of which the impact still continues is sobering, but it is also uplifting to see how Hiroshima has risen from the ashes and remains a city of peace to this day.

The Atomic Bomb Dome, preserved to look as it did just after the drop:



Thousands of paper cranes that are sent from all over the world in the hopes of peace:



Hiroshima before the bomb:



Hiroshima after the bomb:



Statue of Mother and Child in the Storm:



The A-Bomb Dome and Peace of Flame seen through the Memorial Cenotaph:




Personal ranting:
It was a great day, but due to miscalculations with time, things turn ugly for me here. It becomes apparent that I am in danger of not making it back to Chiba in time for my school's graduation the next day. Phil, Steven, and I hurry to the station, and I leave the two boys in a mad rush for the bullet train. I can hear the bell signaling the train's departure when I am going up the escalator, so I drag up my 40-kg suitcase up, somehow making it on. It's good to know I am on my way, but the train is crowded with Friday-night businessmen and travelers, resulting in me standing all the way from Hiroshima to Tokyo -- FOUR HOURS. And then, I realize that the local train to Chiba from Tokyo is not running to my station anymore at that late hour, which forces me to take a taxi from the closest station.

Can we just say... SUCKS?????

Our Hotel Rooms

Per Kenney's request here are few photos of some of the hotels that we've been staying at...

The photos below are from probably our favorite hotel of the trip. The Commodore in Busan, South Korea. Our room had a great view of the Busan skyline as well as the ocean and mountains in the distance.

Below Phil is relaxing in his yukata, sipping a steaming cup of green tea while he reads about our our next days travels. The photo is taken of our room at the Kyoto Station West hotel, it was a bit on the dumpy side but the location was perfect.

Beppu and Miyajima - March 20th

Beppu is famous for its numerous hot springs.



So the first thing we did was to go to a co-ed mud bath. Everyone's naked, but you can't see anything as long as your body is submerged in the water. No photos were allowed for obvious reasons, but let me share some classy lines a 'friendly' fellow bather said to me:

"If you didn't have a boyfriend (referring to Phil or Steven), I would help you put mud on your back."

(When walking over to another pool, he slows down to walk behind me because I am covering my front with a handtowel): "Your backside is all goose-bumpley."

"Oh, there's a mosquito floating near your boobs. I do understand how it feels though."

This is all in Japanese, so when I translated everything to the boys later on, they looked appalled.


Anyway, here's the bus stop you'd get off to go to this place, 別府温泉保養ランド (Beppu Onsen Hoyo Land). I give it 2 and a half stars. The murky water makes it difficult to avoid running into things or notice steps going up/down. Also, the floor can sometimes get too hot because it's all natural. I got some mild burns actually.




After spending an hour locating a meat bun store that one of the books recommended, we were replenished enough to continue our exploration of Beppu.

One of the main attractions of the area is called The Eight Hells -- pools of boiling water that have some kind of unique characteristic like having a vivid color. We managed to hit 3 of the hells.


Hell #1: 海地獄 (Ocean Hell)
This hell has a bright blue color.



Ocean Hell also featured Amazonian lotuses that only grow in hot spring waters in Japan.




Hell #2: 血の池地獄 (Blood-Pool Hell)
This hell has a bright red color.
Here are Phil and me looking devilish in front of the pool.




Hell #3: 龍巻地獄 (Tornado Hell)
This hell spirals up like a tornado. It's not active all the time, so sometimes you have to wait a bit. I think it shoots up for 6 minutes every 40 minutes, or something like that.




After enjoying the hot springs and hells, it was time to move onto Miyajima, a sacred island off of Hiroshima.

Here's the bento box (lunch box) we had on the bullet train:




When we got to Miyajima, we threw our things in our hotel room and hurried to 厳島神社 (Itsukushima Shrine) before the light-up ended at 11 p.m.




The madness that is traveling with Phil+Steven continues...

Cue slow-motion and dramatic music a la Amazing Race

Alright this blog is starting to look very disjointed Memento-style with posts from the past and present being posted in turn, but I guess I'm going to forge on.


The day we were supposed to ferry over to Fukuoka, you all know that our boat had to turn around back to Busan. Here's why:




We get back to Busan around 11 a.m., and the situation is grim. The next high-speed ferry won't leave until 2 days later. The regular speed ferry is already booked. We don't want to ride an over-nite cruiser. So we taxi over to the airport to catch the 4 p.m. flight to Osaka.

We get to Osaka and realize that we are not going to make it down to Nagasaki unless we take a 2-hour taxi ride from Fukuoka. We are forced to cancel our hotel (but thankfully did not have to pay a cancellation fee owing to the graciously understanding hotel staff), and come up with an alternative plan to stay in Beppu, entirely skipping Fukuoka, Kumamoto, and Nagasaki. I guess they will have to wait until the next trip...

We got to Beppu past midnight... a whole day of traveling.

Seriously. Sucked.

Phil: "At least we got to go on the Green car (executive class) of the bullet train."
Steven: "Oh, shut your trap."

A bunch of photos from our journey...so far

Steven and his new friend in Nara, Japan

Steven and Phil at Horyuji Temple in Nara, Japan. We do look a bit photo shopped in don't we?

Us at Todaiji Temple (Home to a really big Buddha) in Nara, Japan. It was a really sunny day!

Phil in front of one of Nara's most photographed spot.


Steven posing "Julie style" at Kasuga Taisha Shrine, Nara, Japan.

Lantern's Kasuga Taisha Shrine

Us at Himeji Castle


Steven in front of The Golden Pavilion.
Kyoto, Japan

At least some of the cherry blossoms are blossoming
Kyoto, Japan

I guess I'm part of the Geisha paparazzi!

Julie's Take on Gyeongju and Busan

We stayed at Commodore Hotel in Busan, which Phil says is now one of his favorite hotels ever. It was nice -- I say four stars.


After a good night's rest, we headed to Gyeongju, about 1.5 hours away. On the train, there was a suited guy selling socks. We were amused when he was giving his sales pitch, but then surprised when people started to actually buy them!



When we arrived in Gyeongju, we headed to Tourist Information, where we were greeted with something like the following (I didn't hear it so not sure of the exact words):

"Welcome to Gyeongju. We commend you on your journey."

Very cute. :)




There were two UNESCO sites, and we went to Bulguksa Temple first, which was of course burnt down by yours truly's people during the invasion.


Serious aside: All of these references to the Japanese invasion are sobering. I wasn't educated in Japan, but I wonder what percentage of the people are aware of the extent of destruction that was caused in the history of Japanese imperialistic ventures.


Alright, back to the temple. Here's a picture of a stone staircase -- the 33 steps represent the path to Heaven.



Here are the boys in front of one of the numerous halls.



Look at all these stones built up into hundreds of mini-towers. I wonder if this is a rock garden?



The boys taking a rest before heading to the second UNESCO site in Gyeongju -- Seokgulam Grotto.




I actually do not have any photos of the grotto (they were prohibited) which had a Buddha statue surrounded by all kinds of deities like bodhisattvas, disciples, and gods.

But I do have an amusing video of Phil and Steven being greeted by hundreds of schoolchildren on a field trip. "He-llooooooo! Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello!..."




Hungry and tired from the hike, we decided to return to the city area of Gyeongju. But when we got off the city bus...


Steven: "Where's the Lonely Planet?"

Phil: "Didn't you have it?"

Steven: "I thought I did..."

Phil: "Maybe it's in the bookbag."

Steven: "(after looking) Nope..."

Phil: "Did you leave it on the bus?"

Steven: "If I had, Julie would have seen it because she was sitting next to me, and she got off after me."

Julie: "Uh... I got off the bus pretty quickly."

All: "... it's on the bus."


But then you know what?


Since we were at the city center (the last stop), Steven was able to find the bus about 200 meters away! It was a mini miracle. :)



Finished with Gyeongju, we went back to Busan for a night tour on a city tour bus.

Phil and Steven, looking excited:



Unfortunately, the mood quickly turned sour when we realized that the bus did not provide headphones for the English translation of all the announcements. (We cursed ourselves for leaving our mp3 players at the hotel.) Plus the bus wasn't stopping anywhere so that we could take photos. The boys were very disappointed. But I was actually kind of happy that we didn't have to do any walking: we've been doing a lot of it!

And I got a pretty video of the night lights of Busan:


Thankfully the bus did stop once to help with the boys' mood. But they still felt this way about the tour:



That's all for Day 3 in Korea.

It`s Been a Busy couple Of Days

Sorry for the lack of updates but here's what we've been doing for the last couple of days.

• After all of the ferries were canceled due to bad weather and rough seas, our only choice was to take a flight out of Busan, South Korea. So we purchased a one-way ticket to Osaka, Japan.


• Once we landed in Osaka we then trained down to the Hot Springs city of Beppu, Japan and went to bed.


• The next day we visited an authentic Japanese Onsen (Japanese Bath.) I'll let you all look up what an Onsen is...and you can use your imagination.


• We also went to what is called the Hells, which are big boiling pools of water.


• Later that evening we trained and ferried to the city of Miyajima and ran down to it`s famous gate to take photos. Very beautiful!


• The next morning we explored the beautiful island of Miyajima. Phil loved the deer.


• The rest of the day we spent in Hiroshima. We had a great meal at of all places a Spanish restaurant. The rest of the day we spent visiting the A-bomb museum and Peace Park. The museum and park are situated at the epicenter of where the a-bomb was dropped.


• That night Julie left for home, and Phil and I went on to Osaka where we spent the night.


• Today (Saturday) Phil and I went to the city of Nara, which was one of the old capitals of Japan.

part 2 coming soon!

Julie's Take on Seoul - Day 2

When you're power traveling with Phil and Steven, there is no time for blogging.
I have left the two in the Kansai area of Japan (yes, we have made it to Japan) in order to come back for my school's graduation.
So I'll get you all up to speed one post at a time.



We had a slow start on day 2 of Seoul. (Yes yes, I was the main cause.)
As a result, we only had 5 minutes to walk around Bongeunsa Temple.



Then we rushed off to meet Phil+Michael at the school they work at for a tour.
Here's Steven brushing up on his Hamlet soliloquy.



Can you tell what that is that we are holding?



It's a friggin' Oscar, people! One of the directors at Phil+Michael's school was awarded for making a documentary.


It was so fun holding that thing. Quite heavy! Those actresses aren't just acting like they're having a hard time holding it up with their skinny wrists.

Here's Steven's acceptance speech.




After the tour, Phil's assitant Cindy took us to a yuuuuummy Korean BBQ place. We didn't have to do any work. The BBQ lady cooked, we ate. She cooked, we ate. Mmmmmm.




With our bellys full, Phil, Steven, and I decided to go back to that temple to finish seeing everything.

Here's Phil looking serene in front of the tallest Buddha statue in Korea. The marble floor is where meditators can sit and empty their minds. Phil and I sat for about 5 minutes. Very peaceful.




After quieting our minds as much as possible with a 5-min meditation, we decided to go on a walking tour that one of our books recommended.

Walking makes Julie hungry. No worry, stall lady with yummy goodness to the rescue; we had some pot stickers.




Now all along the walking tour, I was trying to meet up with one of my grad school friends Liz, who happened to be working in Seoul. After a couple hours of missed meetings, dying phones, and general confusion, we finally were able to find each other near Namdaemun market.




After about an hour of shopping, we parted ways with Liz and started walking towards Seoul Tower. This walk was a b1tch! We had to hike up, up, up... what was the guidebook thinking including a fricking tower on a mountain on a walking tour? (We didn't have to walk all the way up, but even the walk to the base of the mountain was very steep.) And to top it all off, when we got to the cable car that would take us to the top , there was a sign...

"The cable car will not be running from March 10th to the 21st. We are sorry for the inconvenience."

...

So we took a taxi.

Dumb tower...



But hey, it was a nice view.



And we got a fun shot with an overhead mirror.



And they had a funky laser show on the tower itself.


It's a nice tower... just don't go when the cable car isn't running. In fact, just take a bus up!



After a long day of walking, it was time to move location and get a good night's rest. On to Busan!