Japan Trip!

What an exciting week we had! We had only a 2-day work week. We got the news Monday evening that we would be leaving for Japan on Wednesday at noon. Such short notice! Thankfully it was okay with both schools, since it was our recruiter who made all of the reservations for us.

A couple of plants Nicole got
for Teacher's Day.

Wednesday morning went by fast. Nicole had to go in & do a quick morning lesson & finish her sub plans for the next 2 days. Wednesday was also Teachers Day in Korea. Nicole received: 2 little plants, a red rose, "I love you"/"Thank you" notes, 5 pounds of ginseng, & 1 giant vase of beautiful white orchids for the classroom. She left the ginseng at the school for everyone to share. We are definitely not drinking it. It's supposed to be very healthy for your body & act as a cleanse, but it is beyond bitter. John didn't get to enjoy teacher's day but we hope there are little gifts waiting for him on Monday.

On the KTX!

10,000 yen; approximately 100 USD

We headed to the train station to take the KTX/bullet train from Daejeon to Busan. The train went 250-300 km/h (160-185 mph). The scenery was amazing. Once we got to Busan we were distracted by some beautiful architecture & then realized we needed to get to the International Ferry Terminal soon to check in. After check-in, we exchanged some won to yen & got on the ferry. Three hours later, we were in Japan. Once again, we walked from the terminal to our hotel. It was almost an hour's walk. We finally made it to our hotel around 8:30pm. During the day, all of the discoveries we made & random things we figured out, we would say, "well we know for next time". Knowing that the likelihood of this particular trip happening again is probably minimal. But we did learn a lot of things along the way that could help us in the future.

Right outside of Busan train station.

On the ferry to Japan!

View from our ferry seats.

Japan was fantastic. Our trip wasn't long enough. In the 3 days we were there we played on the beach, saw the Yahoo! Dome, explored a small park, & did a lot of shopping (& bought many things for us & gifts for others). Of course, we also went to the Korean Consulate - the whole purpose for the trip was to get our E-2 visa stamps.

Palm tree in Japan!

Our hotel: Sutton Hotel.
Flags include: Where we're from; Where we currently reside;
Where we were & will return to; Where our dream destination is.

The amount of time we needed to be at the Consulate wasn't significant so we enjoyed getting to do some tourist-y things while in Japan. In our short time there we decided that we like Japan much more than Korea. First of all, there are more social rules in Japan that they follow so they are friendlier. Second, there is high pride in working. Wherever we bought anything (food, clothes, drinks), we were always treated very well & with big smiles. Third, everyone we spoke to also knew a bit of English, at least enough to tell us dollar amounts, sizes, or if we wanted a bag. Fourth, Japan has enforced smoking laws. In every building & on every street & corner there is a designated enclosed area for smokers. Smoking publicly is not allowed. How WONDERFUL is that?! In Korea, we can't walk down our own street without getting a whiff of smoke. Hell, we can't even sit in our own apartment without choking on smoke, especially in the middle of the night. Fifth, Japanese are much better drivers than Koreans. Finally, Japan is just so much cleaner; the air, the streets, we can actually breathe. It is more expensive to live in Japan, but if we were to ever teach English there, we would also be getting paid more.

John has mastered the art of sitting
upside-down!

Some old women were walking by
& clapped at Nicole's handstand.

A few things in Japan that we enjoyed... Japan drives on the other side of the road. Which means they also drive on the other side of the car! We were very thrown off by that. We still weren't used to it by the end of the trip, but it was fun to see. We took a walk on the beach (Seaside Momochi Kaihin Koen) & had fun being gymnasts in the sand. Once a gymnast, always a gymnast! On Thursday evening we went to the convenient store to get some plum wine (because you have to have plum wine in Japan!) When we were waiting at a cross walk, a taxi pulled up for a woman & the door opened with the push of a button from the driver. And then it closed itself too! We were probably too excited about that & then we were wondering why Korea can't do that!?

Poling at Seaside Momochi

Poling at Seaside Momochi

John getting beer out of a vending
machine in our hotel.

In our hotel, we had a giant tub! We had the best showers we've taken in a long time. Our toilet seat was also heated, how nice. Also, when we would take showers, there was a squared area of the mirror that was heated so that it wouldn't fog up & you could still see your face in the mirror immediately after the shower. Such a convenient bathroom we had! We also thoroughly enjoyed watching Japanese commercials. We may not know what they were saying but we were laughing a lot! There was one commercial with dogs in it that made us almost tear up from laughter. Unfortunately we couldn't find the commercial online, but here is a link to a similar one, same brand: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcoqSBIb268. Not quite as funny as what we saw, but same taste.

Hakata Station

It just so happened to work out that our hotel was less than a 10 minute walk from a 10+ story mall. With 2 separate sides. One side was all name brand, expensive stores (Gucci, Tiffany's, L'Occitane...). Then there was the bargain side. Our best friend on Thursday evening & Friday morning. We spent a good two hours shopping on Thursday evening & we each got a few tops & random gifts to send back home to family & friends. We also ate most of our meals at the mall. The top 2 floors & the basement had all kinds of restaurants & fast food places. We had to return on Friday morning because we didn't get to shop at our favorite dollar store: Daiso! It took up an entire floor. We spent 90 minutes in that store alone because it was so big.

What a sign... we saw at the mall.

Friday afternoon we had to return to the Consulate to pick up our visas. Everything went well! Surprise! Immediately after that we were on our way to the ferry back to SK & made it back home late Friday night. But before getting on the KTX back to Daejeon, we enjoyed some Smoothie King & a musical light show right outside the station for Buddha's Birthday. We very much miss having a Smoothie King around every corner of town. It was delicious. And we luckily have found one here in Daejeon that is near where our new apartment will be!

Yeah, visas!

On the ferry heading back to South Korea.

The rest of the weekend we were mentally & physically drained. There wasn't much that brought us outside on Saturday. Sunday we had a few things to do & we ended up going to Eunhangdong (old downtown) for dinner & sight-seeing. Nicole has decided that she is going to spend the rest of her weekends in Eunhangdong because that is how long it will take for us to see all the shopping places. It's fantastic!

Here are some more pictures from our trip to Japan. Enjoy!

Yahoo! Dome & The Hilton

Fukuoka Tower; the tallest seaside tower
in Japan; 234 meters high (768 feet)

Mmmm... plum wine!

Fifty Shades of Grey in Japanese!

Hard Rock Cafe!

Weird bird statue in the park

Zima?! In the 7 Eleven.

Hole in the ground toilet Nicole had to use.

Novelty Wearing Off... Perfect Timing!

Rice cooker!

We got a new appliance early this week... a rice cooker!! Bought it for just 10 dollars & we've been having rice with dinner ever since. It's so easy to use, even if it is all in Korean. We already love it so much! And we found out that you can buy up to a 10kg size bag of rice from the store; that's 22 pounds! But we only got a 4kg. It will still last us a very long time though.

We got a little bored this week. The novelty of our town has basically gone. We have found our pizza place & our chicken place in our neighborhood that we go to for dinner sometimes. We even found the pharmacies & the stationary stores. What we need now is the money & Korean knowledge to venture out to other areas in Daejeon as well as outside of Daejeon! But our boredom has come at the perfect time. Nicole was paid her first full month's paycheck on Friday, we looked at a new apartment in a new neighborhood we are moving into, & we might be going to Japan this weekend!

Nicole got some Jeju chocolate
from a Korean coworker. Tasted
like orange sherbert covered in
chocolate!

Getting paid on Friday made us both really happy. Next month we can start transferring money into our accounts at home & saving more that way. John will be getting paid on the first of every month so he will be getting his first full paycheck in 3 weeks. Now we can legitimately plan trips & not worry so much about having the money! We are beyond thrilled.

The apartment that we looked at yesterday (Sunday) is the apartment that John's school will provide for us. Nicole talked to her boss today about moving & turns out it'll work perfectly! She is not sure how much extra she will be getting per month but it will be something! The apartment we are in now is only a 1 bedroom with a really small kitchen in it. We have our table for 2 & a small refrigerator. There is room for nothing else. Seriously. And no counter-space. The apartment John's school would provide us with has 2 bedrooms. One is as big as our current bedroom & the other could fit a couch & a desk easily. The kitchen is also much bigger with a double sink, more cabinets, & space to put an oven! Bathroom is the same size but we don't have complaints about our bathroom. The distance to Nicole's school is a bit further but it's only an extra 10 minutes by bike. So 25-30 minutes. Same distance for John to his school. We can't wait! We will probably be slowly moving our belongings over the next 30 days.

Hanging out in our current apartment.

Japan for Buddha's birthday! Yes, we are going to Japan for our long weekend but not for Buddha's birthday. We are going to officially get our work visa stamps. Our numbers finally came through & we have to make a quick trip to Japan (mostly paid for by the schools) & then we will be back to South Korea. Maybe we can buy phones here after that so we can contact people we know here without having to get on Facebook. While we are in Japan though, we will be using our time wisely to see some amazing things. Our dates of travel are not finalized yet but will be within the next 24 hours (hopefully!)

Last night we were excited to go to a new restaurant in a different part of town with some friends. The restaurant sells platefuls of Korean pancakes. There was a kimchi pancake, seafood pancake, tofu pancake, egg/sausage pancake, spicy vegetable pancake, non-spicy vegetable pancake, & spam pancake. Between the 5 of us we at 2 large plates & 1 small plate in about 10 minutes (but to be fair, Nicole was the only girl). It was delicious! And a place we will return to another day.

We are thinking about putting a memory foam mattress or bed topper at the top of our list of big things to get. Nicole is turning into an old lady with back problems & hip problems. But good news is that if she needs a hip replacement, it will cost way less here! We don't understand how Asians sleep on these beds (or the floors) every night!

More updates to come soon... everything seems to be changing again! We are moving soon (yet again), we are going to be traveling a bit more, & even John's school is changing curriculums. Which is kind of a bummer. He gets just enough time to get used to what they currently do & then they are changing it at the beginning of June. But it will be better! We feel as if we are in a strange bubble where everything seems to be working out so well but it will get popped soon! We're actually thrown off by things making sense & working out. Especially since we are still paying off our non-refundable flight tickets to China... But Korea has been treating us WAY better!!

John's energy drink went
to the disco! ...with his iPod.

Random facts:
-Korean "police" are about 93% useless
-Our doorbell plays 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star'/'ABCs' tune
-On rainy days, it's tradition for Koreans to make potato pancakes (like latkes) & have mok lee to drink

Celebrating May

John officially started his job! It was all of a sudden too. We thought he had another week or so before he started but on Tuesday evening he was told that he needed to come in to start working on Wednesday. However, Wednesday (May 1) is technically Korea's "Labor Day" so almost nobody had to work... except hagwon teachers. Lucky us! John's school did games on the roof most of the day, though. It was a lot of fun. He taught the students some songs/games we learned from camp & they played 'Duck, Duck, Goose' & many more games. Thursday was a little bit tougher. He is replacing someone at the school who was a terrible teacher & is still going to be there for another 2 weeks. He is also starting in the middle of the semester, which is so difficult. First, he doesn't know how much they've learned or what they know; second, it's even harder because the teacher he replaced didn't go in any specific order & most of what he taught was wrong. But, Friday was a better day thankfully.

John playing games with his kids

We both got thrown in difficult positions. Nicole replaced someone who "ran away" without telling anyone. That put the school in a very difficult position & made many parents angry & the school lost a lot of students because of it. John is replacing someone who was a terrible teacher & was complained about by several parents & many kids were also taken out of the school because of him. Things will get better soon enough for John. School for Nicole has already improved immensely since her first day. It'll just be a very rough road for a couple of weeks.

These kids we teach... they can be just too funny sometimes. John had a little mishap with hair clippers on Tuesday & ended up having to shave his head. When he got to school the next day the kids were calling him Buddha! He went along with it & said he did it for Buddha's birthday. It was pretty hilarious. John also found out that when little boys are bad they get their heads shaved as punishment so his Korean coworkers/bosses were telling him he was a bad boy.
Also on Wednesday, Nicole only had 3 students in her part-time class. She read them a Toy Story book & when one of them saw the alien characters, he pointed to the ceiling & said, "oooooooooooh". Then, while we were coloring, one of the kids was taking about Egypt & India. When he said, "Egypt", another kid was doing his version of an Egyptian dance; when he said, "India", the other kid would do his Indian call (same kid that mocked the aliens). Nicole & her TA were highly entertained even with just the 3 boys.

Maple Bear foreign teachers (minus 1)

Nicole's school went on a field trip on Friday to celebrate 'Kids Day', which is today, May 5. The park her school went to was on an Army Base in northern Daejeon where Army families live. It was beautiful up there & so much room for the kids to run around & play. There were jump-rope races, "pig" races, face painting, bubbles, hula-hoops, & more. Most of the kids loved every minute. At lunch, there was ridiculous amounts of food everywhere. Nicole's kids brought her & her TA coffee & lunch. At the end of the day, Nicole had 3 different things of coffee (after already drinking 1) & 3 containers of food to take home for dinner (after being stuffed at lunch!) It was a great day. And John was excited that we had a whole plate of kimbap to eat when he got home from work.

Beautiful park

Free Friday dinner!

Friday evening we stayed in because we were both exhausted from our work days. We were so excited to get a good night sleep... And then we woke up at 3:30am basically choking to the smell of smoke. When did we finally fall back asleep? When the sun started to come up! Both of us had itchy throats, watering eyes, & were coughing for about 2-3 hours. Ridiculous! We officially make it a point to make vomiting noises &/or yell, "disgusting!" whenever we pass people who are smoking. But on the plus side, there is a possibility that we may be moving to a different apartment!

WHAT?! A 'no smoking' sign exists in Korea?!
We've found our new home!

Flowers are blooming everywhere!

On Saturday, Nicole did her first ever crossfit workout with John & their friend Jude. We're all feeling sore today. After the workout, Jude showed us where our potential new apartment was. The exterior was really nice. We want to see the inside now! But that will be another 1-2 weeks. 
In the evening, we walked around Time World for a little bit, trying to find somewhere to go that wasn't terribly smokey. The only thing Nicole misses about America (besides people, of course): being able to walk into most restaurants & into some bars & down the street without having to hold her breath from smoke smell. Korea is terrible when it comes to smoke. Anyways, we ended up at our friends' house & it was a much better time. We had a lot of fun & got to talk about more what we might do for our summer vacation. Right now it's between Thailand & Japan! Prices will be the deciding factor.

Speaking of travels, in the next 2 weekends we will be going to Japan and/or Seoul! We are really excited. We have a 3-day weekend coming up on May 17th (thank you Buddha's birthday), & we will be enjoying ourselves outside of Daejeon, finally.

Walking across rocks on the river...

...view from the middle of the river!

Sunday was a fun day!! We slept in & then took a nice walk along the river. We ended up going to Expo Park, thinking it would be abandoned because it is closed down. We were very wrong! There were people everywhere! So many pictures we took & it was so much fun. It was very kid oriented with body/face paint, caricatures, balloons, bumper cars, stuffed animals, food, & more! It was entertaining. A few minutes after we left it occurs to us... OH! It's Kids Day! That's why there was so much going on. The park really is abandoned most days, all of the rollercoasters & other rides were shut down, there was just a lot of booths put together to have a fantastic Kids Day over there. 

These things are awesome. Basically two
bicycles connected side by side

Expo Park mascot/character

May Holidays in Korea:

-May 1: Labor Day

-May 5: Children's Day; celebration of childrens personalities

-May 8: Parents Day; Mothers Day & Fathers Day combo where children usually give a gift & red carnation

-May 14: Rose Day; sharing a rose with your significant other

-May 15: Teachers Day; appreciation by students bringing in many gifts for their teacher(s)

-May 17: Buddha's Birthday (date varies based on lunar calendar)

-May 21: Married Couples Day; wouldn't each couple do that themselves on a specific date, like their anniversary?!

-May 27: Memorial Day

(We get only one of those holidays off... Buddha's birthday!)

Krispy Kreme in Korea!