Blogger!

Sometimes Blogger really sucks!!!!!!!!

Hrumph!

I want to dance to this song right now, but instead I'm at work working on student progress reports! HRUMPH!!!

Chuseok

Ok, so during the week of Chuseok, I had the opportunity to meet my grandmother and uncle for the first time of my life!

I met my aunt (Uncle's wife)at 상셰 station. My aunt doesn't speak english and I don't speak much Korean...



She read a book...

...I went to sleep on the train.

One hour and 45 minutes later...we arrived in 안산.

There are a lot of Middle Easterners in this area. A short bus ride later, I met some new family



When my grandmother saw me, she grabbed my hands and started to cry a little



We then ate some really delicious food. Kimbap, bulgogi, kimchi, dok, tofu jiggae. They kept commenting on how big I was...I don't know how to feel about that. My grandmother kept feeding me and feeding me. I felt like I was about to explode...

My uncle wanted to drink whiskey with me and was trying to get me drunk! Ha!



Yes, he IS that short. I was like Andre the Giant compared to them. I'm HUGE!

My uncle then had me watch Superman Returns and Mission Impossible 3.

Communicating was tricky. A lot of body language was used. They also were facinated with my Lonely Planet Phrasebook.

It would've been easier if I could speak more Korean than I can. I have to work on that.

It's weird meeting family for the first time. I really didn't go through alot of emotions. I didn't know what to feel at the time. I did know that this would make my mother and grandmother very happy. I was too.

I'll talk about meeting my grandmother for the first time later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Japan

Ok. Here is the post that I promised a long time ago, but never did. I few weeks back I went to Japan to get my VISA. The trip started out shitty because I had a cold. So, during the flight, my ears would not depressurize because of my cold. Let's just say that that is one of the most painful experiences of my life. Pain. The stewardess gave me some candy to help with the problem, but all it gave me was fresh breath. Did I mentioned the immense fuckin pain! So, I land in Osaka, and wander around for a few hours because I was looking for a particular hotel. A Capsule Inn. When I got there, it was pretty cool. You might ask, "Why a Capsule Inn?" Well, how many times could you say that you've been in a Capsule Inn? Ha!







The "room" might be small, but it is actually really comfortable in there. Inside the capsule there even was a TV and a Radio. Fancy! All for about $20.

What can I say about Japan?

It fuckin rocks! There is a very noticable difference between the Japanese and the Koreans. The Japanese really have taken the Western influence and have made it there own. It seemed like a mixture of...Western-Asian-Punk...yeah. Oh, people rode bikes everywhere! I have never seen so many bikes in my life.



Sorry, it's a bad picture, but hopefully you get what I mean.

Here are some other photos:













The reason why I posted the McDonalds pic is to ask the question: Why are there rabbits hopping towards the sandwich? Is there something that Japan and McDonalds is not telling us? Hmm? Hmmm? Hmmmm?



It's Denny's. Enough Said!

Oh, by the way, while in Japan, I figured that I might as well have some sushi while IN JAPAN. I went to a really cool restaurant and had some Tuna Maki and an Asahi beer. Mmm...beer.





This was my sushi chef. We chatted for awhile about the US and Japan. When I left, he gave me MORE sushi as a gift for my first time in Japan! Sweet!



That was my trip to Japan.