OK, so that title is a bit deceiving. We had a LAYOVER in Japan! Hehe! However we were very excited about this opportunity to have a bowl of Undon with tempura shrimp & veggies. Hubby found this little restaurant in the international section of the airport and has been telling me about it for over a year. Every time he stops over in Japan he eats here. And let me tell you, it is YUMMY! If you ever find yourself at Narita airport on a lay over, go find this noodle place, it is very close to the McDonalds. (Sorry, I would give better directions, but that is all I remember.) So, we couldn't stop there.....since we were in Japan I felt we needed to have sushi. Now, I don't care if we are in an airport, my thoughts are that any sushi in Japan (yes, even at the airport) is better than sushi anywhere in the US, or even Korea. And I was right. Hubby was a bit disappointed in the sushi because it wasn't up to "Japan" standards, (which I agree) but he needs to get over it, it was still super yummy (and way better than anywhere else - and he calls me a food snob). If I ever have the choice of eating sushi in the states, or in the Narita airport, I would totally pick the airport. After we finished our eating tour of the Narita airport, we boarded the airplane for the next leg of our trip....16 more hours to Houston...
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This write up starts up by saying..."The first theme cave of Korea..." Quite honestly, this is the first theme cave any of us had EVER seen! This was the last thing we had scheduled to do on our long weekend; we had almost decided not to tour this cave. Our thought was "if you have seen one cave, you have seen them all". Right? Wrong. I am SO glad we decided to drive on and drag our overly tired children through this amazing cave. It started off on a tram of sorts taking us UP the mountain. We used the 'last toilet'. We thought this cave experience would be another of the same - guided tour, they turn off the lights at some point to show you how dark it is. Blah, blah, blah.... Instead, this was a self guided tour and we felt like we were on a tour at Disney World! We always enjoy a little 'Konglish'. OK, this is great - I don't think there is another place on this earth where you can be in the middle of a cave and get a phone call. Look at that, I have ALL my bars!! OK, this is great - I don't think there is another place on this earth where you can be in the middle of a cave and get a phone call. Look at that, I have ALL my bars!!
The 'natural' cave part of this tour was amazing. "The natural cave is the biggest cave in Asia. There are natural cave formations comprised of stalactites and stalagmites in interesting shapes such as the Virgin Mary and the Buddha. " We were in awe. I wish I could have taken a picture that would do this place justice. The natural cave was at least as big as 3 football fields, maybe more. After scaring our children for life at the Nan Hyang Ro Won, we decided we had better take them for a little culture at the Arirang Theme Park (actually we accidentally ended up here thinking it was the 5 Day Market). This place wasn't that exciting, but we made it exciting.... Jeongseon is a working town, remember all the pictures of the people working in the fields from the rail bike blog? Well, they sell all their stuff at the 5 Day Market. The 5 Day market happens every 5 days, on the 2nd, 7th, 12th, 17th, 22th, 27th of every month but it is open every day. Makes sense, I know. Anyhoo - it was not totally what I expected, but things were MUCH, MUCH cheaper here than in Seoul. Here are a few pictures from the 5 Day Market, (we went on the 10th, so it was not really open). ?
O I N K! We often say this when we see something we normally do not see in the states, or anywhere else for that matter...O I N K ~ It stands for Only IN Korea!
Nan Hyang Ro Won is one of the most O I N K places I have seen! Are you ready for this? I copied the next paragraph right from this website. I did not correct their spelling or writing. This is a great example of 'Konglish' .... hold on tight as pictures will follow! ;-) "In the past people displayed a tone which look like a woman's vagina. Shortly after the housewives stated cheating on thier husbands. Then people put another phalic shaped rock beside the woman's rock and the local men's peace came back. This story sounds like a fairy tail but it it really happened. There is also a park for stones located at Na Jeon station, Buk Pyong - myoun, called " Nan Hyang Ro Won ". Once you enter this small park you will see interesting rocks most of them look like a penis or vagina. Some of the mail rocks are very majestic. Two of the femal rocks are called grand daughtor and grond mother. The Grand mother rocks a expecially interesting because the grand mother rock has a huge hole. When poeple come through it, it look like a mmother giving birth. Till last year only a few rocks were there. These rocks were discovered in different parts of the city from 1971. At that time it was believed that if women touched the vagina rocks they would cheat on thier husbands to counter this, poeple curried vagina rocks in. But after that there werw many car accidents and local poeple getting sick with no reason. So the people dug up the vagina rock again. But Jeong Seon Province still wanted to keep thier wives from cheating, so they brought in the penis rock. Meanwhile local people thought if the vagina rock and penis rock were together then it would keep Yin and Yang in harmony. At first local people worried that something bad would happen when the penis rock came in. But nothign came of it. Local women don't have extra-marital affairs even though they touch the vagina rocks. Man's and Woman's energies are said to gather here. Many couples come and pray for their marriage, babies and their bealth. Tourist take pictures of those rare shaped rocks. This spot is becaming a tourist hot spot." I read online about this cool waterfall...& the picture on this site is beautiful. Really, click; go look at what at is online. This is what we found. Seriously, there is a waterfall behind me! Back at the pension we went to the 'beach' where we had tons of fun! For some reason we are attracted to streams. We skipped rocks here; Hubby is excellent at skipping rock! And we played on the beach and in the stream. Inevitably someone always ends up very wet when we do something like this, but that just makes it more fun! On this trip Boy 1 started building a rock bridge out to a little 'island' in the steam, eventually everyone pitched in to help. I enjoyed sitting back watching while all the kids work together. Several times I thought to myself, how great this was as I watched my children all working together without fighting or squabbling. I can't tell you how much joy this day brought me. The next morning Hubby and I woke up early and headed out for a hike. Boy 3 VOLUNTEERED to stay in the pension with his younger siblings while we hiked. (Anything to get out of hiking!) It was such a nice morning to be hiking with the one I love. As we walked we noticed how quiet it was and we talked about how 'this' is how it was going to be when the kids were off on their own. (Not that we are rushing things.) But then reality hit and we realized we would be MUCH OLDER when the kids had moved on and how ONE of us (me) would be pushing the other person (him) up the mountain in a wheel chair! This is the trail we followed, and if you look closely you will see our tour guides ~ 3 dogs that live at the pension guided us up the mountain. I love the foggy effect.... Sometimes we find the oddest things while hiking..... After our hike we went back to the pension, packed up and headed out to our next destinations, Nan Hyang Ro Wan, some place we thought was the 5 Day Market, the 5 Day Market & Hwa-am Cave!
But first, here we are in some rice paddies! Some of you may be wondering what a pension is. I like to describe it as a bed and bed and breakfast, without the bed or the breakfast. Here are a few pictures of our pension... Although I am very thankful for a western toilet, please take note of the shower....see it? It is right there, to the left side of the photo - look up on the wall to the left side of the mirror, between the mirror and the cabinet -. Oh yes, that is right it is right there! Also notice the sink for brushing your teeth and washing your hands? That's right; it is in the picture above! The sink is in the KITCHEN! No sink in this bathroom! Seriously, I'm was just happy to have the toilet! Here is our room when our beds are made - Isn't this fun? This is about as close to camping as I like to get, and let me tell you after a night of sleeping on the floor with 6 people in the room you really do feel a bit like you were camping! The first thing you need to know when staying in a pension or a hotel in Korea is that you really should bring your own pillows. Trust me on this one. They have pillows like sandbags in many places. The next thing you should know is to pack like you are going camping. I always take a roll of toilet paper with us, we didn't need it this time, but you never know. You also want to bring food that your kids will like to eat, because sometimes you just never know. Our kids love Korean food, but it was nice having breakfast in the room. The other thing is take some sort of coffee with you. We take the little instant Korean coffee packets everywhere we go now and this time I actually bought some of those cold Starbucks drinks and stuck them in our cooler this time and I must say, they came in quite handy! Oh, and you can't forget the napkins. Korean really have something against napkins and papertowels ~ you can rarely find them, and when you do they are tiny ~ just take your own! I would also suggest bringing handheld video games as well as a portable DVD player, and of course bring some games to play! If you do all of this you are sure to have a great time! Don't forget to bring your own cocktails like we did, or you might just get stuck with what they have at the local convenience store, like this "House Wine" that cost all of 2,000 won, it taste 2,000 won good as well... We took this picture for my MIL - don't you own this blanket? And a few pictures from outside the pension. Oh, one more thing, the owners of the pension spoke no English, and we speak no Korean. Thank goodness for our friend that booked for us! We had a great time here! Stay tuned for our hike and building of a rock bridge....
The main reason we went to Jeongseon was to ride the rail bike! What is a rail bike you ask? "It's a pedal powered vehicle built to run exclusively on a disused railway track." (Their words, not mine.) Back in the day Jeongseon was a large coal producing town, but due to the decline in the coal industry Jeongseon found itself with empty tracks. The people in the area didn't want to see the tracks go to waste so they concocted the 'Rail Bikes', and I am so glad they did! This was a great day to hang out with the family! To make a reservation you need to go to the website listed above, but you will need to plan WAY in advance as they only make 50 reservations for each day on line. If you want to go and you are not planning your trip in advance (like us) you will need to arrive at 8AM the day you want to ride to make your reservation for later in the day. This is the part that stressed me out....."What if they are full? What if I come all this way and I don't get to ride?" Well, I need to relax. (Which I find hard to do.) Now, I don't think I mentioned this part - my Korean friends booked everything for us - including our pension, which they were not going to make a reservation for, we were just supposed to show up...I will get to that in another blog. And they, along with Hubby were the ones telling me not to worry - everyone will all get to ride. In fact, my friends left their house in Suwon at 4AM so they could arrive at the rail bikes by 8AM to make our reservations! (They were also going - a total coincidence.) We didn't leave our house till 6AM. OK, OK, on to the bike ride! A couple of things you should know if you plan to do the rail bikes. First off - If there are more than 2 of you, buy the 2 seaters. You can connect the two seaters together with a bar and all ride together. We didn't know this, so myself, Boy 1, Boy 3 and Girl were WAY far away from Hubby and Boy 2, so we didn't get to enjoy this together as a family. On the flip side, Boy 2 and Hubby did get some nice one on one bonding time. Secondly, one person can pedal an entire bike, so no need to worry about people that don't pull their weight - there is no work out involved in this at all. And the third thing I would like to mention - if you go in the fall, take jackets or blankets!! This ride gets cold especially for the little people! OK, here we go.... At the end of your bike ride, you can get a bite to eat in this big fish made out of an old train car. (There are actually 2 big fish.) Then you ride back on a train that is jam packed full of people! While you are riding the train is pulling the bikes back to the start location. The rail bikes are so much fun! At one point Boy 1 said "Mom, this is SO much better than hiking!" (And I thought he liked hiking! ;-)
Hubby is a little more adventurous than I am. Well, maybe not more adventurous, but more spontaneous - he is a fly by the seat of your pants kind of guy, where I need to have a plan, and I want the plan laid out, day, by day, hour by hour on what we are doing, how we are getting there and so on. This weekend was more of a 'Hubby' style weekend, as I didn't have much control over the situation. Several months ago my friend (she is Korean) told me about an adventure she and her family went on, they went to Jeongseon and rode the rail bikes and toured a cave. I decided while talking to her that this is something our family would love to do, we just had to find the right weekend. That weekend was Columbus Day weekend! Here we are at the beginning of our road trip....we got the kids out of bed at 6AM, threw them in the car and started driving. Hubby is always the navigator and I am the driver. (I can't navigate a fly out of the house, much less a trip 4 hours away by car in a foreign country....) After about an hour into our trip everyone was hungry & needed to go potty so we stopped at a rest stop for food and a toilet. (We had the children get dressed before we took them in.) Some of you that have been reading this blog for a while may remember that I have a thing for taking pictures in bathrooms....well, it has rubbed off on Hubby, this picture is courtesy of him: The other thing that has rubbed off on some of us is the Korean style breakfast! A nice hot bowl of (fish) noodles! However some of us (the three little people) can't hack the noodles for breakfast just yet, so they had Dunkin' Donuts. Korea really is a beautiful country. I think we went through at least 10 tunnels before we go to Jeongseon. Hubby enjoyed tormenting the kids in the tunnel. He would pause the TV while going throug them, telling them he didn't want them to "miss the tunnel". He's a freak and the kids will need therapy because they will have a fear of going throug tunnels when they become adults! More to come soon.....
Japan is the cleanest country I have ever seen. The streets shined - no joke. All the shop keepers were out sweeping the side walks, and cleaning their windows. Everything in this town was so organized, it was unbelievable. You should have seen the food at the food markets..so orderly. I think this country has a serious OCD problem, but I loved it. Here is a picture of 'underground' shopping. Bicycle parking is EVERYWHERE. And most people travel by bike....check out her shoes. People here LOVE their *little* dogs. We went into one store that was all dog...they had dog clothes, dog strollers, dog carriers, dog cribs, I must say, it was out of control. They even have special spots to put your dog while you go into a store. While on a tour, we happened upon this traditional Japanese wedding. My MIL LOVES the Japanese Kimono, so I took a few pictures for her. I thought she was going to cry during this wedding, even though she didn't know anyone involved. And here she (my MIL) is being fitted for her very own kimono. My favorite sushi chef while in Japan..... The sushi was to die for....this plate of tuna sashimi was my all time favorite!! The sake wasn't too shabby either! We had some good times and great laughs on this short weekend trip to Japan. The things I will remember about Japan are: 1. How clean it was was 2. The fantastic sushi 3. And the shoes…I will leave you with a few shots of some of the shoes…… No matter where my travels take me, I always seem to find a little bit of Texas.
Did I mention how expensive things are in Japan? If not, this is me telling you.....EVERYTHING in Japan is EXPENSIVE, I knew this from the beginning, well, I thought I did anyway. This picture is of me in front of our 3 star hotel. I am spoiled; I'll be the first to admit it. I like to stay in nice hotels when given the chance. We started off looking at 4 & 5 star hotels. HOLY CRAP!!! After sticker shock, we moved our sights to 2 & 3 star hotels. We settled on this 3 star hotel, at a whopping $200 USD per night, oh, but don't worry, breakfast was included, and a mighty tasty breakfast it was (not). See those nice twin beds? They are hard as rocks, don't try to plop down on them, you might break a bone. Don't even get me started on the sand bag pillows. The bathroom.....oh, the bathroom.... Need I say more? They did leave this cute little note for us.... At least we could buy beer from the vending machine down the hall!
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AuthorProud Army wife and mother to 4 wonderful children. I love to cook, travel, work out and scrapbook life’s adventures when I find the time. We just got orders & are heading back to the states in March 2010. I'm bummed that our time has been cut short, but proud of Hubby for the reason why. Archives
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