Saturday, November 25, 2006

Caitykins: Long-Lost Sister

She's here (or was), she's cute and she gave us a great time while we had her here with us. Caitlin "the Bacon", a nickname which doesn't even rhyme but which was coined by the brother years ago and never lost its weird charm, came to grace our home with her presence and artistic flair (and her shaved head, too). We loved every moment of it.














But did she??




















Ahh, that's better. Yep, I think she held out.














Our first stop that week together was Changongeung Palace (?). If you're able to zoom in on this puppy, you'll notice the startling resemblance my sister bears to Wentworth Miller's character on Prison Break. In a very effeminate and complimentary way, of course.














We made a really dumb mistake one night and all piled into one elevator so's we could head out for something to eat. You can't see the other half of the elevator, it was eleven of us total. Well, we made it to the 1st floor from the 8th, but then the doors wouldn't open... we banged on the doors and yelled, and our security guard came and saw... eleven white people. I stupidly smiled a face of apology, face against the window, and then without warning our elevator started going up and up and up and we were all freaking out thinking, what if it falls and we crash and we all break our legs!? Actually that would be pretty funny, a hospital room full of foreigners with body casts... morbid. It stopped on the 5th floor and we were able to get out of there. But now, and sadly, our old elevator gives a little "tap, tap" sound whenever we go up like every 2nd floor or something. Actually I haven't noticed it in a little while so maybe it's healed itself.













Next up on our list was Soraksan, the famed mountain region in S. Korea that boasts of fantastic rocky craigs and formations. We headed out perty early in the morning Sunday after taking a psychotic ride through the mountains on an otherwise empty bus for four and a half hours Saturday night... if it weren't for the driver's sheer steering abilities in the face of no brake use, our trip would have been hello ravine x 400 on the switchbacks. The only two other people on the bus fell out of their seats at one point. But it was all worth it in the end.

































Well, that's all the pictures I can fit on so far, so I'll just have to create another post! Darn blog thingy!! We did enjoy Soraksan in all its fall beauty, however, and can hardly wait to show some more of our pics. As the three of us are mountain people by nature, we brought our only pairs of beaten up shoes and attempted the waterfall walk, a sharp contrast to the other hike we heard about that went up to one crazy peak where people had to use old ladders and in some cases, rock climbing gear to traverse the peaks of glory. But we did take the gondola up to see some fandidlytastic views of the mountains and of the ocean below. Woo hoo!

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Some more Tokyo shots...

Really, what night would be right without some amazing sushi and cake? Well, we just couldn't let these pics go un-blogged...

That would be fatty tuna, whitefish, and oh yes, horse.

The loverly dudes got Tomoe and I a birthday cake, which was by far the tastiest cakely treat I've had since being 'across the sea'. It was delcious and quickly consumed with chopsticks.




We totally challenged it to a battle of the 'who can eat who the fastest' and dude, it lost bad.


And finally, the loverly ladies and dude: Yuika, Atsushi (boy in back) Manami, Tomoe and Misato. You guys rule.