Japan and South Korea

July 18, 2016

Japan and South Korea

Just in case you don't think I'm traveling all the time, and so you don't get jealous of my life... know that some weeks I just sit around my apartment... and sleep. Like today. And I see pictures of my married friends, and friends with babies, and I wish my cat was a baby (: But I am truly grateful for the life God has given me, the interesting places I get to see, the people I meet, and the miracles.

Last week, I visited Fukuoka, Japan and Seoul, South Korea. I picked Fukuoka because there is an LDS temple, and it was basically free to fly there. I was only there for a couple of days, but loved the sweet, polite people and the beautiful, cultural city. Here are a couple of things I did and some random pictures.

1. Saw several shrines
2. Walked through the Fukuoka castle ruins.. which is more ruins than castle, but in a more green area of the city
3. Went to the LDS temple
4. Ate ramen and udon noodles
5. Ate a delicious bakery for breakfast every morning
6. Found missionaries in the street and had a missionary experience with one of the workers at the hostel
7. Went to Robosquare and the BEACH!
8. Got sunburned at the beach
9. Woke up at 4:00 am the last morning to go see the Hakata Gion Yamakasa festival races where men carrying large shrine/floats race 5K through the streets of Fukuoka.

Fukuoka Castle ruins

Fukuoka Tower

Students in Japan all wear uniforms to school. And they love robots apparently (:

Streets packed to see the racers

Runners go so fast, all the pictures are blury. But the carry these heavy shrine/floats, and they rotate who is carrying it.

After Fukuoka, I flew to South Korea, and my first stop was the LDS temple there. I was lucky that this trip I had no major disasters and no phone problems - BUT - right after leaving the temple, my shoe broke! It was so broken, that I couldn't walk with it, so I walked through the streets with one only one shoe on, and found a store where I bought cheap flip flops. It was hilarious!

I'm grateful that I've been able to visit four temples in Asia now. My original goal was to get to at least one, but I've been able to go to others, and I've been able to hear the ordinances of the temple spoken in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and even Thai. Same truths taught in all the temples in all languages. And there is such a bond between members of the church - even when I'm so far from home, I meet new friends in the temple and feel like family, even though we can't communicate with words.

After the Temple and buying flip flops, I met my friend Brad Meehan. Brad and I were interns in Washington, D.C. with BYU's Washington Seminar back in 2009. Currently he lives outside of Seoul and teaches English. He's been there a couple of years and is rocking it. So grateful he was able to show me around the city this weekend. We got delicious Korean BBQ for dinner, then mango bingsu for dessert (my favorite dessert in the world now) and then went to a dog cafe! WHAT! Animal cafes are really popular in Seoul, so I had to experience one.

Brad goes to an orphanage once a month to have English lessons and play with the kids there, and on Saturday I was able to join the group he had organized to go. The kids were super funny, and we had a great time. I'm glad that the state of the orphanage we went to is in much better shape than the orphanages I've been to in Haiti. After that, Brad, his friend Haley, her cousin Lisa, a guy named Chris and me all went to Mexican food for lunch. BUT before lunch, we got ice cream while we waited for Lisa and Chris to get there. And then when we were done with lunch, we decided we needed more ice cream. And then, I found a chocolate-stuffed pancake shaped like a pile of poo that was absolutely delicious. Koreans just have great, silly street food like that. Everything is so cutesy there. Later we saw an old palace near what is kind of like Seoul's version of the national mall that had monuments of famous South Korean leaders. And we also visited a Buddhist temple where we witnessed a monk leading a worship service. That was a sweet experience to see these dedicated people praying to God for guidance in their lives.

Finally my weekend in SK ended with a pizza party at the home of an LDS family that lives in Seoul. They weren't there, but they let the young single adults have a party while they were gone, and it was fun meeting new people and eating pizza of course.