We've just arrived in Japan from Busan city, South Korea. Can't find wireless apart from monthly plans so we'l just do this offline and upload later when we are home. Narita airport is very impressive, well organised with little metro like buses to transport between lounges. It was easy and the very nice lady from JAL checked us on seated together, Yay!!! We said thank you, thank you, thank you. It's so much easier all together, Wendy and I can support each other and take turns and we don't need to keep disturbing people to go to the loo!
We've left behind Anunghasayo and now it's Konichiwa (don't know about spelling). In Korea Bernard picked us up with Su-Jin, Mum and Dad. We were understandably a bit knackered after leaving Rome in the afternoon, flying to Franfurt, running between planes then changing timezones for Shanghai for a day then onto Korea. We slept in the back of the car while Bernard drove us to the home of the Shilla empire. A clan or part of Korea that conquered the others and took control of Korea 1500 years ago. We visited temples, a palace and burial mounds for the emperors. Falling asleep between sites of interest!
Bernard was a bit dissapointed by our lack of attention when he'd been planning out a unique tour of the history of Korea. We we're interested B but just a bit stuffed up waking up at 4am the first day in Korea and staring out the window watching the streets for any sign of life. The streets look dramatically different from Western cities, to us similar to Shanghai as there were loads of signs and run down shop fronts. There is a different focus in Korea, more about personal interaction rather than looks I think.
Henry and I went to a hot springs pool area in the hotel the last morning in Geongju. We had an interesting experience! We'd been told the night before that the pool opened at 9am so we turned up just after ready for action. We were then told that it opened at 10am so tried to kill time. I thought we'd go in and get ready so we went down into the complex and got changed and had our showers, slowly. My Korean is very limited as you can imagine. We can all now say Hello, Good bye, Thank you and order various food but nothing more. It's hard to remember when it sounds like nothing you've ever heard. Thank you is (Come sum knee da). Anyway, in the Korean style baths everyone is naked (sexes are seperate). Henry said "I was a bit astonished by that" after seeing teenagers washing each other all huddled around. But it's just the way it's done there.
The pools were great with a circular river for children which Hen loved. Many spa pools with high pressure massage pumps, Outside hot baths then one bit with pools with special little fish that nibble on you as you sit there (fishexfolitation I guess). Thankfully that was closed as we would have had to try it.
After 3 days there we all dressed up to go and meet Su-Jin's parents and brother and sister for the first time. We'd been invited to lunch in a traditional Korean restaurant. We were all a little nervous as we didn't know the customs so we were on our best behaviour. It all went very well, we all had presents for the family being a New Zealand tradition. Su-Jin had warned them we were bringing presents as it's not the Korean way and they would be embarrassed if they didn't know. I was a bit embarrassed myself there were so many presents. We'd got some whiskey, there was a sheepskin from Mum, Trinkets from Dad and some other things I can't remember. The food was great, the rice wine was great, and everyone got on very well. We were all as nervous as each other. I could see from Mr Cha and Mrs Chaen's expressions and ways of being that they are very nice caring people. Also they have great kids.
The next day was the wedding and it was a huge cultural experience. The Western ceremony was what I imagine an American wedding is like but even more over the top. Not in a bad way but an interesting way. There were 5 weddings that day at the venue which is a special wedding venue. The dresses are amazing but what made it was the warmth and kindheartness of the people there. Bernard and Su-Jin's wedding was the last so we didn't need to rush. A lot of the ceremonies were over in 15 minutes so no time for anything special.
I was really moved with my little brother getting married. I loved how Mr Cha moved us around by the elbow to stand in line to be presented to the guests formally. I loved how Mr Cha gave Bernard a hug after they were married, (this is a big deal in Korea where showing emotion is not done). I was moved and impressed by Bernard's speech to the guests, in Korean. He showed he has embraced the culture, language and the people, especially Su-Jin!.
It wasn't always easy having 6 adults and 2 children in the appartment but we managed. Thank you for generously putting us all up especially through the wedding time.
Lastly, Busan's thriving fish market. Where you can buy live fish, squid, octopus, eels etc. Henry loved it. He also loved the rats outside picking through the rubbish, that was Bella's favourite part of the day!
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