So far we have been to a cat café and a poo café while in Korea. It was only a matter of time before we added sheep cafe to our list! (Also on the list: raccoon cafe and owl cafe.) While in Seoul one wintry weekend, we stopped by Thanks Nature sheep cafe to defrost over a cup of hot tea. And to pet some sheep!
Not many cities can pull off a building like the DDP, but the ever-so-modern Seoul can. Designed by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, and built over a former sports stadium the DDP is a massive spaceship-like structure that feels as if it was dropped in place by aliens. In places known for traditional architecture, a building like the DDP would feel completely out of context. In Seoul, a city where modernization happened swiftly as if over night — from hanok to high-rise in the short span of 50 years — it fits right in.
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I know I spend a lot of time documenting various trips or weekend excursions but I have found that the posts I most enjoy looking back on are of the normal, everyday things that we did. This weekend was one of the first full weekends this year where we were both at home together for both days. No annoying Sunday drives to the train station to drop/pick up Sly. Just a quiet weekend of doing nothing but relaxing, eating a ton of home-cooked meals, and hanging out with the kitties. My favorite kind of weekend.
If I’m being fully honest, a huge reason why I selected Maple Tree House Korean BBQ was in large part because of its close proximity to our hotel. It took a good amount of effort, most of it mental, to leave the warmth of our cozy, heated room and venture out into the frozen Seoul night in search of something delicious to eat.
“Are you sure you want to go out?” I asked Sly with pleading eyes, hoping for the tiniest hesitation or suggestion that we should order delivery instead. As we walked through the revolving hotel lobby door, the threshold between warm comfort and arctic blast, we knew there would be no turning back.
Seoul in the winter: A brutal, bone-chilling beast. The kind of cold that attempts to freeze one’s eyes open and makes you feel as if your teeth will turn to icicles and make a nice clinking sound, like ice cubes dropping into a glass, as they shatter in your mouth.
To illustrate: I wore a layer of leggings with knee-high socks pulled all the way up, and on top of that wore a pair of jeans, and on top of that a pair of boots. Three layers, two sets of gloves, one thick coat, a scarf wrapped all the way up to my eyes, and a beanie completed the ensemble. Within 15 minutes of walking outside I could no longer feel my legs. They were so frozen that even after returning to the warmth of our hotel room they remained ice-cold and numb for nearly an hour.
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Snowboarding has been at the top of my to do list ever since we moved to Korea, especially since the Winter Olympics will be held here in 2018. We may have forgotten to pack basic home items like a microwave (we still don’t have or use one) but at least we packed our snowboards! Unfortunately, by the time we moved into our new apartment and received our shipment of housing goods last year, the ski/snowboard season was practically finished.
Sly found a good deal for a group day trip to Welli Hilli Ski Resort (I keep wanting to call it “Will Nilli”) over Valentine’s Day weekend and while we aren’t really tour group type people the thought of not having to drive a total of eight hours there and back — like all times we drove to Tahoe — really appealed to us.
Don’t get me wrong, we still woke up early – 3:30 am early – but at least we could sleep on the bus.
A look back at our first Valentine’s Day in 2008, spent in one of my most favorite places in the world: Yosemite National Park. We had been dating for almost a year by that time and were still living on opposite coasts. For my birthday a couple of months prior, Sly gave me my first digital SLR (I still have and use that thing as a backup camera) and I was anxious to go somewhere outdoorsy to experiment. What better place than Yosemite? PS: Note all the tell-tale signs of someone with a new camera: macro photos of water droplets, Ansel Adams-inspired black and whites, reflections, long exposures without a tripod, fast exposures to capture motion, etc. All that’s missing are some close-ups of wine glasses. Oh wait, there’s actually a few close-ups of a mug of hot chocolate. Check!
Most importantly, check out the ORIGINAL S.I.T.H (sun-in-the-hair) photo! Since then we have taken a million or more SITH pics and we have no plans of stopping!
Included are some excerpts from my original blog post.
Sly and I planned our Vday together–weekend in Yosemite with dinner on Vday at the Ahwahnee Lodge. It wasn’t anything we hadn’t done before, but getting away from the city, and having a nice quiet dinner in a low-key atmosphere, really was the perfect way for us to spend the day together. Sly bought me a vintage amethyst heart necklace (the story was that it once belonged to a Vegas showgirl who married a big band leader and collected vintage jewelry pieces like this) that was unexpected and beautiful. We were lounging around in the lodge. I was lying down, watching tv. And next thing I know, there was a necklace dangling over my head. Apparently, Sly kept the necklace in his pocket the entire time, afraid I would somehow discover it on my own while packing things for our trip. I love it, but mainly I love it because it came from Sly.
My gift to him, on the other hand, was pretty stupid. I gave him a book of poems and a little pez dispenser. Continue Reading
A few souvenirs picked up and pilfered along the way. We’re not huge souvenir people to begin with. Knowing my hoarding tendencies we stick with small collectibles like ornaments (or things we can use as ornaments), magnets, postcards, and edibles. Japan was definitely one of those places where I could have bought everything I saw but really, was I ever going to wear a fancy kimono? Not likely. Sometimes I have to repeat to myself over and over, “I don’t need this, I don’t need this.” Of course, that doesn’t seem to apply when it comes to collecting things like receipts, business cards, pamphlets, maps, tickets, and other things most people toss in the trash.
Surprisingly, I had a really hard time finding postcards that weren’t printed in the late 80s (and not cool 80s-era postcards, but ugly 80s-eras postcards) or that were specific to the places I visited. They were also pretty expensive. Maybe I wasn’t looking in the right place? The best souvenir shopping I found was at the airport!
Japanese snacks on the other hand … I wrongly assumed that I would be able to find all the weird varieties of pringles and kit kat in Korea but so far that hasn’t been the case. Next time I visit Japan, I’m bringing an extra bag just for Japanese snacks … and croissants.
And now for a random assortment of photos and GIFs that didn’t fit anywhere else.
My first glimpse of Japan as the plane prepared to land in Fukuoka. I took a train to Busan, flew into Fukuoka, and then transferred to Tokyo Haneda Airport.
At Haneda Airport, burning time while I waited for my SIL to finish up some appointments with the kiddos. I had planned to meet up with her later in the day so I stuck around the airport after landing since the airport had food, free wifi, and shopping. It also took me a bazillion hours to figure out how to buy a SUICA card as none of the machines seemed to accept bills. I went to the nearby 7-11 to purchase a rice triangle (onigiri) and used the change to purchase my subway card.
At the top of a lighthouse in Yokosuka. As you can tell, it was quite windy at the top. I couldn’t resist a selfie. Continue Reading
