Gratitude

As I walked home from school today (yes, it took a whole 4 minutes) I was overcome with feelings of gratitude for all of the wonderful things present in my life in Seoul. There have been no major revelations or happenings...it is more a collection of small blessings that have resulted in these warm fuzzy feelings. Here's what I'm grateful for:

• A low key, but satisfying week of teaching and learning in all of my classes
• The transition from summer to fall--the temperature is dropping and the humidity is finally gone! I can't wait to see the leaves start changing!
• A trip to Costco that resulted in a fridge and freezer full of food I can eat, including lots of awesome fresh fruit!
• Time to read and finish a good book ("Without Reservations, the travels of an independent woman" by Alice Steinbach--it was a fun read for a traveling girl like myself!)
• The arrival of my Amazon.com order--two new books and a movie!
• Emails from family members--nothing like a little support from people who love you!
• A postcard arrived that I sent from Japan to remind myself of the amazing experience I had during Chusok
• Stumbling across some silly photos taken with my webcam in Japan where I connected with an old friend and made a few new ones

Fun with Masae and Kahori

Trying out the fish-eye function:)

• A little extra time to go out exploring in the neighborhood
• A few fun finds for my apartment that are making the place feel more and more like home
• Wonderful colleagues and students, including a group of seven fun-loving freshman ladies that I have the opportunity to disciple this year (we spent today's time making prayer journals for the year and it was such fun to see the girls release a little stress and enjoy spending time together)
• The prospect of more incredible travel adventures to come
• A hair appointment scheduled for this weekend (small victories)
• Two full days to rest, explore, and re-charge before another busy week at SFS!

Although I am tired, I am flooded with feelings of contentment and I know that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. As I get ready to head off to bed, I thank God for all of these amazing blessings and send up prayers for all of the wonderful people in my life. Goodnight!

Celebrating the Harvest

Since I returned from Japan, I have spent my time in Seoul doing "everyday" sorts of things...laundry, grocery store, planning lessons, you know the drill. By Friday night most of my friends had returned from their Chusok vacations so we decided to plan an outing on Saturday evening to celebrate. I spent Saturday morning at Dongdaemun market, exploring three buildings filled with fabrics, beads, bedding, and tons more crafty "stuff". The whole excursion became overwhelming after a few hours, so I headed home to rest up for the evening.

The gate at Dongdaemun

Kristen, Misty, Rebecca, Nicole, and I met at 5:30 and walked down to Sinchon to eat dinner. In trying to decide where to eat we came across a sign for a restaurant called...."Restaurant". We figured, "What the heck" and took the elevator up to the 14th floor. We ended up eating in our own little room, separated from the rest of the diners, and had a great view of the neighborhood as the sun set and the lights came on. The food was mainly Italian (yay for me) and I had my first margherita pizza in over a year without getting sick! By the time we finished eating it was getting late, so we hopped on the subway and headed for Seoul Forest.

Our plan was to go to the Drum Festival to see percussion acts from all over the world. Armed with only a city map we somehow managed to get to Seoul Forest and find the stage where we were treated to over an hour of incredible music performed by groups from Mexico, France, and Korea. By the time the show wrapped up it was getting cold, so we hurried back to the subway and headed for home. On our way back to campus we decided to stop for dessert and tried out our local Beans & Berries which turned out to be an excellent choice (think frozen yogurt, waffles, and berries). What a fun way to wrap up an awesome week of vacation!

The drum festival stage in Seoul Forest...they go all out!

Other festival goers

Just for you dad, an awesome drum solo (plus I'm learning to use video)!

The grand finale...a huge group of dancers and drummers performing traditional Korean music

The start of the finale performance

A reflecting pool at Seoul Forest

Our delicious desserts at Beans & Berries

My Last Day

Today was my final day in Japan and our plan was to stay local to explore Okayama. Hiroe, Masae's sister, joined us once again and we set out. Just a few minutes down the road from Masae's mother's house we reached our first stop, the Bitchu Kokubun-ji Temple. The five roofed temple makes a lovely silhouette against the sky and is surrounded by rice fields. This was a short stop along our journey, and after walking around the temple and covering the small grounds, we got back in the car and moved along.

There is a great bike path that can be followed through the Kibiji district in Okayama...next trip maybe!

Rice fields everywhere!

The striking five roofed temple

Photo from the temple grounds

This temple is over 200 years old!

Close up of the wood structure

There are Japanese tourists everywhere...even in Japan!

Our second stop was the Kibitsu Shrine (yep, there are a lot of these in Japan). As we explored the shrine, Masae told me that she had never been beyond the main building of the shrine—that meant it was time for a little exploring!

There are always a ton of stairs at the entrance to every shrine we have visited! Oy!

The cool entry way

Where we left our offering to the gods

The famous profile of the shrine's main building

Seeing Okayama from the shrine site

We came upon a gorgeous garden and waterfall, complete with a koi pond, and decided this was a perfect spot to take some photos and rest for a minute. Kahori was entranced by the large fish and proceeded to inch forward toward the pond so she could peer inside, all the while dragging her grandma by the hand to follow. I couldn’t help snapping a photo of her once she succeeded in getting close enough to see the fish.

Isn't this amazing?!

Koi pond

Masae and me

Kahori examining the koi pond

We continued our tour of the shrine by following one corridor after another. Walking through each passageway was really cool because of the way the pillars are aligned. Eventually we came across a small wooden building with smoke coming out of the window frame. Stopping to read the informational sign, we learned that this was a special type of purification room that we weren’t able to enter.

One of the many passageways we explored.

Details...

At this point I wasn’t really sure where we were in relationship to the parking lot, and I don’t think the others did either, so we just continued on our exploration. Across the road I spotted a pond with a fountain surrounded by more small structures, so off we went. We had found a little courtyard of sorts, which ended up leading us back to the car.

A fun discovery

Kahori peeking over the bridge rail

The ride into Okayama city was longer than I expected and I was thrilled when Hiroe pulled the car into the parking lot of an adorable bakery. Once inside I was overwhelmed by the selection of delicious baked goods. I ended up following Masae’s mother and choosing some of the same pastries she had selected. My favorite by far was the panda roll…it was super yummy! I snapped a few photos before we left and got myself in a bit of trouble with one of the workers. Oops! Stupid American tourist.

The inside of the bakery

Tasty choices

Those stinking cute (and delicious) panda and koala rolls

Masae wanted to take me to see her apartment in Okayama, which happened to be close by, but when we parked in front of the building she realized that she had left her housekeys at her mother’s house—it was a funny moment! Since she was determined to get in, we tracked down a spare set of keys from the rental company and went back. She had told me that her apartment was very small, but I was surprised at how little space she has to share with her husband and daughter. I have a fairly small one bedroom apartment in Seoul, but hers was about half that size! We sat down in the living room and she showed me her wedding video. It was such a lovely moment seeing how happy she was at her wedding. Eager to keep us moving, Masae grabbed a few more photo albums for later and herded us back to the car. By this time we were all hungry so we stopped for sushi (two times in one week, what a treat!) at a restaurant with the longest sushi conveyor belt in Okayama. I chose some of my favorites from the night before and was coaxed into trying a few new concoctions, which were delicious!

The rest of our afternoon was spent in downtown Okayama to hit the sights from my guidebook. Hiroe dropped us off at the entrance to the Korakuen Gardens--they are supposed to be the third most beautiful in all of Japan. Masae, her mother, and I proceeded into the gardens and spent the next half hour following the walking paths from one end to the other. We stopped to visit the cranes, admire the landscaping, and take a few photos amongst the peaceful scenery. Masae told me about her friend who had gotten married and had her reception at the gardens. Tomorrow night the gardens will also be the site of a moon festival to celebrate the harvest moon. When we came to the opposite end of the garden we crossed over the river on a bridge and went straight to Okayama castle.

During the new year celebration, the cranes are let out to roam the garden.

One side of the pond

And the other...

Traditional boathouse

A cool view of the garden

Heading toward Okayama Castle

The castle was destroyed and rebuilt within the last two hundred years, but the structure is still beautiful and intriguing. The three of us hiked up to the top level to start our tour and learned about palace life as we descended. We saw a group of guys taking pictures in some sort of vehicle and Masae decided we should do the same—oh the fun of traveling! Sadly we arrived too late for me to be dressed in a kimono and photographed, but that will give me something new to do with my family when we come back in the summer.

The view of the castle from the front

The city of Okayama

An interesting critter adorning the roof

Taking a ride in some sort of ancient vehicle

Now it is Masae's turn!

Hiroe was waiting for us when we finished at the castle and drove us several blocks into downtown where we hopped out of the car again to catch the streetcar. The system is very similar to what we have in downtown Portland and makes for a fun way to see the city. We rode a couple of stops in the air-conditioned car (heaven), then jumped off and went straight for Starbucks to get a late afternoon pick-me-up. When Masae travels she likes to stop at McDonald’s in foreign lands…I go for Starbucks! We took our beverages and cruised through the specialty foods floor of a department store similar to the one we have in Sinchon before meeting Hiroe at the car again. By now we were all tired, so we made one last stop to pick up treats from Masae’s apartment, return the borrowed keys, and headed back to her mother’s house for dinner. Even though we weren’t far from home we managed to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time!

I spent this evening looking at photo albums with Masae, hearing about her travels, discussing my upcoming travel plans, and sharing about my school. As I packed Masae told Kahori to tell me “bye bye” before she went to bed. We are heading for the airport at 7am tomorrow and she will most likely still be sleeping. Kahori decided that she wanted to go with me so she went to the entryway and sat down to put her shoes on! What a cutie! I’ve managed to stuff everything back into my suitcase and I’m about to go to bed—I can’t believe this trip is already over. Although it started out a little rough, I have had such an amazing experience here. The hospitality that Masae and her family have shown me is beyond anything I could have expected. It just blows my mind when I think about what we have seen and done in four days, and that we were able to reconnect after twenty years. Masae told me tonight that I am going to come back many times to Japan and I think she might be right!