Our time in Asia has come to an end - it's been such a good trip! 5 days in Seoul and then another 5 days in a fairly untraveled part of Japan made for a wonderful adventure. Many thanks to World Climbing for taking us to places we probably wouldn't have visited otherwise!
Here are our highs, lows, and buffalos (unexpected surprises):
Highs
- Of course, the top of the highs list has to be WanYing winning gold at her World Climbing competition in Fukuoka, Japan. She climbed well, felt good about her performance, and won her category. Leaving her inaugural Worlds season with two golds and a silver is pretty amazing. You can watch her climb here, starting at 2:08: https://www.youtube.com/live/dycmMkN9I4w?t=7702&si=dbW2c5n8JLM6FWDs - it's well worth four minutes of your time!
- (Most of) The food. We ate very well in both Korea and Japan. Sure, there were some misses, but overall we loved the food in both countries. Highlights were dumplings, candy, and ramen. WanYing especially liked the seaweed in both countries because it was thin and delicate. I appreciated how prevalent tea is in Japan. Steve liked pretty much everything and got pretty into the flavored milks that are very popular in Korea.
- Driving in Japan. We were in a fairly rural area, about an hour outside of Fukuoka, so a rental car was a must. At first, we felt pretty intimidated by the idea of driving on the left-hand side of the road. But Steve did a lot of research before we traveled, and he was a champ on the narrow, winding country roads. We loved our cute little rental kei car, too.
- Our hike up Baegundae Peak. We spent a day in Seoul visiting Bukhansan National Park, an easy subway ride from Seoul (Seoul mass transit was fantastic). It was a big, rainy day of adventure, and we enjoyed the fall foliage and city views from 2,500 feet above Seoul.
Lows
We had a great trip, but every trip has a few lows, and ours was no exception.
- WanYing's cough - WanYing started coughing a few days into the trip and never got over it. She pushed through it and had a great competition, but feeling anything less than your best on such a big trip is a drag.
- Navigating in Japan - Driving in Japan was great; figuring out how to get out of the city every time we visited was not. We got lost. A lot.
- A missed flight - We got confused about the timing and missed our flight out of Japan. Super lame. It worked out, and we got back to Korea well before our flight back to the U.S., but that was a lowlight. However, it marks a first for me (Jamie) - in all of my years of travel, I've never missed a flight except for missed connections when the first flight was delayed. I can no longer say that!
- Bathroom shortage - The competition venue did not have restrooms, just port-a-potties, and there were only two backstage for all of the athletes to use! That created long lines and annoyed athletes who certainly didn't need a distraction like that.
Buffalos
All travel brings unexpected surprises, and travel in Asia brings a bunch.
- Breakfasts at our BnB in Japan. We've traveled enough to know that rules about what counts as breakfast vary wildly by culture. Our amazing host in Japan made us the most delightful meals, full of love and intrigue. Pictured here: french toast, chicken nuggets with sort of ketchup, potato wedges, homemade pizza, broccoli with mayonnaise, half a cherry tomato, corn and bean salad. Other breakfast offerings included pancakes with fruit, various soups (carrot, corn, vegetable), quiche, rice balls wrapped in seaweed, potato salad, chicken fingers with sesame seeds, an omelet with ketchup, sausage, and green salad. It was always surprising and always delightful.
- Rules about trash sorting, trash folding, and where to wear which shoes. There are a lot of rules and norms around each of these topics, and we kept doing them incorrectly no matter what we did. Korea's trash-folding game is strong. We were continually flummoxed as to when to wear shoes, when to wear socks, when to wear the provided slippers, and when to wear the provided clogs. We tried in earnest, and we apologize to both countries for our many slip-ups.
- The ticket machine at Japanese ramen restaurants. We discovered that at ramen restaurants (and only at ramen restaurants), you buy a ticket at the ticket machine for your desired dish, take it to your table, and then the server takes it and they prepare your meal. It was an intense learning curve. Then we got even more confused and tried using Korean Won to pay for our ramen in Japan (to the untrained eye, they look pretty similar). Our eyes are very untrained) and couldn't, for the life of us, figure out why the machine kept spitting out our money. Lesson learned.
- Japanese Onsen. Steve and I stretched our cultural-adventure muscles and tried an onsen. They are all over Japan and are natural, hot spring-fed pools. They are separated by gender and intended to be quiet, peaceful places - no devices, books, or clothes. We both had really lovely onsen experiences and would go again!
- Schoolkids at the competition. The paraclimbing competition was a field trip for a revolving set of elementary school students, and they loved it. They were enthusiastic about everything - cheering, seeing themselves on the big screen, getting photos with the athletes. It was so fun and definitely unexpected.
- Heated floors and toilet seats. We are all fans of radiant floor heating. Reviews were mixed on whether heated toilet seats were welcome (two votes) or not (one).
- The otter surgery center. Note: there was no otter surgery center. Near our apartment in Seoul, there was a restaurant(?) liberally decorated on the outside with otters swimming and drinking coffee. We walked up to see if it was a cafe we could eat at, and the workers were masked, wearing surgical gloves, and huddled over a table. Steve, jet-lagged, somehow interpreted all of this as an otter undergoing surgery. The reality was only a bit less odd - they were grouting tile on a table; I guess they were renovating? The otter surgery center had us laughing a long time.
- Complex bidet operation. Bidets were everywhere in both countries (including restaurants and public bathrooms), and we were unprepared for the number of choices we faced each time we used the bathroom. A wealth of bottom-cleaning options.
Our time in Asia was so good. Good comp, good sightseeing, good food, good company. Thanks, Japan and Korea, we had a great time!
