The Wedding

It went off well!
Hannelore and Elna went off to the four hour makeup session (as did Michael), and came back looking like this...

Hannelore and Inwan (Yohan's Mum), got things going by gliding down the catwalk (which separated the audience, the groom's contingent was on the right hand side) to the altar where they lit candles.


Michael came down the catwalk (don't know what else to call it), solo, then Yohan, looking incredibly beautiful, on her father's (Hosu) arm.

Hannelore and I sat right up the front, with Inwa and Hosu in the same position but on the other side of the catwalk. There were some attendants running the show, who were often doing things with us us, like fiddling with my buttons, and smoothing Hannelore's rig.

There was quite a long speech by the pastor, in Korean, and also English which was appreciated by us but unexpected by the rest, then some brief vows.


During this time, young Alex, who had been wowing everyone with his immaculate wedding suit


apparently experienced a bowel explosion, which caused his parents to evacuate outside to tidy things up.

Finally we were called back to the front stage where a lot of bowing and hugging amongst the new in-laws occurred, and photos, photos, photos...


We thought it was over at that stage, but we were then called away to another room, where Michael and  Yohan dressed in the garb of Korean royalty, for another round of photos.


Just when I thought I was going to finally have a wedding without embarrassment, we were asked to pose with them in the sitting cross legged position, which Hosu had no trouble at all with, but was impossible for me. Although I told them I couldn't do it, they had me try, which caused considerable mirth (knees stick up and point to ceiling), so the Utting team had to have the photo taken standing up.
Once that was over, we went to a steak restaurant with buffet, and had a knife and fork meal for the first time since leaving home.
Little Alex was a hit here too, very well behaved and fussed over by all, including uncle Michael, and auntie Yohan.


That's it, end of trip now, back to Seoul for a couple of days, then home on the 30th.

Jeju Island

This is an island south of the Korean mainland, a tourist destination for Koreans and others. Our hosts hired rooms in a resort there, for three nights, so we could visit some of the parks and sights the island has to offer. We had a driver, a guide who showed us around and took us to various restaurants, Mr Teh. (We think the restaurateurs may have been his friends).
Our first stop on day one was a green tea plantation,

then to the coast to see the Jungmun columnar lava,

then Cheyonileon falls, night time by then.

A meal followed, seafood, I was allowed flat fish, quite good for me, since I'm not very good at shellfish and crustaceans.
Next day, it was raining quite a lot, but we persevered and with umbrellas went to a beautiful bonsai garden, called 'Spirited Garden', then to lunch, guess what, seafood!

In the afternoon we went to yet another garden, but this one was huge, with gardens of all types, sub tropical, tropical, bonsai and rock,

and the cave garden, to mention some.


Next day we visited a world heritage area, Seongsan Ilchulbong, which is a tombola rising out of the ocean on the east side of the island. Aka 'Sunrise Peak', it has its origins in the volcanic activity which created the island itself.

Mr Teh dropped us at the airport after that, quite a different holiday experience, and we flew back to Busan, to get ready for the final part of the trip, the wedding ceremony of Michael and Yohan.

Korea

Yohan met us at the airport, and brought us in to our hotel via the subway, which is typical of Asian public transport, about ten times as good as ours!
Soon afterwards, we commenced the first of what has turned out to be almost continuous meals, this was tea and traditional sweets, very nice.
Some of the most common Korean foods which we were quickly introduced to are kimchee, (the well known fermented cabbage), bibimbap, (vegetables in a hot pot on a bed of rice), jeon, (vegetable or seafood pancake), and many types of noodle. 

Most food venues have an assortment of side dishes, which on their own are sometimes filling enough to be the whole meal.

I've eaten quite a bit of meat, which is hard to avoid as it's so popular, as well as seafood.

Seoul has it's share of historic buildings, and we visited one fairly close to our hotel, Changdeokgung Palace,

I believe there are four similar palaces. 

After several days in Seoul, we came down to Busan, Yohan's home town by the very comfortable KTX train, and met her family and bridesmaid Henna. We had dinner at an upmarket Korean restaurant with them, and later Elna joined us, with Michael who met her in Seoul and brought her to Busan by a later train.
We experienced the Korean baths, where I wandered around naked with Michael and about a hundred other chaps, (no pictures), except this one from our hotel window,

which shows the Busan skyline, on a rainy day, with the spa water being captured from its artesian source, in the building next door.
Hannelore and the ladies have been to the traditional costumes store to select their wedding rigs, and we are now looking forward to a trip to the holiday island of Jeju, then meeting Vic, Jess and Alex in Busan, then finally the wedding.

Kyoto

We had to get up at 5am, because the public holiday made seats scarce on the later trains, so we had a bit of spare time when we got to Kyoto. We spent it unwisely at a museum which has little English, just added 'museum heels' to my blistered heel, which I started on Mount Misen yesterday.
Lunch was better though, we went to a restaurant in a market area and had sushi, very pleasing.
Next day we went on a guided tour which has been arranged for us, quite similar to the one we had in Tokyo. We saw the Shoguns castle, Nijo,

which has a 'nightingale' (whistling) floor, to discourage assassins,

the spectacular Golden Pavilion,

and the Kyoto Imperial Palace.

Apparently, none of these structures are as old as they seem, because they often burn down, being made of timber and paper. However they are normally rebuilt in the same area. The palace is quite grand, but the interesting thing for me was that you have to line up for a count when you go in, and whilst inside the police harangue the tour guides quite loudly to keep their charges in order.

For lunch we found a local restaurant with an English menu but no pictures, so were  concerned a little with what would be delivered, but it was good. I had Satsuma-age, a kind of fish cake, with kyabetsu, a lemony cabbage salad, with some fried potato. Hannelore had Yakatori, (chicken on a skewer ), and Yaki-onigiri, (fried rice cake, delicious).

In the afternoon we bought a bus ticket, and went out to another Temple, the Kiomizu,

which has a great view back over Kyoto. We took the bus right around town as a sort of home spun tourist bus.



Next day we went to Nara, a city with more shrines and temples about 45 minutes from Kyoto. It's claim to fame (apart from the large number of shrines), is that one of them, the Todaiji,

houses the Great Buddha.

  Hang on, we saw him in Kamakara didn't we? But this GB is even bigger. Nara has deer too, but the same sort as in Miyajima, so again nothing new. We had a really good meal though, udon noodles in miso soup with tofu at a cute café there, and the  

Kasuga Taisha shrine

features lots of stone and bronze lanterns.

I know we sound like terrible foodies, but the rest of the day we spent in Kyoto looking for dinner. We have been trying to find a restaurant with kamo (duck) soba, but after spending lots of k's in the process failed, and ended up back at the station having another type of noodle soup, ramen, with Chinese noodles, quite forgettable.

Hiroshima

We left Tokyo, and came down to Hiroshima in the 'Bullet Train', aka Shinkansen,

which would have made the trip comparatively short, but this was a long weekend in Japan, so we could not go straight through, as there were limited seats on the trains, therefore we had a couple of hours wait at Shin-Osaka.
Somehow we got the wrong train though, with the result that a disgruntled fellow passenger was wondering why we were in his reserved seat, so we had to do the 'walk of shame', with our bags through to the non-reserved section, and continue our trip there.
That was OK, we got there in the end, at about 2pm.
Once we found our hotel and set up, we walked to the Peace Park, where we saw, among other sad things, the 'Atomic Dome',

which was one of the few things left standing after the A-Bomb was detonated some 600 metres over the area, including the hospital, on August 6th 1945. The other picture is of the children's memorial,

in recognition of the innocent children killed then and afterwards by radiation.
Next day, we went to the Island Shrine, Miyajima, along with thousands of other tourists including the locals, revelling in the long weekend. There are lots of native deer on the island also, who pay you particular attention if you happen to buy food.
We went to the shrine, which has its Tori, (gate to shrine), out in the water,

then carried on through the forest up the mountain, (Mount Misen), on foot. Hannelore had to walk up and down with me, instead of taking the cable car, because of my wimpiness about heights. Here she is, powering up the quite beautiful forest path.

The view from there is described as 'one of the three best' in Japan,

and this could be so, although it was not a clear day, because typhoon Vongfong was supposed to be bearing down on us. Apart from being a little cloudy, however, we had no problems, and once down from the mountain found a restaurant where we had another nice Japanese meal.
We had Kamameshi, which is fish (me) and chicken (Hannelore), with a kind of savoury rice in a heated cast iron bowl, with miso soup on the side, and we loved it! Washed it down with a nice big well deserved beer.
After we returned to Hiroshima, we had another great Japanese meal, Okonomiyaki, a savoury pancake which we also loved, this time assisted by Dessai sake, good for our feet and legs which were starting to seize up after our mountain climb.

Japan

The flight went well, I only thought I was going to die once, and that was only for about ten minutes, a rough patch midway between Perth and Hong Kong. We had a bit of trouble at honkers, just after passing through the immigration check point, I discovered I had lost my glasses, and with little time to get to our next exit gate, I had to return there and try to find them. There was only one way back, down an upwards running escalator, so this poor old 69 year old had to race down it, and by good fortune one of the surprised Chinese officials down there found them!
Tokyo has surprised us from the very start, at the airport, just how well organised everything is, how clean, how friendly the people are. I don't know why, but I think we expected a fair amount of seriousness and scowling, instead there was smiling and good humour. The traffic control has surprised us as well, for a huge city, drivers seem very well behaved, and traffic is not as heavy as you'd expect.
We went for a guided tour on the first morning, saw such things as the Tokyo Tower,


the Meiji Shrine,

the Imperial Palace Gardens, (note the huge blocks so carefully aligned),


and ended up on the Ginza shopping district, where we bought lunch.
I had soba, which are buckwheat noodles, with vegetables in tempura, which was very good. We're trying to eat Japanese food as much as possible, but it's not that easy, because the menu displays are mostly in Japanese, and even with pictures it's difficult to work out what you're getting.

Next day we went to the famous seaside town Kamakura, where we visited a number of shrines, in particular the

Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine,

the Hokoko-ji Temple, with its fantastic bamboo garden,

the Great Buddha,

and the Hasadera Temple.

I hope I got all the names right, after a while sight seeing, especially shrines, although they are unique, there are a lot of similarities!