MikeAndKelly

Santa Monica Hollywood... read more

Shinkansen to Tokyo Station Our final destination, Tokyo. Getting off the Shinkansen we found an information desk that helped us with the subway system to get to the stop nearest our hotel in Akasaka (not to be confused with Asakusa). The subways in Tokyo are easy to navigate for both Asians and Westerners, the color coding with numbering system made things very easy. The most confusing things about the Tokyo subways system is that there are three major lines, all run separately needing a different type of ticket. From the main Tokyo station we picked up a subway map and easily made it to our hotel. Walking out of the subway we were greeted with skyscrapers and buildings all around and was a little difficult to find our hotel among them but we lucked out and ... read more

Shanghai, the largest city in China and the most populous in the world. Shanghai was hosting a World Fair, we had seen advertisements in the other cities we had visited and were far more numerous here. We were told it was geared for Chinese tourists who have little chance to travel abroad and also the lines just to buy tickets and get in could take hours so we had no intentions of trying to visit. Because of the Expo, most hotels were booked so we stayed in one further away but since it wasn't far from a subway stop it didn't take too long to get into town. After lunch we figured out the subway system (you had to pay more the longer you traveled, a whopping 4 Yuan each one way) we got off the ... read more

Terracotta Army We awoke a couple of hours before we arrived in Xian by train. The countryside was beautiful with mountains and deep gorges (bad farming practices leading to erosion?), I wish I had gotten video's of that. The primary reason for going to Xian was to see the Terracotta Army. When looking for tours in Beijing to set up an itinerary I noticed quite a few offering day trips to Xian typically with an overnight train there and back to Beijing but I figured I could do it myself one way - once we got to Beijing I wanted to maximize our time and did manage to schedule a private tour to pick us up at the train station and they were flexible to modify their tour to what we wanted to do...almost. Just a ... read more

We had three full days in Seoul. I didn't really scour websites for an itinerary so I let dad pick the sites. We spent our first morning getting our ID's that let us off an on Post without having to check in every time making things much more flexible on coming and going. After picking up a couple subway cards we headed out for some site seeing. I was wanting to try some authentic Bibimbap (Korean wellness food) and the little hole in the wall we stopped at had some. I don't have much of a refined palette so I couldn't tell that much difference than what I've had at home, very tasty. Kelly had something fried, I thought mine was better. After waiting an hour for an English tour guide we visited Changdeok Palace, one ... read more

Arrival at Inchon airport around 9:45p, after immigrations we left with my Dad who came to pick us up around 11p straight to the Army Post. Dad was lucky enough to get us a 2nd bed so both of us would have a bed that night. Unknown to us a Typhoon had just come through the day before killing a few people and dropping many large trees on post which in turn caused issues with getting a bed delivered but dad came through and we had a place to sleep. In the morning we discovered a large tree which had fallen onto the roof of our bedroom which was removed before we departed for China.... read more

Heading to Seoul, S. Korea via a short layover in Narita Airport, Japan. Flight time: 1:35p.... read more