Our Backyard

Yesterday we decided to explore our backyard a bit more... Just behind the parking lot there is a trail leading back into the woods and mountains. We've done a little bit of hiking back there, but yesterday we went on a serious journey! There's some interesting stuff that you come across when hiking here. In the next picture you see these circular grass mounds... I am almost certain that they are "tumuli" - thanks to Ingrid for the real research!:) Or in other words old burial mounds. They are everywhere scattered throughout the woods along trails.


Here are some more cared for ones. I think that the family members of the deceased will hike out here and keep up the site. The whole family might come and visit to pay their respect to the ancestor on a holiday like Chusok.


You see a lot of these all throughout the woods and I'm not quite sure what they are yet... No idea... Anyone?


So after a little hike the small trail opens up into a much bigger one and for a little while it is actually somewhat paved.


And then there's some farms... Only accessible by foot. No cars! There's this whole little world back here in these woods that you can't drive to! You have to hike at least twenty minutes to get to them. There's houses and even a little church. (I'll have to get pictures of those some time.) It seems like it's mostly elderly people living back there. I wonder if they are mainly self sustaining or if they just regularly hike in and out...



Beautiful trail, cool rock!



Lots of little waterfalls and streams everywhere.


Before too long our big path petered out and we ventured off onto smaller trails... And at this point as we were hiking and taking in the awesome scenery we decided to make an adventure out of the day and see if we could hike to one of our favorite places: Black Goat Village. After this point our smaller trails completely vanished and we were doing a bit of bushwhacking or following deer trails. It was about an hour into our hike that we stumbled upon this property. Again... no roads around! I know it looks like a road in the picture - but it wasn't. And now looking at the picture it doesn't look like much of a property either but it was! It kinda looks like a pile of trash, but it was actually a little farm and compound of shack like structures.


As we began getting closer to Black Goat Village we stumbled upon THIS! I believed it's called the East Gate. It's part of a long chain of fortresses and temples that are along the Geumjeongsan Mountain Ridge. These create a really large loop of sites all connected by a wall.


Crossing another stream...



And we finally made it! To the place that looks like a castle and has the most delicious food in the world! this picture is actually the place across the street from the restaurant, but it looks really similar. Hahah... forgot to take a pic of the restaurant. The restaurant looks older though and has a lot of gold on it...


We were so happy!!!



This delicious and gorgeous side dish had azaleas in it!


This is actually a picture from the first time we went... It gives you a better idea of the whole spread.


And notice the flowers in the back, behind Ken in the last picure? These are real orchids! Aren't they beautiful?

And that's about it. It was a good day!

Cherry Blossoms

Spring Is Officially here! FINALLY!!!! It's been a very long and unusually cold winter so it is with great pleasure that I show you these pictures! Once the cherry trees start blossoming every one begins to celebrate. There are festivals everywhere and just yesterday there was a little celebration for our apartment buildings... Forgot to take pictures. There was live music that was very... very loud (we could hear it as we hiked way up into the mountains), lots of eating and children running everywhere. So these are the beautiful trees that line the pathway up to our building.

New Posts Coming Soon!!

For those of you dear and faithful, and probably dissatisfied followers - I hope to resume posts soon! I just got a computer today!!! I will soon have regular and plentiful access to the internet once again! It's 1am now though, and I'm off to bed.

Our Weekend in Japan

So we went to Japan about three weekends ago now to visit Ken's family and show our support after the death of his Grandpa Masada. It was an incredibly special weekend and we had the most wonderful time with Ken's mom, grandma - "Guh-rand-ee-ma", aunt Ako and cousin Yukari. Most importantly we laughed and cried together, hugged, danced, ate and talked even though we don't share a common language. We also got to meet Ken's Great Uncle and Aunt Jack and Keiko and learned so much about the Masada/Marshall family history. It was a a short trip but was more rich than some extended stays can often be. Aside from all that we got sing karaoke with the family, eat blowfish shabu shabu, gyoza, and see a bit of Osaka.



For our first night in Japan we all went out to eat sushi at a restaraunt which had the sushi on a conveyor belt. The selections were endless, the rice was perfect, the fish pieces were huge and fresh and each piece costing about .50 cents... I was in heavennnnnn!!!! After that we all went to karaoke and I'm sorry to say we forgot to take pictures! I'll have to post some of me and Ken here in Busan soon though...



We got to look through Grandma's old pictures which were magnificent! Here is one of Grandma and Grandma as newly weds! They were a beautiful couple! I am so sad I never got to meet Grandpa. I am positive that I would have taken an instant liking to him. I absolutely adore Grandma and I am sure that Ken's grandpa was just as wonderful. (You can always click on the pictures on this blog to see them enlarged. )



For our first official day in Japan we went to meet Uncle jack and Keikoe, and then we went to ?Shinsaibashi? It was this long, exciting strip full of shops and restaurants and people! It was shoulder to shoulder packed with people!






For our final night in Japan we all ate blowfish Shabu Shabu together at Aunt Ako and Yukari's house. Apparently blowfish is considered a delicacy and it is generally very expensive. For all of us to eat blowfish out at a restaurant it would have cost around $300... We got an incredible deal however, and they actually found some at the store that was on sale because the store was about to close for a few days due to the holiday. All in all they got enough blowfish for all of us for about $50. It was delicious, meaty and tender with a very delicate flavor. And did you know that blowfish is actually poisonous? Only someone with a license can cut and prepare the fish and must carefully extract the poisonous gland. Every once in a while someone will die from improperly handled meat. I thought that was pretty interesting.



So our final night was a wonderful summation to a short and sweet trip. Also, later in the night Yukari's boyfriend, Mr. Fujimara came over and joined us as well. We all laughed a lot together and got pretty silly. At one point I even got Grandma to do an impression of Ken's funny dance moves! It was hilarious! As you can see... Yumi was very tired - still recovering from the jet lag, and fell asleep on the comfy sofa missing out on our little party!