Day 1 in Korea

Well, I was going to talk about my trip to Korea with pictures, but blogger and the Nikaho City school network are not communicating very well at the moment and I can't seem to upload any pictures. Instead, I will just write and then post the pictures later.

Last Monday morning, Sayaka's friend Taisuke who has now become Miwa's friend drove Miwa and I to Akita airport. I was expecting there to be snow at the airport, because it is in the mountains an hours drive north of here and in winter is usually snow-bound (as in last year Amanda couldn't find her car in the carpark when she got back from Australia because it was buried under the snow). I don't know how so many planes can still land and take off at Akita during winter, but they can. Although, not all of them to be sure. Cancellations are frequent. Anyway, instead of the mountains of snow and the climbing over snowbanks to get into the terminal like there is most years, there was just a sprinkling of snow on grassy areas and none at all on any concrete. We checked in, drank coffee (no tea available) and were in the air by lunch time.

We got to Incheon by mid-afternoon and were picked up by a guide from the travel service we used. She was holding a card with Miwa's name on it. I've always wanted to be met at an airport by a card-wielding person. Next time it will be my name written there! (BTW now I think of it Mum, if you pick me up at Wellington airport when I return to NZ, please bring a card with my name. With the frequency that your hair changes colour, I might not recognise you.)

We were taken by van into Seoul with another family. We were dropped off at our hotel at about 4pm. The first thing I noticed when I entered the lobby was the twinkling tree and the next thing was the 8 foot tall inflatable snowman that was behind it. The hotel room was well and truly tacky too. I will post pictures later.

We went to a convenience store around the corner for snacks and then back up to the room. It was at this point that Miwa noticed that she no longer had Atsuko's camera, which she had borrowed for the trip, in her pocket. She remembered walking to the store with her hands in her pockets, so the camera couldn't have been there then. She spent 15 minutes tearing the hotel room apart before ringing the guide to ask whether a camera had been found in the van. The guide told her to wait while she checked. Twenty minutes later she rang back to say that the camera had not been found. No doubt either the van driver or the guide pocketed the camera, because it never did turn up in the hotel room, and we hadn't been anywhere else at that stage but the store.

We couldn't do any more about the camera, so we went into Myongdong, a famous cheap shopping area to spend the rest of the evening. I bought a few eye shadows at a pharmacy and got a free eyeshadow case, face cotton and if you believe it or not, a free Gucci rip-off cosmetics purse, with 'e's embroidered on it rather than 'G's. I mean, those things are illegal, and have to be smuggled out of the country. And I got one for free. I don't particularly want it - I don't really like Gucci.