We're on a Trip, not a Vacation!

The trip in Korea has been very fun so far. A highlight was the hike day with daddy’s uncle where we hiked up a big mountain. Even though I was very dehydrated, it was fun to talk to Acadian, and the kimbap we had brought was very yummy. Later that day, Acadian, Daddy’s Uncle, Halmony, Halabogee and I all went to dinner at the top rated Japanese style ramen restaurant in Seoul. I got the tonkatsu ramen which was really good. By the end I was so full that I didn’t even have room for dessert. Another highlight is from the day before the hike when I went to a fancy beef place for lunch with Daddy, Mommy and Daddy’s Uncle. The whole meal was delicious and all the beef was very juicy and flavorful. To top it off was a yummy crunchy rice ice cream. At dinner I earned $10 from Acadian for taking a huge bite out of a spicy pepper but I had to drink ice water and numb my mouth for the rest of the meal. I also went shopping and found some cool shirts from a Korean brand called ThisIsNeverThat. I...

Acadian qualified for the Marin County Middle School track championships, where he ran the mile. His PR for the season was 6:02. We are very proud of him.  When I first heard about BTS performing at Stanford Stadium after a 4 year break from music (so that they could all do their Korean military service) I tried in vain to get these highly coveted tickets. The 3 days they were performing at Stanford was their only stop in Northern CA. I even signed up for an ARMY membership, which is what BTS fans are called. ARMY=Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth which alludes to their hip hop roots. Through the help of Kyusik's high school friend, who connected us to a journalist who has written articles in the Atlantic about BTS, we managed to get 3 tickets at their face value of $300/each. The concert happened to be on the Tuesday that Acadian turned 12, and since Bryce had already accompanied me to a Coldplay concert at Stanford, he said he'd be fine skipping out. It all worked out we...

    One of my highlights of the trip was going to a matcha store in Tokyo because we got to try some of the ice cream and it tasted very  delicious.     Another highlights was the fish market sushi. We woke up at 5:00 and went with Brian to the fish market by train. Coincidentally we were seated at the same spot we had sat at the last two times and the sushi chef remembered us from before. The sushi was  delicious, especially the fatty tuna, but unfortunately Acadian had a hard time eating the fish because of his new expander so I tried to help by telling him to swish it down with soup and tea.      Next, we went to a train station store where we bought some bento boxes in preparation for our ~2 hour train ride to Nozawa Onsen. I chose two bentos: a katsu sandwich box and a chicken karaage box. I didn't end up eating the chicken until later, but they both tasted delicious. When we got to the Nozawa Onsen train station, we took a bus...

      Before we got to Japan, Mommy gave us a list of ramen places that were supposed to be good and asked us to choose one that looked good from there. I chose one called “Ginza Tsukiya” because it looked like it had good Tonkatsu ramen, which I love. We went there and all got a nice bowl of Tonkatsu ramen and followed the instructions on how to eat the ramen; there was a specific order in which to eat the ramen. There was a light but extremely flavorful broth and thin noodles that you could slurp down with ease. It was so good we ended up buying some ramen kits from them so we could eat it at home.      The next day, we went to the Studio Ghibli Museum which Mommy and Daddy had been waiting 16 years to go to (ever since their honeymoon). The museum was intricately designed and the building looked like it was brought to life from a Ghibli movie. There were tons of interactive activities that I enjoyed, and a lot of pictures that everyone else seemed t...

Frankie, Bryce's MCDS/Lick friend, asked him to paint a Little Free Library as a school project for her book club. He helped assemble the libraries in mid August and initially designed a cool underwater scene with marine life and a scuba diver.  He then proceeded to paint over it before deciding on a dragon. The whole process took months of him working on it over the weekends, with Kyusik's help to do some of the painting. The finished library is his first public piece of art and even more special because the custodians on 7th Ave are Lulu, Acadian's good buddy, and her family.  Bryce has been taking a wood joinery and turning class and produced a beautiful bowl. We are looking forward to a new coffee table as well, once his teacher orders the glass that will connect the two pieces together. He is also playing the piano in the beginning jazz ensemble and performed a couple solos at the fall jazz concert, which Grampy and Grammy were able to attend as they went to Grandparen...

 Bryce just finished this acrylic painting at art class.