Our Korea, China, & Japan trip in 2005

Saturday, September 10, 2005

As promised, here are pics from our trip to Korea, China & Japan!

Kai playing on a high-tech dance stage after midnight while we try to locate our hotel.

We found it! (Our shirts say "Kim Ohana")

Kai's first ride on a subway

Walking on the waterfall bridge at the Korean Folk Village

Kai wearing Shrek ears

One of Lorinda's companions from her mission. You'd never tell from this picture that they wanted to kill each other back during the mission days!

Bill took this pic of us sitting in the NEW chapel pews made of basketball material. Look closely! We're not kidding!

The DMZ. The 2 mile strip of the demilitarized zone separating North & South Korea. So sad that families are torn apart by what this strip represents.

Behind me is North Korea. You couldn't take any pics past the yellow line. Even up at the wall all you could see on this foggy day was fog!

The Korean temple

Lorinda standing in front of the sign telling you which way is the way out. Her first time to Korea, her & her companion were looking for the exit out of the airport but couldn't find any signs that said 'exit'. All they could see were these 'way out' signs...

Bill's favorite anti-smoking ad

Lorinda's trainer

Lorinda's golden investigators. They're still very active...

Another one of Lorinda's convert families. Also still very active!

Kai's first sink bath!

On the flight to Japan, they gave Lorinda a seatbelt for Kai that hooked on to her seatbelt. It was cool!

This is the condo we stayed at in China

Lorinda's mom made us take this pic in front of the "Love Tree"

Tien Ah Men Square. Our tour guide told us he believes that the massacre never happened. It was kind of interesting being in a communist country where they even control your beliefs...

This was cool. Some members of our group were on one side of the complex and others were on the other side - about 200-300 yards away from each other but we could hear each other as if we were right next to each other

Almost our entire group that went to China (4 people less than in Korea- the people taking the picture are also not in this one)

Lorinda taking her first step up on The Great Wall of China

Bill & Kai doing the same thing. Our tour guide told us that a Chinese man went up in space and looked for the wall, but couldn't see it, so now that "fact" has to be taken out of the textbooks because its not true.

Uncle Zui giving Bill a break going up to the top

At the top! We're above the clouds, thats how high it was. It was a very arduous climb!

All of us who made it to the top- except for Uncle Sedanne who went all the way to the top and was halfway down by the time we were half way up! I should mention that Uncle Sedanne was the oldest in our entire group that took this trip to Asia!

We thought going up was hard! Look at how steep it was going down! By the time we got back down to the bottom, Lorinda's legs were shaking so bad they felt like jelly! And Bill did most of the trip up and down holding Kai!

A few mis-translated signs that will make you laugh:

This is a fresh water turtle before...

and after he was cooked for us to eat. Mmmm. He was tasty! (no I'm not kidding)

Kai was a celebrity everywhere we went. We learned the word "cute" in Korean, Chinese & Japanese pretty quickly due to the fact that we heard it at least every 5 minutes in the corresponding country! Kai sure new how to deal with it tho. He is a natural born flirt just like his parents.

This is an actual restaurant in Japan. I guess it also doubles as an antique store. We don't know for sure as this was the one country we went to where none of us spoke the language!

We went to a zoo. It was pretty cheap so we weren't expecting much, but we were very surprised! It was a Really nice zoo! Here are some of my favorite pics

Kai was so enthralled with the polar bear, Bill couldn't get his attention to look at the camera!

Monkey see, monkey do!

After we came home, Kai returned straight to his piano lessons. He loves them so much he screams and kicks when his mom tries to take him away.

Lorinda baby sat Kai and his cousin Paige who is 3 months younger than him for one day. This was a rare moment where they were both quiet and happy! It was fun, but also the best form of birth control!

Somehow, a bird came in through one of our vents in our roof into our hot water heater closet. We had to call Animal control to come and catch it!

Kai, waking up happy in a hotel in Idaho. Why were we in Idaho?

Maybe to visit my MTC companion and tell her all about Korea again & see her new baby...

or maybe to trade in Bill's beloved Jeep for...

A NEW TRUCK!!! (You have to say it like they do on The Price is Right!) This is our new Nissan Titan! It is so nice & so much fun. Lorinda can't wait to Hawaiian it out!