Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

This weekend is Korean Thanksgiving – Chuseok. Which for Koreans means they will flock back to their parents and grandparents house to honor the dead and share a traditional feast, but to us, it means vacation. This is our first long weekend in Korea (we have Friday and Monday off) so we decided to make the most of it. We’re going to Tokyo.

We’ve decided to go, despite all the warnings from my students – it’s dangerous to fly, you’ll get swine flu, it’s too expensive, Japanese people are terrible. All of my students now think I’m this reckless rich person who has no fear of something as terrible as swine flu; either that or they think I’m an idiot. Our director even told us today that if we get swine flu, we lose our jobs. I think I’ll take my chances; I figure if I get swine flu, my job is the least of my worries. We fly out tomorrow (Friday) morning and return late Monday night.

Japan was a kind of quick decision for us, we’ve only been in the country for a short time, but this is our only real long weekend, so we figured why not. We ended up finding a really cheap flight and just booked it. I still find it hard to believe that I can just hop to Japan for the weekend. Japan, to me, still seems like it’s 1000’s of kilometres away. I find it difficult to remember that I actually live in Asia, and going to Japan is the equivalent of going to Halifax.

I have really high expectations for Tokyo. While I knew nothing about Korea before we moved here, and still really don’t know that much about it, I feel like I’m more familiar with Japan. Maybe it’s the Anne of Green Gables phenomenon. I don’t know if that is really founded on anything, but I think Japan is a more well known country.

I expect Tokyo to be cleaner than Korea. There are about 10 times as many people in Tokyo as Ulsan, but  for some reason feel it will be more efficient and more sanitary spot (I saw 2 rats on my walk to school today). I also expect it to be more westernized. I never thought I’d be traveling to Japan for a western experience. I expect the food to be better and the people more helpful.

I’m really excited for us to go on our first real adventure. The trip makes this whole thing seem real. For now we’re living in Korea, but slowly and steadily I am actually going to get to see the rest of the world.