Blerg...This Will Take a While

I just looked through the pictures and videos and stuff, and this is going to take a long time to chronicle. It is going to take a long time to write, and it will take you a long time to read...hope you have time (of course you do...that is why you read this blog). I spent 8 nights and 7 days in Korea alone. During most of that time, I was taking pictures while doing stuff and thinking of witty things to put on this blog. I guess this will be like the delayed conversations I would have had if you were there in Korea with me...but you don't get to enjoy the food like I did. 

To start, I headed by bus and train to get to Narita Airport. Though it serves Tokyo, it is actually stupid far away. On the express train, it takes a minimum of 40 minutes to get there...This means it is over 3 hours from my house to the airport...not super convenient considering it is only about 100 miles. Anyhoo. 

An exclusive look into the train ride out to Narita Airport. Here you can clearly see buildings and hear the soothing sounds of incoherent Japanese babble. Also, a great shot of my bald head. 

 While I was sitting at the airport waiting for my flight to leave, I decided to combine two famous Japanese symbols...Robots and Massages. Robo-massage! In reality it was just a massage chair. I decided to give it a whirl. It was not until I was in the massage when I realized that it is not designed for people like me. The neck part of the massage didn't clear my shoulders, my arm massage was a lot like getting my blood pressure taken, and my feet and calves didn't begin to fit in their allotted places. The chairs also had a shoulder massage feature which ended up just trying to fold me like a taco. Overall, I give it a 2/5.

 I took a picture of the view I had while I was getting my robo-relaxation. 

In a truly wonderful turn of events, I saw a bunch of foreign folk on the plane who were dressed up real nice. My first thought was that they were a choir tour group or something...after I sat down, I took a surreptitious look back to see if they were American or otherwise. I then noticed the indicative badge of Mormon missionaries! Crazy right? I was seated directly in the row in front of them. I naturally struck up a conversation after pointing out to them that they were missionaries (as if they didn't know). We chatted for almost the whole flight to Busan. They were all arriving to serve in the Busan mission. 

 Being a flight going from Japan to Korea, they served sushi on the plane. What else right? It was pretty good.

I tried to catch some of the nighttime view of Tokyo. It was pretty incredible because it was an endless network of lights. It was like Vegas, but impossibly bigger. 

After going through customs, I stayed with the missionaries to meet their mission president...why not right? I was also very, very lucky because the Mission President offered to help me figure out where I was going. This was a great blessing as I was travelling alone and had no idea what I was doing and how I was supposed to get on the subway. After chatting for a while, he had one of the assistants drive me (with the luggage) to a subway station near the mission home and point me in the right direction. Couldn't ask for more. 

The first thing I noticed about Korea? People use smartphones and tablets...a lot. Korea has consistently been the most connected country in the world due to its small size and love of doodads. Riding the subway you get a feeling for that. Everyone, including old people, had their phones out and were surfing the net or playing Angry Birds. I took this video so you can see for yourself.