"It is good news, worthy of all acceptation; and yet not too good to be true." Matthew Henry.

I was at home this morning, when the mailman came by. He rang the bell because I had to sign for some mail. It turns out it was the approval for the extention of my visa for one year. So I can stay in Japan for another year.

Needless to say I am very happy about that!

Now for some more random things.

There is a chain coffee and grocery called Kaldi. My wife and I shop there since it is close to our apartment, and they have Skippy Chunky Peanut Butter (gotta have your priorities!) This store has an alcohol section and I noticed this brand.

Maybe its just me, but associating your brand with a passed out homeless guy, might not be the way to go.

Soon Christmas will be coming, and that brings....

The Christmas Kappibara-san. Of course he is trying to weasel his way into photos.

"On Halloween, the parents sent their kids out looking like me." Rodney Dangerfield.

In a nation of conformists, the important thing is to know how much weirdness you can get away with.

My wife and I were shopping at Daiso when I saw this cute viking hat, so since Halloween was coming I thought it would be fun to get it. Also people stare at me a lot anyway, so I thought I would give them something to stare at.

National Market is in an area of Tokyo known as Azabu, where a lot of foreigners live. I found out about it a couple weeks back after spending roughly three months searching for Ranch Dressing. On Saturday they had a Halloween festival. Since I already had the hat, SB and I decided to go.

I guess Felix the Cat is the Mascot of National Market.

There was a lot of good food and a costume contest for the kids and some employees also dressed up.

 

Across the street from the market is a park, after a while SB and I decided to sit down for a while and take a break (hahaha we are old).

Later in the afternoon we decided to walk to Shibuya Eki (station), it took about 45 minutes and we were able to buy a Pumpkin Pie.

Finally, Christmas is coming!

Today is my wife's birthday. So Happy Birthday SB.

"I shall make that trip. I shall go to Korea." Dwight D. Eisenhower.

SB and I decided to take a weekend trip this week. Our plan was to spend two days and one night at our destination, as a result we just wanted to go someplace relatively close. Flying from Tokyo to Incheon takes about 2 hours, so that is where we opted to go.

Our flight left at about 9:00am on Thursday, so we had to wake up about 4:30 IN THE MORNING!!! to get the train by 5:00 to get to Narita by 7:30am. Oh, did I mention we had to wake up at 4:30 IN THE MORNING!!!! (quick note here. I am 45 years old, and 4:30 a.m. is wicked early for me.)

We flew Asiana Airlines. The flight to Seoul was great and the flight crew couldn't have been nicer.

Once we arrived in Korea we went right to our hotel. This is the view from our hotel.

Since I live in the Tokyo area. I have become used to the claustrophobic feel. In Japan everything is built close together, finding open space is a little difficult. So being in Seoul it was amazing to see so much open space.

This is us in Seoul.

See all the space in Seoul.

We went shopping at Lotte Mart. On the first floor is Woori Bank, but I don't want to have to worry about my bank. As for shopping on the 3rd floor, I think Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees are on that floor.

If the Michael/ Jason reference is a little obscure, they are hockey mask wearing psycho killers in American horror movies.

SB and I also went to Namdaemun Market area. She told me she loves Soondae, a kind of blood sausage popular in Korea. I have never tried this before, but it is quite good.

We had to cut the visit short as a thunderstorm moved into the area, and we had left our umbrellas at the hotel.

Saturday we wandered around near our hotel and I saw this cute sign. The only thing I could understand on the sign is "I love milk"

We left to go to the airport at about 4:00 p.m. Where we found a Starbucks and broke out our mugs. I had a Mocha Frappicino and SB and an Iced Latte.

As we were boarding the plane, the flight crew pulled us aside and gave us complimentary status upgrades business class. Which a was great way to end our vacation!