That's the LAST time we're takng directions from a squirrel

BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) We visited a toilet museum today. It took us 5 hours to get there and 1 hour and 40 min to get home.

***Note*** If you are squeamish, don't like potty photos, don't have a warped sense of humor or are easily offended you'll want to stop reading when I prompt you. 

We had one full day left in Seoul and I asked the kids what they'd like to see. I laid out the options...a couple of amusement parks and this museum. They opted for this museum. The thought is we can find amusement parks around the world, but Haewoojae (AKA Suwan City Toilet Museum) is quirky and unique to Korea.

I could have stuck to tour guides. We could have stayed on post....but the kids wanted to visit this spot in a place called Suwan City.  I may blog later but a big part of this trip has been me facing fear....I had hoped a friend could  go with us and when she couldn't come I spent a bit of time in prayer. I felt it important for us to go ahead with our plans. Our family word of the year is "courage."  I researched.

We headed out this a.m. with a subway map, "Please help me find the Suwan City Toilet Museum," written on  a card in Korean, a list of possible buses from the Discover Seoul desk from the Suwan City to the Dongwon High school,  and enough won to make it across Seoul.

In the midst of loving the subway, we made our first mistake of the day. The desk didn't tell me we'd need to transfer and I didn't realize though the number of the line we were on stayed the same, the line branched. The detour cost us 30 min...During the delay we met a beggar who  attacked the vending machine we were standing by and then we met a nice elderly lady who was going beyond Suwan and  took us under her wing.

It was lunch time when we arrived at Suwan station, since we had a bus and a walk before we reached the museum, we opted to find some lunch at the station. This was a good call. I've discovered a nutritarian does better with street food than most restaurants.....cups of fruit, veggies....but we saw Burger King.....and I agreed.  You can't see the words but it's advertising a "Beauty," a "Beast," and a "Beauty and the Beast" special.

I was happy to find the corn salad...as healthy as I could find at a Burger King.

This alarmed us...why????? Do they reuse the cups? 

 I was feeling confident at this point! THEN the directions from the blog just didn't make SENSE. No one seemed to know WHERE this place was - and I know they knew the name of the place I was trying to reach as they were reading the Korean card.  We eventually found the bus platform. I DID ask an employee and he directed us to a bus.  We got on. I tried to confirm we were on the right bus. It cost W5000.  A lady behind us read our card and began speaking loudly to the bus driver. He pulled over and told us to get off the bus. I was perplexed. He opened the door and said, "You, off!" and pointed across the 10 lanes of traffic.

As we were walking off Arielle  and Stacia began singing, "I knew you were trouble when you walked in..."  We walked across the street. We checked the route. We asked a lady. We got on another bus. We were kicked off that bus as well...the girls sang once more. 

As we sat at one of the bus stops I began to feel panicked. I knew the kids wanted to see this museum and had a sinking feeling I wasn't going to find it. I looked up and saw THIS.....

The beautiful windows showed Jesus with sheep....and I began to pray, "Jesus, I know you leave the 99 to find the one. I hope I'm not eternally lost here, but I'm lost. I need a shepherd. Please help us find this place by 3:00 p.m." (It was 1:30 p.m.).

The kids were troopers...we got on the bus....we were kicked off the bus again. ::snort:: The girls sang. I must say buses are amazingly terrifying in Korea.  They drive like taxi drivers....but they're huge. ::snort::

 I think this is the point when we tried to get a taxi, but we may have tried another bus route. We kept going one direction and then the other...showing our little Korean script to everyone and being sent back and forth. 

I figured since we  had to feed the fare machine W5000 each time we changed buses it would be cost effective to find a taxi which could take us to the door.  Our taxi driver insisted he knew exactly where we were going. I was getting motion sickness from the various buses.

I began to suspect something was wrong with our driver's sense of direction when the GPS began squawking and the screen flashed a blinking danger sign.... I was praying well at this point....we drove by another church with a mural on it's door of Jesus with the lost sheep. "Ok, Jesus, I'm going to trust this is the right thing to do."  We  drove by Paldalman area and many other fascinating looking spots. Our driver dropped us off and told us to go to the building across the street. It sure didn't look like I expected the toilet museum to look like.....and it wasn't. We were at a very nice museum in Suwan -  "Hwaseong".   The ladies were great and gave us a brochure and map. They also wrote another script. This one told the driver exactly where to take us..... and we continued to see paintings and glass windows with Jesus and sheep.

We found another taxi....and finally....5 hours later... we arrived at Haewoojae (Suwan City Toilet Museum).  At 2:55 p.m.

***Note*** If you are squeamish stop reading now. Please do not complain if you don't like what you see; you've been warned twice. I DID leave many of the photos out. We think this is funny. 





One of the kids asked, "Do you think this is it?" We were in a neighborhood. I looked up and started laughing...yep...I think this is it.

Stacia said, "What DID they eat?" ::snort:: 

Mr. Sim Jae-duck was born in his grandmother's toilet. Growing up his nick name was "Dog Poop."  He grew up fascinated with toilets and sanitation around the world. He changed his name to "Mr. Toilet," and among other things became the mayor of Suwan City.

Mr. Toilet built this toilet shaped house and has left it to the city as a museum to the "Toilet Culture Movement." ::gasp::  In the center of the house  is a glass walled toilet.  Mr. Toilet wanted to be able to meditate and look at the garden while in the toilet. He wanted toilets to be clean and pleasant. There was a button you could push to slide a wall down for privacy. 

Nothing says nature like garden  poop markers

Bird's Eye photo of the house

It cracked us up to follow the Yellow Poop Piles

 Here's the glass-walled bathroom 

These signs were hilarious....try to note the country and symbols. We laughed hard. We were so relieved to have arrived and ready for fun. I laughed so hard I cried. Others loved that we were so tickled.  We aren't 100% sure how they arrived at these symbols. 

Really don't get the Korean symbols...man peeking over wall? I'm very paranoid now about using a public restroom in Korea! 

Mr. Toilet contributed to his community in a variety of ways. He also served as the President of the World Toilet Museum. He was instrumental in the area beautifying their toilets in advance of the World Cup in 2000. 

There were many photos, paintings, sculptures and even an artist's exhibition....and many of the titles had us in stitches again.  The "brown medium" is a bit too realistic, isn't it? 

Snake is shocked by pee

Bigger pumpkin than mine

 Too funny - "The Giving Tree"

 Sister waiting for me at the outhouse

Eating rice is power

 A giant squatty potty

Gherkins in a honey bucket

Some look like they are in down-right agony

All were disgusted to see this - especially when I confirmed it was true

 Kids' Toilet

Public Restroom 

In keeping with the them of improving the toilet culture....the public restrooms had soothing music playing, wall paper and artwork on the walls/doors. The little lady banging on the door sort of ruined my reflective mood. 

As we left, Zander said, "Dad would LOVE this place." ::snort:: 

The museum is FREE. They do have a donation box if you'd like to be a "toilet angel." They raise money for clean water and proper sanitation in poor countries. They were wonderful. They called a taxi for us and told us the closer station was "Sungkyunkwan Univ Station."  They said coming to Suwon station was the longest way....and the taxi drive would be short....it was. Five minutes and we were on the subway back to Seoul Station. I did ask a few folks to be sure we were on the right line.....the day had already been long. 

The subway was PACKED on the way back into Seoul Station....these two played a game to see who could travel the farthest without holding on to anything. Arielle fell asleep. She refused to take my seat....she rode this way for over an hour....and then a man insisted she sit down...so technically Nolan won the contest....but you know she was being polite or I'm sure she would have matched Nolan....stubborn  wonderfully determined kids.  

We got off at the right station....we began to look for the way home. I wanted to be sure we didn't walk the wrong way so I showed someone the card that says, "Please take me to Gate 1 by the War Museum." The first lady was SURE we needed to head one way. We did. Nothing looked familiar. Another lady was SURE we needed to go another way. When we happened upon Gate 17 and the USO we knew we were in unfamiliar territory.

  I stopped a taxi which drove us to Gate 1.....in a direction no one had told us to go.  Nolan commented, "That's the last time we're taking directions from a squirrel," and I laughed hard. I told the kids I knew it had been scary but I'd learned a lot about courage and facing fears. They thought it all funny. Seems they'd been saying this line to each other all day. Arielle had even counted the squirrels and reports I asked directions from a total of 33 squirrels people.

I'm so glad we did this for many reasons. They needed to see what to do when it looks like your totally lost. Zander needed the life lessons about initial reactions to "bad" changes. We made great memories. I'd been wondering if I'm too old to parent the younger four as well as we seem to have done with the older five...and seeing the depth of their character during our five hours of lost wandering proved they are amazing kids...and really....I'm far more courageous than I was 28 years ago. LOL

We had hoped to go swimming but didn't get home in time to make it. We enjoyed chocolate in memory of PWOC Asia Region Board 1....I showed the girls how to savor the chocolate so I could relive the memories.

We came back to the room to watch a movie. Stacia talked us into watching the kids one again. We're still watching and it's 11 p.m. I swore we'd go to bed early so we could get used to the early a.m. before Tuesday's roll call..... tomorrow we'll get up, have breakfast, pack and head to Osan AB. I had toyed with taking the subway to Osan as it is much cheaper than the base shuttle...but in the end it will be nice to KNOW we'll end up where we want to be. We'll have to find a local hotel and may not have Internet until we're home in Misawa on Tuesday. Don't worry if you don't hear from us.  We'll check in tomorrow if we can. Believe me Skype is our link to Michael, we'll do our best to find Internet.

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Yuuki and Me

It has been a week of contrasts.  The office has been horrendously busy.  Put De'Etta and the kids on the airplane for Korea on Monday as well as taking care of a few outprocessing items.  Said farewell to some chapel friends on Tuesday.  We had the memorial service for an airman who died as a result of injuries from a sanctioned boxing match on Wednesday.  Really quite a sad and bothersome affair.  He was well-loved and a standout amongst his peers.  On Thursday we had a picnic with one of the units on base.  It was well-attended and a lot of fun.  That evening we also had our annual baccalaureate service.  We are finally getting other churches involved in the ceremony.  It was what we have wanted from the beginning.  Friday was spent trying to get "stuff" done.  The best part of Friday was catching the last bit of the Spurs and Heat game and watching the Spurs win game #1 of the NBA Finals.
Around the house, though, it has been very quiet.  As much as  I have had lots to do at the office and around the base, I have to get home at a very reasonable time otherwise Yuuki will leave little personalized "gifts" around the house.  With the exception of one day, she did well.  Couple of the days we went out for walks on the country roads out in our area.  She really enjoys this, sniffing at almost every little tuft of grass and bits of who-knows-what on the side of the road.  I am trying to come up with a fitting comparison with a dog and its sense of smell and what people could relate to.  Maybe it is like being in a room with many conversations going on and having the ability to listen in to any particular conversation you so desire.  Sort of like a dinner party where it is not eavesdropping; it is just part of the environment.  Some "conversations" cause Yuuki to snort and walk away.  Others really get her attention.  I wonder if I am pulling her away just before that funny guy gets to the punchline of some doggy joke.  Who knows, but she really enjoys sniffing at things.

We went to Momoishi beach one evening.  I let her run free.  I thought better of it when I found a dead bird carcass, but by then it was too late.  Besides, she should be smart enough to know better.  When it was time to leave, she was nowhere in sight so I drove down the parking lot a ways.  Not there.  Drove back, and she was looking for me.  All's well that ends well

I began to think about what to do on Saturday early in the week.  I really liked the idea of running out to Mutsu Bay and exploring a beach we had never seen before.  So that is what we did.  I think I found the access road, but when I was leaving I found another that was a half mile further up the road.  If we do it again, I will take the second one.  It bypasses a lengthy stretch of concrete shoreline reinforcement.

The water was very low and almost a dead calm.  I turned Yuuki loose, but she did not follow me very far.  It was that "conversation" thing again.  I must have wandered 1-2 miles up the beach before turning around.  The water was almost mirror-smooth.  The seaweed colors were a bright, vivid green and yellow.  There was virtually no one out there.  Just Yuuki and me, well, me and Yuuki was somewhere...

I found this winch under an awning.  Judging by the decrepitude of the engine and the amount of rust on everything, it had been abandoned for quite some time.  However, just behind the winch (you can just see the bottom of the hull at the top of the photo) is the boat.  It is as if someone just winched it up one day and never went back.

These tetrapods are just like the ones at the ocean near my home in CA.  These have been standing as silent sentinels at the edge of this beach for quite a few years, but they are showing some significant wear and tear from the heavy surf, high winds and rough winter weather that is so common to this area.  Mutsu Bay can be a very poor host to visitors and locals alike.  There is a reason there are so many broken fishing boats along this beach.

If you look carefully at the above picture, you can barely make out this fishing shack over the top of the tetrapods.  It, like the winch mentioned above, shows all of the signs of having been long-abandoned.  The exterior is rusted; the wood siding is fallen in and missing in many places.  The window (barely visible below through the opening on the left) is broken.  There is a table and benches in the foreground that are also showing considerable wear, tear and decay.

The inside was a study in contrasts.  Like the boat near the winch, this cabin has all of the marks of a place that was left in a very orderly manner.  When I opened the door, I was greeted by slippers by the front door.  There was also a tea kettle on the rusted wood stove (and a second one on the floor next to the stove) and all of the blankets were neatly folded and laid on the bed.  There was still a clock on the wall and some personal belongings neatly arranged on a bedstand.  It reminds me of a time when I wandered around in the old Crippled Creek ghost town in CO (not the new one with condo's, casinos and rich folks - the real one).

I finally found Yuuki as I was on my way heading south.  She was running a long way ahead of me.  No matter how much I yelled, she just kept running further off.  When she finally turned and saw me, she started to come slowly, hesitatingly.  It was as if she could not recognize me.  It was only until she was within 75 feet that she realized it was me and began running to me.  It did not hurt to have a doggy treat for her either.  That helped her to stay close for the rest of the walk.

This portion of the land above shipwreck beach is peculiar.  There are rumors that this was once a runway.  It definitely has the markings of an old runway.  There are concrete structures all around to indicate that something big happened here.  The main rumor is that this was where the Japanese Imperial Navy learned the techniques and trained its pilots on how to attack Pearl Harbor.  I have rooted around but not found a specific reference to where they trained only that it was a "hidden bay."

This just looks like a runway.

Perhaps this is all that remains of either workshops or living quarters.  Due to the regularity of size and because they are rather small, my bet is on living quarters, but their proximity to the flightline could easily dictate workshops or storage buildings.

By the end of our 5-6 mile walk at Mutsu Bay, Yuuki practically collapsed on the floor of the van.  She later got up on the seat (I had it covered) and went to sleep there.

We stopped at the Community picnic for an hour.  It was fun.  Yuuki was making friends with lots of folks and making life difficult.  It is difficult to juggle a plate with a dog pulling wildly one way then another.

That pretty much wraps up our week so far.  Tomorrow is Sunday.  Rev Mc is preaching.  Looking forward to it.  --  Michael

By Grace
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Taking our Chances in Seoul

I confirmed I may have been made to live in a city area of 25.6 million people. The hustle, bustle, subways, energy....great fun.  I'm still trying to get a photo, but want to be sure to capture this. There is a light outside the gate where we walk that has lights that turn both RED and GREEN at the same time. No one seems to know why. We asked the police man and he said, "Just walk, fast." Stacia said it means "Take your chance." ::snort::

We took a break from guided tours today and branched out with friends. Rhojon (left below) was the admin coordinator on PWOC Asia Region Board 2. Her husband is assigned here.  She picked us up this a.m. and showed us how the subway systems work in Korea. We visited Namdaemun market where we picked up a few souvenirs and I tried the Korean version of siopao/nikuman. YES - I DID have meat and figured this would qualify as a "once in a lifetime chance" - just like the Kobe beef. ::snort::

I knew my eyes look bad...tired, red and I have this sty so I'm not wearing makeup....but gee whiz.... a "wude" gentleman mistook Rhojon for my eldest daughter. I would have had to be 9 years old when I had her. I said, "No, she's a friend."  He continued to dig his hole by telling me not to worry, "It's only to my eyes you look old." 

We shopped a bit and then headed over to a station to meet Pam and her kids, coming up from Camp Humphreys. Pam was the VP Conference Coordinator on Asia Region Board 2....she followed that by being the  first and only president of PWOC Korea Region. 

The Gherkins and Angels.....

Rhojon took us to a spot where the children could work on crafts and we could visit. What a great idea. It's the sort of spot we would not have found as tourists...and it was perfect. It gave the kids time to do something besides raging around Seoul. 

We also explored Insadong market. This gentleman demonstrated making a traditional candy from a block of honey.....and we bought some. We tried it tonight and no one was real impressed. In fact, Nolan remarked it was a lot like eating a hairball. I'm not sure how he'd know that...but it seems a fair assessment. ::snort:: 

 
These were a hit - and these men were doing a rip-roaring business on this hot day. Those are ice cream cones. Ice cream is piped into both ends of the cone. I resisted (I did a lot of that today - didn't buy a single bag either).

 

As we walked through Insdaong we were approached and asked if we'd answer some questions. I agreed. Then he asked if he could take a picture. Arielle was going to take it for him and he made clear he wanted the photo to be of him and Arielle. ::snort:: ::gasp::  ::hiccup:: This is not the first time this has happened here.

The kids voted Pizza Hut for dinner. Arielle and I are happy to have the veggies from Subway.... we sat by the waterfall again and enjoyed a relaxed dinner. The plan was to visit a pool and watch a movie after dinner. As we talked, however, and our blood sugars rose...our energy levels rose....and we decided we had time tonight to visit Itaewon for a gift for Michael and then to go on to up to Seoul Tower. We didn't find the shop so decided to bag it and find a taxi.  We really didn't know all that was involved in going to Seoul Tower and I'm very happy I took more won than I thought I'd need from the ATM.  We had a hard time getting a taxi. I finally just opened the door of one (they wouldn't look at us), told the kids to jump in and jumped in too. He took us to the "cable car building".  The Discover Seoul desk had told me earlier with as many as we have it would be the same price or cheaper to take taxis as it would be to take subways and buses. I was happy for the tip.

Arielle hates heights; she said she'd been to the Seattle Space Needle, San Antonio Tower, Tokyo Tower and wanted to do Seoul Tower.  We marvel at how well the Koreans do tourism. They have it down to a science. We had no idea there would be so MANY crowds... or that it would be considered the ideal date spot (still not sure we get that - it's CROWDED and a climb which it seems is best done in 6 - 9 inch heels and mini skirts).  We are glad we did go to the tower.

Window shows it's 8,000+KM to Seattle 

 And 9000+ Km to San Francisco

Just for Grandma and Grandpa T - 2,600+ Km to Manila

 
We walked around and enjoyed the view. My camera is woefully inadequate and I'm not sure how all these cell phones were getting great photos. Hmmph.

Then we began the long wait to get back on an elevator, followed by the wait to get on the cable car. All told it took a good 45 - 60 minutes.

Arielle doesn't like heights and is a wee bit claustrophobic. This is the  moment she realized there was one way down and no quick way to get away from these crowds. We asked. I assured all I was sure if there WERE an earthquake or fire they would find more ways for the crowds to exit....they just wanted us standing in front of various snack stores and trinket stores the longest amount of time. ::snort:: 

Choosing Joy!

©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...