Trip to Fukuoka, JAPAN. "Visa Run"

Well on Sept. 27 I headed to Fukuoka, Japan to get my work Visa to be able to spend the year Teaching in Korea. The Korean Consulate reviews my application and then stamps my visa number into my passport. It was a very quick trip. I left my place in Korea at 6am Thurs. and arrived in Japan around 11am, rushed to the Korean Consulate, spent the day and night, picked up my Passport at 9am Fri., then headed to the airport to catch a 12pm (noon) flight back to Korea. Then back to the Academy to teach 2 classes friday evening. Damn....that was quick. Not much time but it was a fun time, indeed.

So to start, I met a few other foreigners on the way for their "visa run" and we arrived at the Korean Consulate at lunch time, so we had to be back at 130pm. We walked around and found a place to eat, nothing to special, but some good fish. The Consulate was near a big baseball stadium. The Fukuoka Yahoo! Dome. Pretty cool place. The roof actually opens up. I even saw a few people camping out for tickets...must be a major team....Ends up it's the home of the "Fukuoka Soft Bank Hawks" baseball team.


Cool clock tower and garden area.....


This was up at the Stadium. Cool looking statue.....

In the afternoon I walked around solo and found the beach.....on my way a couple of Rastafarian's hippy dudes were playin' the drums....
Good sounds for a walk by the beach.

A view of the beach, nice and quite, sun beams coming down by the Fukuoka Tower. The tower is the highest seaside tower in Japan....234meters high. I decided I would be a tourist and head that way soon to check out the views from above.


But first, I found a pier to walk out on and take a rest by the water. It was nice and cool by the water, but inland the heat and humidity was pretty bad...instant sweat. I was amazed when I got back to S.Korea how much cooler it was. I am excited for the cooler fall weather. Anyway, walking down the beach, I picked up a few sea shells and enjoyed the lap of the water hitting the beach with the Rasta drums in the background.

A view from the pier, looking back at the Yahoo! Dome and the Jal Mega Hotel. The dome is the first in Japan to have a retractable roof. That's also an impressive slicey looking hotel.

The Fukuoka Tower in the distance.


Here's a self portrait shot from the pier......

Time to jump in and take a dip......just kidding.....

Follow the footsteps to the tower!!!

A view from the base of the tower.....

I made it. Glad I decided to come up here. Sweet view! Someone insisted on taking my photo, in the tower. Now...I am acting like a real tourist....! I guess, sometimes you have to. So I was having fun with it.


Long way up here....


A nice European style Restaurant area....called Marizon.


Chilling on a couch for a bit, I caught a bit of the Sunset.....Well it's getting kinda late and I need to hit the subway and find some food (preferably some Sushi/Sashimi) and a place to stay...so, I'm outta here.....

On the walk back to the subway, noticed this old mini cooper. pretty cool with the British flag in the back seat. I thought of a 007 movie. Although Bond....James...Bond, probably did not drive a mini......

Took the Subway to a major station, asked a few people where a good restaurant is and was able to find this place. Thanks to two Japanese sisters. The place is called "kakomi"



Lots of Saki on the walls.....Steve Sell, this is your kinda place....So I sat here at the bar and I opted for the Asahi beer on tap, which was so tasty and my favorite Japanese brew. None-the-less, I had a hard time leaving. I have really only had Asahi in the bottle and it's similar to a good Guinness on tap.....great head! The head chef did give me a really good Japanese Saki, so at least I tried one....

OK, time to eat...Yahoo! This time not meaning the Dome....he..he...! Check it out Maguro and Salmon sashimi. So delicious.....I think it is some of the best I have had. So fresh!

I did make friends with the head Chef and he styled me with a bunch of free dishes to try. Great guy, we talked about the Denver Rockies (baseball team) and the Avalanche (hockey team). Good times....So pretty much I stayed there for 3 hours or so....ate, drank and felt happy. Below are some Sobe cold noodles. Lots of tasty food....I even had raw octopus and some tie (which is kinda like snapper)....chicken, salads, other fish, dessert, etc...more Asahi....

So, I finally left "kakomi" found a hotel and crashed out. Did not sleep to well, but OK, You can always sleep. Right! So, below is the next day...I headed to a fish market but could not get in to take some photos, so I headed back to the Korean Consulate area......

I ended up eating at the Jal Hotel (mega slicey hotel near the Yahoo! Dome). They were having an all-you-can-eat buffet...I found my place....time to eat. So it was kinda expensive, around 2310 Yen which is around 20$USD. But it was worth it. Lots of good interesting food.




This is a shot looking in. Cool building.

Nice flower I noticed while I was walking around. Thinking back to eating, I think I spent almost 2 hours at the Breakfast Buffet...so it was worth 2310 Yen.

This was kinda cool.....molded brass hands of famous people that have visited the Yahoo! Dome.
The middle blue one is Michael Jackson..I remember one of my first cassette tapes was Thriller..I did take his glove off for the shot. :)



Was able to shake Frank Sinatra's hand in JAPAN!

Looking down at the row of hands....running down the line giving high-5's was fun! This time no one wanted to take my photo. hmmmmm.......


Time to pick up my passport and race to the airport.....I was pretty sure it would be complete and at 9am it was ready....OK, time to bee-line it back to the Airport for a 12pm flight.



Some posters of South Korea in front of the Consulate on Display.....lower right one is of Thai-Chi, very popular sport in S.Korea. I thought for a second, maybe while I am in Korea I should take up Thai-Chi......really, only for a moment, we'll see! So much to do!



This was interesting...some Ginseng in bottles, different roots, bark, mushrooms, etc. Kind of Eastern Herbal Medicine shop, if only I had a bit more time to check it out....

In the Subway area.....getting close. Like the Koreans, they like their Soccer. This was down at the subway line...


Japanese flag flyin' in the wind....what a beautiful day.


Well...I made it to the airport with plenty of time to relax before the flight....after a 20-30minute walk, subway and a bus ride, it's time to head back to Korea......flying Asiana Air, highly recommended, one of the better airlines out there.



Sayonara for now.....until next time....hope you enjoyed the "visa run" to JAPAN!

Trip to USANA Korea Headquarters in Seoul.......

Well......It's nice to know that USANA is open in Korea and I will be able to work my business here and build internationally. What an exceptional company. Looking forward to sharing the vision of Dr. Myron Wentz worldwide.
So.........I received an email from USANA Korea with a map of which subway station to get off and where they are located. It's not a bad trip.....about an 1hr. from my door in Jeongja (part of Bundang).


After getting off the subway at the Samseong Station, pretty upscale part of Seoul.....cool art work along the streets.....this pic goes out to Vanessa....the statue of the Violinist. (statue on the left). If you do not know who Vanessa is, she is a professional Violinist living in Denver that I had the privilege to know in the last year.

I'll let your imagination run on this one........

Found the building....first impression...wow..maybe I should be dressed a bit more professional...not to worry, USANA is about well being....and I am all about that.......
Photo of looking into the office area....


Products and info on display.....I was given a warm welcome to USANA Korea and was able to sit down and talk details about building the biz here. The potential is huge, Korea is all about well being right now and are on a health kick...looks like I have come at the right time.


OK..you can laugh. I had to take a cheesy picture by the front desk area.


Walking back I noticed a Mini Cooper car dealership. Pretty cool Mini above the door way...

Well, it was a nice morning trip to USANA Korea. I figured out the procedures, picked up some product for my first Customer here and also picked up my monthly autoship. Unfortunately they do not carry all the products that USANA U.S.A the "mothership" has....but I'll make due. Thanks mom for sending me some Peanut Butter Crunch Nutrition Bars. Love them! I will increase my in-take of optimizers while living here, I figure it couldn't hurt with a bit more pollution, living in a city, and teaching little kiddos. Long term health is key, especially the lifestyles we all lead....I know I want to be healthy like my father when I am older.....

Thanks again for visiting....stay tuned, hopefully tonight I will be updating with my trip to Japan for my 'Visa Run'.......All the Best!!!

Well....after 3 weeks, time has been flying by....I have a new MTB "mountain bike"

Here is a pic of my new ride. I bought the frame/fork/bars/stem/seat/seat post off my friend/neighbor, Erin. He gave me a sweet deal and then the local shop "SAY mtb" built the rest of it up. It's a hard tail, fairly light, and as time goes on I may lighten it up with some better parts. Overall, it's a pretty nice ride for the $$!


One of the first of many rides in the mountains. There were about 7 of us all together. Fun times & Good riders. They were all a bit amazed at my skills, but I guess after living in Colorado for over 15 years, that's what happens. What can I say, "I LOVE TO RIDE!" It is sure nice to be riding. Especially nice that I can ride out my door and hit the trails within 5-15 minutes of pavement.

This is before tackling my first Korean single track. Here we go. Yahoo!


Taking a break at one of the major view points. Re-fueling. Ready to hit the 2nd and 3rd mountains.
Say Cheese! Here's one for the boyz back in Boulder, Colorado. Wearin' the colors of the SG (Sports Garage) Militia!


Here's a view of some of the local Single Track. Not bad.....it's a bit blurry, I'll try and take some better shots as the rides go on. This was a fun descent...started off a bit technical then turned into some nice smooth buff goodness. Time to go Fast!

A view from the one of the many ridge trails.......


This was interesting....any one need any beef to chew on? Korean butcher shop.


Local shop riders.

I keep seeing these spiders, hoping not to ride through a web rides or take a spill and be looking straight into one's eyes. Gotta be poisonous. Need to look that up!

A rider's breakfast....well, my breakfast before this mornings 4.5 hr. ride. It lasted most of the ride, until having a recovery USANA shake. A little Ethiopia Sidamo Blend French Press Coffee, some Thin Egg Noodle Pasta, Two Eggs, Exotic Mushrooms, Garlic, and little Sausages. mmmm....pretty tasty. Prepared on my little two burner gas range.

Our new friend and tour guide Ken. He has lived in Portland, Oregon for 14 years and is a native Korean. Really nice guy. Why I say tour guide, he showed us some new trails. Trails keep on coming. I really did move to a X-country mecca in South Korea. Yahoo!

Riding past some graves. This was one of the wealthier individuals in Korea. It's amazing, there are graves all over the lands of Korea.


Top of the mountain, chillin'.....

A view of one of the largest cemetery's that I have seen. It is a holiday right now called Chusok. It's like our thanksgiving. We saw a lot of people having picnics at their family's grave site.

Another break, they like to take breaks....It's funny how we just hammer the whole ride back in Colorado...which I prefer...I guess that's why I am riding so well here, and we're at sea level with an Elevation from 0' to 2000'. I prefer less breaks so the legs keep loose. None-the-less, I am enjoying every moment of it.....can't complain....a little over 3 weeks and I am riding in S.Korea.
Although, they do have these cool frozen milkshakes that are pretty darn good.

A local drying out the Korean red pepper....these are not the hot ones....

Well that's all the single track for the day. We headed back next to the Tan Chan River, the nice riding/walking paths. 15 minutes and we'll be home. I did notice this outdoor climbing wall, in the bottom left part of the picture. I'll have to ride down the bike path some day soon with my climbing shoes and meet some climbers. Something to look forward to.

More to come...STAY TUNED!!!!