I feel like we need to go back to Korea.
First, we had a very Malaysia like experience - it rained a lot. So we dealt with that from pretty much the day we got there (Friday afternoon). Second, there was really one thing that I wanted to do in Korea - visit the Demilitarized Zone (the DMZ). We had our reservation for the USO tour where you get to go to Panmunjeom and straddle the border of North and South Korea, go into the tunnels that the North Koreans have built into South Korea, and stare across the most heavily defended border in the world. You actually have to sign a waiver saying that you acknowledge that military action could break out at any time and that you won't hold the United Nations responsible if you are killed during your tour - how great is that?
But the heavy hand of swine flu swatted those plans aside. A soldier at one of the military bases on the border contracted this glorified flu and, as a result, the bases were sealed and the tours cancelled. We found this out when we showed up for our tour.
So we walked around Seoul and saw some markets and a bunch of palaces (in the rain). Lots of Japanese regularly go to Korea, primarily to shop. It's a combination of a lack of duties in Korea (as opposed to Japan) and a very strong Yen that makes stuff much cheaper in Korea as compared to Japan.
One highlight for Korea - the food. We didn't have a bad meal in Korea. Koreans in the restaurants we went to seemed surprised that we liked the kimchi, but it was really good and there are lots of varieties (not just burn your face off hot). The soup you see that I had in the pics below was really hot if you ate it alone, but was really good with the noodles in the soup. We also got to experience true Korean barbeque thanks to our friends Michael and Lee... really good stuff.
One unique thing about Korea (compared to Japan) - the chopsticks are often metal... a little difficult to eat noodles with.
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