Chinese New Year Trip:TPE-NRT-SFO

On our way home, we decided to stop by Tokyo to visit some friends

From Chinese New Year trip: Part 3

we were so excited to visit Ko because he recently proposed to his girlfriend on top of the Tokyo tower. Can't wait to attend his wedding. We also had a lot of fun seeing Greg's 2 bedroom apartment in Shinjuku ( yes... with a nice city view).

While in Tokyo, Julie also attended to some very important business:

From Chinese New Year trip: Part 3

From Chinese New Year trip: Part 3

Tenshi no Tamago was something Julie spotted back when she was doing a rotation in Japan. It is a tiny little thing but it is a small egg with wings (Shirley thought it was the snitch from Harry Potter -_-). Although our time in Tokyo was short, Eric and Julie spent 3 hours going from department stores in Shinjuku to department stores in Ginza to find this little thing.

From Chinese New Year trip: Part 3

We had a delicious Tomyum ramen with Greg before we headed off to the airport. The Tomyum ramen was so good that Julie has been craving Tomyum after returning to SF.

From Chinese New Year trip: Part 3

Well... this concludes our refreshing and uplifting vacation.

More pictures:

Chinese New Year Trip: ICN-TPE

Right when we arrived it Taipei, we saw... SALLY??

From Chinese New Year trip: Part 2

O... It's another of Sally's long lost cousins. It turned out that Taiwan now uses Beagles to sniff out any agricultural goods.

From Chinese New Year trip: Part 2

Being in Taiwan, Julie and Eric didn't take a break from their mission to eat as much good food as possible... so they started with a hearty spring roll ( like a burrito) for breakfast.

From Chinese New Year trip: Part 2

They also took notes of interesting signs displayed in public transportation system:

From Chinese New Year trip: Part 2

Here's one at the Kaohsiung metro that looks like:
"be careful going up the escalator, in case of emergency push the red button and if that doesn't work, hit your head really hard at it and it will stop."


We also did a little sightseeing:

From Chinese New Year trip: Part 2

Here is the beautiful stained glass roof of the Formosa station

From Chinese New Year trip: Part 2

Taiwan's version of the bird's nest in Kaohsiung

From Chinese New Year trip: Part 2

Eric became the Singapore lionbutler

From Chinese New Year trip: Part 2

Julie became the Statue of Liberty

From Chinese New Year trip: Part 2

Here is trying out the fish-eye lens on Papa Yang... He didn't like it because he said that it magnified his wrinkles.

From Chinese New Year trip: Part 2

saw my newlywed cousin and her husband ^_^ ( they got married on Julie's birthday)

From Chinese New Year trip: Part 2

We played scratchers again this year... but didn't get the million dollar prize.

From Chinese New Year trip: Part 2

All parties have to come to an end... Eric and Julie hoped on an early bullet train to catch a flight to their next destination.

Happy New Year !!!

More Pictures:

A great song found on the in-flight entertainment

A song I found on the in-flight entertainment from SFO to ICN. Didn't know this actor can sing!

Chinese New Year Trip: SFO-Korea

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

We were so excited to go on this vacation after such a long vacation drought. We started our trip by joining the first stop of grandmother's 90th birthday SF tour at SFO. Since we are not using our apartment, we thought it would be nice for grandmother to enjoy the lovely view of the bay bridge on her birthday.

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

After a quick hug/picture/car driver swap, the girls were off to enjoy the sunny SF city while we hurried in to get on our flight to Korea.

We were so lucky to get on business to enjoyed the warm nuts and champagne before the take off.

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

Fresh fruits for snack... what a treat!

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

As we got closer to Korea, Julie and Eric were anticipating the extreme cold weather ( Weather channel: -10 degrees Celsius... Brrrrr)

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

We arrived at our B&B. It was such a neat place. Julie thought it was an original traditional house... Eric pop her bubble by telling her that it is a rebuild.

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

We visited a few palaces:

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

But the most important part was the food:

* Neat breakfast on our first day: curry buns and rice ball with blue label (Julie was guessing that it was fish... you know blue=fish...and it was ^_^)

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

Then we found this pancake with honey and peanut snack on the street: ( extremely gooey and delicious... dripped on Julie's coat)

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

Then some yummy red bean paste cake with extra crispy shell:

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

How about some Bulgogi and tofu pot

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

Wait, Wait... how about some mandoo for snack:

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

Lets finish the day with some sulfurous duck:

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

The duck was so juicy... and it went really well with soju... mmmmm...
The menu said that the order is big enough for 3 people... Eric and Julie polished it off.

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

We also did a little window shopping and found some interesting signs:

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

we found Black Face

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

...and porky children

We started the trip with a lot of food and we were determine to end the trip with more good food.

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

a nice Starbucks green tea cranberry scone with mocha

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

last minute eating with the ginsing chicken soup

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

we visited the world's best air hub: ICN and bought some kimchi chocolate at the duty free shop

From Chinese New Year trip: Part I

then it was time to say goodbye to Seoul and head for our next destination!

More pictures:

Beautiful sunset before the trip

From quick walk

While Julie was waiting for Eric to return home from work on Friday, she can't help but notice the beautiful sunset outside of their bay window. The colors were a mix of purple, orange, and yellow.

From quick walk

Julie decided to take a quick walk in the neighborhood with her new fish eye lens and the pictures turned out amazing.

From quick walk

Happy Birthday to ME~~ Part II: come fly with me

To celebrate Julie's "20"th birthday(again), the gang decided to go for some zero gravity at: This was not just to celebrate Julie's birthday but also to celebrate the recovery ( majority) of her back injury.

At first, there was a little nerves involved...

but a few seconds into it... what concerned Julie the most was not the flying but the uncontrolable drooling...

Since Julie had a big smile when she entered the wind tunnel, the wind made it difficult to close her mouth... therefore the slobber ^_^Here is Eric demonstrating the perfect technique of closing his mouth to prevent the zero gravity Niagra Falls.

Round 1: E&J

Round 1: M&A

Round 1: J&A


Round 2:E&J

Round2: M&A


Round2: J&A

Cool birthday gifts!

Thanks to Carol, Julie got a lavender de-stress neck pillow to help with her neck/back healing.

Thanks to the girls, Julie got a pair of really fancy fuzzy slippers to keep her toes warm from the cold cold SF nights. This will also stop her from wipping the bottoms of her boots to be able to wear it indoors.

Thanks to Noelle, Julie got her very own magical drawer set ( the set Julie didn't get to have from Christmas, with hidden drawers and smells really nice).

Thanks to the gang, Julie got to experience sky diving without the height ^_^ with indoor sky diving ( videos coming soon).

And the coolest of all, Julie got a fish eye lens from Eric for her camera. Expect more funny pictures ^_^