I woke about 7:30. Then did the usual exercise, eat, shower and dress. I got out the crock pot and put in the liver I defrosted last night, along with some leftover kimchi juice. I thought we were going to Dongdaemun today but the other two ladies couldn't go at the last minute. Maybe we will go Friday. So instead, I went to the thrift shop. It was open for business today, which makes it harder for me to shelve books, etc. I was 2 hours short for this month and no one is coming tomorrow, so this was my last day to get them in. I had done all the books yesterday, so today I finished up the recordable CD's. Ella, the manager, asked me to weed out magazines to get the three baskets down to two. So I did. Then I let the volunteers pick what they wanted from the weeded out ones. Someone had donated a bag of cassette tapes. I checked and sorted them, and put them out on a shelf. I had to rearrange all the tapes so that the titles could easily be seen. We had a few videos, too. Mary Ann came in with some tuna kimbap. It was very good. AFter two hours at the thrift shop, I went to the Chosun to get a scholarship application and look at the silk. But they didn't have any silk. Hmmm. I was certain someone said a new shipment had come in. Then I went home to do laundry. The temp was above 32 so the water wouldn't freeze. While doing laundry, it snowed hard. Well! I emptied all the water from the drain hose after the last load. One white shirt had a small stain on it. I used Spray and Wash, and tried bleach, but it just wouldn't come out. I kept checking on the liver. At one point I tried eating some with the pickled onions, but they were still too strong. So I threw them in with the liver and let it cook some more. (I had to cook it in the bathroom because the cord was so short) During this time I cleared out more e-mail, and tried to find info on how many quilts we've made for QOV and Stork's Nest. The info was not where it should have been, but I discovered that by reading past posts, most of the info is recorded in my blog! Also I cut out the article in the post paper about the longarm opening. It was a nice picture but the article didn't make much sense. There was another article in the paper by the same Korean writer, and it was fine so I don't know what happened. Finally the liver and onions were cooked to my standards, but I wasn't hungry anymore so I put it in the fridge.
** Thursday Jan 21 **
Yesterday's 7:30 wake-up call was not repeated. I guess you have to renew it every day. Finally I got suspicious and checked the time. It was 8:30! I jumped out of bed and started packing. I had to figure out what to mail to Korea and what to take with me on the plane. I could not bear to part with my new fabric so I decided to MPS my dirty clothes and three kimonos to our APO. When C knocked on our door to ask if we wanted to read her magazine on the plane, that woke J up. We ordered breakfast and showered. When I finally finished my packing arrangements, J and I went to the convenience store in the hotel to have our stuff boxed. Then we stopped by the hotel post office. J had to pay to mail hers to the states (she's leaving soon), I used Military Postal Service (MPS) to send mine back to Korean and it was free.
Back in the room, we made sure we had enough yen to get us on the subway, and for the train to the airport. We said goodbye to the hotel (see pic above). A and C joined us as we dragged our baggage to the subway station. We rode to Asakusa to see a temple. Lucky for us there were lockers where we could store our things. They had rickshaws, but at $60 they really take you for a ride. Walking to the temple we passed many vendors selling touristy stuff. Before going inside, many people purified their hands and mouths with water from a fountain just outside. Then they went inside, threw money in a trough, and said a prayer. Some bought a prayer on paper and tied the paper to a rack. After seeing the crowded temple, we went to an Arts and Crafts museum. It was free, small, and in Japanese. Then outside, we saw a 100 yen store (roughly a $1). Nearly was a small restaurant with a staff of one.
He took our orders and prepared them one at a time in a back room. It was both good and inexpensive. After lunch we walked back to claim our things. We weren't short on time and I wanted to explore some of the shops, but had to hurry to keep up with the others. With our stuff we headed into the subway. C's bag was so heavy I helped her carry it up staircases. We caught the subway to Ueno, then the $10 train to the airport. It was a good thing we got on when we did because that train filled quickly and we would have been standing for over an hour. At the airport, there were no steps, only escalators. Yea! We had some trouble getting boarding passes because United wanted everyone to self-check and it just wasn't working. But after that everything went well. We ate some nuts waiting for the plane to board. I had my gum for take-off. This time there was no ear trouble at either end of the trip.
WE landed just after nine, and were at the bus terminal by 10. They were holding the bus, so we took a taxi, which might have been faster. I drove A and C home from the DHL and then went home myself. It had been short-sleeve weather in Tokyo when we left, but still freezing in Korea. I was ready to go back.
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