SF and the Korean Love Hotels along the way...

I'm a very tired boy!  I'm in SF at casa de Yeh...  its been a long two days.  I'll blog more about the rest of my trip tomorrow,  but here's the first part of the trip - Korea!  (i typed it up on the plane on my way across the pacific):

昨天從香港到舊金山座飛機.在漢城換機.12小時需要等.

昨日僕は香港からサンフランシスコまで行った。ソウルで乗り換えました。12時間待てなければなりません!

On my way from HK to the US I had a red eye flight out of HK and then a 12 hour stop over in Incheon airport.  I arrived around 4:45 am and my flight to SF left at 4:30 pm. I had read on wikitravel that Asiana offers free hotel or tours to some passengers w/ long layovers, but I had assumed that was for people there longer.  Butafter waiting in a few lines, I found out I was eligible for free hotel room!  score! 可是Asiana航空免費酒店房子送給我!非常棒!

でもAsiana会社無料ホテル部屋くれました！すごい！

The tour they had was free too,  but it definitely wasn't worth it... it was raining cats and dogs outside and the tour didn't start til 9am (~3 hours wait by that point)... besides I had seen a lot of Seoul when I came last december w/ Mcchubb.  I opted for the free hotel room.  I could get free lunch, a place to wash up and nap.

A van took us to the hotel in a nearby Incheon suburb called 'Airport Village'...  we turned onto a narrow street that seemed to be full of small hotels.  I noticed some had blinking blue neon signs and suddenly I became suspicious... when we pulled into an enclosed ground floor parking lot that let directly to a small lobby I grew more suspicious...  the woman behind the desk took my voucher and handed me a key and lunch ticket.  I went upstairs to my room and I noticed there were light-up panels above the doors of the rooms w/ the room number on it - some lit, some dark, some blinking.  Oh yes,  I definitely knew what I was in for now... 

After I entered my room I confirmed it...

this hotel apparently used to be a 'Love Hotel'!  可是這個飯店是以前的'愛情飯店'(在日本專用作愛的酒店)韓國的萬千一樣的!

でも入った時早く知っていました：このホテル前のラブホテルでした！韓国ヴァシュンですね！

I have never been to one in Korea,  but all indications are that they are 99% the same as ones in Japan. It had it all:  big bed,  the remote control that switches between different moods of lighting,  the control panel behind the bed, the fancy bathroom w/ whirlpool and multi-shower heads:  

But apparently now its converted  to more wholesome uses...  layovers for Asiana customers. :-P

(at least they got rid of the cheesy color schemes and colored lights)

The 5 hour power nap was great.  I even got to take a shower and watch the first part of a VCD I had in my bag on the TV.  At 2 they drove us back to the airport where I tried to do all the omiyage shopping I didn't have time to do in HK before I left...

It was a long flight to SF,  but despite the poor bladder timing of the korean couple next to me and the hacking cough of the old lady across the aisle, i made it in one piece.  This is me recharging my various goodies at a table in SFO:

laptop - check,  cell phone - check,  DS - check... airwaves gum (recharge my stanky 2 days old breath) - check.

It was a terrific SF day... its about 17 degrees (~63F) right now... compare this to HK which is around 30-32 nowadays (~86-90F):

There's the international terminal at SFO from the 'air train'...

舊金山機場.今天的天氣非常好!17度!

SFの天気とても良かった。１７度だけ！

I am currently undergoing a great deal of culture shock (more on that later)...  but its great to see my friends. I saw 'mermaid'  'eyeh' and mrs. Eyeh, and my first meeting of baby eyeh:

I am now officially 'uncle etchy'...

現在小葉在.第一次我見到.現在我叫Etchy叔叔!

長い間見ませんの友達見た。。。今子供が有る！