Friday, July 23 - Colin left last evening to fly to Seoul, South Korea. He called his West grandparents last evening from the airport, and then used a computer in the airport for 100 yen (about $1.15) to email us at home too. He called home Wednesday morning at 1:30 am (5:30 pm his time) and we talked for a little while. His host families have been "very kind and generous," he said. He is really enjoying this trip! Then he called again Wednesday evening (Thursday morning his time) to talk to Brady, Garrett, and Annabelle. They all enjoyed talking to each other, and Colin and Brady talked about the start of middle school for Brady. Annabelle told him about a letter she has written to him (and fully decorated the envelope with hearts), but we don't know how to mail it to him. (partly because there is no room on the decorated envelope for silly things like addresses and stamps).

We did go to a Japanese restaurant on Wednesday night. After a little research, we realized that Sakura is very American and barely Japanese at all. So, we went to a place called Samurai. The reviews were glowing and said that it is "every day Japanese fare," and many Japanese people recommended it. It was great! In fact, we saw several Japanese eat there while we were there. Always the best recommendation! We tried Ikasansai (marinated squid and vegetables). It was a cold salad--a little sweet and very good. Then we split two different main dishes, Yakiniku and Teppan chicken. The Yakiniku was pan-fried slices of beef and vegetables with special sauce. It had potato salad, sunomono (sweet cold cucumber salad) and rice with it. Then we tried to get sushi. We cheated and had California rolls, which were crab, cucumber and avacado. No raw fish, but it still looked like sushi and was very good. We brought a couple home and Brady tried it too.

Colin said Wednesday that from that day on, he has a concert every day for the rest of his trip (except Friday when they spend most of the day travelling to Seoul). He is surprised how quickly the trip is progressing, and he couldn't believe a whole week has passed already. I don't know if we'll hear from him this week. His phone card doesn't work in Korea, and we will probably be limited to email. He will also be very busy at the festival all week.

Saturday, the boys have been invited to perform at South Korea's "Everland" park. It's like a Korean Disneyland, and they have an American West/cowboy themed section of the park. The boys will be singing their cowboy songs and doing their rodeo roping.