Plan A of cycling in upstate New York spiraled into Plan B when Trump outdid himself by announcing sweeping tariffs on Canada.  We, along with many Canadians, decided to change plans not wanting to spend money in the US or on US goods.

Plan C... the trip was cut short due to a medical emergency.  Ended up being March 22 - April 11 in South Korea, then April 12 - 23  in Japan. We'll have to return another time to do the much anticipated 2 weeks cycling in South Korea.

With 360,000 cherry trees, Jinhae hosts the most popular blossom festival in the country. Dates posted online are a best guess, and an unexpected cold spell has delayed the festival here by 4 days. Each day we walked the 3km (return) boardwalk beside the stream watching the buds open a little more each time. And then another day spent at Gyeonghwa Station, an abandoned rail line flanked by a kilometer of cherry trees and potted spring plants added along the pathway. (March 25-29, Jinhae)

Hardly anyone was around. It felt like the calm before the storm as we watched crews setting up displays, gardeners planting spring flowers, food stalls popping open and for those in the restaurants copious amounts of vegetables were being sliced and diced. In only a few days up to 2 million visitors would descend on this small city.

Finally on the night before the official opening, the lights were turned on and busloads of crowds descended. The festivals around the country are the largest events each year.

Each tree was numbered and over the years ‘tree surgeons’ have added a cement-like material to support the structure where limbs were removed. Just a few of them were painted.

Getting caricatures drawn seems to be a big thing here, in and out of the festivals. We were curious how the young artist would draw 2 Caucasian people because we've only seen about 6 others this week. It turns out all the 'models' get pink faces.

Exercise options are pocketed away in so many places, whether it’s gym equipment in parks or beaches, a barefoot lakeside path and above a section of the sidewalk offered foot and balance work. At the start there was a sign with the foot anatomy and at the end a place to wash your feet if you’d opted to do it barefoot.

With the volume of festival goers in Jinhae on the move, our usual taxis and Uber weren’t an option for leaving town. It was only through the kindness of strangers that we were able to fit our 3 suitcases & 2 backpacks onto a city bus, (“for free” smiled the ticket taker). In the dark we arrived late to our bungalow and the owner wasn’t getting our messages. The lovely couple renting next door came out to rescue us, them shivering in their PJ’s in 0C (of course “unseasonably cold” lol). Our bungalow was built in traditional Hanok style - a unique stay. Above: Heading out wearing a winter jacket with my rain jacket overtop, bundled up for the cold... as I would be for several days. (Gyeongju, March 29 to April 1)

This town turned out to be our favourite for blossoms. Bomun Lake is surrounded by cherry trees and the leisurely 5km path was made all the sweeter with classical music playing from speakers.

Stepping stones across water are at times functional and others decorative.

A favourite time of the day is when the trees are all lit up. Here they line both sides of the road plus the boulevard centre for what feels like kilometers. Everywhere we've seen cherry trees, each has its own light to turn on in the evening.

The Donggung Palace grounds featured a traditional area (above), an observatory and a few pavilions.

The Cheomseongdae Observatory, built in 632AD, is the oldest surviving intact one in Asia.

The main pavilion seen on the palace grounds. Pavilions are typically found in parks and gardens. They're used for enjoying the scenery, hosting gatherings or cultural/artistic events.

Onto our 3rd cherry blossom festival destination. Our hotel had a view of the ocean on one side and on the other a lake with clusters of cherry trees surrounding it. It turned out to be a perfect location. There were 3 beaches spanning multiple towns and they're considered the best in country. (Gangneung, April 2–5)

Here the blossoms were again just starting to pop (still that cold spell), but a bike rental place down the street was handy for a couple of days cycling while we waited for the festival to begin. In the background you can see our hotel, a monolith on the horizon.

After cycling the lake perimeter each day, we headed to the north beach one day and the south on the second. The latter had a length of pine forest running beside the beach. With hard packed sand it was especially pretty to ride through.

Along one beach there were several bunkers with signs saying you can’t go into them. We're just under 200km from the North and South Korea DMZ.

This little town claimed to have the best beach (Anmok Beach) and the best coffee. All in, it was a particularly scenic ride today and the coffees with treats really were exceptional.

On our last day in town, the festival started. Although it was small, it was a hit. We were encouraged to fill in a cherry blossom questionnaire to find out our cherry blossom personality type, pose for pics, make cherry blossom oil and participate in a Korean tea ceremony. (Gangneung, April 2-4)

At the tea ceremony, three ladies fussed about making sure we were doing everything right and one of them took a ton of pics – so fun. First, we had to affix each pine nut to the end of a blade of tough grass, so that we had them to eat later. Then on to heating each of the 3 cups and finally to making and drinking the tea, ensuring its greenness was just right. Before sipping each cup, we ate a pine nut. At the end we were served a puffed rice dessert.

We’re loving the traditional Korean roof tops, especially over the pavilions (here at Deoksugung Palace) with their graceful curves, decorative roof tiles and underlaying supports colourfully painted. (Seoul & Outskirts, April 5-11)

Connected by a canal, both sides of Seokchon Lake were surrounded by blossoms and one side included Magic Island, a not-so-subtle take on Disneyland. Girls were dressed up and posing for pics and classical music played in the background as most of us walked in orderly fashion, in the direction posted.

After a couple of bus rides (transit is awesome) we arrived in the town of Suwon to visit its UNESCO site, the Hwaseong Fortress. Built in 1794, the walls, with a walking path alongside, encompassed a 5.5km ring around the oldest part of the city. It was basically walking up and down a mountain, so good exercise.

Korean BBQ in Suwon was perfect for me to pick out only the items I could eat. The staff in this small restaurant took such good care of us to ensure we were following the steps to make the most of the meal.

Insadong is the Seoul neighborhood to go for cozy coffee shops, pedestrian streets, traditional goods and there are rental places for traditional hanbok clothes like the couple in the background - no problem with cultural appropriation here :)

Due to anticipated protests about whether the president should be impeached, the blossom celebrations were delayed in Seoul. Nature was in alignment and the flowers were still around a week later than predicted and the fullest blossoms we’ve seen. The Yeouido Cherry Blossom Festival is the largest in the city. Yes, I’m still thrilled to see them while Rick at this point is being a good sport.

The country’s population is declining, and steps are being taken to automate jobs. From the humblest café up, self-order machines or iPads at tables are almost everywhere to self-order. This café in City Hall only had a robot to make coffees. Robot servers to deliver your food are less common but we’re still seeing them.

Aside from wanting to see the Gyeongbokgung Palace grounds, it’s a prime photography opportunity because a lot of people rent hanbok clothing.  Hair and accessories services are also on hand for the full-blown experience at this 630-year-old palace.

The changing of the royal guard ceremony.

These 2 girls had a photographer with them, so they were perfectly posed. Everyone was taking pics of everyone else – a free for all.

I had some mystery incident where the left half of my face felt frozen, and then tingling and numbing on my left arm down to my hand. Of course, we hit A.I. and it kept recommending seeking medical attention as soon as possible. That started an 8hr process in an emergency room where they covered the gamut. It’s a good thing I’m small because that patient’s 2-piece didn’t have a lot of extra space. We figured it would be tacky to take a shot of me wandering around with my IV pole. Everyone in EM got one – easily amused by 8hrs, it became comical :). (Footnote: same thing happened 2 days later, but we didn’t go back to EM).

The Lotte Tower, 6th tallest building in the world. This one's for Rick.

Myeongdong's warren of small streets is known for being one of Seoul's main shopping and tourism districts. Wiki says that in 2023, it was listed as the ninth most expensive shopping street in the world. Eating street food, clearly we were in the cheap seats because high-end shopping escaped our attention :)

What we loved about South Korea: Friendly, helpful people, coffee shops (and bakeries) everywhere, taxis were clean and drivers used their meters, heated toilets with a full menu of cleaning options, wide roads, orderly driving, little traffic, many sidewalks included space for cyclists, clean despite very few garbage bins, no strays (but you can hang out with cats at a cat cafe - who knew), and no tipping hassles - they consider tipping rude.

Off to Japan tomorrow for 4 weeks before returning to South Korea for a bike trip. ​

Sumo wrestling was much different than expected. The matches only lasted 30-60 seconds, just enough time for one to use his heft to push the other over the rope at the perimeter. The sport wasn’t gaudy or trash talking (or violent like some North American sports). (Chiba, town outside Tokyo, April 12-19)

Instead, the 3hrs we attended was very ceremonial with singing, pageantry, drums, a comic wrestling skit, and watching one wrestler get his hair elaborately styled. It was a family affair.

TeamLAB Planets is made up of a series of rooms to stimulate the 5 senses. We easily spent 4hrs immersing ourselves in all the experiences. Above; a room full of orchids slowly moved up and down over a mirrored floor - gorgeous and made all the sweeter with the heady scent in the air.

Each room was so playful. In one we waded through knee deep water with images of fish swimming around us. In another we laid on the floor for ages watching laser flowers falling from the sky and in the above room people tossed or squished through giant balls.

A totally joyful day! Disney always makes us smile and DisneySea was no exception. Located at the Tokyo Bay, seawater flowed through the park to make up harbours of the world.

The park was long on stuffies to attach to your body/purse or carry and very short on sweets/garbage food. Aside from all the expected Disney magic, we loved the evening show with characters on boats singing and dancing, lots of sit down eateries, real cutlery and flatware, water bottle refill stations and each bathroom stall had an option to turn on a babbling brook sound effect.

My favourite was Europe because it had a little coffee shop where you could pretend you were in Venice. At the end of a 12hr day it felt like we’d been smiling the whole time.

A trip into the Shinjuku neighbourhood made for a fun night eating and drinking in a small warren of narrow streets with a cozy, historic vibe. Golden-Gai was full of micro eateries.

While not far away, Omoide Yokocho (a.k.a Piss Alley as a nod to its earlier reputation) was the place to hit for little drinking places. At our little 5-seater we had a great time talking with a young couple from Argentina.

Above was the most ornate building on the Emperor’s Imperial Palace grounds. For the most part the other structures followed Japan’s minimalist approach to architecture. We really like the minimalist aesthetic inside buildings, but the external at times looks rectangular and plain.

A dignitary was visiting the imperial palace so a section of the grounds were roped off for the procession.

Sitting on the top level of a double decker bus we had a birds-eye view of the Shibuya area. The 1-hour ride wove through massive crowds of Japan’s young and fashionable, tourists checking out the buzz, expensive shops and interesting little alleys while we learned about the fashion designers who made this area so popular. Once we hit the ground it was fun to join the throngs checking out the neighbourhood. We’ve seen the cat and dog cafes, but here they also had a micro pig cafe where customers could cuddle them.

Shibuya Scramble Crossing is the largest pedestrian crossing in the world with up to 3,000 people traversing it at a time. This was taken after dusk so it didn't even include the daily commuters.

The nearby hi-rise has made a business out of getting people to the top for the Shibuya Crossing viewpoint. Among the photo op locations that people lined up for, we used the no lineup mirror for us to take a rare couple's shot. And for an expensive beer each we had window seats overlooking the city lights to wind down for the night.

Tokyo Night and Light used the municipal government building as the backdrop for a laser show. The plaza below had lots of seating and artificial turf to lay on - all very enjoyable watching scenes unfold ranging from 1980’s PAC-MAN (blast from the past) eating Tokyo to nature scenes. Always on the lookout for the 'est', this building is the largest backdrop in the world for a laser show.

After days of high-rises with shop-sign stacked upon shop-sign, we headed to the outskirts to ride the last remaining tram in the city. It started in a leafy university neighbourhood and traversed through a calmer old-style Tokyo with low-rise buildings, some detached homes, gardens, grey hair and bicycles. At each stop the bell rang, sounding like a San Francisco tram - all very nostalgic.

We could have spent much longer at the National Gardens. Large expanses of grass were ideal for picnics and the various water reflections made for fun photography.

As we passed a series of little storefronts with a set of young women, cleavage on display, at a counter with an older woman sitting in front we realized our apartment was right in the prostitute district. Rick swears he picked it for its proximity to easy transit for Expo :). No pics were allowed so we took one before it opened. (Osaka, April 20-26)

The coffee shop near us is like a time capsule. We sat in rocking chairs watching our hostess freshly grind our beans in an old coffee grinder and then make siphon coffees (a first for us) in one of the ancient looking brew sets lined along the counter. After the coffee she decided to make us tea using water always on the boil in a big cast iron cauldron.

The first conveyor belt sushi opened in 1958 in Osaka after the owner of a restaurant was inspired by the conveyor process while on a beer factory tour. The concept was exhibited at Osaka’s first World Expo in 1970 and the rest is history. So tasty and you get a show watching the chefs.

Above, the wood structure is part of a 2km circle (20m high) that created an inner circle to the Expo grounds, With escalators at various points it was a good birds-eye view of where you needed to be.

It was a full day at Expo. We learned about Carbon Pool Concrete which they claim absorbs CO2 and that Japan is using a person’s own stem cells (from their belly) and injecting them into an afflicted area. For $10K per shot, the relief lasts about 2 years. And there was a lot of focus on hydrogen as an alternative energy. Above: a bed that does an assessment of your body's physical state to create the best possible position, warmth, sounds, etc to ensure you get a good sleep.

We had 3 more days of Expo reserved, along with more adventures planned, but we’ve decided to fly home. It’s been a fabulous run, but each day I’ve been experiencing the numbness and despite my wishing, it hasn’t abated. Its time to go home to sort this mystery out. We’re both very disappointed but feeling positive there’s a solution.

At our last meal in Japan, this little guy assisted the only server in the whole restaurant... adorable watching him roam around.