Korea: Christmas at Yonie's

While it's a bit early for Christmas yet, as we haven't even had Halloween yet, the nostalgia of winter holidays seems fitting enough to roll out this post celebrating the last (and only!) Christmas I spent in Seoul, living with Yonie. It had been quite a ride! I lived in Korea for six months, the entirety of which I spent living in her apartment, which I shared with a rotating roster of various other guests (who booked on AirBnB) along with other artists who would sometimes stop through to visit. The caricature community is a small one, after all, so most of us end up knowing eachother, especially when we tend to spend extended stays in the same countries. Sometimes this rotating company meant letting a small, quiet Japanese girl in some evening after 11pm, when the creepypasta I'd been reading had thoroughly tainted the tone with spoopies and I was disproportionately spooked by the doorbell, others it meant an impromptu evening of shopping and Doctor Strange with Yonie and Sam. Yonie always takes pride in her hostess skills and as such, she arranged quite a lot of activities for everyone throughout my time there- including this Christmas eve celebration, replete with caricature-themed (or named) wine, red velvet cake, candles and company. It was a lovely evening, and while I had a nice time with everyone, I was more wrapped up with my preparations for leaving Korea in the next 24 hours or so. This was the final stretch of my time living in Seoul, and it was a nice gathering to top it off. While at times I may not have always agreed with Yonie, like when it comes to leaving an oscillating fan on overnight (there's a Korean superstition that leaving a fan on overnight can lead to death) or the scent of cooked fish, I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity she allowed me to have and the incredible adventure I was able to embark upon thanks to her kindness, openness, and hospitality. While nothing is ever perfect, it was pretty fun overall and was absolutely a learning experience. 

Vegas: Opportunity Village Magical Forest

Opportunity Village is a well-loved Las Vegas destination and a fixture of the community. Funded in 1954 the not-for-profit organisation have been working to help members of our community with various disabilities through a wide variety of services- from arts and crafts classes to vocational training, community employment and more. They claim to be Las Vegas's favorite charity and they might very well be right. For the holidays Opportunity Village opens it's doors to the public and goes all out with their Magical Forest extravaganza, a festive holiday experience for the whole family! It's a lot of fun and there's so much to see and do, from carnival rides to a psychedelic 3D maze (it was intense and really fun, my kudos to the people who made it happen)...there's even a train! We had a lot of fun wandering through the illuminated corridors together. It was a brisk night out so I wore a unicorn onesie for warmth, which entertained a few people. Better warm than sick, right? #Unicornlife

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The Magical Forest is only open for the holiday season, so if you'd like to visit you'll have to time it for then. It makes sense, of course! It's beautiful and I would recommend dropping by if you happen to find yourself in town in time. Since Opportunity Village is a not-for-profit organisation the cost of admission goes towards helping the people who need it, which is a nice feel-good perk. There's also ample hot beverages and food available both inside and outside the village, so if hunger strikes while you're out never fear! We had pretzels and hot cocoa along with some fancy cashews with a sweet and crunchy coating. It was all pretty tasty and fuelled us up to continue our adventure!

More photos below!

Vegas: Ethel M. Chocolate Factory Cactus Garden Illuminations

Ethel M. Chocolate Factory is a true Las Vegas institution, having been in the city since1981 after being opened by Forrest Mars Sr., of the Mars chocolate brand- if you didn't know, Mars is the company behind Snickers and M&Ms so you know that if their mass-produced candies are reliably good then their specialty stuff is going to be something else. Their goal at the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory is to produce some of the finest chocolates in the entire Mars company's portfolio using recipes handed down from Forrest's own grandmother Ethel. Ethel was the inspiration for what Forrest later went on to do with chocolate in his company later on, so we're pretty lucky to have this place in our little valley. There are some real world class chefs and culinary artists throughout Vegas due to our profile as a world-class tourism destination and the locals get to reap the rewards of that, too. 

The factory will be especially familiar for any Vegas locals who went to school here, I bet.  I grew up in the city and attended several schools around town and one of the strongest memories I have is going on a field trip to the factory! It's a lot of fun and you can catch a glimpse at the magic going on behind the scenes. During this visit we were stopping in with a lot of other folks as the factory has a large cactus garden that lights up for the holidays and is free to the public! Not surprisingly it's a popular attraction and a great boon to the profits of the factory too, as people stopping in to see the free tour will get a delicious piece of chocolate before finding themselves in the gift shop. The sweet taste of the decadent chocolate lingering on the tongue makes it hard to resist when confronted with multiple displays of glossy, sprinkled, filled, cream, dipped, assorted chocolates here! There's bound to be one for every taste, whether you're a fan of nougat or chocolate covered cherries, hot chocolate or boozy barrel chocolates bursting with depth and flavour.  You can make your own boxes, too, which is genius! Never again will you have to nibble your way cautiously through a box of unbeknown flavours trying to avoid a landmine. Take that, Forrest Gump! This is 2018, baby, and we can select whatever chocolates we want in our boxes, thank you very much. 

The illuminations in the garden are, of course, stunning! We had a lot of fun wandering the paths and looking at the displays, hot chocolates in hand. If you stop in for a visit during the winter we can definitely recommend their hot chocolate, they were delicious! Photos of the lights and the rest of our visit will follow below. 

Japan: Harajuku Illuminations 2012-11-22

Harajuku is a vivacious and colorful district of Tokyo renowned for it's "Harajuku girl" fashions. 

Trendy and fun though the fashions may be, they are primarily geared towards teenaged girls rather than 20-something adults…that's where Omotesando comes in!

Catering to a slightly more mature audience, the styles are still eclectic and fun without being quite as avant garde (and the prices reflect it). Don't be too quick to dismiss either neighborhood as there are all sorts of fun shops and unexpected surprises around every corner. 

You can quite literally shop high & low by walking only a few short blocks! 

Whichever your preference, there's no denying the charm of walking through the winding streets of these neighborhoods and good company just makes it better.

On this particular evening, Kazu and I met in Harajuku with plans to take in some of the illumination displays that were going on. Several of the displays crept through the entire building, causing the crowds of curious to wind their way up to the roof. Kazu had the map and led the way, I gawked and took photos.