I recently visited an area in South Korea called Dongducheon. Dongducheon is far north of Seoul and relatively close to the border with North Korea. Calling it ‘rural’ would be a nice way to describe the area. One of the few things that people visiting Dongducheon often do is tour the Korean demilitarized zone, also known as the DMZ. I, and my colleagues made sure to do the same.

My co-workers and I took our tour on Sunday April 1st. Naturally, I spent most of the 1 hour bus ride out to the DMZ playing dark April’s Fool prank scenarios out in my head; all of which would have landed me in jail, gotten me killed,  and/or started an international incident. The bus ride went by pretty fast…

As luck would have it, President Obama had just visited the DMZ on the weekend prior. Because of this, Tensions were still much higher than usual. (This was something that our tour guide was very eager to point out.) Unfortunately, because of the heightened security, we were unable to visit one of the most interesting areas of the tour, Panmunjom. This meant no photos of the North Korean guards… bummer.

We did however get the take the 3rd tunnel tour. I found this to be the most interesting part of the trip. Again, no photos were allowed… The best that I could do was to take a quick snap of the CCTV monitor in the main lobby. (see bottom photo) Info on the 3rd tunnel here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Tunnel_of_Aggressio

Even though camera use was banned on most of the tour, I did enjoy the trip and I would recommend it to anyone visiting the region. There is a lot of interesting history, and I did get the feeling that reunification of the two Koreas is not far off.

Some kids have it better than others. Here is my buddy’s little boy, Kaimana. Kaimana is not yet 5 years old, but he can already jet ski, wakeboard, snowboard, and cruise on a motorbike.

The bike is a custom pocket bike that his father built for him, complete with Ryujin Mabuyer paint scheme. Truly one of the coolest toys around.

A few more pics of Kaimana and his bike can be found on my Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.405476442811086.117450.132550073437059&type=1

Back in January I was fortunate enough to travel to Hokkaido with some good friends. While in the city of Sapporo we made a visit to a very special beer bar by the name of MugiShutei. If you do not know of MugiShutei, let me tell you, this place is heaven for beer connoisseurs.

One of the remarkable things about this bar is the large row of beer refrigerators that span the entire length of the room. Within these sacred receptacles you will find what can only be described as an an epic abundance of fine beers. You will find brews ranging from popular American labels such as Stone Brewing Co. and Rouge Ales, to obscure European brews with lable designs that might lead one to believe that they are one-offs. All of which I discovered (*hic), were very delicious.

Pictured above is the owner and propitiatory of MugiShutei, Hokkaido’s ‘Beer Professor”, Mr Phred Kaufman. If you’ve ever enjoyed an import micro/craft brew in Japan, chances are that it was imported by Phred. Besides running a successful haven for beer lovers, Phred is also one of the largest importer of fine beers in all of Japan. He’s also a super nice guy (and a Californian).

So make a note, if you ever visit Sapporo, make sure to dedicate and evening to his bar. You can thank me later.