​We joined Erin's sister Aubrey, an American expat and Seoul expert for a week of working, shopping, eating and exploring South Korea's capital. Since Aubrey knows Seoul best, we left the planning to her and in a complete change of pace, we didn't make an itinerary.

Seoul, Kyoto, Tokyo
In October 2013, we embarked on our first transpacific flight to Asia from California.  Our first stop was Seoul, South Korea to visit Erin's sister Aubrey.  Once together, we traveled to Kyoto and Tokyo.  We departed from SFO at 11 am and arrived in Seoul 12 hours later.  We dropped our bags off at the Designers' hotel, which featured Banksy-like graffiti in each room.  Although our body clocks were 12 hours off, we couldn't wait to explore Seoul's contrasting Eastern culture.