KOREA

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Oh the dilemma... Three days off, what to do with the other two? Bridge days, of course!!! Now the question, where to go? Korea? Korea. Seoul to be exact.

Japan had silver week this past week, so me and my trainee friend Zena took a break and headed over to South Korea to explore a new city and reset our visa in the process. Our destination was Seoul. Neither of us had been there before, so we were both pumped to get the fun started.

The trip got right off to a great start. As we were checking into the flight at Narita, something was up. The lady was super quiet, and called some people without saying something, but then all of a sudden she informed us we were being bumped up to first class at no charge. Seriously? What a treat!!!

We got in late Monday night, made it to the hostel and right away knew this was going to be a fun trip. Our hostel was right in the middle of a university district, and four buildings down to the Main Street was a green corridor that ended up being the place to go for chill beers on the grass. Recipe for success? Oh yes.

Tuesday...

...was when the fun got started. First things first, we made our way to Nandaemun Market. We got off a stop early, walked a bit through town, and went through the Seoul Station. Their main train station is huge, and especially for such an isolated country, quite an impressive hub.

Outside of the new station, they had an exhibition on Korea's contemporary history in the old train station building. Here we got a glimpse of what Korea has gone through recently. It was a very interesting look at the country's growth to a strong world player from a completely undeveloped place.

Next, we reached the market. It's no surprise that food was the first thing that crossed our path. Before this trip I knew I liked Kimchi, and of course donuts were always a treat. But never had I imagined combining the two. To my surprise, however, that's exactly what crossed my path, and holy shit was it good. Kimchi Donut, my favorite treat from the entire trip.

Overall, the market was crazy, and felt like my preconceived notion of an Asian street market. Hustle and bustle everywhere you looked, goods and products spilling out of every stand and stall (all of which I couldn't help but think would fall apart after first use), people all over the place, motorcycles going wherever they wanted with no regard for humans in their way, and a whole slew of other fun stuff. This was awesome, and provided plenty of great sights, eats, and treats in every direction.

Right close to the market was a big gate from the fortress that used to surround the city way back when. It was a rebuilt version of the thing, but even so, it was quite impressive to check out. Especially considering the fact it was smack dab in the middle of a bunch of skyscrapers. Also, one cool thing that Korea does with important landmarks and stuff is to sequentially number them. This gate, Sungnyemun to be exact, is properly labeled as National Treasure No. 1, designated so on December 20, 1962. I found this numbering of their national treasures extremely cool, and something I wish the U.S. did. I wonder how many we'd have?

Wandering around got us eventually to the N Seoul Tower. Following along with my thing of loving overviews and great outlooks, this was a great spot to see the (fun fact) 2nd largest Metropolitan area in the world from above. And what a great day to do so!!!

Coming down from the tower, we got a free demonstration of swordsmanship and stuff. Oh, and I even got to participate! (Spoiler alert, I wasn’t any good)

The wandering around continued, as we explored some more back streets, the first of many delicious meals, a cathedral pavilion, and by far the seemingly most important location in the city if I was a local – a green-way and path along a stream right in the middle of town.

It’s called Cheonggyechoen, and it’s super awesome. It’s straddled on either side by a very busy street, which is quite rambunctious when you’re up top. But the river is sunk down a good 4m (BOOM. Just went metric on you) from the street, so down on the path it’s extremely quiet and tranquil. That combined with the greenery and running water, makes it an extremely relaxing, if not romantic, place to walk in the middle of a giant city.

Relaxation followed by tranquility. On our way back towards the hostel, we walked past city hall. Little did we know that we’d stumble upon the second of a four night series of philharmonic orchestra concerts on the lawn in the square. That night’s show – the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra on the grounds of Schoenbrunn Palace. We grabbed some beer, some snacks, and plopped down for an enjoyable night with classical music in the middle of a bustling metropolis.

While there, we encountered our first example of Korean Kindness. The couple in front of us on the lawn decided to leave early. But before they did, they gave Zena their seat cushion to sit on while on the grass. No coercion, no prompting, just straight up gave it to her. What a nice gesture from complete strangers!

When we got back to our hostel area, we did some more lounging around. By our awesome luck, there was a bottle shop right next to the station with craft beer from all over the world.

Although all of the bar patios were filled up, we took advantage of this little mercantile, the first of multiple times. I grabbed an Amber Ale from Coronado, CA, and we chilled out on the grass to end our first day in Seoul.

Wednesday...

...the weather was a little cloudy, but that was ok, because we planned some museums to provide a little bit more background on the new country we were visiting.

First up, the National Museum of Korea. This place was monstrous. Full of artifacts from all time periods, there was lots to look at and explore.

There happened to be a ton of field trips at the museum that day, with little Korean kids running around filling out worksheets. On multiple occasions little packs of school kids walked by and offered up quick "Hello" 's to us western folk. You can tell it was one of those sheepish dares from a huddle of schoolkids, but it was fun to see them jump out of their box and utilize a foreign language of theirs, especially at such a young age.

The icing of that cake was when a group of high school-age kids came up and asked for a picture. So I grabbed the guys phone and was ready to take a picture of them, but he pulled it back and handed it to a friend. Turns out they wanted to take a picture with me and Zena. Woah! I've never been in such demand before. But I was glad to provide them a picture of some bearded dude they think might be famous somewhere.

After that, we had to walk around the US Army base to get to the Korean War Memorial and Museum. This was a unique experience for me. Learning more about the conflict, and how things went down was very interesting. And being in the memorial part out front of the museum gave me strong memories relating to when me and My Crew went to the war memorial outside of Bastogne. One of the few times I've truly seen the strong impact for good that my country has done for other people throughout the world in a positive manner with the right intentions, and the gratitude that still stems from that. A proud moment in our history.

After checking out the monuments, and walking around the huge displays of military equipment outside the museum, we went in to check it all out. We timed it up perfectly, one of many such occasions on the trip, to jump right into the English tour through the museum.

Well, that went by really fast, and we didn't get much time to read the displays and such, but really just had time to listen to our tour guide, which was also interesting. But in all honesty, it was a bit too cheesy and propaganda-ish. The big kicker was a 4-D film simulating the beach landing during the Battle of Inchon. It was interesting to sit through, but definitely took away from the historical and political importance of the war. Although I have a feeling this would be right up Mr. Herhold's alley in every way...

With our understanding and background of Korea and the Korean War enhanced, we decided to check out a little bit of modern Korea. What better way to do that than go to Gangnam!!! So that's what we did. Oppa Gangnam Style...

We walked around a bit and noticed the abnormal density of skyscrapers, but then we got hungry and decided to hunt down some Korean BBQ. We found one and started walking there. Long story short, I ended up leading us for 40 minutes in the wrong direction. Not something I usually do, but I somehow got turned around coming out of the subway station. Dumb me. I guess that's what Gangnam does to you...

But thanks to further wi-fi access and a handy bus ride, we found the restaurant and had some DELICIOUS Korean BBQ, despite the clear problems with language and understanding between us and the staff. Initially, the waitress kept strongly recommending the $100 option, and we thought they were going to bring out and charge us for the whole kitchen, but we only wanted a couple smaller things. Eventually they got it, and we started chowing down. But then the lady kept coming over and cooking our meat for us. Back to the whole being treated like we didn't know what's going on, I got agitated. Eventually my stomach recognized it was being fed, then all was right with the world and it turned out to be fucking fantastic. Along with the delicious cuts of marinated meat, there were whole garlic cloves, grilled chiles, and lots of kimchi with marinated sprouts that made it all fantastic. Another successful, trying, and absolutely delicious cultural experience. Omnomnom.

After dinner, we went and legitimized our time in Gangnam. Namely, we gangnamed in Gangnam. Money well spent.

That was followed up with Baskin Robbins and some good 'ole fashioned people watching. In Korea, as with any college campus and busy sidewalk, there's usually a couple people trying to pass out fliers for you to read. Well, there was a little crew of old ladies on this particular corner, and I got the feeling that they were starting themselves out as a new potential crime syndicate.

To end the night, we grabbed a beer at a local microbrewery, Bongo. They had a taproom/bar not far from the hostel, so we both had a drink, and I secured a Korean beer glass for the trip. Hot damn! It's even got a dancing bear on it!

Thursday...

...was filled full of palaces, temples, and shrines and ended up being easily one of the most beautiful days there. Everything was gorgeous, intricate, and really impressive. The best was by far the secret garden. Absolutely pristine. I can definitely understand why the royal family kept that within their possession, nothing but tranquil grounds with unbelievably impressive landscapes. Such a peaceful area, I'd definitely pay extra to get the place to myself. Ok, but yeah, here's what we did.

The plan for the day was to hit up the myriad castles, shrines, and temples in the northern part of the city. We started off by heading to Jongmyo Shrine, and again with our good luck, timed it up with an English-speaking tour. Lucky too, because you can only come into the place with a tour guide. This was something I'd never experienced before, but not just this place, another place also required you to be a part of the tour in order to enter.

But yeah, so we saw the Jongmyo Shrine. It's a UNESCO World Heritage sight. For some reason, I really love going to those, I think just because of that distinction, thinking it's going to be that much cooler or insightful than something else. Well, might not always be the case, but this was pretty cool, and having a tour guide was pretty helpful.

We learned the reason for the elevated walkways. In castles and whatnot, because it is a place for the living, the elevated part is for the King. In a shrine, however, the elevated part is for the Spirits, as a shrine is the place for the dead.

In the complex, there were multiple burial houses, which didn't actually have anyone buried in them, but rather the spirit tablets of those people. There were a lot of spirit tablets in the buildings, and other buildings were there to present offerings to these people represented by the spirit tablets, all of which were Kings and Queens of the Joseon Dynasty. Quite a cool place to experience.

From there we meandered to Changdeokgung palace a short hop, skip, and jump away. This place was beautiful as well (as were all of them). It had impeccable use of the landscape by framing and locating buildings to fit best with the land throughout the entire grounds. As always, there was impeccable detail in the buildings and the painting of everything.

In my opinion though, there was a very selected and pointed opulence throughout the grounds. Most of the buildings were fairly plain and simple, yet somehow elegant. The main palace/building, however, was clearly and delicately decked to out make no mistake of its position among the grounds.

Part of the entry to the Changdeokgung palace was a tour through the Secret Garden. But this place was another one where you could only go in as part of a tour, so we had to wait for the next English tour. Luckily enough there was another palace right next door that fit in perfectly to our plan!

The Changgyeounggung palace was another royal set of buildings spread out across a varied landscape that was also executed excellently. Something I learned along the way was, at the entrance to every palace is a bridge over a stream. Some would think it's just some cool design feature, but there's actually an intriguing significance to it. As one enters the palace, the water running underneath you is thought to purify you before you enter the palace.

I think that is one cool feature to include in a place. Although I'm not in line with the direct meaning, I think, at least for me, it'd be a reminder to check your head and motives before entering somewhere, getting you back to a clear state of mind in order to do what you need to do. I really liked this.

We walked through this palace and admired the great architecture and layout. Eventually though, we made our way to the back of the grounds and were a little surprised/disgusted by a monument set up there. A Taesil is apparently a shrine which stored the placenta and umbilical cords of the children of the royal family. Next to this shrine is an inscribed stone tablet with a story about the placenta of King Seongjong. Now how creepy/weird/different is that? Keeping the placenta and umbilical cords from a birth to put into its own shrine. A little way too over the top for me...

But after that interesting encounter, we took a break on a bench next to a pond for a while and enjoyed the pretty view. It was relaxing and helpful to get off our feet for a while. But eventually, we made it back for our next tour of the Secret Garden.

As I said before, the Secret Garden was easily the best place that we saw during the day (possibly the whole trip). It was unbelievably beautiful and green and serene. It was a private holding of the King and Queen, and was used as a library, an area for meditation and reflection, and for other various relaxing activities. As I said, I can definitely see why they kept this under their possession.

The garden was full of small, tranquil pavilions, a lotus pond, and a number of gorgeous structures tucked into the foliage and landscape. The pictures definitely don't do it justice, but the whole feel of that area was so peaceful and inviting. I'd love to spend some more time there...

Annoying sidenote - there were some dumb and arrogant Belgian/French bitcheszs on the tour, and only started talking in english when they were bashing the US. I had to step in when they were dogging US beer. Dumb chicks couldn't tell their ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to beer in the States. That or they were too stuck up to know the difference between anything. Assholes either way...)

After experiencing the peacefulness and tranquility of the Secret Garden, we was HUNGRY. Luckily enough, we stumbled upon some UNBELIEVABLE food. It turned out to be a full on feast. Spicy pork with kimchi pancake and buckwheat dumplings with the generic appetizers. Holy shit. The best meal I'd had in a while. It was worth it in every single way, and something I'd definitely do again in a heartbeat. Sooooooooo gooooooood.

The restaurant we enjoyed our feast at was tucked inside of Bukchon village. What a cool area. It's full of tons of restored wooden houses (hakon) that have been re-purposed and modernized. Lots of them have shops and galleries inside, but they're also homes and whatnot for locals. The whole area was absolutely awesome. It was a very unique and awesome area to check out, and something I wish I could've explored even more.

After Bukchon, walked down the main drag downtown. We saw the main palace gate and a couple of cool statues (one for the guy who invented the Korean alphabet, and one for a really successful naval general from the late 1500s). On the median where the statues were, we walked through a memorial to the Sewol ferry victims. Here it was heart-wrenching to see so many lives lost and such little work done to recover the ship/comfort the grieving families. It was a tragedy for the victims and their families, but hopefully some closure will come for some when they recover the ship. We both got little yellow pins as a rememberance.

We then ended the night on the rooftop of our hostel with some local brews bought at our neighborhood bottle shop.

Both of the beers I got were from Ark Brewing in Korea, and both of which were quite delicious. Success.

Friday...

...we went on a little tour. No trip to Seoul is complete without some kind of trip or tour up to the DMZ. It's only 58km away, and crazy to think that there's a whole other world just on the other side of the border. So me and Zena joined in on a DMZ/JSA Tour to get a little taste of the war, its current status, and step inside the most isolated country on the plant.

We had an early start, jumped on a feeder bus to get to the big tour bus, and had a very diverse and large group. Along the quick ride to the JSA (Joint Security Area, where North and South Korea formally meet for discussions and talks), our tour guide fed us facts about Seoul, showing clearly no animosity (total sarcasm) between North and South. Along the Hangang river north of Seoul, it was really interesting to see the heavy fortification along the river bank, meant to block the infiltration of spies that could just swim over from the North.

We eventually made it to Camp Bonifas, and got debriefed on the current situation at the JSA and along the DMZ. Slowly during the presentation, it got a little more real of where we were at. With all of the security and defense measures just to get to that point through the Civilian Line, the Southern Limit Line, and eventually up to the Demarcation Line, the tension and recognition of where we were slowly set in.

Well, we got up to the JSA and Freedom Hall, which South Korea built to host family reunions and meetings (but has yet to do so). We got into the hall and had to line up all nice and neat-like (though true to tourist fashion, most people were either completely oblivious or had no regard for authority). They then walked us from Freedom Hall into one of the conference buildings, where we got to see our first glimpse of the other side.

We got ushered into the blue building fairly quickly, and to be honest, I felt very intense and intimidating inside. We walked into the conference room and there were two Republic of Korea (ROK) guards inside, one at the head of the table, and one protecting the entry door to the North. We all filed in and the US Army Private gave a little spiel of the room, about how the microphone line in the middle of the table is the Demarcation Line, how there was once a standoff of who could withhold going to the bathroom the longest, and how the ROK soldiers are wicked good and trained. It was pretty intense being in there, and of course stepping on the North side of the room and being technically in that country.

After a little bit of time we were ushered out of the building and onto Freedom Hall's porch facing the North. There we had to line up, not point or gesture towards the North, could only take pictures facing the North, and got to see the overall landscape. The ROK soldiers in JSA area were also extremely intimidating, all with their powerful stance, half hidden, and intense. Also, each soldier that is stationed in the JSA is required to have a black belt in Taekwondo or Judo. Being there, it was very clear that this was not an atmosphere to take lightly.

But, as people are fucking idiots, some were treating it like a playground, disregarding the soldiers orders, pointing around and not giving a fuck. Idiots. People are fucking idiots. It was quite appalling, and I'm thankful and surprised to say that it didn't seem like there were any Americans included in this batch of numb-skulls.

We boarded the bus again and did some further touring right along the DML. We got to see where the infamous Axe Murder occurred next to the Bridge of No Return, and we got to see the North's Propaganda Village with the super tall flag pole.

It was quite intense knowing that we were looking at such a different world just a few kilometers away in North Korea. I've always had this notion that there's such a prominent distinction between the North and South there, but being there, everything just looked so normal. No huge fence designating the border, no active military patrols along the border, nothing extremely blatant and obvious, like what we see in media or what I preconceived in my head.

Another thing that added to the overall atmosphere was what was (or more accurately wasn't) on the roads. For almost the entire area of the tour, the only thing on the road was tour buses. No cars, no trucks, nothing except DMZ/JSA tour buses.

After lunch at the border checkpoint cafeteria, we did a tour of Imjingak Theme Park (weird that there's a theme park right next to the DMZ), The Dora Observatory, the 3rd Infiltration Tunnel, and lastly the Dorasan Station (meant to be the last train stop in South Korea). The afternoon was quite touristy, and something I would skip if I could go back and do it again. Yeah, it was cool to see the stuff, but with the fluff around the edges with all of it, it smelt of tourist-sucker the whole time. That being said, it was interesting to go through.

On the way back to Seoul, they were gonna further sucker us into going into (read - drop us off at) a ginseng outlet then at an amethyst outlet. But being the smart travelers we are, Zena and I said eff that and walked to the train station to go back to civilization. A very smart move on our parts.

One funny thing, on the bus ride to the ginseng outlet, our tour guide started talking about Ginseng and its positive affects on the body. One aspect he highlighted is its use as an aphrodisiac, saying (and I quote), "Ginseng, ginseng is aphrodisiac food. Makes a big sexy portion." Oh yes, a quality tour guide indeed.

That night we wandered around with a new German friend and looked for food at the Dongdaemun Market. OHHHHH BOY did we hit the jackpot. After a few food stall ladies tried to usher us into her care (which reminded me a lot of the calls from the windows in the Red Light District in Amsterdam) we ended up choosing a real winner. We sat down, ordered some delicious street fod, and got quite the treatment. And the cool thing is she turned out to be my good friend Steven K.'s aunt!

So yeah, she sat us down, gave us the menu, and got our food ready. The whole time, though, she was doing a million other things. Whether it be packing and rolling dumplings, cooking the dumplings, chopping up the dough, cooking some other thing, or getting another dish ready to go, she was all over the place but always coming back for service.

I ordered a cold noodle spicy soup and we all got some dumplings to share. On top of that, we had an awesome drink called Makgeolli, which tasted like a mixture between milk and beer, but is in fact a made from rice or wheat mixed with nuruk (a Korean fermentation starter), and tastes quite wonderful.

Our lovely lady made fun of me trying to use metal chopsticks though. She saw me attempting to grab noodles with them (which is harder than you would think, noodles and metal are a slippery combination), and just started chuckling while whipping out and giving me some wood chopsticks. I'm glad she did, cause it was much easier to eat then.

One thing that really added to the deliciousness and awesomeness of the meal was the overall street market food stall feel. We were right in the middle of the action, with the food prepared, cooked, and laid out right in front of everyone. Sitting down you could reach out and do the stuff right from your stool, but instead it just gives you that great of a seat to all of the action.

NONE of that would be allowed in the States, whether it be people freaking out about live food getting chopped to bits right in front of their eyes, or for massive failings of health and food preparation codes. But for those reasons and more, I wish I could eat at these kinds of places more often. It's such a raw and awesome feeling that, I think, adds to the overall flavor of the food.

Getting back to the hostel after that culinary excursion to heaven, we met up with a bunch of other people and had some beers out on the green-way. Good conversation, new friends and international people, all followed up with a trip to the playground.

The Playground is a popular spot in Hong-dae, where people go to drink, hang out, and spend their rambunctious evenings. We drank a bit there, then headed out to a hip-hop club. The cool thing about this place though, is the door. If you didn't know it was a club, you'd never find it, cause the door is a vending machine embedded into the wall. Pretty cool huh?

Saturday...

...started with me being hungover and somewhat calm trying to explore the town by myself. The plan was to check out the last two palaces on our Multi-pass (oh yeah, we got a multi-pass, a bundled entrance to all the cool palaces and stuff in the city. WIN.) and do a little bit of wandering around as Zena was off to get her haircut.

First stop was Deoksugung palace, where I saw the ceremonial changing of the guards at the entrance. I watched a little bit and enjoyed it, except for the really out of tune trombone-like instrument one of the guys in the procession was playing. It was a little too raucous.

This palace, though smaller than most of the others, was again peaceful and enjoyable. There was also a couple more Western buildings on the grounds, kinda looked like courthouses, but were built and used to welcome western envoys in the early 20th century. Cool to see how history adapts to current times (at least current back then).

After Deoksugung, I got to walk along the main drag again. Along the way, I saw a Guinness World Record plaque, so I had to investigate. It turns out that the ROK set the record for the number of countries supporting one country in an armed conflict, with 67 countries supporting the ROK during the Korean War. Fun fact.

To finish off the Multi-Pass, I made it over to Gyeongbokgung Palace, and what an absolutely huge place! This palace was a great summarization and expansion of all the other palaces. It had huge grounds, beautiful buildings, awesome ponds and building arrangement, and overall an extremely awesome place to explore and witness.

I think because it was the weekend, and because it was the Korean Thanksgiving Holiday time, there was also a couple of occurrences of live traditional music in the palace grounds. One was cool, they got super into it and were all driving and upbeat. The other was very tranquil and relaxing, and the lady singing had a killer voice. Live music rocks.

Along the lines of the hangover I had earlier that morning, I got in my head a bit too much because of that and it held things for me at quite a calm tone, a bit too introspective. But then, while I was taking a little break admiring the Gyeonghoeru (Royal Banquet Hall) on it's pond, a little kid put on a huge smile and waved at me, which was followed by two other little ones laughing and giggling and chasing after their dad. This glee and delight put a big smile on my face and got my head back on track. Innocence and joy are absolutely beautiful.

After a huge bit of walking around the palace and enjoying the palatial beauty, I took a break and had some klassic Korean Bibimbop. Oh man, as I've said, the food in Korea is unbelievable. And this was no exception. So delicious, so cheap, and oooooooooooh baby.

Satiated by some Korean foody goodness, I walked around to a new area of town, saw some stuff, but then decided to take a really random and quick excursion to another UNESCO World Heritage site. I made my way out to the Uireng Royal Tombs.

After I got out of the train, I left the station, but saw a huddle of older gentlemen sitting around a table next to a little booth. Being curious and unabashed, I went over and took a look. It turned out to be some kind of Korean chess, I think. A couple of the guys there tried talking to me, but I had no idea what they were saying.

Eventually, one of the guys won, and then they ushered me into to sit down and play the next game! Well, long story short, I tried to play like it was chess, and eventually the guy I was playing shooed me away from the table. I can't blame him though. So I stayed around and watched a little more, but couldn't get even a ground-level understanding of what was going on, with pieces able to jump others to take other pieces out, but then return right back to where they were, and yeah, lots of confusion and weird moves, but cool nonetheless!

Then I actually made my way to the Uireng Royal Tombs. It was not too far of a walk, but the walk was through a very non-touristy area. It felt a little more real than the majority of the huge streets and alleyways in Seoul. It was not as clean, not as flashy, not as loud, but still seemed like a normal place, as if traveling to Olympia for an expedition during a trip to Seattle.

The Tombs were pretty simple, but pretty cool. A gate with a building at the foot of the royal tombs. Naturally, I couldn't go directly to the tombs and see them, but they were up on a hill where one can catch glimpses of the statues and stuff up there. It was peaceful, and I took a little break on the grass as some young girls had a competition to see how far they could bound after jumping off a wall. Fun stuff.

I eventually got back to the hostel and met up with Zena. What does she do for me? She buys me a Kimchi Donut as a surprise!!!!! Can you say awesome? Cause that was undoubtedly awesome!!!!! Soooooooooo delicious.

Unfortunately, this was our last night in Korea. So what better way to use it than to hang out with some Aussies! We tried live octopus and pigs foot, and let's just say they were both interesting. The octopus was interesting for multiple reasons.

First, I've never had to physically battle my food to get it off of the plate and into my mouth. But the craziest one, I've never had my food latch onto my cheek when it's eventually in my mouth. That was interesting. Pigs foot, however, was just gelatinous, with not much, if any meat on there. Kinda weird.

We got all this stuff at the same place we met Steven K.'s aunt the night before, and the market was completely different. There were only a handful of places open, and it was completely dead in comparison to the night before. To say Zena and I unknowingly timed our trip up perfectly with Korean Thanksgiving would be an understatement.

Shout out to this cool dude for the shot of Soju, and teaching me to support the forearm when pouring for someone else.

Sunday...

...we were quite limited on our breakfast options due to the holiday. We wanted to go back to the American breakfast place, but settled for a quaint cafe near the hostel.

After we finished up, we grabbed our stuff, and made our way to the airport, and eventually back home.

Recap - Things I Liked

• Food. Dear god the food.
• Numbering of National Treasures. How cool would that be if the States actually numbered ours?
• The prices. Everything was so cheap but awesome!
• Food. Did I say the food yet? Cause the food was unbelievable.
• English translations. I think this goes for all of Asia (what I’ve seen so far). They’re quite chuckle-worthy.
• The politeness and kindness of random strangers. It's not often you're greeted with such warmness as a total foreigner.

Recap - What was 'Different'

• Metal chopsticks. Holy shit those things are hard to use.
• The obsession of eastern Asian women to become whiter. It's disturbing, confusing, widespread, pretty weird, and quite unattractive.

Recap - Summary

The trip was absolutely awesome. As with pretty much any trip, I love being able to get away and explore something new. And although this was just a 2.5 hour plane flight from where I'm living now, there were some clear differences between here and there. The food, for one, was a helluva lot cheaper, much more diverse, and honestly, much more delicious. The public environment was louder, with more people talking and interacting, but also not as pristine and clean as that in Japan. The presence of more English speakers was a clear and welcome difference, and surprisingly enough, it was a bit crazy to see how involved Western culture is into Korean culture.

Next Up

Nothing planned right now. It's weird to realize that I've only got 2 months left here, so I'm trying to piece together what I'm going to be doing on my weekends. I need to explore more of Japan, and want to make it down to Kyoto and/or Osaka on a long weekend, but also get up into the mountains somewhere and do a rogue camping trip amongst the Japanese Alps.

Other than that, I've still got a lot of exploring to do here in Tokyo too. It's tough having so much to do and see in so little time, but I'm loving every second of it.

Original Publish Date: October 1st, 2015