well it looks like i'm not going to get the time or motivation to sit down and write a really detailed blog about our japan trip and ben and vivienne's visit to korea but i figure my photo albums on facebook are pretty much a photo journal of those two thing so it's all good.
i'll give a brief summary of each.
jens and i weren't planning on going anywhere this summer because we knew ben and vivienne would be visiting us here but after a while we decided we should go somewhere (it always seems to happen that way...that's how it was last summer lol). anyway we decided on japan because we had only spent 4-5 days there and loved it and wanted to see more. this time we decided to just fly into tokyo and spend 10 days there and in the surrounding area. it's so expensive to travel across the country so staying in one city was more economical- plus there's plenty to see in and around tokyo.
we stayed with our friend kacie most nights. (we met her in university and she's been living and teaching in tokyo for 2-3 years now.) we also spent time with erin (another friend from uni, living and teaching in tokyo for almost 2 years, friends with kacie too).
we spent one night in hakone which is a very lush, natural, mountainous setting with a lake. very beautiful but very foggy while we were there. also, everything closes at 5pm so that made my birthday dinner interesting lol that's right- i had my 26th birthday in hakone. pretty cool! :o) that makes 4 birthdays outside the u.s. - korea, vietnam, korea again and japan. while in hakone we road a pirate ship, cable cars, a funicular and a few buses! good times!
we also spent two nights in nikko- another natural, mountainous setting but with more temples. still foggy though! apparantly summer is very foggy in the mountains in japan.
here's a list of things we saw in an around tokyo: an awesome 1-hour fireworks show, many temples and shrines, people dressed up in crazy costumes in harajuku, topless anime figurines in akibahara, fish on a stick, really tan japanese girls with big hair dressed up in ukata (summer kimono), a yo-yo trickster, an opera singer/accordionist in a park, lots and lots of cool mossy areas, we dressed up in ukata and jimbae (japanese style shorts and top) and went to a lantern float festival, art museum, zoo (where we saw a pangolin, giant anteater, mouse deer, tapirs, capybaras, and other weird animals), the original see no evil-hear no evil- speak no evil monkeys, went to a maid cafe, sang karaoke, and ate many different things...
including: sushi, dango (rice cake balls), matcha (weird green tea), monjayaki (fried...stuff...), yakisoba (fried noddles), yesaiyaki (fried veggies), whale!, ramen (way better than the 50cent stuff! lol), soba soup, grilled squid tentacles, octopus balls, okinomiyaki (veggie, egg pancake thing), yuzu ice cream, purple sweet potato ice cream, and of course tempura and i'm sure a few other things. japanese food is delicious!!!! (yes, even the whale! it was like steak Po:)
overall, i LOVE japan. both times i've been there i've felt- why don't i live here!!! then i remember i wouldn't save NEAR as much money. i'm content with living in korea and just traveling to japan (and many other places!) :o)
things i like about japan:
it's SO CLEAN!!!!! people even sweep up leaves and tiny debris outside their shops everyday!
japanese people seem to like being different from each other (much moreso than koreans).
the food is GREAT!
the traditional dress is my favorite out of all the other countries i've visited. i love kimono/ukata!
japanese people like to have a good time! there are festivals and fun things to do everywhere!
they have a funny sense of humor.
they respect others in public by being reserved and polite.
they are helpful and friendly.
they recycle EVERYTHING!
and many other things.
ok now for ben and viv's visit.
it was so great to have them come visit us!!! we hadn't ever had any friends visit before. we had had family - which was awesome! - but it's just different to have friends visit. we spent some time in mokpo, gwangju, jeju island and seoul! viv had a hard time adjusting to the time difference and food at first but after a while she felt better so that was good!
we went noraebanging (karaoke-ing) MANY times and that was fun, they met some of our friends, we rent scooters on jeju and drove around (including a harrowing trip over hallasan (dead volcano) in the rain and fog! lol), we ate all the good food we could find lol, went shopping, took them to our favorite temple in korea (yakchansa), went to the very interesting sex and health museum ;o) lol, and while in seoul we sent them off to see the war museum, cheongdong theater performance and art museum (since we had seen each of those at least twice).
and all in all it was really fun! i'm so glad they got to come visit us! :o) (i would write more but i gotta go to a book swap soon!)
the day after they left i had to go back to school! :oP it's been ok. the students were really getting on my last nerve the first couple of weeks but i'm starting to realize that i just need to calm down and not care so much lol sounds bad but that's what the korean teachers do! it's really the only way to survive the semester without going insane. so that's what i'm trying to do- just relax, take things in stride and get through it. it's my LAST fall semester in korea!!! it's so weird to think about that!!!
anyway, gotta run! have a great day! <3
1 week ago
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