Clearly, I missed the mark on my Sunday blogs but things have been NON-STOP for the past few weeks, which means I’ve got a novel for ya….
I arrived in Seoul, South Korea mid-morning on Saturday and followed the directions that Laurel had provided to get to the hotel. This was the first time (of MANY) I thought to myself, thank goodness for Laurel because I got on the train, as instructed, directly into the center of Seoul, jumped in a taxi and just starred blankly at the cab driver realizing that I had NO idea how to communicate. We both just blinked at each other until I whipped out my phone and mumbled (very) broken Korean to the sweet man and we were on our way. This was also the first (of MANY) incredibly nice people I have met on my trip...
Once I arrived, I was able to shower and grab some coffee (Starbucks, sooo American) before Laurel, Jason, Kelly, and Robbie got back from their DMZ (de-militarized zone; area between North & South Korea) tour. We hit the streets of Itaewon to walk around before dinner. This area is adorable and lined with shops, bars, and restaurants. It's also directly adjacent to the US military base, so it's "Western-friendly." So Western that we had some of the BEST legit barbecue that I've had in a while that night for dinner. I'm talking pulled pork, ribs, brisket - the WORKS! A few of Laurel and Jason's co-workers met us for dinner, so it really felt like we could have just been hanging out in Houston (Moscow Mules and all...); but Laurel kept reassuring us that we would get plenty of Asian meals in the following days. Needless to say, there were ZERO complaints coming from our Texas-bred crew!
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| How cute is this pink cup though?! Well worth the Starbucks run :) |
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| First "Asian" meal |
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| The crew :) |
The next day (Sunday) was a slow morning for all of us. Laurel and Jason walked us around to different areas in Seoul, starting with the Gyeongbokgung Palace. This was the first (of many) times that I wished I new more about the history of Asia to appreciate the gorgeous grounds that we were visiting. After a brief tour, we decided it was time for lunch and headed to the first (of many...there's a theme going on here..) DELICIOUS meals found by the Browning's! Lunch was udon (really thick) noodle soup and steamed dumplings. It was one of those places where they sit you down, plop food in front of you (there are about 5 options) and get you out. It was fantastic.
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| First cherry blossom sighting!! |
We toured a few other areas of Seoul (which names I can't remember), and stopped in at a few places, including a cat-cafe. It's just what it sounds like...a cafe that has cats. You go in, get a tea or coffee and then just play with the kitties. My favorite part was watching all the little Asian kids playing with the cats; SO adorable! I would have taken a picture of the kids, but I feel like that's pretty creepy. After that pitstop, it was time to head to the airport - we were Ulsan bound!
We were all SO pooped when we got to Ulsan, and it was SO nice to walk into what felt like home. The Browning apartment was absolutely gorgeous, and (of course) Laurel had done a wonderful job to make it feel like home. They live on the 19th floor of a beautiful high-rise that overlooks the Hyundai ship yard. There are actually two Hyundai yards in Ulsan - ship building and topsides fabrication. They work in the topsides yard which is just on the other side of the peninsula from where they are. That night we had our first Korean BBQ experience. (Side note: You're probably going to hear about EVERY meal that I have eaten. I also tried to take table pics, but that is very annoying to all parties involved) All of the restaurants obviously have Korean names, which have been nicknamed by the expats in the area. So our meal was at "Spicy Pork." A Korean BBQ place that serves all kinds of pork. Korean tradition is that the youngest person at the table cooks and the oldest pays. Laurel owned up to her responsibilities but lucky for me, everyone let me off the hook for the full bill - in my defense I did offer! We called it an early night and went to bed with full bellies (this will become the norm...)
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| Jason loves his Korean BBQ |
The next day, Kelly, Robbie, and I decided to go on an adventure to Gyeongju, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyeongju) a small town North of Ulsan which many of my Korean co-workers had recommended. They said there’s a hike where they are many Buddhas and tombs of ancient kings and emperors, a beautiful temple, and also recommended a restaurant that is tucked away in a sleep neighborhood with some traditional food in the area. Laurel and Jason organized a rental car for us to explore, so we looked up directions and whatnot and hit the road. We had a GPS in the car, so how hard could it be, right? Wrong. Basically everything we tried to do was a total bust. Hiked up the wrong mountain and ended up in someones rice farm being chased off by tiny dogs, went to the restaurant and it was closed on Mondays, ended up eating the grossest meal while in Korea - the fish was starring back at us. The only win was finding Bulguksa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulguksa ) Temple, which was actually pretty neat.
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| Buddha! |
We got back from the trip and decided we needed some red wine; which proved to be another difficult task. South Korean’s are known for their unparalleled ability to drink excessive amounts of alcohol . That said, they are also VERY hard workers, meaning that basically no restaurants or bars are open before 6PM, a very foreign concept for the Kilcrease’s and me. Long story short, we ended up finding a gem of a cafe by the beach that served pizza and wine! The only way that we successfully ordered is because a very kind Korean man sitting at the table behind us spoken wonderful English and helped us order a bottle(s) of red wine and a pepperoni pizza.
Thinking that we had mastered the art of cabbing all over Korea, we headed to meet Laurel, Jason, and several co-workers for drinks and dinner at another AWESOME Korean BBQ place, “Veteran’s”, which specialized in beef. The Browning’s did not disappoint, and Laurel kept up her responsibility for cooking…it was delicious. We then went to a bar to play beer pong, which was highly recommended by KJ. Robbie became bestie with a Korean man, we took some gross shots, and it was time to go home - needless to say it held up to KJ’s recommendation ;)
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| One of my favorite table pics :) |
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Lucky for all of us, the Browning’s set up a pretty awesome, converter-van style ride for us down to Busan to catch our flight. After a quick 1.5-hour flight, we landed in Osaka, Japan and took a train up to Kyoto. Laurel booked the most perfect Airbnb apartment/condo in an awesome, quiet little neighborhood that was walkable to pretty much everything we wanted to see. We freshened up and headed out to get "fire-ramen" which Jason's sister, Ashley, had recommended. It was quite the experience where our bowl of noodles was literally lit on fire in front our faces! We all got pretty nervous when they were giving us specific instructions on how to sit/what to do prior to the fire, but we survived and got a great video of it all happening. The chef then made us all take ridiculous pics enjoying the ramen….
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| Ready for some ramen |
We stopped off at a few bars before heading home, but ended up finding a super cute little wine bar with the sweetest Japanese bartender who had lived in Atlanta working in a restaurant that we chatted with for a bit. If you ever go to Kyoto, stop in at “Old School” it’s easy to miss (like everything in Japan), but adorable!
The next day, tour-guide Laurel took us on a walking tour through Kyoto which included Kiyiomizudera Temple, several gardens, green tea ice cream snack, a macha tea and red bean snack, and legit sushi lunch. We headed to a Geisha show after lunch, which turned out to be one of those “you gotta go it” borderline not worth it experiences. After the show we all lack-lusterly agreed that it was greaaattttt, then opened up about how terrible it was later than night at dinner, laughing it all off. We took a quick trip out to Fushimi Inari Shrine (another instance where I wish I knew the history of the area) before heading back to our place to get ready for dinner. After scouring TripAdvisor, Laurel found a place that looked to have some high-rated ramen, and we hit the streets again preparing for a long night since we had called it pretty early our first night in Kyoto. The TripAdvisor reviews did not disappoint, and we had most delicious ramen! So delicious that it made us all so full we had to go home and lay down immediately...talk about feeling our age...yikes!
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We spent the majority of the next day on a train Northbound for Tokyo! Laurel killed it, once again, on an Airbnb on the 32rd (i think) floor of a gorgeous high-rise in the Shinjuku area of Japan. We immediately hit the streets for some shopping, the boys were thrilled!
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| Now, that's a view! |
That night, one of Laurel and Jason's friends from work joined us and we headed to dinner at a place that we had researched that had high rankings on TripAdvisor. We promptly got turned away from due to our 6-person group size (this is a VERY common in Japan). So we headed to Memory Lane, also known as the poorly nicknamed area called "piss-alley" due to the lack of restrooms available in the area. The area is actually really neat and it just a TON of tiny little restaurants in alleyways that you can pop in for a quick bite. Admittedly, I was very reluctant about the possibility of being able to all eat together, but Laurel pulled through again and found a little place that had a (teeny) upstairs that seated all of us together.
We successfully filled up on raw-tuna, fried chicken, beer, and saki and headed to a similar area called "Golden Gai." This is similar because its also a bunch of tiny little bars in alleyways. Again, being a group of 6 rather large individuals (minus Kelly) I was skeptical about finding somewhere that we could all hang, but we successfully found a nook on the second floor. We walked in a second guessed ourselves for a minute because the drink menu consisted of Jack Daniels and vodka, but then the ex-Geisha (by the look of the photos) pointed to the karaoke machine and it was a unanimous YES to stay. The 6 of us sang our hearts out and (kind of) enjoyed a few drinks before a group of inebriated Japanese businessmen stumbled in. They sang along with us for a while before we decided it was a bit too cramped for us and asked for the bill….which came to a whopping $300USD. WHAT??!? We started doing some mental math agreeing that there was no way that was correct, but begrudgingly paid because there was ZERO way of communicating with this lady. So we walked downstairs and Robbie and I agreed that we needed to go back up there and try to reason a bit with the lady….well, that didn’t work out and we just accepted that we were pegged as tourists got gypped - lesson learned!! We moved on to another area in Shinjuku and had a great, loooong night.
Regardless of the minor glitch in out Golden Gai experience, I would totally go back. Both of these areas are SUPER unique and fun, so since I did a very poor job of describing them I found a few websites that did much better...
Tucked between the tracks on the west side of Shinjuku Station lies a decidedly less glitzy collection of small eateries and bars known as Memory Lane (Omoide Yokocho) or colloquially as Piss Alley (Shonben Yokocho) for its lack of restrooms prior to being rebuilt after a fire in 1999. Here hungry commuters and passers-by can fill up on grilled skewers of yakitori (chicken), motsu-nabe (offal) and hormone-yaki (organ meats) in the rather run-down and cramped atmosphere which purposefully evokes post-war Japan.
Golden Gai is an architectural wonder tucked away in a corner of the giant centre of commerce and entertainment that is Shinjuku. The twentieth century wasn’t an era that was kind to Tokyo’s architectural heritage – most buildings that didn’t fall down in the great earthquake of 1923, or burn down during wartime air raids, became a victim of Japan’s ‘economic miracle’ of the second half of the century, when almost the whole city was redeveloped in concrete. Golden Gai doesn’t contain any grand buildings or monuments, but is simply a tiny fragment of old Tokyo that has miraculously survived, albeit hemmed in and dwarfed by high rise developments all around. It allows a glimpse of what the city was like in the recent past – a unique record of a way of life that has nearly been bulldozed off the map.
The next day we had planned on getting up early to head to the fish market. “Early” turned into getting out the door just before 9, getting a little lost, but making it before they really started closing up shop. I couldn’t stomach any raw fish at the time, so we just walked around seeing some pretty unbelievable sea creatures. The market is gigantic, and I would recommend checking it out while in Tokyo - preferably NOT after a long night.
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| That's one big tuna! |
I elected to nap that afternoon and skip the sushi lunch and shopping - which worked in my favor because I couldn’t fit a thing in my already overpacked suitcase (and I needed a nap…). I was also able to enjoy the shower-room to it’s full extent. I forgot to mention this fun fact, but both the place in Kyoto and Tokyo had these combo shower-bath-turned sauna rooms, illustrated below.
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| Shower/bath combo room |
The group came back from a successful shopping outing, and we went to work researching where we would have dinner that night before our 9:45 Robot Show performance (more on that later). We ended up finding this Teppanyaki style restaurant and unanimously agreed that it was probably our #1 find. I’ll take credit for the initial find, but Kelly was the one that did further research to confirm that it was the place to go. The first win was that our group of 6 wasn’t turned away, the second that they offered this 10-course all you can eat AND drink 2-hour set menu. We were a bit hesitant because that just screams tourist trap, but we were all so pleasantly surprised at how not only delicious it was but how generous and attentive the people in the restaurant were. Our drinks were kept full to the brim, and they patiently explained what exactly we were eating. The best course was these omelette-like dishes that were basically egg stuffed with cabbage and topped with sauces and meats - sounds questionable and disgusting, but it was DELICIOUS! So amazing, that I didn’t even have time to take table pictures before it was all devoured!!
After dinner, we rolled ourselves out of the restaurant and strolled around Shinjuku for a bit before heading to the Robot show. Now, this is something that’s really hard to explain because there is no making sense of the show. It’s basically a bunch of Japanese people dancing and singing wearing lots of shiny/neon clothes playing music and riding robots. There’s not really a story line, but it’s super entertaining and one of those gotta do it things while in Tokyo, similar to the Geisha situation except this one we all agreed was worth it!
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| Ready for the Robot show |
The next day (Sunday) the Kilcrease’s hit the road to catch their 8AM flight back to Houston (yikes!), the Browning’s headed out for their noon flight, and I was on my own in Japan. It slowly started sinking in that I didn’t have Laurel anymore to help with Japan-navigation, which I haven’t emphasized enough - it is HARD, hands down the most difficult country to navigate yet. I know you are all reading this thinking um, DUH Alli…but honestly, most of the people I talked to were just like blah, blah, buy the Japan Rail Pass and you’ll be fine. Well, they are all wrong. And while I’m at it, Google Maps is wrong too. There are so many ways to get from point A to point B, and you can just forget about trying to find the cheapest, most efficient way because you’ll be researching for days. You just have to throw all timetables out the window and allow +3 hours to whatever you’re doing…which is what I ended up doing. (So yeah, I have no excuse for not getting my blog done earlier except I’m really into this audiobook that have that requires all my attention while listening to.)
My trip to Nara is my first example of my travel debacle. I wanted to get there in the daylight because my mother has engrained that into my soul, not because I was scared (again, Japan = SUPER safe). I had planned to go shopping and to the hover-board sushi place that the group went to while I was napping, but (lucky for my timing) it was suuuuper windy and drizzly outside and I didn’t feel like dragging my suitcase all over Shibuya to get to the place, so I just headed to Tokyo Station to head back South. Turns out I had to get back on the train all the way to Kyoto just to turn around and go back East to Nara. There is supposed to be a Nara express line, that I’m still pretty sure doesn’t exist, but whatever. I ended up on a train that stopped at every single staton between Kyoto and Nara and then I saw the mysterious rapid train and got off the train I was on to wait for the rapid one. Wrong move. I sat in the middle of nowhere for about 20 minutes until another train came, which wasn’t the rapid train but I got on anyway just to get there. All the while listening to my book, which I had to turn off because it was distracting me from paying attention to the stops. I finally made it, and the sun was still up. I always book hotels near rapid transit, so I was in my hotel room about 8 minutes after arriving in Nara Station. I was pooped, so I ventured out to get some dinner, at too much ramen and steamed dumplings (this is now becoming a problem), and went to the hot springs public bath (onsen). These are HUGE in Japan especially in areas where there are hot springs, which is basically everywhere.
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| Nara dinner...ramen yet again! |
The next morning I woke up super early and headed to Nara Park. Nara is a cute sleepy little town surrounded by a park full of shrines, temples, and trails lined with lanterns. There are also wild deer that casually walk all around the area. I walked around for about two hours (just long enough to avoid getting lost), and decided that it was probably best to eat some lunch and start my next travel adventure towards Hakone, Japan.
I did write a bit of research on how to get from Nara to Hakone, so I knew that I was in for a 2 trains and a bus ride to get to my hotel. Trains I was fine with, but the bus situation was another story - since there were no English translations for the Japanese bus route. Luckily, as soon as I got off of train #2 there were some tiny little Japanese ladies just waiting for clueless tourists to step off the train and lead then oh-so-kindly to the bus that takes them to their hotel.
As soon as I stepped foot in Hotel Fujita, I fell in love. It first opened in 1891 and I’m pretty sure every emperor/empress/king/queen/etc in the history of forever have stayed in the hotel. It is so rich with history and feels like you’ve walked back in time into the Gatsby-era, Japan style. They also have an onsen in the hotel that I took full advantage of following my travel! I met a lady in the bath that told me about a little Italian place that her and her husband had eaten at the night before. Regardless of the massive amount of ramen that I had eaten over the past week, Italian noodles sounded delicious. I took a short walk, and found the gem of a place where the lady working there just so happened to love people from Texas! She mad eye sign a book she had of all the visitors that came in from Texas....so silly!
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| Hotel Fujiya |
The next morning I set out with high hopes of seeing Mount Fuji, which turned into going up and down Mt. Hakone basically from 10AM until it closed around 4:30PM, annnnd I saw nothing but clouds all day. I was standing at the ropeway window feeling defeated, and a sweet Japanese man looked at me and said Fuji? Upstairs! So I walked upstairs and there she was in all her glory! Talk about a wonderful end to an amazing trip!
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| Just a little volcanic activity, no big deal?!?! |
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| Gorgeous! |
I headed to back to Tokyo (I had this bus/train thing down by then) to catch my flight to Seoul for a quick pitstop before heading back to Ulsan. Laurel and Jason graciously let me leave one of my two bags at their place in Ulsan (which I am SO grateful for!), so I jumped on the train back down South to spend the one last night with them. Thanks to this 2-ishour ride each way, I finalllllllly got my blog done!
And now, I'm off to Thailand tomorrow to meet Courtney for a week of exploring! We are meeting in Bangkok and heading straight up to Chiang Mai, which is in Northeastern Thailand for a few days and then down to a beach town south of Krabi to soak up the sun! It will be a welcomed change from the cold(er) weather in Korea and Japan - which I did NOT pack for, but I'm totally prepared for Thailand ;)
xoxo.....
