Japan & Korea (2018) - Part 1: Seoul Searching

---

---

Dear Blog Readers,



A part of our soul was left in Seoul eight years ago when our amazing year teaching English in Boeun came to an end. We managed to come back about four years ago and the heartstrings of South-East Asia pulled us back for a wonderful couple of weeks spending time in both Japan and Korea.



Given we only booked the flights a couple of months ago, we managed to get returns from Heathrow to Korea for £555 with Qatar. Setting off from Vienna back to London for a night followed by a short stop in Doha en route and we were soon touching down in Incheon at about midnight. Given how everything in Korea seems to be open 24 hours a day, we have always found it odd that the one place which completely shuts down after 9pm is the airport! A frantic rush around to try and find an ATM and we managed to get the last train out of the airport towards Seoul.



Vaguely remembering there being plenty of motels in Incheon, and cheaper than in the city centre, we got off at Geomam and walked around at 1am struggling to find any! Finally, with the help of a taxi ferrying us around, we found the ‘P Four Seasons’ motel for £35 (Tagok-ro, 33beon-gil for future reference is where all of the motels are!). Better than the actual Four Seasons, our room even included a massage chair (harping back to our Icelandic luxury).



The following day, we got back on the train at Geomam and headed straight to Seoul Station. We’d booked the KTX down to Busan – this is the high-speed rail that gets you there in three hours. Knowing we were coming back here after a week in Japan, we stored our luggage at the station for £30 (there is a manned place on the ground floor). We know Busan pretty well and found one of our favourite motels – now revamped and renamed ‘Queens Hotel’ around the back of the Lotte Hotel near Seomyeon station. I’ve left a review ‘A Motel Fit For A Queen (Or King)’ here (https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g297884-d3656153-r592271443-Queens_Motel-Busan.html) if you’re interested.



Once we’d dumped the rest of our things, we headed out into the city and went up Busan Tower. Well worth a visit, expertly choreographed for tourists and some great views of the harbour and surrounding area if the weather is good. We were getting acclimatised to the intense humidity and heat so any respite in air-conditioned places was a welcome relief!



The following morning, we made our way to Hakata ferry port terminal to board the Beetle jet ferry that gets you to Fukoka for £200 in just over 3 hours. As had been the case for the entire holiday, as soon as we got onto some form of transport, we immediately fell asleep, so it felt like we were in Japan in a blink of an eye. Once docked, we had to hunt for an ATM to pay for the bus to the city with the nearest convenience store a good 15-minute walk away. We were heading straight for the train station to get our Rail Passes and get straight to Osaka.



I have previously remarked on the brilliance of the Japan Rail Pass – for £200 for the week you get pretty much unlimited use of the network. Considering the bullet train from Fukoka to Osaka on its own would be nearly £100, you only need to do a few journeys to make it worth your while. You have to get an exchange voucher before you enter the country, however, so requires a bit of planning. Once here though, the process is very straightforward, and we were on our first bullet train in no time. Unfortunately for Laura, it wasn’t the new ‘Hello Kitty’ train which had made some headlines back home.



In Osaka, we found Y’s Cabin Capsule Hotel in Dotonburi in the heart of the cities spectacularly illuminated high streets and canals. We had a very special evening meeting up with a very good friend of mine, Tim, who moved to Japan around the same time we went to Korea initially to teach English. His wife, Chica, had booked a brilliant restaurant which served us into the night with sticks of delicious meats and vegetables. We then tried out Starbuck’s green tea drink which included pieces of jelly in the bottom…it was bizarre. Having whiled away the evening catching up and wandering down the beautiful back streets of the city, we reflected on the fact that we’d got all the way here in the space of about 48 hours!



It was an early 3am start for me as I switched on the TV inside my capsule to watch the England vs Colombia match. I had to stifle my celebrations when we finally won a penalty shoot-out! We had planned to spend most of the day in the nearby town of Nara – about 30 minutes train from Osaka. It was probably the hottest day we experienced for the whole holiday which is saying something. The temples in Nara are famous for their sacred animal, the deer, who roam freely and tamely all around the city. I suspect their tameness comes more from the numerous deer biscuit sellers along the routes rather than from a higher power.



We visited some beautiful gardens before making our way to the pinnacle Toda-ji temple. A wonderful free English guided tour filled us in on lots of history and information we would’ve otherwise missed. This included the fact that the roof has two fish tails on the top to protect the wooden structure from burning down…which it has done numerous times in its history unfortunately. The Buddha inside is one of the biggest in the country and the wooden carvings surrounding it are spectacular. There is also a wooden pillar with a hole in it, which if you can squeeze yourself through, will bring you longevity and a prosperous life – Laura had no problems getting through.



Wanting to conserve her longevity, Laura headed back to the town to escape the heat and do some shopping as I went for a walk around the other temples in the area. There were some truly spectacular ones – including a climb up to Nigatsu-do which had some great views of the town, and then a circular walk around Nara Park before seeing a huge five story pagoda at Kofuku-ji. We had probably the best ramen of the holiday for a late lunch before heading back to the capsule hotel which included an onsen to relax. In the evening, we went to probably the coolest buffet restaurant which included make-your-own candy floss and donuts for dessert! We found out making candy floss is harder than it looks!



The following day we were back on the bullet train straight to Tokyo for a relatively extended stay of two days! We stayed at the Book & Bed Capsule Hotel in Shinjuku – great location but nowhere near as good as Y’s in Osaka. After a delicious lunch, we headed to Meiji Shrine which is in a beautiful park area with nice walks through the shrine gates before seeing the temple itself. You pop out near the infamous shopping and anime fashion inspired Takeshita Street. We found a café that overlooked Shibuya crossing which looks better at night than during the day but is still nonetheless impressive to see it fill up every single time the traffic lights change colour.



Although still humid, Japan was battling some of the worst downpours of rain particularly in the west (near Kyoto) for some time. The storms in the sea between Korea and Japan had drifted towards land and our sixth day was overcast but this didn’t dampen our spirits. We headed to Tsukiji fish market assuming they wouldn’t be affected by a bit of bad weather, only to find out they’d closed up early on that day. We still had a wander around and had some delicious sushi whilst we were there for lunch.



We stopped in at Senso-ji temple (which was close to where we stayed last time we were in Japan) before having a nice walk through the city, criss-crossing the river before ending up in Ryogoku. This area of Tokyo is synonymous with sumo and we were unfortunately a couple of days early before the July tournament. However, the sumo arena (Kokugikan) is worth a visit anyway for its great sumo museum which fills you in on the history of the sport, the hierarchy of fighters and the symbolism of the various routines before the fight. It certainly made watching the fights on TV afterwards much more interesting! In the evening, I had a fun session in the gaming district of Akihabara trying to find presents and Pokémon cards for Pete and the kids. The shops there are mad – filled with games, models, books, cards and always a dodgy 18+ area avoided at all costs.



The weather had really set in overnight and as we got to the train station to go to our next destination, Hakone, we were told that the entire town had shut down which meant the ‘Hakone Free Pass’ (not free) which got you access to many of the sights in the area, wasn’t worth getting. However, we had already booked our train and a place to stay so we persevered despite the rain. Hakone is a well-trodden path for day-trippers out of Tokyo. Only about 30 minutes train away, this place feels a world away from the hustle and bustle of the city centre. We found a place to eat along the small high street next to a now-ferocious sounding river and were told no public transport was operating so we decided to wait and get a taxi if needs be.



After a couple of hours, we saw that the buses were moving, and we jumped on one that took us the 20-minute ride to the ryokan we would be staying at. We were really looking forward to this as it was something we had always wanted to do. It is essentially like staying at somebody’s house, so you had a traditional Japanese room with bedding on the floor and a table set up in the centre. Your meals are all included, and we stayed at Maten no Hoshi which had its own private onsen in the house!



It was probably a blessing in disguise that we weren’t able to go out and about as it meant we could just relax and enjoy where we were staying after a few busy days travelling. Certainly, well worth revisiting when the weather improves as the views from the lake are apparently spectacular, and often include being able to see Mt Fuji. The food prepared and brought to us by the owner was nothing short of spectacular. There were about 10 small dishes, mainly seafood, with sticky rice, matcha tea and every mouthful was absolutely delicious…I never thought I would be having salmon and salad



Well-fed and rested, we were about to embark on the next stage of our Asian adventure trying to navigate our way through the storms to the west…



Tink & Laura

---