JAPAN

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Things in Taiwan have been going really well and I've been getting a lot of sub gigs. Many people are going home for the holidays, so I have been working for 2 or 3 weeks at a time. I just finished subbing for about 3 weeks and then I had 3 weeks off until I have to sub again for another 2 weeks. I figured I could either stay in Taiwan and wait to possibly get called in during those 3 weeks OR I could go travel. So, I decided to go to Japan for 12 days and then to Korea for 6. Japan was absolutely amazing. I flew into Fukuoka and as soon as I got off the plane, it felt more like the holiday season. Maybe it was the fact that it was colder there then in Taiwan and people were all bundled up in their winter gear or maybe it was the lights in the trees and the Christmas carols that played in every hostel and store, but I definitely felt more in the holiday mood as soon as I got there. Japan was exactly how I thought it would be- neon lights, bicycles everywhere, super clean streets and vending machines on every corner. I am so used to trying to speak Mandarin that it was difficult at first to remember to say "arigato" instead of "xiexie". I stopped into a convenience store on my walk from the subway to my hostel and I actually told the clerk that I didn't need a bag in Mandarin. Definitely got a strange look from him. Anyway, I was planning to leave Fukuoka first thing the next morning, but then I noticed on my map that the Asahi brewery was nearby where there were free tours and we got to drink for free for 20 min. after the tour. It was definitely the biggest brewery I have every been to- I'm used to the local ones in Northern California and Oregon and this one was HUGE by comparison. I went on the tour with a Korean tour group and 2 Norwegians (definitely a random mix). I left the brewery a little tipsy and went straight to the bus station to go to Hiroshima.

HIROSHIMA
I stayed at a hostel that was about 45 minutes away from the city, but was right next to the ferry station that went to an island called Miyajima. It's a fabulous place with lots of parks, temples, shrines and a large mountain with great views from the top. There are even wild deer that eat just about everything. I woke up early the next morning and was able to get there as all the little shops were opening up. I was going to hike to the top of the mountain, but there was some sort of race going on that day and I felt like I was in the way by being on the trail, so I ended up taking the rope way up and then walking down from there. I walked around some of the parks which were absolutely beautiful because the autumn leaves were still on the trees. Then I went back to downtown Hiroshima and went to the sight where the atomic bomb was dropped. They've made the area into a massive park called the Peace Park that has many monuments to remember all the people who died in the bombing. I walked through the museum which was very powerful. I liked the way that they not only showed what a sad and awful thing happened there, but also used this place as a promotion for peace. After the museum, my plan was to walk around the park for the rest of the day before I had to catch the night bus to Kyoto, but unfortunately it started raining. I walked around for a little bit, but I was getting drenched, so I decided to check out this vegetarian restaurant I found nearby. The restaurant was like a little hippie bar that sold vegetarian tex-mex and it was surprisingly good. I sat in there and ate dinner and drank some wine until it was time to catch the bus.

KYOTO
I arrived in Kyoto around 6:30 am and luckily there were lockers in the station where I could stash my bags. Unfortunately, the tourist office didn't open until 8am and I didn't really have a plan. I only had a brochure for a hostel in town and it had a little map of how to get from the train station to their location. On the map, there was the Higashi-Honganji temple, so I went and checked that out, walked around, went to Starbucks, and waited for the tourist office to open. Then I went to go do the Philosopher's Path that is supposed to be a nice tree lined walk past several shrines and temples, but I accidentally got off the bus too early at the wrong temple. So, I went and checked out Kiyomizu-dera temple which turned out to be very beautiful, especially with all of the fall leaves on the trees. I decided to walk from the temple to the Philosopher's path, but it took over an hour and after about 10 min. on the path, it started to downpour. Since I'd planned to just walk around Kyoto the rest of the day, I decided to change my plans and catch the train to Osaka and then come back to Kyoto a few days later.

OSAKA
Osaka is a pretty large city that is only about 40 minutes away from Kyoto. It took me awhile, but I finally found my hostel which just opened a few months ago, so it was super clean. The staff was a super nice young couple with a new baby (Moca). There was only 1 other dude and a family there, so even though I stayed in a dorm with 4 beds, I had a room to myself. After I checked in, I went to meet one of my former students for dinner and drinks. The next day I went with the dude from my hostel to the Osaka Castle and then went over to the "retro" neighborhood, Shinsekai, which was apparently the place to be until about the late 50s when it came to a standstill. Overall, the place kind of reminded me of Tomorrowland at Disneyland. From there, we went to Namba (the downtown area) for sushi and sake. The next day I decided to take it easy since I'd been go,go,go since I got to Japan. I went to an onsen which means hot spring in Japanese, but it's more like a bath house with cleansing natural hot baths, showers, a sauna room and lots of nudie Japanese ladies. It was a very relaxing day. The craziest thing about the onsen was the toilet. Almost all of the western style toilets have a control panel next to them for the seat warmers and built-in bedits. When you sit down, you automatically hear the sound of the seat warming up...reeer. The onsen's toilet was crazy though- when I walked in, the toilet lid lifted automatically and automatically shut when I left. It tripped me out.

KYOTO
The next day I went back to Kyoto and checked into my hostel which was right next to the main shopping area. I checked out a few of the stores and then walked a long ass way to Nijo Castle. I walked around the gardens which were beautiful and went into the castle itself. The floors inside were really cool. The nails rub together so when you walk on the wooden floors, they make a sort of chirping sound. It was apparently created as an alarm system. From there I went to a rotating sushi bar and then went to a neighborhood called Gion which is a traditional area where you can see lots of older buildings, temples, and women walking around in kimonos. The next day I took the subway to several temples: Tenryji, Ryoanji, Kinkakuji (golden pavilion), and Ginkakuji. (If you didn't know, ji means temple in Japanese 😉 After that I went to this hole in the wall vegetarian restaurant that would have never passed a health inspection in the U.S. and was owned by a Japanese crazy cat lady. All of the food was vegetarian and it was all surprisingly good. After that I drank some coffee and walked around a bit before catching the night bus to Kawaguchiko.

KAWAGUCHIKO (town near Mt. Fuji)
I woke up on the bus at about 7am to see a winter wonderland outside my window. (Apparently the town had just gotten their first snowfall that morning). I dropped my stuff off at the hostel and then went to take the rope way to see views of Mt. Fuji. It was fabulous with all the snow still on the trees and the view was perfect. Then I took a bus that went around Lake Kawaguchiko and Lake Saiko. I stopped off at the caves and was really looking forward to seeing the ice cave, but unfortunately with the bus schedule I didn't have enough time and all of the snow had started melting off the trees, so it would have been like a 45 minute walk in the rain. I decided to check out the lava cave instead, which I was a little nervous about because I was the only person there. Being in a cave by yourself is definitely eerie. It was super small though and the end of the cave was an area were acorns are stored (random). Then I took the bus back around the other side of the lakes and after I got back to my hostel, I went to an onsen that was just around the corner, ate dinner and went to bed.

TOKYO
I took the bus from Kawaguchiko to Tokyo and it ended up taking me twice as long to get from the station to the hostel because I took the wrong subway. Tokyo's subway is intense with 14 different train lines. My hostel was located in Asakusa- a good shopping area with a temple (Sensoji) nearby. That afternoon I went to the Imperial Palace, but it was closed by the time I got there, so I just walked around the outside. Then I went to Akihabara which is the technology area. There were all these girls in costumes on the street that were trying to get people to come up to their "maid cafes". I'm not really sure why they're popular, but apparently, they are cafes where you pay girls to play games with you (and by games I mean like Hungry Hungry Hippo and Checkers)- so bizarre. After that I went back to Asukusa and walked around for a bit before going back to the hostel where I stayed up a little too late and by the time I went to bed, I'd convinced myself not to wake up at 6am to go see the crazy fish market. So, I started off the day in Ueno which is a neighborhood with a nice park and some interesting shopping streets. Then I went to Shinjuku (the downtown area) where I went to the 45th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building for a great view. The next neighborhood I went to was Harajuku which is a shopping area with lots of funky stores and good people watching. I didn't have time to see everything I would have liked to in that area because I really wanted to get to the Sabuya neighborhood by rush hour. I didn't see anyone getting pushed into the trains like I'd heard about, but there were still loads of people there. I went up to Starbucks where I had a view of the main crossing area.

And that was the end of my time in Japan. The next morning I caught an early plane ride to Korea. As soon as I got off the plane, I started to experience culture shock like I've never had before. In many ways I feel as though going to Japan first has kind of tainted my view of Korea. The streets are SO clean in Japan and the Japanese people are overly polite, so Korea seems really dirty and the people seem so rude and pushy in comparison. I have about 5 days in Seoul where I'll check out all the different neighborhoods. I'm debating about taking a tour of the DMZ (the border between North Korea and South Korea), but they closed it down after the attack and they'll reopen it on Tuesday, but I'm not sure if it is safe or not. Other than that, my plan is just to walk around Seoul, but there are some problems with that. First of all, it's super cold here (it's supposed to snow on Thursday and Friday) and I think I might have sprained my foot when I slipped on a step in my hostel in Osaka and it has only gotten worse since I refuse to just sit out a day of my vacation. Oh well- I got a bandage for it today and I'm making the most of my time here. Anyway, enough about me; How are YOU doing? Drop me a line and let me know 😉 Take it easy.

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