Japan

Japan was, to say the least, AMAZING.  It was everything I've ever wanted and more.  The sushi was awesome, the sake was fresh, the people in kimonos were adorable, and there was hello kitty/anime everywhere.

We went from Tokyo to Kyoto to Nara to Osaka.  We packed a lot into 9 days but it was worth it.   I went with a good group- Matt (boyfriend), Andrew (co-worker/Seoul buddy), Claire (friend), and Megan (friend from U of R).  You'll see their faces throughout the pictures on this blog.  Below is a bit of a summary of what we did on the trip.  I didn't go into too much detail about the little things, but they were just as memorable as some of the big sights.  I loved the vending machine restaurants, the green tea ice cream, the tatami mats and interior design, the monkeys walking down the streets of Harajuku, the gyoza and tempura, the sensory-overload of almost every store, the Engrish signs, the arcades, the fresh soba and udon noodles, the parks, the fashion, the accidental Shinkansen ride to the airport (most awesome train ever), the green tea... everything!

Tokyo

Tokyo was really interesting.  It's an awesome mix of east and west.  They've maintained their sense of Japanese identity while adopting Western culture where it fit.  They've done a really good job keeping the balance between modernization and tradition.  It is definitely an international city- a hub of business and politics- but there are still shrines, parks, and an imperial palace that the emperor's family still lives in.  We stayed in the area called Asakusa, which was a great spot.  It's considered an "older" part of the city and hasn't been modernized like the areas around Tokyo station or Shinjuku.  

The famous golden sweet potato, or "terd" as some may call it, of Asakusa

Asakusa

The first night we got there, we spent our time exploring Asakusa and acting like Japanese teenagers.  Check out the stickers we made..

double date

sticker booth

We spent out days touring the city.  Each day, we saw a whole lot from morning till night.  Here's some of the highlights...

Harajuku and the Meiji shrine
We unfortunately missed seeing any funky "Harajuku girls" dressed in ridiculous outfits.. I think we got to Harajuku a bit too early on a Sunday morning.   But, we did get to see the Meiji shrine.  Emperor Meiji and his wife ended Japan's isolation to the outside world.  In other words, they opened Japan to the West, which is why the country is where it is now.  It's really great he did, because globalization has made it so now you can get sushi in new jersey- and use a non-squatty toilet in Tokyo.  A great exchange, if you ask me. They built a gorgeous shrine for him and his wife in Tokyo.

Meiji shrine

My favorite part of the shrine- wishes and prayers in many languages

The Imperial Palace East Garden
Most of the palace isn't open to the public because it's actually someone's house (which is pretty cool in itself), but the east gardens are open to see.  I loved the koi fish ponds.

Looked like a real-life thomas kinkade painting

East gardens

Towards dusk, we headed to Tokyo Tower.... which looked familiar...

Tsukiji Fish Market
The next morning, we woke up at the crack of dawn to head to the Tsukiji fish market for the freshest of fresh sushi.  The auction was closed to the public but we were able to walk around the fish market and see the day's catches.  The market was busy-busy and we were constantly dodging to get out of the way of motorbikes and forklifts.  We saw some big fish.. and ate some delicious sushi!

The fish market

fresh fish

fish heads

sushi for breakfast

best. sushi. ever.

  
Since we had to wake up at 6 AM to go to the fish market, we were pretty beat and spent the rest of the day going shopping in Ueno, which actually wound up being a gambler's dream with it's numerous pachinko halls and digital horse-racing rooms.  That night was our big Tokyo party night, and Andrew returned from climbing Mount Fuji, so we hit the town.  We went out dancing in Roppongi- clubbing in Tokyo was definitely all it cracked up to be.  We ended the night at 8 AM, back at the fish market for round 2.  We couldn't leave Tokyo without having melt-in-your-mouth sushi one last time!  At around 10 AM, we hopped on an 8 hour bus to Kyoto.

Kyoto

Kyoto is possibly my favorite city in the world that I've been to (besides Savannah, but that will never be matched).  They kept a lot of traditional Japanese architecture and there are still famous shrines and temples everywhere.  Everyone rides bikes around.. so naturally, we did the same!  We rented bikes for two days and rode around the city seeing the sights.

The Golden Pavilion

Kyoto at Night

boyfriend and I by the lake

Megan and I at the path of philosophy

Megan and I

our bikes

Cooking Class
One night in Kyoto, Matt and I took a cooking class at a man named Taro's house.  It was a lot of fun and it was really neat learning how to make Asian cuisines- definitely a change from the baked zitis and eggplant parms that an Italian girl like me would usually make.  We made a dashi-basd soup, tomago, sushi rolls, japanese spinach salad, and kobe beef.  It was a lot of fun!

Matt and I with our home-cooked meal

Matt making tomago

From Kyoto we headed to Osaka/ Nara.

Nara

Nara was a really cool place.  It was the ancient capital of Japan and still has a lot of traditional temples and historical buildings.  The best thing about Nara is that there are deer EVERYWHERE.  Like... Venice has it's pigeons (which are gross rats with wings), Bangkok has it's straydogs, some places have their stray cats, and Nara has it's deer.  They're actually considered pests (one took a chomp out of a map that Matt was reading) but they make the whole place look magical.

going in for a bite of the map

We saw some amazing things in Nara.  Here is Todaji temple, the largest wooden building in the world with one of the largest brass buddahs inside.

Claire and Matt at Toda-ji temple

We also climbed up Wakakusayama Foothill- one of my favorite places we saw.  It gave a great view of the entire city.

walking up the foothill

Megan inside a window's desktop

Here I am in front of the city

Nara

To end the day right, we went to a sake brewery and did a sake testing of their fresh sake (sake sake sake).  It was a lot of fun and, of course, we all left a little tipsy.

Osaka

Capsule Hotel
We stayed one night in Osaka at a capsule hotel.  I was really excited to do this because I have seen pictures of capsule hotels ever since I was little and never believed they could be so small.  I understand why they're convenient for businessmen but I can't say I really enjoyed the experience.  It was a pain in the ass and kind of uncomfortable.  Since you have no space besides your cell, you have to keep your stuff in lockers, which are in a separate room. And that's in a separate area from the bathroom.  And you need certain keys to get in certain places.  So I kept losing things between my cell, the bathroom, and my locker.  Maybe I could contribute that to my own scatter-brain but either way, the setup wasn't ideal for travelers.  It was a good experience but I don't think I'd like to stay again.

my capsule

The Sugiokas
One of the highlights of my trip was in Osaka.  I got to see some old friends- the Sugioka family.  Toshi (the father) works for Johnson and Johnson, a company that has it's headquarters close to my house in New Jersey.  So, for a year when I was in first grade, the Sugiokas lived on my street.  Misa and I became friends the first day that she moved in.  She didn't speak English, and I didn't speak Japanese, but we played all day and became best friends as the year went on.  My first-grade self heartbroken when she left and we stayed pen pals for years- drawing pictures of the two of us under rainbows and that kind of thing.  We sort of lost touch as we got older but reconnected about a week before I came to Japan.  They invited Matt and I over to their house for tea and snacks.  Yoshi and Toshi (the parents) are doing well and Misa and Maki (the girls) are beautiful!  We also got to meet their boyfriends.  It was so great seeing them after 15 years!

Sushi, Beers, and Karaoke
The gang and I spent out last night in Osaka eating sushi off a conveyor belt, drinking beers by the Dotombori stream, and doing karaoke.  I really liked Osaka and wish I could have spent some more time there.  It was definitely the "city of lights."  It is sort of what I imagined what Tokyo would have been like- with the neon signs and chaos.   

Andrew scanning the conveyor belt.. check out that stack of plates

conveyor belt sushi

Beers on the Dotombori

The Dotombori- lined with a crazy, multi-story arcade/ ferris wheel

Matt and I on the Dotombori

all-you-can-drink karaoke

i really got a kick out of this.. it's the words to semi-charmed life

So that about sums it up!  There was a whole lot more and I have 2 full facebook albums so feel free to check them out!  I really enjoyed Japan and am already looking for a chance to go back!

Muuido Island

This past weekend, Matt and I went out to Muuido Island, a small island off of Incheon.  Considering it's the middle of monsoon season, we got lucky and had only clouds in the sky.  We made it to the pier on Incheon and took a short ferry ride across to Muuido.  You could actually see the other side easily... I'm not sure why they didn't just build a bridge because you could easily walk.. but.. whatever works.  After a ferry ride and windy, bumpy bus ride across the island, we arrived at Hangaggae Beach and checked in to our little beach hut.  There are a couple rows of them along the edge of the beach... enough for max.  3 people to sleep in and they give you enough blankets to make a cocoon on the floor.  Like little minboks on stilts.

Row of Minboks on stilts

Here's ours!

It was low tide, and the interesting thing about Muuido is... when it's low tide, there is absolutely no sea.  It goes completely out.  You can walk all the way across the bay... out to about a kilometer.  It's pretty wild!  We took a long walk and saw all sorts of snails, crabs and sea cucumbers.  We got to the other side and it was beautiful.  Completely deserted.

No sea

The other side

We actually got lost coming back and went into complete panic mode, which is hilarious in retrospect. 
On our walk, we thought we were walking straight and went for about a mile... we were walking for at least 20 minutes until we found the other beach, which we thought was the other side.  When we started walking back where we thought we came from, the ocean started coming in fast.  It was actually pretty cool to see.  Anyway, we panicked because we had no idea how we were going to get back through the ocean without swimming... instead, we stopped at a beach that wasn't overtaken by the sea yet.  We didn't have shoes or any money so we figured we would have to beg someone for a ride.  As we walked up on to the beach, we were commenting on how similar it was to ours... and then it turned out that it was ours.  How stupid we felt! But also so relieved because we were starving.

We had lunch of some noodle soup with fresh clams and spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing black jack on the beach (the first and probably last time i beat matt- just need that on record).   It wasn't the best weather or the best beach, but it was nice to be at any beach at all and we had a lot of fun.  The next morning we woke up and it was monsooning (of course) so we had a trek getting back to Seoul.. which was definitely worth it because we ate a ridiculous amount of Taco Bell (definitely a novelty here) and watched Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind at a DVD bang. I wish we had those in the states!  You basically just rent a really cozy room with a big couch and pillows and they put on a DVD that you choose on a huge screen TV.  I love it.. you get to leave your house but still be lazy.

Other than that, I really missed the 4th of July!  Definitely my favorite holiday... I wish I could have been BBQing with my friends instead of working all day. Boo hoo.

That's about it!

How to get to Muuido:

-Take the Korail airport line from either Seoul Station, Hongik University or Digital Media City station
-Once at the airport, go to departure terminal (3rd floor), exit at gate 5
-Take bus 222 to reach the Jamjinnaru ferry terminal (the ferry runs every 15-30 mins) and you can literally see Muuido from the Incheon side and visa versa
-Buy a ticket at the hut to the right and board the ferry
-Once on the other side, there are buses waiting right at the terminal.. there aren't usually numbers but just ask the driver if it goes to Hangaggae Beach
-To rent the hut, just walk towards hanaggae beach and you'll see a building selling the minbok huts for 30,000 won.. they give you a key and you just head to the beach.  But be warned.. I didn't come across any showers while I was there.. just public bathrooms with toilets/sinks

Highlight Reel

Well I suppose since I haven't written anything since January, which means I have about 4 and a half months to write about.. but i'm not going to do that.. because it would probably be boring.   So I'll just give some highlights that way this blog doesn't fall apart.  And when I say highlights I mean... anything I can remember...


March was a fun month with St. Patricks Day and everything.  My birthday was at the end of the month and that was pretty much a week long celebration.  Definitely the best birthday I've ever had.   The 30th was on a Wednesday so I had a long day at work... after work, the guys took me to Coco City Chicken (our favorite neighborhood Hof) for chicken and beer.  From there, Eva (my co-teacher) and her friend Song picked me up and took me clubbing!  We went to a booking club in Yoensinnae.. the hip part of Eunpyeong (my "gu").  It was a lot of fun and also an interesting experience.   For one, it was a wed. night, so most of the people at the club were between the ages of 40 and 60.  The idea of a booking club is you go with your same-sex friends to meet members of the opposite sex.  The girls get a table with a couple of beers and a fruit platter or whatever food you want.  Boys get even better food and lots of booze.  Then, the waiters take the girls away one by one away from their friends and bring them to the boys' tables.   The way they pair people is based on attractiveness.  It's a good way to find out if you're ugly or not, that's for sure.  I suppose it's an alright way to meet people, but considering my Korean conversation skills are limited to about 3 phrases (Did you eat? What is your name? and What beer/food/sports do you like?), meeting people got old after a couple of rounds.  Also, being a jersey girl, it makes me weary to drink alcohol of the tables of strange men.  It was definitely a cool experience and I had SO much fun with Eva and Song.  We danced the night way and even saw a boy-band perform at the club.  Overall, a good night!

Eva, Song and I having some drinks before our night out

That weekend, all of my friends came to town and we had a blast.  Friday night was filled with BBQ and norabang (kharaoke).  Saturday was amazing!  Johanna and Matt and I spent all morning eating candy and watching the hangover (to accompany ours).  They finally got me out of bed on the pretense that we were going "hiking" in Gangnam... (which, by the way, is the downtown area of the city.  Why did I believe that?)  We got to the "hiking area" and after all of my other friends had told me that had to bail on dinner, they were all there to surprise me !!  We had a picnic filled with wine, brie, cake and snacks.  Actually, we wound up having to put the wine away because the park was on an ancient burial site... but anyway, I've never been so happy.  I have the best friends ever!

Party hats and everything

After the amazing picnic, we headed to Big Rock Brewery in Gangnam for dinner and some good beer.  A whole bunch of people came from all over and I had an amazing time.  From there we went to some other bars and then headed to "Noise Basement," which is one of the biggest hip hop clubs in Seoul.  I'm glad I went for the experience but boy, I will never go back if I can help it.  There were thousands of people crammed in like sardines... I've never seen anything like it!   Overall, it was the best birthday ever.. We ended the night at Pomato, eating dongkass and laughing about everything that happened.

i still don't get it.

April was a good month.  I attended a beer olympics tournament, where my team, Colombia, put out a less than stellar performance.

 I can't really remember the order of events for the rest of the past couple of months.  I went hiking a few times..  here's some pictures from hiking in Dong Song

At hawk rock in Dong Song

The girls sitting outside a war bunker

An ominous view of Dong Song from above

We also hit up Samaksan in Chuncheon..

Matt at the summit

The gorges at the start of the hike

My friends and I also checked out a "Trick Art" museum here in Seoul.  It sounded much cooler on the website than it actually was.

Johanna has my head on a spoon! Oh No!

I'm getting eaten by a monster!

Another weekend we spent on the East Coast.  MJ lives in Gangneung, a pretty city on the beach... a bunch of people from Matt's orientation got together and rented some minboks at Hajodae beach, about 40 minutes north of Gangneung. What a great weekend!  I love the beaches here.  All one of them that I've been to.

A not-so-good shot of the beach.  This pic def does not do it justice.

Sparklers at night

Fireworks!

Beach volleyball

One lazy sunday night in Chuncheon, Matt, Carla, Andy and I had a BBQ next to a creek by her house.  It was such a good night.  The girls cut up peppers, zucchini, onions and things while the boys grilled sam gyp sal, galbi and duck! mmm

Also, it was Children's Day/Buddha's birthday in the beginning of May.  I got a couple of days off.  Buddha's birthday was on a Tuesday so we made sure to pay homage at a temple in Gangnam.  It was beautiful!

traditional dancers

Also, at some other point in time (I have no concept of when), Matt and I went to Goseokjung, which is supposed to be the birth place of the Korean Robin Hood.  It's in Cheorwon, not too far from where he lives.  It's really a beautiful spot!

Hantan River

Here I am! In front of a waterfall.

Here's that Robin Hood character I was talking about

There's also a small amusement park at Goseokjung.  Matt and I tried out the viking and we, along with all the middle school students on the ride, got off not feeling too well

Down by the Hantan River

Also, for the past couple of months, my friends up in Cheorwon have been putting together a salsa performance.  They've been working SO hard on it.  Last weekend I went up there to watch their show. It was a variety show at the Wasu-ri cultural center.  They were one of many performances.  There were child ballerinas, traditional Korean dancers, and my favorite was something that is hard to describe.  It was a group of grandmothers that were playing large Korean drums while also performing a dance routine.  They dressed in sequin outfits and actually stripped off portions of their clothing at certain points.  Seriously one of the best things I've ever seen.

Also, Matt got a scooter!! Woo hoo!  We spent sunday evening exploring the outskirts of Dong Song.  So beautiful out there!  It really makes you feel like you are in East Asia, riding on a motorbike through valleys and rice padis.  I'm really happy for him.  Especially because he lives in a rural area, it'll be fun to have transportation besides the bus, which often stops early evening and doesn't run constantly.  There is so much cool stuff to see up in Cheorwon that's only possible with a personal vehicle.  I'm excited to check out the DMZ on an upcoming visit!

And that's all she wrote!  Of course, plenty more stuff happened but I have to keep some mystery from my readers.  I'll try to update more frequently so there aren't any more sporadic blogs like this.

Oh and just in case anyone was wondering,  I DO still have a job.   I know it might not seem that way, but I do still go to work monday through friday.  Kids are doing well!  Got a new classroom with windows that I'm pretty psyched about.  I've got a nice view of Bukhan mountain right out the window!  I feel very lucky! :)

Leonardo da Kimchi

I apologize to all of my loyal fans for not updating in so long!  The whole month of January went by and I felt like nothing happened...so I didn't write.  The most notable thing that happened was that it was so. so. cold.  It was the coldest January in Korea for 30 years. It didn't get above -10C for the entire month.  There were mornings I'd wake up and it would be -17C.  No joke.  Actually, Seoul isn't even the coldest part of Korea.  Some of my friends live in Cheorwon which is nestled in the mountains near the DMZ.  There were days that it was colder there than in Siberia.  I wish i was kidding.  Needless to say, I spent most of the month snuggled under my electric blanket with a glass (...bottle) of wine.  You should have seen my recycling bin each week. 

Stuff that DID happen:

When they're causing my early-onset wrinkles, my students are, of course, cracking me up.  They say funny stuff every day.  I should start writing it down, huh?  Here's a few I can remember off the top of my head...

-Here is the story of Cinderella told by one of my students (this one i DID write down. It was THAT good):

   Cinderella doesn't have mom, so not really mom come.  Not really mom

has two daughters.  Not really mom and her daughters go to dancing
party, but cinderella can't go to the dancing party.  But  witch helps
Cinderella.  So cinderella go to the dancing party.  And Prince and
Cinderella marry. So happy.

- We were studying Italian artists and one of them was Leonardo daVinci.  One of my witty guys blurts out: "Leonardo Da Kimchi!!"*

*If you don't know what Kimchi is, this probably isn't funny.  It's the national dish of Korea.. fermented cabbage with red pepper paste..they literally eat it with every single meal and it's everyone's favorite food

-On one of Andrew's tests, the answer was "parachute" and some kid clearly got confused and wrote his answer as "Putagraper"

-My kids were drawing pictures of stuff and one of my girls calls me over and goes "Teacher.... mermaid have arms?"  I look down and it's a drawing of a mermaid with NO arms.

-Here's a video of my Pre-K class singing and dancing to "Party in My Tummy.." They got camera shy and couldn't remember the words but it's still funny to watch them all.   They're just goofing off the whole time. Only one girl (Sadie) keeps up dancing the whole time.  The chubby girl all the way on the right (Chloe) is hilarious... she just stands there moving her arm a little bit. She tries so hard!  And best of all, check out the boy and the girl on the left... about a minute in, he grabs her ass.  He's like.... 5.  Pervert.

 

After being here for almost 6 months, my work does feel more fulfilling.  I have seen a lot of kids improve a ton.  I'm especially proud of my pre-K class (seen above).   They came in knowing nothing (hence, PreK) and they've improved a lot!  They soak new information up like little sponges.  I'm really proud of them and it's really fulfilling seeing how far they've come.  I also feel like I've become a better teacher (which NEEDED to happen because I came in disliking children and having NO idea what I was doing).  We've done some really cool projects in my Pre-K class.  We studied "the hungry caterpillar" (the other benefit of teaching youngins is that I get to revisit all the things I loved during my childhood).  In the hungry caterpillar, he goes through each day and eats 1 apple, 2 oranges, 3 pears, etc. So we read the book and then, they made their own "hungry caterpillar" books.... but instead of hungry caterpillar, it was "hungry John," "hungry felix" or "hungry Layla."  They had to draw themselves on the cover. Then on each page they had to draw a number and foods. 1 orange, 2 cakes, 3 apples, 4 kimchis, etc.  Whatever foods they wanted to draw.  Actually, Chloe, the adorable chubby girl, did it all correctly until the end...  1 apple, 2 cakes, 3 ice creams...and then...... 7 houses.  She clearly misunderstood the assignment.   We also studied Goodnight Moon.  We read the book and then they made their own Goodnight Moon Books.  I made the template but left blanks for them to fill in with words and drawings. For example, there's a page in the book about "the cow jumping over the moon," but where the cow would be, I put a big blank circle, so they could pick whatever animal they wanted to jump over the moon and fill in the blank.  So they could do "a snake jumping over the moon" or "a monkey jumping over the moon."  Or instead of "the big green room," they could color the walls and fill in the blank with whatever color they chose.  It came out really cute!  And I must say, I was pretty proud of them.  I love seeing how far they've come since they first got here and didn't even know their names.  Now, they can fill in the blanks with numbers, animals, and colors.  Plus, they're so friggin small and adorable!

On another note, we had a week off for Chinese New Year.  I went to the Philippines and it. was. awesome. I'm obsessed and want to go back.  NOW.  We only had a week we stuck in Boracay which was amazing.  It's one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. 

I want to go back NOW.

Here's my friend Andrew snoozing under his mosquito net.  Why can't I ever go on a vacation to a place that doesn't require a mosquito net?

My friend Johanna and I relaxing on bean bag chairs on the beach.  Genius!

Johanna with a lobster... it's rainbow!

Happy Hour on the beach.

Here I am!

JoJo and I making a sand gingerbread man.  It was a hit!  People walking by took pictures of it.

So yeah, I'm pretty much ready for vacation again!  Or at least for the winter to be over.  I'm really looking forward to the spring/summer!  MudFest, Jisan Rock Fest, Any kind of Fest, biking, hiking, running outside on the Bulgwan-chi! Eating outside! Drinking outside! Road trips! The beach! Buddha's birthday! Cherry Blossoms! Trips to Jeju! Bunjee Jumping!  It will be awesome. And the thought of these things are the only thing getting me through the winter!