tokyo

Tokyo was a cool city, and I will definitely be going back, but I don’t get why everyone goes so crazy over it.  I could understand if it were the first city someone visited in North-East Asia, but I don’t get why so many people who live here come back talking about how it’s so much better than Seoul.  It really is very similar to Seoul, except not as spread out, more people, way more expensive, and more seats left open on the subway because Japanese people aren’t as pushy.  Because of they are pretty comparable, I would choose Seoul over Tokyo any day simply because it’s so much cheaper.  (When I brought up this opinion to people at work, I was met with a strong reaction.  Half the people agreed with me and the other half freaked out that I mention such a thing.  Korea and Japan are similar after having a close—although not always good—relationship that started over 1500 years ago?!  Pish posh!)

Anyway, here are some pics from our short trip:

Tokyo Tower

View from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building

Shinjuku

I don’t know anything about pachinko except there are huge buildings full of people playing it everywhere and they are probably wasting a lot of money.

Tokyo, like Osaka and Kyoto, is much cleaner than Seoul.  No smoking on the streets probably contributes to that.

Shibuya Crossing

Looking for a rave

Their ABC Mart is hella better than ours, gotta say.

Harajuku, or Hot Topic enthusiasts’ paradise

I had missed H&M until I stepped into the most crowded one in the world I imagine.  I found out Seoul’s getting one next year, yay.  This one had a DJ.

Not a fan of the orange anime hair that every Japanese guy seems to have that ruins any chance for them to be attractive.

It seems live every country I’ve been to in the past year has had a surprising obsession with Obama.

Meiji Jingu Shrine

There were a couple of weddings, which was pretty cool to see.

Obligatory Hello Kitty picture

I remembered one more thing about Korea that I love, and that is their lack of “manners”.  Koreans are pushy and I love nothing more than hearing some old ajumma yelling at someone or giving out dirty looks to strangers.  In Japan, we had to stop ourselves from rushing onto the buses because they believe in something called “lines” and “personal space” over there.  Here, you stand right up on everyone all the time because if you don’t, someone will snake in front of you.

Somewhat related, it also weirded me out that in big cities they have women-only subway cars.  I can understand that in Mexico City, and in places where you can’t wear shorts because men will more or less jump you.  But North-East Asia??  The worst that a male stranger has ever done to me here is perhaps whistle maybe one time, and it was probably just some old drunk ajushi.  I can’t imagine anyone trying to get away with groping on the subway here, even though they are usually packed, so it seemed strange that a country so close and similar in many ways would have that problem.  It must come down to their rigid cultural codes of behavior.  While Korea is far from perfect when it comes to gender differences and the societal view of sex, Japan seems to be way off.

I guess the cool thing about traveling is not just seeing amazing places, but also giving yourself a new perspective on your own culture and the world in general.

JAPAN

I have so much stuff I’m about to post, so I’m sorry for the overload.

Japan was pretty sweet, but I guess after living in Korea, I was judging it based on my Korean experiences.

Things I liked:

-People don’t dress the same

-Good food

-Cleaner

Things I didn’t like:

-Even though Japanese fashion is the polar opposite of Korea’s tendency to conform, most of it was ugly in my opinion.  Korean girls (and guys) always look amazing, even if they are way plainer.

-The transportation system in both cities took awhile to get used to.  Seoul is really easy to get around.

-Sooooo expensive.

And lastly, Korean guys are way better looking (overall) than Japanese guys.  Of course I made sure to check this out.  It was surprising how different Japanese people look from Koreans.  I guess I expected it, but you can really tell the difference after living over here.  I imagine my not being attracted to J-guys probably has something to do with me being used to how the beautiful K-guys look.  Maybe.

Anyway, here are a shit ton of pictures.  Enjoyyy~~~^^

kyoto: day 1

Kyoto was a pretty cool area.  There was a ton of really amazing things to see, but the city itself kind of blew.  The transportation sucked, especially for such a touristy city.  The buses were the best way to get around, but they didn’t use much English, and they stopped running at odd hours (one main bus stopped at 5pm).  I was also thinking that since it was a smaller city it might not be as expensive as the others.  Wrong.  One ride on the bus costs about $2.20 and with the won-yen exchange rate not being in our favor, I ended up spending a ton of money just on transportation and food.  Not that it wasn’t worth it, I just could never live in a country that is so pricey.

The whole fam (minus photographer Justin) on our way to Kyoto from the airport.

The neighborhood around our hostel was quaint.

Anything you hear about vending machines in Japan is true.  They have everything from beer (here) and sake to tomatoes.  I swear I saw a tomato vending machine.  And this was only in the “small” (maybe 2 million people) city of Kyoto, so I can’t wait to see what weird stuff I’ll see in Tokyo in about a week.

The Golden Pavillion

Kimonos are so pretty.

Everything in Kyoto was so scenic and beautiful.

A little shrine we came across in our neighborhood.

Such a weird ass picture to have at a wedding reception.  I especially like the groom’s face.

Then they came out!  The bride’s dress was insane and I loved it.  (Pic from Karissa)

kyoto: day 2

Up early.

Nijo Castle—we got to walk around inside, and the King or whatever who lived there was so afraid of getting murdered that he had the wood floors make noise when people walked on them.  It sounded like birds chirping.

I love the wood on so many of the buildings.

Kyoto was so picturesque.

In Gion, which was an older area famous for the geishas.

We saw a geisha show.

I thought it would be a tourist attraction, but it was legit.  We were the only Western foreigners besides a couple.

We weren’t allowed to take pics, but Karissa snuck some.  The show was so eerie.  There were older geishas playing music and singing creepy music while the younger ones acted out a play, then later danced.  Their makeup for the most part made them look really scary, too.

Then the Fushimi Inari shrine.  We were busy that day.

It was such a cool place.  There was a long trail that went up a mountain, and we had wanted to go to the top, but we were far too exhausted.

There were foxes everywhere.  People wrote their wishes on the backs of these I think.

Such an awesome place.

Ninja boys.

Jumping girls (from Justin).

Creepy screw dolls.

In the hostel—Karissa, Ryan, and Sharon.

Justin and Joy.

kyoto: day 3

Woke up early and went to Kiyomizu-dera.  We all considered it one of our favorite places.  It was so beautiful.

Samesies.  Not the only father/son hairdo twins I saw, too.  The only one I got a pic of, unfortunately.

Geisha spottings.

We happened to come across the oldest pagoda in Japan.

I looked hella old.

Heian Jingu shrine.

Huge torii near the shrine.  They also drive on the opposite side of the road in Japan.  No idea why.

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We went to “The Philosopher’s Walk”.  It was disappointing.  (Pic from Justin)

The Silver (not really silver) Pavillion.

The Japanese gardens were amazing.  That tree didn’t even look real, as if Bob Ross painted it in.

So many people were there.

It was so amazing looking, and we couldn’t get over how much plant-life was present in Kyoto.  I had seriously forgotten what fresh air smelled like.

Raccoon dogs with big balls.

We took a train ride.  It was pretty.

Bamboo forest.

Then we hopped on a train for Osaka!

osaka

So, we get to Osaka and find our way to our subway stop.  There, though, we find that there are over 20 exits and our hostel directions did not specify which one to take.  Two old Japanese guys happened to notice our lost-ness, so they made their way over to us and offered to help.  The guy in the yellow jacket kept stopping and thinking and wondering aloud where we were.  After some thinking, “Wait.. um.. where are we?  Oh yes, well… we’re… drunk.”  He called the hostel several times and they walked us all over until we finally made it there 20 minutes later.  So awesome of them.

I was so happy to be in a big city again.  Kyoto isn’t a small city by any means either, it has maybe 2 million people, but that just wasn’t doing it for me.  Seems like I must be in the most densely-populated areas in the world now for me to feel comfortable.

Sharon, Kenna, Justin, and Joy.

I feel like this sums up Japan pretty well.

A line of fancy loud cars came rolling out of a parking lot and we were told not to take pictures.  Maybe it was the yakuza going to kill people.

Anime hair all over the place.  Cool in theory, stupid in reality.

At a sake bar near our hostel. these three got cup after cup of sake poured for them by this guy:

They first ordered three shots and got three huge cups.  After finishing and thinking we would be leaving soon, he poured them more.   And more.  Then after pushing the sake off to some older Japanese guys there, we ran out before he would try to get anyone any drunker.  He wouldn’t let us leave without taking two bananas, an orange, and two sticks of fish sausage.  It was funny how the old Japanese guys dressed just like American ones.  Korean ajushis only wear suits or track suits it seems like.

The next day, we got up early so we could see some sights before our flight.

Osaka Castle.

We had a photo shoot by the castle, which turned into Japanese people taking pictures of us.  (Pic from Justin)

Little girls in training to be typical Japanese women.  The girls in Japan look somewhere between awesome and ridiculous, wearing a pound of makeup, blonde hair, and stripper heels 24/7.

It was funny because I saw these, and was like “Oh just some more dogs with dyed hair and clothes,” then caught myself and realized this is absurd.  I was the only one who even took a picture because living in North-East Asia seems to have made us jaded of bizarre things.

japanese food

I figured I would make a separate post because we ate so much delicious stuff.

Kyoto:

Chicken and rice, pork and rice.

Japanese ramen kicks Korean ramyeon’s ass any day.

Crepes, crepes, crepes.  So good.  Not sure about the tuna one, though.

Sushi train restaurant.

Men’s Pocky.

Osaka:

Okonomiyaki, a Japanese pancake sort of thing.

Final touches of the standard North-East Asian condiment: mayonnaise.

Ramen for breakfast.

Put in money, push a button, give the dudes a piece of paper, and this is what you get:

So good.

Octopus balls.  Wasn’t down to try them, although I guess Osaka is famous for them.