Country #102 - South Korea

Day 1 – The Myeongdong District

This morning my brother, Edward, and I headed off for our second country of his short trip with me. Instead of dealing with the confusing airport train again we instead took a bus from the Tokyo Central Station. It was much easier and I was able to book online ahead of time! We arrived at the airport in plenty of time for our flight, headed to a lounge where we ate some delicious Japanese cookies for a few hours, bought our dad some crazy Japanese candy for his birthday, and then boarded our flight to South Korea. The flight was fantastic because we were able to see a Japanese highlight out our window: Mount Fuji! We were very lucky, and it was a great way to end our short stay in Japan.

When we landed in Seoul I was immediately like a kid in a candy store. First, we met a robot that I proceeded to play with. We then saw the Olympic mascots everywhere, as the Winter Paralympics were now going on, and I had to take pictures with them as well. We then headed to the train hub where we got our tickets for the local train into Seoul Square Station. From Seoul Station it was a very easy transfer to ibis Styles Ambassador Seoul Myeongdong, our hotel while in Seoul. After a warm welcome we headed to our room with an amazing view out over the Myeongdong district. Thank you so much to ibis Styles Ambassador Seoul Myeongdong for sponsoring my stay in Seoul! The location was absolutely perfect, and we loved the fun yet modern room. And, once again, we had a fun Asian toilet to try and learn how to use.

After settling into our room we then headed out to a meal of Edward’s choosing: Korean BBQ from a restaurant called On the Grill! Neither of us had any real idea what to do so it was quite the entertaining evening. We eventually figured it out and it was quite tasty. After dinner we headed to walk around Myeongdong. Myeongdong is a super busy and unique shopping area in the heart of Seoul. Our first stop was to get some really cool ice cream that was in the shape of a flower. From there we then walked up and down the streets to see all that we could! I bought some fun socks while Edward went for a sweatshirt. We had so much fun walking up and down the streets of Myeongdong – it was such a cool area!

After a busy evening we were so glad to be staying right in the heart of Myeongdong. We wanted to get a good night of sleep before our morning adventure tomorrow to try and get Edward’s Chinese visa. 

Day 2 – The Racoons

We started off the day with a great breakfast at ibis Styles Ambassador Seoul Myeongdong before heading to Seoul Station. We had to visit the Chinese visa processing center to have Edward’s visa expedited as the service we used to get it done before we left the US failed to deliver (it was actually a lot more dramatic than I’m making it sound, but what can you do). Figuring out that the visa center in Seoul existed was a saving grace – without it Edward would have had to fly between Shanghai and Beijing through a third country to reset his visa free periods. But with Chinese visa in hand he could easily ride the bullet train with me as planned. We found the center very user friendly and it was overall a simple process. We left all of his application materials in a process that took about thirty minutes, and we will come back tomorrow to pick up his passport.

With that all taken care of we started off on our full day in Seoul. Our first stop was definitely my choice: the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art. It had a mix of modern and traditional Korean art and was such a unique museum in how well it implemented technology. I mean, Samsung is in the name of the museum, so I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised. Our audio guides would start talking when we walked in front of a new work of art, and there were so many cool pieces throughout the museum! I loved it and Edward tolerated it / pretended to enjoy it for my benefit / I like to think he actually did enjoy it to some extent.

To even the score, though, our next stop was one that I tolerated and Edward thoroughly enjoyed: the War Memorial of Korea. Don’t get me wrong, it was very interesting and I definitely wanted to see it, but Edward is a HUGE World War II buff so I sat and watched while he read every description of every airplane and tank. I found the memorial itself to be very interesting though I wouldn’t have understood in the slightest anything that he was reading.

Our next stop was one that came to us courtesy of Facebook – the Blind Alley Café. While it might sound like a normal café I can assure you that it is not. Blind Alley is situated right in the heart of a university district and is home to many fun animal friends. Namely, the raccoons! While some people may not agree I think that raccoons are adorable and knew as soon as I heard of Blind Alley that we would have to visit. I loved how well taken care of that the raccoons were and I enjoyed seeing the other animals, like the pig and of course the dog, as well. We were both quite surprised when the raccoons were sat on our shoulders and it made for quite the funny photo op! After meeting with the raccoons we had a raccoon shaped shaved ice (of course) and then headed to our next stop, Deoksugung Palace.

Deoksugung Palace used to be home to members of the Korean royal family. We really enjoyed walking around the grounds and also got a glimpse of a traditional procession walking the grounds. It was very cool! We then walked all the way up Sejong-daero (daero means street) to get to Gwanghwamun Gate. Along the way we stopped and took a few pictures, like with Olympic animals (yes, again), the statue of King Sejong, and the U.S. Embassy. Gwanghwamun Gate is the largest gate of Gyeongbokgung Palace, which was the royal palace during the Joseon dynasty and was built all the way back in 1395. There were many people interestingly dressed in traditional Korean clothing, called hanbok, to take pictures inside of the palace.

After the palace we headed right next door to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. There were not many current exhibitions but the ones that were on were quite interesting, including one powerful film on the Korean War. Afterwards we made our way to our last artsy stop of the day, the Dongdaemun Design Plaza. It was such a cool building! Inside there were many fun design stores and outside we walked (for too long) to finally find the really cool LED flowers. They were unlike anything that I’ve seen and I was so glad that we found them.

By this point our feet were in a sad state and we started to make our way back towards ibis Styles Ambassador Seoul Myeongdong. Even with our sore feet we were able to enjoy the piano stairs that we happened upon in the metro - they played when you stepped on them! On the way to our hotel stopped in the Myeongdong district once again. I bought one of the adorable Olympic animals (I might have a problem?) at Lotte Department Store before we visited Star Avenue which is basically a walkway celebrating K-Pop. From there we headed to eat some very tasty dumplings for dinner. After dinner we bought some Oreo churros and yes, they were as good as they sound. It was a very long, full, day but it was fantastic from start to finish. We saw so much and I’m looking forward to another day in Seoul tomorrow!

Day 3 – The Palaces

Today we had a few last stops in Seoul before making our way to China. We started the day by heading to the Bukchon Hanok Village. The Bukchon Hanok Village is a preserved traditional village. We then split a tasty grilled cheese in a little spot that we found on our walk before we went to Changdeokgung Palace. Changdeokgung Palace is one of the five Grand Palaces built during the Joseon Dynasty. It was very large and felt even bigger because it connected to the second palace that we visited today, Changgyeonggung Palace. I really enjoyed visiting them both and overall have really enjoyed visiting and learning about all of the palaces in Seoul. They have been unlike anything else that I have seen before and were so interesting!

Our next stop was Jongmyo Shrine, but it was unfortunately closed so we instead made our way back to the hotel to pick up our bags and then headed to the Chinese visa center. Our fingers were crossed, and we were quite anxious to see how Edward’s visa predicament would turn out. Luckily, we got there and were given his passport, visa inside, straight away! It was so easy to do and saved us a huge hassle in China. From the visa center we crossed the street to Seoul Station and reluctantly made our way towards the airport. We did not want to leave Seoul!

Luckily, Seoul wasn’t done impressing us yet. When we arrived at the airport there was a full on K-Pop performance going on, because of course there was, so we watched that for a bit. We then headed to a lounge where we had a full meal. On our way there we passed a nap zone which made me wish that every other airport in the world were that thoughtful. Our last fun Seoul Airport encounter was the string quartet playing in the middle of the terminal. They were even playing the Frozen soundtrack as we boarded our train to out gate! South Korea definitely went out with a bang and I already cannot wait to come back. It was one of my favorite stops so far and I absolutely loved it!

102 countries down, 94 to go.

To learn more about ibis Styles Ambassador Seoul Myeongdong click here.

Country #101 - Japan

Day 1 - THE CRAZY ROUND TRIP FLIGHT

I’ve reached a point in my travels where, I guess thankfully, I have started to run out of easy countries to visit. But this has also become a bit of a hassle. According to the rules set in place by Guinness, every two weeks I must travel to another country. I’ve hit a time in my trip where I need a little more time to plan things out and raise money, and I unfortunately no longer have any countries that I can easily visit to reset the clock. So today I went to Japan, passed through immigration, found witnesses, had my picture taken, and then got right back on a direct flight home. This sounds absolutely insane; trust me, I am aware. But I really have no other options. Flying to Japan on a cheap round trip same day flight allows me to buy myself two more weeks of planning for my next (very long) trip, and will definitely be worth it in the long run. I also had to make this decision once my original plans fell through. I was supposed to be visiting Venezuela right now but ran into problems securing my visa. As a result I had not choice but to make a last minute visit to Japan.

This was definitely the easiest trip to pack for so far! With just my backpack in tow I headed to DFW (Dallas Fort Worth) Airport and made my way to my gate. I enjoyed checking out the lounge in the international terminal (terminal D) for the first time before my flight. I then boarded and found my place in premium economy. I flew on an American Airlines family pass so I was lucky enough to be seated in a premium economy seat. This was the first time I have ever had premium economy so it was quite interesting to see all of the differences. I really did enjoy it overall but it has its limitations as well.

I had a second row window seat and spent most of the outgoing flight trying to work on my blog and to continue to catch up on things from my last long trip. I watched a few movies as well, and really enjoyed the food in premium economy. It was much more similar to that of business and included free drinks as well. The flight actually went by quite quickly! I tried to use the international in flight wifi but it worked so poorly that I requested (and was granted) a refund. I have found wifi to usually work pretty well on American domestic flights to I thought it was worth a shot! I was still able to get plenty done without it.

When I landed in Japan (approximately 13 hours later) it was now in the wee hours of the morning back home. I called my brother, who was somehow still awake, and talked to him on the very long walk from the plane to immigration. I was so excited to be in Japan, even if just for a few hours, as it is where I will be going on my next actual trip and my brother will be joining then as well! After the very long walk I went through immigration very quickly (they had cool machines that I had never seen before that would scan your fingers and take your picture) and then I headed out to try and find some witnesses to prove that I had visited.

Luckily, they found me! They were two very kind young Japanese men who were actually doing surveys of foreign tourists. I unfortunately was no help to them (they were specifically looking for Europeans) but they were very helpful in being my witnesses. I ran into them a bit later (after I checked in for my flight back and walked around the departures hall for a bit) and had one of them take my picture. They were so very kind and interested in my trip, and I really enjoyed meeting them!

After about an hour outside of the airside area I then went back through immigration and wandered through the duty free shops. I loved all of the cute Japanese products and can already tell that it is going to be so hard to restrain myself from buying tons of souvenirs when I’m back in two weeks. My one purchase on this short trip seemed pretty appropriate, though. A Tokyo 2020 shirt! I am a huge fan of the Olympics and since the winter games are on right now it only seemed fitting. I also am really hoping to visit Japan again in 2020 to go to the Olympics so now I’m prepared!

After shopping around I then made the long walk back towards my gate. I stopped in a shop that had some crazy Japanese flavored Kit Kats (like green tea!) that I will definitely have to try when I’m back in a few weeks. When I got to my gate I continued to stand and walk around to help keep the blood flowing in my legs. I wanted to help myself out as much as possible before getting on another incredibly long flight! Eventually, it was time to board and I received another premium economy seat. This time I was in the front row of the section, which actually makes a huge difference! The front row has leg rests that actually extend from the chair itself and are super comfortable. I was able to sleep for about six hours and watched a few more movies.

I landed back in Dallas only a little over twenty-four hours after leaving. This was, without a doubt, one of the most bizarre days of my travels so far. But thanks to some fun rules that I have to follow it had to be done. I’m just glad that I had a fun time doing it, and that I got a glimpse into how great Japan will be in two weeks. I’m happy to now have a little time to plan before setting out again, and am very excited for my next trip to come. Six weeks in Asia, here I come!

Day 2 - The Actual Trip to Japan

Today I boarded yet another direct flight from the United States to Tokyo, and this time I plan to stay for a bit! It is my brother, Edward’s, spring break from university so he is going to be joining me for the first ten days of this trip in Japan, South Korea, and China. After he leaves I will have about five more weeks on my own where I will be traveling to every country in Asia. I’m so excited for this trip as I have said since the very beginning that the region of the world that I’m most excited for is Asia as I have never been anywhere like it before. I’m so glad that it is finally here!

Edward flew in from Nashville last night and we had a hectic evening of packing and repacking. A six week trip in two tiny carry-on bags will be no easy feat! This morning was very busy as well with lots still left for me to do before our 11am flight. We were definitely running late but ended up having enough time once we got to the airport. We flew on American Airlines family passes and when we checked in the nice man at the counter actually remembered working with our grandmother who retired over twenty years ago. I definitely have a pretty unique last name so I guess that is how he remembered, but it was still a super cool coincidence.

We ended up getting great seats in economy for the long flight. We had the first row and there was no one next to Edward and I was seated in the aisle. It was more than enough room for the 13 hours! We each watched quite a few movies and slept for a bit as well. The flight went by relatively quickly (well, after about four movies I guess) and before I knew it I was back in the same airport I had to rush through only two weeks ago. But this time I was here to stay!

I had been telling Edward about how easy immigration had been on my last trip when we ran into a giant mess of a line. It was literally the antithesis of the line I had to wait in last time. Instead of being non-existent it was massive and very unorganized! It took us over an hour (the beginning of which was very uncomfortable as people were pushing and shoving) to finally make it into Japan. Once we did we had our next challenge at hand: figuring out the trains.

Here’s a little tip - if you are visiting Japan for the first time, be prepared to be very, very confused by the rail system. There are like three different companies that run rail and metro lines in the city and it was very confusing to understand at first. I might give it the honor of being the least intuitive public transit that I have ever used, even. And I have used quite a lot of it. Once we got the hang of it it was very easy but in the beginning, it was just so overwhelming.

We wanted to take the slower, cheaper train into the city but it was very difficult to tell which one that was. We just barely missed the first train (as we weren’t sure it was ours and didn’t want to hop on the wrong train) so we had to wait about an hour for the next one. Which I spent trying to figure out the trains so at least it wasn’t an hour wasted. The train ride in was about another hour which we both spent trying, and failing, to keep from nodding off. I eventually just let Edward sleep until we arrived at Tokyo station.

Things did not get any less confusing upon our arrival into the city. After attempting to figure out the metro, thinking we had it figured out, and then not being able to find a place to buy tickets, we eventually gave up and headed above ground to take an Uber to our hotel. At this point , our ineptitude largely had more to do with our extreme sleep deprivation than anything else, and we eventually realized that we just needed to get to our hotel and crash as soon as possible.

The unfortunate thing about Uber in Japan is that, at least right now, only premium services are available. Which meant our five minute Uber was about $15. So, until Uber becomes more mainstream, I highly recommend using it only in unique cases (like sleep deprivation). We arrived at our hotel, a tiny spot in the heart of the city, and fell asleep not long after. It was a cramped room but we definitely could not have cared less after such a long day. The day ended on a pretty funny note, though, as it was Edward’s first time seeing one of the crazy Japanese style automatic toilets and he had no idea how to use it. He couldn’t get it to stop flushing and the whole ordeal was pretty entertaining!

While it was a bit of a stressful beginning to out time in Japan I’m willing to chalk most of it up to our tiredness. I’m so excited to be in Japan and really looking forward to what is to come when we explore tomorrow!

Day 3 - The Tokyo Drizzle

Well, it was quite the first day of the trip! We got a relatively early start to the day and, after having spent plenty of time researching the metro and trains last night, I was ready to start the day and take on Tokyo’s transit. Our hotel was just a short walk from the nearest metro station. After finding the correct entrance we ran into a bit of an issue (the machines don’t take foreign cards) but it was actually pretty entertaining because a little peephole opened up and an actual person handed me my card back. It was pretty cool, honestly! We found an ATM, bought a 1-day card that covers all of the trains in the city, and were on our way. Now that we had everything figured out the transit was a breeze for the rest of the day!

Our first stop of the day was the Asuka neighborhood which is home to the Sensō-ji Temple and other historic and significant buildings. It was a great first stop as it was about as traditional of a Japanese sight as we would see all day. It was so interesting to see my first Buddhist temple (of many to come) and to begin to learn about the different practices. I also really enjoyed walking around the Asuka area and looking in the cool little stalls. Our next stop was to grab a quick bite to eat. We headed to Ichiran Asakusa which served ramen and other small dishes. You ordered out of a vending machine (which was super cool) and then received a ticket. The food was then brought to the table! We shared one large bowl with a few sides. I have to say, for my first real ramen, it was pretty tasty!

The next area that we visited was Ueno Onshi Park. Unfortunately, by this time, it had started to rain, and our supposedly beautiful walk through the park was quite wet and dreary. But I could see that it was a very nice park when the weather is nice! After wandering around Uneo Oshi Park, we took the metro to our next destination, Akihabara, where Edward really wanted to make a stop. The area is basically one huge shopping area for all things associated with anime, manga, and video games. He wanted to buy his friends a few small presents, and I also enjoyed taking in the overstimulation of the area. It was crazy but really cool, too! We went to a few different stores and the number of figurines of different characters was truly amazing. They had everything!

After Uneo Oshi Park and Akihabara we realized two things: that we needed to get out of the rain, and that I needed a new rain jacket. I got a new coat for this trip but realized once it started to pour that the hood basically did not work at all. So we hit two birds with one stone and made our way to the Ginza area, which is basically the High Street of Tokyo. We decided to visit Uniqlo in Ginza as it is home to their flagship store, which is actually one of the ten largest flagship stores of any brand in the world. And I could definitely tell! Once inside it was ten floors of clothes. And it was quite a cool store as well! I found an inexpensive, lightweight jacket, and we also bought a few inexpensive t-shirts. They had Shanghai Disney t-shirts which I figured would be much better to buy inexpensively now than to actually buy at Disney. So it was quite the productive little stop! And by the time we left the rain had let up as well. It was a win-win!

Our next stop was just a short walk down the road to the Kabukiza Theater. I’ve heard the story from my grandmother many times of her visit to the Kabukiza Theater over 30 years ago, so it was cool to see it for myself! We bought a ticket to a short 30-minute act of the play that was ongoing. I really appreciated the ticket setup where you can just see a short snippet to get a glimpse of the theater and the shows. It was a traditional Japanese show (completely in Japanese) but we were able to follow along with the English pamphlet. After the show, we visited the Tsukji Market which is famous for its fish market, though it was mostly closed up by mid-day when we visited.

From the market, we headed to the metro to make our way across town to Chidorigafuchi Park to attempt to see the cherry blossoms. We were, unfortunately, quite disappointed as they were not yet in bloom. We must have missed them by just a few days as it is technically the beginning of the season. We then tried to visit the National Garden which unfortunately was closed earlier than it had listed online. After two failed stops our next stop was thankfully just barely still open. The guard was very nice and let us and another few tourists in right before he closed the gate to visit Meiji Jingu Shrine! It was quite an eerie walk up the long pathway to the shrine as the sun was going down and it was starting to rain again, but it was cool all the same. The shrine itself was very interesting to see and was a highlight of the day. I’m very thankful to the guard for allowing us to visit! It was a rushed visit but we were able to see the entirety of the shrine and take pictures as well.

While our walk up to the shrine had been eerie, our walk back out was downright creepy. There were no other people in sight, it was getting quite dark, and, all of the sudden, sirens started to blare in the distance. Given our current location in the world I could think of two things: either there was an earthquake or North Korea had done something. But after searching online for any explanation we still have no idea what that was about. Anyways, creepy sirens aside, we then made our way back to the metro to visit Takeshita Street, a pedestrian street lined with cute stores and unique foods. We were determined to try two different delicacies: the giant rainbow cotton candy and the creme brulee crepe!

The giant cotton candy was our first stop at a store called Totti Candy Factory. It was truly giant! It was so crazy and very fun to attempt to eat. We were both quite the mess afterwards! We then stopped in a few adorable shops (where I bought some cute socks and a little Monsters Inc. outfit for one of my dogs… I am such a sucker for cute things) and then found the crepe shop that serves creme brulee crepes! Unfortunately, we were almost out of cash for the day so we decided to just split one. It was so good I could have eaten many by myself - I definitely recommend them! We had them at a place called Com Crepe Sibuya.

By this point in the day we were both struggling to even walk. My feet were killing me and we still had plans to go to the Samurai Museum. I somehow convinced Edward that our feet (and sanity) were more important to maintain since we still had a whole week ahead of us, so we then made our way to the Shibuya Crossing Intersection instead. It was so cool! I had, of course, seen the crossing before, but I couldn’t believe how crazy it actually was, especially with the unfortunate weather bearing down. There were people, and cars, everywhere, and the district itself was very cool and filled with shopping and tons of light up signage. Edward had picked out a spot for dinner but we unfortunately could not find it anywhere until we finally found a sign saying it had closed. We were now reaching peak exhaustion and just wandered into the restaurant next door. We had been searching for somewhere serving Japanese food but somehow ended up in an Italian restaurant (the signage outside was very deceiving). I offered to leave if Edward wanted to find another spot, but he was so tired he had no desire to try and find somewhere else. So, we had Italian food. It was okay but the best part was definitely just being able to get off of our feet.

After quite the busy day in Tokyo we then took one final metro ride back to our hotel. We are exhausted and have to wake up relatively early to fly to South Korea in the morning. It was definitely a short visit to Japan, and there is so much more that I want to see in the future, but the good news is that we both are seriously planning on being back for the Olympics in 2020. So, despite the lingering rain all day, thanks to Tokyo for a great day: we can’t wait to be back soon!

101 countries down, 95 to go