Second destination in Asia… First days in Seoul, South Korea…

Hi everyone from somewhere between Alaska and Vancouver!!! I never thought I could write a blog post at 37002 feet altitude!!! I had little time to post again before returning to Costa Rica so now I’m writing from the plane on my way back…

By the time I arrived at Japan, the trip to South Korea was not something I had in mind, but when I found out that it was possible to extend my Japanese visa if I was out of Japan a couple of days and then returned, I started to make some calculations and contacts and South Korea was the best place to travel. I hurried to plan the trip before my Japanese tourist visa period was over…

I have to thank Hao Chung because he introduced me to a lot of his friends in South Korea. This was the link for meeting Elisha who was my salvation when I was searching for a hostel  and how to get there from Incheon Airport(the most modern airport I’ve ever been!). Elisha was also my guide during my first days in Seoul!! Thanks a lot Elisha!!!! :)

About preparations for my trip, I have to thank Ken Amposah and Tomoko Ukaji, they helped me with the flight ticket from Tokyo/Seoul and back in the most appropriate dates with the lower prices!!! Nice!!! Here are Hao, Ken and Tomoko!!!

  

I decided to stay 10 days in South Korea for 2 reasons, I wanted to travel around Seoul as much as I could and also I wanted to be sure that, by the time of my return to Japan I wouldn’t have any problems with the visa. So I took a plane on May 8 from Narita and in approximately 2 hours we landed on Incheon, this is my very first picture in South Korea, this place was also my bed that night because I had to sleep at the airport…

Next day around 9 in the morning I met with Elisha and we departed to Mr. Kim’s hostel (a place that would change forever my ideas about how to travel!). This was the cheapest place we could find where the price was only $16 per night!! To our surprise the hostel was located in a very nice area, near the Seoul Tower and here I could met another  travelers with whom I spent some time around Seoul and talked about interesting topics! Here are some photos from the hostel where I met Joe from England (he was travelling around Asia as a backpacker and no specific plan!), Mr Kim (the hostel’s owner, super nice guy) and Tony (from South Korea, very nice person and he was living some time in the hostel). Also there’s the room where I stayed with 7 more people…

 

The first days in Korea I went sightseeing with Joe and during one of our conversations he talked about the site CouchSurfing which was very important when I got back to Japan and also I learned a new and more interesting way of travelling! This site is a travelers social network where you get in contact with people who could host you or offer some tourist guidance (not cost at all!). This was very helpful in Tokyo where I could met new places and people thanks to the site!!! Some places I visited with Elisha and Joe on the first days in Seoul…

 

 

Another interesting spot I visited with Elisha was the Seoul Fish Market. Here  are some shots from the place and a video. It is a strange experience to watch so many rare species that you can eat…

 

After the market we visited Seoul’s most centric place, a huge plaza which is near the government buildings and there’s an underground Korean history museum, very interesting place! Here I took some photos and also this video…

  

 

  

  

The first days in Seoul where great! I took the decision to walk around (instead of riding the train) to the most popular spots and also to know the city better so I had 4 to 7 hour walks everyday which where very fun and tiresome! Some places I visited and the funny dancing Snoopy…

  

 

  

There’s a lot to talk about Korea and I didn’t wanted to create just one huge post so next time I will write about the final days in Korea, more interesting people I met, other tourist places I visited, some facts about Korean food, my first Karaoke night in Asia and most important of all: my return to Japan!!! :D

Thanks for reading!! :D Hope you are doing great!!! :D

The Brotherhood from Ueno…

Hi to everyone from Kesennuma!!! I’ll tell you about my voluntary work around here in a future post…

Ueno is a very nice area in Tokyo. The place where I was staying is near the main park which is huge and there’s a lot of fun activities on weekends, it has a zoo with a couple of very lazy pandas. There’s also some art and science museums in the park and you can get to Akihabara in a 30-minute walk. Ueno has an interesting commercial zone where you can get almost anything with acceptable prices (compared to the rest of Japan). For me Ueno is one of the best spots in Tokyo!

Before and after my travel to South Korea I moved to Ueno temporally because of a host family change from ICYE (the cultural organization where I’m working). Thanks to the contact I made with Shin-Chan (Miho) I could stay at this new home. Here I had excellent and fun experiences, this was one of the best places I stayed in Japan and all thanks to the new people I met and whom also hosted me!!!

The apartment’s brotherhood is formed by this group of people…

From left to right: Hiroshi Mc Knight, Miho Shin-Chan, Hallic, Miyuki Boom Boom and Yoshito Justice!!!

With this team I had very interesting conversations!! I learned some not so formal Japanese vocabulary (like bon-kiu-bon, niku-nikushi), I cooked my first Miso soup in Japan with the help of Yoshito, Hiroshi told me about the Japanese people’s feelings and fighting spirit, snowboarding tips and how the Japanese working system is related to a lot of cultural stuff and why Japanese people work so much. I also participated in my first military “survival game”. I had to take some notes about how to approach to Japanese girls (so different from Latin America!) and how the boyfriend-girlfriend relationship works here, this was taught by Miyuki and Shin-Chan. I had my first hair cut in Japan by the hand of Boom Boom and we went Karaoke together which was a super fun experience!!! I could say that every night I stayed in Ueno we had a unique cultural exchange experience!!!

   

Thanks to the brotherhood I got in touch with more interesting people around here! I met a family of musicians and artists that where so kind to me and reminded me how you have to really seize the day to reach the most important goal: be happy and work for other people’s happiness! Here we have a very funny picture of almost everyone, with Sonorous (who gave a signed Aria Soundtrack CD!! :D ) and the small and cute Roha and also a picture from the graveyard located near the place where I was staying (not related to the family but I like the photo)…

 

I will share some very refreshing links and videos from this family of artists!

The first one is from Osamu, he’s a graphic designer and sometimes a music video producer. This is the link to Osamu’s website, he also has a YouTube channel and here’s a musical video that I like… The music was made by Yasuki and Yoshitomo whom are also part of the family…

Sonorous’s songs really touched my feelings, her voice and compositions are super nice!!! She took part in the soundtrack for the animation Aria and she has a cute baby (Roha from the picture) :) Here one of her songs…  Heart Touching…!

Yasuki is a super nice guy and he’s also a music composer. He’s work is very original! I had sometime without hearing something so different… This is his website and a video from his band (the video was produced by Osamu)…

Also formed from the family and brotherhood is the musical group called Wassyoi. Excellent!!! I have no videos of the band (I couldn’t find any on the web) but this is the band’s site!

Sorry,  some of the sites are in Japanese :P !!!

After travelling to South Korea I stayed around a month in Ueno, it was an excellent time and after this month I took the decision of traveling around Tokyo as a backpacker so I could stay in new and different places and meet more people! Even during my backpacker time I occasionally visited my friends at Ueno where I have a new home now (while the brotherhood lives here!). Some final shots…

 

 

 

This blog post is dedicated to the brotherhood and the unique moments I had (and will have) in Ueno!!!

I have to thank this people so much for all the help in so many situations!!! We still have a last mission to complete in this travel: conquer mount Fuji!!!! :D

Arigatou!!! Pura Vidota Hiroshi, Shinkai, Yoshito and Miyuki!!!! :) Together forever!!!

Kansai!!!

Hi everyone!!!! It’s been a while since my last post, lately I’ve been busy with my volunteer work and the places where I’ve been staying have no internet connection so posting has become difficult…

Some days before travelling to South Korea for the purpose of renewing my Japanese visa (at the end I got the visa with no problem!!) I travelled one weekend to Kansai where I visited some very nice places in Kyoto and Osaka!!

For Kansai you can take bus or normal train but I had to ride the “Shinkansen” or “Bullet Train”. This is one of things you must do in Japan! Even though this special train is very expensive the ride is quite fun, fast (takes 2 hours, normal train takes around 8) and comfortable! Here are 2 videos I took, one is from the moment we left Tokyo station (the speed was not so great here) and the other was near Nagoya I think (where the train was very fast)!!!

 

The first day at arrival time I met Jan (exchange from Switzerland) at the station and later we met Ai and Miho (our guides for the day) in a very famous place in Osaka where we took this pictures :)

Osaka is more colorful than Tokyo and the people from this place is more direct as well. Everyone I’ve met in this journey have been very nice to me so, always without exception, I have excellent times! Here some shots from the first day at the different places…

These days I stayed at Jan’s host family’s home and on the second day, Kozuke (Jan’s host father), Jan and I went to a couple of famous sightseeing spots. The first place we visited was Himeji Castle. Even though some parts of the castle where under reconstruction it’s still a nice place, huge (Japan’s biggest castle) and some interesting things happened here…

When we arrived at the castle’s entrance a Japanese lady came to us and said she could guide us inside the castle. At the beginning we had no interest because we all thought it was going to be very expensive and for me the guided tour thing is not so fun. Everything changed when the lady told us that she would guide us for free so we accepted the offer!! xD

To our surprise the lady knew almost every detail about the castle’s history, she spoke excellent English and we had a great time because of her company. This place is quite complex and she explained a lot of interesting details. She was very kind!!! :D

What’s interesting about this lady is that she’s been working here for more than 25 years. Every Friday she visits the castle and offers to guide the first lucky non-Japanese tourist she can find and she never works for money, just because she loves her work!!! This lady also wrote a book about the castle, she is quite famous in Japan for her dedication to this “job” and she guided a United States president and some other important people!!! So, we where INCREDIBLY lucky to be there at the right time, the right day and the perfect spot to met one of the best tourist guides in Japan!! :D

After listening to some very interesting facts about the place. like famous movies and TV shows that where filmed here (some parts of Shogun and Agent 007 with Sean Connery), battle strategies from the castle’s  design, details about how it was built, legends and another information, we left Himeji Castle with a very happy face!!

The second place we visited is the the one I like the most in Japan: Shoshazan Engyou-Ji. This is a very calm place and the landscape is great. This area has a lot of temples in a mountain between forests where you can really feel like time has stopped! A curious fact about the place is that some scenes from The Last Samurai movie where filmed here. I had to take a video of the main temple. The place is just perfect!!!

Some pictures from this place…

 

Next day we visited Kyoto where we met Kiri-San. He’s a great person, an excellent tour guide for us and we visited the most famous spots around. Kyoto is a work of art, many places here look like the old Japan and there’s a lot of temples, sanctuaries, and beautiful gardens. This place is full of history and the city in general will transport you to another era! Totally different from Tokyo!

Pictures from this day…

   

The trip to Kansai was short but I had a great experience with a lot of great people!! Special thanks to Jan and his host family (Kozuke, Saku-Chan and Makiko), Ai, Miho and Kiri-San for all their help and support, tour guides and the happy times we had together!! Last day I took the bus on early morning because the trip back was 8 hours long.  This is Jan’s host family, we eating a lot of sushi and my last photo in Kansai with Kiri… I will return!! :D

In the next post I will tell you about the week before travelling to South Korea!!! Thanks  a lot to everyone in Kansai!!! :D

Chao!! :D