Japan to Korea. The first jump on a long Trip.

Sorry for not Blogging for a while, I've been a bit tied up with seeing loads of things. However now that I'm about to move to the next town I've got a few hours. Hmm or should I go out again.... nah.

Since my last post, I spent 3 days more in Tokyo. Really I didn't get up to much, I spent 2 of the days planning and reading up on Korea and Seoul, then heading out at night to hit the town and the 3rd day I went to find the future town.

The future town was a town built several years ago to allow mass housing and future things, its where Fuji TV building is and teleport stn. It also has a scale model of the statue of liberty, which the french gave to the Japanese a a couple of decades ago for a anniversary or something. Cool Photo op.

From there I took a bight and early flight the next day to Korea.

First impressions, were a bit low but it got better. The Train system is no where near as smooth as Japan but its still massively superior to Australians. I thought I had booked myself into a hostel in Seoul, but it turned out to be a guesthouse, i was staying with a local family under there roof and rules. Which was fine. It actually turned out (jumping a head a bit) to be a awesome idea, the local knowledge and atmosphere was refreshing and nice.

That day as I was nice and early into seoul i had some time left in the day to explore, so i hit the first of 5 palaces in Seoul. The Deoksu-gung palace was one of the first in Seoul and the smallest now. The difference between Japanese and Korea architecture was slight, but the level of detail in the colouring was vast. The Korea buildings where painted in a array of colours and tones and the roofs had dragons and paintings all over them. Not a single spot was not painted in some symbolic pattern.

There was a traditional korea music concert on as well within the palace, The concert was only practice as it was not for a few days, but the music and movements were accurate never the less and was really special exploring the palace ground with the traditional folk songs being sung in the back ground.

From there i move to the market area in Seoul the open area markets was a dirty, grotty, noisy and fun place... There was everything from shoes, pants, shirts, bags, computers, cameras, to anything and everything to eat on a stick.. squid, fish, crab all rolled in a dow and shoved on 2 chop sticks. Was a really funny place to get lost in. Boy did i get lost... I walked around in what i was convinced to be circles for 1 1/2 hours before ending up a few km's away from where i started. I ended up catching the train back to the Guesthouse and finding place to have dinner.

The guesthouse was located on the back of the Hongik University area a lively nightlife area and fun regain of seoul. So naturally I couldn't resist :-P.
That night i hit the Hong Dae found a pub and a night club and danced till 4am..
The clubs were vastly different from those in japan, bigger, louder and more lasers... also the music was a lot more western (not that japan didn't play western music as well but it was just different) Also you were not aloud to stand out of line of in groups, it was dance in a line or you get kicked out, I guess was to pack as many people in as possible. Still was a awesome night out at 4am i was a bit tired so i  walked back to the house and crashed.

The manager of the guesthouse was most amused at my 12 o'clock wake up the next day, and my stories of the earlier day.


The following day with 1/2 the day gone, my plans of seeing 2 palaces sort of died in the water. I hit up the  Gyeongbok-Gung palace. This palace was about 3 times larger than the once the previous day and more detailed again.
This was the old royal palace, and featured royal guards still patrolling and changing guard the same fashion. It also showed the living arrangements and the throne of the old kings.

In the palace was also all manner of bird life and squirrels. Having never seen a squirrel in flesh before i found it quite amusing to chase it around for 30 min trying to get a good picture of it. Dam the thing is fast....

That night although Kim from Bonsai Hostel in Osaka Japan warned me. I tried my first Kimchi Stew. Oh man it has a kick like nothing i have tried before. I finished the lot and it was super nice but i was hurting for a while afterwards. The assortment of side dishes were also super nice. Every time you order something you get them and each time it seems to be different combo's even with the same dish. I guess its whats on hand that day. Side dishes include: fermented cabbage, raw octopus with chilli source, small dried fish, lettuce, bean spurt with nuts, and other random things. Ive tried every thing and its super super nice!

That night I was board and again hit the town. New places new things, and on the way back I was walking past a park at 1am and could hear people cheering and jumping but nothing. It was 100's of people just dancing to nothing till i noticed they all had headsets on. The headsets were free to rent (just had to give over a ID to hold as a deposit), and it finished at 3am. Great music better than any club and outdoors so never near as cramped as the clubs. Great idea and was loads of fun. Another all night :)

Next morning Julie the manager was amused again, I'm seriously not a morning person... again 1/2 my day was out the window but it was a fun night never the less ;)

I headed to a shrine this time.
The burial place of Korean kings of the past. The Shrine outlined the history of confucianism in korea and the ceremony of the methods they pay respects to the elderly. It was quite informative to see the effort and the amount of work that goes into the presentation and the ceremony. The shrine had a massive courtyard where dances and presentations were completed and several kitchens all in the old dynasty method.

I worked my way from the shrine to another palace only to be told that it was closed for the day, which was disappointing. it was early. So I just randomly walked through the city and ended up at a old part of the palace wall, a gate, which is now a round about junction.

The next day I returned to the closed palace and explored it, this was/is one of the largest palaces in Seoul (Changdeokgung). This palace had a main area and a living quarters which was quite interesting to see. The palace also included a "secret garden" *ooooowwwww*.
The garden was a private place for the king and queen and guests to meet.
There was a lot of gardens (obviously) and buildings, including places for the king to "learn" what the other classes of his people lived like, places to recite poems to his "lady friends" (lol), places to "learn" how to sow crops and harvest them.

It was all quite informative and interesting, and took the best part of the day.

The following days having enough of palaces and the city i hit the mountain side around seoul. I hopped on a train to the outskirts of Seoul and jumped to a bus to some remote location.
I hopped of the bus with about 20 other fully decked out koreans in fully hiking gear with walking sticks and hiking shoes. I was in my shorts, sneakers and tee shirt well under geared compared to the others.

The walk was amazing, the climb up Mt Bukhandae (837m) followed the river stream in the national park, then the last 1km was up a steep hillside till the top. It was all in all a nice walk, a bit slow at the end but nothing special. The water was fresh mineral water from the mountain and drinkable.

Once i reached the top i could see 360 degrees in every direction, the city, and the country side. A few minutes break and the clouds and thunderstorm started to roll in and it was time to leave.

The climb down was considerably faster and easier naturally. I stopped at the stream and relaxed in the cool fresh water. Was very refreshing.

At the bottom i tried a local kimchi Stew with cow bone. It was unbelievably hot, the manager asked me several times if i was ok and the cook was watching me through the window. The guest sitting next to me asked me a few things in korean which i have no idea which was. I finished it and it was yummy in the end, but yes very very hot.

The last day in Seoul i headed to the DMZ with a tour group. The tour was run like clock work, 5 min here 10 min there very rushed. But never the less it was extremely interesting.

We visited the DMZ park, and seen a train that was destroyed during the war.

Visited the 3rd tunnel that north korea created and climbed down it to the blockade and could see through. It was extremely low by my standards i hit my head more times than i could count much to the koreans and chinese tourist walking the other ways laughter. Although i was not the only silly tall person to walk in a 5 foot high tunnel.
We watched a move on the DMZ. All about the history or the war and the tunnels discovered and systems.
Then we proceeded to freedom village a town within the DMZ.

We also visited a observatory where we could see over the boarder into North korea. The security was extremely intense and we were only aloud pictures from a set distance from the railing.

We also visited a train station originally built by the south koreans at the promise of the north for passage to the russian rail lines to europe, but these promises broke down and the line is now empty. The station still reads the signs to Pyeongyang and Seoul.


From here the tour group split into 2, i was going on to the JSA (Joint Security Station) on the boarder of north korea and south korea.

The JSA was 4 hours but only 2 hours of actual sights, the rest was mail driving and security checkpoint after checkpoint.
The drive was extremely unreal, we had a UN/Korean soilder in the bus watching that no one took photos of the training camps and gun installations on the way in. We got matched into a building and one last check then signed a NDA not to take photos unless the guards gave the ok, and that the US, UN & Korean army could not 100% guarantee our safety in the event of a "incident".

From here we swapped to a  UN approved bus with no markings no labels and what i assume was bullet proof glass, and drove again 20 min to the boarder, past land mine fields and tank stoppers and all sorts of defences. Till we hit the JSA. We were under struck instructions not to make and gestures, wave, point, smile, grin at the North side as it could be taken the wrong way.

We lined up took photos of the neutral meeting houses and then proceeded inside, to take photos of the conference table where the north and south meet. The microphones on the table mark the actual boundary of the 2 sides, with guards stationed all inside and outside the room.

A few happy snaps later and we were rushed back to the bus and down a new road past the bridge of no return (the old prisoner exchange point) then back to the safe camp and onto our own bus back to Seoul.


It was a eventful but rushed day ;)

And now I'm back in the guest house writing up the loooooooong blog for you all preparing to leave tomorrow for Jeju.

Alls going well and till next time,
Steffen.

Kampai Osaka!

My trip to Osaka started out extremely slowly but finished with a lot of fun. This Blogs going to be a bit long, sorry.

I originally only booked to stay in Osaka to get my visa and travel plans in order for china and Korea. I was 99.9% sure before I left Australia that I read, I could get my visa to China over the Internet, however it turns out now, but alas i did some reading along the way and i was lucky i did, as I could only get it here in japan and not Korea my next stop. The guide on: http://perrin3.com/japan/china-consulate-osaka/ was super helpful in the end.

In japan if you are a tourist, you need to keep your passport on you 100% of the time or a alien card. So having to hand my passport to the Chinese consulate was a bit of a sticky situation for me. Never the less i got my visa so China here i come.

Now onto more interesting things... lol.

I visited Universal studios one of my days in Osaka, it was "interesting". I'm defiantly grown to old to go to theme parks, it was fun but expansive on the large scale of things.

Got a picture with JAW's, got completely wet on the Jurassic park ride (much to the amusement of the locals, so glad my camera is waterproof), and laughed at jokes i could not understand on the Terminator 3D "thingy".... yeah "thingy" it was 1/2 way between a 3D movie and a theater production with actors. Very cool to watch.

Also went into the woody the woodpecker ride, again it was a theatre production but in front of the actors was a panel of glass, that they projected the anime onto and the actors interacted with this. It was funny and very cool to see.

When I was leaving I walked past a street show of a lady and a monkey. She was making the monkey do tricks, one of which was to walk of stilts that were at first only 10cm off the ground then the next set was 1meter plus... very impressive.

That night I was sick and tired of eating noodles or stuff rapped in seaweed, so I cooked my own dinner. It had potatoes. Was sooooo good, i couldn't wait for it to cook, the hostel only had a single hot plate, so i had it took a eternity to cook. I ate all the snow peas before they hit the water :( I love snow peas. I downloaded a few movies as well and had a good night in.

The following day again I did the tourist thing and went to Osaka castle, very very cool to see. They have built a museum inside the castle, and you can climb all the way to the top of the castle.

The outer walls are all made from stones crafted 1000s of years ago by noble families in the region at the time and each stone was stamped with the family mark, weight and balance point. then all collected and made 2 motes, and a central castle.

The castle had several turrets and bridges, some of the stones were 10+ meters and some 100+ tonnes so god knows how they moved all those stones, but it was a mighty impressive task.


I had just gotten my passport back from the consulate that morning so that evening I headed out on the town with a fellow Aussie from the hostel, we ended up in a Irish pub that was recommended to us by the hostel. It was "french night" in a Irish pub in Japan. Awesome mix lol!! They had all you could drink for $20 till 10pm, and it was 8pm... hell yeah!

I only know 3 words in Japanese, hello, excuse me, and cheers (Kampai). So with a stamp on our hands we proceeded to have a great night in the pub, every person that got a drink I would promptly say Kampai! It became somewhat a sport fairly quickly and the people in the bar loved it. Then came some free finger food that was placed right on the counter next to the 2 of us, and people looked a bit scared to try it... but hey "its ok, he runs the bar, and i made it" said Emmet. The bar tender was having a hell of a time with the "happy hours" as well she was getting a bit tired so, raising my glass to her I said "Have a drink!" in my Australian accent. Its not like you couldn't pick the 2 Ozzie's from the crowd.

The happy hour ended and we went looking for a club to finish the night on, we past a "guy" and old lady dressed up and just had to ask for photo op's. Some locals agreed to take us to a "happening place" and 30 min of walking later, we were back at a empty Irish pub that we left the hour before... thanks!
We made the last train home before they stopped at 12, by minutes, quite a work out.

The next day with my sunnies on I headed to Nara, it was only 45 min out of Osaka and has japan's largest Buddha and oldest Buddhist temples in Japan.
When i hopped of the train there was a tourist guide into station and a older lady standing there with a flag, she asked me if i wanted a guided tour for $20~ to all the major sights. that was cheap and i really didn't feel like walking for 5 hours in random locations. So asking when it started she replied "now", "its a personal tour, and takes about 3~4 hours depending on how fast you like to walk".

We started of at the Shinto shrine called "Kasuga-Taisha", its symbolic of the region and world heritage listed. Its symbolic because its where there are 1000's of lanterns and where the deity of the deer started which is now the symbol of Nara. The guide showed me how method of how they prey in the temples and pay there respects, its was truly very interesting.

From here we moved on the the Tōdai-ji Temple, otherwise known as the Great Buddha Hall of japan. A massive structure that houses a 15 meter tall, 500~ Tonnes Buddha statue, the building is specially built with a window directly in front of the face of the Buddha so on August nights when festivals are on, the monks can open the windows and let Buddha watch the festival. Very cool ;)

The Building is also a museum of types, showing how the Buddha was cast and the differences in the buildings over the years.

The rest of the tour was some other temples and explanation of the pagoda houses in the towns history.

That night again the Aussies headed out to the town this time joined by a fellow back packer, and we headed up the Irish pub again. Sadly it wasn't as active as the night before and no happy hour. *mega sad face* Special note: The pub manager was a french guy, who at last count spoke 6 languages and was extremely entertaining. Even recommended other locations to go as it was quiet in the pub.

There was a bunch of America's in the pub this night though so it was still entertaining, we met a few local ladies who shared our enjoyment for a good night out, and we stayed till closing then followed the bar tender at his recommendation to a club where the festivities continued, well into the night....

Again being myself, Kampai everyone!

The next morning I hadn't slept and I had a bullet train to catch. Im now back in Tokyo finishing off my trip, this Wednesday I leave Japan for Korea.

Peace Japan!

p.s Marcus I still haven't found out the fascination with the hand signs, but its completely addictive, guess you have to visit Japan to find out for yourself :-)

The reminder of pains of War.... Hiroshima

By far the most moving city I have been to yet.
To think the entire city is only 60 years old and was completely wiped out in the world first nuclear bomb explosion.

Anyways, ill start off from the beginning...

My trip to Hiroshima started off a bit rocky to say the least... I arrived by Shinkansen (Bullet Train) and asked information about the location of the hostel, to my absolute delight i was told its 30 min by train outside of the town... *joy....* so onto another train and out of town i headed, the hostel was in a town called "Miyajima".

Here i was 25 min later not seeing the station I hopped off at Miyajimaguchi, it seemed close enough. I asked the guard at the station and Yippee!! The place i was looking for was 20 min by FERRY over the water... *sigh* so off i went with my 30KG backpack onto a ferry... got to the dock on the other side and again asked the guard... "oh no, that's on the other side just next to the dock, its the white building on the left" *Steffen falls over*

So once again I was sailing away... Finally found the hostel, and i couldn't check in till 4pm, so i had 2 hours to kill..

What you think i did??

I bought the ferry to the Island again and went exploring :) The ticket inspector did a double take when he accepted my ticket.

The island it self was beautiful enough, it had a mountain you could climb, waterfalls, beaches, and a shrine.
The first thing I noticed was deers, deers and more deers everywhere.... They were so tame you could walk up and touch them and then they ate your map. DAMIT, now how can I get around...

The Shrine in the sea just off the island was over 1000 years old, its often in pictures that are linked to Hiroshima even though its well outside the city and in a differ prefecture.

There was also a aquarium on the island which, was cheap to enter, I later found out it had only opened that day!! hence was so cheap. Was a stock standard aquarium but there was these shellfish that looked like fossils and I had never seen a live one before pictured on the side, they are Japanese Horseshoe Crabs.

(Pictured on the left.)

Once seeing that it was time to head back and check in, that night i was going to head into town and see the lantern boats in the river, today was the 66th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.

While checking in I could hear a few guys talking in Danish, into introduced myself and they were looking at doing the same then heading out, so we all decided to go together.

The Lanterns were special to see, there was also live music and lights and it was a really special event, with the Abomb dome as the back drop.

The next day, there was a festival back in Miyajima called the sundance festival which was raising money for the red cross for the earthquake victim. It was 40oC outside and humid, and no shade... it was a "real beach party". Dehydration + to much to drink i had a early departure.

The following day, I visited Hiroshima and the war museum. It was by far one of the most somber museum. they went through the history of Hiroshima and its involvement in the war's past and up to WW2, then the events leading up to the bombing and the dockets from america stating the selection of the sites.
Then the bombing and the devastation.

They also showed cloths, items and effects that were collected after the bombing.
I only took 2 photos of the models of the city, before and after. I don't believe its fair on the anyone regardless of axis of allies to take photos of war history items, special when its such a significant event.

I also visited the memorial to Sadako Sasaki the girl who died of cancer as a result of the Abomb, and started the 1000 paper cranes movement. These days there are millions of paper cranes at the monument and around at the entire peace park. They are not just in in cranes, but they are also in mosaics made out of cranes.

All I can say is if you ever find your way to Hiroshima i would highly recommend seeing the war museum it was a real eye opener and very informative to the work being done by hiroshima council and there commitment to the disarmament of nuclear weapons around the world.








Anyways, I really enjoyed my 3 days in Hiroshima and the nearby islands.

Off to Osaka now to try and sort out a visa to China, then I'm off to South Korea!

Just Hanging around in Kyoto.

I was in Kyoto for 3 nights, and took lots of time to see the history of the town.

Kyoto is filled with shrines, temples and monuments.
Kyoto is one of the oldest cities in Japan, and is absolutely filled with history. I spent a entire day walking around and seeing shrines and temples, some impressive then others, and all with people worshiping and praying in them. So it was not the place to be taking to many happy snaps.

While in Kyoto I caught up with some German's I met in Tokyo, completely at random we were in the same hostel at the same time, so we ended up seeing the nightlife in kyoto together as well.

The following day i went to the Imperial Palace in Kyoto, a 1000+ year old castle. Where the emperor use to live a 100 years ago.
The palace was full of lovely buildings with gold plated frameworks and bark roofs that take 20 years to replace and have to be replaced every 25 years... so was quite a impressive task.

The days in Kyoto were unbelievable HOT 35-40 oC and humid as.... so walking around the city was just a nightmare during the day.

The following day it started to cool off a little and i moved outside of the city to a town on the outskirts, where the famous bamboo walk and snow monkeys could be found. I rented a bike and peddled my way around as after 7 odd days of walking none stop i was starting to get tired of walking.

The Bamboo walk was impressive, a huge forest of bamboo trees.
Again there was also loads of tamales and shrines to see in the town, I only stopped off at 2 or 3 this time. After seeing so many I was truly all shrined out.

There was some sand art going on in the town which was cool, and all the proceeds from the event were going to the red cross for the Japan appeal. You could actually find in every shop and hostel some way to donate, and even the restaurants and clubs would take there Tips and put it directly to the cause.

Anyways back on topic, I moved from the bamboo forest to the "monkey mountain" a quick 160 meter elevation climb which was easy after fuji ;)

I really enjoy the Japanese way of conveying a message on the signs some of them have pictures which are a real laugh...

After reaching the top i was greeted not just with a fantastic view over the ancient city, but also with these monkeys just going about there business.


We could enter the building at the top and purchase apples and peanuts to feed the monkeys from inside the caged house... (so yeah the humans are the ones in the cage lol...)



Then it started to bucket down with rain and that concluded my days in Kyoto.