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.

"Time" in Tokyo.

After 4 days its time to move on from tokyo to my next stop,

(P.s the slide shows below have pictures on wrong angles and not in order, i will fix this next time its just the way i uploaded them to the net and i couldn't be bothered fixing it.... and the animation is automatic.)

My trip started out in Asakusa.
I arrived at the hostel with only minutes to spare before they closed, and in the dark of night.
The next morning, I found myself in the centre of a tourist hot spot, only 250 meters from the street that leeds up to the Senso-ji Temple.

I started off that day by visiting the Senso-ji Temple and talking with a local for a hour or 2. The temple is very beautiful and the level of detail in the work and buildings. The statues all had different gestures and faces, as well as uniforms.

I visited the new Tokyo Sky tower being constructed but couldn't get it, however i did manager to get to the base of it and see just how massive and impressive it was.

That night I visited Shibuya where there is a spacial crossing with masses of neon lights and people like time square in NY.



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The following day i started out by visiting the Imperial palace. I visited the sight where you can see the palace and a stone bridge, then I moved one of many parks in Tokyo, and found a replica viking stone.

I visited the tokyo tech town.
I must admit its not quite what i expected, i was thinking it would be shops with new gadgets and cameras and phones and thing.
But instead it was random electrical items like light, with 1 or 2 computer shops but the rest were dedicated to the japanese cult following if anime. With ladies dressed out as characters out of animation cartoon series  trying to get nerds in to buy films and see shows.
Even the saga zones which normally in western countries is arcade games and like was 3/5 full floors of the claw UFO toy grabbing things... with at least 1/2 of them in use by people.
Definitely a interesting thing to see....

From there i hoped on the wrong train and ended up at a random station, so i went for a walk and found a nice little temple with some statues and a dojo.

I finished off the night with my first sushi in tokyo, not bad although it wasn't what i expected... I prefer the set meal, it seems to be easier to get what you ask for. also with all the plastic displays its interesting to see what some of the items task like.



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My 2nd last day in tokyo i started out in the fish markets, up at 6am to catch a train and get to the markets while all the good stuff is still on display.
The outside markets were what you would come to expect or stereotype a outdoor market to be, lots of small shops each with there own unique way of preparing the dishes and items.
There was fish flakes, small dried fish you eat as chips, omelettes on a stick, fruits of every shape and colour and normally a shop to back them all up where you could try the dish.

For some reason though they were rather upset when you asked if you could take photos.. so it was hard a lot of the time to get pictures of these items.

After exploring the outside I tried to work my way into the main market, unfortunately since the large earthquake they have closed all the tourist access to the tuna auctions and main markets.
However by following some of the crowds and sneaking past a few guards i managed to get into the main market area. By this time the tuna auctions had already finished but the main market area was still teeming with activity.
Fish, Shell fish, Turtles, Eels, Snails of all shapes, colours and all fresh for a entire city block.
Again the locks were stand offish to the idea of photos but i took  few none direct photos of the stalls.

I took the advice of many guide books and had some sushi at the markets, the difference to the night before was like night and day, this was super fresh and tasty.

That afternoon a caught up with some old warcraft buddies of mine and went to the tokyo tower, the view from 150 odd meters off the side walk was amazing, you could truly get a gasp on how large tokyo is as a city.

we then went to Shibuya for dinner, we had this stone with 2  different types of soup that you then cook your meat and veggies in. The soup gives a different taste to the meats and adds the favour. A very interesting meal.

It was great to finally meet a few of the guys that i have played with over the net for 3-5 years now, and think back over the old times.

When i arrived back at the hostel a party had just started for a staff member that was leaving the hostel, it continued into the night and we ended up in the "red light" district of tokyo at a night club. Little did i know that the trains stopped at midnight and that was all good, we rocked on in the club till 6m and then headed back. A lot of fun.



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Last day i was a little bit "under the weather" from the night before, so i took a boat ride and relaxed and took some time out to write this piece. ;)

So where to next? will see in a few days...