(36) something something tokyo

Harajuku clothing store

It's funny that this is the title for a post about my winter vacation to Tokyo, because honestly, Tokyo and the experiences I have there are something I can talk about until I run out of breath. It's my favorite city. It's a place where I can always find some new experience while at the same time, revisiting old experiences that remind me why I love this place so much.

This time I was able to share the experience with my girlfriend, not only a special occasion based on the action of sharing my favorite place with her, but the fact that she was able to clear out her schedule enough to actually go for a few days was a miracle. Her job, is not the typical 9 to 5 that many people hold. Taking vacation time is almost never a possibility for her and taking more than three days off to travel overseas is also a next to impossible task.

However, after a lot of discussion, scouring of the web for affordable plane and hotel accommodations and planning a mix of my favorite places to see with some new things for both of us to explore, the date was finalized and the plans were set. Fate had aligned, it was time to return to the city that in many ways, set me on the present course my life is currently on today. My genesis city, the origin of everything.

Traditional Japanese Wedding

It has been several years since I had spent time in Tokyo, and admittedly my memory of locations and sight to see were a bit fuzzy. I knew that certain places existed in certain areas,  but the memory of exactly how to go to them, the right train to take, the right subway exit to leave, was still a bit fuzzy. I spent a large amount of time researching and refreshing my memory of the places I visited years before. This was the first time I was traveling overseas with someone who was more unfamiliar with the area than I was and I wanted to make sure that her experience was as stress free as possible. I was completely comfortable with being lost in an unfamiliar place. It's how I ended up discovering most of the areas that would become favorite places in Japan during previous visits. I knew my girlfriend though. I knew what made her uncomfortable and what quickly drained her enjoyment. I made sure that this time, there was no getting lost.

Bright Shibuya

The wonderful thing about Tokyo, specifically central Tokyo where our hotel was located, is that incredible ease to get to each location with little to no difficulty. Many of the popular areas like Shinjuku, Harajuku and Shibuya were only a few subway stops away with a maximum time of 30 minutes to get to each area. I was amazed the first time I came to Tokyo in terms of its efficient subway system. after spending two years using the subways in Seoul and Daegu, I can still say with confidence that the Tokyo subway line still impresses with its ease of use and access.

With only three days, we decided to maximize our time in seeing places and trying things. By the end of the day we were always tired and ready to sleep as soon as our bodies hit the bed. I always took this as a sign of a good day. We used our energy to do what we wanted, another check on the list.

Taken from an indoor onsen (hotspring)

I took her to some of my favorite old places to visit. We walked around the shops of Harajuku at night taking in the bright pastel and candy colored clothing while enjoying one of Harajuku's famous crepes. We visited Meiji Shrine and were able to visit the many temples and shrines there. We were even lucky enough to witness a Japanese traditional wedding in progress while we were there. It was a incredible surprise to see and something that made my girlfriend very happy to witness in person.

That's not to say everyday was a nonstop series of traveling. We took the time to appreciate some of the more calmer moments. We made sure to sip coffee at the Starbucks in Shibuya while watching the crowd of people cross below us. We visited an onsen and let our minds and bodies relax as the soothing hot water was a pleasant and comfortable yin to the cold, outdoor air's yang. In the evening we always took the time to have a sizable meal with cold beverages, a celebration of our freedom and a great way to end a day of new experiences.

Delicious and fresh sushi

My girlfriend had to return to Korea after three days, while I stayed behind a few more days to visit friends. At first I was nervous for her. Having lived in big city her whole life, I knew that the impact on her wouldn't be as big for her as it was for me. A place so important and significant, I wouldn't want her experience to be mediocre. I wanted to share the same feelings and love for this place that I had with her. I wanted her to understand why I loved this city so much.

In the end, she didn't get quite the same impact as I did, but ended up loving it all the same. For her, it was more of an experience of seeing the little differences and the subtle changes between her city of Seoul and Tokyo. For her, it was seeing clean streets with not a piece of litter in site. It was going to a convenience store and seeing a wider selection of alcohol than just beer and soju. It was seeing grown men and women purchase figures and statues of famous anime characters with no sign of shame or remorse.

While any big city is bound to be similar in many ways, digging into the center to see the differences and the essence of what makes the city different from anywhere else. Cities have souls, and the people and the places make up the blood that flows through its veins.

For a few days, she was able to see that blood. For a few days she was able to catch a glimpse of the city that I love and the city that I know one day, I will return to again.

(18) 90 in 90: The Plan that Came Together

Confession time: I'm pretty bad at planning events. I've always been bad at planning them. I've been planning them or rather wanting to plan them since a young age but always faltered when it came time to step up and claim responsibility. Never wanting to give up, I continued to try and be the party planner, always trying to schedule big meet ups or events, having visions of events running without a hitch in my mind, yet in reality, the result was always far from the desired vision.

So you could imagine my nervousness when I began planning my girlfriend's birthday party. This wasn't something that belonged to me, it wasn't just my enjoyment that was at stake this time, it was hers as well.

That's not to say she would have complained or protested if something went wrong, she's not that type of person. She would have appreciated anything as long as my thought and sincerity was there, but for me, it was something I wanted to go well. In my mind she deserved it. She deserved it for all the long hours she worked everyday, working insane nighttime hours. She deserved it for the endless amount of time she spent studying and preparing for her future jobs. I knew her life was full of stress and I wanted her to have a relaxed and happy day, even if it was just for one day.

So I started to pay attention, started to listen and take note of the things she said, the things that she wanted. While this may sound like an obvious thing to do, it takes a good memory and power of recollection to remember every detail months away, something that I usually am pretty bad at.

Happily, everything went incredibly well and according to my plan. It was almost too scary how well things went and how well each activity lead into the other one. We started with dinner at Namsan Tower at a restaurant called The Place, a nice Italian restaurant with a spectacular view of the entire Seoul area below Namsan. When we first arrived, the look of surprise on her face said it all. I had done something that I had rarely done before, I had genuinely surprised her.

It didn't stop there, I had a whole list of things to do the next day, including brunch at a nice breakfast place in Itaewon called The Flying Pan and the main event, tickets to watch the musical Chicago, which at the time, was its last day of production for the remainder of the year at the National Theater of Korea.

At the end of the day, I ended up spending more time with her than expected (this is another story for another day) and was able to spend the night at her family's house and enjoy her birthday breakfast in the morning (consisting of galbi and seaweed soup), a tradition that she had told me about and I had finally had the chance to participate in.

My girlfriend is a very calm and rational person, showing extreme amounts of emotions of gushing with joy are two things that do not commonly happen with her. The few days spent celebrating her birthday were filled with smiles and laughter. With emotional gushing and squeals of delight. With "Oh My God" and "Ahh, so excited" heard throughout the day.

If it sounds like I'm writing this to show off how awesome of a boyfriend I am, its not. Rather, its more of a feeling of joy and relief that I had finally put together a great plan for someone who really mattered to me. There was no regrets or do it better next times, but rather a great plan that surprised and made someone close to me very happy.

To go back to a previous post, I'm much better at participating and having energy at someone else's party rather than my own, and this is no exception . Hannibal from the A-Team was right, I love it when a plan comes together.

Website for Namsan Tower
Website for The Flying Pan
Website The National Theater of Korea 
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(16) 90 in 90: Birthdays Abroad

This past weekend I celebrated my birthday with friends. This is something that I normally do not do. In fact this is only the second year that I've had any kind of official celebration concerning my day of birth.

My birthday in previous years has always been a bit low key. Never any big parties or fancy gatherings but rather simple small dinners with my family. My birthday always feel during the late August, so for a\ most of my early school life, my birthday was forgotten by other students as the school year started and the summer began its slow transition into the fall.

There was a small part of me that always felt that celebrating my birthday was a bit narcissistic. To me, it almost seemed like forcing others to acknowledge the day of your birth and the declaration of just how important of a person you are. While this comes off as sounding like a self esteem issue, its really not, my confidence is just fine, as is my level of self importance. I just felt like it was a bit selfish to make others celebrate with me.

However this year was truly fantastic, much of it being due to my wonderful girlfriend working very hard and planning a little surprise for me, which came completely unexpected.

While I was away at school during the day, she came to Gimcheon from Incheon (a three hour train ride) and decorated my house while I was gone. When I cam home I was greeted to streamers, balloons and a smiling girlfriend ready to greet me. She even went as far as to bring some small gifts that I had wanted since the beginning of the year.

It was truly a touching moment and the emotion that swept over me was held in check my my constant smiling. I've never had a surprise party in my life, so to see all the time and effort my girlfriend put into making it great meant a lot to me. A simple and kind gesture that showed a lot of caring, and something that still warms my heart thinking back on it.

The rest of the evening was spent with some friends who lived in Gimcheon as we went out to dinner and ice cream afterwards. Some of the people I had not seen since the summer began, so it was nice to have a relaxing dinner and enjoy each other's company. The one thing I cannot deny about the people I know in Gimcheon is the chemistry everyone has with each other. Even if we're just acquaintances, the conversations we usually have are warm and inviting. I suppose it comes from the "we're all neighbors in Gimcehon" mentality that we can all share. I can't really complain though, its better to be included and part some something good rather than being isolated, especially in a foreign country.

At the end of the night, my girlfriend remarked at just how nice the night was. No stress or pressure from trying to please everyone. No excess of partying and drinking . Just good conversations and good times with everyone.

"Its amazing how much fun we had without getting drunk," my girlfriend said. "Usually in Korea, friends get drunk together and call it a bonding experience. They really don't get to talk like we did though, it was nice."

I don't think I could have asked for a better day. I had a great time spending time with the people I care about the most and didn't wake up with a hangover the next morning.

Thank you to everyone who made it great, if all of my birthdays could be like this, I would probably feel less guilty about celebrating them.

(12) 90 in 90: The one day vacations

Yesterday was Korean Independence Day. While it was an important holiday, most Koreans choose to spend the holiday relaxing and enjoying their one day chance to rest and relax before going back for one more day on Friday. Instead of staying my home, I choose to take a day trip to Seoul to visit my girlfriend.

Normally, these one day breaks I don't like to do anything too crazy or venture too far from my town. I always feel like if I do something too big and too adventurous I'll keep being distracted by the clock and knowing that despite all the fun I'm having, it all has to end soon and I'm left with the task of making sure I can make my way home in time to get a decent night's sleep for the next work day.

This was different though. I have plenty of experience traveling and walking around Seoul and Incheon. I've visited my girlfriend many time before and have become familiar with both cities and what they have to offer.

We didn't do anything out of the ordinary, a late lunch and a trip to the DVD room to watch a movie, along with dinner at a Mageli place. Nothing too exciting, but still immensely fun.

I think what made the day so enjoyable was a near perfect amount of relaxation, visiting someone I cared about and getting out of my own house and town. It's my ideal perfect day: spending time away from home so I don't get too stir crazy and doing something fun and relaxing as not to disrupt my peaceful state of mind.

That's not to say that I don't enjoy doing exciting stuff, but like I said earlier, one day adventure fests are never fun to me. I never have fun as much as I worry. Maybe that's why I disliked Majora's Mask, that damn time limit and the moon threatening to crash down on me.

We tried a mageli sampler. It did not taste as good as this picture may lead you to believe. 

Lately though, its getting harder to leave once the day is over. For me, there is still this longing to be there longer. My initial need to go home in a timely manner is suddenly replaced with a moment of illogical thoughts of staying longer, staying the night even and catching the earliest train back home in the morning, knowing very well this is very stupid and is worth more trouble that its worth.

My traveling mind makes no sense to me. It goes from being logical and on time to wanting to have fun and forgo all responsibilities the next. My adult, responsible self constantly at war with my immature side.

However, my adult side always wins, even if its painful for a few seconds upon departure. I know we will see each other again soon and I'll most likely have a lot of fun again but, I want to have fun now. Not later. Once again, my inner spoiled child starts crying again.

A few minutes later though, I'm on the train on my way home. Tired, knowing that I have a three hour ride ahead of me and knowing that by the time I get back, it will be way past my work day bedtime. I could have planned it earlier, but I just had to squeeze those last few minutes of fun out of my mini break day.

I guess in the end, the adult and the child can come to a compromise after all.

(11) 90 in 90: Into the (Ocean) World

Last week, my girlfriend and I spent a day at Ocean World, a water park a few hours away from Seoul. I've been to Caribbean Bay, another water park located next to Everland, however Ocean World was an entirely different beast. While both were water parks, Ocean World had more of everything. More slides, more pools, a bigger park, more areas to rest and a bigger variety of other attractions to see besides the slides. I may be getting ahead of myself, but in my opinion, Ocean World was a much better experience.

Getting to Ocean World is a fairly painless process. There are several buses that go directly to Ocean World and are free, as in no need to pay bus fare or swipe your travel card. They leave from a few locations in Seoul and Incheon, including places like Bupeyeong and Sinchon at different times.

The Ocean World Entrance

Once you arrive, there is a changing area at the front of the park along with an area to store picnic food and buy your tickets. after that, the rest of the park is pretty straight forward,as you can walk around the entire park with each new pool and slide located one right after the other.

We went on a Thursday, which by normal standards should have been pretty empty but due to it being the summer time and a peak season where most people in Korea are either on vacation or have extra days off work, the entire park was packed.

I didn't mind though, compared to my last visit to Caribbean Bay, which was strangely empty, seeing lots of people swimming and having fun was nice to see.

Another thing that was different (and admittedly a pleasant surprise) was the lack of covering up from many people in the park. I've been to other pools and beaches before in Korea and both guys and girls usually make it a habit of covering themselves with pull overs, big t shirts and hats. Here, i saw very few people covered up and instead swim trunks and bikinis everywhere. For someone from America, this wasn't exactly a foreign sight to see in the summer, but in Korea, this was the first time I ever saw this much on display at once much to my surprise.

The two most memorable parts of the park were the massive wave pool and the tube slide. The wave pool was probably the largest I have ever seen in Korea and America and was at any given moment filled with people. There were more than enough people to fill the entire front section of the deep end, making moving around impossible. I never felt the threat of drowning or being swept away by the waves due to the large number of people. The claustrophobia was worth it though, as the waves the pool sent out were strong and large. If you caught the wave at just the right angle, you could have easily been carried back several feet. There were times where I would struggle to stand up after a massive wave and regain my composure before another one would come crashing down on my sending me back and disorientating me even further.

There was a downside to the waves though, my girlfriend lost her balance to one of the larger waves and scrapped her leg on the bottom of the pool. Since the bottom was rough and oddly, sharp textured, she ended up getting some significant cuts. A trip to the medical ward showed that she was not the only one there as there was a line out the door of people who suffered cuts all over their bodies. Perhaps its time to invest in another material Ocean World.

The slide was also a highlight for good and bad reasons. The good being that the slide was long, the longest I have ever been on with lots of drops and steep inclines to make it feel almost like a roller coaster more than a water slide. The bad was the wait. We had to wait in line for three hours before getting the chance to go down the slide for a few minutes. My advice is to get in line as early as possible because from 12 PM on, the wait will surely stretch to 3 hours.

Towards the end of the day, we ended up relaxing in one of the spa pools filled with pine needles and also discovered by accident another water park located indoors. If I haven't stressed this enough, I'll say it again: this park is massive.

My girlfriend at the DJparty

In the center square of the park, there is a stage that throughout the day features different performers and musical acts to entertain the guests. At the end of the night when the park closed, there was a DJ on stage

complete with booming speakers and a dance area for people to gather around. Judging by the massive amount of people dancing and grinding in the center, they were having a great time even after spending hours in the water.

I had a great time at Ocean World for me and my girlfriend, it was a nice way to send off the summer, to say goodbye to our vacation period and welcome back the 9 to 5 jobs that allow us to travel to places like this in the first place. It was fun, it was wet and exciting. I could not have picked a better way to say goodbye to the summer. It's still not too late, visit Ocean World, you won't regret it.

Link to Ocean World's website 

A trip to Caribbean Bay!

Last week was midterm time at my school. While that meant a hellish exam cycle of studying until the early hours and cramming vast amounts of information to be memorized for students, I got to take a mini vacation and have a spare day off from work. I had known that this day was coming soon and decided to take advantage of it early by planning to take a day trip back to Everland with Hyejin.

Its funny, as most people I know usually make it a habit to make it either a once a year trip or biannual trip to  Everland and here I was, visiting again in a span of a month. In all fairness though, it wasn't the same kind of trip and I wasn't visiting the same exact place again.

Next to Everland, was the water park know as Caribbean Bay, famous in Korea for having both an indoor and outdoor portion of water slides and attractions. I've heard stories of it being packed with people during the hot and humid summer months, with long lines waiting to go down slides and visit the spa area.

I guess I went at the wrong time because aside from a handful of people in the indoor portion, the park was a ghost town.

Maybe it was because of the weather. It was slightly chilly and the skies had a hint of overcast, possibly threatening to rain at any minute. Maybe because it was an afternoon on a Thursday, a day typically spent by most Koreans either in school or working. Whatever the reason, it was a bit odd to be able to walk around the park with no lines or waiting.

While a line free water park sounds like paradise to most people and ideally it would be, it seemed that the staff took the day off as well and most of the water slides and water attractions on the outside were not open. None of the slides were available to slide down with many portions of the park were blocked off and closed.

I was certain at this point that I would end up regretting the time and money spent coming here, however my girlfriend reminded me about the indoor portion of the park. Remaining skeptical but not wanting to waste anymore time, we made our way inside.

I was glad I listened to Hyejin, because as soon as we stepped through the door we were greeted to a brightly lit area of lazy rivers, small pools, water slides and spa areas. It was a light at the end of a chlorine smelling tunnel.

While this was my first time visiting an indoor water park, I was impressed at what was available. The whole place had a cheery and clean atmosphere with the bright colors and themes of a amusement park. Simply walking around the are and finding new places to play in hidden in the corners was a fun time that constantly offered new things to try out. Starting from the bottom and making your way to the top could take a person more than a few hours if they went at a leisurely pace.

One of the things I found most different about the Korean water park experience was the preparation before even stepping foot  in a swimming pool. One of the most striking is the safety concerns and preparations for each person with safety measure going far beyond what I was used to back at home. Where safety concerns generally consisted of "don't run" and "jump in kids!" back at home, the rules were different here, specifically with swim attire.

According to the rules of the park, you are required to wear the following before swimming:

A cap to cover your head.

A life vest (but you can take this off later on)

A t shirt to cover your torso (but we were allowed to remove these)

Luckily, due the the small number of people there, the staff allowed us to slide by the rules a little bit and go without caps and later on remove our vests and t shirts. However we were told that if it was a busier time, these items would be absolutely necessary.

Another difference was the variety of things to do beside go in the water or swim in the pools. Spa and sauna areas were scattered between the slides and pools to offer a quick dip of relaxation along with scented water with rose and other flowers. The indoor area also offered both a beauty section and relaxation section that for a half hour and extra fee, could allow a quiet area to relax and be pampered in. It seemed like an odd idea at first, but after taking small breaks to refresh between swimming and sliding provided a revitalizing burst of energy that was welcomed after a few hours of activity. America needs to get on the idea ASAP.

It was a fun day with my girlfriend who like me, was caught up in her work life leaving places like this a distant priority in the wake of more important and work related manners. At the end of the day, despite being tired and worn out were reminded just important these little breaks are from our daily schedule and how the company of a special person is a key ingredient for a happy time.

Website for Caribbean Bay

http://www.everland.com/web/multi/english/caribbean/main.html

The outside of the Bay!