JR Rail Pass, 2nd stop: Nagano & Jigukudani Monkey Park

So after Nikkō and Sendai I took the train south to Nagano, where I ended up spending 4 nights. 

Ofc I was sort of a retard and hadn't booked any accommodation before I got there, so ended up sitting at a Starbucks in Nagano at 9pm and looking for hostels. 

So typical me... A bit too spontaneous for my own good! - ohh well, it always seems to work out in the end ;D I did in fact find a pretty nice guesthouse about 5 minutes walk away. Woohoo!! 

Beautiful scenery in Nagano

After sleeping in the first morning I did some spontaneous Yukata shopping. I had been wanting to buy one since I first arrived in japan, but didn't want just another touristy version,and since I don't speak japanese, I hadn't really tried to buy one. But I came across a shop where the two older ladies working there helped me out choose a color, etc, even though they could barely speak a word of English. I even got a private lesson in how to wear it properly, and how to tie the belt properly, etc. woohoo win! 

I kept shopping the rest of the day too... Bah, spent a bit too much money that day I think ;D oh well... 

My beautiful yukata

The second day (I believe it was... Or the third...) a guy from England, who also stayed at the hostel, and I took a day trip to Jigukudani to see the monkey park. The train ride was about an hour, up into the mountains, then about half an hour with bus and finally a 2km walk. 

The scenery on the walk, though right before the entrance to the monkey park

The monkey park was totally worth the time though. It wasn't really a park as you might expect, since there was no fence really, but it was the end of the forest, where the monkeys stayed since there were a few hot springs. Seriously... Monkeys swimming in hot springs - and yes, it was as cute as it sounds! 

Several of the female monkeys had small fluffy babies, so in all there was probably about 100 monkeys. Even though they were wild they weren't afraid of humans at all. They didn't care if people came all the way up to them, they just minded their own business. 

Kawaii... And fluffy... And KAWAII!!!!! 

"Juuuust chillin' while my friends are swimming"

Daaaaawh, honestly... Monkeys are some of the cutest animals ever!!!! I love them! Monkeys and sharks!!!! <3

See... They're just chilling everywhere not minding the people at all. So cool! 

Anyway. After spending an hour or so there it started raining a bit, is we made our way back. Of course we just missed the bus (seems to happen a lot to me), and would have had to wait 40 minutes for the bus, so once again we tried out hitch hiking... And once again we had barely tried for two minutes, before a car stopped, and took us to the station. 

Oh japanese people; you are the best!!

Back at the station we found an onsen (a hot spring/public bath house), and spent an hour or so there, before going back home. Seriously, bathing with old japanese ladies in the mountains is the best!!! 

Sun setting over the mountains on the train ride home

On my last day in Nagano I went to a temple. The temple is called the Zenkoji Twmpel and is one of the most important Buddhist temples in all of japan, since it has the first ever Buddhist statue brought to japan. Cooooool!!! 

Of course it was Sunday, so I wasn't the only one who decided to go

The temple it self was actually really pretty. By far one of the prettiest temples I have ever seen!

And then the next day it was goodbye Nagano and hello Kyoto! 

JR Rail Pass, 1st stop: Nikkō & Sendai

NIKKŌ

Before coming to japan I bought a three week JR Rail Pass (I constantly accidentally call it my Jail Pass, lol). If you plan on traveling around the country, it's be far the best and cheapest solution. It might seem a bit expensive at first, but it does mean you can ride all the trains (by JR) for free. 

A few days ago I activated my 3 week pass and took my first trip to Nikkō. It was kind of spontaneous, since I hadn't made a plan for the route I wanted to take, but instead just made a list of places I wanted to see. So anyway, I took the bullet train to Nikkō, and got there within an hour. I had reserved a bed at a hostel, but for some stupid reason, I hadn't looked up where the hostel was, probably because I thought Nikkō would be larger than it was. It's truly a little town! 

Anyway, luckily (after about half an hour of driving and several phone calls), a taxi took me to my hostel.

 

I spent two nights in Nikkō, so my second day there, an Australian guy I was sharing the hostel dorm room with, and I went to the national park and walked around the beautiful scenery for a few hours.

It was so relaxing and quite nice to get away from the city for once. Everything was just so green and peaceful! 

After walking around for a few hours, it started raining a bit, so we went back down though wanted to make a stop at a popular waterfall. Unfortunately because of the rain, there was so much fog, we literally couldn't see 5m in front of us, and definitely not the huge beautiful waterfall. It was the strangest experience standing a few meters from an enormous waterfall, barely being able to talk because of the noise from it, but not being able to see a single thing! 

Of course on top of the disappointment of not being able to see the waterfall, we missed the busby a few seconds, and the next one was first scheduled 40 minutes later :(

Luckily it's soooo easy to hitchhike in japan. We had been standing for all of 2 minutes before I car stopped and picked us up, and drove us to the station 20km away. Woohoo, go japan!!! 

People fly fishing 

SENDAI

Next stop on my trip was Sendai. Again it was completely spontaneous and I had no idea what kind of city it was. It's more north than Nikkō, and I guess I went because the northern part was supposed to be more traditional and have some samurai history. 

Anyway, Sendai was a bit of a letdown. I wasn't really sure what to see, it was cold and constantly raining, so I was just feeling super miserable.

After spending 2 nights there, my original plan was to go a bit more north, but my mom talked me into going south instead. Going south to the sun and warmth, which seriously was a great idea!!!

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from Sendai; I really couldn't find any interesting things to take pictures of...

Next stop is Nagano... 

South Korea; the differences from japan!

So now I've been back in Japan for two weeks, which was for how long I was in Korea. 

Last time I did a blog post about how I found Seoul in general, so this time I'll just do a short post on the similarities and differences. 

Especially before going to Seoul, a lot of people didn't really get why I wanted to go since "Tokyo and Seoul are so similar", but to be honest I found them to be really really different. 

No, the food isn't similar at all! :'D

Looking at how people are, japanese people are always very friendly but tend to be really shy, doubt there English skills a lot, and therefore try not to communicate with foreigners too much. 

Koreans on the other hand, I found, were really outgoing and interested in talking to strangers/foreigners. I was stopped quite a few times on the streets by completely random Koreans, who just wanted to talk (and who actually didn't seem creepy, lol). 

 - but, Koreans English skills are really good. almost everyone I met spoke great English, so that does help them quite a lot!

Fashion wise they didn't seem very similar either...

Japanese people are super well dressed. I mean, in tokyo you barely see a guy without a suit, and a woman without high heels and a dress. 

Where the guys in japan mostly seem to be in suits or rather feminin t-shirts and tight pants, the guys in Korea had a much more playful boyish look. Almost like a school kid look. Usually quite tight shorts, and dress shirt and a bow tie, fake hipster glasses, a cap and a MCM backpack. (Yes, more or less al guys looked like that! :'D).

The girls on the other hand, had almost the same style. Dresses and heels both places, though slightly better dressed in japan. Though younger women (20's) has such a "little girl look" in japan. The contacts, crazy amounts of makeup and knee-high socks. 

Of course there's korea's crazy obsession with beauty and plastic surgery too. It's so normal. Walking down the street you barely see a woman who hasn't had at least the "double eyelid" surgery - I think 20-25% has had plastic surgery. Age the same goes for guys, though not quite as many. 

Not my picture.

Oh yea, and Koreans couples love to wear the same clothes... It's kinda ridiculous... But also kinda cute... I don't know. I'm confused :( ;D

Music wise there's a pretty big difference too. Come on, listen to kpop and japanese music... It ain't similar at all. The kpop culture is absolutely crazy!!! 

Oh well, enough on this topic!

- I absolutely love the people of both countries, and thank you for being so different; it just means there's more for me to love!!!! ;D <3

Edit:

I was kindly reminded of a last topic to compare: the drinking/party culture!

Japanese people generally are some of the weakest drinkers I've ever met. It would be so cheap to drink if you were japanese, haha. Usually japanese people tend to go out at 6 or 7pm and then stop at 11:30'ish om, to catch the last train. Though it's quite common to see people drunk out of their minds at 10pm. Hahaha

Koreans on the other hand, down soju bottles after soju bottles, go clubbing every day of the week and the guys are the ones dancing on the poles in the clubs! ;D

South Korea: Seoul!

So I just got home from two weeks in Seoul, South Korea! 

Funny enough the little break to Seoul felt much more like a holiday, than Japan does. 

Weird cloud formation flying into korea

Anyway, I wanted to write a blog while I was there, but was too lazy I guess. Lol. 

Seoul was a very mixed experience actually. I have been to Seoul before (attending the Seoul International Youth Film Festival in 2010), but didn't get to see much of the city back then, so wanted to go back and actually see the city this time around. 

But I think one of the main reasons it was such a mixed experience, was that I hadn't actually really done any research on what to do in Seoul before going. Stupid! >.<' 

Though from asking friends I found a hostel in Hongdae, which was a really good district. The hostel I was staying at was pretty shit though. I mean, the people working there were really cool and it was filled with volunteers, so got to meet a bunch of young people. But for some reason people just couldn't keep quiet in the dorms. My daily rhythm was already pretty fucked before going, so it definitely didn't help me, that the volunteers came into the rooms at 10am and started cleaning. Started vacuuming right under the beds, while listening to loud music and singing/talking really loud. 

Seriously, 10am is a biiiit early for that. Especially since they didn't really knock before coming in, which led to a few awkward experiences, when a guy came bursting into the room while I was in underwear. Lol. 

I stayed in the same room for 3 nights, but after not being able to sleep, also because a guy was snoring like I've never heard before, I asked to be transferred to another room. 

The lack of sleep was really killing my mood too, so I wasn't at all enjoying Seoul. >.<'

The other dorm, a girls dorm, wasn't much better. Okay no one snored like a thunderstorm, but instead a few of them thought turning all the lights on, repacking their bags and singing was perfectly okay at 2am. Urgh.... 

Anyway, I did a bit of sightseeing ofc. Went to one of the palaces on my first day. I must say the buildings were much prettier than any of the temples here in Tokyo! + I got to see some royal guards, which looked awesome! :'D

Even took a selfie with one :'D

After a few days I was in a super bad mood. Hadn't really talked to anyone except my roommates, who where nice though couldn't speak English very well, so no deep and interesting conversations there... 

Except the palace, I really didn't find Seoul very beautiful either... It's just plain... Gray! Ofc it didn't help that the sun seemed more or less absent the whole time. It was hiding behind the clouds :( 

So Sunday i moved to a new hostel, or a guesthouse, which at first seemed super creepy. It was basically just a guy who had turned his private apartment into a guesthouse. It was pretty big (had about 4 bedrooms, a big living room, kitchen and 2 bathrooms), but seemed a bit weird being 16 people there... Anyway, I was supposed to meet the owner at 3pm, so after ringing the doorbell for 15 minutes I called him, and apparently he was at a restaurant having lunch, and wanted me to wait for another 10 minutes while he finished his food. Fair enough. But those 10 minutes turned into 40, before he finally showed up, and that's when I found out just how freaking strange the dude was. It's kinda hard to explain, but the way he talked and moved his body while talking, just gave him a really creepy feel. :( I decided to give it one night (had paid for 3), and if it turned out to be as creepy as it seemed it would, I would change hostels. 

Came back in the evening and found the place quite full of people. I was still in a bad mood, so my plan was to just go to bed, but ended up talking to one of the guys, an Indian guy from New Zealand (love the mix, hah). After talking for about an hour, we decided to go to the convenience store and buy some beer and soju (korean alcohol, that everyone told me to try,  but which btw is freeeeeaking disgusting!!!!), but after drinking that for another hour or so, we decided to go clubbing.... On a Sunday night. 

Sounds dull right? Maybe other places, but not in Seoul! 

We went to a club called Cocoon in Hongdae (just 2 min walk from the guesthouse). The club was supposed to just be a mediocre club, but when we got inside it was completely packed, and seemed more like a rave party, white it's lazer lights, heavy music and people going crazy on the floor, stage and poles.... Just a normal club in Seoul though. Lol

I was a bit too drunk that night... A bit too teenage-drunk. >.<" 

I ended up going completely crazy, dancing with everyone, steeling all the guys hats (I thought it was funny they were wearing hats at a club), pulling girls to the dance floor, had dance-offs with guys, chased a guard around the club, spilled more or less every single drink on either the floor, myself or someone else. Urgh, I'm never going to be able to show my face there again, oh well. It was worth it! ;D

Sun going down and a guy doing a water-bubble show!

I ended up staying at the guesthouse for 3 nights. The creepy owner only showed up shortly in the morning and the evening, and I didn't talk to him at all, so decided it wouldn't be a problem staying. 

The second week of my stay in Seoul was great. Started out with that clubbing experience, and the day after I met up with a friend, whom I had met back at the SIYFF camp. I hadn't actually talked to him for 4 years, so meeting up was a bit of a gamble. I mean, it could have turned out a bit awkward, not having anything to talk about, etc.

But I must say, I rarely meet someone I get along with so easily. After spending a few hours drinking coffee and talking he invited me to come play poker with his friends in the evening. 

So at 11pm I met up with him and his friends, played poker for a few hours and then went to eat and watch football! :D

The second palace I saw was much more impressive than the first one. The buildings were even bigger and even more beautiful, and ofc it did make it even better that there was a mountain in the background. 

With my mood 100 times better now, I set out to have a look at Seoul again! Despite still being rather gray everything was much more interesting. It was still a bit of a struggle eating out, since for some reason most of the restaurants only had menus for 2 or more people, so it turned out quite expensive to eat out, and I always ended up with waaaay too much food! 

Korean street food - so god damn good!

Mid week I met up with a girl whom I had also met at Seoul International Youth Film Featival 4 years prior. We walked around the area where the camp had been, saw the old buildings and the park where we had shot our film. Things had changed quite a bit, but it really brought back a lot of great memories!

We went to a more traditional part of Seoul, where we got to try the korean national dress, the Hanbok!

 

We went to a korean restaurant for dinner and ordered a korean dish called "soondae", which I guess is blood sausage with noodles... Or something! :'D

The cook found out I hadn't had it before, so he brought us two extra dishes for free, so I could try a bit of everything. Naaaaawh ^_^

Om nom nom.... This was before the last dish arrived though, nomnomnom!!!!

I had at this point changes hostel to a place in Itaewon. Itaewon is known as the foreigner town of Seoul. So when I got back to my hostel I (maybe not too) surprisingly met another Danish girl. After talking for an hour or so, we decided to go grab a beer. On our way to the bar, we met a group of people (one of them Danish, the others American and korean), whom she had met a few days earlier. They all own/work at a restaurant together. They had just finished work and were headed for dinner and beer, is we decided to tag along. The restaurant is called Libertine, and serves really good American food (their burgers are seriously good!), so if you're ever in Seoul and need a break from korean food, check it out!

Anyway, we all went to a korean BBQ restaurant, but unfortunately I was still too stuffed from the food earlier to try any :( but it looked good! 

Soooo much food!

Instead we ordered a bunch of beers and soju. Urgh, I dunno why I fra soju again. I has already come to the conclusion that that stuff is so bad, so why on earth I had some again, I don't know. And I especially don't know why on earth I started having a soju-drinking-competition with one of the guys. :( worst idea ever!!!!

A few hours and too many beers and shots of soju later, I convinced two of the guys to go clubbing with me. I think we were all quite drunk at this point, 'cause apparently none of us thought having three jägerbombs each was a bad idea.... It was! 

The following few ours are a bit blurry. I don't remember much more than puking and crying. Lol :( I had a bit of a fml moment! Fuck soju! Never ever again!!!!! I honestly had a hangover for two days after that... :( but hey, I made a bunch of new friends! ;D

My second last day I Seoul (my first day with a bad hangover), I met up with Gun (my SIYFF friend) again. We rented bikes and rode around the Han River. That was by far one of the coolest things I've done on this trip. The scenery was beautiful (the city skyline and a river), the weather great and the place filled with active people! 

Ohhh, seriously if you ever go to Korea, you need to do it. And order chicken afterwards, lol. It's funnnn!!!! :'D

On my last day I went to the Ewha Women's University. I had it written on my list of things to see in Seoul, but hadn't seen it yet, so decided it might as well be the last thing I saw. I'm so happy I went!!!

The place is SO BIG and SO BEAUTIFUL!!! 

All the buildings look like castles, except for the underground classrooms (which are seen in the pic above). Everything was green and relaxed. The whole place had such an interesting and relaxed feel to it, and I honestly felt like quitting my trip and starting school. It was so inspiring! 

A better picture of the underground classrooms. You can really see how GIANT the place is. Look how small the doors and people are. :O 

The place is so big, it actually has it own bus to transport people around. Lol. Whaaaat the fuck. Why don't we have any universities like this?!?

Actually some of the buildings kinda reminded me of some if the universities I saw in Oxford, England. 

Is it a university or a freaking castle?!?!?! :'D

One of the most amazing buildings there was the central library. 

Seriously... I'm out of words... The CENTRAL library.,. That means there are more libraries than just this one... Wow

I wonder how many books fit in there :'D

After spending a few hours wandering the place, I went back to Itaewon and had the burger at Libertine. Omnomnom. And ended my trip with a beer in the roof of my hostel, with a few people.

Such a beautiful view!

So my trip to Seoul turned out to be quite good, and I had a hard time saying goodbye to the place :( 

So long Seoul, looking forwards to next time! - next time I will be more prepared ;D <3