Harajuku & Shinjuku

So today was a busy day! We actually slept in for once and then started the day by hitting up Harajuku. Harajuku is definitely a unique fashion experience and is famous for its funkiness which is why Gwen Stefani even make a clothing line inspired by it!
Harajuku is where trends get made and are showcased. The cool thing about Tokyo is it is totally acceptable to be unique and different and no one bats an eye. Not at all like the US. In general, people in Tokyo are well dressed in name brands and girls are always rocking heels (much like Seoul). However, there's also a bunch of people who still wear Kimonos and the wooden flip flops everywhere, even in this humid heat. Then there's all the others who buy their wardrobes in Harajuku. You'll see people dressed just plain goofy like they raided a kid's playclothes chest, super goth kids in leather and platforms, urban streetwear (like William), girls in full Victoria dresses complete with petticoats and umbrellas, body piercings under the skin to make bump formations on people's face, dreads, etc. There's really no rhyme or reason, it's kind of anything goes and it's funny seeing all the fashions mixed up on the subway.

Here are some examples of the weird fashions. There were definitely stranger outfits but Will felt weird taking people's pictures without asking as they were walking down the street.

We stopped for a quick lunch while we were there and both had yummy tempura and udon.

Then it was major shopping time for Will! There are a TON of streetwear and sneaker stores in Harajuku and they are all really close together in the same neighborhood so that was really convenient! Some of the brands are Japanese brands that are only sold in Japan and so that was neat for Will to be able to get some stuff. Also, many of the brands that Will can find back home in the US sell specific items that are exclusive to Japan so Will was able to get some new clothes that also doubled as souvenirs! Here's just a few of the stores Will visited! He was a happy kid today. On a random note, Japanese people are really nice. Will saw some teenagers holding a bag from a store he wanted to go to but wasn't sure where it was located. When we asked them where it was, they didn't know enough English to explain how to get there so they told us to follow them. They walked us all the way to the store which was a good 20min walk! I thought that was the nicest thing!!

Another random thing we saw today was a place called Soap Land that our friend Isaac told us about. It is a "massage parlor" where boys get naked and then a naked girl gets on top covered in soap and massages you with her breasts. This is totally legal though because no sex is involved and it is just a massage. The Japanese are total perverts. I couldn't find Will for a little while when I was looking into some shops and then I turned around and saw him coming out of this place.

Just kidding! : )

Later, we random into this coke promotion thing going on where you had to put this sword into the ice can (in the picture behind Will, to the right) and see if this coke thing popped out. If it did, you won a prize. Of course, Will always has the best luck and won! He won a huge Coke can with Coca-Cola flip flops inside! I guess I shouldn't tell you about this in case someone gets it as a souvenir re-gift...

After dropping our purchases at the hotel, we were off to see a Jewels fighting event in Shinjuku. As many of you know, Will & I are really into MMA fighting. If you don't know what MMA is, then maybe you've heard of the UFC. The UFC is the MMA promotion in the United States. Lots of people get bad impressions of MMA fighting because of the UFC but MMA is actually really huge in other countries and way more awesome. Japan has really great MMA promotions and so Will definitely wanted to see a fight while we were in town. Unfortunately, the only thing going on while we were here in Tokyo was a Jewels Event. Jewels is unique because it is a female MMA promotion. So while female MMA fighting isn't of particular interest to us, we still wanted to watch a fight! Anyways, we got tickets (with the help of Isaac) and went tonight and it was awesome!! It was kinda weird because it was in a really small venue. It felt like we were in some underground Fight Club like in the movie. However, the fights were great and we had an awesome time!

On the way home, Will & I were starving and had a late dinner. It has been my favorite meal so far in Tokyo! They're called Oishii noodles and it was at a restaurant called Kamakura. They were so freaking yummy!!!!! They don't look like much but they are so tasty and apparently a lot of celebrities eat there even though it's very casual. They're noodles with roast pork in the most delicious broth. I've never tasted anything like it but I'm assuming it's a pork broth which I've never had before but is apparently a genius idea! My dad would LOVE them! Will & I just might have to make a return trip before we leave.

Ginza, Ueno, & Seeing an Old Friend

So yesterday we began more exploring of Tokyo. First we decided to head into Ginza which is basically the very posh, upscale area of Tokyo. They weren't kidding. This town is REALLY into name brand stuff and luxury and general. I have never seen so many Louis Vuitton stores in my life. There's more here than I remember seeing in Paris and I have already counted 6 locations I've passed just in Tokyo! It's a very fancy which is a good way to describe Tokyoites which I'll explain more about that later. But overall: Tokyo has cool stuff, like really cool stuff. They have awesome design and aesthetics and everything is really unique but also expensive. Example: I found the coolest tea towels. Random, I know but even little things like tea towels are awesome here and super unique and $40. Needless to say, I'm not getting any tea towels for our kitchen.

Anyways, the main reason we went to Ginza was because we were on the search for a restaurant called Sakata. Our Lonely Planet book said if you were going to eat out at one restaurant the entire time you were in Tokyo, this was the place to go. At this point, we have mastered Tokyo's insanely huge and complicated public transit system but now it was time to use our Atlas! Tokyo's streets are designed really odd like they are in Seoul and so it is literally impossible to find anything with an address. You really should just walk around and hope to run into things because no one knows where any streets are and they aren't labeled! The few Japanese people we found that spoke English were amazed when they saw our Atlas because even they are in the dark with city streets. Anyways, we looked around for this restaurant for over an hour and no one, not even locals using our Atlas could find the place. Finally we found the location but decided the restaurant must have shut down. Sakata: FAIL!

At this point we were starving so we found a random restaurant with picture menus (since really no one speaks English well) that ended up being pretty tasty! We both got yummy bento
boxes!

From there we went to the Taito area, specifically Ueno Park. Will found a few sneaker stores and so he was a happy boy. This area is weird because it looks like an outdoor market. Half of the merchandise is on racks that litter the alleys and so it looks like everything would be cheap but of course, since we're in Tokyo, they're not. It looks like a cheap market except the backpacks are name brand and $150 and shoes are in the $200 range. It's totally weird. We did find some good deals though and a fun little present for our friends back in VA. *let the suspense begin*

Afterward we walked over to Ueno Park. It's a really beautiful huge park in the middle of Tokyo similar to Central Park in NYC. It's huge and has museums inside, a zoo, a temple, and is just beautiful! On the left is a picture of a temple in the park and on the right is a picture of us in front of all the lily pads. It's actually pretty cool because in the park, there's a HUGE lake that is covered in lily pads and there's tons of beautiful water lilies with koi swimming around.

In the evening, we met an old friend of Will's for dinner. His name is Isaac and they were friends in elementary school. Isaac (who is Japanese) now lives in Tokyo with his wife and so he's been an awesome resource to us as we've planned our trip. Isaac is super detail oriented like Will and has given us amazing directions & suggestions and even booked tickets for us for a fight we wanted to watch! Anyways, we met him, his wife Melissa, and their Japanese friend Ai for dinner. Dinner was yummy although there were a couple weird things we tried like animal intestine (still not sure what animal) and some type of eel jelly. We had a great time with them which is why we were at the restaurant for 4 hours!!

Here are some random things we learned about Japan from our Japanese friends:

1. The Japanese rarely climb Mt. Fuji (which we are going to do), but Ai highly recommends the theme park at the base which are planning on hitting up.
2. There is little crime in Japan and murders are EXTREMELY rare although there are about 35,000 suicides every year. Yikes!
3. Tokyo is seriously expensive and no, they don't make a ton of money to compensate. They just deal with it.
4. Tokyoites are obsessed with labels and specifically quality. If you want to buy a cantaloupe, there's a huge range. There will be one that is $6 that you'd take home for yourself. Then there will be another cantaloupe that is over $100. It costs more because it is perfectly ripe, perfectly round, and without blemish. You'd never buy this for yourself but you'd take it to someone as a gift!!!! This explains the $65 Durian I saw!
5. Even though things are expensive, Tokyo is a totally cash based economy. Few places accept credit and because of this, few people are in debt. That's one plus side!

Konichiwa!

We have arrived in Tokyo!! We arrived this morning at Narita airport. First things first, we arranged to have our baggage delivered to our hotel. We've read and heard from Tokyoites that this is the thing to do if you have a lot of luggage (and we sure do!) since pulling 4 suitcases through the trains and the subway is practically impossible! Will & I were pretty nervous since the lady at the courier kiosk in the airport didn't even speak English and so we wondered how much everyone else would know.

So Will and I left 3 of our suitcases to get delivered tomorrow morning and we made our way to downtown Tokyo with one small carry-on suitcase. Downtown Tokyo is about 2 hrs away from the airport and taking a cab will cost about $300 so we did public transit. The public transit here is REALLY confusing because there's the trains and the subway and BOTH of them have multiple companies that run them. They all connect but since they are different companies, you have to buy a transfer to switch between systems. It's pretty tricky but we made it! Unfortunately, once we got out of the subway, it was pouring out! We needed to walk two blocks to our hotel in the pouring rain. Our North Face rain jackets were in our suitcases being delivered tomorrow so we had to use our ghetto rain ponchos I stuffed in my backpack in case of emergencies. Well surprise surprise, we opened them to find out they were the ghettoest rain ponchos. People were looking at us like we were crazy like they've never seen a rain poncho.. and maybe they haven't seen ones like ours because our ghetto ones were practically sleeveless!! Who makes sleeveless rain ponchos? Anyways, we made it to our hotel. Our hotel is really clean and cool looking but the rooms are TINY (smaller than the ones in NYC).

After we checked in at the hotel, we walked around the immediate area which is an area called Shinjuku. We ate breakfast but missed lunch and it was too early for dinner so we decided to get a small snack off the 100yen menu (similar to the dollar menu) at McDonalds! Will basically got a big fried chicken patty. I ordered the "McPork" which ended up tasting EXACTLY like their breakfast sausage patty on a hamburger bun. I must admit, it was pretty tasty! Then we walked around. Japan is already amusing me with their strange habits. One thing we noticed is there are numerous arcades that have only crane games. You know, the ones where you pick up a toy with a crane?!? Well, they have them with all different sorts of prizes ranging from toys, ice cream, tupperware, etc. Some are a regular crane and others are more difficult like trying to position a skinny pole to fit through a small hole. It costs about $1.50 USD to play and people play 10 or more times to win what is often a cheap prize (ranges from ice cream-Tupperware sets). The weird part of it is many of the patrons are grown men! They are there in their business suits playing over and over again until they've spent $20 to win a small anime figurine. This cracks me up because everyone talks about how the Japanese are workaholics and there's even an official cause of death being "overworked". Apparently these Japanese guys aren't working as much as they're trying to win crane games.

As you can see above, Will loved the selection of gumball machine toy prizes. Isn't insane how many there are?? And they're not just for kids! I'm on the right with the crane machine that picked up ice cream.

Next, we had dinner. We went to Izakaya place which is like Japanese Tapas. Everyone on the menu is 270 yen and so you order a bunch of small plates. You order using this small touch screen on your computer and then they deliver the food. The food was pretty good but the only random thing is when we ordered "fried shrimp," the shrimp came as just the heads. We didn't eat much of that one.

Now it's time to rest up for tomorrow. Tokyo is going to be even more exciting than Seoul because we have lots of activities planned in our itinerary! On a random note: Japan is really expensive just like everyone says! It also feels especially bad after coming from Korea where everything was so cheap! Oh well!

The DMZ: Visiting North Korea

Ever since we began planning our trip to Korea, Will has been dying to go to the DMZ. So yesterday was all about the DMZ. The DMZ is total craziness. For any of you that don't know, the DMZ is is basically a "neutral zone" that is 2km between South Korea & communist North Korea. The North Koreans are totally crazy and so the UNC monitors the area and makes sure both sides don't kill each other. All of Will's family thought we were crazy to want to go there, but we think it's because they hear so much propaganda about how dangerous it is. They aren't allowed to go because no South Korean nationals are allowed to visit. You're only allowed to visit if you're a foreigner (we noticed a lot of important landmarks in Korea are not open to their own people) and you have to go through a tour. There are also SUPER STRICT rules. The first thing is the dress code: you can't wear flip flops or tank tops or short shorts or skirts. The tour guide wasn't kidding. She told us over and over again about it and said the reason the UNC says you have to wear shoes with backs is in case the N. Koreans attack, you'll want to be able to run away! Isn't that ridiculous?!?! Anyways, first we stopped at this park nearby the DMZ which is the furthest Koreans can go. They have memorials for family members who are in North Korea and this is where Freedom Bridge is.

Before we could get to the DMZ location, we went through 3 screening check points where an armed UNC soldier checked our passports and checked our clothes. They check for any offensive clothing and made some people change their shoes and take off a hat because there were stripes on it. Then we went into some room where we had to watch a debriefing video where we were given explicit rules like where we weren't allowed to take photos, what the North Korean soliders look like, and how we CANNOT (repeated many times) point or gesture to any North Korean soliders. You also cannot have anything in your hand except for a camera (in certain areas) and CANNOT put your hands in your pockets! If you put your hands in your pockets, the North Koreans might think you have a weapon and shoot you. Once we got debriefed, we got transferred to an official UNC bus driven by a UNC solider and we got a UNC solider escort who took in the bus with us ready to protect us upon attack. But don't worry: I had my sneakers on so I could've run away if I needed to. : )


The area below is the DMZ. The grey building in the back is North Korea. The blue buildings in the middle are part of the JSA (Joint Security Area). We had to walk to this area in two single file lines with our hands out and empty. The soldiers told our tour guide we had exactly 1 minute to take pictures and look around (in our spots in line of course) and they kept to their word about the time! We were supposed to go into the JSA building where there's a room where they have peace talks and there's a line down the table/room diving North & South Korea but that part of the tour was canceled. Unfortunately the North Koreans were having some visitors touring their building and the UNC soliders thought that was too close to us and so it wasn't safe for us to do that part of the tour.

The South Korean soldier in the above photo on the right is in a taekwondo pose. They always stand in this pose because it's supposed to be intimidating to the North Koreans.

I don't know if I agree. Do you??

The concrete line in the picture below divides North and South Korea. Sorry there aren't better pictures but they were very restrictive on when and where photos could be taken.

When we got back to Seoul, Will & I just kind of walked around and relaxed until we met Will's family for dinner. We accidentally found this awesome Buddhist temple though and thought it was so pretty. It is called Bongeun-Sa. It was right in the middle of downtown and you could see all the huge buildings and skyscrapers surrounding it. Surprisingly though, it was really quiet in the temple area and really peaceful. I couldn't believe we were in the middle of Seoul, a city that really never sleeps.

This place was really more like a Temple Park because there were 13 different temples there! Anyone could go into one of them and meditate but the main temple had monks leading meditations with music and drums. It was really cool. The picture below shows these white paper lanterns that were literally hung EVERYWHERE in this place. We think they had peoples prayer intentions written on them.

That evening we had dinner with some of Will's family and got ready to head to Tokyo. Seoul was really great and Will's family was super gracious! Someone from his family took us out to dinner almost every night and they each gave us what is equivalent to Chinese lucky money to help us enjoy our trip. They were so gracious that we didn't spend any of our own money in Seoul and it'll probably cover our expenses in Tokyo too! They were all so happy to meet me and they were practically drooling over Will and how handsome he was. I agree! : )

Random Things I've Learned About Seoul:

1. Seoul is REALLY affordable. Food and cabs/the subway are amazingly cheap!
2. Apartments are really small so no one really hangs out at their house with friends. Because of this, there are 3-4 story coffee shops, pastry shops, and ice cream parlors on every block!
3. Koreans love clean butts because everyone has a bidet!
4. No one knows where anything is by using an address without a GPS. Their system (apparently the same in Japan) is totally dumb. The streets officially have names but no one knows the names except for the postman. Also, buildings are numbered but they are numbered in order of when the establishment was built so the numbers are entirely out of order!
5. Koreans are obsessed with American everything: clothes, eyelids (they offer surgeries to add these), food, etc.
6. There are hardly any public trashcans around which is annoying but the city is surprisingly really clean with very little litter.
7. People here really love to eat and it's insane how many restaurants there are! It's not unusual for people to eat out every day.

Up next... Tokyo!

Road Trip!

So today we went on a Korean road trip! We drove about 3 hours south of Seoul to visit Will's grandma's house. It was interesting driving through the countryside and seeing rice paddies and seeing the contrast with Seoul. We even stopped at a rest stop for lunch. It was funny seeing a Korean rest stop. Will and I both had ramen with dumplings (mandu) and rice cake. Yum!

Then we got to Will's grandma's house. He calls her harlmunee. This is the house where Will's mom grew up. Coincidentally, Will's dad grew up literally down the street so we got to see his childhood home as well. Will's parents knew each other as kids but didn't meet until college in Seoul. Small world huh? It's weird seeing how people live in the country. It's definitely different and shows how spoiled we are in the U.S. In the backyard, she has a huge garden with lots of vegetables and she makes kimchi in those big clay pots (just like the Kimchi museum said people did in the old days!). When we were in the backyard, Will and I got bit by a million mosquitoes. No one else but us. They must of known we came all the way from America and wanted to say hello to us.

Here's a picture of Will's grandma. She's really cute! The picture of the two of us is next to her persimmon tree.

On the way out of her country town, we went by to see Will's grandpa's burial mound to say hello. This is what it looks like. The mound next to it on the right is for Will's grandma when she passes.

Then it was on the way home but first we stopped at Daejun for dinner and to see more family! We had a delicious dinner (my second fav of the trip!) with Will's aunt (another one!) and Will's uncle (who came from a different city an hr. away to meet us). Will's family is all really nice and Will is very popular! They all want their own dinner with us. It's actually really great because they each take us to a super nice dinner. It's funny though because I think Will's mom gave each of them a prep course on us because my favorite foods somehow show up at every meal! And you have to be careful not to look at something or point at something or otherwise they will try to buy it for you.

Now we're back in Seoul! Tomorrow's agenda: The DMZ. Hopefully President Clinton won't have to come bail us out.

They're Alive!!!

So yesterday was an eventful food day! First thing in the morning we went to Noryangjin Fish Market. This place is a huge seafood market where you get can get all types of seafood. They have the most insane selection of exotic delicacies, many of which Will & I didn't even recognize. They had these shrimp that were as long as Will's hand and lobsters that were as big as a small cat. It's all super fresh and my dad would have had a field day at this place! Here are some pictures below of the food we saw.

Then it was off for an interesting breakfast. So one of the things on my to-do list for Korea was to try Sannakji which is raw, squirming baby octopus. I figure if I was going to try them anywhere, this fish market was the best place to try them since they'd be so fresh so we went to one of the restaurants near the market. They basically take a live baby octopus, chop it up, and stick it on a plate. Even though it's technically dead since it's been chopped up, it is still moving on the plate and still uses it's suction cups (technical term unknown) to suck on things. I saw Andrew Zimmern eating them on Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel. Anyways, it's an interesting experience. It's just like octopus sushi so the taste was normal to me but the experience was weird. First of all, it's hard to get those suckers off the plate since they hold on for dear life. Once you get them on your chopsticks, you dip them in sesame oil and salt which helps them not stick to your cheeks and suck to your mouth but they still like to move around in there! You can feel them wiggle a bunch and you can definitely feel their suction sometimes but then you just chop them up and swallow. : ) Delish! We also had some grilled croacker (yum!) and broiled shrimp!

Here's a video of me eating the squirming octopus!


Later we went back to the Coex. We walked around a bit more and decided to go to the food court again on the first floor of the Hyundai Department Store. They have the most insane selection of food and TREATS there!! I got a cream puff there. It was baked fresh (like 20mins before I bought it) and they pump the cream right when you buy it. It's similar to Beard Papas in NYC but a million times better!! Seriously, they were delicious!! My mom would have eaten like 20 of them! They were selling out like crazy and people had to wait for batches to cool. Koreans sure love their sweets!

Later, Will and I were walking around and realized that there was a casino in the Intercontinental Hotel which was in the Coex. At this point, we were just so tired of walking around (our feet have never been so tired in our lives walking everywhere in this town!) so we decided to check out the casino. It was pretty small but that's because it is only open to foreigners. You have to show them your passport before you go in. The casino is really pretty but it's kind of strange because it's REALLY quiet. No one is really talking or laughing and everyone plays quietly. No shouting "money money money" or anything like that. Anyways, Will & I played BlackJack for quite a bit just for fun. At one point we were down, then we were up by a bunch and then we left losing about $40 so it was no big deal. It was just fun playing!

Later that evening we went out to dinner with another one of Will's aunts/uncles. This time it was with Will's uncle and their three kids. They were so sweet and brought me flowers and Will Korean movies. Their oldest daughter in college speaks English pretty well so that was fun for me because I didn't have to use Will as a translator. They treated us to a very fancy seafood dinner with tons of sashimi. It's funny because each family member wants to treat us to a nice dinner and so there's always weird delicacies. It's very thoughtful of them. Last night they had both sea worm (raw) and sea squirt (raw). I tried the sea worm (which looks like a penis cut up) and disliked it so much that I was not feeling adventurous enough to try the sea squirt. I was too embarrassed to spit it out so I just smiled and ate it! Here's a picture of Will's aunt and uncle and one of their kids. Their family was super nice and friendly!

Tomorrow: ROAD TRIP!

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