Quarter century...

Are people really like vintage wine? And, if so, is a quarter century a good year? Time shall tell. Birthdays overseas are weird. My kids in one class made me a booklet/card for my bday (prompted by my Korean partner teacher of course) and gave me a bar of soap (Korean parents give us beauty supplies for every occasion). The teachers on the fourth floor got me a cake which was nice. But still, it hasn't really felt like my bday. And the overwhelming feeling that I've gotten for the past 4, 5 years at least is that birthdays suck.

I did go for a small, impromptu dinner with some people that I work with. We went for Shabu Shabu which is my favourite meal in Korea. They bring a pot of boiling broth to your table and put it on a burner. Then you cook mushrooms and greens in the broth and add paper thin beef. You eat all this goodness and then put udon noodles into the broth. Then when that is done they dump the contents of the pot into a bowl for you to continue to eat and take the pot into the kitchen and fry rice (bokum bap as it is known here) in a ladle full of the broth. It's delic. They also give you various pastes and soy and wasabi for dipping. It's brilliant and only costs about $10 (which is expensive for Korea but still relatively inexpensive). If you can find Shabu Shabu I recommend you try it. Rather, I demand that you try it ASAP. I'll post some more pics once I get them offa my camera which is broken aGaIn). Thanks for the bday wishes. Maybe I'll be in Canada for it next year...

charrrrrrge it!

It should come as no surprise that my spending ways are still going strong. I finally did something that I thought I would never be able to do.....I finally bought myself a dress (some of you will know the significance of this feat). I spent about $100 on a dress in an underground mall at the Shinjuku subway station in Tokyo but it's striking and I love it despite the fact that it makes me look preggers. On the plus side, it's a "one size" dress and therefore will make me a total MILF if I ever do decide to spawn a kidlet.

I'm now planning a trip to Hong Kong at the end of September and possibly Thailand and/or Shanghai over Christmas just to suck my bank account that much drier.

Adventures in Tokyo: Part 2

Day 3:
The third day of the trip was the more touristy/commercial day. We went to Ginza (a relatively popular shopping area) first and walked around a little bit. We also went to Shibuya where the world's largest intersection is. There's a Tower Records that is about 7 floors high plus a variety of other department stores. There were people EVERYWHERE and yet I never really felt like I got pushed or anything like that.

We also went to HARAJUKU. For those of you who don't know, Harajuku is a world-renowed area that is teeming with crazy fashions and teenagers. Do some research on Gwen Stefani and her "Harajuku Girls" and you'll get the idea. Gwen knows. The area was really cool with a long street of really expensive stores (a rodeo drive if you will with stores like Louis Vuitton that had amazing window displays). Then there were a lot of great cafes plus a condom store (which all good cities should have. ha). Then there were all these small sidestreets that had amazing little boutiques with clothing that was actually affordable. The day was spent doing a lot of shopping and browsing and seeing other things that I've probably forgotten by now. Oh, and I ate at a Wolfgang Puck's because I couldn't really find much else open and wanted some good western food. It ended up costing about $50 for two people and wasn't that good. boo. But I did steal a disposable pair of chopsticks that said Wolfgang's just because I found it funny that they had them. Well not funny haha but whatever ;).

Day 4: The fourth day was basically just a day to catch up on things that we had missed. We went around and did some more shopping in a desperate attempt to find shoes in Asia for Justin that are over size 11. We had to take a train back to Fukuoka by 5pm so we didn't have much time. Then it was a very long journey back to Fukuoka by train during which I had a UTI flare up!!!! THEN when we got to Fukuoka we couldn't get into the hostel that we walked around (for a very long time) trying to find and had to spend a good chunk of money on a hotel because we were exhausted and dying for a shower. The ride home was alright and everything was fine after the whirlwind trip ended! It was hellish at times but it was a great experience. Now while I plan my trip to Hong Kong in September I'm going to leave OUT things to do so I don't collapse mid-trip!!!

Adventures in Tokyo: Part 1

I arrived home in Gwangju safe but very tired after a whirlwind trip to Tokyo last week. The trip started out ok as myself and 5 other friends took a 3.5 hour bus to Busan. Upon arrival, we took two cabs to the South of Busan where the ferry terminal is. Each cab cost $20!!!!! Not only did we have to pay lots of money (for a cab in Korea), but we almost lost our lives in what was a high-paced and risky journey across the barren back roads of Busan. Then, we had trouble finding a motel to stay in in the area around the terminal which was mostly comprised of seedy back alleys. The motel that we found charged us $70 for a room with three beds which we easily fit six people into. I'd like to add that the room had red lights. Seriously. Four of my friends left on an early ferry. My ferry wasn't until noon so Justin and I took our time getting to the terminal and checking in. We ate some udon and ramen at the terminal and two bad coffees while we killed time. The ferry seemed exactly like an airplane inside which was really odd at first. The trip was comfortable and relaxing. The view was really not as great as one would hope. We made it to Hakata and onto a city bus to take us to the Hakata Station where we would validate our train passes and head to Tokyo. (On a side note, Japanese buses are different from Canadian and even Korean ones. You get on the bus at the back and take a ticket. When you leave, you go out the front doors and pay for how far you went. A little confusing but nice!). The Hakata Station was slightly confusing but we managed to find our train bound for Shin-Osaka. So far, no major issues and good spirits all around. When we got off our train in Shin-Osaka Justin realized that he did not have his passport or his rail pass. INSERT ALL KNOWN CURSE WORDS HERE. Sheer and total panic. We searched his bags through and through, searched the train, but did not think at the time to go through my things. We went to the lost and found and to many desks asking for help. We decided that the best option would be to go to Tokyo and then figure it out from there. We had to spend an extra $130 on a ticket for him to get to Tokyo and then RUN LIKE HELL to catch the train that we just spent the money on. The first night in Tokyo was pretty good overall. We walked around and looked at the lights and went into a big "everything" store. If you've watched the movie "Lost in Translation" it felt exactly like that movie. I felt like I was completely tripping out. Literally there is EVERYTHING you can imagine in the store---raunchy sex toys next to Pringles. Turn to your left there are pillows shaped like boobies, turn to your right there are kimonos. We spent A LOT of time in there that night and probably went back four times to buy souvenirs and cheap things that we can't get in Korea. I managed to find my razor cartridges so I bought four packages since Korea stopped selling mine!

Day 2: The second day was to be the historical day. We started by heading to the Imperial Palace (basically some gardens and what is left of the palace walls). For the most part it was very beautiful and interesting to see. I personally couldn't get over how North American the area felt....which was a great change from the feeling of Korea. However, any pleasure that I got from the sights was diminished by the fact that it was ridiculously hot and sticky out and there was no shade....so I was Miss Grumpy Pants as usual. We went to the Tskiji Fish Market which is the biggest market in Japan and probably one of the best in the world. Men drive these scooter/cart things at high speeds and almost run pedestrians over. There were no fish since it was late in the afternoon but it was still a sight to see. We ate at a sushi restaurant (one of many) at the market. It cost us about $30 for a platter (most of which I did not eat). I'm told it was excellent sushi and compared to what I've had it was good but I'm still on the fence about sushi in general. Then we headed to a nearby area with many different statues and a couple of museums. We went to some more popular areas at night just to see the sights and to check out the shopping. By the end of that day I could not bend over because my lower back hurt so badly. And so come the tears. End of Part 1!!