Too much fun for blogging :D

I made a rule in the beginning that blogging wasn't allowed to interfere with adventuring. And there has been so much adventure in the past few weeks I just haven't had the time! yay!

The last few days in Thailand were great. We took a night train from the southern part of Thailand up to Bangkok, and we had our one night in Bangkok! We ended up walking around malls for most of the day, and the night didn't seem like it had much to offer, we didn't want to spend much more money, we were pretty tired from the train, and we had already eaten dinner, so we did a sneaky phone charge on a street lamp which had a plug in hanging from it. We then bought a bottle of Hong Thong - the local beverage (~$4 per bottle) and proceeded to sit and people watch on the big tourist drag in downtown Bangkok. We ended up talking and then sharing our drink with a goofy street vendor who was working just across from us. He tried for about half an hour to try and teach us the name of this drink. Hong Thong - something like Haung Taaaung but Thai is tonal, so we were pretty hopeless at pronouncing it right. Had a fun few hours with him, he gave us friendship braclets! We are instructed to come back to his book stall next year in early May, during the giant water fight festival, show him our bracelets and try to say the name of this whiskey so that he will remember us. We eventually moved on to a bottle of Sang Som, which we are worse at pronouncing. According to our friend one is supposed to mix Hong Thong and Sang Som in equal parts on ice. We stuck to Coke.

  As the night went on another street vendor started motioning behind our new friends back that he shouldn't drink anymore, like he gets crazy or something. He seemed all fun and jolly to us, but she got more and more insistent over a few hours - seemed like she was telling us that he would start fighting if he drank more, then it seemed more and more like she was saying he was going to fight us. He did mention at one point getting in a fight the night before with some other guys, and as we started to leave, he was still friendly, but she sure wasn't. She was telling us to leave, and leave now! So Dar got the guy to let him drink the rest of his whiskey, and we headed quick to a cab. Will definitely say hi to him again if we ever in Bangkok again though!

We took some taxis in Fiji, but our ride to the airport was our first taxi on our own in Tahiland. I'd read online that to avoid getting ripped off one should ALWAYS take metered taxis, and INSIST on the driver using the meter, because they will overcharge you otherwise. And sure enough, it took 3 or 4 times of insisting to use the meter until he turned it on, and though he swore it was really far and would be 400 or 350 bot at the least, the meter said 180 as we got out.

Lucky for us the Bangkok airport doesn't close at night like the Gold Coast one, so we actually got to get a bit of a sleep that night, or at least I did. Dar was a bit sick from the hardcore whiskey drinking... though he was able to Macguyver my glasses back together which had broken on the train up to Bangkok. Scuba diving was AMAZING but apparantly the water can be a bit dirty and with all the mask removal exercises in the open water certification i ended up with a bit of an angry eye so I had to be off contacts for a bit. So i looked awesome. But better than being blind!

 

And before we knew it, we were in Japan! Seeing Takako again was so so so amazing. We can be separated for years by thousands of miles but she will always be such an important person in my life. We loved Japan so much and it was because of her and Michiko. Takako picked us up from the airport and handed us subway cards with our names on them XD We tried out the 'recommendation machine' - its a vending machine with a camera in it that looks at you and recommends a couple drinks for you. You can then use the touchscreen to choose what you want. It really liked recommending wheat tea and peach drinks for me, and red bulls if I made an angry face. Different things are also better for me when I take my glasses off.

We headed for Michiko's cute little apartment, and we had the first of our many fun sleepovers XD 

I first met Michiko a few years ago when her and Takako came to the US to get away from the radiation after the Fukushima disaster. We had a fun reunion with Takako then, and Michiko was pretty shy, also had a really hard time communicating in English. This is us with our friend Dorothy in Eugene back then.

Michiko's English has improved SO much, and my Japanese a bit too, so this time we really got to know her well. Takako mentioned her coming to the US, and we are really really hoping she will come stay with us in Eugene (maybe even this coming summer!) We want to spoil her rotten just like her and Takako did while we were there. Was also neat that Dar came along this time, since we started dating while they were in Eugene. 

First thing we did on our first morning in Japan was get me fixed up with some new glasses, and a few new shirts since I haven't bought clothes in like 9 months. And they are awesome! I kind of don't want to wear my contacts anymore. This is us at a sushi train restaurant. We kept trying to take artsy pictures down the train, and dropping our cameras on the train. Dar is in the background having a food coma.

We explored so many parts of Tokyo with Takako and Michiko. We visited a bunch of shrines, learned the order of bowing and throwing coins and making wishes at them. We got our fortunes from one of the temples too. I got a 'neutral one' and Takako got a bad one but she tied it to a structure they had nearby so I guess that means its OK. Michiko got one that said she didn't have talent though so I don't believe them. We saw Harajuku, some beautiful beautiful parks with plenty of curious koi, and street performers, tried the amazing food - one part of why we love Japan so much. YUM! Takako made sure we tried all the foods. On the last night she took us to a restaurant that had EVERYTHING. I tried many things for the first time, whole fishes, liver and raw horse among them. Felt a little weird with the horse for sure, but it's an animal just like a chicken or a cow so I tried it out, and honestly it was really delicious. I also got to meet Takako's good friend Tina! We had a couple late nights, and we tried to have early mornings. Ate chocolate every morning though, haha! I'm bummed all the pictures are on my camera and I can't get them off till we get back to the US! So many great moments!

Another night we had ended up pretty crazy. I mentioned here before my friend Lisa, who I met randomly at a Couchsurfing meetup in Auckland. She helped me get the job at Buenos Aires by introducing me to Rachel. She happened to be in Tokyo at the same time as us, so we planned to meet up. Well, I sent her Takako's phone number on fb, she sent me the number of Jungo, the lady she was staying with in Tokyo, and we planned to meet up for kareoke that night. Well I called the number around 5 when I hadn't heard from Lisa, and after 30 seconds trying to talk in broken Japanese to the frantic lady (I was frantic too) on the other end of the line, it turned out she also spoke English. She asked us where we were, said she had lost Lisa earlier that day because 'in front of the big lantern' wasn't specific enough in a place with 3 large lanterns, there was a miscommunication about phone numbers, and she had her phone on silent, but she was nearby in her car and would come pick us up since she was heading home and hoped Lisa was headed there too.

Sounded good enough to us, and a few minutes later, Jungo pulled up in her van with her ABSOLUTELY adorable 3 year old who only spoke Japanese and Spanish, and whisked us away to a different part of Tokyo. We had a really fun time getting to know Jungo and her daughter (who absolutely LOVED Dar's beard) She gave us coffee and let us relax at her house while we waited for Lisa. I checked fb to make sure Lisa hadn't messaged - turned out I had ALSO given Lisa the wrong phone number. But, Lisa came through the door not too long after, and we had a little reunion. Jungo fed us dinner and beer, walked us to the bus stop, and we headed for karaoke. We ended up SO lucky. Takako did her Japanese speaking magic and got us the room where they filmed the karaoke scene in Lost in Translantion!

 

Karaoke was way fun and definitely part of the Japan experience I think. It was NOTHING like any karaoke I've ever done before. Backstreet boys, Barbie Girl, More than This, My throat was so beautifully sore afterwards.

We had some drunchies beef rice bowls and had a quickie Taiko drum video game session before running to and missing our last trains to get home. So we took a picture together instead. You can see the impending doom in our eyes knowing that we are really happy and a little buzzed, but we know we have to walk home now.

 

While Takako and Michiko were busy, Takako's mom was amazing and arranged for Dar and I to go to Kyoto for a few days. We took the Shinkansen!

 

It was kind of funny riding that thing because I knew it went fast, like 200mph fast, but I hadn't looked at Kyoto on the map before we got there, I'm a little embarassed but no I didn't know where it was in Japan. I thought a little South, you know, just a few hours on the train sort of thing. Then I looked where I was on Google maps, and i realized we were really far away! Tokyo to Kyoto is something like 1/3 the distance from Tokyo to Seoul! That train is amazing. We got to see Mt. Fuji as well as a bunch of factories (Toyota, Fujifulm, Honda, etc) from the window on the way back too, which was cool.

We had a really great time in Kyoto, what a neat city. The weird thing is that from high up it reminds me of Eugene a bit, tons of trees, just older and more built up. What a history these places have too. We saw a couple of the famous places there like the Fushimi Inari shrine which has these walkways with tons of gates

We also checked out a place I can't remember the name, there were a bunch of Buddhist statues (1000 of them I think) -  as well as a world heritage site, Nijo-jo Castle, a castle used by the past Shoguns, and the next day we were really lucky to get in on a tour of the Imperial Palace, a palace used by the emperors themselves for thousands of years until the 1850's when the capital was moved to Tokyo during the Meiji Restoration. Learned about that in Japanese history class! :P Guess most people don't get to do that tour since it has a limited number of seats so we felt pretty lucky :D

Dar and I loved Japan. If the work ethic wasn't soo tough (it sounds like it is for Takako anyway) we'd really love to live there. We'll see what we can figure out though. If not living, we'll definetly do lots of vacationing there. It's hard to tell what it is about it that we liked. Maybe it's becuase even though it's a different language, at least I have a grip on it enough to get done what is needed, or maybe it was just that we had the fun and security of having Takako and Michiko there. While travling with just Dar and I has been really fun, it's something so so special to have friends there with you. I realized that seeing Takako at the airport was the first familiar face since I saw Karen, Emily, and Alee when we left the Eugene airport... which is almost 9 MONTHS ago! It's made me really really long to see everyone in Eugene again too. Anyway, we are both really hoping to get back to Japan again soon :D

We've had a similar experience in South Korea too. After we found out we were going to spend 10 days here in Seoul, I got ahold of Susie and Sujung, two friends who lived with me in the dorms my freshman year at UO. Susie was so sweet and offered to let us stay at her house for a few days. When we met we were all undergrads, now Susie is in her second to last year of medical school, living with her sister and CUTEST DOG EVER! And Sujung is a real business lady who has become quite the dessert chef as well! We had a really fun time spending time together, catching up, meeting all the boyfriends, and again eating all the delicious local cuisine. They've got us addicted to this street food here called Tteokbokki - For those of you in Eugene we're planning to try and make it ourselves when we get back so let me know if you are interested!

On our first day together we went together to a beautiful old Temple in Seoul - had a fun time opening doors we probably weren't supposed to open, and at the museum checking out how sounds and put together in the Korean writing system, Hangul. 

 

I'm determined to learn at least how to sound out everything by the time I come back. I've learned only 'thank you', 'here', and 'Tteokbokki' so far here, which is about as far as i got in Thailand. I'm really trying to remember for my future travels how much more you get out of a place when you can read and say basic things. Whenever I say my mangled version of "Thank you" - "Ko-map-su-mi-ta" I always make the other person smile, and sometimes surprise them a bit. So I'm promising myself to learn more before I buy tickets for a new place again.

Social eating is a HUGE part of the culture here. It's kind of neat because I guess the unsaid rule what you are meant to do at many restaurants is everyone agree on a food, then you just order an appropriate portion size of how many people there are at the table, and one giant bowl/pan is brought to the table to be shared. Dar and I confused the wait staff at least once or twice by unknowingly both ordering what we wanted, and then because they couldn't explain it to us (probably they had never had anyone do this before) they put their hands up, said OK, and brought it out to us.

Just on our day with Susie and Sujung, we had breakfast at Susie's house of a seaweed jelly stick dipped in almond flower (was so good!) Then had Ttokbokki (I can only spell this because of wikipedia) with ramen, cheese, and bulgolgi, headed straight for a cafe where we shared what I think is the unofficial national dessert - shave ice with red bean and ice cream (also so yum) then we headed over to meet the boyfriends for dinner where we had (cannot believe how popular this is here) fried chicken and beer. There are so many restaurants that specialize in just this and they are ALWAYS full.

Oh yeah on the way to dinner we found and purchased this thing.

It may be some sort of flower product or it may be some sort of deep fried animal intesine, but it is most definietly filled with icecream. It is really strangely normal for me at this point to eat things I have no idea what they are. It's a little terrifying but also keeps me on the edge.

And I cannot forget! We checked out a mall where you can dress up in traditional Korean clothes and take pictures! Princesses of Seoul!

The end of our evening with Susie and Sujung was a really good time. This coming Friday is Buddha's Birthday (guess kind of like Christmas) but it's a really big event here. We ran into a big parade with giant Buddah's, elephants, flowers, all the animals of the zodiac, and tons of bright lights. We then strolled along a river where they had more giant paper machay models of dragons and such, then grabbed some coffee together.

 Dar and I have been exploring Seoul for a few days on our own now, spent the weekend sightseeing. We went to a museum for the king that invented Hangul. It was cool enough, but had tons of strikingly blatant biases, as well as weird militaristic stuff like a 'game' where you use old guns and cannons to take out ships with enemy flags (guess it's not that much stranger than some American video games though) We have also been trying out new and completally misterious foods (as well as tons of Ttokbokki) We spent 45 minutes on the subway trying to find this place we went to with Susie and Sujung, finally found it and realized it was closed, so we went there for lunch the next day!

One of things I am really happy we tried out here was the 4-d movie. I think this picture below describes it pretty well. It's something that in the US you would find at theme parks like Disneyland, super virtual reality ride stuff. But here they use them for certain feature films.

 

We saw what I think must be one of the best movies to see in 4D. Iron Man. Dar wanted to see the 3rd one anyway, we were lucky enough to have it be in English, and to be splashed in the face with water when the Iron Man falls in the ocean, then simultaneously blown in the face with air, moved side to side, and punched in the butt when he falls over during a fight scene was a really amazing and over the top experience. If you have the opportunity to see a movie in 4d I will tell you it is definitely worth it. Apparantly there are smells too, but the people sitting next to us I am pretty sure were eating shrimp flavored popcorn so I didn't smell anything other than that. You win some, you lose some.

I got to meet up with Susie and Sujung a second time last night, we went together to dinner (hot dogs in a Korean soup - during the Korean war Spam from the US army became a popular additive to traditional Korean food) Again, yummy like everything else! I didn't realize because I usually never eat them, but hot dogs are a bit of a comfort food to me, having them for the first time in YEARS sent me back to my favorite childhood hotdog stand at Jerry's where my dad and I used to get hot dogs together often.

Susie and Sujung spoiled me rotten! They gave me a HUGE gift bag filled with Korean snack goodies! Sujung was apparantly texting Susie back and forth at the market to choose them for us! And they included a little sticker sheet which she went through and translated everything for us! Then they paid for dinner! So tricky....

After dinner we headed to N. Seoul Tower - you can go up to the top and have a beatiful panaraoma of Seoul. Pretty cool. They have this really neat thing outside too. It's this fence around the viewing area for the city - but I guess it's something couples do to come there, and take a padlock, then 'lock their love together' and throw away the key! And there are TONS of them. It lines this 3 foot high fence for probably at least 50 meters, then they have these trees like in this picture and they are also covered in locks. They also have these benches which are heart shaped to 'help' the couples to be close. hehe.

It's kind of funny there are a lot of cute-sie coupley things here in Korea. It's really really popular for couples to get cell phone cases, charms, shoes, socks, shirts, entire outfits that match, and wear them together. I actually remember this couple who I would see around campus at UO who had 2 or 3 matchy shirts they always wore together. I used to think it was a little over the top, even a sign of kind of a weird relationship, but now I realize that here that is totally normal. Another thing is everywhere else in the world you'll see men carrying the shopping bags for women, but here on the street you'll see lots of men carrying the purses also for the ladies.

Thismorning we had a last meetup with Sujung for lunch, she gave me some of her beautiful and delicious strawberry custard cake she made the night before, yum! And then Dar and I made the obligatory visit to Gungnam station to see what Psy was talking about. Samsung has a pretty neat thing there at their headquarters, it's a big showroom with their latest stuff, and a bit of a museum about the manufacturing process, etc. Lots of 3d tvs with kinects hooked up to them, tv's with more than 1080p, the newest appliances, but the coolest thing in my opinion was the touchscreen window it's acutally this same one from the video that i got to play with. I was hoping they might have some of the new flexible displays but seeing the touchscreen window was pretty amazing.

We grabbed some chicken soup for dinner because Dar is a bit sick, and took an early night. Not so early now that it's 1:30 am and I've been writing this blog post for 3 hours. Guess it's about time to close so the blog doesn't interfere with tomorrows adventuring to Dongdaemon underground shopping mall!