Seoul, Day 1

On Monday the 16th, my friend Tim and I flew to Seoul for a five day trip. I was really excited to explore another new country, and to compare it to both Japan and the US. I had a friend from high school, Courtney, who was studying abroad herself in Seoul, and she said she would be able to meet us and show us around. I had been prepared to go by myself, but knowing that I was going with someone from my UCEAP program, and also knowing I had a friend in Seoul who knew her way around made me feel more comfortable. 

The flight from Tokyo to Seoul wasn't bad at all. We flew Korean Air (an airline I now recommend!) and arrived in a little over 2 hours. Looking out the window during our final descent into Korea was so interesting to me. Korea is much more green and mountainous than I had thought it would be, and as we approached the airport, we could see many small, hilly islands in the water. It was a foggy, rainy day, which made the dark green islands look mysterious. 

About to land in Korea.

Once we arrived at Incheon International Airport (which is as nice an airport as people say it is), Tim and I split ways because we were staying at different places. My Airbnb host's location was only one express train ride away from the airport. The Airport Express took me from the airport to my neighborhood of Hongdae in only 45 minutes. It was so awesome to look out the window and see the landscape of another new country fly past me. I got off at Hongik University station and found my Airbnb without too much difficulty. Once I got out of the train station and got my first good look around, I realized how cool Seoul seemed and I got very excited to explore the new city in the next few days. 

My Airbnb was down a quiet alley, and I had my own room. The room itself was pretty small, and if I opened the window even one centimeter at night to have some fresh air, a mosquito would always find its way in and bite me. But other than that, I liked my Airbnb location - my host Wonnie would provide breakfast ingredients each morning (eggs, bread, Frosted Flakes, coffee, orange juice), and the house was very close to the train station and the fun college neighborhood of Hongdae. 

My Airbnb room.

After settling in a little bit, Courtney, Tim and I met up and explored Hongdae. There were many restaurants, cafes, and clothing stores open late. One thing I immediately noticed about Korea: there are a lot more young people there than in Japan. Japan actually has a decreasing population - the death rate exceeds the birth rate, and as such, Japan has a high elderly population. Korea is quite different. There seemed to be many more people my age, and I think shops, restaurants, and cafes are open later because of that. 

A street of restaurants in Hongdae.

We got dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant. It was my first time having Korean BBQ. I think that's kind of funny - even though I'm from San Francisco, my first time eating Korean BBQ was in Korea. It was delicious! Courtney showed us a good way to eat the meat (that we prepare ourselves at our own table) - wrap the cooked meat in a lettuce leaf with some rice and spicy sauce. So good! Courtney also taught us that in Korea, you're not supposed to fill your own glass. Your friends fill it for you! 

Our BBQ spread.

After dinner we walked around more and stumbled across a Hello Kitty cafe. The entire thing was painted pink and had pink armchairs and seats. Nearly everything you order is shaped like Hello Kitty's head. It was wild.

Hello Kitty cafe!

Everything is shaped like Hello Kitty.

One thing I found interesting as we were walking around Hongdae was the abundance of cafes. On every block, there are at least 5 cafes. Another interesting thing - Seoul has Dunkin' Donuts. The west coast of the US doesn't even have Dunkin' Donuts! Courtney said cafes are so popular in Seoul because for the locals, there is not much to do, so people sit in cafes, hang out, and charge their phones. I thought it was funny that people who live in Seoul could think there was nothing to do. But this practice came in handy for me as my pocket wi-fi has a low battery life. I'd go into a cafe, get a coffee or donut, and sit there charging my phone for an hour. Every cafe has power outlets at nearly every seat. Quite interesting.

Me and Courtney my first night in Seoul.

Yokohama

On Saturday the 14th I traveled to the nearby port city of Yokohama. Yokohama is about one hour from my school by train, and lies on Tokyo Bay. I had wanted to go there because I heard Yokohama has an interesting Chinatown, and I wanted to see how it compared to San Francisco's Chinatown.

Beautiful red lanterns.

San Francisco has a fun Chinatown, but Yokohama's is larger and has many more restaurants. There are also several shrines along the streets. These shrines were quite beautiful - red lanterns hung on strings from the shrine gate, red incense sticks were burning in a large metal pot with sand, and the shrine itself was painted with brilliant red, green, and gold. On top of one particular shrine there was a colorful, intricate dragon statue.

A shrine with a colorful dragon on top.

There were many food vendors in Yokohama's Chinatown as well. Many of them sold Chinese treats, like pork buns. It was fun to walk around the narrow streets and see all of the different foods, clothing, and souvenirs for sale. On one particular crowded street I looked down and saw a frog trying to make its way across. No one else had noticed the frog yet, so I pointed at the frog and pretty soon there was a crowd gathered around the frog. One girl exclaimed, "Kawaii!" (Cute!) Many people were taking photos of the frog. It was pretty funny. I just hope someone eventually picked the frog up and brought it to a safer place.

After Chinatown, I walked to Yokohama's bayshore. The bayshore has a lot of interesting things and attractions to see. I walked along for a bit and came across two large brick warehouses. Reading the sign, I learned the warehouses were built in the early 20th century, and were the first brick warehouses to be built to such a size in Japan. Each was probably more than 100 meters long. One of the warehouses was partially destroyed in the 1923 Kanto earthquake, so that one was only half as long as the other. The warehouses had many shops and restaurants. I mostly walked along the outside and admired the brick and ironwork. The architecture reminded me of San Francisco's Fort Point. 

The Yokohama warehouses.

Yokohama has a beautiful skyline, especially later in the day when the sun reflects off the shiny skyscrapers. Something that makes Yokohama's skyline interesting is the tall ferris wheel on the island of Minato Mirai. It was a beautiful city and going there reminded me of the Embarcadero in San Francisco.

View of the skyline from the warehouses.

It was a beautiful day in Yokohama!

Kawagoe, a Town Reminiscent of Old Edo

Yesterday I took a half-hour train ride to Kawagoe, which is a small town that retains much of the architecture and aura of the 17th century Edo period. The buildings are very interesting - nearly all are built out of a dark, almost burned-looking, wood and have sloping roofs. The main street is lined with dozens of shops selling mostly food and dessert-items, like taiyaki and mochi. 

The main street in Kawagoe.

Taiyaki is a delicious dessert item that I hadn't known about before coming to Japan. It's a pasty baked into the shape of a fish with different kinds of filling. Some have chocolate filling, others have the Japan-favorite red bean filling, and another popular taiyaki is the cheese-filled one. I've had the chocolate taiyaki and the cheese taiyaki, and both are very good. 

Cheese taiyaki - warm and delicious!

A narrow street in Kawagoe is called Candy Alley. It's a small alley lined with about a dozen candy and sweets shops. It was fun walking around and seeing the different kinds of Japanese candy. There was a field trip there, and a bunch of kids were waiting for their "candy craft" at a small stand. The candy crafts were sort of like hardened gummy candy that the purveyor would mold into a unicorn, Pikachu, or other character shape and then cool it down and paint it. I assume it was sweet and edible! It was interesting to watch him make them. 

Kids waiting for their candy craft.

I really liked walking around Kawagoe and seeing what Edo-period Japan may have looked like. The only thing that I found frustrating was that cars were allowed on the main street, so it was hard to take good photos. But overall it was a very interesting little piece of Japan.

The old bell tower.

The main street in Kawagoe.

Done with School!

I have finished my autumn term at ICU. I had two finals this week and a paper due. It feels good to be done with school for this term (and to begin the longest winter break I've ever had). I was sad when my last class was over, though. It was a fun and unique experience to go to school in Japan, even though all of my classes were in English. I learned a lot about Japanese students' lives in my classes, especially in my Sociology of the Family class, in which we often compared life in the US and in Japan. I'll miss my Eastern Art History professor repeating things in Japanese that he had said in English so some of the Japanese students could better understand important points. I just thought that was cool. I'll miss having all of my classes in the same building, and the small class sizes. It was easier to know my fellow students when there were only 30-40 people in my class instead of 70-150. I got to know some of the students I sat next to very well, as nearly everyone sat at the same desk every class (a practice that's also common in US schools, for some reason). 

I now have 12 (12!!!) days until I return to San Francisco. I'm going to South Korea next week from Monday-Friday, which means I only have seven full days (including today) left in Japan. I've made a list of the things I still want to do and see, and I'm trying to decide what to do on each day I have left. The list includes seeing Mt. Fuji, which I think I'll do tomorrow because it's going to be a clear day, going to an ukiyo-e art exhibit (we learned about ukiyo-e, which is like pop culture art from the Edo period, in my Eastern Art History class), visiting the nearby city of Yokohama, going to the Tsukiji fish market early in the morning, and visiting the Edo-style town of Kawagoe. These next 12 days are going to be very busy. 

I am going to miss my campus. I like its small size and its simplicity. I like to walk all the way around campus (1 mile per loop) to get some exercise during days I have class. I often see cats roaming around campus. I've seen a black cat, and black and white cat, two orange cats, a gray striped cat, a calico cat, and some kittens. I also love all of the autumn colors that have recently sprung up in November. 

Beautiful yellow leaves.

Red, orange, yellow, green.

Reds, oranges, yellows, browns, and light and dark greens surround campus. It's beautiful. I especially like the leaves that have turned yellow - their yellow is like the yellow of a golden apple, and it's a color I've never really seen before. They look particularly beautiful when the sun shines through them. California doesn't have many deciduous trees, or trees that change with the seasons. It was nice to experience a real autumn here in Japan. I'm going to be sad to leave.

A real autumn.

Halloween (A Week Late)

This past week has been the last full week of classes, and as such, I've been very busy writing two papers and preparing a presentation. Now that that's done with, I finally have time to write about my Halloween in Japan!

Halloween in Japan!

Me and a few girls from my floor went to an anime cosplay convention in Ikebukuro, which is near central Tokyo. I was very surprised when we arrived. There was a red carpet laid down and several people in cosplay were posing for pictures. For those who don't know, "cosplay" is like an intense form of costume. It's usually for people who are hardcore fans of a certain genre. There are different types of cosplay, but it's usually based on characters from anime, video games, or comic books. I had never been to an anime cosplay event before, so I wasn't expecting the high level of detail the costumes had.

A couple of Sailor Moon characters.

First of all, there were so many people dressed up. As we walked around the five-block radius the event was in, I saw hundreds of people dressed in cosplay, in all levels of intricacy. Many people went all out with colored wigs and eye contacts to match their character. A lot of costumers also had fake weapon replicas that their characters usually carried.

Naruto characters.

It was so fun to walk around and see all of the different costumes. Everything was so colorful. I asked many people if I could take a photo of them, and they were all happy to pose for me. Halloween in Japan seems like a day that anyone can be a celebrity.

Characters from the video game "Metal Gear."

In the main red carpet area, there was a sort of runway show. People who I guess had signed up beforehand lined up on the red carpet and waited for their turn to stand on a small circular platform to have their photo taken by press photographers. I managed to get a spot a few feet away from them and took lots of photos.

Participants in the runway show wait for their turn on the platform.

Even though I didn't recognize most of the characters (most of them were anime characters), it was still really fun to see everyone's costumes. I had no idea Japan was so into Halloween. It was a really fun way to spend Halloween and to experience a different country's take on the holiday.

I loved these girls' costumes!

ICU Festival!

This past weekend our school put on a fun festival. It took place all across campus (which isn't very big). The festival was open to everyone, not just ICU students. I remember seeing posters for the festival on buses. There was a very high attendance because of this, which I think made the festival more fun. 

I think nearly every club at ICU participated in the festival. Each of them had a stand set up and were selling lots of different kinds of food. At the festival (over two days) I had two hot dogs, a churro, cheese taiyaki (a fish-shaped pastry with cheese filling), s'mores, and grilled chicken. 

There were also lots of performances. My favorite was the Wadaiko Club's performance. The Wadaiko Club performs on large drums that make a thundering noise. The first day they performed in the gym and the sound of the drums reverberated throughout the room. I was very impressed by their performance. There were about 20 students performing in any one set, and they were perfectly synchronous. It looked like a very tiring routine to me - the students looked like they hit the drums with all the strength they could muster. In one set they were sitting down, but also leaning back while hitting the drums, which meant their abs were flexed the entire time! They performed outside on the second day, and I enjoyed their routine the second time around while sitting on the grass in the sun and eating grilled chicken.

A view of the festival.

Another favorite performance of mine was the Latin American dance club. Students performed percussion instruments while a couple of women who looked like professional salsa dancers danced all through campus to their final performing location. We were able to walk alongside them while they went through campus, which I thought was really neat. The two women who looked like professional dancers were resplendent in bejeweled headdresses and tops with feathered wings - one wore black and gold and the other wore purple and red. The woman in purple and red made eye contact with me and smiled at me and blew me a kiss. :-) She seemed nice - they both did. They smiled the entire dance. I managed to get a front row seat at their final performance location, and I really enjoyed their routine. It was lively, upbeat, and exciting. 

There were also a couple school dance groups that performed - Pucapass and Smooth Steppers. I could tell Smooth Steppers is a popular group on campus, because they drew some of the largest crowds. I thought it was interesting that they only danced to American songs. Pucapass dances to American and Japanese songs. 

Me in a beautiful blue kimono.

All of us together.

A few weeks ago I had signed up to dress in kimono for an hour at the festival, and on Sunday it was my day to do so. They dressed me in a beautiful blue kimono that had a design that mixed purple waves with purple and white cranes. The belt (I'm sure there is another name for it) was pink and tied in an elegant bow in the back. Other girls were dressed in white, red, and purple kimonos. We got to walk around the festival for an hour. When we were all lined up together, people at the festival were taking pictures of us. It was interesting! I really like walking around in the kimono, and I'm grateful I got the chance to wear such a beautiful one.

The ICU festival was a really fun way to spend the weekend. It was nice to walk around in the warm sunshine eating good food and watching performances.

The main stage at sunset.

Rikugien Garden

Yesterday 4th-6th period classes were canceled so the students could prepare for the ICU Festival, which is today and tomorrow. I decided to take the extra time to visit a new garden. The last garden I had visited in Tokyo was Shinjuku Gyoen garden, way back at the beginning of September. I was in the mood for fresh air and some peace and quiet.

I had seen online that Rikugien Garden was considered one of the most beautiful gardens in Tokyo, and that it presents beautiful autumn colors at the end of October and beginning of November. Two trains and forty minutes later, I was there.

A view of the main lake in Rikugien Garden.

Like Shinjuku Gyoen, Rikugien Garden is located in the middle of a busy metropolitan area. I walked down a busy boulevard between rows of tall buildings to get to the garden's entrance. Once you're in the garden, however, the sights and sounds of the city fade away and you find yourself in the garden's serene environment.

My favorite part of Rikugien Garden was a small hut-type building. It had no walls on two sides, allowing for views onto the main lake on one side and a small pond with a little waterfall on the other. Two benches, illuminated by a lantern hanging from the hut's ceiling, make for a nice resting spot. I sat there for a while and observed a small crane wading through the shallow pond, attempting to catch small fish. It was very quiet and pleasant.

A nice hut with a warm glow.

I continued to walk through the rest of the garden, which is actually quite meandering. I followed dark, narrow paths a distance, not knowing where they would end up. I also walked along the main path around the large lake. Some trees were quite red, but most of the trees were still green or had shed all their leaves.

One particular path of stone steps leads up to a vantage point atop a hill in the middle of the garden, from where visitors can see all of the main lake and the front part of the garden.

The view from the highest point of the garden.

There were some of the largest koi I had ever seen swimming in the lake. They were many different colors - brown, black, white, orange. There were also turtles swimming in the smaller pond.

Going to Rikugien Garden was a nice ending to Week 7. Sometimes I really like going off on my own and exploring a new place. It's a good way for me to be alone with my thoughts and really appreciate being in Japan.

The view from my resting place in the hut.