Seoul Rediscovered

It's been a while.

*cracks knuckles*

Here we go.

I remember bragging about Paulo's awesome birthday gift to me -- if you don't, just check out my previous entry (this is how tamad I have been in terms of updating this blog and everything else haha).   

Anyway, we took the 3:00 PM Air Asia flight which was supposed to bring us to Incheon at 8:00 PM local, leaving us with enough time to catch the buses into the city.  Try to guess what this paragraph is leading to.  Haha.  No clue?  You can read on.

Kani sandwich was something I can make at home or while camping with very limited supplies.  Cookies were very tasty.

I just had to take a photo of the squeaky clean banyo at the Incheon airport.  NAIA, please take note.

Okay.  Surprise, surprise -- flight was delayed, got out of the Incheon airport at 10:00 PM.  So we took a cab which cost us approximately Php 2,700 to go to our hotel in Myeongdong (Oriens Hotel booked via booking.com).  We checked in, freshened up and went out to get some food.

Paulo was craving for the McDonald's Bulgogi burger while I tried the shrimp variety.  I didn't finish my fries, promise.

Since this is our second time in Seoul, we just wanted to chill (didn't have any planned itinerary except for the DMZ tour) and so it was all researching and googling the night before.  So for day 1, we decided to go to Bukchon Hanok Village -- a very touristy place  (no idea why this wasn't on our list the first time around) that promises to kill your feet while feeding all your other senses.   But before that, this was lunch:

Train people.

Almost all photos during this trip were taken from my phone, so please bear with the resolution and enjoy!

There were cherry blossoms everywhere!  We took lots of selfies (and missed Emong) but here are some cheese-free photos.

Oops.  Couldn't resist.

We walked some more and found ourselves in the more commercial part of the area.  Stores and cafes were lined along the hills -- with such an amazing weather, we hardly noticed the pain in our feet and wandered further.

When our eyes were bursting from all the lovely things to see, we finally got hungry.  Plus, I think my toes were bleeding already.

1 box could feed 2 very hungry Filipinos.  

We were supposed to catch a night tour from Gwanghwamun station but by the time we got there,  the ticket booth was already closed.  We then decided to get lost in trying to find Insadong (which should be very familiar to us given that we stayed in that area the last time) and finally gave up.  Haha.  We grabbed some food from 7-11 and headed back to our hotel.

I thought all that walking would be enough to burn all my calories and leg muscles but someone wanted to workout some more (not me).

Until my next post (which hopefully would be within the week)!

#NasaanKaKenshin: Kenshin Not Found

I now have a couple of laptops in front of me.  Mine and the company laptop.  Don't ask why, but in my line of work there is no such thing as a holiday.

Anyway, I shall not let that ruin my blogging plans (and I have superb multitasking skills) so let's move on to our last day of walking.  By the way, I would like to report that we accumulated almost one hundred and seventy thousand steps and more than 40 kilometers all throughout Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and back to Tokyo.   

We woke up early and planned to walk around the Shinjuku area.  Well, we really shouldn't trust walking maps because we walked for an hour, but only managed to find the Opera Palace -- which was not even on the map.  

We walked some more and arrived at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to see Tokyo from above.

We found the egg-shaped building quite interesting, we didn't know what it was.

From the ground, it looked like this.  #WalaLang

After getting "high" (pun intended), next on our list was the Ueno Park to marvel at more autumn colors.

When we got to the Ueno station, it started raining so we decided to walk around and get something to eat.  This turned out to be super delicious -- whatever this was.

I took lots of tinapay photos!  Enjoy!

When in Japan, you can never go wrong with a transparent umbrella.  We purchased one from a nearby convenience store.  We cannot bring this home to the Philippines so we left it at the hotel afterwards.

It finally stopped raining so we got to explore the Ueno Zoo.  See that GIANT panda over there?  The one on your right?  Yes, that panda.

This panda.

Autumn colors are awesome.

Emong wanted to take a photo of the railroad but all he saw were endless sheets of metal.  So he took this instead.  

Nagalit yata si Ate cos we suddenly stopped.

Our next stop was Asakusa.  

Lined up along the street to the Sensoji Temple were hundreds of souvenir shops.  This is like Divisoria on an off day.

We ate ice cream burgers.  

But they were literally just one scoop of ice cream (mine was black sesame) sandwiched in between wafers embossed with Japanese characters.

It was almost dark when we got to Odaiba, a man-made island in Tokyo.  It had its own monorail service that will take you in and out of the island.

We took some photos in front of the Aquacity and Fuji TV buildings.

But this big guy right here was the highlight of this particular stop.  

Am not a fan of Gundam but I get easily amazed by big robots strategically placed in front of malls.

The Rainbow Bridge and the Tokyo Tower

Last but definitely not the least on our itinerary was Shibuya.  This is Paulo with Hachiko at the Shibuya station.  This is the most popular meeting place in the area.  With its very close proximity to the Shibuya crossing, good luck finding your jowa there.

It was exhilarating to join the Shibuya crossing crowd.  

We crossed the streets 5 times to take photos and run around like crazy people.

I will not divulge details on how we got lost in Shibuya trying to find Nike and Muji.  Or how we spent hours trying to find a good place to eat.   Turns out restaurants closed at 10:00 PM so we ended up here -- our last dinner in Japan.

LUCKILY...we decided to walk around after dinner (plus the honey toast place was also unable to accommodate us) and found this standing sushi bar. 

This was the best meal we had in this trip.  Hands down.

We took a cab back to the hotel and starting packing up as our flight was early the next morning.  

This whole trip was bittersweet -- itinerary was just crazy so we didn't get the chance to wander aimlessly.  But seeing your dream country for the first time sucks all the bitterness out and leaves your mouth with the sweetest, most vivid memories in your lifetime.

I will be back this year because I did not find Kenshin the first time around.

P.S.  It's only the second day of the year and Paulo has gifted me with Korea tickets for April AND Ron just booked us for a Cambodia-Vietnam adventure in July!  2015 is going to be awesome!