Seoul

A bit late but I've decided to finally blog about my week in Seoul. I finally got to meet up with Erica in Seoul, whom I haven't seen in months! =) It was my first time staying in a hotel by myself...if you can even call it that...it was more of a hostel but I got my own room and just had to share the bathroom. It was kinda sketchy at first because I arrived late at night around 11pm and when I arrived, there was no reception desk of any sort and I had no clue what to do...Good thing Erica was there to help me out and called the guy for me! =)

So my first full day in Seoul, I got a chance to hang out with Sarah for about an hour before she went back to Calgary. Later that night, I went drinking with Erica and her friends and then dancing in Korea! I really wanted to try clubbing there but not sure that this is considered clubbing...more like dancing at a bar??? haha Anyways, it was an interesting experience.

The next day, we went off to the Trick Eye Museum in Seoul. It was really fun and interesting.

The next day, we got a chance to go to Namsangol Traditional Village and then Gyeongbokgung Palace after.

And here are some pics from Gyeongbokgung Palace. It's the biggest out of 5 palaces in Seoul.

The next day, we went to Seodaemun prison, a prison/historic place dedicated to those who died for/tried to protest for freedom during the Japanese occupation of Korea.  It was really interesting and really sad at the same time.

This is a wall of all the prisoners who passed away in this prison.

Fake Japanese soldier...

We were off to explore Myeongdong the next day...Haha this picture was really cute cause it was just a video of people walking on the street and whenever they moved, hearts would appear. =) I THINK this heart video was taken in Gangnam..the expensive part of Seoul which I only went to for a short time...haha

This is from Myeongdong.

On the 6th day, we went to the DMZ in Korea. I went there several years ago and I loved it!!! But this time, we couldn't afford to go to the Panmunjom tour, which is what I consider the "real" DMZ, where the North and South Korean soldiers face off...this time instead, we went for a cheaper tour and only saw more of the outskirts of the DMZ.

Then at night, we went off to Namsan Tower!!! The view was great at night!

=( Fuzzy picture...

Then it was my last day in Seoul!!! =( I started the day by going to the War Memorial of Korea. This memorial was dedicated to all the wars that went on in Korea throughout its history.

Then off to Lotte World!! I've always wanted to go there since I always saw this amusement park in dramas and such. =) It was really fun and Erica made me ride a roller coaster in the freezing cold! It was so fun though because the roller coaster was so fast, it felt like a bullet!

View from the top of the balloon ride...

That ended my trip to Seoul!!! I was so sad to leave but I had a great week and can't wait to go back!

Tokyo

A bit late but I finally decided to write this!!! So had a great week in Tokyo but arrived later than I thought I would...flight was a bit delayed so I didn't land until 5:30 ish and it took me a while to get to central Tokyo! Met up with Jean, Vivian and Yasu in Shibuya, whom I haven't seen forever for dinner the first night! =) Shibuya was super crowded even close to midnight! Definitely has some great nightlife here...wish Calgary was the same! =(

The next day, we went shrine hopping around Tokyo and saw many small shrines.

Then we went to a totally cool Trick Art Museum!!!

 Fake money!!!

The next day was new years eve and so we went around different Tokyo districts looking around...we went to Akihabara but there wasn't much there to do, which was unexpected...but we did find this funny sign for an adult store...hahaha

We also went to Ikebukuro...

And Ginza...and actually shopped!! =D

Then came the new years eve from hell...where we missed the countdown because we were busy taking purikuras...=S...well at least we have proof shots!

The next day we went to the Pokemon centre in Tokyo and had tons of fun! ^_^

Then off to Yokohama to hang out with Mayumi and to eat "chinese" food! ^^

The next day, we went to Tokyo Disneyland! We actually did quite a bit that day and ended up on 8 of the rides/attractions...if you count the Michael Jackson movie thing that everybody fell asleep in...=S

We managed to only get 2 fast passes even though we went at the start of the day. =( The Space Mountain my favourite ride...you get to go on a roller coaster in the dark and all you see are stars and you can't see where you're going so it's really fun! I was really sad we missed the night parade though cause it's usually really beautiful...we did manage to catch half of the morning parade though. =)

It's a Small World!!!

Disneyland had really cute food that were all shaped like mickey mouse. =)

Tokyo was soooo great! Wish I could have stayed longer and seen the Meiji Temple as well! Hopefully I can go back again before leaving Japan!