Happy New Year!

I finally bought AC:NL on NYE and partied like an animal. In my pyjamas.

UPDATE: Again, this is another post that was just languishing in my drafts. Bad Bloggers of the Internet Unite!

New Year's Day was a holiday! Woo! But...it was also cold and we were tired (what with it being just another random holiday in the middle of our working week) so we just stayed indoors and played with our new Korean Pokemon cards!

It's pretty fun because the rules are very simple (more simple than Yu-Gi-Oh! which I love, but it drains me a lot more mentally) and we try to do as much of it as possible in Korean (emphasis on try).

I was really worried at first, because with this game there are various effects and things that you use to your advantage, and obviously we don't know enough Korean for that.

What we quickly learned, however, is that it's like 60% Konglish (English written in Korean style) which makes it a bit easier to guess at what's going on. The rest is easy, because in the bottom corner of all the cards is a serial number. Thanks to the magic of the internet, we can search up this code and just find all of the information in English. Imagine doing that 15 years ago. Wow.

Post-Christmas Rush

UPDATE: I've just found this tucked away in my drafts more than a month after I'd written it. I don't know why I never posted it!

It feels like I haven't posted anything in ages, but I've realised that actually it's only been about 2 weeks so now I a) don't feel bad but also b) am quite horrified at how quickly time feels like it's going by. It's been a busy 2-3 weeks though, so I hope you'll let me off.

So, the weekend after Christmas we finally had a chance to meet up with our Orientation friends. What cruelty is this, giving us friends then making them live in all different corners of the country?

We met up with Cherie, who had to come via Seoul anyway, and got on the train to Hongseong. What we didn't realise, is that Hongseong is actually REALLY FAR AWAY. Also, the fact that we'd be buying proper train tickets, not paying with our subway cards. (Maybe everyone else knew this, but I didn't, haha)

The result was us buying tickets for a train that was ages away, and not getting reserved seats because a) it's the super busy winter period on a weekend and b) we didn't think it'd be that long of a journey. Oops. (I seem to be really enjoying lettered lists today, sorry)

2 or 3 hours later, and several hours late, we finally reached Justin's place (after an exciting, frosty walk in possibly the most remote place I've been to in Korea so far, although that's not saying much)

We ate food and tried to make gummy bear soju (red was great, green...not so much), and mug cakes (which we ended up being too full to eat) and generally made the most of the toasty ondol. We ended up staying the night and heading back very early the next morning before the sun was even up.

東京 | Tokyo (1) - PKMN, Kyary, & Shibuya

Our first proper day in Tokyo! Looking back on it to write this, I didn't realise just how much we managed to cram into one day. In my mind I'd definitely spread these out over two different days, haha. So I'll apologise now for the sheer volume of this post, I'm too lazy to split it into two! >.<

First stop was some form of breakfast, and considering Ann-Marie and I were up and ready earlier than expected, and we had to wait for Tom to turn up (he was staying in a capsule hotel for the first few days) we headed out and bought some strange-looking things from the nearby 7-11.

In Korea, buying food isn't too much of an adventure anymore, because I can at least read the label and guess at what it might taste like. I can determine if I should expect vegetables, chicken, beef, fish, or anything else. But I can't read Japanese. Sure, I'd saved a hiragana and katakana chart to my phone, but when you're hungry and just want to grab something, spending 20 minutes poring over small charts searching for each individual character then hoping it's a word you know isn't the most appealing option.

So, up for an exciting food morning, we grabbed the most unusual and mysterious things we could find, including a radioactively-pink croissant and a few random onigiri. The onigiri were great, as you'd hope, and after a little effort, and mostly thanks to Ann-Marie's studies, we managed to read the description on the croissant. Apparently it was a "strawberry croissant". It was certainly interesting...and very sweet.

We waited by the station for Tom to turn up and then headed further into Ikebukuro to visit the Sunshine 60 building. I'm not going to lie, the main motivation for our visit was this:

The world's largest Pokemon Center. No I'm not "too old for that stuff". :p
It was absolutely PACKED. There was a queue to get in that doubled in on itself twice, and there was barely room to breathe once you got in (hence the lack of photos). From the abundance of people of all ages lurking around every free space outside and even trying to play whilst INSIDE the mass of bodies, it was safe to say there was an event on.

Thankfully I'd recently started Pokemon X and always bring my DS to Japan (mmm those sweet, sweet street passes!) and bagged myself a shiny Charizard and a special Pikachu.

Shrieking sweet nothings into the past at our 8-year-old selves, we all shuffled around grabbing various figurines and plush toys. It was quite funny to see a group of 23-year-olds suffering from intense internal debate over things like:
"Should I get this Torchic? But I love Squirtle..."
"I could buy this Fletchling plush...but it's the same price as these little figs of Meowth, Pikachu, AND Lucario..."
"Do I really need a Pikachu pencil case and 3 different kinds of Pokemon-adorned notebooks? And this hat? And keychain? And lunchbox set? And driving gloves? Who am I kidding, of course I do."

In the end I came away with my Fletchling, a little Absol, and my obligatory Pokemon Center coin.
[photo]

The Sunshine 60 building is also famous for its observatory deck. Towering high above most of the rest of Tokyo, at 60 storeys it was the tallest in Japan up until 1991 (and was the tallest in Asia for a while, until Seoul went and outdid them by 3 storeys).

After buying your admission ticket to the top floor, you enter a lift. Rather terrifyingly, the lights turn off as you start whizzing up, but they're soon replaced with a cute array of glow-in-the-dark stars that I think were activated by a blacklight.

Top speed of 600m per MINUTE. Horrifying. I'm glad it doesn't have windows.

The weather was incredible and gave us really gorgeous views of Tokyo. It really lives up to its title of "metropolitan prefecture", with the unmistakable hi-rise skyline stretching literally as far as the eye could see in every direction. It's a little overwhelming, actually.

The bright windows and darker interior allowed for some really cool silhouetted photos, which I'm a bit obsessed with at the moment.

Chuseok | Osaka Day 3

The adorably-named 'scum tunnel' which wasn't scummy in the slightest and actually very safe

On day 3 we went to see Osaka Castle, which sounded like a renovated version of what we'd seen at Fukuoka Castle, so we were pretty excited to see what the drawings in the south could only try to convey.

Like Fukuoka, Osaka Castle is in a huge park. Being a much bigger city, this park was enormous. I don't think we even managed to see half of it, but it looked like a really lovely place to go for a walk and just chill out.

"please take the photo quickly, the fountain is blowing towards me"

Climbing up a lot of steep steps and an incline, we arrived at the moat, which was this strange mix of clear water which was green due to pond weed, and bright orange...moss? It was so odd, because they kept it separated using those chains of buoys like you get in swimming pools.

I forgot to edit this photo and it was in Cinestyle, so forgive me for the blandness.

It was hot and muggy, so we paused to get some cool drinks after our climb. As well as drinks, we grabbed a cup of shaved ice each, which was a little underwhelming. I think it's just I'm so used to ice cream that I was expecting something quite different (no, I'd never had a shaved ice before then)

Bright gems!

Walking through an enormous gate into a walled compound, we could finally see the castle. I have to admit, it would have been very well protected back in the day.

Apparently the man who ordered the construction of this castle LOVED gold. It was his favourite thing, and he had it put into and onto pretty much all of his possessions. The inside of the castle is a museum, and the lower floors are full of gilt hand mirrors, furniture, even weapons and armour. The building itself is no exception, coated in gold decorations.

On a bright white building, glittering in the sun, it was really something quite wonderful to see.

At the top, you can walk all the way around an observation terrace and see all of Osaka spreading out around you. It's interesting, like Seoul, to see all these modern buildings interspersed with very distinctly traditional buildings.

At the bottom of the building, before leaving, there was an old man with a rack of traditional-looking clothes and some extravagant-looking helmets that I think the captains and generals of the army would have worn. For a measly 300 yen you could get kitted up in an outfit and take some photos, so I went for it.

Can I just say, these people must have been STRONG. I mean, I'd assume so, what with them being soldiers, but the helmet alone weighed a ton, let alone the jacket, which I think would have gone over or under a fair bit of armour.

He also gave me a sword, which was probably a bad idea.

Of course I chose the deer antler helmet.

After that, we had a break and planned our next destination, which ended up being the NHK building not too far away.

NHK is basically Japan's BBC and a lot of their broadcasting buildings have sections that are open to the public to have a look around.

Inside we only really found a children's section. Anything else was in Japanese so we weren't totally sure what to do. Of course, we still went into the children's section, and because we were the only ones there the staff seemed quite happy to humour us and help us use the interactive attractions.

"...over to you, Nick." "Thanks, Chelle."

There are loads of different bluescreen interactions you can try out, including one with an autocue, where you read out a simple little news intro. Sadly, the Japanese doesn't translate well into English, so it ended up being a lot shorter, so you ended up with about 10-15 seconds of us pulling faces and dancing while we waited for the 'broadcast' to end.

Having exhausted that option, we got back onto the subway and went to Umeda, where we were hoping to get to the Sky Garden for sometime around the sunset, but we also realised that this is where the Osaka Pokemon Center is, as well as a huge anime/manga merch store Nick found online. Throw in the fact we hadn't eaten yet, and we just decided to have a night viewing.

It seems to be a trend in Japan that the train stations are also huge shopping malls, with a big food court on the uppermost floors. I had a hitlist of traditional Japanese foods I wanted to try in 'the Nation's Kitchen', and we happened across a nice-looking okonomiyaki restaurant.

Did you mean: om nom nomiyaki?

We had a set meal each, Nick had a standard okonomiyaki and I had a modanyaki, so we had half and half. It's kind of like a pancakey omelette with cabbage and a load of other nice fillings, such as fish or pork, and lots of onions, cooked on a teppan hot plate. I'm pretty sure they're only flipped once, then topped with a really great sauce, mayo, and those strange dry flakes that seem to be ubiquitous in Japanese food. I think it's onion of some kind. Modanyaki (from the english word "modern" also has some yakisoba noodles thrown into the mix)

Over to wiki for a better description: okonomi meaning "what you want/like" and yaki meaning "cooked/grilled". It also tells me that the burgundy-coloured sauce is comparable to Worcestershire Sauce (I agree), and that the paper-thin flakey things are bonito flakes, which are apparently dried tuna?! Huh. That would explain the fish taste.

We also had some fried onigiri, which were great. Enough said.

After that, we went down a couple of floors to where the Pokemon Center is.

I only took one photo, because to be honest it IS just a big merch store. But I got my now-customary Pokemon pressed-penny (maybe I should start to make a charm bracelet) and there was a Halloween event going on. I always feel a bit bad going into the Centers after a while, because I start to realise that I don't really know any of the Pokemon, because of course other than the few superstars from the first 150, they focus on the new ones.

Before I move away from Umeda I'd like to point out this mind-bending fountain I saw in the station's forecourt area:

The patterns and designs you see in this video are all jets and beads of water, on a constant scrolling reel of images. Occasionally it would show the time and name of the place. I still don't really understand how they're doing this.

The sun was dripping away by now, so we headed to our next destination: Mandarake. Nick had found it online as being one of the biggest comic book stores in Osaka. Sadly, I was scared to take many photos in case I got shooed out by a shop assistant for being improper. (I hate playing the "sorry, I'm an ignorant foreigner" card, haha)

It was about 3-4 huge floors of merch, one was just shelf after shelf of manga and doujins, like the photo above. There was a huge cosplay section, figurines, more comics, retro and vintage paraphernalia, and probably a ton of other things I've forgotten about. It was also weirdly themed like a cave...I'm not sure why.

Finally, it was dark out, and we resumed our search for the Umeda Sky Building. Considering it was on every tourist brochure and possibly also other things such as train tickets and souvenirs, we'd assumed it would be easy to find. A major attraction. The star of Osaka.

I don't know if we're just terrible at following directions but it took us a lifetime to find. After walking through the BIGGEST shopping complex I've ever experienced (Maybe I was just a bit worried and tired, but I would put it at being larger than Westfields in London or the Bullring by a long shot. Smaller footprint, but more floors.) we eventually managed to find a long string of tourists and a glimpse of a very tall, and worryingly far away building.

I think really it just looked further than we thought, but it still took us quite a while to get there. It was by no means a short walk from the station, haha. Maybe I'm just lazy. (yes)

The lower half of the building is mostly stores and...nothing. We had a mysterious trek up one leg of the construction, which was just long corridors, escalators and elevators. Finally, we came out somewhere in the region of the 20th floor, to find a queue. Turns out the queue was for another elevator, which in turn just led to another escalator, and finally we were in a doughnut-shaped room with windows all the way around.

So actually, I think it's free to come this far up the Sky Building, you just can't go to the Sky Garden without paying. Even then, it's not that expensive considering the view.

anime establishing shot or what

Every window was a) packed and b) wonderful. We managed to find a window tucked away somewhere that people kept missing and snapped away for a good while before moving on. We decided, sappy as we are, to get a lock engraved so we could attach it to the railings at the top.

The view from the top.

Firstly, it's a bit terrifying. Secondly, it's...quite scary. Being in the open air that high up is always a little unnerving, especially when there's a breeze coming in. But then you look at the view and relax a little because everywhere you look there's twinkling lights, faraway business and happy people. It's quite sweet. There's also a huge balcony under and around the balcony you're allowed on. No accidents here.

Many thanks to the lovely Korean family that took this photo for us.

We had a lot of fun confusing some of the many Korean tourists we saw while we were out and about. If we happened to bump into any or needed to talk to them, we'd wish them a Happy Chuseok (in Korean) and watch the cogs whirr as they processed the strange situation of having a Westerner talk to you in Korean...in Japan. I know I'd be confused if it were me, haha. Usually it led to a short conversation and lots of happy smiles, so I'm quite glad we did it.

Another fun point, they had a blacklight around the walkway, instead of bright white ones to dampen the view, which was nice, but it had an added bonus of making my dress glow the most incredible colours.

And that's it for day 3. Busy busy busy. For people that said they wanted a relaxing holiday, we definitely went and did a LOT.

Oh, and we met a cat on the way home. Hi cutie~

No? Okay. ㅠ__ㅠ

Fukuoka Visa Run: Day 6

Day 6 started by moving hotel again, due to the fact most hotels (including the one we were in) were all booked up. After having a bit of a panic that we'd be homeless for the next couple of days, we found the Court Hotel Fukuoka Hakata. It's been slightly advantageous, having all these accommodation hops, as we've now experienced three quite different hotels.

The Fukuoka Hana was advertised as both a hotel and hostel, mainly for young people, backpackers, and those on a tight budget. The service was very personal and attentive, and overall great value for such a low price per night.

The Heiwadai Hotel 5 seemed to be more of a short-stay hotel, nicely sized rooms with friendly, attentive service, and the added bonus of it being a larger, newer building so there was a lift ;)

Finally, this new hotel which seemed to be more geared towards businessmen. It looked a lot more expensive and professional than the others, and there were a lot more reception staff.

The move itself was very simple, other than being tiring nothing bad happened. The Fukuoka subway is very easy to navigate and runs efficiently. We've also found out, after lugging all our enormous suitcases up a huge flight of stairs on the first night, that most (if not all) of the subway stations have elevator access to the surface. Sigh.

Once again, we'd overestimated how much time we would need (always a good thing to do) and could only check our bags in, leaving us with 3 hours exploration time in the Hakata area. In our ever-helpful map of Fukuoka there was another walking route marked down, starting at Hakata Station, which was where we'd just come from.

It's absolutely HUGE and I've now realised that I didn't take any pictures of it. The first floor and some below are all dedicated to the transport aspect of the station, and are very spacious but busy. The other 9 or 10 floors above, however, were filled with a shopping mall.

Our first stop was Starbucks, for a quick drink that we knew how to order without holding anyone up. There were some clothes shops around it, but more interestingly, as we explored, was a cooking school that looked like something straight out of an episode of Cardcaptor Sakura. There was a big "NO PHOTOS" sign, so I'll just say it looked something like this:

There was also a huge bookstore with more Attack On Titan stuff proudly displayed at the front of the shop, which distracted me long enough, until I saw this:

what?!

A POKEMON CENTRE.