Good to be back in Hongdae

Goodbye Japan, I can see you will miss me too. How nice of you to get a bunch of people to wave me goodbye...
.... how can you not like a country where the whole crew at the ferry terminal will wave your ship goodbye at departure? As if leaving the country wasn't hard enough, they had to come along and do this. Japan, I will be back!

I took the fast ferry this time which took only about 4h to cross to Korea (as opposed to around 12h the last time). I arrived in Busan, made my way straight to the Trainstation and hopped on the next KTX Bullet Train to Seoul.

I am staying at the same Hostel as the first time around, in the Heart of Hongdae. Honestly, if your ever in Seoul, this is the place to be. There is stuff happening every day. People on ropes dancing along walls (wanted to post a video but korean youtube won't let me), white dressed students with white make up making music while walking down the street, markets with art students selling their (spelling?) art etc. On Friday I will contribute to this and join a few other couchsurfers for a "Free Hugs" event :). Can't wait!

Also Nightlife here is just the best. I went out drinking with some people on Friday (and got pretty drunk it seems) and that was just a blast. But even better was clubbing on Saturday night. I didn't feel so well to begin with but I went anyhow and ended up dancing till 3:30. The place just played awesome music and the ladies wore cute little halloween costumes that made me drool.


I don't plan to do much sightseeing till I leave for Australia. My goal is to meet as many local people as possible. So far I am going strong and I hope it will stay that way. Isn't meeting new friends much more interesting than looking at some old stones? I think so!

Enjoy the pictures and keep in mind that the alcohol was flowing sans restrictions. ;)




Yes Hongdae, I love you too

Fiona, another canadian english teacher. There must be a huge communtiy of them here!

Agent Mouse! Don't stealz my crackerz!

WTF?

Art is NOT over and will never be.

Love the contrast.. and must admit.. not taken in Hongdae

Another week gone

Cheers!

And welcome to the newest update of my travel blog. Sometimes it's unbelievable how fast time passes. It seems like yesterday that I came back to Japan and already it's time to leave again. But you know how it is, when your having a good time, time tends to pass very fast. So what did I do to have such a good time?

That's not easy to answer. To be frank I didn't do as much as I could have. Sure I went to a Football game, sure I visited a temple or two, yeah I went out a couple of times but I could have done much much more. Most people might think I wasted time here but i think it was just right the way I did it. If I could relive this week I wouldn't change a thing.

I did visit the Oktoberfest here though. Yeah the sausage was authentic and the beer, well I had just one and that was japanese and after that I was pretty much wasted. Can't remember when I got drunk so fast. But I am sure my friends with me had a great time watching me ;). That's what not eating for a day and not enough sleep will do for ya.

I am seriously thinking about coming back here in a few months and stay for a year or two. But then again I heard from many people that Japan isn't that much fun anymore when you have to work here to make a living. Let's see, my trip is still long and the possibilites are endless.

enjoy the pictures and the video I took at the football game.

they have these laterns at the entrances of shrines.. anybody care to enlighten me what they are ment to do?

new and old are never far apart in Japan

Was alot of fun meeting Joel again, who, hosted me when I came here for the first time.

I dunno,.... Kawaii?

Avispa Fukuoka per sempre... or something like that.

Yeah they do "choreos" here, actually better than my dear friends in Rapperswil. For more watch the video below.

Another foreign football Scarf for my collection. Gosh I am already making plans for the interior of my next appartement.. and no that is not random, it's rather connected with the scarfs ;)

Cool Arena they have here in Hakta (Fukuoka).. I really wish them them to advance to J1 League. Anybody in Japan keep me posted?

Leaving you with a random cool nightshot. I am out for the last day of my stay in Japan. This time for good for at least half a year.. after that, who knows?

Tomorrow I am heading back to Korea/Seoul. There I will stay roughly a week before come the 7th of Novemeber I will board another flying coffin to Sydney.

hugs to everybody ;)

Good to be back...

... in Japan. It feels awesome. Although I hardly slept last night (aren't ferries great?) I was in such a good mood today. Korea - Japan, such a difference! To come back here was one of the best decisions I have made so far on my trip.

Best thing? Oktoberfest is on this weekend, nothing like flying half way around the world to drink some german beer, or whatever goes for german beer around these parts.

[edit] by the way, if you come to japan. Pack some condoms in a really obvious place and hope that the customs guy goes through your stuff... it makes for one hilarious moment.

ROCK ON!

102 days and counting..

Cheerio

I have much to talk about today so hang in there!

First of all; I am now 102 days into my trip and, honestly, it feels like a week. I could do this forever! Sure I have few and far apart moments where I would rather be back home, but, they pass very fast. Also I know, as soon as I'd be home again, I would want to go again! I can't really imagine how it will feel like when I have to get back into a normal day-to-day routine. Work 5 days a week for 8+ hours everyday? Nooooooooo... ah well, I guess I will have to eventually.

What did I do the last few days? I spent two nights and one day in Chuncheon, where I went for no other reason than to just go there. There is nothing worthing seeing there really. Although that giant park for sports that was all but deserted does have a ghost town feel to it that is kinda cool. I met some really cool people though and as we all know; beeing around cool people makes even dull places a nice experience. This was also the place where I surfed for the first time (in Korea). As always, it was a very nice experience.

After Chuncheon I went to Seoraskan National Park. Now hold on this might be shocking news to you: I went hiking! True story!

Let me tell you a few important things about national parks in Korea. Only go there during weekdays! Now this is a very important advice! I was there Wendsday through Friday and there were soooooo many koreans there. I was expecting the "alone, back to nature" experience. Well you can forget about that here. Hiking is like the national past time. Everybody seems to have a super-duper fancy outfit for it and most people seem to be 40+. Now this is where something else comes in.

I found that sometimes koreans can be really really rude. Especially people plus 40 seem to have that tendency. They will cut in front of you in a line (like when waiting to get a bus ticket), they will push you out of the way on the subway instead of saying something and so on. I could go on complaining for quite a while but then I would let my swiss side get the better of me. I do have to say though that whenever I am an the brink of hitting somebody in the face with a rock because I am so enraged, some totally unexpected kindness and friendliness comes along. I get many friendly smiles and while hiking even got korean candy offered. I really don't know what to make of this place.. I guess I will have to develope a love-hate relationship with Korea.

Enough of the talk now.. enjoy the awesome pictures (my opinion) from the national park...

Going hiking in Korea? Your not the only one!
Awesome gigantic Buddha.

Anyone wanna hire me to take postcard fotos?

I sat and sat and stared and stared and never wanted to leave.... until I got thirsty.

Love Koreas nature!

See above caption

Nothing to add

Temples in Korea have more colours than in Japan..

bye bye for now, stay happy

Seoul or how opinions can change in a day

G'day y'all

I know I shouldn't be posting on the weekend. Why? Because I get about half as many hits if I post on weekends. Shouldn't you all be working during the week? ;) Well nevermind, I have time so here is the newest:

Sadly it was time to leave Japan. I really enjoyed my stay there and I am sure that sometime in the future I will go back. I can only recommend it to everybody. If you want an experience unlike any you have ever had, visit Japan!

I landed in Seoul on thursday and at first I was not overly impressed. To be honest I was rather underwhelmed and didn't like it that much. This feeling didn't change much way into friday. At first I was rather confused why this was. I couldn't place my finger on the issue. Then on friday evening I finally found out what it was that bothered me.

After a stay in Japan where everybody is uber friendly and goes to extrems to make you comfortable and feel good, I have landed back in the real world. I had trouble adjusting to the fact that I now get pushed out of the way again and that there is a "normal" attitude here in Korea. I don't mean that Koreans are rude, not in any way, but after spending a month in Japan, you really have to re-adjust.

But as the titel of the post hints, that feeling soon changed. By now I love Seoul just as much as any place in Japan. I have see an awesome castle, skyscrapers and arty cool party districts. In fact I am staying in that cool district :)). Best of all yet? The party last night! The evening didn't start promising. I wanted to meet up with an old friend. Took me an hour to get there, just to find out that he for some reason was a no-show. Kinda annoyed I went back to the hostel to grab a shower and headed for the clubs (which are just around the corner). Oh boy, FUN FUN FUN. The music was great, the club cool and the girls beautiful. Long story short, I ended up at a afterhours club with 3 korean girls at around 6 am, had breakfast with them at around 07:30 and got to bed at around 8 am. That's what I call a fun night! And that was just friday... let's see what fun times saturday will have to offer!

and on a side note.. you don't have to speak the same language as somebody else to have fun partying ^^

but now it's time for the pics....


Lots n lots of street art in the area where I set up my base camp.

Traditional guards at the castle I visited

A little something in the middle of a large park inside the castle.

More of the castle's insides.

No idea what this was about but it made for a cool picture.

Skyscraper galore part 1

Skyscraper galore part 2

Some sausages i tasted in a busy downtown shopping district.

oh by the way.... WAY less tourists here, I like it that way!

I'm out.. stay happy

Harajuku special

Hi guys

Welcome to my Harajuku special. Why is there a special? Cause I went there and I find it so awesome that I just had to share my experience. I didn't actually plan to go there today because I was out partying until the early morning hours buuuut I didn't really feel like sitting on my ass all day soooo I went.

Oh I just loved it. LOVED IT. I could go on and on and on what I saw and what I liked etc. but I think the pictures speak for themselfs this time.

Let me give you a word of advice though; Only go there if you have the money and time to shop till you drop. There are so many cool shops there.. *sigh* I wish I had more money and space in my bag. Dear folks at home, I might break down and actually buy something, so prepare to get a parcel from me with things I don't have space for anymore.

pictured dedicated to francis

there is still some hope for street art in Japan!

Please send me money, I wanna go shopping!

Word? Graubünden??????? How did that get here? I am somewhat confused!

Love this bike. I love the one I have but I would seriously think about buying this as my second.

Oh.My.God. I am in Heaven!

Nike Sneaker galore.. seriously, I got soft knees. Most are not just any Nikes but special and/or limited editions...

Friends.. this is serious. This cabinet is home to a fortune!

I leave you with this cute pic... which got photobombed

because I can.