Chusok (Korean Thanksgiving)

Ok so I made it back to Seoul from Japan.... And here is what happened in between.
      Monday... We left really early for the airport because we thought "oh it's Chusok (largest Korean holiday when everyone and their dog goes home)." Well wrong assumption. We were there way to early so we just worked on homework and waited until we could check in. Getting there was great with no problems. (If you have the chance fly a Korean airline... they are awesome!) Once we got to Japan we were horribly lost in the subway and went the wrong way. Some guy set us straight when he heard us talking about it. Then when we got on the train another guy helped us to get off the right stop. Japanese people were like this all of the time. Everyone was always trying to help the lost foreigners. So our first impression was public transit really stinks and the Japanese people are really friendly. The other thing is it cost us about $5 to get to the hotel and the hotel wasn't that far. Once we got to the motel we laughed for about 15 min at our room. I even took a video of it. The toilet was so cool it was all in one with bidet, some other water shooting feature (both of which you could decide the water pressure), and ran water when you sat on it. This is also in the video so I'm really sorry if what we are saying doesn't make sense. This began our search for funny toilets.
     Tuesday... We got up early and bought a bus pass for the day so we could get around Kyoto. Then we walked to this awesome Shrine called Fushimi-Inari. It was so pretty even though it was about 85 degrees out and we were sweating through our clothes climbing up this mountain.  After that we went to a market because we had heard that they had cheap Kimonos. Well they weren't that cheap but we ate lunch off of a vendor which was definitely interesting. We also went around the temple but we didn't want to pay about $7 to get in. Then we went to another temple which was free to get into. We ended up just sitting there after we had walked through it because our feet hurt so bad from walking all day long. It was so peaceful and nice. Then we went shopping in downtown Kyoto for a while. This was very fun even though I didn't buy anything. The shopping market was really cool because even though it was a bunch of different shops they had a roof over the entire thing so you were always out of the rain/snow. Then we met up with some friends from our university and another Seoul University for supper. We ate Japanese food and I shared a huge meal with another guy from the other university. We had seasoned cucumber, chicken cartilage kabobs (we sent that back, he was German so he didn't know what cartilage was in English), pork loin kabobs, white meat chicken kabob, french fries, garlic bread (these two aren't Japanese but they weren't odd either), and rice. It was a good meal and the manager gave us free drinks. The table was different from the ones in Korea because they were on floor level and then they had a hole in the floor to put your feet. It was very cool. Caroline (the German girl I traveled with all week) tried something new and it ended up being soup with pieces of fat. That one wasn't quite as good as what everyone else ordered. We still weren't sure how the public transit system worked yet so we just rode the train home and I was tired so we went to bed.
      Wednesday..... We were very tired from running all day on Tuesday so in the morning we searched for some camera batteries and lenses for Caroline and her mom. This was kind of nice because it was more relaxing than running all over the place. After that we went to the Imperial palace but we had to have a scheduled tour time. This was O.K. though because it was free to see and we also scheduled time to see the villa. After doing this we went to Gion (the geisha district) but there weren't any Geishas out yet because it was too early. Seeing this we went to another temple which also wasn't open because it was too late. So then we searched for something to eat. Everything in Japan is really, really expensive so we thought we were gtting a deal on this restaurant. Well we barely got any food and still paid like $15. We sat at another one of the funny tables where your legs dangle you take off your shoes beforehand. Then you put your shoes in a cubby and take the key.

The first course (veggie jelly), my $5 coke (no refills) and the key for my shoes

After this we went to a book store to find out that Japanese kids read the same books as we did as kids. Like Good Night Moon. Caroline said that German kids do too. We got to talking and come to find out they also translated all the Disney movies and songs into German for German kids.

Maybe Obama reads this to his children??

Also the books in Japan have the binding on the right side. They are read from right page to left page and up to down. Everything in Japan was backwards. The street people drove down the left side. This really threw me off directionally. After this we went back to the motel.
    Thursday....We went to Nara (pronounced Nada, I think). We had very high expectations that it didn't exactly live up to. We were really tired by this point so we had slept in and then we went there around noon. There were sooo many deer just there to feed and pet. They were minis of our deer and they were cute. You could get up really close to them. That was definitely the highlight of Nara because then we paid $7 to see the big Buddha. He was huge. There was another highlight though. All of the deer posters. They were so funny.

Then we visited another random shrine where we took hilarious pictures of tourists that looked ridiculous. We also got to see a wedding party and the bride and groom all dressed up. This was kind of a bum day so when we were done with Nara we just went to mister Doughnut in the station for "supper". Supper proved to be very interesting due to my doughnut choice. I thought maybe I would be safe with a streusel doughnut. But of course not. Instead it had curry on the inside. It was so disgusting. After that I went with the safe choice and got a chocolate one.
     Friday... We went to the palace in the morning and it was far less exciting than I thought it would be because we weren't able to go into anywhere. Only see the outside. I guess the inside wouldn't have been much better because the emperor didn't have the money the Shogun did. We also went to a park awhile waiting for our time at the villa. This park was so desolate but there were still Buddhist shrines everywhere all over the park with equipment also. This was really nice to relax again but we got eaten up by mosquitoes. Then after this we went to the emperor's villa. This was pretty because there were beautiful gardens all over. One thing the Japanese know how to do it is gardening. The funniest part is there is a tree in all of these places that looks very similar to marijuana leaves.

Notice the woman in the cap...Her son's name was Gasper

Another really fun part of this day was looking at the tourists and what they were wearing. They all were so funny to watch. One guy was really odd and he was there with his mother. He was wearing a pearl harbor hat which seemed to be very contradictory. The other thing we have noticed a lot of is the Nazi symbol because Hitler stole it from the Buddhists and flipped it. That has been interesting while touring with a German. On this day I also took a great picture of a woman's urinal. I've always wondered why we don't have them and now I know. Because EVERYONE misses which makes the thing smell horrible. They are the sure way for the smelliest bathrooms. This is the cleanest one we found.

On top of this they usually don't have soap to wash your hands with when they have the smelly bathrooms or tp. This took some getting used to. After going to this bathroom and the villa we went to the Manga museum. This was sooooo much fun. Manga is the Japanese anime drawings/books. This museum was worth the $7 because it was very interactive for all ages and it was just a blast. They also had books in all languages that were available to read in a court yard in the middle of the facility. It was so relaxing after walking around for 4 days. After this we were obsessed and tried to find a store that sold Manga. We did but it was far too expensive so I think I'll try to find a store in Korea that sells it (everything is cheaper in Korea). This place was very nice and the toilet here made noise when you sat on it so no one could hear what you were doing. It also had the bidet and other water shooting thing.
      Saturday.... We attempted to get everything else we possibly could do in. In the morning we went to the golden temple. This was a major disappointment because we paid $7 to take pictures of the thing and that was it. There was nothing else on the grounds except for very funny signs. This is one thing that I will definitely miss about Asia is the signs. The ones in Japan were much funnier than the ones in Korea but both are hilarious.

Where are we not supposed to scribble? The tree?

After going to the golden temple we went to the Shogun Palace. This place was very very cool. They had the nightengale floors which were very cool. Whenever we stepped on them they sounded like the birds so that when the shogun was there he could hear intruders and not get killed. There were also paintings by famous Japanese artists all over the doors and they were gorgeous. This was where the money in Japan was so everything was really nice. We couldn't take pictures of anything. As in everywhere in Japan we also took off our shoes to walk around in the building. It's always really nice to take off our shoes after walking so much. It was also nice to be able to go into the buildings because usually in Japan you can't. After going here we were hungry and we wanted to eat some Japanese food so we ate at this really nice restaurant and I had pork, rice, and salad all mixed in together. While we were waiting an older lady gave us an origami bird that she made right there while also waiting. It is so amazing how nice the Japanese are. After this we went to a temple but everything was closed for the day. So we went on the Philosophers walk. It's pretty much just a walkway with cherry trees so we weren't in the right season but that's ok. It was still a really cool area to walk around in. After this we went on a search for Geishas. This was awesome because we actually saw 5 or 6. They were so pretty with their kimonos on and they looked exactly like in the movie Memoirs of a Geisha. They were also so timid looking.  That might have been the highlight of the trip with the Manga museum.
       Sunday.... We were nervous about getting to the plane on time so we just left after our check out time. This was again too early but on the bright side we got exit row seating by the window. That is one of the best benefits to being really early to a flight. We just sat around and studied/killed time in the airport all day. It was really nice to have a bum day before coming back to school. We made it back safe and sound. It was a great trip and I'm glad that we went.