planes, trains, & automobiles - japanese style: ok, here's my recap of japan. it's gonna be a long one so grab a cup of coffee and pull up a chair. (or just read it another time.) :D instead of giving a day-by-day recap, i'm just going to write by category, okie? ok, good...now let's start!

bus fight

we left on the morning of the 22nd. my cousin woke up late and we rushed to the airport terminal. we had to purchase bus tickets for the bus to the airport, but when we got on the bus, we realized the sleepy-looking bus ticket girl had given us one. well, on our way to the airport, the driver says he needs to talk to us at the airport. he said the girl did, in fact, give us 2 tickets. but my cousin only had 1 in her hand. then my cousin had to speak with the girl who was pretty rude about it. the girl was saying my cousin had to pay for the 'lost' ticket. my cousin was pissed off that this girl was suggesting she cover for the girl's mistake. i checked my bag one more time. i HAD the other ticket. but i wanted the girl to pay for being rude so i didn't say anything. big mistake. (yes, yes, i'm stupid, i realize this.) so then my cousin says, "I'LL PAY FOR IT! I'M SORRY I MADE U MAD THIS MORNING!" my cousin was about to explode. i didn't want my cousin to pay for it so i pretended to check my bag again and "found" it. it ended alright, but i felt horrible for making my cousin mad in the morning. i seriously could not find the ticket at first b/c the girl had put it between these coupons so i thought it was a coupon, too. =(

duty-free shopping

one teacher (who's my age) asked me if she could get something in the duty free section at lotte world before i left for japan. out of the kindness (or just plain stupidity), i agreed. she ended up buying a louis vuitton bag. freakin' $800. i didn't care about the price, i'm talking about the size. so when i got to the airport (after the bus fiasco), i had to go looking for that thing. so i stuffed that in my backpack. ugh. well, things got better after that cuz i splurged on cosmetics. whoo wee, i got me alot of makeup now. here's my list for all u ladies out there (or i guess some men might be interested?):

*Clarins eye contour balm - basically eye cream. teachers, my cousin, all freaked out when i told them i didn't use eye cream. i should have started in college they all said. oh well, i'm starting now. gotta prevent those wrinkles.
*MAC pro-preferred white spf 15 matte foundation NC30- i was running out of foundation anyway. MAC's matches pretty well with me.
*Chanel intense eye pencil black - it was only $2 more than the MAC one.
*Shu Uemura eyelash curler and sponge puffs - i bought this in the takashimaya dept store in japan, but oh man, they work so well.
*MAC select spf 15 foundation NC35 - i bought this b/c korea was out of the Clarins foundation. but when i got to the japanese duty free...
*Clarins hydra-balance tinted moisturizer spf 6 - freakin' awesome foundation. yes, i realize i have 2 foundations, but i'm giving the MAC one to julie.
*Clinique exfoliating scrub - this has to be the best thing i bought. after u wash with this, your face feels all clean and refreshed. it feels minty on ur skin. i dunno, that's how i felt.

yes, a bunch of makeup, i know. but even so, i don't use as much as others. but i was so happy with my purchases. :D

transportation up da butt

when we touched down in japan, we took a train to the subway station. then we got on the subway lines and probably transferred like 2 or 3 times. i can't even remember. then we took what's called a "romance train" (just a nicer train) to hakune which is like the countryside in japan. my guy cousin (the above cousin's younger brother) had reserved me & my cousin a nice hotel there. after the "romance train" we had to take a taxi to the hotel. how much did this all cost? probably about $80. for one day. it was $50 for the taxi!! starting meter was $6. that's how expensive japan is. *gulp*

heaven in hot springs

i was exhausted from all that travelling, but when me & my cousin got to the hotel, it was all worth it. it was a quiet place. we stayed in a japanese style room complete with kimonos for bathing and sleeping in. right when we checked in, we were served a FANTASTIC japanese meal in our rooms. we had some kind of fish soup, shrimp, something in a clam i didn't know but tasted awesome, sashimi, cheese lobster, assorted pickled vegetables, and extremely tasty rice. we were both sooooo happy. then it was time for the GOOD part.

i had never been in to any kind of hot springs before so it was a real treat for me. in our hotel, the women and men were separated from each other. so everybody could be butt naked with the same gender. (that sounds really bad.) anyways, so me and my cousin got into our birthday suits (i'm still getting used to this.) and first showered. in japan (unlike derrty korea), u gotta bath first before u can get it. then we both got in. it felt soooooo good!! it wasn't even hot. i totally felt relaxed. and this was in the inside hot springs. there was one outside which was even cooler. so i went out there (it was so cold to walk outside neked!) and got in. even better. cuz it was a lil too stuffy inside so u could actually breathe outside. my cousin couldn't take the hot water so she showered pretty early. i stayed in for about 20 minutes. i was exhausted, but relaxed. as me & my cousin were showering, i told her that my dead skin cells ("ddeh" in korean) was like noodles. there's an expression in korea that if you got too much dead skin cells, you could roll it into noodles. then some lady next to us asked my cousin in japanese if we were korean!! she had come to the hotel with her korean bf so she said she knew some korean. i was sooo embarrassed!! me and my cousin couldn't stop laughing! *blush* i wonder if she understood me.

mt. fiji and the active volcano

the next day, my cousin decided since we were already out in the country side, we might as well go see an active volcano, a popular tourist attraction. so we rode a boat across lake ashi to where the volcano was. it was so pretty that day and u could get a good look of mt. fiji. which, btw, is supposed to erupt soon. supposedly when it erupts this time, half of tokyo will be destroyed. (i hope it doesn't.) well, we get to the volcano site and all we hear is korean and chinese. no japanese tourists. i know you're thinking, "DUH, it's japan", but my cousin said alot of japanese people take vacations so she said it was weird not to see (and hear) alot of japanese (people). both the koreans and chinese were being freakin' loud so me & my cousin didn't talk too much so the japanese employees didn't think we were like them. but we got some nice pics even tho it was freakin' cold up there.

back in the city

so i got my good share of the country life so it was time to get to the city. took us, again, all day to get to shinjuku, a major shopping area in tokyo. my wonderfully awesome cousin had reserved us a nice room in a hotel right in the city for a reasonable price. (it reminded me of a courtyard by marriot except not as spacious.) my cousin's uncle had invited us to dinner so we made our way over there. her uncle had fled to japan during the korean war and ended up marrying a japanese woman and living there teaching korean at an university. i had met him before in korea so it was so nice of them. we had japanese style fishcake soup ("ohdang" soup...or as tae would say "OH~DANG"), salad, DELICIOUS (and expensive) sashimi, and THE best rice i've ever tasted. even tho i can't speak a lick of japanese (except for the "domo" and "ahrigato-gozimus"...both 'thank u'), my cousin's aunt was extremely nice to me. she even gave me 2 handkerchiefs (spelling?) for a present. it was a wonderful meal. i'm just sad that i couldn't photograph it. and they both liked me alot. my cousin's aunt said that i was "so cute", "thin" (LOLz), "polite", and "could tell i was well-raised". julie, i hope you tell umma & appa that! after the meal, the uncle dropped us off at the subway station in his adorably cute, but freakishly small car. ONLY 4 people can fit in it. no more. we got to the hotel (my guy cousin went to his apartment) and we fell asleep fast.

shopping galore

if u know me, u know i don't like shopping. but i'm a tourist so i'm forced to. and hello?!?! KITTY!!!!!!! it is the land of HELLO KITTY!! i couldn't let my trip go to waste w/o buying the national mascot (seriously). i bought a bunch of stationary-type stuff (pens, paper, stickers) and of course, mugs. we spent most of saturday in shinjuku looking around. didn't have enough hello kitty stuff so my cousin said she'd take me to a bigger sanrio place on Sunday. but for the most part, we had a great, but foot-hurting day. on Sunday, we went to harajuku, another shopping area/tourist attraction. it is THE place for high school/college students. we walked around, ate, and took sticker pics. we also went to this huge discount makeup place where i got some makeup cleaning cloths for cheap. then we went to ikebukuro b/c there STILL wasn't enough kitty stuff for me. we had some fantastic spaghetti (japanese people KNOW their italian food much more than korea) and i finally splurged on some sanrio stuff. i had this big bag so we went home to our hotel to drop it off and went back out. why? cuz i wanted to get me a japanese suitcase!! MOVE OVER, samsonite. this suitcase is da bomb~! this suitcase rolls not only back and forth, but side-to-side. (almost) everybody in japan has it. and i got me a pretty blue one, too. that was probably my most worth purchase of all.

and now...the food

my favorite part. :) i already mentioned 2 meals, but not all the snacks and the fantastic sushi and tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet) i had, too! on the boat to the volcano, me & my cousin snacked on dried octopus ("ohjinguh" in korean) that was so soft and delicious. (maybe we didn't speak to each other b/c of our stank breath?) i also had a tonkatsu hotdog in a fast food place on the volcano and my cousin had potato on a stick. kinda like a small baked potato and they give u butter on the side to eat with it. also delish. for lunch on friday, we had $1 sushi that's served on dishes on a conveyor belt. u just grab the sushi plate u want. it was absolutely delicious! i was in heaven!! the next day, me and my 2 cousins had tonkatsu dinner at a fancy schmacy place in the dept store. it was freakin' good. i had japanese-style crepes in harajuku. i had them put ice cream, strawberries, chocolate syrup, and a lil bit of whip cream and they roll it into a hand-held crepe. DELISH! my cousin and i also went to the dept stores near closing time where they sell bread made that day for 50% off or more. we also bought some small cakes, too. monday morning, at the airport, i was hungry (7:30am) so i bought myself a cheeseburger meal at mcdonald's. probably one of THE best-tasting mcdonald's cheeseburgers i've had. fresh and hot. melted in my mouth. i love japanese food!

japanese people

i found japanese people to be nice, courteous, strange, amazingly punctual. nice b/c employees serve their customers extremely well. courteous b/c even tho i spoke english, they could understand and speak back to me. strange b/c of they want to "stand out of the crowd". my cousin said that japanese people long to live in places like paris, rome, and new york. they esp love that whole "new yorker" look and way of life (I DUNNO WHY!). so i saw alot of scary-looking guys & girls. some guys wearing makeup. plus-sized girls wearing the short skirts you've ever seen. guys that i didn't know if they were actually a guy. but it was all good. they're still polite. my cousin said they're probably more afraid of me than i was of them. haha! and japanese people are SO into hip-hop. the music and culture. i already knew that "hip-hop" in korea was just an outer thing, but in japan, there were so many people that seemed to embrace the whole idea and live it. i dunno if that makes sense, but it seemed more "real" to me. punctual b/c subways, trains, and clocks in japan are EXACTLY on time. it's almost a lil freaky. oh and the best thing about japan? the CLEANLINESS! korea can be pretty clean, but sometimes down right derrty. so i longed for america at those times. but now, i long for the cleanliness of japan. u gotta see it for urself. japan is one CLEAN place!!

the way home

so i left on the airport bus at 5:45am and right before we were to depart the driver bows at us and (probably) said that he hoped we all had a nice time in japan. then on the intercom, a voice in english says, "please turn off your cell phones as it annoys the neighbors". LOLz. it was nice. i was in for a rude awakening in korea. when i got on the airport bus in korea, some "ahjuhshi" (older man) calls his son, wife, and secretary 2x each to tell them he's arrived. then some korean person in front is popping their gum like crazy. it was such a difference. then i took a taxi home and the guy didn't give me 100 won (~10 cents) change back b/c i had 2 suitcases WHICH HE DIDN'T EVEN HELP ME WITH! i was mad. i had to drop off my suitcase and leave right away for school and took another taxi. i was hoping he wouldn't piss me off, but he didn't. he was trying to force the meter up by pumping the gas. then he asked me where i was going. i told him i was an english teacher from america. he ended up giving me a 200 won discount. i guess koreans aren't bad after all.

WHEW~!!!!!!! i guess that's pretty much everything in a nutshell. no need for more details. it has taken me too long.

another (short) news:

my mom AND julie are coming to korea in march! wow, i didn't think julie would get that much time off (2 weeks), but she did so they're coming march 18th. pretty cool.

my uncle got a brand new car, equus. probably the most expensive korean car. awesomeness.

i got to see a free mini-concert at coex mall 2 Sundays ago featuring one of my favorite singers, HANS BAND. they're all girls and all sisters...all from the same family. oldest plays drums, next bass & acoustic, next alto & soprano sax and keyboard, and last bass. it was so awesome! and afterwards, i ran to artbox (a stationary store), grabbed a pen, and made my way to the drummer. (i love drummers!) i told her i was from america & she said, "oh no! i don't know english!" so i told her (in korean) that i was a big fan (i REALLY am) and she signed my planner. unlike other korean singers, they can sing AND play their instruments unlike those air-guitar playing wannabes on tv.

my winter session at school is almost up and i'm sooo glad. i've been so exhausted that i couldn't update this thing! this tuesday, one of my classes is performing "Snow White" for the kindergarten classes. eek.

and what about pictures??? i took LOTS of pics (OF COURSE), but will upload later. too tired now. must rest fingers. have a great week ya'll~! it's already FEBRUARY!!! (^.^)v

Squirted 2:48 AM by E-J Yi