Seoul Getaway Day 1

Over a long weekend at the end of September, K and I went to Seoul for a weekend getaway. It was the shortest international vacation I've ever taken, but Seoul is closer than Tokyo (about an hour by plane), and it was amazing to be able to leave my house and be passing through Incheon customs only 2 hours later. The trip left me want to learn much, much more about the Korean peninsula, as well as the desire to eat kimchi every day for the rest of my life.

 Arrival at Incheon International Airport. As you know, I like shiny reflective buildings oooh.

 Tour bus swept us from the airport into the city (and hour drive) and on the way to the duty-free store, we passed some big important-seeming museum (of the Koreas? war museum? not entirely sure)

 60 years of the Republic of South Korea. I must know more about Korean history!

 Hahaha, never see these in Japan!

Seoul Tower. Didn't get there, but hopefully next time! 

This monstrosity is a duty free store. More like, duty-free MALL. South Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese take duty-free shopping VERY SERIOUSLY. 

Fancy hotel after which the duty-free store/mall is named. 

 I LOVE SEOUL ALREADY! Unfortunately, no hazelnut iced coffee. But still.

 Our hotel was in Myeongdong, a super swanky part of town.

Shopping GALORE. 

 Care to go SHOPPING?

 Lotteria, which we have in Japan as well, is owned by Lotte, a company that practically owns South Korea (ok I'm exhausted by typing South Korea, let's just call it "Korea" even though that's not entirely politically correct). In my opinion, a cheaper and less delicious version of McDonald's (which is both slightly pricey but rather delicious here in Japan).

 Skinfood, to the right, is one of my favorite Korean brands. I think there were 5 Skinfood stores within a 3 block radius. Myeongdong is insane!

 There were a lot more big American chains in Seoul than I've seen in Japan, even in Tokyo. We passed at least 3 Outback Steakhouses during our trip!

Korean BBQ, oh baby. 

They drive on the right here. The civilized side of the road! 

At most Korean restaurants, they start you off with banchan, small plates of food that are usually spicy. Kimchi is, of course, almost always served. I love, love, LOVE banchan. 

Daikon radish, I think. Absolute love. 

Some green vegetable. More love. 

Sliced raw garlic that you dip in gochujang, an intensely spicy red paste. I ate a lot of this. No kissing for me! Later that night I went to a Korean spa and as I was sitting in the dry sauna (aka Hell), I could SMELL the garlic seeping out of my pores. Perhaps not sexy, but healthy, no doubt!

SAMGETANG! Hotpot with half a chicken stuff with rice, veggies, ginger, all kinds of deliciousness. The chicken just melted off the bone. 

 Some samgetang with your ginger root?

Destroyed it. 

Din Tai Fung, the same dumpling restaurant I went to in Taipei but was too busy eating delicious dumplings to photograph! 

Lotte Department Store. Simply MASSIVE. 

Myeongdong at night. 

Things are open way later here than Japan, where most stores close at 8pm. LAME. Another Skinfood to the right, teehee. 

 Finished off our first (half) day in Seoul with KRISPY KREME. Seoul has got it all, man.

NATIVE!! ENGLISH!!

one of the online japanese dictionaries i always use has advertisements for english language courses along the side. they are constantly changing, and today this gem cropped up. it made me laugh at my desk.

Hojoya 2010

Mid-September rolled around and once again, it was time for Hojoya, one of Fukuoka's three biggest festivals. You can read more about Hojoya HERE. I know it has some significance in Shinto, but I (and most people) think of it as the "Food Stalls A-Go-Go Festival," since the 1km road up to Hakozaki Shrine is completely lined on both sides with food stalls for a solid week.

 Lovely sunset over Hakozaki miya-mae subway station

 Enormous bundles of fresh ginger

The crowds weren't too bad at this point, but once it started getting dark... 

 Done up in his festival finest

Yakitori (I'm actually not that fond) 

Had to visit the shrine, because, you know, it's a Shinto festival 

Choco-banana! The kid running the stand threw up the fastest peace sign I've ever seen. Must be a peace-sign throwing choco-banana selling champion of sorts. These were the cutest choco-bananas I saw (of the ten billion other choco-banana stalls). I should have gotten one here. The one I got was not very delicious.  

 Wooden ema boards, for writing wishes

 Special ema for Hojoya. The little girl is blowing a Hakata champon (a blown-glass toy that makes some sort of noise), not to be confused with Nagasaki champon (the delicious thick noodle dish)

"May I become happy" 

"May I enjoy every day" 

More festival best 

Roasted corn. Japanese people most often just say ko-n when referring to corn, but the actual Japanese word is toumorokoshi which I find really hard to say. Ko-n it is. 

Dusk falls on Hojoya 

Gaily lit stalls selling mediocre food 

 While I was walking and taking photos, I got shoved out of the way by this guy with an earpiece. He was followed by a small family, including and older guy and what looked to be his grandkids. The  earpiece guy kept shoving people out of the way without saying anything. I'm pretty sure they were yakuza. Japanese mobster-types.

 The main gate of Hakozaki Shrine

The crowds were pretty crazy by this point, despite it being a Tuesday (last year I went on the last night of the festival... now THAT was crazy). It was time to go home after spending way too much money on a lot of pretty bad festival food. Tradition is tradition, though, you know.

From my veranda

It takes photos super fast! I could photograph LIGHTNING. And it takes fantastic low-light shots. I must, must learn more!

Keya Beach

Sometimes I forget I live right next to the ocean. One of Fukuoka's most appealing points to me is that it is the best of both worlds- mountains and water. Indecisive people like me (who really just love both) don't have to choose between forest paths/rice paddies and fishing villages/ferries. This summer I went to the beach three times. These pictures are from the summer's first beach excursion to Keya on the Itoshima Peninsula west of the city. I hadn't been here since last year's Sunset Live music festival (this year's SL was the following weekend, pics to come), and it was a treat to go to this beautiful swimming beach with so few people around. And while at this time all the Fukuoka City beaches were plagued with swarms of jellyfish, we didn't see a single one in the delicious water at Keya. It happened to be The Most Perfect Beach Day.

Couldn't really think of any captions other than "Ohhh, do you see how amazing it was?" We found this random abandoned TV on the beach as we were leaving. I would like to thank my Pentax for so beautifully capturing this day. Looking at these photos, I can remember how fantastic it was!