Months after our trip, we are still keeping up with our Duolingo language learning apps (free version), even if sometimes only just barely making it before the midnight cut off time to keep our daily streak going (it counts for nothing, but the little visual reward and celebration makes it feel like it's worth it for the two of us stubbornly goal-oriented individuals..). Well before our trip, mostly out of entertainment to be honest, she had started learning trivial impractical Korean on the app, and eventually I joined in on the experience with learning useless Japanese phrases such as how to order water and rice and "where is my red shoe?". It served us almost no purpose for pretty much our entire trip, but after we had came home we had kept up with it, for me almost out of sentiment as a lasting reminder of our travels, until most recently she eventually gave up on the Korean bit to play around with trying to refresh her Italian.. (our next adventure? maybe..).
All that was for me a vivid lingering reminder of our wonderful trip, now feeling ever so distant, for it had occurred last fall, before the Christmas, New Year, and most recently the Chinese New Year rush. We have both flew a few times since then, to see each other in our respective cities and to hang out with our families. Life has continued to rush us by with tasks after tasks, our minds numbingly sometimes with work stress or life stress or stress in general. I have yet to upload all of my travel photos, which for me has always been somewhat of an act of recognition for my trips (in a sense I felt, if I didn't post my photos, it almost felt as if it did not happen, as with my previous two Spanish visits back in 2018 and 2019 that none of you have really caught a glimpse of other than a few random pics here or there on my blog or instagram). Posting a story here on my blog, as well, usually serves as a formal wrap up of my travels, even if it takes a little more effort and most of all, inspiration and a calm reflective mindset. Those are sometimes hard to come by in our daily lives.
And so I sat here, on my flight to Ottawa once again to see my lovely, that suddenly I felt perhaps it be the perfect time to take out my ipad and start typing away, even if it will be ever so disorganized and not at all useful as a travel reference for anyone who wish to visit the same places we went to…
(as an aside, while I hung on to my ancient habits of photo taking and occasional blog writing, my millennial girlfriend is from our modern century and actually knows how to make use of current technologies and logs our trips with lovely videos and beautifully curated video blogs on her youtube channel. Be sure to catch a glimpse if you wish to experience some of our live goofiness and more descriptive scenes of our trip at her youtube channel, and you may also get to enjoy other amazing videos of her brother's travel that she also edits videos for as well as many of her creative baking ideas and recipes...
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5SoiMjywTGmm14E63mMdiE6RAjuPNxfA&si=zJBOIr6KRuXejVeT )
Now back to thoughts of our trips, loosely pieced together.
It had been amazing. It was something I had always wanted to do with her, to go to that part of the world. As a boy from Hong Kong, much like my other counterparts, we grew up with Japanese anime and have always grew a fascination for all things day to day Japan, from its food to social culture to its simple street scenes, for every corner seems to remind me of some similar imagery from past anime shows. I had actually been to Japan several times, often alone but also with family. But I was particularly excited to show this part of my interest with Ellen, as we continue to enjoy sharing little bits of ourselves with each other. For her, she had also developed a following for many things Korean, a place that I have never been to. And so when we decided that we could split our trip in half and easily spend a week in each of these countries, be it short but concise enough for us to get a taste of the culture, it was a perfect arrangement. Traveling through Japan and Korea as a combo is super easy, and it would have been even more adventurous had we picked our timing better for usually there was a fast ferry that could take us from the Southern tip of Korea in Busan to the nearby Western point of Japan in Fukuoka (sadly, for that week in November, the fast ferry usually goes down for maintenance, and so we had to choose the much less interesting option of flying, but actually still got to try a very reasonable local budget airline option of Jeju Air).
Speaking of timing, our visit to that area in late November and early December worked out perfectly weather-wise, as what most people have told us beforehand already. The weather was mild enough, but also still at times cold enough for us to FEEL like we were in Korean (I think the coldest day was -7, which was peanuts to Ellen from Ottawa..). Most days were dry and sunny enough. Crowds were not an issue except for the bigger centres of Japan such as the Osaka and Nagoya train stations and of course in all places Tokyo. But overall, it felt like a perfect time to travel, and much easier sometimes for both of us to get time off away from work.
Korea really impressed me, particularly Seoul. To be honest I knew very little about it, and actually invested very little time in researching it prior to going. I sort of let Ellen lead me along to the places we went, as usual now with a few our our other tips, cause she usually has an idea of what she wanted to see and did her homework beforehand and usually we both enjoyed hopping to all these random low key places that she came up with anyway. We are pretty low frills travellers, not necessarily a huge fan of hitting all the tourist sites or major tourist traps, but sure we would do our part and pay homage to at least some more representative areas. Mostly, though, we just like to walk the streets, do some various local shop hopping or window shopping, jumping in and out of coffee shops and also sometimes to use their bathrooms or simply to get a brief breaks from logging our steps. We also didn’t particularly feel the need to hit the famous or fancy restaurants in towns, unless it happens to be something we were desperate to try. Travelling together was great because it allowed us to try little things here and there together, as sometimes simply a single portion of a cool treat was all we really needed to invest into to get a feel, leaving room in our tummy for the next impulsively taste test...
But more on Seoul. While I knew it was obviously modern and busting, I didn't know how grand and developed it was. Being the proud Hong Konger that I am I always felt that Hong Kong ranks as one of the top world class cities in Asia (and it rightfully is but its status as such is indeed fading...), but as I hop from one large modern and hip district to another in Seoul, it dawned on me how much bigger Seoul actually is (Seoul has a population for about 10 million while Hong Kong has about 7.5). While I could perhaps count in one hand some of the biggest shopping areas in Hong Kong that was worth visiting, there felt to be so many more such places in Seoul. Every time we emerged from the subway, I stood wide-eyed looking around all the lights and scenes. The city is spread quite wide, and many of the markets seems to go on forever. It felt less crowded though, perhaps because it was so spread out, but there were lots of youthful or hard working energy that seemed to be very palpable throughout various part of the city.
The other thing that made me felt at home in Seoul was actually that, almost simultaneously it could remind me of scenes in Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo, or various cities in China such as Shanghai or Shenzen. For me, all those cities above as their very distinct feel. Hong Kong is compact but consumer focused, with street-shops everywhere that always seem to have customers ready to make purchases. Taipei has a more down to earth feel and more personable, but with also the visuals of the numerous mopeds jamming along busy streets or sideways. Tokyo is a wonderful blend of modern architecture with neat, zen-like Japanese cleanliness and the always apparent attention to fine details. Cities in China, while nowadays increasing modern and world class, still always reminds me of wide streets and sometimes dusty scenes, perhaps mostly due to geography (such as Beijing) or simply pollution. As we went along Seoul from district to district, whether it be by bus or foot or even sometimes by train, I had at various moments all those familiar feelings. I think that helped developed some fondness for the city.
After a brief four days in Seoul (a good amount actually, with various servings of hearty noodles and dumplings in our tummy and LOTS of souvenir Korean socks and skin care products...), we went down to the other major hub of Korean in Busan. Busan is a costal city and a smaller sibling, much like Vancouver is to Toronto, and I think my feeling of it was much alike in that comparison. Equally modern and almost as grand, it had a lot less people (says 3.5 million as per wikipedia..), and sometimes makes me wonder if it was actually over-developed for its population (probably not, but I did not dive into the detailed statistics yet..). One of the key tourist scenes was the beautifully done refreshment project of the Gamcheon Culture Village, a collection of previously poorly constructed impoverished area (think Brazilian favelas) for displaced Koreans fleeing the Korean war. It was all due for demolition, only for the city to make a sudden turn and spearheaded a collective effort to revamp and repaint it into something of a proud representation of their past (and oddly enough, with various cameo appearances by the characters in "The Little Prince" novel..). The historical site is actually a good reminder for the effects of the tragic warring past in Korean on its people. Actually throughout Seoul and Korea, I see slowly but steadily the progressive transition the society is taking as it tries to emerge from its warring past into the world class country it is today. Old places still has numerous Chinese characters visible reminding us of their past influence on language and culture, with such characters interestingly banned in the 70’s (and then, evening the hanja translation of the capital Seoul was officially changed from 漢城 to 首爾 in 2005), partly, I’ve read, in an effort to detach Korean from its Chinese influence to help the country establish its own culture identity. Today in modern Seoul and Busan, the city is welcomely international, with clearly visible Chinese character labels again (probably to also facilitate the many Chinese tourists from its closest neighbour) as well as perfectly spoken English announcements, indicating that Korea is now firmly comfortable of their importance in the world and its outwards influences. Today's young Korean appears trendy and self assured (we playfully started counting the number of almost identical black and white Nike sneakers, a trend that has yet to hit North America but undoubtably will come soon likely next year..). But we see in the faces of the old and able, many aged but had no problem navigating the many streets and stairs and subway rides, of where they come from. I think with its hard working but tragically warring history, together with the harsh and extreme cold weather, Korean is a very, very hardly bunch, and now they are finally enjoying their time to shine on the world stage. And they seem to know to take advantage of this moment. In a very curious subway advertisement that I saw, as if they also know that their time in the spotlight may not always last, their travel agency proudly proclaimed to the world in a poster, "Come to Korea, Ride the hype!".
After our week in Seoul and Busan, we hopped on a flight to Fukuoka in Kyushu, a region I had previously visited with my parents years ago but honestly do not remember all that well. Ellen has also wanted to see Fukuoka because her Dad had been there before when he was young, and of course told her that she had to try their noodles (not just ramen apparently, but OTHER noodles). Because we realized that a week in Japan is honestly quite short, we knew we would only be able to capture a few pieces of experiences. In my mind, that wasn't a worry, for I always felt as Asians we could easily come back to either Japan or Korea in many of our future Asian visits, so there really was no requirement to make sure we see everything. Moreover, we never needed to see all the major sites when we travel, and in general we don't like crowds, so that usually trims a lot off the list. Because I knew Japan a little more, and that this was her first time in the country, I had suggested that we could simply just see a few things before we end in Tokyo where we would fly back (as much as Tokyo has became unpleasant to many who frequents Japan, we still felt that at the very least, we should see and experience it ourselves together). We also got incredibly luckily in our timing as the now famous JR Pass for foreigners was going up in price by almost 60-70% in October 2023, but because we were able to get the pass ahead of time in September (for use until January as we didn’t need to activate it right away), we were able to get a week-long-pass right before the price increase. So, with two JR passes in hand, we decided to spend a couple of days in Fukuoka, then hit Nara (stayed in a Ryokan, and had probably one of the best meals with their Kaiseki dinner that we've had to this point), with a brief stop in Nagoya mostly to pay homage to Toyota and check out its automotive museum (both our families grew up with Toyota so it's only natural to visit the city that was essentially built by the company..). We would then end with 3 days in Tokyo as well as a brief day trip to Yokohama to, yes, see the life size Gundam before it is being decommissioned in March 2024 (sad face).
Japan is always a treat for me and is usually a relatively easy travel. Having failed miserably at trusting that my Duolingo language app lessons would have armed me with a working knowledge of Japanese, you can honestly just rely on pretty-clear English instructions (and the occasional Chinese characters) to navigate your way through all the big cities. Transit infrastructure, especially by subway and train, are world class, with one caveat: stairs. Japanese has yet to make themselves widely accessible in some of the smaller more remote stations, and if you happen to have a luggage in hand, you may find the need to lug it up and down a few steps to cross to the correct platform (as we did, for in Nagoya we had decided that our two heavily loaded backpacks just wouldn't cut it in carrying back our numerous socks and skin care products among some other exciting but cheap finds, and therefore Ellen wisely picked up a lovely piece of luggage before we embark on more shopping in Tokyo..). In addition to this little bit of inconvenience, a separate but even more annoying challenge when strolling along almost all of Japan was the complete lack of garbage bin anywhere. I have absolutely no idea how Japan manage to keep its street and train stations so spotlessly clean when, in fact, you have absolutely no way to toss away your trash other than to awkwardly stuff it back into your pocket until perhaps the next time you find a bathroom (which, fortunately, there seemed to have been plenty, and usually equally clean and tidy).
In terms of shopping, as much as we were overwhelmed with excitement during our stops in Korea, I honestly felt Japan felt like the next level in the shopping experience, at least in terms of selection and presentation (quality, however according to Ellen, may be debatable, as many shops in Korea actually carried well-made products from Korea with attractive prices, while Japanese shops usually sell slightly more expensive products that were mostly imported from China). It could feel overwhelming, however, with its dense product placements and alarming selection, as well as an abundance of creative products for things you didn’t even know you would want. And of course, Japanese presentation and packaging is top notch, although nowadays potentially a little wasteful and environmentally unfriendly. We were actually very modest in our shopping adventures, as we were most excited about finding products for basic daily needs but with the Asian creativity. We loved hopping along markets for all sorts of goodies, and of course, our favourite Asian versions of Daiso and various supermarkets (many of which sold gorgeous looking fresh sushi that we could grab as a cheap but fantastic meal). As for clothes and fashion, Korea and Japan were obviously big trend setters, but we had little room in our luggage to add to. We did however, on an impulse, found some very lovely pieces at a store called Public Tokyo, where Ellen tried on some beautiful tops and dresses and decided to get a couple that I cannot wait to see her wear back home. And of course, Japan is always a mecca for snacks, and we did manage to stuff a few random pieces of interesting finds into our ever expanding luggages to take home to share with our families.
All the sights, sounds, and tastes aside, my favourite memories of this trip will remain to be all the time I spent walking or sitting alongside Ellen with the world as our backdrop. Sitting and goofing and snuggling into her on the plane, getting dizzy and car sick on the airport shuttle ride and minibus ride at Gamcheon Culture Village, riding the various subways in Korea and Japan, and of course, our first bullet ride trains together, with her doing her diligent video edits on her computer, while I mindlessly stared out the windows admiring the countryside passing us by. We even caught a glimpse of the (almost snowless) Mount Fuji, her first time seeing it, and waved it goodbye as we sped along from Nagoya to Tokyo. On our way home, we flew from Tokyo to Vancouver via Seoul, with a 13-hour layover where we caught a brief nap to refresh in the airport hotel (an interesting experience) but then managed to rush back out into town to pick up a few more items before rushing back to catch our flight home (an even MORE interesting experience). I loved every minute of it, and thank you honey for making this trip a dream come true for me. I look forward to doing more of these with you, but even more just simply more of these day to day things with you, wherever we are, as we continue to build a life together.
Can't wait to eventually get to post the rest of our travel photos for you all to see. Until then you will just have to live with my rambling thoughts here. My flight still has about 1.5 hour to go. I should go stretch my legs. :)
Oh, and a plug for the eSIM company Nomad (not sponsored, I just really enjoyed them). With travelling to various countries I find it useful now to simply get a regional eSIM, and usually the pricing is very attractive and in fact better than whatever you can get on the ground locally. Nomad has a regional version that covers both Korea and Japan among other countries. Purchasing and installation is easy before leaving simply by scanning the QR code. Then upon arrival, my phone already started connected to the local network (usually with the big telecoms, so signal strength is not an issue). We paid like $16 for 5Gb (good for a month), and at one point Ellen thought she had used it up already and very easily purchased another one on the fly when we are out shopping (we realized after that perhaps we did not need to, for the data usage calculation on the iphone was a bit misleading and made us felt we had used up more than we actually did). Having mobile data when travelling is so incredibly crucial for navigation and also for our numerous translational needs (thank you Google Translate). It also made it easy to post shots on the fly and stay connected with our digital network. I'm sure there are plenty of similar companies around, but we just went with this one and were quite happy with it.
