My First Foreign Country Part I

I've always felt like I've never been to a foreign country. I mean I'm in Korea but it doesn't really feel like a foreign country to me. A part of me always feels like Korea is a second home country. With that said, I went to Japan this past week; my first foreign country. For this trip, I went with Lawrence, my buddy from the Busan trip. We spent 6 days and 6 nights. We visited 5 different cities. We went to many popular and historic places. And best of all (for me at least) ate lots of different kinds delicious Japanese food! And please excuse my spelling, grammar, or any other errors I may have committed that is not to your liking haha.

Departure & First Night

We took Asiana Airlines at Seoul-Incheon International Airport. We got there 2 hours before our departure (to be on the safe side) to find out that our plane was delay 2 hours...

Seoul-Incheon International Airport has got to be one of the cleanest Airports in the WORLD! Granted, I havem't been to many other airports I will stand by that statement!

This is Osaka International Airport.

Our first experience in Japan was trying to get to our hostel in Osaka and buying a subway ticket, not knowing how to read or speak the language and not knowing how Osaka's subway system operates, we stood around looking like dumbfounded and helpless. And that's when we encountered the first, of many, helpful and friendly Japanese person. A young lady saw us and asked if we need help. She helped us buy our tickets, and lucky enough she was going our way. With her help we successful got to our destination.

Once we got off the subway, we ended up in a sketchy neighborhood. A couple of homeless people sleeping on the streets, an unconscious dog, and dark alleyways. But we eventually got to our hostel.

After we dropped off our bags we found a place to eat. RAMEN!!

It was goooooooood!

We browsed around and found this arcade. We took a quick overview of the place and continued exploring the area.

Japanese arcade Guitar Hero!

Don't know if this was some famous tower or something.

Our closet of a room. I guess I'm getting used to sleeping in such small compact spaces because I really didn't mind it.

Oh Deer! The First Day: Nara

So the first city we visited on our tour of Japan was Nara. I've never heard of this place. Lawrence has never heard of Nara. My awesome co-teacher (who helped us prepare for this trip so so much) told us about Nara. And it turned out to be one of the best cities we've visited.

Morning rush hour.

We took the train to Nara from Osaka with our trusty 'Kansai Thur Pass' (which my amazing co-teacher helped us buy). The Pass is an unlimited pass for the subway, trains, and buses for 3 days. It pays for itself after one day because transportation is like 'Hydroxycut' for your wallet.

There were deers everywhere! I mean everywhere. We around Nara quite a bit and they always saw them. And they're not afraid of people. In fact...

They come to you if you have biscuit treats!

The greedy ones hang out around the vendor of the biscuits and pounce on the unexpecting sapp that buys them. That sapp is me.

Appartently they believe (and don't quote me on this) that gods and spirits live in the deer so they're kind of sacred.

We mainly stayed in Nara Park. But this park is huge! Many places to go and many things to see.

This fellow only had on horn. =(

We think that one was blind.

Daibutsuden of the Todaiji temple.

The weather was really great...for pictures. As for us, we were sweating like Shaq at the end of games. But seriously, I've never seen a clearer sky in my LIFE!

Yakushi Nyorai, Buddha of medicine and healing, at Todaiji.

Randomly saw a lizard with a blue tail. I got abnormally excited.

Lanterns at Kasuga Taisha.

Ukimidō. (I think)

Just look at that SKY!!!

Haha funny warning signs. It seems like these deers are particularly more aggressive towards old grandmas with walking canes and little girls with pigtails.

And probably men, or little boys, attack them.

Kōfuku-ji, Five Story Pagoda.

LUNCH! I think this was Tonkatsu Donburi.

and Udon! After lunch we went back out to the park for more exploring.

This was a free garden.

After the park we decided to go the a tall skyscraper. On the way we met another helpful person. A half Japanese, half Korean girl anime voice actor. There's a special name for it but I forgot. She went out of her way to help us find the building.

Later that day we went to the Umeda Sky Building in Shin-Umeda City, Kita back in Osaka.

It really random but that's from the actually neverland ranch (according to signs). They holding some event with Michael Jackson.

They say that the best view of Osaka is from the Umeda Sky Building. And it was pretty amazing.

For dinner we had the best Tonkatsu I've ever had! The bread crumb they used was unique and the meat was so juicy and tendor.

The restaurant was in the Worlds largest underground shopping complex.

The day was packed with so much walking. I was warn out from the first day. The next day we went to Kyoto!