Fall Vacation Trip: Fukuoka Day 1

During the end of the September I took a quick trip over to Japan. It so happens that one of the cheapest places to fly internationally from Seoul is Fukuoka. Some of my former language school classmates are from the area and it was also a place I had never visited before. Searching the budget airlines from either Korea or Japan can usually land you a decently priced flight.

Landing in Fukuoka and getting into town is quite simple. There are buses, the subway system, and other ground transportation readily available. After taking the subway into town, it was a short walk until the hotel. The hotel is located nearest Tenjin station and that station is attached to a large underground shopping complex. Above ground, there are a number of other shops, restaurants, and department stores.

It was a pretty good place to call home base for the weekend.
Check out the hotel room tour of the Richmond Hotel Fukuoka Tenjin below:

After checking into the hotel it was time for dinner and what better way to kick off a trip in Japan than to enjoy some ramen and gyoza! Both were delicious!

After dinner was a stroll around the neighborhood

Also, I can't forget to mention this awesome mirror that didn't fog up in the hotel bathroom!

Stay tuned for Day 2 and 3 coming soon!
~

Summer Vacation Trip: Tokyo Day 4

We have come to the end of my Tokyo trip. After checking out of my hotel and storing my bag, I met up with a friend from university that I hadn't seen in forever. We decided to go to a conveyor belt sushi place for lunch in Shibuya. I have pictures and a Google Map below!

View from my hotel room, last day in Tokyo

Touch screen ordering system. You could order 3 items at a time and order as many times as you'd like. The menu was offered in English as well!

The different colors of the plates meant different prices.

Here is the approximate location of the sushi restaurant pictured above: We walked back to Shibuya crossing after lunch and had a coffee at the big Starbucks that faces the intersection. Unfortunately we couldn't hang out for long as I had a plane to catch. After parting ways, I grabbed my bag from my hotel and took the bus to Haneda airport.

At the airport I saw this airplane in an R2-D2 paint job!

I hope you enjoyed my series of posts about Tokyo! I'll be covering a few other topics before returning to Japan travel blog posts. Stay tuned!

~

My Korean Life #54: 제주도 (Jeju Island) - New Discovery

For years my friends have been telling me to visit Jeju and were surprised to find out I had never been (even though I have been traveling to Korea since 2011 and have lived in Korea since 2014). Most if not all of my friends that have visited Jeju had nothing but nice things to say about the island. They raved about the waterfalls, beaches, hiking, and sightseeing opportunities. After hearing this for years, I felt like Jeju had been so hyped up in my mind that I was set up for disappointment. This past June, I finally made the trip to Jeju and, to my surprise, was not disappointed at all.

First, is how insanely cheap you can find flights to Jeju. While the major airlines have plenty of flights, so do the many budget airlines that operate within Korea. For my flights, I booked on Air Busan going to Jeju and JinAir for the return. Jeju does have its own airline (Jeju Air) but for the dates I booked Jeju Air's ticket prices were not the best. If you use search engines like Kayak or Google Flights you may have to visit the airline websites individually for pricing but it's totally worth it. You'll save a lot of money.

Second, are the amount of lodging deals there are for Jeju...and just affordable lodging in general. Korean online shopping portals often run weekly travel specials and Jeju is a common destination. Many people choose to stay on the southern end of the island since a lot of the sightseeing options are located there. However, there are plenty of options in Jeju city where the major airport is. The hotel I stayed at is relatively new and was running a lodging and breakfast special for a fraction of their normal summer rate. Below is a map of where the hotel is as well as a room tour I filmed - the room was huge and so was the bathroom. The bed was big and comfortable and the room faced the ocean! The breakfast buffet had plenty of options and the dining area was large and accommodating.

Third, transportation - while many elect to rent a car while in Jeju. I didn't have that opportunity since I didn't have an international driver's permit at the time nor a Korean driver's license. However, there are buses and plenty of taxis available even on the southern end of the island. There are also buses from the airport that can take you to your hotel. I heard some people hire taxi drivers for the whole day, picking out some places they want to go and basically having a private driver for a flat rate. These daily rates (or for however long you need them) are negotiated with the driver. One taxi driver we talked to offered to take us around for an afternoon for a flat rate of KRW 60,000. I ended up using mostly buses and taxis however having a rental car is much more convenient and actually cheaper in some cases.

I'll be detailing more of my trip in future posts! Thanks for reading!

~

My Korean Life #38: USA Holiday 2015

Originally, I had not planned to return to the USA over the holidays but, since I know once I gain full employment here in Korea vacation will be scarce, I decided to head back to the USA to see my family and friends.

I am thankful I still have quite a few frequent flyer miles from my business travel days so the actual monetary cost of the ticket was minimal. My dates were also somewhat flexible so that also helped out with the impact to my miles/dollars split. I was able to return to the USA for a full two weeks. My previous visit was just a week and I was jet lagged and busy with family functions the whole trip. This trip was very different - relaxing, not too many scheduled events, and less family functions.

When flying from Korea, My preferred route on United is the following (ICN - NRT - wherever after). This is because United still uses really old 747s with roof mounted screens in economy for routes like ICN - SFO. I much prefer the 777 out of Narita to wherever my next connection or destination is. Unfortunately to get to my hometown there is no direct flight from Seoul. My chosen itinerary had me traveling for over 24 hours.

If I were to summarize my trip in a few words it consisted of family and food. I enjoyed many foods that are either difficult to find in Korea or very expensive in Korea. I also spent some much needed quality time with my family. It had been over a year since I had visited my parents' house and seen my hometown.

I also got to see some friends that I grew up with. All are seemingly well on their way in their young adult lives. One of my friends now owns her own event/wedding business, one is a lawyer, another a nurse, another works in finance.

I have posted many of the pictures I took on another social media site but will repost them here for you!

Have yet to see Yuengling in Korea

Sandwich and chips at home

Sandwich and chips at home

Gluten-free pancakes, eggs, and bacon!

Homemade lasagna 

Cherry limeade fix

Bonus: My gift wrapping skills

In hindsight I should have taken more things back to the USA to store than I did. Don't worry parents, it wasn't going to take up that much of your precious storage space ;) I have a lot of old language school material and such that I could probably do without. Anyway, until next time! Stay warm!

~

My Korean Autumn 2013: Day 0 - Airplane!

It is October and I am off again to Korea but this time for work. My journey to the motherland should be much more comfortable as I am flying business class and even first class on my leg from Narita to Seoul. My mind set for these long haul flights is normally just to get them over with. I have flown so much over the years the actual flying does not bother me...it's mostly everything that goes with flying (security lines, waiting for baggage, waiting at immigration, etc.).

The flight from the USA to Narita was quite uneventful, I watched a few movies and slept maybe 4-6 hours total so it was not too bad.

Getting off the airplane in Narita, I had a mission! One of my Korean friends requested I look for some cosmetic products in the duty free shop for her. I'm no makeup expert so luckily I had a picture of the product to look for. I also speak about 2 words of Japanese. Thankfully the girl working in the shop spoke a moderate amount of English. I was greeted in Japanese as expected then showed the picture to her. As she was working to pronounce the name written in English she went over to a drawer and pulled out exactly what I was looking for. Great success! The product was much less than the price my friend was quoting so I was satisfied.

Another great success was being bumped to first class from Narita to Seoul. This also netted me access to the exclusive first class lounge area (quieter, less populated). After relaxing there for about an hour my co-workers and I lined up to board and off we were to Korea. I power walked my way off the plane straight towards immigration after landing because not only were all the people from Japan landing, but a very large flight from the Philippines touched down around the same time.

Long story short I had a safe and successful flight from the USA to Korea. Stay tuned for more regarding my time in the motherland.

~

My Korean Summer 2013: Day 37 - Home is where the heart is

[끝]
This will conclude the series on my summer in Korea.

Day 37 was my last and final day in the motherland. It actually took a while for it to hit me - that this was my last day. I was actually quite busy in the morning packing and cleaning. After checking out of my room I went and visited the InKAS office to have lunch with one of their staff. After eating I quickly went back to my guesthouse to pick up my luggage and head to the airport.

I had wanted to say goodbye to the guesthouse proprietor but I ended up leaving earlier than expected...luckily I had done a semi-goodbye the night before. I hope to pay a visit to the guesthouse whenever I return to Korea - it was my home for all this time and the staff was wonderful!

In the subway station I ran into one of my classmates and one of her Korean friends. We all chatted on the 45 minute train ride to the airport. I tried out some of my Korean skills, just a few phrases but, apparently those sounded pretty good as I was complimented on my accent~
Unfortunately I didn't manage a formal goodbye to my classmate or new Korean friend as we were all running around the airport returning cell phones and such. I actually changed clothes because I had sweated through my original set due to the oppressive Korean summer heat and humidity.

Long story short I made it back to the USA via Canada...

[Epilogue]
It was the summer of a lifetime. I met so many amazing people from around the world; people I would have never met had I not participated in this program. I experienced a classroom setting for the first time in many years and had great teachers who were enthusiastic about teaching. I got better at a language I wish to improve even more on. I experienced a culture that I have a great affinity for...

I also got to meet adoptees from around the globe. I found that Korea brings so many different people together - the common bond we share. I continue to expand the network of adoptees I know and made some great friends.

I hope to share more adventures with you all soon.

~

Singapore Day 0: Up in the Air

I just returned from Singapore! It took forever to get there but was well worth it in the end. Total time I was in transit was over 24 hours but...such is life. Here are some pictures to kick off this series of posts:

United Lounge

View out into the lounge

VoD system

A look down the aisle...

Side compartments on the upper deck

VoD system

Another look down the aisle

Two planes and many hours later I arrived in Singapore. The overall flight experience was pretty uneventful except for a delay on the connecting flight due to something with the fuel gauges. I was willing to wait to make sure the fuel system was working properly.  This put us arriving even earlier (later?) in the morning...close to 3am :(

Next will be a post with my hotel room and initial impressions!

~

Korea Day 0: 14 Hours of Flying...err...Eating

Once you have tasted business class or higher, there is no way you would want to fly coach EVER again.  From the shorter check-in lines to the air port lounges...along with a much more comfortable seat and excellent service in the cabin...why coach ever again?  Oh that's right, each seat is like 5x more expensive...anyway...I got to experience this little slice of travel heaven on my journey to Korea. 

After a very long ride to the airport (traffic, rain, etc) I got checked in and headed through security to enjoy the lounge for about an hour.  Here is a picture:

They had a couple sandwich options, many drinks, and other snacks.  There was also free Wi-Fi.  The lounge was for a couple of the SkyTeam Airline Members (Air France and Korean Air had reps inside), so I heard anywhere from 2-4 different languages during my brief time in the lounge.

Next was boarding...I wonder how one qualifies for the Morning Calm...

After boarding we all got settled in and they started to distribute these little toiletry bags (tooth brush, tooth paste, lotion, etc:

 

When we reached cruising altitude, the eating began and hardly stopped throughout the flight. Besides two 3 course meals, there were drinks coming around and a couple snacks here and there.  Here are some pictures!

In general, the plane ride was uneventful, we got to Korea, went through passport control and customs, grabbed our bags and got in our car to get to the hotel.  Below are my pictures of my home for 11 nights, enjoy!

Standing shower and big ol' tub, two people can bath at the same time! 

I'll try and clean up these posts when I have some more free time.  That's all for now, stay tuned for more!

~