Next Time I'll Remember Not to Procrastinate in Posting...

Bibimbap pre-rice and pepper paste from Nam Han San Seong? or something of the sort in Korea.


Home-made (by my aunt in Korea) Samgyetang. I lived off of this in the summer of 2006. The chicken is stuffed with sweet sticky rice so when you're done cleaning off the bones you can eat a porridge like soup. Each person is supposed to eat a whole chicken!


The remains of Nam Dae Mun covered from public view.


City hall in Seoul.


A closer look at the corner of the building and you will find protesters.




Seoul Museum of Art. Of course the day I finally decide to go, it's closed (on mondays) and I don't realize until I've gotten to the front revolving door and it says it's automatic yet it won't go...



Blossoming gyenari(?) flowers everywhere in Korea. Used to be my grandmother's favorite flower I think. Maybe it was because it reminded her of home/Korea?


Local elections were going on... Lots of candidate promotion by setting up at small intersections in the neighborhoods and .. singing...

ShinDangDong Ddeokbokki Town!

The famous ddeokbokki restuarant and the grandmother who apparently started it all- making this whole neighborhood famous for ddeokbokki..

But apparently this one across the street from it is better so we went there.

Click for Ddeokbokki!!

Click again for more Ddeokbokki!!! See it bubbling?? mmm...

AND THEN......

It's off to Japan for me!!!!

Inside Incheon Airport.

Aerial view of Mt. Fuji from the plane!

My host family's home (They're super nice and homestay professionals!)

The window of my room! Lots of sun comes in in the morning. I am happy.

The view from my window at an angle.

The bathroom! I couldn't figure out what the top sprout part was for. Water would flow out of it at the same time the toilet was flushed. There was a towel hanging but I was like.. no, it's couldn't be.... could it?? It was!- It's to wash your hands! But apparently the water you wash your hands with becomes the next flush?

Flowers outside of the house.

Let's walk to the metro station from my host family's house!:

Past some apartments and houses...

...down this road...

...passing along this university...

...and up this small hill...

...past the entrance of a temple shrine...

...down past more houses and some restaurants...

...and then downstairs into the station where you can look up and see... more sakura trees!

And now that we're at school at Yotsuya station...

The building in the middle with the lettering- It says JouchiDaigaku, a.k.a. Sophia University.

My lunch that day and the first time eating out in Japan (host family food is very very good and was at the beginning somewhat safe. Apparently they had a somewhat inconvenient experience where the student had been allergic to a many number of things. I don' t know how to tell them I eat anything and everything in front of me - enjoyably of course - but today's dinner definitely... I don't think any pounds will be shed this semester.... )

I think we let ourselves splurge a little bit on this lunch though. I think I was a little too daring too. This dish was called まぐろ三味 maguro san aji or so- meaning tuna in three different ways/tastes on top of a bowl of rice. Yes that swirly one was a bit iffy at first but I finished it clean. :)

My friend's dish.

I guess having grammar problems isn't just a Korean thing... or maybe it's just a typo? Or maybe nothing is wrong with it after all..... eh.

4 different kinds of trashcans at a 711. I have two in my room too!

Road leading to the school.

The main (only) road of Sophia University Campus.

Exchange students and our Japanese monitors.

April 4, 2008:

I forget the name.. but a baseball dome in Kourakuen, close to where I'm staying.

Small amusement park across the street from the dome.

with a water slide. It's still spring vacation for students so there were a quite a few younger people there.

From the 25th floor of the city office of the prefecture in which I live. This is Kourakuen Garden.

View of Tokyo.

My host mom and I! She brought me to the city office so I could get an alien registration card and thus be able to get a cell phone and other necessary things.

My cell phone: http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/product/3g/705px/index.html but in white. Most of the cell phones here are boxy rectangular ones!

Lunch at the Skylight restaurant there! This was really good but super expensive. I felt terribly .. high maintenance? because I shouldn't have chosen something so pricey when there were other alternatives but I had and my housing plan doesn't include lunch either so this was her treating me and... -_-

The dome again from the same 25th floor. An idea of how big it is...

Around 6pm that day... SHINJUKU.

The Plan: Celebrate Teresa's birthday and stay up all night in Shinjuku and then make it out to the fish market in the wee hours of the morning.

Zara- the rival of the store I worked at during break. Interesting pyramid thing.

There's gotta be something in it (that's not in it in the states) that would make it this popular...

Heading down into the restaurant to celebrate Teresa's birthday (she's the first one at the very bottom on the left)!!

Curry hash dish(?). Tasted very similar to something... but I couldn't figure out what. Like a kind of jjajangmyun or something... Pretty good.

One of the streets of Shinjuku.

Cute. (A cell phone ad)

All for one thing: karaoke.

The group.

Click to read/see better..

Ahh! It called me. We just had to go back to get some!

This picture doesn't show how thick it was- both waffle/pancake slices and the sweet bean filling. For now I have to say Korea's was betterrrr.

All looking tired. Trying to stay awake. Trains end at 11:30ish. We're waiting for 5am to take the train to Tsukiji, the fish market...

A tree in the early morning of April 5 near the train station of the fish market. Weird stubbly and knubby tree, no?

Crossing the street. The morning light in the distance.

Fish market! Crazy fast carts! Worried for our lives!

((For the next pictures- a warning to the faint at heart and fish lovers))

Tuna. They look sad..

More tuna. Click but.. beware.

It looked just like the travel guide shows.

I ended up having this for dinner later that day! Ojingoh (squid) taste yet a bit.. squishier and juicy...

Almost pretty..

I really don't know what this is..

This looked good. Can you imagine it with a little dish of warm liquidy garlic butter...?

Squid?

Shrimp anyone?

More tuna? They were hollow!

It looked like this for a loooong way down.

That one in the far left opened and then snapped closed several times, spraying water each. I wanted to get a clip of it and it started to open again... and then.... it didn't happen again. Fellow tourist surmised that it had died......

Opened shells with stringy parts overflowing...

See - still the same further down.

Slicing open tuna...

(I call everything big and red like that tuna but I may be wrong...)

Cleaning off the knife...

A clean cut as you can see..

Knife was loong..

They sold Kimchi in another part of the market! (read "ki-mu-chi")

Asahi Shimbun


Kouban.... something or other? Police?

Sobaya...

Nice and warm after the chilly night/morning out.

Finally- the end! (for now..)