ASHLEY ANNYEONG: japan

Showing posts with label japan. Show all posts

Japanese Photo Booths

Last weekend while wandering around Myeongdong with Justine, we ran into a Japanese photo booth store and instantly decided we should do it. In Japan, sessions typically cost about $3 and in Korea they are $7 but it's so worth it!

I've kept all these funny photo sessions over the years because they are just so funny. They make great souvenirs and are some of my prized possessions from Japan.

My Japanese friend Narumi and I would do these every time we went to Sapporo on the weekends.

While revisiting Japan on my 22nd birthday last year, Narumi and I snapped a reunion shot!

Other funny photo sessions from my semester in Japan..

I'm happy to say Narumi is coming to Seoul next month to hang out before I leave. Narumi, let's take lots of these pictures when you come. ^^^^^^

Treats from Japan

In the past two weeks two friends from Japan came to Seoul and luckily I had time to go meet up with them once or twice. It's been nearly three years (I can hardly believe it) since my semester in Japan. The first to visit me was Aki, one of the first Japanese friends I made. During our week of orientation, there was an Introduction to Japanese Language module and Aki was a volunteer there to help us out. We exchanged phone numbers and she helped me with my Japanese during free time between lectures. I have many dear memories with Aki. Last year when I went back to Japan to visit some friends, we met up again. So much bittersweet nostalgia!

Aki brought Choi and I some omiyage from Hokkaido (our region of Japan). Omiyage (souvenir) is a Japanese custom of bringing food with you whenever you travel. By food I mean cute, pre-packaged boxes of assorted goodies that are sold everywhere. It's a huge part of Japanese culture and any airport in Japan will sell thousands of omiyage on any day (although they can be bought outside the airport). Every time we went on a trip somewhere in Japan, we picked up some local pastries or sweets and brought them back to share with people. It was very kind of Aki to bring me omiyage all the way to Seoul!

Ramen for Choi, chocolate-covered mushroom-shaped biscuits (one Japanese study session together revealed I LOVE these things), and some cookies from a famous local bakery for me. She also brought my souvenirs in the bag of one of my favorite cafes in town - I will have to make something out of it.

The next person to visit me in Seoul was Kyeonghwa, an energetic then 7-year-old that I tutored in Japan. I met her dad at an international party at a bar one time. He is a big businessman in Otaru and is definitely a tiger dad that insists on his daughter going to an Ivy League school some day. Kyeonghwa has been going to English daycare since she was 4 and speaks English perfectly. I would say she is maybe one year behind native speakers in terms of her speaking ability, which at 9 years old is so cool! She wants to be a pediatrician and I've talked with her parents a few times about her living with me in the States when she is a HS student for an exchange program!

Last year when I visited Japan, Aki dropped me off at Kyeonghwa's house for a surprise visit. Imagine someone from halfway across the world showing up on your doorstep one day. It was one of those moments that brings you big smiles and makes you marvel at how awesome traveling can be.

(Kyeonhwa and I last Friday night)

Kyeonghwa is seriously SOO FUNNY, she reminds me a lot of Sheldon from Big Bang Theory. The tiniest thing with attract her attention and she will focus on it and show it to everyone in such a random manner that it just makes you laugh.

Kyeonghwa and her dad also brought me some Japanese omiyage - I'm so spoiled these days.

The white stuff is mochi - rice cakes. Kyeonghwa's mom used to always have these ready for us at the start of our lessons. You put them in the toaster oven for a few minute until they are brown. Then put a little soy sauce on it and wrap it in seaweed. A true Japanese snack! Sounds weird until you try the real thing. The other bag is mini packets of spicy crackers and peanuts, Kyeonghwa's favorite snack.

I'm so blessed to have people in my life that come visit me in Korea and bring me lots of yummy Japanese stuff. Thank you Aki & Kyeonghwa. I hope we meet again someday.^^

India Highlights

Hello everyone! I'm back from a fantastic 3-week volunteer/travel stint around India and want to talk about some of my favorite things about this mad, crazy, wonderful, and fantastic country.

Chai

I loved Western chai before I came to India and heard that Indian Chai was so much better and it certainly didn't disappoint! I drank at least 2 cups a day, at breakfast and afternoon tea time. Indian chai is usually made with loose black tea, milk, ginger, and sometimes cinnamon leaves. Here's a fun link on how to make some authentic Indian chai on your own.

Indian Kids

Oh my gosh, Indian kids are so funny! Living in such a bustling and diverse place with hundreds of quirks definitely requires a sense of humor. Everyone, from elementary kids to full-grown adults, addresses you as "Mam." Indian kids also seem to have it ingrained in them that white people love handshakes. Every morning at the day care I was at, moms would make every kid shake my hand and say "hello." As the kids grew to be more comfortable with me, they would run up to shake hands when I came and left. :)

I also fell in love with the four girls I taught English to in the afternoons. The four girls are neighbors and best friends, which meant we all got along really well and had tons of fun. They taught me Hindi dance. One day while we were having our lesson on the roof (because it has the most sunlight), some wild monkeys hopped on our roof and scared us to death! Other fun memories include throwing a birthday party for one girl on my last day and playing hide-and-seek running around huts in their village.

Golden Temple

Another one of my Indian road-trips was to Amrtisar to see the Golden Temple. Walking around barefoot with our heads covered, listening to meditative prayer music and watching people prepare to cleanse themselves in the holy water, it was a really nice Indian experience.

Himalayas

It was simply incredible to wake up to the Himalayas every morning. My first weekend in India I did a 2-day trek and spent the night up in an Indian hut. The views were stunning and the weather was perfect. Coming from the Midwest where its basically flat everywhere, mountains always seem super special to me.

Indian clothes

It was really cool to travel around a country where traditional clothes still appear in every day life. I had my own pink salwar kameez made and wore that quite a bit to blend in a little more. I also bought a Kullu shawl that can only be found in my area of Indian, which kept me warm on my rough 12-hour overnight bus back to Delhi.

Indian food

I have a feeling that soon I will really start to miss eating home-cooked Indian food a day. I say "will" because I had a bout of food poisoning that left me feeling a little bit off Indian food for a while. Nonetheless, I did enjoying eating lots of lentils, chutney, chapati, thali sets, paneer, barfi, and kaju katli.

Indian music

As part of my volunteer program, we had Indian men drive us between our locations since they were very spread out. Every drive featured different Hindi or Punjabi music blaring with the windows down - in other words, freaking awesome!

Henna

Henna looks so cool, is completely natural, and dirt cheap! I'm already planning an Indian-themed party with my girlfriends complete with doing henna, making chai, and watching the latest Bollywood hit.

de TTOMA

It's not a secret that one of my favorite things about Seoul is the cafe culture here. After wandering around the Hapjeong/Sangsu area for a bit, my boyfriend and I stumbled upon this one. The cafe's menu was quite extensive. The French decor was a nice touch too <3

Studying Korean / tutoring my boyfriend in English^^

Chai tea & a green tea muffin.

Gamcheon Art Village

During Korean Thanksgiving my friends and I hopped on a long bus to Busan to spend a few days. One of the most interesting things we did in Busan was walk around the Gamcheon Art Village.

These houses are still surviving after the Korean. While they certainly are charming from the outside, one wouldn't want to live here. As we were walking around, we got the vibe that generations of families have lived here and weren't used to American and Canadian girls walking around their streets taking pictures. Once we stopped to say hi to a dog and a man came outside and told us to leave. Nonetheless, it was really interesting to see this cute little houses with Korean slippers sitting outside on their doorsteps. :)

Once you reach the art village, there are 3 different walking paths to take. Whichever way you go there will be cute signs like these fish to direct you.

The random murals everywhere was really cool to stumble upon and we didn't even hit the major ones we saw pictures of.

Our walking path - quite narrow. As you can see, we are literally walking on people's property.

Next time you're in Busan, please spend an hour or two wandering this quaint village. ^^

LASIK in Seoul

This past weekend I got LASIK eye surgery in Gangnam. I decided around September that I wanted to get the procedure done before I went back to the U.S. because it's a lot more expensive in the States. Even if you were to pay the full price-tag for LASIK in Korea (around $1,500 for both eyes), it's much cheaper than ($4,000 minimum for both eyes) back in the States. Like all things in Korea, word-of-mouth and referrals are the way to go. A volunteer language exchange group posted an LASIK promotional partnership with this eye clinic with prices at around $850 so I contacted the clinic and set-up a free examination. The eye clinic I went to is 하늘안과 or SKY Eye Clinic .
The check-in counter.

It should be noted that this clinic does not cater to foreigners and most workers, aside from the doctors, cannot explain anything in detail in English. I had some difficulty filling out a medical history form in English until a girl waiting for her surgery overheard me struggling and came over to translate for me. After that was finished, I had to wait for my name to be called over and over again as I went around to several stations for several different tests. A person must take 24 tests in order to determine if you are a fit candidate for LASIK/LASEK/Wavefront or any other type of eye surgery. Luckily I qualified for LASIK, which has the fastest recovery time.

One of several eye examination areas.

I went to the examination alone and didn't want to commit to getting an operation performed on the very same day, which is what a majority of Koreans opt to do. Instead I scheduled my surgery for a month later and went on my way.

Waiting area for examinations.

Last Friday was the scheduled day for my surgery and my Canadian friend came along to take care of me. There's no way a person would be able to drive after the surgery and in Korea they tell you to not take the subway either, because the crowds and harsh lighting will not be comforting. So I checked in, signed a legal waiver, learned about the eye drops I need to use, got anesthetic eye drops put in and paid. Then I was brought downstairs to sit in this lobby while I waited to enter the surgery area.

Waiting area pre-surgery.

Finally my name was called. I took off my shoes and put on an Asian-style wrap top and shower cap. Then we had to wait for someone to come around to clean our face off with a wet wipe and sit back with our eyes closed for 10-15 minutes while they played classical music. At times it was getting really boring to keep sitting there while I can hear a laser-like sound in the next room. Then my name was called and I was brought into the surgery room, which had almost all the lights out.

Here's the machine they used. There were 3 machines with 3 patients getting the surgery in the room. Each doctor had two nurses on each side - one for each eye, in order to finish the surgery as soon as possible.

The surgery itself was quite intimidating. I jumped when the doctor applied something to keep my eyelid up and he kept saying "Don't afraid. Don't afraid." While they compress your eye to begin, you go blind for about 10 seconds despite the eerie fact that your eye is being held open. Then I was told to stare at the red light and to never look away at the red light. When the laser is being applied, the red little circle becomes a red cloud moving in a fuzzy circle. I described it to my sister as being a window in the car wash.

The surgery was supposed to take 10 minutes but it felt like 2 minutes so I'll trust my gut. After I finished my first thought was "I'M NOT BLIND!!!!!!!!" Then they told me to get up and I couldn't see anything and was incredibly disoriented. I was quickly taken out of my hospital gear and met my friend in the waiting area. I couldn't see anything and my eyes were really watery. Think drunk simulation goggles times three.

The funniest thing was parents taking tons of pictures of their kids in pain after the surgery. One family even tried to get a family picture with peace signs while their kid has his head down in pain.

My friend and I took a taxi home and my eyes would burst out watering about every 10 minutes. I couldn't sell incredibly well but I could notice that my vision was subtly better while reading some building signs.

Fast forward to today - I'm seeing and feeling awesome. Plus, I already got it approved to take a sick day tomorrow to rest.

So there you have it.. if you're thinking about doing LASIK while in Korea.. just do it!

Climbing Achasan + Yongwasan

Today I woke up early and tackled two small mountains in Seoul for an assignment for an online class. Here are some snapshots. There are 37 mountains in Seoul, with 10 major ones. I really want to try to climb all 10 while I am in Seoul.

First, Achasan.

Achasan and Yongwasan are right next to each other. Now to Yongwasan.

Apartment

I've been at my new apartment for almost 4 weeks and today I finally managed to take some pictures with my iPhone. When I moved into the place, it was a disaster. The first week was exhausting with all the cleaning. I had to buy a couch. I got rid of some old furniture from my old place. I did a furniture swap with my friend Justine (she took my old coffee table & I took her table, which I now use as a desk).

My new couch from 10x10.

The kitchen. I baked a ton of muffins yesterday.<3

My table/desk from my furniture swap. I want to spray paint it white but I have to find a location first.

& a mumble-jumbled bookcase/camera holder. I have so many books in other places too- eek!

A Quick Trip to Konjiam Resort :: Gwangju, South Korea

Last weekend I left Seoul to spend one night at Konjiam Resort with my bf and two friends from our semester in Japan. We were only gone for about 24 hours but it was a fun stint away from my new busy life this semester.

Checking in.

Lobby

We rented a suite with 2 bedrooms for the 2 couples. Here is the living area.

After checking in and grabbing a quick bite to eat, we headed to the walking paths. There were 3 paths: largo, andante, and moderato. We didn't have time because it was 5:30 so we chose largo.

Pristine nature.

They had really detailed information about all types of birds in the area. Eventually we realized that they say the sounds the birds make in Korean and we were just searching for that information. For example, one bird could say " Ka ka ka" and another will be " ooo ee oo eee." It was funny.