Hanabi

Yesterday was the first full day in Japan since our return from Korea.

Rebecca and I went to meet Michiyo at Adachi-ku. It was so crowded. There were people everywhere, everyone heading for the same direction; to go to watch the awesome hanabi fireworks.

The fireworks were amazing. It lasted for about one hour, and lots of people everywhere. It took quite a long while to get to the train station afterwards..

Well, we went to Shibuya to the bar Raku. I got to know Taka, who works there - and Yuuka, a friend of the other people since earlier.
We pulled an all-nighter and had lots of fun. In the morning we ate some delicious ramen before heading home to Machida.

Goodbye, Korea

Today we went around Hongdae for a while before meeting up with Cecilia at the Ewha's Woman University subway station.
The plans were to go to dressing cafe´s to dress up in hanbok but because of lack of money we focused on walking around a little in the area. We went to the Ewha's Woman University, a really beautiful university I must say.

We got some very nice gifts from Cecilia.
I got a Nell CD, and I am so thankful. She is so nice!! It was great meeting Cecilia, Ringo & Hyunjung here in Korea, and I will miss them much! Thanks to them we discovered some great shopping areas, got to try delicious Korean food and also got to visit the awesome Gyeongbokgung palace!

I don't know when I will be able to visit South Korea again, but hopefully sometime soon in the future - when I wish I could have the possibility to meet my biological mother.
Of course I am disappointed in not being able to meet her, but still I am very happy for getting in contact with her through letters. It was a strange feeling, walking around in Seoul knowing that the person sitting next to you in the subway could be your uncle, your cousin, your father and so on..
I hope that I can get to know more about my family in the future. I hope they will get to know about my existence.

Right now I am sitting here at the guesthouse in the middle of the night, waiting for the bus which will take us to Incheon Airport in the morning .

I really recommend the guesthouse we stayed at. If you ever come to Seoul, you should think of staying at Hong Guesthouse.
Hong Guesthouse is located 5 min from HongIk University subway station, which is part of the subway's Green Line. The green subway line is like Tokyo's Yamanote line, in the centre of the city - connecting to many of the major lines. There's also Hongdae district here, with lots of fun shops, restaurants, bars and stuff - so it's always close to entertainment. The guesthouse itself is & looks very nice, and the owner of the place has been very helpful & nice during our stay. I will miss this place.

I will miss Korea.

Forgotten purikura's

Oh, I forgot.

Here's some purikura's we took with Hide & Tsuyoshi the 8th of July. I miss those guys..

Btw.

Quote of the day (in swedish).

""Jag saknar din senapsbetonade hy mot min lite mer majonnäsaktiga."" /Yannick
Miss you too dude! Miss you all!

Gyeongbokgung

Today we went to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace built during Joseon dynasty.

Amazing architecture, and a really beautiful view! Nothing much more to say. Just enjoy the photos ^^. Tomorrow we will meet Cecilia & Ringo again and go to a dress cafe, where you can wear traditional Korean dresses (Hanbok).

Click on the photos to view them in original size.

Korea videos!!!

Weekend!

Yeah, weekend was awesome.
On Saturday at about 5 pm we met up with Ringo at Anguk station (I think?). Cecilia was a bit late so we strolled around a little in the rain, and also went to a HUGE music instrument store. Kinda interesting!
























At last Cecilia arrived, and we went to eat cold noodles.
For me, cold noodles is nothing new; but still this was new to me as it was served with ice cubes - ice-cold noodles! Wow. Pretty tasty! We then went to gaming centre for a while and then ended up taking purikura, which was alot of fun.
We also took a visit to Baskins-Robbins for some icecream.










































At evening we went to Hongdae to drink and have fun.
At first we ate at KFC. Wow, seems like there was no salt in my french fries, and there were no salt to find at all in the restaurant. Kinda sucked, but oh well. We ended up at HO-bar, some bar that seemed good, with alot of foreigners in it. Well, the waitress (or whatever) at that place was kinda rude so we left pretty early. It turned out to be nothing more than.. well.. a ho-bar.

At last we found a good Korean bar! It was in izakaya-style, and we had a fun night together; eating and drinking. It was so cheap too! About.. 5000 won each, which is about... 34 Swedish kronor, or about 380-400 Japanese yen. We ordered a big jug of beer, alot of different dishes and a bottle of sake.

















































On Sunday we went around Myongdong, looked around in a few stores and also went to a huge combined book & music store.
Before that we ate a good breakfast at Mr Pizza.
I found alot of interesting CD's, even though I didn't buy anything. Maybe I should've bought a Nell album. It would've been worth it. Oh well, I can go back there someday.... or maybe not? Already on Wednesday we will go back to Japan.