My time in the land of the rising sun....Japan ^^

My new Hagwon had August 1-2 off for Hagwon holiday so I decided to travel. I had been wanting to go to Japan for a long time so I thought this would be a good opportunity to go. It's only a two hour flight from Seoul to Narita airport so it was perfect for a trip on a long weekend.

Day 1: Thursday Aug 1st

My plane was leaving Seoul at 9am which meant catching the 5am bus. However, my new area is not that close to the bus terminal which meant catching a taxi at 4-430am. So, my genius self decided to just not sleep at all. That may not have been the best idea. 

The bus was late which meant I got to the airport late. I got there at about 745am and there was a ridiculous long line for check in. Luckily, I was able to cut since I showed them my flight left soon. However, the security line was also long. They don't let you cut that until its you're actual boarding time which makes no sense to me but whatever. Needless to say I made my flight^^*

I arrived at 11:30am at Narita Airport. I was staying with a friend of my Uncle who was at work. We talked the night before though so I had directions on how to get there. Well the area at least not the house. 

I actually didn't much because I was too exhausted. Unfortunately I couldn't really sleep on the bus and I decided to watch a movie instead of sleep on the plane.
The view from the apartment I stayed at:

 

Day 2: Friday Aug 2nd

After a good night's rest I was up and about and ready to explore. I had made plans to meet up with a friend who's Japanese in Shibuya later that night so that's where I went first to explore. Shibuya was pretty awesome. There are shops everywhere!

When you get to the station and go out the Hachiko exit you see two huge department stores. One has all men stores and the other all women stores. Obviously I went into the all women's one.

Every floor had little pockets of stores. The stores all had their own type of theme or style. The most fascinating thing about the stores though was that the women working in them matched the stores. 

Let me explain what I mean by that. Not only did they wear the store's clothes but their make up and hair went along with the style of the store. It was a little freaky to be completely honest with you.

For example, there was a store called Baby Shoop. The store was kind of like geared towards black people in a way. There were shirts with a woman with a fro on them. One shirt said black for life. The women who worked at the store had REALLY tanned skin. They were almost my complexion. One woman somehow made her hair somewhat like a fro. I should've taken a picture of them but I was too shy to ask.

So after hours of randomly exploring Shibuya I went to Harajuku for a bit. I wasn't there long since it was almost time to meet up with my friend Yoshi. There were some really cool shops there and I wish I had more time to explore it.

Well I returned to Shibuya to meet up with Yoshi. We went to some random little restaurant for dinner. The food was delicious though they didn't give very big portions. 

After dinner we met up with some marines that my host knew from work. He thought it would be a good idea o have them show me the night life since they were in their 20s. Yoshi and I headed to Roppongi to meet them. 

We hung out where they lived first and played pool and have a few drinks. After awhile we went out for a night on the town. Now we went out it was about 1am, the subway trains stopped at 11:30pm. Needless to say, I had to stay out until they started again at 5am.

It was a great night though. We went to a few bars and I made a friend at a hookah bar we were at, her name was Nari. She was a Korean living in Japan. She was out by herself so I invited her to join us. 

We all had a great time and me, Yoshi, and Nari headed to the trains. I went to bed at 7am -_-
Shibuya/Harajuku through photos :)

 These are from later that night in Roppongi

Day 3: Saturday Aug 3rd

After getting only a couple hours of sleep 

I spent most of the day in the house watching NCIS with my host. Then around 3pm I got a message from someone I haven't seen in about 7~8 years. We decided to meet up in Shinjuku. He's in the Air Force and usually stationed in Okinawa but happened to be on the Tokyo area at the time. 

So I met up with him and his two friends for dinner. Of course I ended up staying out pass the train time again. It was alright though I had fun with his friends and it was interesting to catch up on things. 

The annoying thing about this though was I was leaving the next day at noon. This meant I had to catch the train at 8-830am because where I was staying was quite a ways away from Narita airport. So as soon as the trains were up and running I got it back to Kita-Ayase. Once I got back to the apartment I packed my things and said goodbye to my host. Well I said good bye after constant apologies for being out all the time and saying thank you a million times. He said there was no need for that and I was welcomed anytime.

Day 4: Sunday Aug 4th

So after the hectic packing and goodbyes I headed to Narita. I was so incredibly tired. I couldn't sleep on the plane and when I got back to Korea I couldn't sleep on the bus. Then my smart self decided to go and see RED 2 with my friends instead of going to bed.

I regret nothing though. I had an awesome time I just wish I had more days. Also, side note but RED 2 was pretty hilarious lol

Well that's all folks! If you get the. Have go see Japan! It was amazing.