As for japan, we took the cheapest bus from Tokyo to Kyoto, which was not cheap, and it was like 60 for a normal bus. Whatever. It's cheaper than the trains. It was super hot and humid when we were there, so that cut down our enthusiasm a bit.
For tokyo, i thought kinda the only cool part was Akibahara, their technocenter. It;s really big and you can buy tons of stuff there (duty free if you have your passport with you...like 5% off or something). Not everything is super cheap, but for the most part there are pretty good prices. Ronald liked tokyo better I think, because he has quite a background in animae, whereas I have no idea apart from pokemon (is that even animae?). So anyways, we went in a few Taito places and stuff...pretty much I would say to go to the technomart and then get the hell out of that city. There is a famous fish market there though, and we tried to go the last day only to find out its closed on Sundays...sad day.
I thought Kyoto was nice and wish we'd had more time there. There are cool side trips like going to Nara or Hiroshima (was sick about missing this one!). From kyoto you can also go down to Osaka. Anyways, for Kyoto, you have to hit the main palaces. The city buses and metro are really easy to use, though the JR line is operated by an independent company, so they have separate tickets. There are tons of tours offered, but unless you want to know the history, it would be pretty worthless. We did it on our own and just saw the places, which was fine for us. The main ones I can remember that we saw were the Golden Pavillion and one that is a famous scene with the water in front...
Also we went to Harajuku to try to get a glimpse of the Japanese that dress in crazy baby doll or emo outfits. Gion was another place we visited which is the area that Geisha traditionally live in. We only saw one and then went to the river restaurants. There are probably about a billion and they have outside patios over the water. We didn't sit outside because you had to order one of their set menus and they were all filled with fish, of course.
Japan in general is expensive. You can get some cheap street food in some places, but other than that it's sort of ridiculous. Basically, you just have to prepare yourself before going that you're gonna spend a lot of money and to not let it get you down. It was hard sometimes, like when we stayed in a capsule hotel...I paid like 50 for one night, but had to rationalize it...only in Japan, ya know? The capsule was SUPER comfortable (it's like a jjimjjilbang...but for sleeping it has capsules or the open area). The ryokans are the traditional housings in Japan, but if you go to a traditional one, they're in the country and like 300 a night! That was too much for me, but mainly we just wouldn't have had the time to travel there and back because our trip was so short. In Kyoto we stayed in a hostel called Capsule Ryokan and it was really nice -- no curfew, the people spoke English, free internet, a common kitchenette, storage. It was nice. I cant remember how much that was though.
The money was a little hard for me at first but I figured out a trick: 1,000 yen = 10.00. You just put the period after two of the digits and add a bit. So really 1,000 is more like 13 dollars. Our bus tickets were like 5,000, so they were around 60.
Back in Korea, I just finished my intensive month and am very glad that is over now. I spend way too much time at that school and it's nice to have more time to sleep and just not be stuck at that place. A new teacher arrived this week, Amanda, and will be taking over for Nhi, who leaves in the next few days. She's from Michigan and is half Korean (but looks white) and is trying to learn Korean. She has some family here and will be moving into Nhi's apartment tomorrow. She's never taught before and is a bit nervous, but I think she'll be a great teacher because she's really excited and enthusiastic about it. Today was the last day of classes for this month so on Monday I'll be getting some new students which will be nice. Today we played Apples to Apples in my Social 3 class and they loved it...success!
Ronald and I are going to take a music class here starting September 4th, every Saturday for two hours until November 20th or something like that. That day is the concert...in costume. Pretty excited about the costume part. Other than that the biggest thing we've been trying to figure out is how to send back our luggage to the US before we go around southeast Asia. It's sorta tough to figure out because the biggest box you can send from the post office is pretty small. Next week Sora will call about shipping it there in a boat and see what that's all about.
Last night after I got home from work I skyped with Meaghan and her eighth grade class...pretty crazy. One kid asked if I'd eaten mei...have no idea what that is and must look it up...
Can't wait for the humidity to disperse...
