Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving, falls in September and I ended up with a nice five day weekend which I spent with Katie, Nicole and Nicole's sister, Kim in Tokyo.
Dinner date with the sexy Piona Princess.
Reunion of BAGS!
The morning after: basking in the treasure that we acquired on our way home the night before. Two chairs and a cup. Not too shabby.
Piona and her building's door man.
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Does your dog wear a top hat? Does your dog eat wellbeing pet food?
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This is an actual purse that actually exists.
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My cat skyping the circus cat across the road. She's playing hard to get.
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HELLO!
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I bought this jacket in the middle of summer when it was far too hot to be even thinking of long sleeves. This was the first day, two months later, that it was cool enough to wear it, or so I decided anyway. It was still way too hot but I powered through!
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Putting my Hello Kitty plasters to good use after cutting my finger on the nail that sticks out of my bathroom door. It keeps me on my toes. Or in plasters.
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Monkey child on the subway in Daejeon.
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Language teachers' dinner in Osong.
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I was so excited to find coconut water on sale, 3 for 2. I should have known. After buying them, I read the label: 10% coconut water. I don't know what the other 90% was but, after tasting it, I'm assuming it was sugar. And acid. Lots of acid.
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Making my own almond milk. It's actually such a pain in the arse and will not be happening again ever.
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Saw this confusing creature on the walk home from school.
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Some of the students dressed in traditional Korean Hanbok while making rice cakes for Chuseok.
Apparently if you make ugly rice cakes, you will have ugly children. I had a go and all I can say is God bless my poor children.
Apparently if you make ugly rice cakes, you will have ugly children. I had a go and all I can say is God bless my poor children.
The P.E. Teacher making a dragon rice cake.
The finished products:
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Very tactical camera battery charging for Tokyo.
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This gift set landed itself on my desk just before I left school for Chuseok. I have no idea who it was from but yay for free stuff!
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Tea time with Mickey.
"The purpose of life is to enjoy every moment."
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The best. Charlie Brown Café at Incheon International Airport.
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First night in Tokyo. Getting right into the sushi.
Sent this picture back to the family. Kennedys are everywhere!
The subway in Shibuya. On our first morning, we set out at about 8:30 or 9am. This coincided with the workers' commute and yes, they really do push people into the cars. We watched as five men all pushed a different part of one man so that he could squeeze himself in and not be late for work. It's never too full apparently. Not even when it's too full.
The Meiji Shrine in Shibuya.
Lunch in a tree house.
Harajuku.
The Gonpachi Nishiazabu restaurant in Roppongi which inspired a scene in Kill Bill.
From the Tokyo Skytree in Sumida.
Finally! The real deal!
More fancy sushi. We all sat at a bar as the chef made it up for us right in front of us.
We stayed in a really cool place called Shimokitazawa. It's just a subway ride away from Shibuya but is much more quaint and quiet with not so many tourists. We were in a really good location for doing all the touristy things as well as seeing some of the more authentic parts of Tokyo.
This bar was just outside the subway station in Shimokitazawa. We went in on our way home from two nights out. It was so tiny and there really wasn't much room to move. There was a small bar and just enough space for about 6 people to sit at it. Both nights we were there, we met lovely locals who chatted with us and the barman and bought us each a drink. I managed to underwhelm them significantly with all of the Japanese that i couldn't remember from my final year elective in UCD.
A very poor photo of the famous Shibuya Crossing. But sure look, you get the gist. It's very big.
Tokyo being all right.
Our last day was mostly spent trying to figure out how Katie and I were going to get to the airport for our flight the following morning. We also had a last wander around Shinjuku and got some lunch before heading back to Shimokitazawa to collect our bags.
Compulsary photo of Irish pub in foreign country.
Katie and I had booked our flight back to Korea for 8 o' clock on Sunday morning. What we didn't know was that there was no way to get to the airport early in the morning or throughout the night. We ended up having to leave for the airport at 8pm the night before and spend the night there. Adventure! This photo was taken about one hour in. We finally found some seats after our trip to the 711 (the only shop that was open) for provisions.
7 hours in. The pyjamas have made an appearance. Desperate times.
Hope was restored once they fired up the big magical board of departures. We were glad to see ours at the top of the list!
This is a snapchat that Katie sent. At this stage, we had been in the airport for about 9 or 10 hours, I think, waiting for them to open security after we were the first people to check in for out flight.
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Baby bananas making my first day back at work a little bit better.
But clearly not that much better.
There you go! Mum comes next month. Working on it already. Three cheers for desk warming!
