Japan!

I know, I know, I am a terrible blogger! I went to Japan like three weeks ago, and I'm just now telling you about it! But, better late than never, right?

So Japan was the trip that almost didn't happen for me. At that point, I hadn't been in Korea that long, and I didn't have my ARC (alien resident card). My boss was under the impression that this meant I couldn't leave the country and come back in without causing all kinds of problems with my visa. He told me this less than a week before we were supposed to leave. By this point of course I had already purchased my nonrefundable plane ticket. So needless to say, I was a little upset. But thanks to the help of my recruiter I found out that my boss's information was incorrect, and that I was allowed to leave the country after all. I found this out Tuesday afternoon, and we left Tuesday night! I was questioned thoroughly at immigration as I was trying to leave Korea- got taken back into their office and everything- but eventually they did let me out.

We flew into Osaka, which took less than 2 hours. We spent several hours after that in the airport, trying to figure out how to get around in Japan and trying to get some money. It turned out that my debit card was one of the only ones that worked. We didn't think that would be a big deal, we could just use our credit cards. So we decided to eat at McDonald's in the airport before we left, because of course they would take credit cards, right? Wrong! McDonald's, of all places, was cash only! It turns out just about everything in Japan was cash only, including our transportation and hostel. And, while there are plenty of ATMs around, it was extremely difficult to find ATMs that accepted foreign cards. We ended up finding enough money to pay for everything, but I learned an important traveler's lesson: always bring cash!

So the first afternoon, after we finally made it out of the airport, we visited Osaka Castle.  As many of you know, I love castles, and this one was pretty cool. Inside there was a museum, and from the top you could look out over the city.

After the castle it was time for dinner. We decided to go to a sushi restaurant- with a conveyor belt! We just sat down and watched different types of sushi go by, and then grabbed the ones we wanted. When we were finished, they charged us based on the number of empty plates we had. I don't normally like sushi, actually I usually refuse to eat it, raw fish and all that, but I figured since I was in Japan, well why not, right? And actually, it wasn't all that bad. Not my new favorite dish or anything, but okay every once in a while I guess.



After dinner it was time to head to our hostel. Lodging is usually pretty expensive in Japan, so we decided to stay at at one of the cheaper hostels. There was a reason it was less expensive- we slept in capsules! It looked kind of like an autopsy room or something out of a scifi movie. I actually really liked it. I thought I might get claustrophobic, but it was kind of nice to have a little privacy!

The next day we started off with a ride on a huge Ferris wheel that gave us some beautiful views of the city.

Next we went to the Floating Garden Observatory on top of the Umeda Sky Building.We all thought there was actually a garden up there- but after much fruitless searching we realized it was just a tall building with a good view. It was still pretty awesome though- it had some amazing views of Osaka, and we stayed up there to watch the sunset over the city. Beautiful!

The next day we went to Kyoto, which was only about an hour away. There we got to visit a temple. The buildings were really cool, and they happened to be filming a movie that day, which was awesome!

The last day of our trip started with a trip to the top of Mount Rokko in Kobe. Here we got to eat lunch overlooking Osaka and Kobe. This was seriously one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen.

Our final night in Japan just happened to be the night of a festival. Everyone was dressed up in traditional Japanese outfits. There was also a fireworks show. We were lucky enough to get to go to my friend's sister's old roommate's friend's coworker's apartment (or something like that!) which had a perfect view of the city and the fireworks! We were about 10 minutes late for the fireworks show, and I was afraid we would miss the whole thing. But it was okay, because the fireworks show was 40 minutes long! These were some of the biggest and coolest fireworks I've ever seen.

Overall, my trip to Japan was amazing. I got to see and do lots of amazing things. But the thing that really made the trip was the people. Everywhere we went, everyone was incredibly friendly and helpful. Strangers would go way out of their way to help us, even when we didn't ask. We probably wouldn't have made it to half of these places without their help!


So that's it! If you want to see more pictures, you can check out my facebook album HERE. And check back here soon, I have more to write about, including an indoor amusement park and a castle in Seoul!