Trip to Korea and Japan: Day 26 - Top 5 List

(Click here for first day, yesterday and all trips)



It is hard to sum up such a long journey to two countries and three cities in a top 5 list, but it can still serve as a focus for what I, at the moment at least, see as my top 5 experiences. In the background is of course a multitude of memories, people and places mixing together in a weave of emotions and impressions, but these five rise above the others in my mind's inner eye.

1. BUIE Share house Gakuenmae. The people of this place really stuck a chord in me and maybe done what years of anime, manga and studies of Japanese culture couldn't do - made me really (really) decide to try to learn the language. Kenji and all you other guys, you were really good friends.

2. Sapporo and Hokkaido. The climate is better than Tokyo, the people better looking, and the shopping and eating is really fantastic enough. If I ever live in Japan, you could do worse.

3. Japanese food. There is a paradox that while Japanese groceries are often quite expensive, you can find simple dishes which taste really great. And the sweets...the Japanese really has a sweet tooth.

4. That day in Ulsan. The day I went looking for the petroglyphs outside Ulsan really redeemed the Korean's to me as I honestly never had felt that much of an connection (like I do in Japan) to the ones I had met. The bus driver gave me directions and a free ride, the two ladies at the exit post near Cheongjeong-ri treated me with water and peaches when I was in need, and it was just a really nice and warm feeling.

5. Bying miniatures in Akibahara in Tokyo. To go to nerd heaven with no cares about what you should do as a grown man is sheer fun. I and my (also grown up) sister went there and shopped fantasy miniatures, comic books and toys like any other japanese otaku. Wearing a fresh 2013 AKB48 t-shirt didn't make it any less fun when in Tokyo.