It's an Eastern thing, that's what I'm sayin'

Antoni, Angela and I in Kyoto, Japan

For my summer vacation, I decided to holiday in Korea's lovely neighbour- Japan. My travel partners were two girls who I met while studying in England. We hooked up in Tokyo and spent a few days checking out the crazy Tokyo fashion in areas like Harajuku and Shibuya. Japan was my #1 travel destination, but after spending nearly a year in Korea, I was skeptical that it would actually be a different experience from the one that I had in Korea. Wow, was I wrong! Me and all my "Korea friends" (not "Korean friends") agree that Japan is like Korea... but better! It was more beautiful and more friendly than SK ever thought of being. There was no spitting and no shoving. **sigh** Just like home!

Angela's family friends put us up during our time in Tokyo. One of our hosts is a Tokyo-ite and her Canadian husband has lived in Tokyo for many years, so they gave us all kinds of advice on how to travel around and what to see. They also took us out for some AMAZING Japanese food. It's not very Japanese, but I had my first creme brulee!

We left Tokyo and ventured down to Kyoto for the last leg of our trip. I'm glad we chose this city, since it was a huge contrast to Tokyo. It was full of temples, shrines and old-fashioned areas that are great to stroll around in (Gion, for instance).

My main goal while visiting Japan was to see a geisha. It took two days of researching and stake-outs, but we finally saw a maiko (geisha in training).

My favourite day, however, was when we rented bikes and toured all over the city. It was insanely hot and humid, but an awesome way to see Kyoto.

On my last day in Japan, I had to travel all the way back to Tokyo to catch my plane to Seoul. I returned to Seoul early adn waiting for the girls who were on later flights. We spent a few days enjoying Seoul then traveled to Mokpo so I could show them where I've lived for the past year.

All in all it was an amazing trip, so be sure to check out the photos.