Ever since I visited Japan with my family in 2009, I've been wanting to go back to one place, Koyasan.
Koyasan is a little town in the mountains of the Wakayama prefecture. It's about two hours away from where I live. It is the birthplace of Shingon Buddhism so there are many temples, but the thing I was most eager to revisit was the beautiful graveyard. In my opinion, it is the most beautiful place on earth. It looks so myserious and the nature, covering the old tombstones is so breathtaking, I can't even describe it. I don't know what took me so long to get there, but I finally went again a few weeks before leaving Japan.
I was planning on going by myself, mainly because it's a place that's
really close to my heart and I figured it would be a nice place for me
to go and think a little bit. But when I told one of my closest friends
this, he said he really wanted to go as well and he didn't want to go in
group either. So in the end, the two of us went together and I'm so
happy we did. It was a wonderful day.
We visited many temples and pagoda such as the Konpon Daitō (根本大塔)
and the Kongōbu-ji (金剛峯寺). I really liked seeing these, as I hadn't went
to see them the last time I was in Koyasan.
As I said before, I was most excited about revisiting the graveyard I adore so much. The graveyard (the biggest in the world) surrounds the mausoleum of Kūkai (空海), also known posthumously as Kōbō-Daishi (弘法大師), the founder of the true word Buddhism school. I remember, during the night tour of the graveyard I experienced all those years ago, being really impressed by Kūkai's story, and even now, seeing the mysterious gates to the place where, legend says, he is still meditating, was amazing to me. The place feels so sacred there, that I couldn't bring myself to take any photographs, but picture it like this: you are looking at a rich, green, overgrown forest. A little path leads into it, the greenery blocking you from what's behind. Incense burns and next to you a man sings strings of prayers.
We wandered around the cemetary for a long time. I was so happy! If
you've seen some of Hayao Miyazaki's movies like My Neighbour Totoro or
Princess Mononoke, that's what being in this graveyard feels like. It
feels like magic.
I'm so happy I got to go to Koyasan again and I highly reccomend people to go see it if they can! I believe it is the prettiest place in Japan.
A few days ago I went to a festival in Osaka with some friends. It's called Tenjin matsuri. I'm not exactly sure what the meaning of the festival is, but I felt like matsuri (Japanese festival) is something I should experience now that I'm still in Japan.
People come dressed in yukata, which is always really fun to see. There's a lot of yummy food you can get from the little stands in the streets. As far as activities go, there was a sort of parade in which people danced and carried things through the streets (I'm so uneducated I'm so sorry haha) and at the end of the day there's a big firework!
yukata!
kakikoori (shaved ice)
ocotpus in one hand, sausage in the other
I had fun at the festival but I do realise these kind of events are not for me. There are just too many people! I had to squeeze myself through the crowd to head back to the trainstation earlier and I almost had a panic attack from the amount of people around me. I could barely move. So, no, I won't be going to many matsuri's in the future haha!
But it was a good day hanging out with friends nevertheless.
I had my last day at the kindergarten I work at few days ago.
I have enjoyed working in this place so, so much! I'd been really nervous when I first started because I had no idea whether I was competent to teach English to a bunch of 3-6 year old Japanese kids. Luckily my work partner, Sofia, was amazing. She actually knew what she was doing and thanks to her, I learned how to teach and be confident about it.
I worked alone for a while after Sofia left in Februari and got a new partner a few months after that. This time, I was the one in control and I'm honestly so proud of how far I've come.
The people at the school were always so kind to me and I've grown to love the children a lot. I admit I had to hold back a little tear when I had to say my final goodbyes.
The children gave me little books with pictures and thank you messages, as well as a card. I feel so blessed!
my present to them
I've grown to love these people and I've promised that when I come back to Japan, I'm coming to see al of them!
It's that time again when people start leaving the dorm and this time I'm one of them.
We had our farewell party at the dorm last week, as well as the last all you can drink party of the dorm. It's been emotional times. But I'm also filled with gratitude!
The farewell party started with a barbecue in the little garden at the back of the building. There was udon and curry and veggies and rice and I ate a lot. I really appreciate how many vegetarian things there were! The focus of the BBQ was the people though. Basically it turned into a picture taking event. I was a little sad that a few of my closest friends couldn't make it to the party, but I had tons of fun nonetheless!
After that we settled down in the common room to watch the farewell video. Now, me and Koni were crying before the video even started, but it only got worse with the video, haha! It was such a beautiful video! It had pictures of random times in the dorm and our dorm events, as well as silly and heartfelt messages from everyone. I laughed and cried and laughed again and again. It was beautiful!
After that video, there was another suprise video because a lot of the resident assistants (the Japanese students who live in the dorm, help us out and organise all these fun things) are leaving as well. So we watched another video from the RA's and that was great too.
Lastly we all received a DVD with the video on, with a card in it that everyone then could write messages in. It was an emotional but great day.
The all you can drink that followed a few days after was awesome as well. We drank for two hours and went to karaoke.
I'm so glad I got to live in such a happy place where everyone welcomes you with open arms regardless of who you are or where you come from. I feel like this living situation allowed me to make friends with people who I wouldn't easily get close to if it were my live in Belgium, and I'm so grateful for that. It's a situation that forces a person to become more open and accepting and I love that.
The many people I made friends with, and especially those who I've grown really close to, I concider as more than friends. They feel like a true family to me. Whether this is because of the fact that we live together in the same house or the fact that we're all away from our own family and we need to fill up that space, I don't know. Probably a mixture of both. But that doesn't make it any less real. I love these people to death and I will never forget that.
I'm going to miss the people in this dorm so much. But I shouldn't think about it negatively. I've gained so much in living here and meeting these kind, generous, loving people and the fact that we all live in different places only means that I have more reason to travel the world. That's a very happy thing. I am a very lucky person. All I need to do is make the money to travel hahaha!
I've decided though that that is what I want to do. I want to travel a lot. I want to work, I want to work hard, I want to learn to take care of myself and then I want to travel.
Secondly I've realized how much I love my home and my family. I realized how lucky I am in having such a good place to come home to. So I want to spend time with family as much as I can.
I don't know where this post has gone. What was the point of this post again? I don't even know.
Oh well. I'm gonna leave it at that! I'm taking one of my best friends to the airport in a few hours. It's gonna be another emotional day.
I just came back from a short week in the capital of South Korea!
I've been wanting to visit this city for some years now, mainly because Korea has amazing and cheap skincare/make-up products and also because of the various music scenes and the notoriously spicy but delicious food.
After a lot of issues, in which I had to change my flight twice, I finally arrived in Seoul on Sunday, the 12th of July.
I actually slept at the airport for a night so that I wouldn't miss my early morning flight. I suppose that's something I can cross off my bucket list hahaha! It was quite fun though, I felt like a lonesome adventurer!
I met up with my friends and we headed straight over to a mall. Due to
all the traveling I've been doing I've been pretty short on cash, and
maybe good so because if I'd had more money I think I would've spent a
fortune in these stores!
The thing is, Korean skin care and make up is really amazing AND the prices as low as heck! You can get 20 sheet masks for under 10000 won (around 8 euro)! Their lip stains (3-4 euro!!) and BB creams are far superior quality to the west and their skin care works fast and efficiantly.
I sound like a spokesperson haha!
I swear it's not as much as it looks
Another awesome thing is the amount of free samples you get when you buy
something. I think I've got around thirty packets of samples of makeup
and skincare now, all to try out for free!
I've been using Korean brands for a few years now. I usually buy on Ebay, but buying them here in stores, where I can test products out and they're even cheaper, is even better!
But enough about make up! There is more to Seoul than cosmetics!
The same first day, we visited the SM town building. SM Entertainment is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) Korean pop music company. They basically pump out pop groups like a factory. I personally quite dislike the company, as they are known for treating their artists like absolute crap. But then again, I really like some of these groups so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to at least go in and see what was inside.
It was basically a place where fans could come hang out and see pictures of their idols, watch their music videos on a big screen and buy tons of merchandise. It was pretty interesting to say the least. The most fun part for me was that there were all these life-size pictures of the idols you could take photographs with. I know I probably should feel shame for my behavior in there that day (taking countless selfies with static images of idols) but I honestly didn't care. When was I ever gonna be able to do this again? I had to enjoy it to the fullest right?
Here I am, just chillin' with the imaginary husband hahaha! I used to want to marry him so bad I'm not even kidding (I mean I did name my chicken after him: Chanyeol). Seriously, this idiot! I'm so happy I got Kazuki now instead hahaha!
Lastly, me and my friends went to the You Are Here café in Hongdae, really close to where our Hostel was. The cool thing about this café is that it is ran by a couple of Youtubers I've been watching since 2008. They're a married couple who make videos about life in Korea and I really like their content so me and my friends (who also watch their videos) felt like we should go check it out.
The place felt really homey, kind of how the whole Hongdae area feels. I had some really good tea there and my friends had smoothies. The cafe also has this little "speaker's corner" where customers can go in and record themselves for a minute, to talk about various topics relating to Korean culture. So we did that, and maybe we might actually appear in one of their Youtube videos, I don't know, we'll see. ^^
I wanted to go see Hongdae park as well, because there are usually street performers playing really good music, but since it was raining we figured we should leave it for another day.
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On day two, we went to Lotte World, which is a little theme park in the middle of the capital. Most of it is indoors, with a little outside part. I'd seen this theme park on Korean television a lot because tons of variety shows are shot there. I have to say it wasn't all that great. I mean, I had a lot of fun, but as amusement parks go, this one is probably the lowest on my list. They did have a fairly big pirate ship like they do in the Efteling (though it wasn't as big as the Efteling one, that one is the biggest in the world). I also liked that there were a lot of cute children running around and I loved how jolly the staff was! That stuff always makes me happy!
Hongdae. I spent so much of my time here, I fell absolutely in love
It wasn't raining that day so we headed on over to the Hongdae park area where we watched some people make music. I really, really enjoyed this. I have a big love for all kinds of Korean music. I think my ipod at this moment is filled more than 50 percent with Korean indie. There is just such a great variety!! The songs I heard on the streets of Hongdae were mostly the more soft acoustic songs Korea has tons of but sometimes there's be a fun little surprise when they'd play a song by my favorite Korean rapper which made me really happy!
But seriously, people with a passion for music, I truly recommend checking out the Korean music scene. There's so much more than Gangam Style and shallow boybands, I swear!
Aaaaaanyways.. on with the show!
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The next day we went to visit Changdeonkgung Palace and the Sercet Garden. I've seen a lot of Japanese palaces and temples so it was really interesting to see what the Korean palace would look like. The site was a complex of colorful structues, meant for the royal family and other important people.
Changdeokgung palace is one of the five grand palaces of South Korea. We didn't spend too much time at the palace though and decided to take a guided tour of the Secret Garden around it. The garden, lying around the palace used to be for the royal family and palace women to roam and part of it - the secret garden - was only to be used by the king. The nature there was really quite stunning!
secret garden: lotus river
I had my first real Korean food that evening when I tried a real kimchi stew. I never used to be strong with spices, but I feel like I've really grown to like spicy food lately. The stew made my eyes water but it was one of the most delicious things I'd eaten in a long time! It was amazing!!! I've always been a fan of kimchi but I'd never tried the authentic Korean (and most spicy) version and I'll admit, it was really freaking spicy, but I loved every second of it!
the only downside were the shrimp
That night, we decided to go clubbing, since the Hongdae area is supposedly the most fun place to go out in Seoul. The location of our Hostel was so fortunate! The club was just about seven minutes walking distance so we didn't have to worry about catching a train or paying for a taxi. Plus, Hongdae really felt safe to walk around outside whatever time it was.
On the streets as well as inside the club, people were suprisingly nice and respectful (do you hear that Belgium?)! I'll admit I was a tiny bit nervous about going clubbing in this big city, where rumors say people like to get physical in the club, and all this whilst having a boyfriend, but my worrying ended up being completely unjustified! Everyone was perfectly wonderful! Being foreigners, we were approached a whole heck of a lot, sure, but no one was ever innapropriate at all and if I felt like they were, I could just tell them what was up and they would smile, understand and take a step back. I know this may seem like a silly thing to talk about, but where I come from, going out is nothing like this. Often it seems like there's no such thing as manners and that's kind of sad. So good job, Korean guys for being awesome! I appriciate it.
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We went to bed after sunrise and woke up in the early afternoon to travel to Namsan tower!
Namsan Tower up there!
I've been wanting to visit Namsan tower for a while now and my
reasons are quite dumb but I don't really care. I used to watch this
Korean show called: We Are Married, where they take two young famous
people from South Korea and let them pretend to be married for a long
period of time. I used to watch this one particular 'couple' and it was
the most entertaining thing in the world. One of the big things they did
together was go to Namsan tower and hang a lock on the railing of the
view spot.
Namsan tower is known as a very romantic
place. Couples go there a lot! You can buy a lock there and write down
your feelings for your loved one and then you hang the lock somewhere on
the railings at the site, as a sort of promise of eternal love.
That's
what the 'couple' from my show did and ever since seeing that, I've
wanted to go see the place, just because I love the idea there are so
many declarations of love gathered in this little place. It makes me
really happy. I felt a really deep and strong happiness walking around
there and reading what people wrote to each other. I couldn't resist
putting a little lock of my own on the railings. Kazuki may not have
been present with me, but one day we'll visit Namsan Tower together and
he can hang one of his own, haha!
We didn't go up the actual tower because that would cost money. Plus, the view from the bottom of the tower was great too and that's where the pretty locks were.
I had a great bibimbap (mixed rice and veggie dish) and we spent the rest of the day back in Hongdae, where the street performers entertained us until we got sleepy.
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On my last ful day in Korea we didn't make any big trips. We went to the post office to get some postcards sent, did some last minute shopping (or my friends did. I'd run out of money by this point), and went to sing some norebang (Korean karaoke).
I definitely prefer Japanese karaoke to Korean norebang. The Korean version is often not as high-tech and has way less songs to choose from. Instead of picking your songs via a computer, you have to flip through a colossal book and try to find your way through all the Korean. I can read Korean language alright but that didn't stop me from getting lost in the endless list of Korean song titles! Of course the big positive thing for norebang are the huge selection of Korean songs! I finally got to sing some of the lesser known Korean songs the Japanese karaoke systems don't have, so I was very happy in the end!
We hung around the street performers a little more and had another yummy dinner before getting ready for one last night of clubbing in Seoul. This night was a blast, just like the first time had been! We were planning on getting home earlier this time but ended up seeing the sun come up was we were strolling through the streets on our way home. What surprised me was that there were still street performers doing their thing at a little to five in the morning. We were just passing by randomly, the sun just starting to show itself, when we found a couple of guys with guitar and acoustic drum, playing a soft song, a small gathering of people sitting by them on the stone steps, watching with sleepy smiles on their faces. That was another really great moment.
We slept for a few hours before having to pack and leave our wonderful hostel. My friends were so kind to accompany me to the airport to say goodbye to me (I would have gotten so lost on my own I'm a directions idiot).
I ended up having to wait quite a while at the airport due to a typhoon that was hitting Kansai. But I made it home in one piece, arriving back at the dorm at around eight in the evening, with a bunch of make up in my bag and a happy heart!
Thank you Kelly and Els for being such great friends! I'm lucky to have you!
Koyasan is a little town in the mountains of the Wakayama prefecture. It's about two hours away from where I live. It is the birthplace of Shingon Buddhism so there are many temples, but the thing I was most eager to revisit was the beautiful graveyard. In my opinion, it is the most beautiful place on earth. It looks so myserious and the nature, covering the old tombstones is so breathtaking, I can't even describe it. I don't know what took me so long to get there, but I finally went again a few weeks before leaving Japan. 
