roganjosh

Every year the Japanese like to celebrate the arrival of the sakura (cherry blossoms) by sitting in parks admiring the flowers and drinking sake. Exactly when this happens depends entirely on the weather, and I was a bit worried I’d miss out on seeing this in Japan because the blossoms had come out quite early, and it had been pretty breezy. Luckily Japan is a big place so on arriving in Tokyo I jumped straight on a Shinkansen up to Sendai to meet my buddy Annette, and then on to Kitakame where the blossoms were still in full bloom! There was a long avenue of trees there and hundreds of people wandering up and down taking pictures, or sitting on little mats under the trees for a picnic, which myself and Annette felt compelled to do too, with our one cup sake from the convenience store. As well as the cherry blossoms there were also loads of fish kites strung across the river to celebrate boys festival. Girls just get to arrange dolls for their festival, so I think that the boys get the best festival of the two.

After that it was back down to Tokyo to meet up with Tony. We mainly wandered around during the day to work up an appetite for some exciting japanese meals in the evenings. The shabu shabu was maybe the most fun so far – the restaurant had been done up so that it felt like you were sitting in your own private shack in an outside courtyard where you got to boil some delicious meat and vegetables. We even managed to fit in a sashimi breakfast at the Tsukiji fish market before heading off to Osaka to find some excitement for the weekend. Osaka’s a bit impenetrable at the moment, but we’re hoping to find a laid back bar to get drunk in tonight, and maybe after that everything will start to make more sense.

For my last night in Korea I decided to give the bars a miss and head for a Jjimjilbang – a Korean sauna. It’s always a bit nerve wracking heading into the unknown in a foreign country, especially when you have to do it naked, but luckily I found one with lots of English signs up everywhere, and it’s been excellent! The building itself looks a bit like a 70s leisure centre, but the with far more hot baths. Some contain herbs, some mud, some salt, but they are all very, very hot, with the one exception being the very, very cold bath you throw yourself into at the end. There are a couple of things that set this sauna apart from the ones in other countries. The first would be that in the bath area you can get a korean guy to scrub you down with some abrasive looking sponges if you so desire. Being a filthy backpacker this probably would have been good for me, but I couldn’t work out if you had to pay for it, and I didn’t have my wallet on me at the time. The second thing is that you can spend the night here! Upstairs there’s a restaurant, a PC room, some karaoke rooms, an oxygen room and more importantly, a sleep room where you can crash out on a slim mattress with a blanket. Slept pretty well for about 12,000 won (6 pounds?) and now I’m a stone’s throw away from Seoul station, which is just as well because I have to rush off to get the train to the airport. Bye!

(It was this one, in case you’re ever dirty and sleepy in Seoul – http://www.silloamsauna.com/site_en/main/main.asp)

I was just arriving in Seoul when a police lorry pulled up alongside the airport bus I was in, and the two policemen in the front started enthusiastically waving and saluting the tourists on the bus! I had great fun in Seoul; it’s a city that never sleeps, which can play hell when your body clock isn’t sure which time zone it’s supposed to be in to start with. By day there were plenty of palaces and arty streets to walk done, in fact there seems to be some sort of public art on almost every street in the city! By night the city’s all neon, blaring music from shops, shots of Soju and karaoke bars… I was lucky enough that my Korean friend Sam took me under his wing and showed me some sights. He even took me to a wedding! After the service, while we still in the chapel, the best man started MC-ing, and told the groom that he had to prove his virility by shouting out “Look at my lovely wife!” who then had to reply “Look at my handsome husband!” before the groom picked her up and did 10 squat lifts with her. It pays to marry a smaller lady in Korea!

The rest of the time in Seoul I was shopping and sightseeing (and getting the last vaccination jab I needed for South America).  One tourist location of note – The Seoul Tower sits on the mountain in the heart of the city, so it has quite amazing views. It wasn’t really worth all the queueing it took to get to the top, and back down again though, except for the fact that the gent’s urinals had been set up so that you have a view over the entire city while you’re using them! Not something I’d seen done in any other observation tower around the world.

I’ve moved on to Busan now, on the south coast of Korea. I could have happily spent weeks wandering around Seoul, but I like to see a bit of the countryside in a country if I can. Unfortunately the weather’s turned a bit overcast for my trip to the seaside, but it’s still a nice place to wander around, and I took a ferry trip out to Geojo island today, and walked around and around. Going to check out the beach tomorrow, so hopefully it’ll be a little sunnier, and then in the afternoon it’s back up to Seoul to get ready for my flight to Japan on Saturday! I hope there’s some cherry blossoms left!

So I’m on the road again, and Amsterdam was an almost perfect place to start from; not too far from home, but a million miles away from reality. Met up with my uni buddies out there and just wandering around the town between bars we stumbled across sumo wrestlers, bunny girls, guys clad head to foot in neon and at one the point the pink panther… and they were all real! Had a nice afternoon lazing around in the vondelpark too, but other than that it was just bars and coffee shops before jumping on the next flight.

Now I’ve made it to Helsinki, which is hopefully going to be the coldest place on my trip! Had some snow yesterday while I was wandering around town, but it’s not been too bad. Went to Kiasma, the contemporary art gallery here, which was great! I’ve been before, and they always have really cool exhibitions on that don’t take themselves too seriously. My favourite thing there was probably a life size cardboard model of ALF, next to a miniature cylon. Hung out in there for a while anyway, and then in the evening went to karaoke with my friend Ed, who is currently in the final of the Ourvision talent contest over here. I think karaoke must be taken pretty seriously over here, because almost everyone in the bar was incredibly good – which I think misses the point of karaoke entirely! Anyway, it’s all good practice for Japan.

Ah yes, the trip! So after Amsterdam and Helsinki I’m off to South Korea later today, to hopefully meet up with some korean friends I met last time I was away. After that it’s Japan, where I might, just, maybe, get to see some cherry blossoms, then Sydney for a week, Tahiti for a week and then Easter Island for 10 days! That’s quite a long time to spend on Easter Island I guess, but I didn’t want to turn up for five days and have it rain the whole time. It could rain for 10 days of course, but let’s hope that doesn’t happen… Then from June I’ve got 3 months in South America, where I hope to improve my Spanish and see Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil. Should be fun!