Once we were in Japan, the rest of the trip was amazing. We took the bullet train to Hiroshima the next morning. We went to the atomic bomb museum, the peace park, and even got down to Miyajima (a famous island south of Hiroshima).
That night we saw a whacked out karaoke show where people got dressed up and did a show. It’s weird but showing your belly got a big laugh every time. It was like if you couldn’t do anything original you just pulled up your shirt a little and they loved you. After a trip to an ancient garden we caught the train up to Kyoto. Kyoto is known for its famous temples and was spared any bombing in WWII, so a lot of it is intact. The first day we went to Kiyozomudero, the Temple with 1000 Buddhas, and the Heian Shrine. 
We got templed out pretty fast. The temples are all cool, huge, magnificent, and ancient, but how many can you see. The next day we went to the Golden Pavilion and another temple complex before going to Osaka. 
In Kyoto, we actually got a lot of Japanese only at the bars, and were told to leave. Alex almost got into a fight with an Irish girl because the Irish girl said she hated Alex’s American accent. It was pretty funny I could tell the guy she was with saw how big I was and told her to stop. The first night in Osaka, we found a great 280 yen place. Pretty much all the food and drinks are 3$, which is really cheap for Japan. But our hostel had a curfew, and we had to be inside by 12. For anyone traveling in Japan the hostels are the best way to go because you can meet other travelers, they really cheap, and they’re very clean, but make sure there is no curfew because you can get locked out, which is what happened to us on New Years. We went to a place called Sam and Dave’s, which is a huge club chain in Osaka and had a blast. We met a bunch of cool people at the hostel and about 20 of us went out, but we were out too late and didn’t know there was a random button to call the desk. Luckily, one of the people there had a hotel room and we slept on his floor. The next day caught the bullet train down to Hakata, the ferry back to Busan, and the KTX back to Seoul for Alex’s birthday.
As a recap my favorite city in Japan was Hiroshima. The weather was awesome, the people are very nice there, and there’s a lot to do. The best food was in fact not sushi, but Okiyomaki, which is fried noodle, cabbage, egg, meat, and some sauces made into a pancake.
It was still nice to have some sushi because you can’t get any in Korea. My favorite museum was the A-Bomb museum, which did a great job of professing peace. The best temple was the Golden Pavilion. Basically, Japan was really awesome, but thank god my mom was there because that place is not cheap.
The night we got back was Alex’s birthday. We went out for some Korean BBQ and drinks. Eventually, we made it out to Hondae, the big party area in Seoul. We stayed out til like 4 until Alex fell down some stairs. Not a good way to end a birthday, and it did leave a crazy bruise. The next day was my mom’s last one in Korea and we made it out to the casino, where I could not hit a fricken double down and lost 100,000 won. Like 90 dollars. On Monday I woke up and it was snowing. They got about a foot of snow, which is the most they’ve gotten in 20 years, and they are not used to snow. I called the Korean English teacher and ask her if we have school. “Dave, why wouldn’t we have school?” was the response we got. I got in and they sent us home at 3 b/c no students could come in. Alex had to work all day. They tried driving her to school and they didn’t even brush the snow off the back window. They stopped about a half mile and made her walk. Also on the way they stalled out like three times. It’s that crazy Korean work ethic that makes them work 60 hour weeks. There turned out to be a bunch of deaths and they’re going to change some laws. Actually, my only full day of work was Wednesday because that Thursday they sent us back to Japan to get our visa. Our plan worked out by we got an extra two days off work, but Japan was kind of a mess because we had to check out at 10am and our flight didn’t leave till 8pm. So, we were hanging out with the homeless pretty much all day. But it was worth the two days off. The only bad news I have is one of my buddies, Dinkin just left without telling anyone because he didn’t want to be talked out of it. This is a pretty common event here because of the way these Hogwans, private schools are run. Right now in my school, there is minimal heat, no hot water, pipes commonly freeze, we can’t use the space heaters b/c they just unplug them, the third floor toilet has been out of service for a whole month now, they put students who speak no English into classes that have been together for a year or more, which they basically just lie to the parents and say their child can do well in that class, and I can’t really trust them with money. So, it’s pretty common for someone to just say I’ve had enough and go to the airport. I pretty much put up with this by just saying ok and then doing my own thing in class, so it’s not that bad. Still, if anyone wants to visit I’ll be here for a while.
We got templed out pretty fast. The temples are all cool, huge, magnificent, and ancient, but how many can you see. The next day we went to the Golden Pavilion and another temple complex before going to Osaka. In Kyoto, we actually got a lot of Japanese only at the bars, and were told to leave. Alex almost got into a fight with an Irish girl because the Irish girl said she hated Alex’s American accent. It was pretty funny I could tell the guy she was with saw how big I was and told her to stop. The first night in Osaka, we found a great 280 yen place. Pretty much all the food and drinks are 3$, which is really cheap for Japan. But our hostel had a curfew, and we had to be inside by 12. For anyone traveling in Japan the hostels are the best way to go because you can meet other travelers, they really cheap, and they’re very clean, but make sure there is no curfew because you can get locked out, which is what happened to us on New Years. We went to a place called Sam and Dave’s, which is a huge club chain in Osaka and had a blast. We met a bunch of cool people at the hostel and about 20 of us went out, but we were out too late and didn’t know there was a random button to call the desk. Luckily, one of the people there had a hotel room and we slept on his floor. The next day caught the bullet train down to Hakata, the ferry back to Busan, and the KTX back to Seoul for Alex’s birthday.As a recap my favorite city in Japan was Hiroshima. The weather was awesome, the people are very nice there, and there’s a lot to do. The best food was in fact not sushi, but Okiyomaki, which is fried noodle, cabbage, egg, meat, and some sauces made into a pancake.
It was still nice to have some sushi because you can’t get any in Korea. My favorite museum was the A-Bomb museum, which did a great job of professing peace. The best temple was the Golden Pavilion. Basically, Japan was really awesome, but thank god my mom was there because that place is not cheap.The night we got back was Alex’s birthday. We went out for some Korean BBQ and drinks. Eventually, we made it out to Hondae, the big party area in Seoul. We stayed out til like 4 until Alex fell down some stairs. Not a good way to end a birthday, and it did leave a crazy bruise. The next day was my mom’s last one in Korea and we made it out to the casino, where I could not hit a fricken double down and lost 100,000 won. Like 90 dollars. On Monday I woke up and it was snowing. They got about a foot of snow, which is the most they’ve gotten in 20 years, and they are not used to snow. I called the Korean English teacher and ask her if we have school. “Dave, why wouldn’t we have school?” was the response we got. I got in and they sent us home at 3 b/c no students could come in. Alex had to work all day. They tried driving her to school and they didn’t even brush the snow off the back window. They stopped about a half mile and made her walk. Also on the way they stalled out like three times. It’s that crazy Korean work ethic that makes them work 60 hour weeks. There turned out to be a bunch of deaths and they’re going to change some laws. Actually, my only full day of work was Wednesday because that Thursday they sent us back to Japan to get our visa. Our plan worked out by we got an extra two days off work, but Japan was kind of a mess because we had to check out at 10am and our flight didn’t leave till 8pm. So, we were hanging out with the homeless pretty much all day. But it was worth the two days off. The only bad news I have is one of my buddies, Dinkin just left without telling anyone because he didn’t want to be talked out of it. This is a pretty common event here because of the way these Hogwans, private schools are run. Right now in my school, there is minimal heat, no hot water, pipes commonly freeze, we can’t use the space heaters b/c they just unplug them, the third floor toilet has been out of service for a whole month now, they put students who speak no English into classes that have been together for a year or more, which they basically just lie to the parents and say their child can do well in that class, and I can’t really trust them with money. So, it’s pretty common for someone to just say I’ve had enough and go to the airport. I pretty much put up with this by just saying ok and then doing my own thing in class, so it’s not that bad. Still, if anyone wants to visit I’ll be here for a while.
