Sincerely, Alison: Travel

Tokyo 2017 - Part 1

15:20

Going to Tokyo was a graduation gift from my parents. It was just a short 4 days trip. 4 days may seem short, but it was enough for me to fall in love with the city. I reassure you, I will be back, Japan!

I took the midnight flight from KL to Tokyo so when I landed, it was 8am which meant that I had a full day to explore Tokyo. Since my brother was already staying in Tokyo, he met up with me at the airport and we took the train back to his girlfriend's place where I will be staying.

Tip: It is a lot cheaper to buy daily or weekly train passes instead of buying each ticket at the stations.

My brother's gf had an extra pasmo card lying around and lent it to me so I didn't have any trouble buying tickets, only had to reload it when credit runs out.

The first place we went to after we left our luggage was Asakusa and had lunch at Ichiran Ramen. We were quite lucky because there was no queue when we arrived.

I had the ramen and half-boiled salted egg at ¥1020 (~RM38). The broth was so rich and flavourful! Nothing like I have ever tasted in Malaysia. Highly recommended! Looking at that bowl of ramen makes me wanna have a bowl right now.

We went to Sensoji Temple as it is a very popular tourist attraction. Apparently is was the last week of summer break in Japan which meant everywhere we went to was super crowded.

We explored the back alleys in search of Matcha ice-cream

¥350 for an ice-cream which is roughly about RM13

Japan being Japan, we naturally saw a few mascots roaming around in Asakusa.

Saw an Owl Cafe, was a bit tempted to walk into but decided not to because there was an entrance fee. 😐

We went into Don Quijote in Asakusa to shop then to Ueno.
By the time we reached Ueno my legs were starting to hurt from walking so much. lol. So went to Tully's at Ueno for coffee then continued to Ameyoko.

I had a short cafe latte for ¥360 (roughly the same amount for a cup of tall Starbucks in Malaysia) whilst my brother shared a matcha green tea with his girlfriend.

We didn't buy anything in Ameyoko but instead went into an arcade. One machine caught my eye tho. It has *ahem* mini massagers! 😂

My brother wanted to bring me to Ueno Park but it was already past 5 and the park closes at 5pm so we headed to Ikebukuro to shop before dinner.

My brother had made reservations for us at Kura Sushi for dinner.

Tip: Make reservations before heading to this restaurant because there's always a queue.

Each plate of sushi is only ¥100! What's special about this place is for every 5 plates you get a chance to win a capsule toy. We ate 20 plates but only got 1 toy. You just put your plates into the disposal chutes after eating and it calculates for you hassle-free!
Would definitely be back again for sushi because ¥100 per plate is a bargain in Japan!

We walked around Ikebukuro after dinner then just head back and called it a day.

Till next time. xoxo

Korea

Korean Language Course & Experience Culture Programme - Part 1

21:55

I was in Korea (Gimhae, Busan to be exact) for two weeks in March last year for a culture program organized by Gimhae Women Welfare Center.

The organizer was a ex-lecturer from MMU and she saw an opportunity for students to experience Korean culture through this program.

Michelle asked me to join her and her friends on this trip and I was like why not. It was a long semester break and I had nothing better to do.

Prior to this trip, I had no knowledge of anything about Korea. It wasn't even on my bucket list of places to visit. I wasn't into the whole K craze that everyone was in. I wasn't into K dramas or Kpop. I was in my own lil comfortable bubble. But after this program, it totally change my whole perspective. I'm still not into the whole K craze but I'm totally coming back to Korea (but to Seoul or maybe Jeju next time)!

Arriving at Busan airport after a long 7 hour flight.
The lady in the red jacket on the top left is the organizer of this trip, Kim EuNa.

For anyone who plans to buys a prepaid sim. Damn expensive but me and Michelle both bought and shared one tho.

Here's an article someone shared with us regarding WiFi and Prepaid sims in Korea (click me).
But in my personal opinion, don't buy. There's free open almost everywhere.

Mandatory welfie with Michelle and her friends

We used the train to get to Gimhae Women Welfare Center while our luggages were transported by lorry.

It's fairly easy to navigate once you know where you are and where you wanna go.

Our destination was Bonghwang which was only a few stations away from the airport.

Dinner was prepared by people at the welfare center. Home-cooked Korean dinner.

It doesn't look much but I had second servings of dumplings and strawberries.

Itinerary for the next two weeks
I think I'll just skip the boring parts about classes and get into the more interesting parts.

This is where we stayed for the next two weeks; Gimhae Hanok.

Since it was late and not familiar with the place, we dare not wander far.
We stumbled upon a convenience place quite near where we stayed and tried some of the local popular foods that people rave about.

This was the most delicious out of the foods we tried that night. Two thumbs up!

Day 1 of Program

I admit the first class was quite boring. I almost fell asleep in class. Thank goodness there was free flow of coffee, tea, and fruits.
It stared getting fun when they asked us to change into their traditional Hanbok for a traditional tea ceremony.

The lady on the right was the one that taught us how to wear Hanbok and how to behave and what to do in a traditional Korean tea ceremony.

Tidbits to go with the tea

After that they brought us out to our next class which was a makeup class.

Instead of watching how they makeup, some of us went shopping inside. Maybe because the place was small and not all of us could see what she was doing.

When they said that it was a lot cheaper to buy beauty products in Korea they were not kidding. We got crazy shopping inside. Masks were like 1,000won a piece and plus if you buy 10 you get another 10 FREE!