Japan = AWESOMENESS!

Wow…so for my summer vacation at the end of July, I spent a week in Japan and absolutely LOVED it! The people were so nice and helpful, the train rides beautiful as Japan is some ridiculous like 80 percent mountainous due to the fantastic earthquakes, and my experience was just amazing really! I have so many pictures so I’ve posted a few with captions to tell of my adventures :)

(They're not in perfect order..please forgive...if you want to see more, check out my photos on http://www.myspace.com/ingridannalisa)

Almost forgot to bring this with me...kinda need it to leave the country and to get into another country....

The Busan Skyline at night....quite lovely actually :)
(Busan is a southern coastal town....very laid-back beach town though also a major port city, so lots of businesses here.)

Some foreign teachers I boarded with on the ferry over to Japan...here we are eating dinner at a fabulous Indian restaurant in Busan - it's where I boarded the ferry to Fukuoka/Hakata, Japan.

Busan Fish Market
(I saw an octopus trying to escape and the adjuma [respectfully older lady] just smacked it on the head and threw it back in the bucket!)

Boarding the Ferry!

Land in Fukuoka/Hakata (not sure why it has two names), jump on the Shinkansen bullet train and head to Yokohama, borrow about 3 cell phones on the way and meet Cousin Thomas!

Yokohama Tower - tallest building in Japan but on a humid day, it doesn't allow much in the way of city views as you can see below...

Cute group of young people in their yukatas (sorta the summer version of the kimono)

The Sony building had awesome aquarium setup to show off their latest and greatest gadgets. This stuff was sitting there for photo display? Haha, I seized the opportunity!

The Japanese version of "fast food." You put your money in a machine, the machines gives you a ticket, you give the ticket to the person at the counter and they bring your food. Quick, efficient and you don't have to speak a word of Japanese to eat here! Only problem is the machines are all in Japanese....so if you're not careful you could end up ordering horsemeat! When in doubt, look for surrounding pictures and order whatever looks good on those!

Girls of Harajuku (ijime-ko Cosplay-zoku)
They dress up like this, carry around their suitcases so they don't have to go home like this I believe, and want to have their picture taken - even though they act like they don't sometimes. There are certainly worse ways to rebel as a teenager, so I am glad these Japanese teens have made theirs entertaining for the rest of us :)

INVASION OF THE KUDZU!!!!!!!!!!
(Mom, Dad - This pic is for you and all May's Chapel Folks)

Imperial Palace Gardens at Sunset

HUGE Electronics Store

Haha...I'm addicted to Guitar Hero...this is as geeky as I got in that HUGE electronics store...

Tokyo Tower...and Thomas's thumb :)

Statues for protecting children

Tokyo fashion....all movements are alive and well in fashion - the hippie, the punk, the emo, the hip-hopper....but the messages of these movements are sorta lost...or non-existent haha.

Park leading to the Imperial Gardens

Rotating sushi restaurant - yum!

It was DELICIOUS!!! (OK, so I didn't eat all that...Thomas helped...a lil ;) )

I met fabulous folks along the way in Japan. In Kyoto, I toured around with a Japanese and his American friend. We kar-ah-ok-kayed our first night - good times! Below, Tak is demonstrating how Japanese guys can rock the purses (my purse in particular - HAH!).

Rokuonji Temple (Golden Temple)

Ryoanji Temple

Niji-jo Castle (Shogun)

Geisha hunting...not much luck

Peace Memorial - Hiroshima


Self Expanatory


The T- Bridge - the aiming spot for the atomic bomb


Children's peace memorial - made of origami paper cranes

The A-Dome - where the atomic bomb actually landed

The famous Shibuya Crossing! More people cross this interesection than cars!

Playing Catch-Up

I’m incredibly behind so for the next few posts, I will update you as best as I can on things....in no particular order.



~ I’ve visited the electronics market once and WOW! It spans as far as the eye can see. (Sorry for the cliché. I know it is bad writing, but I am trying to get as much info down as quickly as possible and it is the only thing I can thing of to describe how vast this place is. And yes, I know as much time as it has taken me to explain my bad writing, I probably could have thought of something better in its place but oh bother dash it all! I am only human….) You can find anything and everything related to electronics in this place. You have to be careful though. Fakes and phonies truly do look like the real thing in Korea….clothes and electronics included.






~ I went to a barbeque in Itaewon on the rooftop of a friend’s friend’s apartment building. The view was abasolutely awesome, as you can see from the picture! We had yummy hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, salads, casseroles, dips, etc. It was like a barbeque back home! Made up of mostly foreigners, I met an interesting group of people, older than most others I’ve hung out with. Many of these people either used to teach or are still teaching. Several I met are involved with the Seoul Players, an English community theatre group here in Seoul! I’ve ushered one show for them and might audition for the next show that comes around…




~ Shopping in Korea is amazing and overwhelming. There is SO much stuff…it is no wonder Koreans are so into fashion when it is everywhere and sold so incredibly cheap! The problem I am finding, however, is that I am much bigger than the average Korean girl. I have to be careful of what I buy…most places don’t let you try things on!








~ I really wish I had a picture of the HiSeoul Festival for Buddah’s birthday. I went on a Sunday evening, and wasn’t sure what to expect but what I saw was nothing I would have imagined. Koreans know how to put on an entertaining show. There were three stages set up in the middle of City Hall, with lights and streamers everywhere that changed colors. The most interesting thing of the evening was the repetitive event of young people wearing strange jester-like neon-colored costumes as they danced the same “Macarena” style dance (similar to what we did at the lantern festival) about 7 times over the course of an hour. While they did these dances, these TV screens flashed pictures that I found humorous looking of Buddah doing a happy dance overtop of various psychedelic backgrounds. I also got to hear (and sort of see from what I could stretch) “You’re the One that I Want” from Grease….in Korean. It was also incredibly strange! There were famous Korean singers, one who was famous about 10 years ago who is now in a wheelchair, and all kinds of different acts such as an all-girl drumming group, a tap dancer with a violinist, and the list goes on. At the end of the “shows,” my Korean friend told me that the announcer basically said, “Old people and children go home because it is late and we are going to have a dance party for the teenagers now.” Hahahaha, sometimes it is funny how blunt Koreans are…




~ The 2nd Annual Seoul World DJ Festival was…well a DJ Festival. I’d never heard of any of the DJ’s or bands…which confused me in the first place. Why were bands playing at a DJ festival? Oh well…. It was not as big as I had thought it would be but it extended over two days. There were a lot of people there, both foreigners and Koreans alike, all dancing to very loud unce unce music. That’s about all I have to say about that really….






~ “The BBoy and the Ballerina” was an amazing show! Korean teenagers are REALLY into hip-hop right now so it was basically a show made for teens to go watch some really good live hip-hop dancing. I was a little disappointed in the ballet portion of the show...they weren't even en pointe! Oh well.... I have pictures and video clips of some of the dancing but it really doesn’t do the show justice. There was so much talent in this dance fest!

Check out this video clip of some of the guys in the show!

OK enough for one entry….second one coming up soon with more catching up!