東京 Tokyo, Japan - Here again!^^

Our hotel was located in Kanda-area which is pretty much the center of Tokyo, and so it was the most easiest "base", from where to move around in Tokyo~ And just so you guys know; I don't usually stay in hotels and all, but because in Tokyo there aren't so many hostels/guesthouses like in Seoul and so we choose a cheap-ish hotel instead^^

Our hotel~

The room was (tiny but) really nice~ Haven't gotten this good sleep in a hostel for a long time^^

And because the breakfast wasn't inclueded we did some conpini-shopping (convenience store) and I just had to buy everything I normally would have bought when I was doing my exchange in kanagawa-area~

My normal food shopping while doing my exchange back in the days~

The day was so nice we did some walking, first to the meiji-jingu shrine near harajuku and then (of course) also the harajuku >> daizo-shopping~ Too bad the summer season was already closing so all the fans were mostly sold outT.T

Going to meiji-jingu with our starbucks coffees^^

While at harajuku~ (I know.. I take too many pics of my drinks^^')

After the harajuku-shopping, we walked to shibuya via yoyogi-park~ So pretty (and HOT) at this time of the year and day^^

Yoyogi-park~

Out lunch-of-the-day ^^ 

After eating our tummys to the fullest, we heade to shinjuku were we (or course~) went to visit the government building's observation deck like we always do~ and after that headed to the shinjuku central park~ the weather was nice and the day was really pretty so no wonder there were so many people outside....playing... eh? pokemonGO?!?!! O.o Really, so very many people playing(!!) WOW Japan!

Tried to hide from the players but they were everywhere~ :P

For an hour we joined everyone else to play some, but the evening getting darker and our schedule pushing through, we had to say goodbye to the game (and the co-players) and move on to the central shinjuku were we met some of Annika's old classmates for a drink~ ..or two.. and some karaoke later on~

All in all the day was nice with lots of walking done^^' haha even walked home from shinjuku, because it was too late to catch the last train^^' oh well~ my legs were about to die though not as bad as Annika's^^' Not to mention too much, I just have to say after the two-hour walk with many-many stops through out the walking... Well, just feeling ike never going to do that again^^' 

All the best,

Laura

From incheon to haneda*\(^o^)/*

Because of last night, we all were a little too-tired to get up or to do pretty much anything at all^^' we stayed in the whole afternoon, but whilst figuring things out me and Noora decided to go crab something to eat~ Annika on the other hand.. XD Well, she was really tired and so we left her to rest some more.

After some searching we wound this sushi-restaurant (in shinchon) which was really cozy and warm~

Sushi restaurant "롤집" Lime in shinchon~

They even had lunch menus still available when we rushed in so the prizes were even lower than normal~ you could just choose one sushi-plate and a drink, but the sets were quite reasonably priced and sized, and so we ended up taking the 2X sushi-plate and salad -set with drinks^^ 

After we had our wonderful lunch~ we headed to do some shopping and afterwards to a nice little cafe within the same area as the sushi-place~

We ordered a waffle and two special lattes~

Noora's new samsung phone is SO nice <3 all my wrinkles are gone;)

This was pretty much our last day in seoul together as Noora moved to her university-dorm the next day and me and Annika flew to Tokyo~~

The moving was pretty easy and all the people we met on our way were truly super nice^^ the room was on the 5th floor and she would be living with an exchange student from USA~ 

And so~ because we had some spear time on our hands we pretty much shopped the whole day, for Noora to get everything she would possibly need in her new room~ (pretty much kitchenware, cleaning equipment, air freshener...etc)

After saying our goodbyes to Noora we headed to the airport via taxi (cause we were too lazy to take the train^^' and in Seoul taxis don't really pay that much anyways~) and just when we had instructed the driver to go to the gimbo airport we realized... It is NOT the airport our flight is going to take off(!!!!) And to top that, we only had some couple hours left>.< Thankfully in Seoul the two airports (incheon and gimpo) are pretty close to each other, not to mention they have the same train-line to the central, so it was LUCKILY quite easy to change the airports:) THOUGH we were pretty

much panicking the whole time:D Though just to mention, this was probably the one-and-only-time that Annika was panicking MORE than me O.o ^^' I have no idea how I was so calm but I had this feeling that nothing could stop us and everything was in order as long as nothing else happened so I just rolled with it~ Probably my FIRTS time ever to just go with the flow, but I should learn from this and do it more often ay~ Cause everything turned out just fine~) at the end we made it to the airport just in time for the bagdrop and just fine to the gates too; before they even opened~ Luckily, I would say;)

The flight was pretty okay and took only 2 and a half hours which after (because everything was closed in the middle of night~) we had booked a bus-ride to a near onsen to stay over-night^^ There was just one problem.. We didn't know where exactly the bus would head off^^' So after looking and asking around we finally saw the bus coming to the airport and following it (more like running after it) finally got to the bus on time!:) It took about 15-20 minutes to the Heiwajima(平和島) onsen where we pretty much slept and relaxed through-out the night~

The entrance~

In the morning, they served breakfast(you could redeem with your coupon; which you got when you checked in), which was (for me atleast) the most luxurious breakfast I've had in any hostel~ and this was only an onsen afterall^^

Relaxing-room~

Also(!) SOME HOW, without nobody knowing, we had booked the exact same night at the onsen as one of my finnish japanese classmatesO.o So imagine my surprise when I saw him standing there in the middle of the night(!!). Turned out he had been in hokkaido doing he's internship for 3 months (which after hearing, I recalled hearing before and felt really stupid having had to ask^^'), he had gone to taiwan for some 2 months and whilst just came back to japan for a couple of days, before flying to SEOUL(?!) where he would be doing his exchange(!!) What?!:D So because of this unrealistically surprising event we decided to later-on meet up in tokyo as well as in seoul as soon as we could~

But that was pretty much all for the day^^ Lots and lots of surprising stuff (good and bad^^') happened but we made it through~ and now, its time for some sleep:)

All the best,

Laura

Friends and shots (홍대어딘가)

On an "early" morning we found ourselves at Itaewon, which is a type of foreign-friendly area in seoul (meaning, lots and lots of foreign food..and people^^') Annika had found this vegan restaurant she really wanted to try so we were on our way to check the place out~

The vegan restaurant was called "Plant" and being quite small, it can only fit around 10-13 people at a time.

UPDATE: They have launched a second shop closer to the Itaewon station, called cafe&kitchen with tons of space, leaving the first shop to represent the bakery-side of the Plant-chain.

Plant -restaurant in Itaewon

We ordered humus avocado salad and some tea~ the salad was okay, but because acovados were a little raw, I didn't enjoy the food so much. The bread and the humus were great though!^^

Afterwards we headed for a stroll in the near streets finding ourselves at garosu-gil, next to the line store and so~ well, we just had to go (again) and see what's new^^)/

LINE x muurla :O finnish design!

LINE x Arabia (!!) also Finnish design! What is happening here XD Finland represented way too well here XD

Also, before the garosu-gil adventure, Annika's amazing talent to find cute little cafes got us to this amazingly cute Banana tree -cafe near garosu-gil. It's quite small and pretty much has space for the maximum of 8 people in total so you need to go OFF-lunch and -coffee hours to fit in^^ But they offer one of the cutest desserts so you just HAVE to pay a visit to this one if you are in town!

flowerpot-dessert and cottoncandy-matcha with lattes were heavenly~ Totally recommended^^

Also, if you find this sop too tiny and cramped there are other shops around seoul-city, the newest one (and probably the biggest too) opened near Ttukseom station~

After our shopping-tour in garosu-gil it started raining and so we headed to hongdae-area where we were supposed to meet some of Annika's friends from Japan~ thankfully the rain stopped pretty soon and we were able to do some window-shopping while trying to find a place to eat and well~ drink^^ because it seoul and hongdae after-all~

All-in-all we went to 3 different restaurants/bars and had pretty fun time with our new friends, though~ because of the lateness while coming back, all the trains were out of service already and we needed to take a taxi^^' well luckily in seoul, taxis are SO CHEAP(!!) so our 3-4km taxi-ride cost only ~3€ (3,000 won) and we got home safe~

One of the bars we went offered a shot-plate (you can choose either 8,12 or 24 shots) and because there were so many of us, we decided to take the 24^^ all-in-all we took two of them plates~ so one person got 6-7 shots. I have to say, because the shots consisted mainly of vodka, and because we were in korea, they were not so strong (at least for us europeans~) so 7 shots was like drinking a glass of strong red-wine^^'

I'm so grateful we met these awesome people and that hopefully we can meet them again in japan~ but for now~

All the best,

Laura

Bingsu x Chicken : Lazy-Day-In

Because of the jetlag finally pushing through (or then it was just the late-night stay-ups that finally got to us^^') ended up sleeping through-out the day and while everybody else was getting their dinners.. Well~ we got some breakfast^^)/

설빙 Seolbing (korean dessert cafe) at ewha station

Cheese-mochi sticks <3

Our bingsu of the day (bingsu : shaved ice/ice cream + milk) this one was with berries and yogurt~

And then some blog-stuff and texting -time^^

After our breakfast we pretty much just walked around for some 20min and then returnes back to the hostel... To order MORE food:D It was the first time ordering chicken delivery in korea so we were pretty excited~ Tho, actually we got the downstair lobby-personel to order it for us so we didn't have to speak so much korean whilst^^ But, nevertheless we got a delivery-chicken <3

Our chicken <3

And so~ our lazy-day-in was coming to its end while watching drama and chitchatting all evening-long^^

Tomorrow will probably be a little-bit more active, as we go circle some more cafes and see some more friends, so don't worry~ and also, I try to put up some more pages to the cafes we have been, where to find them and how much would a cup-of-coffee and a piece-of-cake usually cost^^

But for now~

All the best,

Laura

First couple of day in SEOUL

The last three days have been a blast really^^, and even though it's only been what some would call an extended-weekend so far, it feels like we were able to do so much already!

On friday we did some necessary tourist-stuff like going to the N Seoul tower (finally ended up going to the top of the tower aswell~) which after we were so hungry we had to skip going anywhere else and decided to go eat 내명 (cold noodles).

Found this really nice new~ish place near cheonggyecheon stream (located in the road between the Jonggak station (종각역) and Euljiro-1-ga station (을지로입구역)) called Pomato (포마토). The restaurant serves noodles aswell as a large range of different kinds of korean food like bibimbap and old-school lunch boxes.^^

Also, when you enter (like in many places in Japan~) there is a food-ticket machine from where you make and pay your order. First you can seek a table, because there is a menu with pictures on them, and after you have decided, go to the machine (located on the back of the store for some reason(?):O) and choose your order, insert the money and take out the food-ticket aswell as your change. Then just give the food-ticket to the ahjumma on the counter (and if she's not looking just shout your order at the same time^^) and go back to your table~ Side-dishes are located next to the entrance )to be fetched on your own) and the water is in the fridge next to the counter. Everything works via self-service:)

On Saturday,

because it was ANNIKA's BIRTHDAY(!!)

we woke up earlier than normal (9~ish :D haha) and headed to the mountains where the cafe Annika really wanted to visit was located.^^ After some hopeless walking (pretty much HIKING up the hill) and unrealistic-like sweating TT.TT we finally made it to the Sanmotoonge (산무통이 카페).

I have to say, the hike was worth it, when we saw the scenery from the backyard/balcony.. but the heat was so unrealistic it made sitting outside feel like a struggle.. for me atleast^^'

Luckily when we headed back to the city, we got to refresh ourselves by the gwanghwamun square (광화문광장) when the waterfountains were suddenly turned on~ much needed help for the humidity and the heat that had climbed up to the 36 degrees^^'

After eating, visiting a YP bookstore and having some coffee-time in the near coffeesmith cafe we headed to our hostel to relax and change before some makgeolli-drinking and karaoke~

Really good noodle-reataurant (also) near cheonggyecheon stream~ noora found this place for us^^

It was really cheap, only ~6,000won for lunch per person^^

this makgeolli house was really nice, located in sinchon. (it also has another restaurant in hongdae, but this one is smaller and so in my opinion, much cozier~). (막걸리싸롱 - makgeolli salon)

At the end of the night, went to the near convenience-store to spend some left-over time before going to sleep~ All-in-all, it was a very successful day but in the end I was also really happy to press my head to the pillow and just shut my eyes for the day^^/

Aaaannd,

Happy Bday Annika<3

All the best,

Laura