Slightly delayed but our departure from Seoul and Japan

Monique on our last ever visit to Youngdo, doesn't she look happy!

This next adventure started out with Monique and Michael heading to Busan. They found a cheap motel and set out do discover the city. Unknowingly they ended up in the "red light district" of Busan which is known for being extremely dangerous and filled with Russians. It was a little warm up as to what they were in store for the real Russia. Nonetheless the Busan trip was a little uneventful so they made their way to Japan on the ferry boat.


Three hours later they arrived in Fukuoka. Fukuoka is a small port city of Japan which offered a lot of great walking tours and we also got to see some more palaces/temples. One day was definitely enough to absorb all that this port city had to offer.

Fukuoka at least had some night life.

After the tour of Fukuoka they continued their trip to one of Japan's most loved cities, Kyoto. Kyoto was a beautiful city with a lot to see and do. We only had a few days so we had to make the best of it. We started the day by touring the massive gardens and palace of the Emperor and Empress. This was a huge area of land in the middle of the city which many people flocked to everyday to relax, have a picnic and play some sports. That night we headed out for some night life. We had dinner at a great Japanese restaurant and continued the night with some drinks on the town.




Monique at the entrance of the gardens.

A building made out of garden

We needed to quench our thirst and came across "Sprite, sexier than water"

Michael and Monique


You were asked to wash before entering the temple.

So Monique washed...

The next day they travelled to Tokyo to meet up with Brent. Brent was alive and well waiting for them at the airport in true style with his cowboy hat and all. We prepared Brent for Japan's extremely hot weather and set out for the hostel. This being Brent's first hostel experience he was a little nervous and scared we think. This hostel offers you a "capsule" (like a coffin) to sleep in and then it is shared washrooms and showers. Brent got over it eventually but continued to fear everything he owned would be stolen. As we were all starving we head out to a little quaint restaurant for dinner and beer. (on a side note, Michael waited forever for his food and when it did come he wasn't impressed, the next day when we stayed in puking all day he was even less impressed).

After dinner Brent was still very tired but he wanted to shower and have some drinks in the common lounge. Everything was going well until Brent asked Monique where his backpack was and she answered, Michael had it, Michael responded no you had it. This lead to Brent and Monique's first panic attack, as they searched their hostel floor from top to bottom. Meanwhile calm and collected Michael retraced Brent's steps and found his bag in the shower room. It was a terrible beginning to that day but it ended up being a good laugh for the rest of the trip.

The next day Monique and Brent set out to discover Tokyo (Michael stayed in bed at the hostel puking from the previous night’s dinner). They started their journey at the Imperial Palace and the Imperial Gardens. They saw some beautiful gardens and scenery but more importantly spent the day bonding and laughing. After the palace and lunch they headed to Asakusa where they visited the famous shrine (Michael finally felt better and joined us here). After a few hours of enjoying the palace and area they headed back to the hostel to get ready for a big night out on the town. They went for another great dinner (on a side note, Japan has the smallest portions of food in the world we think). Then they headed to the red light district where they discovered men standing on street corners with pamphlets of different women their club had to offer. This is how they lured men into their clubs, they even had clubs trying to lure women in. However Monique wasn't interested, she thought all the men looked like Asian Andre Boisvert (sorry Andre, but look at the pics, it's kinda true???). They continued the night in search of the gay district so Brent could get a feel of the gay scene. After searching high and low for this stupid bar that we passed 6 times before noticing the sign we finally went in for a delicious drink. We met some great people from all over the world and had a good time drinking and chatting.

This is at the gay bar,but it was so smokey that none of us could open our eyes for the photo.

Note: Michael as we said was sick, so there are limited photos for this day and by limited I mean one.

The next day we continued exploring Tokyo and brought along a new friend of ours Romaric. Romaric is from France and unfortunately his stay in Japan started off on the wrong foot by losing all of his luggage. But that didn't stop him from sightseeing. We started the day by heading to the Fish Market. We got to see some pretty "gross" looking things however the market was just closing as we got there, so unfortunately I think we missed a pretty good show. After smelling like fish we left to go to the famous shopping district in Shibuya. This is where the famous 5 direction people crossing is and millions of shopping stores (however everything seemed to be directed at women and Brent was a little disappointed in the lack of men's clothes). After some lunch and shopping we left Romaric to head to Osaka!!!

Yummy and expensive

Knives for an obvious use

Aftermath


Brent being Brent

Our new friend Romaric and us for dinner


Brent praising the oh so cool Shibuya Crossing

Shibuya Crossing

Brotherly and Sisterly love

We arrived in Osaka, made our way to our new oh so cute Hotel (however in a very shady district of town). We had our first "traditional" dinner which consisted of cabbage dipped in soy sauce as an appetizer, sushi (tuna and salmon), deep fried cheese and ramen. Brent "forced" Monique to try some of the sushi, Monique reluctantly swallowed some of the tuna sushi, her response was "Ya I still don't like it!". We continued the night with some more beers and ice cream. Brent and Michael went down to the hotels "bath house" to enjoy some saunas and hot tubs.

Cabbage dipped in soy sauce...mmmm yummy

Brent's deep friend cheese stick

In the morning the trio set out to do some exploring in Osaka. We visited another of the Emperor's palaces. It was quite beautiful, surrounded by a moat and gardens. We went into the main building, which had been reverted into a museum and an observatory deck on the highest floor. It offered great views of the city and informative information about the Japanese war. We continued our walking tour and headed to the famous Floating Garden building. The building is suppose to look like the middle is floating, it kinda did. Nonetheless the building and the view was beautiful. We went all the way up to the 49th floor, and watched the sun set with a beer. Then we took some night photos of the city as well.



The Palace Wall

The palace up close

Brent being inappropriate with the canon

Michael and Monique

Monique ruining a beautiful photo

After Monique was told to leave the photo she discovered something funny and shared

The add says "Now I won't have to worry about almost being hit in the face with a lit cigarette"

The floating garden building

The "warp tunnel" (escalator) to the top

The trio

The night view from the top

After we headed to the red light district for some dinner, we found a restaurant that appealed to every one's tastes. Had some beers and Brent got silly! After a few too many we headed home to our little hotel.

The next day we awoke and had some yummy breakfast at a neat place Brent had found then headed to the train station for Fukuoka. We didn't spend any time there this time around, we just got on the Ferry boat to Korea (which on a side note we almost missed because of the boys). The Ferry boat wasn't what rent was expecting and the whole time we were all pretty sea sick. We were happy to get off and be on land again!
Our chariot

We decided to stay in Busan for a few nights before taking the rain to Seoul. In Busan we checked out some of the cool/crazy food markets which kind of made our stomachs churn. After a few hours of walking we headed towards Haeundae Beach for a swim. It was nice and refreshing! On the wait out we stumbled upon some random and interesting items. One being air blowing torches to remove the sand off your body. After 20 mins of blowing the sand off ourselves we continued on to find the Gem of Busan... Coin operated bumper cars, unattended in the middle of nowhere. We all got on and bumped around for a while. As usual Michael picked a dud and lost some money, but it was all in good fun. Brent even picked the one that sang Happy Birthday continuously for several LONG minutes!

Ginseng root

Korea's famous red pepers

Haeundae Beach

The air spray machine things to get sand off you

Bumper Cars!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That night we headed out to the bar scene. Monique was craving Nachos and an expat on the street guided us to this bar called the Basement. We ended up spending the whole night here drinking and playing pool. The boys got asked to play a game called Killer Shark where everyone puts in 1000 won and whoever wins gets the pot. Brent won the second round!!!! On the way home the boys sat in the back seat of a cab mouthing off to anyone and anything, they were a sight for sore eyes. This lead the taxi driver to believe Monique needed some saving and handed her a CD/DVD of Jesus Christ and his benefits. It made for an interesting end to the night.

Brent the pool shark

The next morning was slow moving for everyone. We had some breakfast then headed to the train station to get to Seoul. We arrived in Seoul and unfortunately got taken to the wrong Hotel, it was a bad way to start the day for hung over people, but we eventually got to our hotel.
We started Brent's tour of Seoul in the foreigners district called Itaewon. We had a some Kraze burgers and relaxed. Michael then met up with an old friend Julia who just came to Korea. They went out for dinner and Monique and Brent headed to Dongdaemun for some serious shopping. Monique having no money just looked and Brent bought some really nice and cheap ties

Michael and Julia

After an alcohol free night and a good sleep we were much better prepared to start the day. We headed to Insadong for some cultural shopping then to the Gyeongbokgeong Palace to show Brent a little history of Korea. We even got the opportunity to wear Hanbok (traditional Korean clothes). It was Chuseok so everyone was dressed up in Hanbok and it looked beautiful. That night we headed to Bundang to show Brent our school and meet our coworkers.

Us in our Hanbok

Brent being cute

The trio

Brent jumping through the gate of longevity

The next day was uneventful, Brent went to the DMZ and we did banking stuff. The following day (our last in Seoul) we did some more sightseeing at Namsan tower. Then we took Brent to a Jinjilbang (Korean Bath house). That night we went out again with our coworkers. Brent spent his time in the gay district and met up with us eventually and was quite tipsy again! We had a great last night at Polly's and left Seoul on a high note.

This is where our time in Korea ends. After a year in this beautiful country we are happy to say it was an incredible experience. But we are also ready to move on. From here is where we start our incredible 6 month travel journey.... first stop Russia!