Korea

Well as some of you already may know I went to Korea last weekend.  I don't have all the pics gathered up  and sorted out yet, so I am going to just show a few I took on my phone :)

I can't even remember, but I think this is the Emperor or whatever leader it is that Korea has/had.  Sorry my Korean historical culture awareness isn't good lol :(

Below that statue underground is a museum which had various things such as this wall scroll with Korean on it.  I can't read Korean, seems really confusing although I can read Japanese lol.  I guess if I put the time towards it I could learn it.

Cool swords

Behind the statue above are these pillars which are in front of a really large and probably the most famous temple in Seoul.

First meal was amazing, highlight of the trip was probably the food.

Top half of Seoul tower.

Rode a Gondola up the mountain where the tower is located and the view was really nice.

Famous shopping area Myeongdong.

90% of the cars here were Hyundai/KIA and they had some really nice ones, as well as many types I had never seen or even knew existed.

Last picture for now is walking around Myeongdong shopping area.  They had tons of all the big name shops in the building and then the streets were covered in food stands and knockoff products :/  This pic was taken before it was busy, eventually the whole street was so packed you could barely walk, it was crazy.

That's all for the time being.  

My concluding opinion:

Korea is pretty cool and has really good shopping/food, but I think one time was enough.  There was hardly anything to really see and I found it kind of boring as a touristy type place.  Of course living in Japan the last few years has possibly tainted my opinion on other parts of Asia, but it just didn't have anything that wowed me.  People aren't as nice/proper as they are in Japan and generally most places aren't as clean either.  People follow you around in stores and try to get you to buy stuff and its just really annoying.  I expect those type of things in less developed countries, but Seoul seems highly developed as a city itself.  The trains were very nice and cheap so that was a plus.  The hotel was also very nice and only ran about $70 a night.  Food was very cheap and most of the store workers could speak either English or Japanese so communication was pretty easy.  Everyone was helpful that couldn't speak either of those languages though, so you can definitely get around without knowing Korean.  I would say it's a cool place to come once, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone from the other side of the world to come here just for vacation.  In my opinion Korean sounds like a mixture of Chinese/Japanese and it got really old listening to all the time lol.  Running into Japanese or English speaking tourists was like music to my ears haha.  No regrets for going at all but by the 3rd day I was ready to get back to Japan <33

More pics later!