5 Cities, 5 Days
Here we go, finally. Last post to sum up our trip. Been putting this off too long, so thought I’d wrap this all into one post instead of dragging them out even longer.
The last leg of our trip was the most exhausting, because it was basically on our way home. After the day we traveled to Karuizawa, we were basically just heading back home. Karuizawa > Tokyo > Seoul > Xiamen > (bonus: ShenZhen layover) > Seattle.
Karuizawa was our day trip to get a change of pace from the busy city in Tokyo. Susan and I are both avid fans of Terrace House, and after both having watched the season “Terrace House: Opening New Doors” we decided to make the trip out there. We took the Shinkansen (aka bullet train), which wasn’t cheap but was the fastest and smoothest way there. It only took an hour, and we were comfortably seated on the train. When we arrived in Karuizawa, we decided to first check out the Prince Shopping Plaza since it’s right next to the main Karuizawa train top. We found lockers to store our luggage and then were free to roam around the mall relatively empty-handed. We had some food in the food court and browsed the shops. We ended up buying some clothes from a shop, but otherwise mostly window shopping. Our main plan was to stop by one of the Terrace House members’, Tsubasa’s, father’s soba restauranta, SaSs. On Day 1, unfortunately we arrived too late for lunch hours that they weren’t serving anymore. So instead, we had lunch at Prince before taking the train to our hostel for the night. We had booked a cute, traditional Japanese hostel that was super clean and elegant. There were bunk beds, and even a public onsen to use. Susan and I ended up being the only users in the female-only onsen, so we had a nice private bathing experience. We were also informed there were Matsuri festivities at a temple nearby, so we walked down the street to witness the most fireworks (paired to Japanese music) we had ever seen. In addition, there were tons of Karuizawa locals with girls running around in yukatas along with cute food and gaming stalls that you’d imagine finding at a Japanese summer festival. We had dinner, and got to take in the festive environment while it rained. The second day, we checked out of the beautiful hostel and went back to the center of Karuizawa. We had some time to check out Ginza street, a cute shopping street with lots of small storefronts. We also finally made it to SaSa, and had to have a quick lunch before taking the Shinkansen back to Tokyo.
After arriving back in Tokyo, we first checked into our capsule hotel in Asakusa. It was super futuristic-looking and clean, so we really enjoyed that experience. At night, we were able to squeeze in Meiji Shrine, Harry’s Hedgehog Cafe, ramen for dinner, another shrine visit for the Mitama Matsuri, and a neighboring temple to our hotel in Asakusa. Then we flew out the next morning back to Seoul, where after checking into our ~*fancy*~ hotel (thanks for the free anniversary night, Dad!) we met up with Susan’s friend from Cornell, Irene and had coffee at a cute cartoon-themed cafe. For dinner we got chimaek (fried chicken and beer, yum!), as well as took a nice evening stroll along the Han River.
The next day, we enjoyed the giant lap pool and awesome breakfast buffet before heading back to Incheon Airport. We boarded our flight to Xiamen, and after checking into the free transit hotel we explored some nearby streets. We even stumbled upon unlimited conveyer belt hot pot, which we wanted to try but didn’t know where to find one! Went to bed, and the next day boarded our looong flight back to Seattle (and ShenZhen, thanks Xiamen Airlines :P).
That pretty much sums up our epic, 2.5 week long trip to China/Korea/Japan. It was so much fun, even though we were exhausted halfway through the trip already since we packed so much in everyday. Definitely worth a visit, and I already can’t wait to go back to see all of the places we didn’t get to go to!