A week before i moved back to the US, i took a 6 day trip to Japan by myself. It was my first real trip someone alone and it was very fun. I was a little worried at first that I’d get lost trying to find my hotel, or something else might cause problems, but I didn’t run into any problems during the whole trip (except once i bought the wrong subway ticket).

During my stay in Tokyo, i did various sightseeing, visited a coworker from about 7 years ago, visited a friend i had met during my first semester at Yonsei, visited Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea, and bought a lot of snacks and souvenirs. The time in Japan was fun being alone and wandering around, but I think I would have liked it a bit better with a friend there to hang out with. Though, being alone let me spend as much time in one spot as i wanted without worrying about another person feeling bored.

Tokyo was very clean and I didn’t get stared at which kind of surprised me a bit since I got stared at all the time in Korea. I quickly learned that Japan and Korea (at least Tokyo and Seoul) are very different even though they are both very modern crowded cities. I enjoyed Tokyo and want to go back and visit for a longer time, but not sure when I’ll get another chance. Tokyo is fairly expensive compared to Seoul, and I spent a lot while I was there. The flight and hotel were reasonable; just about $1100 for the whole package (6 days/5 nights).

I think next time I go, I will visit Osaka. I’ve met a lot of nice Japanese people from Osaka during my Korean studying, and they all said i need to visit them there in the future. I think visiting another country is more fun when you get a chance to visit the people who live in the country and see how life is there. Sightseeing is fun too, but the interaction with the people who live there is more fun to me 🙂 That’s what impressed me the most about Korea; when I got to live at a Korean family’s house for 2 weeks and meet many nice Koreans. It made a big impression on me 🙂


Anyway, I’ve uploaded a lot of pictures I took while I was there on flickr:
» Tokyo
» Tokyo Disneyland
» Tokyo Disney Sea