Hongdae: Heart and Soul of Youth Culture

Happy Monday everyone!

My friends and I couldn't go to Seoul and not visit Hongdae. Hongdae is a vibrant and upbeat area of Seoul and located near Hongik University. It is very much the epitome of Korea's youth culture with it's streets lined with a plethora of cafes, clubs, clothing stores and urban street art. Hongdae is well-known for its clubbing atmosphere and even houses N2 which is run by one of the Big 3 record companies in Korea: YG Entertainment. Although we didn't go clubbing, it was easy to spot potential clubbers at nighttime as we walked down the streets with music blasting from every store and club.

Indie music, Jazz and other underground bands are popular--we even saw quite a few street performers! Hongdae is the place for young adults to congregate and have a good time. Because it attracts such a large number of youth, prices are always reasonable which we found to be extremely helpful :) Enjoy!

Made it to Hongdae!

I can't even...

Apparently cars can park in the middle of the street which confused me for the first five minutes as I kept waiting for the cars to drive by.. -___-;

For all you Hello Kitty fans out there :) Didn't go inside, but just seeing it was enough for me! 

More shopping~ cheap clothes everywhere for the budget-friendly college student :)

Cute accessory stores with cheap accessories? Yep!

Saw this sign and made a beeline :D You can't say no to 32 cm of ice cream!

Yep...I could definitely get used to eating this quite often :)

Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream for those of you who love science :) They had party lights, loud music and made it right in front of you too! 

Haven't been to many festivals, but I can guarantee you that I have never seen that before...

A definitely interesting building entrance! Talk about eye-catching.

Who knew CDs could be so pretty~ :)

That's it for today~ I hope you enjoyed the photos! Have a wonderful week ^^

Korea: First Hours

Happy Wednesday everyone! :)

Korea has been on my bucket list for quite some time, so when the opportunity came to travel to Seoul with a few friends, I didn't hesitate. I thought staying in Seoul for the entire four days would give us an ample amount of time to do everything that we wanted to do and we were lucky enough to cross off most of the attractions from our list. Today's post will cover the first few hours of our arrival. Enjoy! :)

Arrived at Incheon Airport by mid morning and caught an airport shuttle bus to Hyewa. We almost had the entire bus to ourselves!

En route to Seoul

From the bus stop in Hyewa, it was a five minute walk to our hostel. If you want to save money on accommodations, I highly recommend looking into hostels. Our total per person for three nights ended up being around 70,000 won or seventy dollars. 

One of the many shopping streets in Hyewa. We ended up walking through here every day while going to the station. The only downside--many stores don't open until 10:30 or 11:00 so if you want to get an early start, I recommend going somewhere that doesn't have specific hours...

Our first meal in Korea!! I loved eating all of the side dishes :]

Ordered some gochujang bulgolgi and it came with an egg dish very similar to chawan mushi. Couldn't finish it, but it was sooooo yummy!

Walked around for a bit after eating lunch and these socks...can they get any cuter??They were everywhere and I wasn't going to complain about that :)

Fresh fruit juice? Yes, please!! They combined fruit with some ice and a little bit of sugar in a blender...

..and you get a yummy, refreshing fruit drink!! My friend was pretty stoked about her watermelon juice ^^

Caught the train to the college area of Ihwa where you can turn your shopping mode on :)

I thought it was cute to see couples walking around in Korea because couples in Japan aren't as prone to showing affection such as holding hands, hugging, etc. in public as Koreans are (did anyone notice the matching shoes that the couple in the back have?)

Fruit is quite expensive in Kobe so when we saw vendors selling huge chunks of them for cheap, my friend couldn't resist buying one for herself!

Hello watermelon~ :D

Shoes, shoes, and more shoes! Some stores were selling them for 10,000 won (ten dollars), others for 20,000 won and some stores allowed customers to bargain for them! 

With the immense popularity of K-pop idols, having their pictures on adorable, cheap socks wasn't really a choice :) I ended up buying a pair of Taeyang socks for myself because let's be honest--I would never see socks like those ever again ^^

Had to resist the urge to buy every Disney sock that I saw....

Every street had a makeup store. No joke. Some streets had four makeup stores right next to each other...

Fake glasses galore~ =] I was so excited to try these on!

For only a dollar a pair you can't just buy one...

That's it for this post! Next post will be from Hongdae :] Thank you so much for reading and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Coming Soon: Korea pictures :D

Happy Tuesday everyone~ :)

I'm so sorry for not posting anything for awhile :( My trusty old laptop finally gave out on me right after I came back from a trip, so I had to get a new laptop and wait for it to come in and everything. But! I promise that I'll have a lot of new posts coming soon ^^

 I went to Korea for a few days with some friends and  I'll definitely be posting quite a few pictures :) Here's a picture that I took from Ihwa Mural Village. The first time that my friends and I went there, it was a little crowded with tourists, so I decided to go again the next day-- this time, I went a lot earlier and had the entire place to myself!

Thank you so much for being patient and I can't wait to post more photos soon! Have a wonderful week ^^

Obon Summer: Nadeshiko no Bon part 2

Happy Friday everyone :)

Here's part 2 from the bon odori that I went to at Seishin-Chuo! ^^

Japan is known for having hundreds-if not thousands-of mascots and characters. Each prefecture, city, ward, etc. has a designated mascot :] If I remember correctly, this is the mascot for kita-ku (the north ward) of Kobe

Bingo!! :] Prizes ranged from bottles of wine from the Kobe winery to small toys and cute towels ^^

My favorite part! Getting ready to dance ^^ 

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 

Obon Summer: Nadeshiko no Bon Part 1

Happy Tuesday everyone! :)

Summer time in Japan is quite eventful with all of the local bon odori that occur in various neighborhoods, towns, cities, etc. and it's always fun to attend them. The air is filled with the smell of food, music and excitement as people don their summer yukata and gather around the yagura (a wooden scaffold) in a circle to dance. It's a time to remember their ancestors and each region in Japan has a local dance as well as certain music.

I attended this specific bon odori last year, but didn't bring my camera, so I was determined to bring it this year! :) This event is held at the winery in Seishin-Chuo, but they offer complimentary shuttles to and from the place, which made it very convenient! I hope you enjoy the pictures :)

The event staff were very catering to us-- they helped us put on our yukata and also had extra ones for people who didn't have their own :)

We got there a little over an hour before the event started, but it was really nice to see the lanterns hung up ^^

The dark yukata club! I love the colors :)

My other traveling half!! And she's probably one of the nicest people you'll ever meet :D

Had to do a sneaky shot at the hip because they gave me funny looks...but they were all having fun talking story :]

More people began to come and you could hear children laughing all over the place ^^

I love looking at all the different colored yukata that people wear to the bon odori! The designs, patterns and colors never cease to amaze me. 

The festivities began with a performance from a local group and I must say, the little boy in the middle was way too adorable for his own good!

Couldn't resist snapping a photo of the children line-up :) The fact that all of them were wearing yukata made this one a bonus!

Watching the performance on the sidelines...

Thank you so much for reading :) Part two will be up later this week!