Day 6 (July 25) - Taking it Easy in Gangnam

 We both woke up at around 6 AM after heading to sleep early the night before. Despite not sightseeing, I do feel that everyday has been relatively productive. Also, it seems I've adjusted my sleep schedule! We both headed down to the onsen and took a bath. Like yesterday afternoon, it wasn't too busy with only 3 other men in the public bath.

Once we finished, we headed back up to decide what to do for breakfast. We eventually settled to try out the buffet they had. Since we didn't include it in our booking, we purchased two breakfast tickets from the front desk and headed towards the restaurant: Hatago.

Breakfast was a buffet that focused on, what I felt, a mixture of Japanese and Korean cuisine. They also had some Western choices with sausages, toast, and cereal. I loaded up my first tray with a variety of side dishes, while helping myself to a bowl of rice and some bulgogi beef as my main. I went back after for some yogurt and nuts, and to finish with some small pastries for dessert. After breakfast, we headed back to our room. She had an appointment while I had nothing in particular planned. With that said, she headed out first while I took some time to relax in the hotel. After some time have passed, I got ready myself and headed out to meet her. 

I had some chores to do, such as topping up the T Money card I got from her (lost mine somewhere after 2023), and exchange some Canadian dollars for Korean won. Once I finished everything I needed to do, I headed to a nearby bus stop to catch the 4312 bus to the Olive Young near her appointment spot. It should be my first time taking a bus in South Korea, though it reminds me of the buses in Japan. With the bus I took, you tap in at the front while tapping out at the back when you leave. 

Once we met up, we walked towards a bagel place: London Bagel Museum. It didn't look too busy, so we stopped by a shoe store nearby to check out shoes before heading back to London Bagel Museum. After we picked out two bagels, she headed on upstairs to find a seat while I waited in line to make the purchase and to grab some truffle mushroom soup. Luckily, she was able to grab us two armchairs. I ate and started eating. One bagel, I think was called Potato Cheese, while the other one was some sort of pretzel cheese? They were alright, though nothing to write home about. The fillings had enough flavor, though didn't pack too much of a punch. The mushroom soup complements the bagels well enough. We took our time to eat, so we could enjoy sitting back in the arm chairs. The ambiance of the top floor was pleasant; reminded me of an old English house (even though I never explored England). After eating, we stopped by the gift shop quickly before heading to her next appointment which happened to be a nearly three hour class for her to learn some new techniques for applying make up (if I recall correctly). 

The walk was somewhat hot, but pleasant as we made down the streets. We were in a trendy part of Gangnam with a lot of high end boutique shops. I even caught a glance of a bunch of teenagers/young adults coming out of a shop that I assume were streamers. One guy had a Go Pro and, assuming he was talking to his phone, asking "Chat" where to head next. Maybe I'm getting too old, but I honesty don't understand those kind of streamers. Anyways, we made it to the location of her class. I had three hours to explore on my own, including a figure museum nearby. However, I didn't want to walk the 20+ minutes, so I ended up spending 3 hours on the comfy couch they had in their reception area. It was nice to just sit and relax with A/C. I was able to take a short nap and go through my photo app and delete duplicate/unnecessary photos. 

Once she was finished, we headed to another Olive Young so she could purchase some supplies. Once stocked, we headed back to the area near our hotel. We stopped by the arcade to finally play some Bishi Bashi, though we had some issues with the machines. The first machine we tried wouldn't accept our 500 Won coins while the other machine kept eating coins. After getting a staff member to give us credit for our play, we played till we were done playing. With that said, we headed back to the hotel.

My memory is a bit fuzzy here, but I think we took another bath. It was getting close to dinner, but we didn't feel like travelling out. With that said, we ordered BHC and had it delivered to our hotel. It was the first time I ever had a food delivery to a hotel, but it was a relatively smooth process. I was able to meet the dasher (not sure what they're called) at the main lobby. After eating, we just took the rest of the night easy.

Our last full day in Seoul! Even though this is my shortest trip thus far, each day is relatively packed with activities/shopping. Like the Manyo Club day, it was nice to not do much, on my end at least.

I like how the buses here have huge stop buttons. It makes it a lot easier to press, especially if a bus is crowded. 

Day 5 (July 24) - Good bye Japan, Hello South Korea!

 As of recently, I'm fortunately eligible to take interline flights as a standby passenger. Despite being on the bottom of the priority list, it does open doors to more places around the world. With all that said, it allowed us to travel from Tokyo to Seoul for a fraction of the cost of a normal ticket. We were trying to catch a 9 AM flight, so we got up at around 5 AM to do one last pack before leaving. We also had some snacks to finish, so I got busy working on that while she did most of the packing haha. 

The subway to Haneda Airport was busier than I expected at 6 AM. I was expecting most passengers to get off at earlier stations, but it turned out that a lot of them didn't get off till the last terminal. We got off one station before hand and headed straight to Korean Air's kiosks to check in our luggage and see what seats we got. Since we were standby, they customer service agent had to double check with her manager to get the go-ahead to place us onto the 9 AM flight. Luckily, there were enough seats and we were able to sit beside one another on the flight. After dropping off our bags, we headed to get breakfast at an ochazuke restaurant, Hitoshinaya. For those of you not familiar with ochazuke, it's hot tea, dashi or simply just water on top of rice. We both opted for the "Rice soaked in Japanese broth set meal", which had a bunch of side dishes that I don't know all the names of, but each was quite delicious. The thing with Japanese cuisine, in my opinion, is that it's mostly subtle flavors working together in harmony with one another. No one flavor typically stands out. I can safely say that each of the 8 side dishes did that just right. The broth seemed to be made out of mostly dashi (this I'm quite sure), and it complemented the rice well. You could ask for an extra bowl of rice, but I didn't want to feel too full before a flight.

Once we finished eating, we headed to go through security so that we can go to our gate. Boarding went quite smoothly. The configuration on the plane was 2-4-2, so we both ended up sitting in the middle in the middle set of seats. Fortunately the plane ride was relatively short, so it wasn't too much of a deal. I ended up just listening to music as the plane flew to Gimpo airport. I was surprised that they offered us a meal, making me thankful that I didn't eat too much breakfast. 

When we arrived at Gimpo, I believe there were at least 3 other flights that landed around the same time as us. There was an enormous line trying to get through immigrations. I was going to go line up, but my girlfriend told me to follow her through their SES line. I was under the impression that I couldn't go through the SES line since I didn't apply for mine, but they allowed me to enter through the priority/crew line which quite literally saved me an hour. I'm guessing this is how long it took to get through immigrations since we had to wait at least 30 minutes to get our luggage. While waiting for luggage, there was barely anyone standing by us to collect.

With our luggage in hand, my girlfriend booked us a taxi to take us to our hotel: Dormy Inn Seoul Gangnam. It took us about 40 minutes to get to the hotel, yet it only was about $40 CAD. Dormy Inn is a Japanese hotel chain that I feel is an upscaled APA. When we got to the hotel, I heard a bunch of guests speaking Japanese. For a second, I thought I was still in Japan. Since it was only around 11 AM, we weren't allowed to check in yet, so we dropped our bags and headed down to Gangnam-daero. Thank goodness we took a taxi, for Dormy Inn is located halfway up a hill. I would not want to walk up a hill lugging luggage behind me! We stopped by a contact store called Hapa Kristin. This particular store seemed to have a collaboration (or perhaps the entire brand has a collaboration) with Jang Wonyoung. I can't say I know much about her since I don't listen to as much Kpop nowadays, but I'm assuming she's the new or current It girl in South Korea. After browsing a bit, we decided it was time for lunch.

We found a Korean BBQ Beef/Hanwoo restaurant called Iipyeon Sirloin Gangnam. We got one set lunch meal that came with two pieces of meat. Besides that, we had a cold noodle dish (forgot the name) and tofu stew. A wide variety of side dishes was also provided and I got myself a grapefruit soda to sip on while we ate. The nice thing about this restaurant was a staff member grilled the meat and vegetables for us, so I didn't have to worry about not cooking the meat properly (brings back bad memories of 2017 Saga Beef). The beef was quite tasty that was accented with a variety of seasonings that you can pick: salt, wasabi or mustard. I had to say that the mustard was my favorite seasoning to use as I ate my portion of the set. The cold noodles and tofu stew were also quite delectable as well. Once finished, we paid and made our way back to walk down Gangnam-Daero. 

After making a quick stop at the local arcade, and back to Hapa Kristin to purchase some contact lenses, we made our way back up the hill to our hotel to check in. I was thoroughly impressed at how nice the room was; we booked a twin room, so we each had our own beds. There was plenty of space left for a loveseat and table, along with your standard desk and chair. After settling in for a while, we went to take a bath at their public bath in the basement. We also had to do laundry, so we packed an APA plastic bag with all of our dirty clothes. Fortunately, washing your clothes was free. We only had to pay 2000 won (about $2 CAD) to use the dryer for 40 minutes.

Like an onsen, the men's side had a few baths for one to try: the standard public bath, soaking tubs and a cold bath. What was unique were they had standing showers, instead of the traditional sit down to shower type stalls I often see in Japan. After our bath, I went over to their small canteen to grab a free popsicle. We headed back to our room to wait for the washer to be done, before I headed back down to load the dryer. I initially didn't have small enough change to use the dryer so I made a purchase at a nearby vending machine for small change. With the dryer full and set to run at high, I headed back upstairs to wait.

Once the dryer was done, I headed back down to collect our clothes. Due to my error at setting it high, some of our clothes shrunk a bit or got damaged by the high heat sadly. After surveying the damage, and folded the clothes, we headed back out for the night. Maybe because we were located in Gangnam, but I felt the city really came alive during the night unlike the constant droves of people in Tokyo. We stopped by an ArtBox (like The Loft), grabbed some bubble tea from Hey Tea and went back to the arcade. The arcade was a lot busier than I expected, and the arcade game we wanted to play (Bishi Bashi) was occupied. We ended up playing some other mini games (ie: shooting hoops, buggy racing, and a VR horse obstacle course) before heading out to the Olive Young across the street. We purchased a bunch of snacks (low calorie and quite well made) before heading back out. Instead of heading to a restaurant for dinner, due to it being somewhat early (around 8 PM), we decided to head back to the hotel first since we didn't want to wait in line. 

We packed what we purchased into our luggage before deciding to not go out for dinner. I was feeling tired from all that walking, so we decided to get dinner at the hotel. Every night, they offer free ramen. I took a quick shower and we headed on down for our meal. For being free, the ramen and side dishes offered (kimchi and pickled radish) was quite good. After eating, we headed back to our room to wind down for the night.

Another busy day with traveling included! Seoul didn't feel as hot as Tokyo, which was welcoming. As I get older, I feel less inclined to travel during the heat of summer in Asia. Just a couple more days left in our short, but jampacked trip!

Day 4 (July 23) - Relaxing in Toyosu's Manyo Club

 I did manage to get more sleep, compared to the night before, but we both ended up waking at around 3:30 AM. Remembering that there was a 24 hour Duck Ramen restaurant nearby, we got dressed and headed out for a ramen breakfast.

Ramen Kamo to Negi Asakusa is relatively close to our hotel. Since it was 4 AM in the morning, there wasn't anyone there besides what appears to be 3 staff members. After placing our order on the machine and handing it to one of the servers, we sat down and waited for our meal. We both got the same ramen set, which included the duck broth ramen, an egg, extra duck meat and bamboo shoots. The broth looked like shoyu, but the taste was quite unique. You could taste the richness of duck in the clear broth which boggled my mind since I normally associated rich broth as being cloudy. After completing our meal, we headed off to Don Quijote once again to purchase more snacks.

Or that is to say that I actually had to go back to the hotel since I had a stomachache (must have been all the food I've ate the day before) and Don Quijote's bathroom isn't open till 7 AM. We tried stopping by a 7-11 nearby, but there was no available bathrooms for the public. I did mange to find the strawberry butter sand tree snacks, so that was a small consolation. Fortunately, with the hotel only being about 7 minutes away, I was able to make it back to the room in one piece.

Not going to go into detail, but after I was finished, I headed back to Don Quijote to meet up with my girlfriend as we continued shopping. Since we purchased less stuff than last time, it took the cashier less time to pack everything up in a customs bag. Since it was around 6 AM, we headed towards another supermarket to purchase more products that you normally can't get in Canada. Seiyu supermarket seemed to be bigger than the Ozeki supermarket we stopped by yesterday, but we didn't end up purchasing too much. With our Hulken bag nearly full, we stopped by a different 7-11 to stock up on some last minute snacks before heading back to our hotel to pack our items. 

At around 9:45 AM, we headed out to the shopping arcade near Sensoji temple. Our first stop was at Mame to Cha, a matcha/tea shop that sold various tea based drinks. We settled for a matcha parfait, which was quite nice, especially with the heat starting to creep in. There was a nearby Pokemon Card vendor so I took a sneak peak while our matcha parfait was being made. Once we finished eating, we continued heading down the arcade to the nearby Ekimise mall to check out the bookstore: Kumazawa.

 

I'm unable to read anything, but she's able to read at a relatively high level. As she strolled around different sections, I aimlessly wandered around. Bookstores in Japan remind me of Chapters/Indigo, though I guess most bookstores would follow the same format. Once she purchased some books, we headed back towards our hotel. As we were walking towards the mall earlier on, we noticed a restaurant that served cold noodles topped with wagyu. Feeling a bit hungry, we made a stop at Waunn (thank goodness for better quality camera lenses and AI to help me find the names of restaurants). Since we had more things to eat today, we decided to share one cold noodle wagyu set. The owners (I'm assuming they were the owners) had nearly perfect English and was able to communicate with us without issue. It didn't take too long for our set meal to come: a hearty bowl of cold noodles with wagyu and a gyudon (as I mentioned back in 2015, Japan is carb heaven). Seeing that we were sharing, they brought out a sharing bowl and utensils without needing us to ask! In regards to the food, the gyudon was really good with a noticeable taste of... dashi (I think that's what I was tasting). The cold noodles were also quite good, but I think I rather prefer the gyudon!

After finishing our meal, we continued back to the hotel, while making quick stops to pick up some canelés and more warabi mochi, but this time in matcha flavor. 

Once we got back to the hotel, we rested for a short while before heading out to our main destination for the day. After a quick train ride to Shimbashi station, we looked for a bus that would take us Toyosu. We were headed to Manyo Club to relax for the day, but before that, lunch! Off to the side of the Manyo club was what I deem a Little Edo: an area built with buildings that resemble the Edo period (or what I can see from Jin). Maybe it's the Toyosu outer market... but I literally have no idea. Anyways, we found the restaurant we were looking for within their cafeteria section. Tsukiji Unitora wasn't too busy when we arrived, thus we were able to get seats at the bar. My girlfriend got their signature unidon while I opted for three different types of sashimi-don. I like uni, but an entire bowl is a bit much for my tastes. It was a show, like yesterday's sukiyaki meal, where we got to see the chefs create our dishes in front of our eyes. Both rice bowls were beautifully crafted. If I remember correctly, I had salmon, tuna and... yellow tail sashimi. There's a certain freshness you get from fish markets that I feel you can't get anywhere else. While eating this bowl, it brought back memories of Tsukiji in 2015 where I had two lunch sets. Being 11 years older now, I can't eat as much as I used to, so I made sure to savor every bite I took. The small amount of uni was enough, and it tasted like butter.

Once we finished eating, we headed out to Manyo club. Maybe since it was a Thursday, it wasn't overall busy. We got our keys, went to go change and soak in the onsen for a while (after washing of course). The sights were pleasant at the onsen, and I took some time at the outdoor bath to soak in the sights (no pun intended). Once I had my fill, I went back out to meet my girlfriend before we both explored the club. We ended up taking getting a massage from the massage chairs. They were more expensive than the ones at Rox, but it seemed superior in terms of massaging my sore muscles from walking all day yesterday. After our massage, we headed to try out the hot stone bath. It's my first time trying a hot stone bath, but it really felt like a sauna without the steam and with clothes on. After 10 minutes, we got out to cool down before heading to the cafeteria for some food. We got some fried octopus legs and a kakigori. Nothing to write home about so onto the next stop: top floor to experience their foot bath garden. 

The footbath garden is a circular pool surrounded by greenery and sights of Tokyo. We soaked for a while, but not wanting too much UV exposure, headed back down soon after. Looking to try a foot massage, we headed down to their third floor for a 20 minute foot massage. I've had one done in Taiwan before, so I knew what to expect. It's kind of like a regular massage, but of course, more emphasis on the feet. It was relaxing enough that I was falling asleep, but once the timer ran out, I was fully alert to finish the massage. Once that was done, I believe we went back to take another bath before heading together to the hot stone baths once more (too many things took place that I can't remember the order). This time, we tried a different hot stone bath, where there was actually steam in the room. Definitely a sweltering experience, but it felt nice to leave the room and relax in their "cold room". Wanting another massage, we went back down to the chairs for another round.

Nearly massaged out, we decided to relax in their relaxation room on the second floor. It was quiet, and filled with empty recliner chairs. We found a pair near some mirrors and sat there. Since we were both relaxed and sleepy, we decided to take a short 15 minute nap.

Of course, that 15 minute nap was more like an hour nap. I did set an alarm for 8 PM to wake me up in case I couldn't wake up at 7:20 (for the 15 minute nap). Somehow I managed to wake up a few minute before my alarm went off, but I was definitely having a bad case of sleep inertia. To try and clear my head, we headed back up to the foot bath. Probably since we were so high up, and the sun was gone, it felt relatively cool on the rooftop. It did help with my sleep inertia a bit, for as we went back to the change room to change back into our regular clothes, I did feel relatively awake. We spent nearly six hours at Manyo Club, but it didn't feel like enough.

The bus stop took us back to Shimbashi station. We boarded the sub and headed back out to Higashi-Ginza station. Since I was quite full yesterday, we didn't go eat takoyaki before oysters. With some room this time, we headed to Tsukiji Gindaco. Unlike a regular Gindaco, this one reminded me of an izakaya like Torikizoku. It was quite packed, but we didn't have to wait long for a table near the windows. We ordered a plate of takoyaki, skewers, a vegetable dish, and cheese mentaiko. Nothing really spectacular, but all quite delicious. After our meal, we headed back to the station to catch the subway back to Asakusa.

A relaxing last full day in Japan before we head to South Korea! 

Day 3 (July 22) - Shopping and Eating Around Tokyo

 Despite heading to bed at around 10:45 PM, I woke up at 2:45ish AM. She woke up soon after, so we decided to start our day super early. After getting dressed, and delaying our leaving, we headed out at around 3:30 AM. I have never been out this late/early in Tokyo before. Our hotel in Asakusa wasn't relatively busy during the night, and it was definitely dead at this time in the morning. Unlike Canada though, I felt safe walking down the streets at this time. 

Our first stop was at a 7-11. I was looking for their strawberry butter sand tree snack, which is essentially two butter cookies sandwiching a strawberry filling. They're addicting and my dad seems to have a soft spot for them as well. Maybe it was too early, but they didn't have any in stock at the 7-11 we stopped at. Nevertheless, we left after purchasing some smoothies and drinkable yogurt. I'm not sure why I never tried purchasing a smoothie for a convenience store in Japan before, but I was definitely missing out. All you need to do is purchase the cup from one of the freezers. Once purchased, just go up to one of their smoothie machines and scan the barcode. After following some simple instructions (ie: remove the plastic cover/lid and insert it into the machine), you get a wonderfully blended smoothie. I got a green/vegetable one and it was perhaps one of the best smoothies I've ever had. What made it better was adding the drinkable yogurt to give it a nice tangy touch. (Though I forgot the name/brand of the yogurt.)

After heading out of the 7-11, we headed to one of the 24h Don Quijotes in Asakusa. At 4 AM, it was empty which made shopping a pleasant experience compared to other hours of the day. We spent nearly two hours to ourselves, shopping all sorts of products from snacks to supplements. I felt sorry for the cashier when he had to bag our items into the custom bags that Japan have to prevent you from consuming products while in Japan. It must have taken at least 10-15 minutes for him to organize everything. Once done though, we headed back out and to our hotel. It's not often that I see the sunrise within a city. I remember that it was slightly foggy, so Skytree was slightly obscured. 

                                                        

After heading back to the hotel, I changed back into my PJs and took a short nap. After waking up, it was time for breakfast at a small restaurant, Misojyu, that specializes in rice ball/onigiri meals. There was a bit of a lineup, even though we got there when it just opened. Fortunately, it was a short wait, and that it wasn't too hot out yet. After getting in and placing our order, we headed upstairs to their second floor to wait for our meals. Like a lot of Japanese homes that are older (I think the newer homes aren't as bad), the stairs were quite steep. We both got the same set: pick of rice ball, tofu, half a soft boiled egg, chicken, some daikon, and miso soup. I picked a roasted salmon onigiri, which was very subtle - unlike convenience store onigiri I feel. The tofu stood out for being silky smooth, while the two pieces of chicken were tender and full of flavor. The miso soup didn't really stand out for me, but it was still relatively good.

After breakfast, we headed back to the hotel since our next location: Ginza, wasn't quite open yet. Deciding that we didn't want to waste any time, instead of resting, we headed to the nearby supermarket to stock up on more snacks and cooking ingredients that you can't get back home. We dropped off our shopping before we headed onto the subway to enter Ginza. We stopped inside Ginza Six, a large shopping complex that kind of reminds me of an upscale Core Shopping Centre we have in Calgary. We stopped by 10FACTORY, which housed all sorts of orange/mikan drinks and products. Having been to Ehime prefecture the year before, it brought back vivid memories of various orange products. After getting some dried mikan rinds and a bottle of juice, we headed for lunch. 

Lunch took place at Ningyocho Imahan - a place that specializes in serving sukiyaki or shabu shabu cuts of wagyu. It was an upscale restaurant with top notch service. As always, head to these restaurants for lunch instead of dinner since you'll pay less for a very similar menu. We were shown to a small room that had about 5 tables. Maybe it was the time, but we were in a room full of tourists/non native Japanese. Feeling a bit leery, since I often associate places with no Japanese present as being tourist traps, I was fortunately mistaken. We got one order of their assorted meat sets and one high quality set. We had a personal chef/waiter the entire time as he cooked and explained what he was doing. I was thoroughly impressed by the attention to detail, especially using a napkin to cover our bag/backpack from potential splashes. We started with an appetizer that consisted of two small dishes that I had no idea what they were, but they were extremely good. Soon after, our chef brought out the vegetables and meat. For the assorted set, there were two types of wagyu from two different regions. If I'm not mistaken... one was from Matsusaka? I can't recall where the high quality beef was from either, but it sounded like it was similar to the assorted set. Either way, the beef was amazing. I'm not sure what type of egg they used for our sukiyaki dip, but it complemented the meat extremely well. Each slice of meat was also placed with certain vegetables to make it aesthetically pleasing to see. At the end, we got a fried rice dish made from the leftover beef fat - making it taste magical. To finish off our meal, we got a piece of mango pudding and yuzu sorbet (I think it was yuzu). Throughout the meal we got two different teas (Hojicha and Genmaicha are my guesses... I'm sure the second one is Genmaicha based on the roasted rice taste), which is different. Overall, I had to say that it was probably my most favorite meal during this trip. 

With our stomachs full, it was time to add more debt to our credit cards. We headed to go shop at Uniqlo and Loft. I never got the chance to explore the flagship in Ginza back in 2023, but had the chance this time around. Despite it being tall, I felt each floor to be quite small and cramped. It doesn't help that there were a lot of people shopping. I did end up purchasing some clothes to add to my teaching wear (I've been wearing mostly polo shirts from Uniqlo over the past 3 years). Our next stop was Loft, which is a flashy version of Muji in my opinion. There's always lots of cool things to see, with some items being reasonably priced. We ended up purchasing a new portable fan here, which had a cooling pad in the middle. I also ended up purchasing some very expensive badges/keychains that had dogs embroidered since they represented the dogs we had back home and in Hong Kong. With our Hulken bag filled with various items, we headed back to the subway. I got off earlier since I made a pit stop at Akihabara to look for items, while my girlfriend went back to the hotel to drop things off and to rest. 

Unfortunately, despite trying three different stores, I wasn't able to find what I was looking for. Akihabara was as crowded as I remembered, but with less maids trying to pull clients into their maid cafes from what I remembered. Not wanting to spend more time in the heat, I went back onto the subway to head back to Asakusa. Before making it all the way back, I stopped by Nakamise shopping street from some treats. Granted, it may be higher than normal since I view this area a bit of a tourist trap, yet the snacks can be quite good here. I got some flavoured peanuts from Ozawa Seijiro Shoten and another place that I forgot the name... Anyways I got warabi mochi here.

After heading back to the hotel and resting for a bit, we headed out for dinner. She was craving oysters, so we headed to Chika no Iki (I believe that's the name). We got some drinks, along with an oyster platter and some... oyster spread and crackers. I'm not a huge fan of oysters, so I didn't eat as much. I have to say though, the small oysters in the oyster platter were a lot better tasting than the huge ones. The oyster spread and crackers (not sure of the name of the dish) was really good though. It has a subtle oyster taste, unlike eating raw oysters directly. 

Once we finished, we headed back to our hotel, though during rush hour. Feeling quite tired, we headed to bed relatively early. According to my sleeping app (Pokemon Sleep), I was running on 3 hours and 38 minutes of sleep. As I age, I definitely feel the lack of sleep more and more. If I'm not mistaken... I think I passed out at around 8:40 PM.

A day full of shopping and eating! It felt weird shopping so early, but a full and productive day! I've added pictures throughout the entire post since it's wordier than usual. 

A picture of the oysters! The XL one was huge!

Day 1&2 (July 20&21)- Shopping and Eating in Asia Trip! Summer 2026

 With super cheap tickets, there's almost no incentive for 2+ week trips for me any longer. With that said, and with my girlfriend being able to take time off, we headed for a trip to Asia. Initially we were looking to travel to three places: South Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan to top it off in about 7-8 days. I even had some plans to extend my trip by a few days to explore some regions of Tohoku that I didn't get a chance to explore back in 2019. However, with the possibility of a strike, and thinking how tiring it might be to travel to 3 countries in that short of a time, we narrowed it down to a 7 day trip between Japan and Korea. To be more specific, Tokyo and Seoul.

Fortunately, I was able to drop off the dogs at my parents a couple of days before we flew. That helped in feeling less rushed on the day of the flight, in comparison to November 2025. I did my ritual cleaning before we headed to my parent's house. Like last time, we were fortunate to get a ride to the airport. The car ride was relatively smooth and it was relatively easy to find a spot near the doors leading to the departure section of the airport. After collecting our bags and saying goodbye to my dad, we headed in to check in our luggage. 

Once our luggage were dropped off, we headed to go through security before heading to the WestJet Elevation lounge since she had a few more passes to use before they expired. We had to wait a bit since they were full, but after about 15 minutes we were able to enter. Luckily, there was a small table near the entrance. We headed to secure our spot, before placing an order of food. Once we finished eating, we rested a while before we headed down to the international terminal to wait for our ride. Fortunately, we were able to get an upgrade to premium economy. Better yet, and maybe a bit of a controversial take, we got bulkhead seats off to the right side of the plane. With so little people in premium flying, there were a load of overhead storage space for our single carry on bag. With our welcome mimosas in hand, we relaxed while waiting for the rest of the people to board. If I recall correctly, there were at least 60-70 seats available, meaning that check in went by quickly. Unlike the thunderstorm last year, weather in Calgary was perfect meaning we were able to take off on time.

Throughout the flight, I entertained myself with playing games on my Switch 2. After I got bored, I stopped to watch Project Hail Mary, which was a really good watch (maybe something I can incorporate into my class as a movie to watch before break). I think I was able to get an hour or two of sleep before it was almost time to land. Breakfast was some dumplings, which actually tasted extremely good!

Once we landed, it was smooth sailing through immigrations. It didn't take too long either for our luggage to come out. After going through customs, we headed to purchase tickets for the Keisei Skyliner. It took about 40 minutes to get to Ueno, in which we stopped to grab some Ichiran. There was a bit of lineup, and thus making it sweltering hot waiting in line wearing sweats. Luckily, people were going in and out quickly so we probably only had to wait 10-15 minutes. Feeling a bit bloated from all the food I ate, which is more than I normally eat before and during flying, I opted for just a plain ramen with one egg.

After finishing our meal, we headed down to the subway to catch the train to Asakusa. We were staying at a different APA hotel than last time, but it was closer to the shopping arcade. After checking in, dropping our luggage, and changing into shorts (taking off my compression socks as well which were starting to irritate my skin... probably from all the walking in them), we headed back out to shop at Muji inside the Rox department store. Our main purpose for this short trip, was to literally just shop and eat. Instead of lugging a plastic bag/paper bag of Muji goods, my girlfriend purchased a Hulken bag on a previous trip so that I can roll our shopping around. Since the night was relatively still young, we headed to a nearby Taito arcade to play some crane games. We both won small toys (my second one in my entire life if memory serves me correctly), before we called it a night. Wanting some ice cream, we headed to the nearby 7-11. I can no longer find the mint chocolate ice cream that I always get, but there was another mint chocolate ice cream that turned out to be pretty close to what I normally get in terms of taste!

With that said, our first night in Tokyo is over. Just two more full days before heading off to South Korea!

 True that you don't have underseat storage, but I think it's a good compromise to have an adjustable footrest attached to your chair! I found out about this feature last year when I was fortunate enough to come back to Canada with a bulkhead seat. 

Day 8&9 (November 15-16) - Last Day and Flying Back to Canada

 Saturday November 15 marked the last day of my week trip to Hong Kong (or nearly a week if you consider Monday my first day in Hong Kong). We started the morning by taking the two out for a final walk. We walked for a while down the usual path before heading to the dog park. What was noticeable this time around was a cat sitting quietly on a bench near the dog park. Our Golden Retriever back in Canada would have bolted after any cats, but her two dogs just ignored it as we went our way towards the walled garden. After spending some time there, we headed back towards her house.

Since I didn't have much to pack, I left packing till this day. With a lot of empty space (since I brought just a few clothes and no souvenirs), we packed some of the heavier items she'll eventually bring back to Canada. We also took the time to tidy up her room - such as removing the portable bed I was using and throwing away unnecessary items. After packing, we headed to the vet to get some documents prepared for her male dog (reason being is explained later on in this blog post). The vet clinic was quite busy, with most people there having either cats or small dogs. Fortunately, her male dog was pretty relaxed as we waited our turn. Once that was done, we headed back home to drop off her dog.

We headed out for lunch with her parents to a nearby restaurant. This restaurant specialized in BBQ meat or Siu Mei. They were apparently also known for cooling their milk tea with a small bowl of ice, instead of putting the ice into the drink. This, as you probably guessed, is to prevent the flavors from diluting as the ice melted. The food came out quickly and so did the milk tea. Probably since there wasn't any ice inside at all, the drink was quite strong - which ,in hindsight, probably helped me later on in the day. The various BBQ meats were great and I had literally all of the different types that I would get in Canada: duck, chicken, char siu, and I believe pork sausage. Once lunch was done, we headed back to the mall we stopped by earlier in the week for her dad to pick up his glasses. 

With some other chores completed, we headed back to her place to relax for the rest of the day. I played with her female Labrador mix for most of the day, since it may be the last time I see her sadly (11 years old). I doubt I would post about this on a later day, but we had plans of bringing her 5 year old male dog to Canada for our Golden Retriever to have a friend (and more space for him to run in comparison to Hong Kong). The details are a bit blurry, but I believe I did end up taking a power nap late afternoon.

With the evening starting to set, we ordered some congee for dinner. It was a lot more than I expected, so I was pretty stuffed by the end. There was also rice crepe donuts and steamed rice noodle rolls. We also got some bubbletea from Kung Fu Tea, though maybe it was an off day, I felt the same drink I get in Canada is a lot better. With my stomach full, I headed to rest a bit more with her dogs in her room before taking a shower. My flight was scheduled for 1 AM, Sunday morning. 

When it was time to go, I said my goodbyes to her mom and her dogs. Despite not being related, her side of the family as treated me as one of them, for which I'm grateful for when I cannot speak their language, or know all of their traditions and customs. Her dad drove us to the airport. When we arrived, he parked in an area, which allowed my girlfriend to walk me to security. I hope he gets the chance to come to Canada one day so I can return the hospitality they showed me over my past two visits! As we made it to the security check point, I said my goodbyes to my girlfriend. She'll be coming back about a week later after finishing up some more stuff she needed to do 

It was about 11 PM at this time, so I headed to a Plaza Premium lounge near the gate. This lounge, being my second lounge I ever visited, was extremely crowded and humid. It reminded me of Asia in the summer, in which I started to perspire. It also made me wish that I didn't wear a long sleeve (I was worried about being too cold on the plane). I found a spot, and went around to see what they had to offer for food. Maybe it was dinner/late, so they had more of a selection in comparison to the lounge in Calgary. I got the fish ball noodle soup that was recommended to me, which turned out to be a good eat. Not wanting to end up with an upset stomach, and since I ate a lot for dinner, I didn't end up eating much. I wanted to find a different area that was cooler, so I headed to the section with armchairs and found one with a fan nearby. I watched the first episode of Alice in Borderland 3, before seeing that it was past midnight. I got up and headed to the gate.

I was flying with Cathay Airways to Vancouver. They started the boarding process with their First Class and Business class passengers (from what I can see), with apparently no zones for the rest of passengers flying in Economy. Not sure when to get into line, I ended up joining the ever expanding queue. I must have been at least 150 m away from the gate check-in, but it went relatively smoothly when we started to move. However, I felt the lack of zones, made it messy as we were on the plane. There also seemed to be certain passengers with more than the allotted carry on baggage, which meant I saw a few disgruntled people complaining to one another. Luckily, I boarded relatively early, hence securing a spot for my bag right on top of me. The Asian couple sitting to my left (I had an aisle seat on the far left side of the plane), came in late, hence having to put their luggages way up near the front. With the carry-on "fiasco" going on, I was worried that we would be delayed, but we didn't leave too late. 

The flight was about 11 hours long. I wasn't feeling that tired, so I ended up finishing watching Alice in Borderland 3 on the flight. I took breaks in between episodes to rest my eyes, or play some Bloons TD6, I might have gotten about 1 hour of shut eye? Throughout the meal, we were served two meals. Food on Asian airlines, for me at least, tend to be far superior compared to North American airline food. I forgot to wear my compression socks this time around, so I tried drinking more fluids and getting up to go the bathroom more to compensate. With the flight coming to an end, I placed all my belongings back in the backpack I had tucked under the seat in front of me. 

With about 90 minutes before my flight to Calgary, I tried to make my way through immigrations and customs quickly. This was the first time this trip that I wasn't stopped by an officer as I made my way out. I thought I would be able to connect to the gate, but I had to go through security again. It was probably due to it being late in the evening. Either way, security went by quickly and I had about 30 minutes before boarding took place for the WestJet flight back to Calgary. I had a middle seat this time around, but since it was a short flight, I didn't mind at all. I just played some Bloons as we made our way back. Upon arrival, I was lucky that my dad was able to pick me up, despite it being close to 1 AM. I picked up our Golden Retriever from my parents house and headed back to my house. Being close to 2 AM, I didn't bother unpacking my luggage, rather leaving it by the door. I got him to go pee one more time in the backyard before heading back in. After showering and brushing my teeth, it was close to 3 AM. Fortunately I still had Sunday off before heading back to work Monday. 

Overall, this was my shortest trip yet. I didn't think I would top August Japan 2025, but this clips it by a couple of days. A week after (as in today), I still find it hard to believe that I was just in Asia a week ago. Besides travelling way back in 1998 and 2001, I never travelled outside of the summer months. Asia is definitely more tolerable in regards to the weather during this time around. The week in Hong Kong felt like it went by quite slowly, which is the best type of vacation in my books. I had a good mix of different days, with some being jampacked with events while others were more laid back. 

Though I think I had enough travel for 2025. One downside of having a dog (or two dogs now) is the guilt of travelling for a long period of time. I'm fortunate to have my parents watch over our Golden Retriever during that time, but I do constantly think of him during my trip. I guess one "positive" benefit, are shorter trips are typically a lot cheaper (not including air fare). Till 2026! Let's see what the future holds in store! Thank you again for taking the time to read my posts throughout the week. A special thanks to all of my long time readers from way back when I started this blog in 2011. I always mentioned coming back and blogging more regularly, but I doubt that's going to happen. 

   Not the clearest picture I have, but here's one of the lounge in Hong Kong. 

Day 7 (November 14) - Taking It Easy

 As slow as the week seemed to have gone by, it's hard to believe that Friday marked the second last day for my time in Hong Kong. Like the rest of the other days in Hong Kong, we started it off by walking her dogs. Instead of going down by the river, we opted for the dog park nearby. Luckily, there were no other dogs at the moment. The two of them had all the time they wanted to sniff around. 

When the two of them wanted to leave, we leashed them back up and headed back to her place. With all the major attractions/events completed over the past two days, it was nice to have it easy for the day. We waited for the rest of her family to wake up before we headed off to another district. Her mom and brother had work while her dad and us went out for breakfast nearby. I've been eating a bunch of different noodle dishes over the past week - with breakfast being a rice noodle & satay beef. I had some scrambled eggs and toast on the side. All of it was extremely good - the satay is unlike Vietnamese satay in that it wasn't as spicy. The eggs were silky smooth and the toast was flavorful. There was also some fried pork and chicken as well, which definitely made this a hearty breakfast. 

With breakfast done, we headed back to her place to relax. Her dad went out later on, while we stayed back to play with her dogs. When the afternoon hit, we went out to complete some chores of our own in the nearby shopping district. When completed, her dad came to pick us up and took us to her mom's restaurant. We arrived just before the reopened for dinner. We got a ramen to share between the two of us - a shrimp flavored soup base ramen with all the works. I had this broth two years back; I felt it was improved this time around. The shrimp wasn't overpowering the rest of the ramen, but rather blended the char siu, corn, seaweed and noodles present. We also had some fried oysters, which had the same wonderful taste. Once we finished, we headed out with intent to go back home.

But before that, we stopped by the nearby 7-11 for some ice cream. As we munched our treats, we headed to the nearest light rail station to take the train back. The light rail is very like the C-Train back home. What really tripped me up was a group of students speaking in fluent English; using the same slang that my students use back home in Calgary! I guess that's how interconnected our world is nowadays. 

Once we got off at the right station, we headed to a spot to catch a mini-bus back to her neighbourhood. That pretty much was my day! 

It looks like she's wearing a flower/plant hat!