Off we go to Kochi!

Hi guys!

My autumn break was sure filled with a lot of travel! Last Thursday I repacked my bags and headed put to Haneda airport to catch a fligh to Kochi! 

Kochi is a prefecture on the Touhoku island that is just outside of the Osaka area in Japan. The more souther parts of Japan. I went there to visit Yoshi since he now from one week back is studying at kochi university again. He has about 3 semesters left so from now on we have to do ours best with long distance! But at least we live in the same country. Better than nothing!

I also have a lot of friends studying and living in Kochi and also head stories about the place for such a long time that it was a place I really wanted to visit. and I'm so happy I did.

There is three things that are amazing with Kochi and that really made me like the place! 

The first one is nature. So much breath taking nature that surrounds you in Kochi! Such a beautiful place to live in. There is a lot of mountains and rivers so if you are like me and prefer that kind of nature you definitely should visit Kochi a least once in you're in Japan. Went I took the bus form the airport to kochi center I was amazed about just how much and beauty nature there was! Think I have got used to the city scenery since moving to Tokoy so I forgot just how nice nature actually can be. I really makes you relax!

The second one is food and drinks! The quality and taste of the local food in kochi is out of this world! So much better than the things I have had in Tokoy. We usually ate at small local izakayas and I ate the famous okatsunotataki fish and had yuzu drinks. Kochi is famous for local yuzu alcohol and a kind of fish called okatsu that you according to Yoshi that is the most tasty when  from Kochi. So no complains about the food! I also prefer the atmosfrear in a small izakaya than the bigger ones in Tokyo. That you can just take you bike to the izakaya, go in and know the name of the owner and workers, say hi and just enjoy good food and drinks with friends, that is one of the things I like the most! The relaxed and friendly feeling!  

The last night we also visited Hiromeichiaba which is like a big indoor food court where you can enjoy a lot of different famous food all in one place! Basically you go around and buy the food and drinks you want and then sit down at a table in the middle of the hall and chat and have fun. It seemed to be popular with people in all ages, young students, workers, families and older people as well! I absolutely loved  the atomosfear at that place! It sure is a most if you ever visit kochi. 

The third and last thing is to enjoy outdoor activities! we decide to  have a outdoor day at the river with swimming and relaxing and also go to go on a 2 hour long kajak tour down one of the more famous rivers! I have never done that before so it really was a great experience! A bit scary in the beginning but after I got used to it it was just an amazing two hours of nature and adventrure! Hope I can do more of it in the future! Of course Yoshi being Yoshi be managed to fall over once during the tour! I couldn't stop laughing!

So my time in Kochi was in one word, AMAZING. I will definitely come back soon again! Hopefully in December over Christmas! Maybe even earlier if I have the money, need to get a part time job!

I will soon be landin in Tokyo and time to get back to my busy reality and work hard both in school and to find work so I can start to save money!

Hope you guys are doing well as well, 

Until next time! Hugs! 

Seoul trip part 2: Being homeless and visiting a palace!

Hi!

Let just continue the story!

After Hongdae we found ourselfs to be homeless for almost a whole day. We where planing on going to a place called Jeonju but since we where sick we didn't and there was no rooms left at the hostel we stayed at. I also tried to book a new one the night before and I got a mail saying we got it. But the next morning I woke up to a email saying they were already fully books so it was a mistake in the system that we got a room... So there we where, eating our brunch without knowing where to sleep at night! Haha, it was not as stressful as I thought it would be. It was more of a fun experience for me since I'm a planing freak.. It was nice to have no control and just go with it for a change! Lucky Jiyong helpt us to go find a place with lots of motels so we just went there and asked around for a room for the night and got one! Sadly Matt had to sleep on the floor since we only could get a room with one double bed. But he got a thin mattress so it was pretty okay for him anyway! 

The remaining days in Seoul we went to namesan tower (Seoul tower) to enjoys the nice view over Seol. We also stumbled appon a performance of tradition dances and martial arts! Really funny thing to see! 

One evening we also went to gyeonbokgung palace and got dressed up in the tradtional outfit called Hanbok, I have really wanted to try that out for so long so it really was the highlight of the trip for me! We rented the dresses and went at night to see the palace, we also saw a light show inside the palace, it was magic! Just walking around there with so many people dressed up in tradtional clothing sure made it feel like we traveled back in time! So amazing. We also got to enter the palace for free because we had the traditional clothing on so that was also a puls! 

That's a good summary of the trip to Korea I think! Sorry for the very very late update, but been busy with.. Life I guess! 

Hugs! 

〜living the dream〜

Shopping in Hongdae

Hi!

Let's do some updating about what happened in Seoul!

The first evening we just checked in to our hostel which was located on the popular shopping street Hongdae, it's a shopping street a bit like Harajuku but at night it turns into a night club street like Shibuya. I really liked this place! Fun things do both during day and night! 

After a small ordering mistake during the first dinner we ended up with our own mini-bar! we thought it was a glas of the alcohol but turns out we order bottles.. Which explains why the old lady at the restaurant looked at us weirdly when we just keep on ordering! Haha well, we did drink it all so had a really fun night! 

Later we found a cool "western styled bar" where I got the most fancy drink I have had! It also tasted really good so no complaints here! 

A very fun nigh indeed! 

The next day I unfortunately woke up to a pretty bad cold. My throat hurt so much and I felt really weak. Danni was also pretty sick. We did go for brunch and some shopping in Hongdae anyway and also visited a "trick-eye" Museeum! 

It was fun but me and Danni were pretty sick so we went back to the hostel to rest for 2 hours before going out for dinner with Jiyong, our Korean friend how lived with us in japan before he went back a month ago. 

The dinner was nice and while Danni when back to rest even more me, Matt and Jiyong checked out Hongdae at night and visited this "party park" just outside of jiyongs university in Hongdae!  We didn't feel like partying so we just watched the people there begin "the sober people at the party". We also got to see a drunk boxing match as well, so random but fun!

So that was our first two days, more update coming soon! 

Hugs!

〜Living the dream〜

Seoul here we come!

Hi guys!

Have had lots of stuff going on recently so not much time to update. Sorry for that!

The 2 week autumn break has just begun and that means I will be traveling a lot. First trip is to Korea, Seoul and later Kochi 

In Korea we also plan on visiting a place called Jeonju that about 3 hours by bus from Seoul! Since I already been to Seoul once before I'm really looking forward to visit Jeonju. It is a smaller tradtional town where you can stay over at a place called "honko" that is like a small traditional house. I'm sure it wil bel great! 

Today we made out way to Narita airport and I'm writing this as we are on the plane. It only takes round 2 hours and 40 min so not that long of a flight. I'm going with two of my housemates, Matt and Danni so I'm so excited for this trip! This time around I also know a lot more about Korea and have so much stuff I want to do, eat and buy! 

The plan for today is to just get to our hostel and then go out for good food and drinks! Just relax and enjoy our arrival to Korea! Tomorrow we will set off to Jeonju in the afternoon and stay there for two nights until Sunday and then go back so Seoul. In Jeonju we will visit a lot of tradtional temples and famous spots for sightseeing, experience some of the more tradtional and old culture of Korea. Later back in Seoul it will be time for some shopping and exciting city life! I'm sure this trip will be a blast! 

Have a feeling my wallet won't be to happy as I plan on stocking up on a lot of Korean skin products and make-up! 

I will try by best to update the blog during my trip with lots of photo! Time to try to rest a bit on the plane before landing! 

Hugs! 

〜Living the dream〜

Weekend trip to Izu, Shizuoka

Hello again! 

How was your weekend? Mine was great! Yoshi surprised me with a weekend trip to Izu, a smaller village in the Shizuoka prefecture, next to Tokyo. Takes about 3 hours with trains to get there. I was so happy and the trip turned out great! 

Izu is a really nice town with a lot of amazing nature and scenery! It was breath taking! 

The hostel was really cozy and had a bit of an American feel to it. We and a nice room and dinner and breakfast buffet was included! Such a nice service! we also had "all we can drink" to the dinner so that was really funny, got more that a drink or two in the end! In the evening it was a nice barbecue after listing to a live mucus preformace! It was 3 older Japanese men sing Beatles songs! It was soooo much fun and they where really talented and funny people! They also stayed the night at the hostel so we could talk to them during the bbq and they keep on singing and during difference mashups of Beatles songs and forums Japanese songs, I had the time of my life, great music, great food and great people! What more can you ask for! 

The next morning we had a nice breakfast and then one of the owner of the place gave us a ride don't to a hiking path there the ocean. So nice of him to drive us there when all we did was aske for directions and advices on where do go. I love that part of Japanese hospitality! 

The hiking was amazing and the ocean beautiful! I really like Izu, Hope I can live in this kind of place in the future! 

Here are some more photos from the trip! 

Living the dream     

Going to the hair salon in Japan

Hi guys! 

Maybe you already have seen this on my Instagram but just the other day I went to a hair salon called Nalu76 locate in Omtesando, a place near Harajuku here in Tokyo. This place is very popular amongs many famous rapper you tubers like Sharla in Japan, Kimdao and Rinrindoll and more! I really liked how the hair style and color turned out for all of them so I decided to go there myself to try it out! 

The prices is a little bit expensive but still manageable. I must say I liked the atmosphere at the place. It was just a 5 min walk from omotesando station and it easy to find! They also have a cafe at the second floor so you can order a coffe or latte which they will bring up to you then you do your hair! So that's a really nice service! The rest of the service was also great! Nice getting, always makes sure you felt relaxed and comfortable! Thing that were different from Sweden is that they will stored my bag for me, gave me a blanked to I won't be cold, head and neck massage, I don't complain! They also had English speaking staff that help the you to explain to the stylist what you wanted to do! So to sum it up I really like this hair salon. The funny part is that my hair did actually not turn out as I originally wanted. I wanted to take the yellow tones away and just make my hair more blond. But I got this darker grayish haricot or instead! At first I was shocked so didn't really like it but after some ours it started to grow on me and right now I think it's kind of cool and ft in with autumn. But as I said to my stylis that it was not the color I wanted she offers to redo it, but she said I should wait 1-2 week as we used a toner so the color shoul go away a bit and become brighter! So I will wait and see what happens! Maybe I will redo it or maybe I won't. Depending on the lighting my color do look a lot different but here is some photos for you guys! What do you think? Keep it or change it? 

But overall I like the place and do recommend it! Especially if you can't speak Japanese and want to do a more luxcoiru change of color on you hair! 

I also cut and did poin straitening on my fringe and so far the straitening seems to be working. The cut was also really good! Having a nicely trimmed fringe make the whow look so much better! So very pleased with that! 

Let's wait and see what happens with the hair color which the net weeks! 

Until next time!

〜Living the dream〜