I go to a lot of concerts.

In case you were unaware, I have been to quite a few concerts since I came to Japan.  I posted about a few of them a while back, but the concert going adventures have continued since, and will continue until at least March.

Since that post oh so long ago, there have been a few more Tegomasu concerts, a KinKi Kids concert...and ARASHI!

ARASHI!  ARASHI!  You know, that J-Pop group I absolutely adore.  If you recall, I was lucky enough to get tickets (it's a lottery system...you put your name in and it is all luck after that).  Not only did I get tickets, but they were relatively decent tickets!  I mean, we could have been waaaaay up in the stands, but we were not.  We went to Nagoya for this concert.  It was me, Crystal, and Kim.

Pretty much, they sang some old and some new, not that any of you know their songs (but my mom insisted that I post about concerts for some reason), but they sang a lot of my favorites, even though they are older.  And they danced.  And they talked.  And they smiled.

I also got incredibly lucky and at the end of the concert, as people from the arena were leaving, this super super super nice lady gave me a streamer and two of the little foam ties that they shoot out at the audience (only arena seats really ever get them).  Anyway, it was amazing. 

And just to confirm for you that I am crazy, here is what I wore to the concert:

Ok, now let me explain.  There are 5 members in Arashi.  Each has his own color.  The guy I like (Matsumoto Jun) is purple, so...  And Kim likes Nino who does commercials for Mario 3DS, hence the mario outfit.  If you look at her hat, though, you will see a fabulous "N" made by yours truly.  I should note that our outfits are tame, boring, even, compared to what some girls wear!

well

In order to distract you from the many typos in my hurriedly-typed Korea post, I give you this:

This is on my way to school this morning.

Seoul in photos

Here it is.  The Korea entry.  I am going to just caption the photos. But before that, just a few things.  I went with some fellow Iiyama friends, Crystal, Carolyn and Megan.  We went from December 22 to December 26.  Yes, this can be added to the interesting Christmases away from home list for me.  Christmas in Korea!  Seoul is really really really cold, something I was unaware of until going there.  I mean, Iiyama is cold and snowy, but I think it was in the negatives (C) the whole time we were in Seoul.  Day, night, whenever, below zero.

Ok, moving on

Korean money!  It is called Won.  And the exchange rate from Yen to Won is insane.  I am holding approximately 500,000 won!  two for me, won for you.  mwahaha, sorry.

A BURRITO!  I know, it is not Korean food.  But we had just gotten there and were wandering in the area of our hostel when we stumbled upon some amazing burritos, so that is what we had for dinner.  And I do not regret it!

Dunkin Donuts!  Haha, at his point, you are wondering (besides the money) if I even went to Korea or if I just came back to America for a visit!  This is Korea and it is exciting because there are no Dunkin Donuts in Japan.  NONE!  No delicious bagels, no amazing donuts or coffees or anything.  Also, this one was conveniently located in the same building where our hostel was.  So we ate there for breakfast every day.

Japan has Starbucks, too, but the sign is cool.er when it's written in Korean!  Also Korea had the peppermint mocha which Japan did not have since Japanese people do not particularly like mint.

This is me at Jongmyo Shrine.  It was pretty.  We ended up taking a tour in Japanese because we got there at 12:15 and the English tour was not until 2:30, but there was a Japanese one at 12:30.  We gave the guide and other people in our a group a bit of a shock.  I hope they have changed their views of foreigners at least a little bit...

Lunch!  One of my favorite Korean foods: binbinbap.  It is rice with delicious mixed in.  There are a lot of varieties.  This one was a colder one with lettuce in it and not too spicy.  This lunch was also a fun experience because we don't speak Korean and no one at the small restaurant spoke English.  We ordered by pointing to the pictures of food on the walls and then holding up fingers to tell how many we wanted.

Continuing with our historic day, we went to a palace.

They did a changing of the guard ceremony.  This is the band.

Pagoda.

More inside the palace.  The water was frozen completely solid.

They had statues of the 12 zodiac signs.  I am a tiger so...

It tried to snow.  It was so cute (I write this sitting at school in a blizzard...we are supposed to get 60cm today, they canceled meetings and club activities after school...that is saying something)

One of the mysteries of Korea.  Don't flush your toilet paper.  When I was in Cairo, it was the same situation, but I was not nearly as surprised in Cairo as I was in Seoul.  I guess the sewage system can't handle it and the pipes are not as wide, but...interesting interesting interesting.

On Christmas Eve, we met up with my friend who lives in Seoul.  (Bora for those of you who went to OHS).  Anyway, she was nice enough to invite us over and we made graham cracker houses!  It was fun.

For Christmas Eve dinner we went to an all you can eat buffet that had STUFFING and TURKEY and MASHED POTATOES and other amazing things that I have not eaten in a long long time.  YUM!

As we were leaving after dinner, there were dancing batteries.

what a job!

see, I didn't go alone!  starting with me and going clockwise, Carolyn, Megan, Crystal.  Yes, I am wearing a bright yellow sweatshirt that says ALLIGATOR on it.  It is one of the best things I purchased in Korea.  Under the alligator it says "are there many crocodiles around?"  tee hee

This is what we were eating.  Binbinbap specialty restaurant that we found in the guide book.  YUM #1

YUM #2.  More binbinbap.  This one comes in a hot stone bowl, so the rice gets crunchy and delicious as it cooks a bit longer on the stone.

Shopping!!!  Lots of people.

I painted my nails for Christmas!  I am sure you wanted to know.

N Seoul tower.  we had to stand in line.  When we got there, it looked like this.

Then the sun went down and we were still at the bottom.  Guess Christmas was not a good day to go.  So many lovey lovey couples there!

One gondola ride later, we were at the base of the tower.  And guess what, there was a line to go all the way up so we decided we were satisfied with the view we had.

earmuffs!  They are sorta the center of attention, but as I said, it was cold.  I am glad I spent the whole 2000 won (about $2) to buy them.  

Christmas dinner!  MEAT.  I guess it is called Korean BBQ.  In Japan, it is called yakiniku which means grilled meat.

One more binbinbap to share.  I can't seem to remember where this fits into the timeline, so it gets to be at the end.  Unfortunately this one was a HUGE disappointment.  Why?  see next picture.

what's that in there?!?!  OCTOPUS!  EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW  S. Korea being essentially an island country (I don't think they can just truck things through N, Korea) has a lot of seafood.  They like octopus as much as Japan does.

30 minutes later, my binbinbap was octo-free, but it still sorta ruined the meal for me.

Welcome back to Japan!  We survived!

 THE END

so

I am working on that Korea post, I swear.  In the meantime, I will leave you with this:

Snowboarding!  I have hit a point with snowboarding where I can turn and control my movements and go down the mountain without falling, so recently I have been trying to board in powder snow.  Like 2 feet or more of powder. it is fun!  You come from the groomed part of the slope, sorta lift the front of your board and then ride a bit in the powder.  Or, if you are me, you try to jump a bit which is fine and usually works unless you lose your balance.  And then you fall into 2 feet+ of snow with your feet attached to a snowboard.  That is what happened here.

In case you are wondering...the seal-like movements required to get out of such a situation = best workout ever.