Mini Trip to Japan!

This post is technically cheating because it'll be about my 4 and a bit day adventure in Japan instead of the usual Korean-ness! Because Japan and Korea are right next door to each other I have been wanting to go on a trip to Japan since I first knew I was going to Korea, so when a long weekend presented itself I, and and a few of my friends, jumped at the opportunity to go.

We decided to go to Osaka for our quick trip. Osaka is an awesome city for spending a few days or a long time, I wish I'd been able to stay longer! I'm definitely planning on going back to Japan at some point!

On our first day we arrived at the airport in the morning and decided to spend a relaxed day exploring the area around our hostel, we found a great restaurant to relax and eat yummy food and then we went to a huge anime and manga store. Everything was extra cute and extra expensive, so I decided to buy only one thing from a little toy vending machine, I got a cat being decapitated by a 50 yen coin....

Japan street selfie!

Anime store

The second day we took a trip to the incredibly beautiful Osaka castle, it was a gloriously hot day so we ate ice cream outside and then went right to the top of the castle to enjoy the view of the city before descending inside to visit the museum. I loved all the old armour, especially the crazy helmets with enormous horns sprouting from the top, some were twice the length of my arm!

The moat of the castle

Osaka Castle

Ice cream, the castle and me!

The view of Osaka

After Osaka castle we went downtown, ate more delicious Japanese food and explored some of the crazy awesome Japanese shops, including a great costume store with multicoloured wigs and over the top gorgeous outfits, I wish they'd let me take photos! We also visited a Japanese arcade and took 'beautifying' photo booth pictures, we got a bit carried away in the editing process afterwards...

Downtown

The third day we visited a shrine of the God of all students a.k.a. the instant ramen museum. This included a tunnel of historic ramen, the history of how instant ramen came to be (including a life size model of the creators house where he made the ramen), and the most fun part, a chance to make your own ramen. Afterwards we ate sushi, it was delicious, I wish I had some right now!

Jessica inside the tunnel of ramen!

The first instant ramen *bows down*

Tommy making his ramen

The fourth day was a lazy chilled day, we visited a temple, which had a market for home made goods in the grounds. We actually spent more time looking at the amazing things for sale rather than looking around the temple! Afterwards we spent our last bit of time in Japan going back downtown for a last look around the shops and a last meal of Japanese yumminess!

Unfortunately the next morning we had to say goodbye to Japan and come back to Korea to get back to work and finish our final presentations and study for exams! Ah well, until next time Japan!

(p.s. Thank you Tommy for being the best Japan guide and translator ever! We would have been lost and alone without you!)