After spending most of the afternoon hanging out with Big Buddha, we decided to go to Disneyland. We took the subway to the end of the line and waited for the Disney train to come. It was covered in Mickey heads!
I was really excited about going to Disneyland because I have never been to a Disney park back in the States.
Big Buddha, of course!
One of the most famous sites in Hong Kong is a Big Buddha statue that is nestled so far up in the mountains that it takes a 25 minute cable car ride to get there! I was really apprehensive about going because I am scared of heights and cable cars really freak me out. I decided to suck it up because I don’t know if I’ll ever be back in Hong Kong.
If I could give one piece of advice for someone that wants to take the cable car to Big Buddha, it would definitely be to buy your tickets online in advance! When we went, the site was down so we couldn’t, but I really wish we could have. Because it was during the week of Chinese New Year, the line was many HOURS long (I’d guess at least 3-4)!
When we were in line, a woman asked us if we would like to buy a year pass and skip the line. Don’t even ask me how much that cost, but Dave said he’d rather do that than wait in line, so we did.
We could feel people staring us down as we were escorted straight up to the ticket counter. We just had to fill out a bit of paperwork, buy our passes and then wait in a much shorter line. I think the whole process took us about an hour.
The views from the cable car were truly amazing! And it was very sturdy so I handled the trip pretty well.
Once at the top, we had to walk past loads of shops and restaurants. We saw this cute little kitty.
And we also got to see another Lion Dance. This one was really impressive when you think about the fact that each lion only contains 2 guys and they have to be perfectly synched!
Then we headed through the massive gate…
And followed the signs to Big Buddha.
Almost there!
And then we hiked the 260 steps to the top!
It was pretty remarkable and I’m so glad I overcame my fear to see this!
We decided to walk around Central, Hong Kong on the day of Chinese New Year.
It was pretty quiet, but we did happen across a lion dance, which was really fascinating.
We were really happy to find this cute little pottery shop. We bought a full tea set for just $20 (US)!
Next, we headed to Mong Kok to check out the sites.
It was really great day!
I got to cross something off of my bucket list in February 2013. We went to Hong Kong for Chinese New Year!
As you can imagine, Hong Kong was packed and so were all of the tourist attractions. We had been to Hong Kong previously for a weekend getaway, but the weather was bad so we didn’t bother with The Peak or the Big Buddha because we knew the views would have been terrible. Fortunately, we had fantastic weather most days this time around!
Our first big outing was The Peak. There is a tram that takes you up the to the top, but we knew the line would be hours long and the tram would be cramped so we decided to take a taxi. It was the right decision!
There’s a mall at the top so we did a bit of browsing and then headed out to enjoy the views.
We headed back to the hotel in the early evening to try to reserve the best place in the house to watch the fireworks.
I think it was worth the wait!
We didn’t have a lot of time in Osaka so we walked around the shopping district. We saw lots of interesting things.
Osaka was so crowded and Faith and I both noted that the cultural differences between Japan and Korea were very apparent. In Korea, people have no problems pushing right by you, but politeness was out in full force in Osaka. Even through the crowds, we weren’t pushed once and people actually apologized for the tiniest bump!
We also came across a peace parade.
My January trip to Japan was one of my favorite trips because I got to see a lot of really neat things in Hiroshima, Miyajima and Osaka, but also because I got to spend a lot of time with Faith before she moved back to the States.
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A few weeks ago I started blogging about my trip to Japan in January. Unfortunately, life happened and between traveling back to Korea from the US, getting sick and getting readjusted back into life on this side of the globe, I have gotten off track. If you need a refresher, here are some links to my other posts about Japan:
I also think I’ve been putting off posted about Day 3 because it was the day we went to the Atomic Bomb Dome. How can I possibly do this place justice? It was such a humbling experience.
Hiroshima has been on my radar for as long as I’ve lived in Korea, but despite already having been to Japan 3 times before this trip, I just never made it there. I’m so glad I got to go because I am forever changed after seeing the devastation that took place.
Before
Epicenter
After
The actual bomb dome was really an amazing site. It was sobering to see the mangled metal and the crumbling walls.
The museum stole the show and tugged at my heartstrings. Hard! A large portion of the museum was dedicated to the children that died that day.
Statues showing children with melted skin dripping off their bodies
Parents went searching for their children, many finding nothing, some only finding a shoe or lunchbox that belonged to their child. The museum displayed clothing that was worn at the time of the explosion.
And a little boy actually died on this tricycle. The parents buried him and the tricycle together, but later donated the tricycle to the museum.
Between the dome and the museum, there was a memorial to the children that lost their lives that day. Thousands of paper cranes had been folded. All of the artwork on the outside of the cases are made with paper cranes. And hanging inside the cases are huge collections of paper cranes. It was a beautiful tribute!
Our day at the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima was beyond words and I am so glad that I was able to have that experience. It was emotionally exhausting, but well worth the visit.
On our second day in Japan, we took the ferry to Miyajima. I was told that the island was a must see, but that the only way to the island is by ferry. I was really nervous because I suffer from motion sickness. Fortunately, the ferry trip only lasted about 10 minutes. We were able to use our JR rail passes on the train to the ferry station and on the ferry so we were really happy about that!
The island is famous for its Floating Torii gate. It gets that name because during high tide it appears to be floating in the water. We had a nice view of the signature orange gate from the ferry. Click on the photos below to see the full size image.
One of the first things Faith and I noticed about the island were the wild deer roaming around. Be warned. They are not as sweet as they look!
This deer wouldn’t take no for an answer as this man ate his fishcake on a stick. I’m fairly certain I found it much more amusing than he did!
Back in January, I spent a few days in Japan with my friend, Faith. Faith and I met two years ago at our EPIK orientation and have been friends ever since. We both really wanted to see Hiroshima so off we went!
On the plane to Osaka, we sat next to a Korean high school student that was going to Osaka all alone. She was really sweet and carried around a notebook. She asked everyone she talked with to write down their names. She wanted to take a picture with us so I took one too!
Being from America, I’ve gotten used to paying for food on planes if I want a snack. Even on a budge airline (Air Busan), they provided us with a meal… and our flight was only 1 hour 20 minutes.
When we got to Osaka, we immediately made a beeline for the bathroom. We were not prepared for what we saw there. It was amazing!
We headed straight for the train station to get our Rail Passes. To anyone planning to travel around Japan a bit, I HIGHLY recommend getting a Rail Pass. They must be bought outside of Japan so plan accordingly! Japan is expensive — especially transportation! The rail pass covers any JR train, bus or ferry so we definitely got a lot of value out of our rail passes.
The train from Osaka to Hiroshima was so nice!
Once we got to Hiroshima, we headed straight to our hostel. We were really happy with our hostel! It was really conveniently located and easy to get to. We booked a private room for 2 at J-Hoppers Hiroshima and we slept on mats on the floor. It was surprisingly comfortable!
After we dropped our bags at the hostel, we went exploring around Hiroshima.
We found a really great restaurant. We had fried rice and fried dumplings and it was all amazing! The owners of the restaurant had a little boy that was so adorable. He spent a lot of the night pretending to be shy and then coming to entertain us. And when we left he shrieked “Byyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” at us.
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