Yesterday I created a Facebook page for my blog. It got 82 likes in less than 24 hours. I feel happier than this guy…
I REALLY want to have a giveaway, but I need your help. I need 100 likes on the Life Outside of Texas Facebook Page first. Please come by and like my page. And if you have a page, please let me know. I’d love to “like” it!
This picture is of a street food vendor near my apartment. She is making hoddeok, which is my absolute favorite street food in Korea. It’s kind of like a pancake stuffed with cinnamon, sugar and seeds and then fried. So fattening, but so delicious!
Her cart also sold fish cakes on a stick and silkworm larvae, which you can see in the photo below.
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.
Saturday was our first day on Jeju Island. We woke up at 4am to travel to the other side of the island to see the sunset. What we didn’t realize was that once we got there, we’d have to climb to the top of a dormant volcano to see the view. We sent Dave ahead and Joni and I took our time on the 8 bajillion steps to the top. None of us were prepared for a hike, Joni more so than the rest of us. She was wearing a long dress and sandals. Oh… and did I mention it was raining? Yep. All that work and we couldn’t even see the sunrise anyway.
Joni took a tumble. She was okay.
I saw a hair salon around the corner from the Exordium Apartments where I live. The sign outside was modern and appeared to be English friendly so I had high hopes. I went in for a wash and a dry. The shop was staffed by mostly men. They seemed intimidated when I walked in. One man walked over to the counter and attempted to help me. When I told him what I wanted, he scurried off and went straight to another guy to try to get him to translate what I’d said. While he was away, I used Google Translate. When I showed him, a lightbulb went off… “Oh! Shampoo and dry!” Must remember that for next time.
The actual process was quite interesting. The curling iron was placed on the floor while it was being heated up. I just laughed it off, but I won’t go back. There are 10’s of hair shops in the few blocks surrounding the apartment.
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