Japan

At the end of February, I took a solo trip to Japan to kickstart spring after a long dreary winter in Korea.

Now that Japan has opened its borders again, I jumped at the chance to see a city that’s been on my bucket list for years - Sapporo.

Since my husband was in America for business, I decided to take a trip too and finalyl go back to my “hometown” of Fukuoka after over 7 years. I had been an exchange student there during the summer of 2009 and was lucky enough to visit again for a long weekend in 2012.

One of the things I love most about traveling in Japan is their trains. During my trip to Fukuoka, I decided to hope on the Yufuin no Mori train (Yufuin’s Forest Train) to visit the mountain town of Yufuin for the day.

Last April, I had the pleasure of visiting Japan twice for two different weekends. Originally, I just planned to see Kyoto and Tokyo with my mom, but after getting some serious inspiration from Neko Box, I booked a cheap flight back to Tokyo in order to visit the sleepy lake town of Hakone.

Earlier this year I bought myself a Pentax K1000 and started to experiment with film after almost a decade of digital (read: iphone) photography.  This May, while I was in Osaka, I decided to bring my camera along and see what I could capture in the city. I only shot two rolls due to bad weather, but here are my favorite results!

Golden Week, doesn't that just sound great?

The term is used in Japan for the long weekend that comes from a combination of a few public holidays, such as Children's Day. We have those days off in Korea too, so my boyfriend and I found the cheapest flight we could and headed to Osaka. It would be his first time and my seemingly hundredth time in Japan.

It was a chilly October afternoon when I landed at Kansai International Airport on the outskirts of Osaka.  I had a tight schedule, since the last bus to my hostel left the bus station, which was three hours away, at 7pm.  I didn’t have time to make a mistake – I needed to be as quick as possible.

My latest trip to Japan was meant to be my chance to see every out-of-the-way temple and point of interest using my beloved Kansai Thru Pass that I possibly could.

I have never subscribed to a monthly subscription box before. Every month in high school I would watch my friend get her little box of nail polishes and beauty samples, but I couldn't bring myself to pay for things I probably would never use.