Street scenes around Tokyo

No trip to Japan can be complete without a trip to Tokyo! It's amazing how such a bustling city can have the most polite people...I mean even the taxi drivers are polite! Standing near Shibuya crossing and you'd think you would hear the usual city sounds like taxi horns and such...nope! Practically not a sound....

Tokyo was alive and colorful at night, which is when I enjoyed Tokyo most.

Some of the places we were able to tick off our list during our few days in Tokyo: 

*Shibuya crosswalk - it really is amazing to see!!

*Harajuku - I couldn't leave without doing a little bit of shopping Japanese-style ;)

*More and more arcade halls for our little-boys-at-heart Christian and Ross - ok we played too

*Yebisu - Japanese beer brewery

*Lots of spicy Ramen

*Akihibara "Electric" City - really cool neighborhood, especially for the technie nerds ;)

*Aaaaand karaoke...because what else should we do at 2AM after a night out near Shibuya?

Nikko, Japan

At about 2ish hours away from Tokyo, Nikko is the perfect day or overnight trip. Up in the forest, the air was a bit crisp and the snowy mountains were in view. Nikko has tons of shrines and quite possibly one of the coolest hostel owners ever (and I mean EVER!).

His name was Hiro. 

Hiro single-handedly manages Nikkorisou Backpackers and is probably the coolest guy we met in all of Japan, and possibly in all of Asia. He gave us a ride to the store, to the train station, to the ATM and prepared a tabletop hotplate for us so we could cook our delicious Japanese beef and noodles in the common room at the hostel--teppanyaki-style!

Even though the hostel clearly states the common room closes at 11PM, Hiro (and quite a few other backpackers who had just returned back from the hot springs--which yes ofcourse Hiro gave them a free ride to) joined us to play Catchphrase for the entire night. 

Then, halfway through the game, Hiro offered to take my friend Ross to the liquor store in the next town to get more sake and Asahi.

We really enjoyed Nikko...but we loved Hiro and his hostel!

Sometimes people make the best experiences, don't you think?

Food of Southeast Asia

As our trip is slowly coming to an end, and we are back in The Netherlands for a quick visit before moving across the pond, friends and family have asked if we are just plain sick of Asian food.

And the answer is a very strong: NO WAY! 

Actually we both lost some pounds (probably also due to carting around backpacks every few days!)...yet we ate like pigs. It's not even that we shed some weight (Christian can't fit into his old pants anymore lol), we just felt healthier. Even with all of the rice, the noodles and salty sauces...we felt better eating Asian food than we did eating Western food back home.

A friend of mine living in Bangkok explained why this could be so: cooks visit the food markets every morning for their daily ingredients because they usually don't have the means to store food in refrigerators, etc. At the same time, fruits and vegetables are locally bought and free of preservatives, sugars, etc. 

Food is so fresh and simply made in Asia, it makes me completely rethink how I'll prepare food in the future.

The dishes aren't only delicious but very colorful and pretty to look at :)...even if it comes straight from a food cart on the side of the road.

We had so many favorite dishes. Nepalese momos, potatoes aloo, noodle soups basically everywhere. But during almost every meal in Thailand we ordered Chicken or Pork with Holy Basil and Chilis or Pad Thai. Christian's all-time favorite while on the road was Singapore's Wonton Mee.

Here are some of our favorite dishes we had in Asia!

From left to right:

Top row: Nasi Campur (Indonesia), Bowl of chilis and garlic (Thailand), Momos (Nepal)

Second row: Noodle Soup (Laos), Pad Thai (Thailand), Shrimp with basil and chilis (Thailand)

Third row: Curry chicken noodles (Malaysia), Green Curry (Thailand), Ramen with Pork (Japan)

Last Row: Wonton Mee (Singapore), Grilled Prawns with Garlic Rice (Philippines), Chicken Laap (Laos)

We must make some honorable mentions outside of SE Asia to our feast of falafel, fuul, hummus and pita at Hashem Restaurant in Amman, Jordan. And Korean BBQ everywhere in Seoul. Just delicious!!

Suwon and Bukchon

For our last few days in Seoul, we hopped on the train for about 30 minutes to Suwon, a fortress city and perfect place to daytrip. Christian was stoked because the trains had arcade games and karaoke rooms...hahaha. 

We also spent our last night in a hanok (traditional Korean house) in Bukchon hanok village. It's amazing how a place as high-tech as Seoul has this ancient Korean village nestled in between the buildings. Bukchon was perfect for a 1 or 2 night stay. Walk around later in the evening when *most* of the crowds have disappeared!

{Cute Bukchon village}

Hyehwa area in Seoul

After a few days staying in Hongdae, we thought we'd explore another part of town. A few readers said we must check out Hyehwa in Jongno-gu district so we decided to book our next right next to Hyehwa station.

Hyehwa (like the rest of Seoul) is riddled with universities except this neighborhood caters to all of the artsy/theater students. It's no surprise that Hyehwa matches the crowd. Live music, tons of theaters, murals on the wall, creative statues and benches...Hyehwa is just plain cool. 

It was also only one metro stop from Gwangjung Market where word on the street was that this was the place to go for Korean pancakes (pajeon) and rice wine (makgeolli). It was delicious but we were still back at one of those Korean BBQ places in Hyehwa the very nice night (because we're obsessed!).

You really can't go wrong with staying in Hyehwa or Hongdae!

TRAVEL TIPS

Where to stay: 24 Guesthouse was great!! And they have locations all over Seoul

What to eat: Korean pancakes...and BBQ ofcourse

What to do: Korea has bangs for just about everything (private rooms for karaoke, gaming, movies, etc). We found a DVD bang in the neighborhood, rented a movie and chilled out in our own private viewing room watching '127 Hours.'

*Bring extra shopping money too...the streets around Hyehwa are lined with lots of cute clothing and accessory stores*