annyeong haseyo
so this year has been a bit Not Good thus far, to put it mildly. broken feet and council rejections aside, there other things i should probably sit down and journal about that i don't really want to, because that means having to think about it and deal with the fact that it's actually happening. i don't know if i'll be ready to do that until things stop feeling so much like they're on shaky ground. it's always easier to look back and laugh when the bad stuff is over, and i'm not quite there yet. plus they're things i probably shouldn't be talking about on a public forum ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
on that note, this time to korea! i haven't been in over a decade, and i only vaguely remember it. i haven't embraced the korean wave that's taken over asia till the last couple of years - and even then, it's only been the food. but any excuse to get away from visiting over chinese new year is an excuse i'm happy to take! even with a broken toe. although now that i've been through it, can i just say i strongly DO NOT RECOMMEND travelling while you're wheelchair-bound. unless you enjoy having zero control over your life, and sitting pretty while others move you at their whim, it's not the best experience. but on to the mostly good stuff!
day 1: we took a late night flight to korea, and had a pretty fabulous check-in. everyone was lovely and helpful, apart from splitting up our party at the gate and my brother being basically useless helping with getting me on the plane. i spent most of the flight asleep, so i felt pretty good when we landed. it was a fairly easy experience going through customs and getting new sim cards despite the fact that none of us spoke korean, and the level of spoken english among airport staff was... stiltedly conversational at best. we even had mini freak out over the cab price and its fast jumping meter, but everything worked out fine in the end! our cab driver was as helpful as a cab driver could be, and i was hopeful when we got to the hotel that we would have the same experience. no such luck. there was a HUGE staircase leading up to the hotel, and the wheelchair lift was not working. we got no assistance from the valet / hotel staff either, y a y. they refused to let us check in early - it was noon, and we had to wait till 3 - and weren't very polite about it. this would become a theme in the next couple of days.
still, we were undeterred, and decided to venture out for some lunch! we googled bbq restaurants, and found one nearby. it was a little walk (ie. a doable wheelchair ride) away, but the food turned out to be kind of meh and crazy expensive. the service was nothing to shout home about, but they were efficient and professional and moved things aside so i could get around in my wheelchair, so brownie points to them!
i never say no to barbeque, mmm!
after lunch, we did a small spot of shopping at the lotte building, and then decided to head back to the hotel to check in and take a mini nap. the mini nap turned out to be not so mini, but when we woke up we were all ready for dinner! we were near the famus myeongdong area, so we decided to check out the street eats there. the walk was pretty lovely, if a little chilly, but...
we never figured out what this was supposed to be, but yay for pretty night walks!
WE COULDN'T GET TO MYEONGDONG. a huge road stood between us and our destination, and try as we might, WE COULD NOT FIND A WAY TO CROSS IT. their underpasses were INSANE and decidedly not handicap-friendly. there were no elevators, and at least four flights of stairs to climb down (and four more on the other side up) and the only escalators that we found only brought us halfway down, to a shopping mall that was also full of stairs. oh, and the escalator going back up to our starting point was out of order. by that time, i was exhausted, we were starving and i was two seconds away from giving up and just lying down in the foyer and staying the night. we ended up eating at a fast food chicken chain just inside the mall - with average fried chicken and a surprisingly tasty cheese patty burger - and then, when we were basically kicked out of the restaurant, i hopped up the escalator so we could head back to the hotel. looking back, our first day sounds kind of nightmarish. but the weather was perfect (for me) and the company was good (at that point) and being away for cny made it all worth it. plus, there was more goodness in store, i was sure of it!
day 2: THIS DAY WE HAD MY FAVOURITEST MEAL OF THE TRIP. THE MOST DELICIOUS SUNDUBU O M G. we took a cab to the restaurant and got there just before the lunch crowd, thank goodness.
so delicious. so, SO delicious.
it was a not so tiny mom and pop shop hidden in a little alley, and when we got there they had a couple of tables to spare. we ordered a bunch of sundubu and a seafood pajeon, and then proceeded to cream ourselves over how good the food was while the lunch hour crowd rushed in. people were surrounding us waiting for tables while we ate, and then, just as suddenly, the lunch hour was over and they were gone. it was as impressive as it was delicious.
once we were done with our meal, we went for a spot of shopping and eating at common ground, an entire mall made of stacked shipping containers. it was fun and quirky and probably too hipster for my taste, but it was fun anyway!
it's a winter wonderland!
there were a bunch of clothing stores and accessories stores, and i managed to snag a couple of great buys, but of course what excited me most was the food! we found a cheese toast place, and even found time for cake before we left.
cheese filled toast! it sounds better than it tastes.
all our food breaks were probably part of the reason we wound up being late to our 5pm showing of nanta. it didn't help that our cab driver got lost, but even 25 minutes late, we all had a good laugh at the show. and my brother got called up for audience participation, which was hilarious and delightful! AND it meant that we got to wander around myeongdong (w00t!) eating all the street food afterwards. some of it was truly spectacular, and some of it had to go in the bin.
om nom nom!
we walked around and bought a bunch of stuff - including skin products - and then, after we ducked into an h&m so the men could get out of the cold (because they are all dummies who refuse to prioritise weather-appropriate dressing over style) i lost my scarf ): samibee got me that scarf - or, well, she gave it to me when she decided her co-worker probably wouldn't appreciate it - and i'm still sore about losing it. it was black and sparkly and i loved it ))))):
anyway. unfortunate losses aside, we went back and chilled out in our hotel for a little bit, and then we tried to get concierge to call us a cab to go to supper. BUT THEY REFUSED???? or--well, they basically told us cabs wouldn't come to our area at this time of night. IT WAS JUST AFTER TEN. wtf. needless to say, i was displeased. and also disbelieving. we ventured out on our own to look for a cab, and not one km away was a cab stand. honestly, fuck those guys. so we hailed our own cab and headed to a (pretty delicious) pig place that opened till 2. unfortunately, while entering the cab, i tripped and had to catch myself on my injured foot, and landed on it pretty hard. that was not fun. but the food more than made up for it, and i went back and nursed my foot back to health for the rest of the night, so that was all right.
moral of the story: barbeque is always the answer.
day 3: so one of the reasons it sucked being wheelchair bound was the fact that my travel companions were happy to sleep all day or stay in and use their laptops /eyeroll
i'm not an early riser necessarily, but i was up at 10, and i just stayed inside fucking around online. the weather was gorgeous, too, it was such a shame. by 1 i was getting pretty impatient because half of us were still asleep, so i ordered mexican in - which wasn't great - and then started waking everyone up. by the time we left the hotel it was after 4 (AN ENTIRE DAY WASTED), and we only had time for a stop at the fish market before we had to head back for our tour. i was really pleased we went, though! we walked through the (huge) market, and bought a bunch of different fresh fish and shellfish and then went to one of the restaurants where they helped us cut and cook up our haul. we got to eat live(ish) octopus! and a seriously delicious fish stew. i even have video of the flailing octopus!
so much food~
once that was over, we headed back into the city for the dark side of seoul tour!! only my godbrother and i went because my blood brothers are wusses :D it was a lot more historical than horror-like, which suited me just fine, but i did get chills at a couple of spots during the tour. serial killer stories are my favourite, but anything to do with the supernatural creeps me right out. i also almost fucked up my foot again hopping around on some of the hard to traverse pavements, and i think my godbrother almost threw out his back trying to push me up one of the steepest slopes i've ever had the displeasure of travelling. to top it all off, i almost didn't have to pay at the end of the tour because our guide thought i'd already paid online, but i'm an honest person i guess, so he got his payment in full. which was good, because we were the only two people there that night, so earnings were slim as it was.
luckily for us, the tour ended within walking distance of our hotel, so we met my brothers back there. we went back to our rooms, played some bridge, and then got some mcdonalds for a late night supper. because sometimes it's cold and late and you're tired and munchy and mcdonalds is mcdonalds.
day 4: this was an exciting day because i got to meet up with myunghee! we haven't seen (or even really spoken to) each other since 2010, when we were both at mcgill. but we picked up right where we left off, and all was good. we also got to meet at dong dae mun, where there was a shake shack!!!!!!111 oh my gosh, how much do i love shake shack, i mean seriously. i've gotten to eat it maybe once or twice a year for the last couple of years and i relish it EVERY TIME. why did i not go more often when i was in chicago and THERE WAS AN OUTLET IN THE CITY, i will never know.
following the meeting with myunghee, we stuck around to do some shopping. i bought a replacement scarf and a scary amount of seaweed (which turned out kind of whatev, sadface), before we headed back to the hotel. i decided, since it was our last night there, that what i really wanted was some southern bbq delivery, so that's what we got for dinner. and then we played a bunch more bridge, before setting out for supper at the most delicious korean bbq joint of the trip!! it was set in this tiny, vibrant little street, and no one spoke a word of english. they typed korean into their phones and used their version of google translate to communicate with us. it was fabulous. i have never tasted such amazing pork in my life, and that isn't hyperbole *______________* hands down my second (or third) favourite meal of the entire trip, coming in only behind the sundubu, and maybe tying with the unagi we had in tokyo - more on that in a second.
LOOK AT ALL THAT MEAT
day 5: so i don't know if it was the barbeque, or if it was just 2018 pulling another fast one on me but - i woke up the next morning with a seriously bad case of stomach flu/food poisoning/both. i was nauseous and in pain and just - everything was awful. it was a chore just getting to the bathroom, and then i sat there for hours in abject misery deciding if i needed to puke or take a dump or just sit on the floor and cry from exhaustion. i definitely did a little bit of all three. and we were supposed to be catching a flight to tokyo that evening!!!!1
also we were supposed to go see black panther in a 4d theatre in the morning. but we had to nix that plan in favour of me throwing up in the bathroom all day. all my usual medication wasn't working, which is what really worried me, and the next day was chinese new year, so everything in seoul was closing early. at 3, we toyed with the idea of going to a doctor, but realised the airport clinic wasn't going to be open much longer, and that was our only option if we wanted to make our flight. thankfully, i felt much better in the next couple of hours, and managed to fly to tokyo without any incident.
once at tokyo, people were so much more helpful, and everything much more handicap-friendly, so things took a turn for the better logistics wise. we were in an airbnb for this part of the trip, which was a little bit out of the way, but we managed to get ourselves there in a maxicab - the most expensive cab ride i've ever taken in my life - and even got some onigiri for supper. i managed a couple of bites without feeling too poorly, so i considered that a win.
day 6: the next morning, i felt much better, if not 100%, and we had a full day's itinerary to get through, since we only had three full days in tokyo. we stopped at a nearby ramen place for lunch, which was just so-so, but very affordable and incredibly generous with the portioning.
then we headed to a snake cafe!!!!!1 which probably ended up being my favourite thing we did in tokyo.
CAN I KEEP THEM????
we had to pay a small entrance fee that came with a drink and two baby snakes that we could keep with us at the table (in their enclosures), and then a small extra fee if we wanted to handle two of the bigger snakes lined up against the back of the cafe. the boys took some persuading (which was mostly me calling them chicken, and even then one of them would not be moved), but I WAS ALL ABOUT IT!!111 i have video! this was the first snake we got to handle, and idk why, but this one freaked me out a little. it was pretty calm, but i just got a vibe, and i felt like it might do something unexpectedly, so i couldn't relax the entire time i was handling it, and it showed on my face.
the second snake though!!!!! my little orange-red friend, carrot. i held her and a part of me was like, YOU SHOULD BE MINE. I CAN FEEL IT. i imagine it's the feeling people get when they find their dog at the shelter. she was way more active, and moved around a lot quicker than snake #1, but i just wanted to cuddle her forever. she was so great. i told my parents i bought a snake to take home with me (it was only $300!!) and apparently sometime in the last couple of years i've become the type of person that people actually believe would bring a snake home. i don't know what that says about me.
also! fun fact: after our fifteen minutes of snake-wrangling was up, the attendant told us that the first snake we'd handled had in the past bitten a couple of guests. none of the snakes are venomous, and they did have notices that said that bites sometimes occurred, and to just remain calm, but i was like I KNEW I SENSED SOME BAD JUJU WITH THAT ONE. /vindicted
once we said goodbye to our serpent friends (sadface), we took a little stroll around. i still don't know where we were, but it was busy and full of tourists. we stopped at a couple of shops, and then for crepes, and then somehow found ourselves at american eagle, because of course. there was a promotion going on where you'd get a mystery discount just for trying on their jeans (no purchase necessary), so my brothers and godbrothers all went and took a shot, and we wound up with a 50% discount card! so--it was a little bit of a spree. i bought a new sweater that i really don't need, but for 50% off would have been a crime to leave behind.
exploring tokyo!
it was still early when we left ae, and we had dinner reservations at the ninja restaurant for later on, so stopped at an ice cream cafe to wait it out. i didn't have anything because i didn't want to spoil my dinner, but it didn't look like the pastries/ice cream there was that good anyway.
when we got to the restaurant, i was pretty excited because i'd had such a good time the last time i was there. but then we had a little kerfuffle re: our reservation (and the fact that i was in a wheelchair) and they were pretty nasty about it, so things did not get off to a good start. luckily we wound up in our own private room, and the food was as good as i remembered it being the first time!
shuriken biscuits! and gazpacho-chawanmushi!
hot stone soup! and sushi! which was, unfortunately, the most disappointing course.
we also got a little magic show with a ninja master (magician), who made a coin disappear from between my hands while i was shaking it (and i still can't decide if i want to google to see how that's done or just live out the rest of my life amazed by that night), and our waiter was a BLAST, so all in all we had an excellent time.
day 7: so today was all about tsukiji market. which, unfortunately, did not live up to the hype. the weather was pretty crappy and the alleyways are not meant for wheelchairs, so it didn't make for the best experience. we tried two different restaurants, one of which i'd visited the year before, and it was still delicious, but nowhere near as mind-blowingly good as i recalled it being before. and nowhere near as affordable.
sushi for daaaaaaaays
after tsukiji, we made our way to akihabara to visit a maid cafe. that was probably my least favourite thing we did on the trip :/ japan in general has a very traditional (and fucked up) view of gender roles and sexuality, and it's always bothered me, which is one of the reasons i've never been a big fan of visiting japan. even their advertisements bug the hell out of me, and you can't escape those. watching men openly objectify (and in some cases show physical manifestations of that objectification) these teenagers was so appalling, and the fact that the teens encouraged it and helped them live out this sicko fetish fantasy just made me want to scream. HAVE SOME SELF-RESPECT LADIES, FFS.
they tried to appease me with over-the-top headgear and amateur foodart, but to no avail
we quickly left the maid cafe, and then went to a huge multi-storey mall for a spot of electronics shopping. i mostly wound up buying candy and snacks (surprise, surprise), ad then we headed back to our apartment.
on the way back, we stopped at this little unagi place i'd pointed out the day before. it was a mom and pops store as well, and a pretty small set-up, except for how the restaurant was on the second floor, and the only way up was through a steep set of stairs. i hopped my way up, and then found there was a long corridor i still had to navigate. i was about ready to throw in the towel at that point, and when we saw that the menu had basically 3 options (SIZING OPTIONS, NOTHING TO DO WITH THE FOOD), i think everyone gave me the side-eye. which turned into the stink-eye when our food still hadn't arrived 30 minutes later. also it was expensive D:
but then. THEN!!!!! it turned out to be the most BEAUTIFUL bowl of unagi i've had in over a decade!!!!!!!!!! even my family, who aren't the biggest fans of unagi, all agreed that it was MAGIC.
mmmmmm, just look at that!
the service was fabulous, and the food was even better, so when we left, it was with very happy stomachs.
day 8: our last day in tokyo was also our disney day! i have zero photos of disney, because that is how much fun we had. well--no, it wasn't that it was excessively fun, or that it wasn't fun, but we were expecting special treatment because of the wheelchair, and we definitely didn't get it. so that was a bit of a bummer. it was nice not having to wait in the physical queues, but not being able to queue for two things simultaneously made the in between a bit eh. overall, though, the day was good, if a little chilly, and getting to end the night watching fantasmic from the best possible view (okay, so the wheelchair had some perks :D) was icing on the cake.
we stopped for a late night supper at a really shitty late night izakaya on our way home, and then made a second stop for onigiri after because of how shitty supper had been, ha.
day 9: our last morning in tokyo was smooth sailing. we made it to the airport with time to spare, and then stopped for lunch at two different places (story of our lives) which put us a little bit behind schedule. but then boarding was so efficient that it didn't really matter, and we met lovely staffers when we deplaned for our transit in tokyo. also we left our playing cards in the airport so we had to get new ones, but then we spent all our transit time doing that and had no time left over to actually play any bridge. we are terrible travellers. but what a trip all the same!
on that note, this time to korea! i haven't been in over a decade, and i only vaguely remember it. i haven't embraced the korean wave that's taken over asia till the last couple of years - and even then, it's only been the food. but any excuse to get away from visiting over chinese new year is an excuse i'm happy to take! even with a broken toe. although now that i've been through it, can i just say i strongly DO NOT RECOMMEND travelling while you're wheelchair-bound. unless you enjoy having zero control over your life, and sitting pretty while others move you at their whim, it's not the best experience. but on to the mostly good stuff!
day 1: we took a late night flight to korea, and had a pretty fabulous check-in. everyone was lovely and helpful, apart from splitting up our party at the gate and my brother being basically useless helping with getting me on the plane. i spent most of the flight asleep, so i felt pretty good when we landed. it was a fairly easy experience going through customs and getting new sim cards despite the fact that none of us spoke korean, and the level of spoken english among airport staff was... stiltedly conversational at best. we even had mini freak out over the cab price and its fast jumping meter, but everything worked out fine in the end! our cab driver was as helpful as a cab driver could be, and i was hopeful when we got to the hotel that we would have the same experience. no such luck. there was a HUGE staircase leading up to the hotel, and the wheelchair lift was not working. we got no assistance from the valet / hotel staff either, y a y. they refused to let us check in early - it was noon, and we had to wait till 3 - and weren't very polite about it. this would become a theme in the next couple of days.
still, we were undeterred, and decided to venture out for some lunch! we googled bbq restaurants, and found one nearby. it was a little walk (ie. a doable wheelchair ride) away, but the food turned out to be kind of meh and crazy expensive. the service was nothing to shout home about, but they were efficient and professional and moved things aside so i could get around in my wheelchair, so brownie points to them!
i never say no to barbeque, mmm!
after lunch, we did a small spot of shopping at the lotte building, and then decided to head back to the hotel to check in and take a mini nap. the mini nap turned out to be not so mini, but when we woke up we were all ready for dinner! we were near the famus myeongdong area, so we decided to check out the street eats there. the walk was pretty lovely, if a little chilly, but...
we never figured out what this was supposed to be, but yay for pretty night walks!
WE COULDN'T GET TO MYEONGDONG. a huge road stood between us and our destination, and try as we might, WE COULD NOT FIND A WAY TO CROSS IT. their underpasses were INSANE and decidedly not handicap-friendly. there were no elevators, and at least four flights of stairs to climb down (and four more on the other side up) and the only escalators that we found only brought us halfway down, to a shopping mall that was also full of stairs. oh, and the escalator going back up to our starting point was out of order. by that time, i was exhausted, we were starving and i was two seconds away from giving up and just lying down in the foyer and staying the night. we ended up eating at a fast food chicken chain just inside the mall - with average fried chicken and a surprisingly tasty cheese patty burger - and then, when we were basically kicked out of the restaurant, i hopped up the escalator so we could head back to the hotel. looking back, our first day sounds kind of nightmarish. but the weather was perfect (for me) and the company was good (at that point) and being away for cny made it all worth it. plus, there was more goodness in store, i was sure of it!
day 2: THIS DAY WE HAD MY FAVOURITEST MEAL OF THE TRIP. THE MOST DELICIOUS SUNDUBU O M G. we took a cab to the restaurant and got there just before the lunch crowd, thank goodness.
so delicious. so, SO delicious.
it was a not so tiny mom and pop shop hidden in a little alley, and when we got there they had a couple of tables to spare. we ordered a bunch of sundubu and a seafood pajeon, and then proceeded to cream ourselves over how good the food was while the lunch hour crowd rushed in. people were surrounding us waiting for tables while we ate, and then, just as suddenly, the lunch hour was over and they were gone. it was as impressive as it was delicious.
once we were done with our meal, we went for a spot of shopping and eating at common ground, an entire mall made of stacked shipping containers. it was fun and quirky and probably too hipster for my taste, but it was fun anyway!
it's a winter wonderland!
there were a bunch of clothing stores and accessories stores, and i managed to snag a couple of great buys, but of course what excited me most was the food! we found a cheese toast place, and even found time for cake before we left.
cheese filled toast! it sounds better than it tastes.
all our food breaks were probably part of the reason we wound up being late to our 5pm showing of nanta. it didn't help that our cab driver got lost, but even 25 minutes late, we all had a good laugh at the show. and my brother got called up for audience participation, which was hilarious and delightful! AND it meant that we got to wander around myeongdong (w00t!) eating all the street food afterwards. some of it was truly spectacular, and some of it had to go in the bin.
om nom nom!
we walked around and bought a bunch of stuff - including skin products - and then, after we ducked into an h&m so the men could get out of the cold (because they are all dummies who refuse to prioritise weather-appropriate dressing over style) i lost my scarf ): samibee got me that scarf - or, well, she gave it to me when she decided her co-worker probably wouldn't appreciate it - and i'm still sore about losing it. it was black and sparkly and i loved it ))))):
anyway. unfortunate losses aside, we went back and chilled out in our hotel for a little bit, and then we tried to get concierge to call us a cab to go to supper. BUT THEY REFUSED???? or--well, they basically told us cabs wouldn't come to our area at this time of night. IT WAS JUST AFTER TEN. wtf. needless to say, i was displeased. and also disbelieving. we ventured out on our own to look for a cab, and not one km away was a cab stand. honestly, fuck those guys. so we hailed our own cab and headed to a (pretty delicious) pig place that opened till 2. unfortunately, while entering the cab, i tripped and had to catch myself on my injured foot, and landed on it pretty hard. that was not fun. but the food more than made up for it, and i went back and nursed my foot back to health for the rest of the night, so that was all right.
moral of the story: barbeque is always the answer.
day 3: so one of the reasons it sucked being wheelchair bound was the fact that my travel companions were happy to sleep all day or stay in and use their laptops /eyeroll
i'm not an early riser necessarily, but i was up at 10, and i just stayed inside fucking around online. the weather was gorgeous, too, it was such a shame. by 1 i was getting pretty impatient because half of us were still asleep, so i ordered mexican in - which wasn't great - and then started waking everyone up. by the time we left the hotel it was after 4 (AN ENTIRE DAY WASTED), and we only had time for a stop at the fish market before we had to head back for our tour. i was really pleased we went, though! we walked through the (huge) market, and bought a bunch of different fresh fish and shellfish and then went to one of the restaurants where they helped us cut and cook up our haul. we got to eat live(ish) octopus! and a seriously delicious fish stew. i even have video of the flailing octopus!
so much food~
once that was over, we headed back into the city for the dark side of seoul tour!! only my godbrother and i went because my blood brothers are wusses :D it was a lot more historical than horror-like, which suited me just fine, but i did get chills at a couple of spots during the tour. serial killer stories are my favourite, but anything to do with the supernatural creeps me right out. i also almost fucked up my foot again hopping around on some of the hard to traverse pavements, and i think my godbrother almost threw out his back trying to push me up one of the steepest slopes i've ever had the displeasure of travelling. to top it all off, i almost didn't have to pay at the end of the tour because our guide thought i'd already paid online, but i'm an honest person i guess, so he got his payment in full. which was good, because we were the only two people there that night, so earnings were slim as it was.
luckily for us, the tour ended within walking distance of our hotel, so we met my brothers back there. we went back to our rooms, played some bridge, and then got some mcdonalds for a late night supper. because sometimes it's cold and late and you're tired and munchy and mcdonalds is mcdonalds.
day 4: this was an exciting day because i got to meet up with myunghee! we haven't seen (or even really spoken to) each other since 2010, when we were both at mcgill. but we picked up right where we left off, and all was good. we also got to meet at dong dae mun, where there was a shake shack!!!!!!111 oh my gosh, how much do i love shake shack, i mean seriously. i've gotten to eat it maybe once or twice a year for the last couple of years and i relish it EVERY TIME. why did i not go more often when i was in chicago and THERE WAS AN OUTLET IN THE CITY, i will never know.
following the meeting with myunghee, we stuck around to do some shopping. i bought a replacement scarf and a scary amount of seaweed (which turned out kind of whatev, sadface), before we headed back to the hotel. i decided, since it was our last night there, that what i really wanted was some southern bbq delivery, so that's what we got for dinner. and then we played a bunch more bridge, before setting out for supper at the most delicious korean bbq joint of the trip!! it was set in this tiny, vibrant little street, and no one spoke a word of english. they typed korean into their phones and used their version of google translate to communicate with us. it was fabulous. i have never tasted such amazing pork in my life, and that isn't hyperbole *______________* hands down my second (or third) favourite meal of the entire trip, coming in only behind the sundubu, and maybe tying with the unagi we had in tokyo - more on that in a second.
LOOK AT ALL THAT MEAT
day 5: so i don't know if it was the barbeque, or if it was just 2018 pulling another fast one on me but - i woke up the next morning with a seriously bad case of stomach flu/food poisoning/both. i was nauseous and in pain and just - everything was awful. it was a chore just getting to the bathroom, and then i sat there for hours in abject misery deciding if i needed to puke or take a dump or just sit on the floor and cry from exhaustion. i definitely did a little bit of all three. and we were supposed to be catching a flight to tokyo that evening!!!!1
also we were supposed to go see black panther in a 4d theatre in the morning. but we had to nix that plan in favour of me throwing up in the bathroom all day. all my usual medication wasn't working, which is what really worried me, and the next day was chinese new year, so everything in seoul was closing early. at 3, we toyed with the idea of going to a doctor, but realised the airport clinic wasn't going to be open much longer, and that was our only option if we wanted to make our flight. thankfully, i felt much better in the next couple of hours, and managed to fly to tokyo without any incident.
once at tokyo, people were so much more helpful, and everything much more handicap-friendly, so things took a turn for the better logistics wise. we were in an airbnb for this part of the trip, which was a little bit out of the way, but we managed to get ourselves there in a maxicab - the most expensive cab ride i've ever taken in my life - and even got some onigiri for supper. i managed a couple of bites without feeling too poorly, so i considered that a win.
day 6: the next morning, i felt much better, if not 100%, and we had a full day's itinerary to get through, since we only had three full days in tokyo. we stopped at a nearby ramen place for lunch, which was just so-so, but very affordable and incredibly generous with the portioning.
then we headed to a snake cafe!!!!!1 which probably ended up being my favourite thing we did in tokyo.
CAN I KEEP THEM????
we had to pay a small entrance fee that came with a drink and two baby snakes that we could keep with us at the table (in their enclosures), and then a small extra fee if we wanted to handle two of the bigger snakes lined up against the back of the cafe. the boys took some persuading (which was mostly me calling them chicken, and even then one of them would not be moved), but I WAS ALL ABOUT IT!!111 i have video! this was the first snake we got to handle, and idk why, but this one freaked me out a little. it was pretty calm, but i just got a vibe, and i felt like it might do something unexpectedly, so i couldn't relax the entire time i was handling it, and it showed on my face.
the second snake though!!!!! my little orange-red friend, carrot. i held her and a part of me was like, YOU SHOULD BE MINE. I CAN FEEL IT. i imagine it's the feeling people get when they find their dog at the shelter. she was way more active, and moved around a lot quicker than snake #1, but i just wanted to cuddle her forever. she was so great. i told my parents i bought a snake to take home with me (it was only $300!!) and apparently sometime in the last couple of years i've become the type of person that people actually believe would bring a snake home. i don't know what that says about me.
also! fun fact: after our fifteen minutes of snake-wrangling was up, the attendant told us that the first snake we'd handled had in the past bitten a couple of guests. none of the snakes are venomous, and they did have notices that said that bites sometimes occurred, and to just remain calm, but i was like I KNEW I SENSED SOME BAD JUJU WITH THAT ONE. /vindicted
once we said goodbye to our serpent friends (sadface), we took a little stroll around. i still don't know where we were, but it was busy and full of tourists. we stopped at a couple of shops, and then for crepes, and then somehow found ourselves at american eagle, because of course. there was a promotion going on where you'd get a mystery discount just for trying on their jeans (no purchase necessary), so my brothers and godbrothers all went and took a shot, and we wound up with a 50% discount card! so--it was a little bit of a spree. i bought a new sweater that i really don't need, but for 50% off would have been a crime to leave behind.
exploring tokyo!
it was still early when we left ae, and we had dinner reservations at the ninja restaurant for later on, so stopped at an ice cream cafe to wait it out. i didn't have anything because i didn't want to spoil my dinner, but it didn't look like the pastries/ice cream there was that good anyway.
when we got to the restaurant, i was pretty excited because i'd had such a good time the last time i was there. but then we had a little kerfuffle re: our reservation (and the fact that i was in a wheelchair) and they were pretty nasty about it, so things did not get off to a good start. luckily we wound up in our own private room, and the food was as good as i remembered it being the first time!
shuriken biscuits! and gazpacho-chawanmushi!
hot stone soup! and sushi! which was, unfortunately, the most disappointing course.
we also got a little magic show with a ninja master (magician), who made a coin disappear from between my hands while i was shaking it (and i still can't decide if i want to google to see how that's done or just live out the rest of my life amazed by that night), and our waiter was a BLAST, so all in all we had an excellent time.
day 7: so today was all about tsukiji market. which, unfortunately, did not live up to the hype. the weather was pretty crappy and the alleyways are not meant for wheelchairs, so it didn't make for the best experience. we tried two different restaurants, one of which i'd visited the year before, and it was still delicious, but nowhere near as mind-blowingly good as i recalled it being before. and nowhere near as affordable.
sushi for daaaaaaaays
after tsukiji, we made our way to akihabara to visit a maid cafe. that was probably my least favourite thing we did on the trip :/ japan in general has a very traditional (and fucked up) view of gender roles and sexuality, and it's always bothered me, which is one of the reasons i've never been a big fan of visiting japan. even their advertisements bug the hell out of me, and you can't escape those. watching men openly objectify (and in some cases show physical manifestations of that objectification) these teenagers was so appalling, and the fact that the teens encouraged it and helped them live out this sicko fetish fantasy just made me want to scream. HAVE SOME SELF-RESPECT LADIES, FFS.
they tried to appease me with over-the-top headgear and amateur foodart, but to no avail
we quickly left the maid cafe, and then went to a huge multi-storey mall for a spot of electronics shopping. i mostly wound up buying candy and snacks (surprise, surprise), ad then we headed back to our apartment.
on the way back, we stopped at this little unagi place i'd pointed out the day before. it was a mom and pops store as well, and a pretty small set-up, except for how the restaurant was on the second floor, and the only way up was through a steep set of stairs. i hopped my way up, and then found there was a long corridor i still had to navigate. i was about ready to throw in the towel at that point, and when we saw that the menu had basically 3 options (SIZING OPTIONS, NOTHING TO DO WITH THE FOOD), i think everyone gave me the side-eye. which turned into the stink-eye when our food still hadn't arrived 30 minutes later. also it was expensive D:
but then. THEN!!!!! it turned out to be the most BEAUTIFUL bowl of unagi i've had in over a decade!!!!!!!!!! even my family, who aren't the biggest fans of unagi, all agreed that it was MAGIC.
mmmmmm, just look at that!
the service was fabulous, and the food was even better, so when we left, it was with very happy stomachs.
day 8: our last day in tokyo was also our disney day! i have zero photos of disney, because that is how much fun we had. well--no, it wasn't that it was excessively fun, or that it wasn't fun, but we were expecting special treatment because of the wheelchair, and we definitely didn't get it. so that was a bit of a bummer. it was nice not having to wait in the physical queues, but not being able to queue for two things simultaneously made the in between a bit eh. overall, though, the day was good, if a little chilly, and getting to end the night watching fantasmic from the best possible view (okay, so the wheelchair had some perks :D) was icing on the cake.
we stopped for a late night supper at a really shitty late night izakaya on our way home, and then made a second stop for onigiri after because of how shitty supper had been, ha.
day 9: our last morning in tokyo was smooth sailing. we made it to the airport with time to spare, and then stopped for lunch at two different places (story of our lives) which put us a little bit behind schedule. but then boarding was so efficient that it didn't really matter, and we met lovely staffers when we deplaned for our transit in tokyo. also we left our playing cards in the airport so we had to get new ones, but then we spent all our transit time doing that and had no time left over to actually play any bridge. we are terrible travellers. but what a trip all the same!