Seoul Trip 2017 Day 1 (18/12/2016)

In order to save money for my holidays this December, I took China Eastern Airlines for both my Japan and Seoul trip, earning 6miles when I booked through Expedia using my UOB privi card. When I checked Seoul ticket prices on SQ (direct flight), it was already $1.4k per pax, and China Eastern Airlines was only $750, so it was almost half price. We decided we could afford the time to transit,  just like our June trip to UK, saving bucks by spending more time traveling.  

Coincidentally, I transited at Shanghai for both my trips, so I was already quite familiar with the procedures and the airport. The transit time is not as bad as my Okinawa trip as P was with me this time and we only waited for 2-3 hours before waiting to board again. However, I felt a bit sick once I thought of the plane ride (quite a deja vu feeling as the two trips were just 2 weeks part) as I was down with diarrhoea once I landed in Okinawa. I tried to get rid of this thoughts on the 5 hour flight to Shanghai but the very bad turbulences did not help.

P was excited once we reached Shanghai as its exactly where he wanted to be. There's a Starbucks at our transit area and they've launched some limited edition stuff over there for X'mas. Our trip had not started proper and we had already spent hundreds of dollars on his Starbucks collection. Sigh... I did not feel happy and we had a little argument, but we did not want to spoil our holidays so we reconcile pretty fast.

We reached Seoul past noon and went looking for the recommended way to get to our hotel. I looked at the videos the hotel had created and sent to us prior to the trip (quite high tech and good customer service) and decided that taking the Airport Rail to Seoul Station and then a taxi right to the doorstep of the hotel should be the safest way, it cost the same as the Limousine bus but we do not need to find our way from the bus stop to the hotel with our luggages. 

Found the Travel Centre right after the arrival area

The trip cost us 15k won per pax (less than 20SGD)

Found our way to the Airport Express station and the train was waiting

The AREX tickets with clear instructions

Actually the piece of paper was not needed as the driver was waving at us right after we exited the AREX train area. He was able to ask us some simple questions in English, but we were quite shocked when we got to the carpark exit and the cabbie was shouting away to the lady communicating with him at the gantry, just like how people scream at each other in Korean dramas. It's not really his fault as the lady did not let us out of the carpark and he was trying to explain that he's the pickup service cabbie. Anyway, I must admit that I went to Seoul with some prejudice as Eric had told us that unlike the polite Japanese, the Koreans are rude like their PRC neighbours. At the end of the trip, Japan is still our preferred country of travel but Seoul and Koreans are not that bad and the cabbie was the only shouting Korean we've really met during the trip.

Our hotel was really near to Seoul Station as its quite centralized and located at Myeong Dong area, I think we only sat in the cab for about ten minutes and the driver made a few turns before we reached our hotel. The short trip really benefit the driver as we paid a flat rate for the cab bundled with AREX so I guess he's really lucky we're so near.

Like what I read from reviews, the reception staff at Shin Shin Hotel were really friendly and spoke good English. Many reviewers mentioned that the hotel room is small but we felt that it was quite okay and cosy, not sure whether its because we're having a premium twin room. Anyway, its our 'home' for the next 7 nights, the entire duration of the trip.

Our room was located at another building from the reception and only 3 rooms on each level

A very open bathing area and we enjoyed soaking in the tub (alone)

Our beds, we moved the beds together after the first two nights

This working area was soon littered with stuff during our trip

Large wardrobe at the entrance of the room and we left our luggages there

I loved the location of our hotel. The staff were helpful and friendly. Only complaint that I had was that soundproofing was not that good so I woke up from people checking into the next room one morning. For some of the mornings, the chambermaid moved some chairs during housekeeping upstairs and woke me too. I sleep easily most of the time so it's pretty unusual for me to wake up from the noise, feeling frustrated.

Seoul Trip 18th December 2016 to 25th December 2016 (All about our Pre-Wedding Shoot)

I'm not sure why I lost the passion to blog much in 2016, I have not finished my blog post for the Hakusan Ultramarathon as of now but I promised myself to complete the blog as it was really a memorable race for me.

Anyway, this is my first blog about my wedding. Ah, I'm finally getting married! It's a lot of preparation on top of my new home which is in the midst of renovation right now. I've done so much stuff that are really blog-worthy but did not have the patience or time to blog about those. Hope I'll get back on track someday!

What inspired me to get back to blogging is this Seoul trip, it is my first trip to Korea and we decided quite sometime back to do our pre-wedding shoot during the trip. We had wanted to visit Korea in 2015 but decided to shelf the idea as we both loved Japan so much that we did another winter trip to Hokkaido. We would have loved to do our pre-wedding shoot in Japan but after viewing the photos and considering the current trend, Korea pre-wedding shoot appeal to us more in terms of the backdrop, props, makeup, hairstyling and basically the whole package. After we finally confirmed our wedding reception venue around September, I started researching about our pre-wedding shoot by reading blogs, forums and sending enquiries.

Short-listing the coordinating company and studio...

(Ido Wedding and OneThreeOneFour)
I thought Ido wedding had quite a lot of good reviews and thus that was the first 'studio' (strictly speaking, they are more like a middle man between us and the Korean studios) we contacted but the Korean lady we met up to discuss appeared quite aloof (not sure if its lost in translation?) and the price was simply too steep. Initially I thought that it will be safer to contact a company based in Singapore to help us look for a studio as we did not know how to communicate with the Korean studios but I realised they are really charging a premium price. Both Ido Wedding and OneThreeOneFour quoted us almost 4k as the main requirement for our shoot is to capture snow scenes (we really love snow!) and they had offered to bring out us out of Seoul area to Gang-won province or a ski resort to capture heavy snowfall. We felt that 4K just for pre-wedding photo shoot was really too steep so we decided to consider other ways to do it.

(Hello Muse and Mr K Korea Wedding)
The next few options were explored and I believe they were companies with interpreters who can help us coordinate between the Korea studios, that's a really good options as we can contact the Korean studios without speaking the language, plus the price is cheaper too. I contacted the lady from Mr K Korea Wedding through wechat and honestly she was really nice, she suggested taking photos at Nami Island while the person who replied me from Hello Muse suggested Dosan Park. However, they kept emphasizing that snowfall cannot be predicted so there was a risk of traveling all the way there with no snow or only a very thin layer of snow on the ground. December is still early winter and we decided that we couldnt afford to risk it, the effects will be quite different if its just a thin layer of snow on the ground, so going to a ski resort is preferred. (I should be very glad we did not risk it as Seoul is seriously not as cold as Hokkaido since we arrived, more like early spring weather, therefore no snow at Nami Island at all even though the lady thought that mid-December should be good enough)

Another coordinator that I randomly found on facebook replied me:
您好。。。
一半左右的studio都可以在冬天拍街道景,只要有遇到下雪天,就可以拍到,但~何時下雪並非人為可以控制喔。這部份您必須碰運氣...再來就是~零下的天氣穿婚紗在戶外拍攝,新娘會非常辛苦,臉凍傷的機會高,最算沒凍傷,可能會因太冷臉僵硬到笑不出來。 您再評估看看喔。
Kohit Wedding!!
I forgot where I chanced upon good reviews of Kohit Wedding (I contacted almost every sources I can find to ask about taking photo in the snow) but I felt really lucky I found them. They are not as well known as some other established companies as I found out later that they are mainly ran by a couple plus two other part timers so its considered a small budding company. I kept googling winter pre-wedding photos and only two Korean studios had the images of what we had in mind (Roi Studio and Sum Studio), I was really happy when these two studios were in their list of studios available and was pleasantly surprised when they quoted a much cheaper price (about 3.6K SGD) than others. On top of that, they were able to include both outdoor and indoor shoots for us at that price, so it was indeed much cheaper than what others had quoted. The package is very good as we can choose 30 pictures for the album instead of the normal 20 pages, plus the blown up framed photo that will be sent to us through EMS courier. They also thrown in freebies like a behind-the-scene video, I realised that it was taken by David from Kohit during the shoot but the quality is not too bad from the YouTube videos uploaded. Most importantly.. since its free, why not?  I was glad that the my search for the studio was finally over when I made the booking with Kohit somewhere in Oct and paid 20% to them through PayPal. The only disadvantage was that the PayPal fees of 4% was eventually included but now that the shoot was over, I still feel that its all worth the price and effort.

Its 5am now in Seoul, so time to sleep and I will update more about our trip later on...

Hakusan Shirakawago Ultramarathon 50km (Shirakawa-go and Takayama Old Town) 9/9/2016

It was already 2am++ when I finished updating the blog about the first day of my trip. I lied on the comfortable bed and fell asleep until my room was lit with sunlight around 7.30am this morning. I loved soaking in onsen so much that I decided to make another trip to the onsen early before the private baths get taken up again. Obviously the kiasu spirit in the Singaporean me was working well as all three private onsen baths were empty when I went up to the 13th floor. I chose the bigger and nicer room among the three and marveled at the good weather and nice view from the outdoor onsen.

Happy to see the word 'vacant' outside the doors

The outdoor onsen

The view when lying down on the slab and watch the world pass by

Enjoyed the private bathing and dressing area

The onsen I soaked in was Azuma-nishiki

Took a photo of Shirayuki next door too

The smaller Shidare

Free yakult drinks outside the onsen

After the good soak at onsen, it was 8.30am and half an hour to the end of breakfast time, so I headed down for breakfast. The breakfast spread was not too bad, with selection of breads and Japanese food. The breads tasted surprisingly good and even better than those I've tried at western cafes, and I loved the bread spread which had a mixture of red bean and margarine. After breakfast, I went back to my room and snoozed for another 2 hours before setting out for the day.

My yummy breakfast

I finally got out of the room past noon as I had plans to take a local bus to the Shirakawa-go village. Although I will be going there to report for the race tomorrow and tire myself running through the village on Sunday, I was thinking I might not have the time to tour it at a more leisurely pace, therefore its still worth an additional trip from Takayama. The better way to do it is to do a homestay at one of the gassho farmhouses for tonight but I figured it will be too tedious to plan and book, therefore I just make it a day trip out from Takayama.

Round trip tickets and free wifi on the bus, yeah! 

I went to the tourist info counter I saw the previous day, right in front of the JR train station. The English speaking staff gave me an info sheet with all the bus timings and directed me to the bus ticketing counter nearby to get a round trip ticket for the bus. Certain timings for the bus required a reserved seat and the seat number was indicated on the ticket when I received it. The bus was not filled up, so individuals like me traveling alone get to sit comfortably on our own, and the bus captain also checked our tickets and ensured that we were buckled up before we got on our way. The bus journey took about an hour and we were dropped off at Shirakawa-go bus terminal soon enough. As the bus was climbing up, I tried not to think of how much I will suffer on the slopes during the coming race.

The Shoryudo bus haeading to Kanazawa next

It took me awhile to get my orientation around the place as I only knew that I wanted to go up to the observatory viewpoint, which I guess should be the highest part of the village to get a good photo of all the gassho-zukuri farmhouses and historical looking buildings. It is also at the viewpoint where pictures were taken in winter, showing a magnificent view of the fallen snow on the roofs of the farmhouse around this UNESCO world heritage site, therefore attracting a lot of tourists in recent years.

Map of the place near the bus terminal

Luckily there was a counter with English speaking staff at the tourist centre and the lady directed me towards the right path to look for the shuttle bus pickup point. There was some walking that I need to do and a long swaying bridge that I had to cross to get to the shuttle bus depot, but this gave me a chance to look at the buildings closely, and all the little knick knacks people were selling at the shops. The weather was quite hot with the sun shining down strong so I was also a little worried that it will be that hot two days later during the race, making it even more of a torture on top of the steep slopes.

The visitor centre

A poster of the race at the visitor centre and quite a few other shops had it too

When I got closer to take a look, I could see that the gassho-zukuri farmhouses had really thick roof and it looked really flammable, therefore there were warning signs to remind people not to smoke around the area. Some of these buildings are more 250 years old! Many of them were preserved as homestay farmhouses with the villagers still staying in it and some of them sell foodstuff to the tourists who ware passing through the area. I also stopped for a soft serve as the weather was really hot, there were many shops selling these but not all of them had people behind the counters as business could be quite random.

Crossing the steady bridge which only swayed a little

One of the old farmhouses selling drinks

I was told to turn left after hitting this junction at the main road

This is so picturesque! Nice weather too, albeit a little hot

Finally chill with a soft serve of mixed flavours

I was lucky enough to catch the shuttle bus when people were queuing up to board. I hurried my steps and got onto the little shuttle bus, there were insufficient seats but I did not mind as the trip was only 10min (costing 200 yen one way). As the bus climbed up slowly, I thought of how I had to climb all the way up to the observatory during the last 10km of the race. Hopefully it will be all worth the effort once I get to the top on Sunday.

Sarubobo is really common in Takayama area, believed to bring luck

Rows of Sarubobo in the souvenir shops, different colour for different luck

The shuttle bus service is 20min apart

The whole purpose of going all the way up to the observatory was to see the gorgeous view from the top, it was nice enough now in early autumn and I cant imagine how pretty it will be during winter, I vow to be back someday during winter.

Very surreal feeling at the top

The commercial version of this pic was quite nice, I would buy it if I wasnt alone

I only spend a mere 10min at the top, it was still quite easy to take pictures as it was not that crowded and the shuttle bus service is rather frequent, I spend the next 10min going to the washroom and it was time for me to catch the next shuttle bus back to the village.

One of the big souvenir shop at the area

It was around 3.30pm when I got down from the observatory, and I had to walk back to the bus terminal to catch the next bus back. I had plans to tour the Takayama Old Town later that afternoon and it will be 5+ when I get back to Takayama area. I was hoping the shops will not be closed that early. As the next bus was scheduled at 4.15pm, I felt a little hungry and decided to spend the time finding some local specialities to fill my stomach since I didnt have lunch.

The very cute bench and street sign in the shape of the gassho farmhouses

Hida beef potato croquette, cant taste much of the beef here

These rice cakes with soy sauce were quite filling

After my stomach was filled with these yummy stuff, I did not wait for long at the terminal and the bus had arrived. The 4.15pm bus from Shirakawa-go did not require prior reservation. There were tourists with luggages but there were still plenty of empty seats around. The difference between this bus trip and the earlier one with reservation was that the bus stopped at different stops on the way back instead of traveling directly to Takayama, I fell asleep on the way back and strangely the bus still arrived at Takayama after one hour despite it stopping so many times. I felt hungry again so I went into the convenience store next to the bus ticketing counters to get my favourite rice onigiri before I started walking to the Takayama Old Town area.

The bus service counters with convenience stores

It was about 20min walk from the JR station area to the Takayama Old Town, shops were already closing when I walked along, even though it was not even 6pm yet. When I reached the old town area, most of the shops were closed or closing up, so I did not get to see the little knick knacks and stuff I had read about from travel blogs of other people. I guess this area is the same as Otaru and many other parts of Japan so I really need to get used to shops closing by 5pm at small towns like this.

This is the only shop still selling stuff

I was not hungry but it looked so good that I had to try one

I bought one with red bean paste and regretted finishing it as I felt so full

People who are really into street photography would love coming to this place in the early evening as it is still bright enough to capture some pictures and the streets are already relatively empty so it was easy to get good shots. The old town was attractive even when shops are all closed as the buildings were preserved from the Edo period, so it looked very old style Japanese, giving people the feel of being in Kyoto (although I've not been to Kyoto, yet). I decided to come back again the next day after checking out so that I can see what the shops have to offer when its opened.

The old buildings of Takayama Old Street

It looked lovelier when the lights turned on and there's still a little bit of natural light

Even the 7-11 here has the old building feel to it

There were some tourists like me still roaming around taking pictures even though all the shops had closed, I took a slow stroll back to my hotel and it felt good walking around this small town when dusk is falling and the first bit of moonlight shone down. Everything felt so peaceful and zen. Loved this place and I hope to be back someday.

Shabu shabu dinner

I selected 8pm as the slot for dinner, so I took a short break before going down to the restaurant at dinner time. For the second night, shabu shabu with the hida beef was served instead of the grill. Judging from what the other patrons were having, there were only these two options and it will be repeated if I were to stay for more than two nights. The buffet selection was also same as the previous night but I still enjoyed it even though I was not hungry after all the snacking. The restaurant was filled with people tonight and the servers were not as attentive due to this. Nevertheless, I took about one hour for dinner and went back to my room. I only went up to onsen at midnight after seeing the crowd during dinner time, and I was surprised as two of the private onsens were available for use. I tried out Shidare this time round and went back to my room to blog and rest soon after that.

Hakusan Shirakawago Ultramarathon 50km (From SG to Nagoya to Takayama) 8/9/2016

After the Nagoya Women's Marathon 2016, I got hooked to overseas races. I was scanning through all the overseas marathons and I got really excited when I realised that there is a public holiday right after the September holidays. I started to look through all overseas race to see if there is any race on 11th September 2016 and this interesting ultramarathon at Hakusan Shirakawa-go popped up in the search. I was not having any confidence that I can handle an ultramarathon with my slow marathon timings, but after reading a Run Society article about this race, I got quite tempted when I saw that the cut off time for 50km is 10 hours. My slowest marathon was done in 7h 30min, so I should be able to handle another 8 km in 2.5h right? I hope.

The mandatory sending me off photo

I'm not heard about this race from local runners at all, and this year is only the 4th edition. However, I scanned through race reviews of some runners who had done it, it sounded like they had a really great time. I registered immediately as the race was opened for registration since late March, but there were still slots when I registered early May. At least the registration part was easy as it is a race that does not need balloting and there was no competition for slots. The race organiser also work with a tour vendor to provide transport and lodging arrangement before and after the race. This is a fantastic arrangement for the overseas runners as Shirakawago is not a big city and unlike big city races, it wasnt easy for us to settle accommodation, or to find our way to the area. I had the tour package customised as I have to leave Shirakawago to get back to Nagoya immediately after the race in order to catch the 9am flight back home the next morning. It took me awhile to figure out the packages available and I was really thankful that the tour vendor was patient enough to answer all my queries to their best ability. For the 50km category, it would be ideal for me to stay at Shirakawago village as the start point is going to be around the area. Unfortunately, all the lodging were already taken up by the time I had my plans figured out, so I have to stay at Hakusan city the night before the race and wake up earlier to travel to race site.

Yawning passengers waiting to board the red eye flight

Flying into Nagoya was something I had just done just half a year ago, and doing the overseas race the third time was easier for me. It was not as stressful or apprehensive as my first overseas race half a year ago. Although P and I will be separated for quite a number of days (he's also going home while I'm away), I did not feel that bad about it. After I finished my Sept camp duties on Wednesday, I went home to recharge and only started packing about 9pm. My stuff were still all over the place as we had just moved but I managed to get everything done by the time I was supposed to leave. P sent me to the airport and I boarded the flight after collecting my wifi router and getting my yen (I have leftovers from the previous trip but I forgot about it). I slept most of the time after the flight took off and only really woke up when the sunlight was streaming in from the window panes at 7am+. I did not watch any single thing on Krisworld until the very last hour and started on a Korean movie by my favourite actress Han Hyo Joo when it was already time to land.

Touched down! My luggage appeared really fast, lucky me! 

It did not take me that long to figure out the rail system of Nagoya this time round, and I headed to Kanayama Station from the airport to get onto the subway. I figured out that it was just 10am and it will be too early to check into my Takayama hotel even if I head there straight away (Takayama is slightly over 2h by JR train from Nagoya). I was craving for the grilled eel rice at Atsuta Horeikan and decided to head there for lunch before traveling to Takayama. I took the Meijo line subway from Kanayama and ended up at Yabacho Station which was really near to Matsuzakaya, the place I had the yummy grilled eel rice previously.

Here we go again :)

I reached the place slightly before it opened at 11am and there was already a long queue of people sitting outside. When the restaurant opened, I was among the first batch of patrons to get a seat inside. I ordered immediately as I already knew I wanted the exact the same thing as my Nagoya Marathon post-race meal. It was also this Hitsumabushi way of eating the grilled eel rice that made it so famous, still no.1 spot in Tripadvisor. As all of us entered the restaurant at the same time, it took them a while to serve the food, but I still managed to leave the restaurant slightly before noon to catch the next JR train to Takayama. Since the check-in time of the hotel is 3pm and I know Japanese hotels are quite strict with the timing, I figured that I'll reach just in time for check in. As I did not want to risk missing the train, I decided to go straight to the JR counter to get the staff to help me with the tickets instead of getting them figured out myself at the ticket vending machine. With the recommendations of the staff, I took a local train to Nagoya station (one stop away) to board the 12.48pm train to Takayama. I really hated handling my own luggage up and down the stairs of the station, but I was glad I got there early enough and the train was already in station. I found my reserved seat and settled down comfortably even though the train was not as new as those I had taken previously.

I guess I like the feeling of taking JR trains, especially with reserved seat

It cost 5830 yen to travel to Takayama, its double the price of taking a bus there, even though the traveling time is about the same. I found the price really steep but I decided that I prefer sitting on a train compared to a bus, so I still forked out the money. With the rumbling of the train, I fell asleep again until I realised the train had been stopping for longer periods of time than expected. I looked at the time, it was already 2pm+ but I checked the Google map on my phone and we were still really far from the destination. It turned out that the train was delayed and the next train was even canceled as there were some heavy rain and something got damaged somewhere. I was really glad that I got the wifi router to keep myself entertained and I even had snacks, the only thing I did not prepare was water for the trip and my throat felt really dry. This is seriously the first time I experience such bad delay on JR trains. Eventually, it took us double the time to get to Takayama and we only reached there at 6pm when the sky was almost dark. The 5h long train ride felt like another flight to somewhere far and my butt was aching from the long hours of sitting. 

The view was not bad from the train

The building structure here are quite cool

So glad when we finally got here

Tourist help counter right outside the station

It was getting dark soon and I managed to find the direction towards the Takayama Ouan Hotel with the help of my trusty Google Map apps. It was supposed to be just a short walk away and I saw this building from far, it looked like a nice hotel but there were no English names on the building so I could not tell if it was the right place. I reached the front of it, took out my Agoda booking printouts and was so glad it was indeed the hotel I've booked.

Nice looking building from far

After checking in, the hotel staff passed me the keys to the room and the key to my shoe locker. The whole hotel was built with tatami flooring so all guests have to keep the shoes at the lockers near the front desk. Unlike the Noboribetsu hotel I had stayed last year, even the hotel Japanese slippers were not allowed. There were symbols in Japanese writing printed on the locker key but I took a long time to look for the right locker and the staff had to help me with it. 

Rows of lockers for the shoes

The reception desk at the hotel lobby

I've booked the hotel a few months back after doing some research and I felt pretty satisfied from the moment I stepped into the place. I saw quite a number of tourists when we reached Takayama but it is not a big city, therefore my single room here is quite big compared to the one I've stayed at b'nagoya. It is a half board ryokan style room with well defined areas for washing, living and sleeping. As I was walking towards the hotel, I've noted that there were not many shops opened at night around the area, therefore I was glad I had opted to have half board lodging with dinner and breakfast provided in the hotel. 

Vending machines and microwave at the lift lobby

The living and sleeping area

Shower area (which I wont use much as there's onsen ;) )

The toilet area next to the shower

The washing area next to the doorway

As it was already 6+ when I checked in, my dinner slot was at 8pm. I'm glad there is plenty of space for my stuff to get strewn around in the room, so I started digging for my chargers and adaptors to get some juice for my gadgets. The restaurant staff rang my room and told me that I can go down for dinner at 7.45pm instead, which was just nice for me to get a rest and go for dinner. Remembering our experience at Noboribetsu, I guess it was good for us to have the kiseki dinner at the restaurant instead of in the room. This hotel is half modern and half ryokan style as the bedding is not exactly like futons, but more of thick mattresses on tatami.

Meal vouchers

The clean hallway to the rooms

Hotel info inside the lift

Half Kiseki and half buffet style dinner with English instructions

Grilled hida beef and pork slices with miso sauce

Fried stuff and tempura

Lot of sauces for the different food

Tempura dip

I was too full to try everything

Tried the grilled rice balls but not the soup

More condiments

Fruits and desserts

Grilling the hida beef which is famous here

I felt really full after the dinner, it was about 9pm when I went back to my room. They also served free noodles at 10.30pm but I did not remember it till much later as the dinner was really filling. I was waiting to go to the onsen at 11pm so that it will not be that crowded. This is the my first hotel with both private and public bath, I think it is a good idea as couples can go for the private bath together. I was trying to wait for one of the rooms but it was occupied, so I went into the public bath instead. It was pretty awesome as it is a rooftop bath with an outdoor area and I really enjoyed the experience.

Bath etiquettes for the foreigners

Free drinks and the area to the private baths

The stools to queue for private baths

Instructions for private baths in English

The women's public bath area

The men's public onsen