63 Building

The "Yuk Sam" (63) Building sits on Yeouido, an island on the southern side of Seoul's Han river. Built in the mid '80s the designers went for a gold exterior, which gives it a space-age appearance that glows in the afternoon light.

육사 Building

As you ascend each of it's 63 floors, the view of Seoul becomes more expansive and you appreciate the density of the traffic and the hilly cityscape.

A whole-lot-a traffic on the Han river expressway as the subway passes overhead

Lowrise meets highrise in Seoul's south eastern suburbs- building only restricted by Korea's hilly topography

Seoul shopping

There are two major shopping areas in Seoul. Namdaemun market is a more traditional Asian market of twisting lanes selling everything you could think of. Dongdaemun 'market' is actually a series of modern high rise buildings specialising in clothes - each building holds about 2,000 privately run shops.

Department stores like this one at Dongdaemun can take an entire weekend to traverse. This one is called 'hello a-pm', another quirky Konglish name

There is usually some form of entertainment to bring in the teenagers at Dongdaemun. This is a live national telecast of a video game tournament - they take computer games very seriously over here!

Mel at a nearby waterfeature

Bring your sunglasses...

Quirky Japan

Before we put on some more serious shots of our time in Japan, we just had to show you some of the quirky side of Japanese culture...

The obsession with Ian Thorpe - did this make news in Australia?

Vending machines deliver all that you need (drinks, icecream, hot noodles...) and can be found on every corner

Pitagora Suicchi- a hilarious Japanese TV show that you must watch!!

(just click on play in the bottom left corner and turn up the volume)

Zen gardens and wildlife

Even in the 39 degree heat of the day, there was always someone, or something interesting to spot at as we wandered around Kyoto. The gardens were serene, as you would expect from the zen tradition, and even the wildlife added to the exotic feel of the Far East.

Gardens of the Imperial Palace

Shoren-in, a buddhist temple

Carp glowing in the morning light

One of many giant dragon flies that occupy Kyoto in summer- this one taking a rest on a lotus flower

Kyoto sights

Kyoto is an enchanting city, with grand temples and shrines surrounded by narrow lanes lined with machiya (old wooden houses) that really transport you to another era in time. The emphasis on beauty and tranquility is evident in much of what the Japanese have built over the centuries.

Mel entering the hillside pathway at Fushimi-Inari Taisha, a shinto shrine in eastern Kyoto

The pathway winds its way for about four kilometres through tunnels of thousands of red torii - a spectacular sight

The torii seemed to ignite with colour against the early morning shadows

Some of the temples are illuminated at night, adding another dimension to these beautiful structures

A geisha trying to escape the midday sun

Traditional Japanese paper umbrella

Mel walks around the upper floor of Nanzen-ji, a temple in Kyoto's Higashiyama area

Kiyomizu-dera is a spectacular temple perched on a hillside with great views over the city

The moat and stone wall of Osaka castle, with the city highrises as a backdrop. Osaka is about an hour from Kyoto, but lacks the abundance of historical sites because of extensive bombing of the city during WWII.

Presenting..... Trent in a yukata!

For our three nights in Kyoto we stayed in a ryokan- traditional Japanese accommodation. We opted for the budget end of the scale- $100/night for a 3m x 3m room with a tatami (woven bamboo) floor. For this price you also get a Japanese robe (yukata) and green tea, and share a bathroom with the other guests.

Ryokan Hiraiwa

Trent modeling a yakuta

The area surrounding our ryokan

Dining Kyoto-style

We spent our four-day summer vacation (the longest break we get while working in Korea) in Kyoto, Japan. We decided on Kyoto, as opposed to Tokyo, as we wanted to see some of old Japan and escape the intensity of big Asian mega-cities.

This is the first of a series of posts on this wonderful city- a must see if anyone is heading to the land of Astro Boy... who actually greets you at the railway station!

Of course, we must first mention the fantastic food- very different to Korean and a lot of emphasis on presentation and quality ingredients. Probably not the kind of food you can fill up on, especially if you are on a tight budget, but incredible flavours and tonnes of atmosphere in the quaint little restaurants.

Restaurants on one of Kyoto's tree-lined canals... known as the 'floating world'

Eating melt-in-your-mouth beef in miso as we watch the chefs preparing our dishes

Less street food in Japan than Korea- though we found these delicious rice sweets that are charred on coals right before you eat

Another quaint bar, where we consumed Yakitori-style food (grilled in front of you), Asahi and sake

An array of food stuffs at Nishiki Market

Many a bottle of sake consumed in this restaurant!

Korea enters Summer phase 2

Last week, we kept on being told that the monsoon season was to finish this weekend, and would be followed by unbearably hot weather in August. Thinking that these people were just guessing- as how would they be able to predict a natural event such as they weather- we assumed that hot dry weather would be "sometime" soon. Well, we now know, that Korean weather is quite easy to predict and when it changes into a new phase, it continues forward and never looks back. So, from last weekend the monsoon ceased and the sun and blue sky appeared. As this was the first truly blue sky we had seen since setting foot in Korea, we hiked to the top of our local hill and, to our amazement, we could clearly see Seoul- the city scape and surrounding mountains.

Here is the view as the sun was setting...

Overlooking our apartment and beyond (we are one of the buildings in the first row, on the right)

Towards downtown Seoul