Christmas in South Korea: A photographic experience

A journey through Christmas Decor around South Korea ^_^

Donggang River Village

So I signed up for an adventure trip to go to Donggang River Village in Gangwando.

The schedule was packed with caving, hiking, ziplining and of course, food. 

My friend Megan had done this trip before, and she told me it was worth it, and the price was very reasonable for my budget. 

We began the day by meeting the group at the Jangpyeong Bus Station, and we drove by construction for the new transportation center they are building to prepare for hosting the next Olympics Games. 

It was pretty chilly, but we arrived at the village, which was very quaint and featured a bouncy bridge :)

 

Our housing was also very nice, and it even had a bathub! (A rarity in Korea). Our roommates were also really nice, and we got along great (which is very important). 

We started the trip with unpacking, then lunch and after that we went caving. 

Paengnyoung Cave (also known as White Dragon cave) was discovered in 1976 near the Dongang (East River). We weren't allowed to bring cameras into the cave, but they took pictures of us, and we should be able to see them soon. 

I met some cool people, including a few fellow Avatar fans, and we talked about TV shows and stories for a while :)

It was an interesting experience. We saw a lot of different stalactites and stalagmites along with a cave flower that looked like a snowflake. The path itself was an adventure with twists and turns, places where we had to crawl and other step areas. At the end of the path we reached a big hole where we turned off all the lights and exprienced total darkness. 

We were pretty hungry after the cave hike, and the lady at the fron office gave us some sweet potatoes for the trip back. 

Once we arrived back at the village, they split us into two groups, and my group did ziplining. I skipped the sky jump part, because I really didn't want to jump off a building. But the zipline was fun, and we got back in time for barehand trout fishing. Megan caught two fish, and Whitney caught one :) 

We went back to the food hall for dinner and I met a lot of cool people. I had an awesome conversation about the Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, webseries, movies and books with a really cool guy from New Zealand who was also an English major and studied film :)

The night wildlife safari was the ridiculous part. Veronica saved me by letting me borrow a head warmer and thick hiking socks :) We bundled up and headed outside in little cars, with flashlights and radios, and we tried to find animals, in the freezing cold. Our group saw a bunch of red eyes that the tour guide said were Wild boars, but I wasn't sure. The stars were beautiful at night, and when we got back, we ate the fish that everyone caught along with hot sweet potatoes. 

A telescope was also set up outside to view the stars, but they couldn't figure out how to use it. 

We looked up the instructions in both English and Korean, but I think we made the guide mad, and we gave up. I did see about five shooting stars, which was amazing, and it's really fun to walk over a bouncy bridge at night. 

After stargazing, we hung out with the guys and played a game called 12. It was really fun because you count to tweleve and the twelveth person replaces a number with a rule, and you go around again, but you're not supposed to repeat the rules. It was fun when people forgot the rules, including me, which were mostly made by me and Whitney. (I am so using this game in class with my older kids- without the drinking of course)

The next morning was a much more relaxed schedule. We went for a morning hike, which was a bit slippery with the leaves everywhere. I felt like a little kid trudging through them :)  It was a beautiful view,  and I made a few wishes on the rock towers by the trails on the way up. 

When we got back it was lunch time, and the rest of the day was up to us. I made friends with a cute dog named Dong Ga, who looked a little chilly and bored outside the general store. 

After that we headed to the aquarium which was a nice way to end the trip. We looked at the fish, and they had a really strange 3D cartoon about a river fish who saves his friends from a monster fish by bungee jumping off the waterfall and somehow not suffering from breathing in air. At the end of the movie, a river fairy, or goddess or something spoke and they recived crowns, like leveling up in a video game. It was very interesting. 

We saw some really cool river fish, and they had a really big catfish in one tank that barely moved. 

Upstairs they had Doctor fish who ate your dead skin. It was really fun, and it tickled when they bit your  fingers. 

They also had a really addicting computer game where you basically tried to keep your aquarium fish alive by saving them from aliens and demons. It would be the perfect mobil cell phone game to replace Angry Birds. 

The bus ride back was fairly straight forward. But all in all it was a fun trip. I met a lot of cool people, and I had some time to write while I was there. I recommend this trip, maybe closer to summer and fall, but it was really cool, and it's a reasonable price. 

강촌유원지 - Gangchon Waterfall

Not far from Chuncheon, a short train ride away, a picturesque hike and a quaint little village awaits weary travelers in the mountains. Fall is a great season for hiking, and many people gathered at the entrance to this area, as my friends and I made our way up the steeper trail. 

When we went, the weather was perfect, and it was an ideal opportunity to see the leaves change. 

Since I'm from Colorado, this trail felt closer to home, and it reminded me of Kenosha pass near Breckenrdige. This was the perfect area to admire the trees and the beautiful view on the way up the mountain. 

One difference between this hike and many hikes in Colorado is the fact there are stores, restaraunts and many other attractions at its entrance, a pretty rare find in Colorado. 

You can also make a wish before you go on the trail by picking a rock, and balancing it on piles of rocks in difference areas marked "Wisdom", "Heart", "Wealth", "Professional" and so on. I found a rock and made a wish: 

It was pretty cool seeing these tributes everywhere: 

The trail itself isn't very long, and you can choose from an easy trail or a more difficult one. We went up the steep route, because we were hikers. I ran into one of my students, who was happy to see me as we hiked up the hill. A few fellow hikers spoke to us in English, saying things like, "Beautiful Day!" and "Hello there," which made the hike more fun. After we reached the top, we stopped at a nice restaurant in the village and ate chiken stew and acorn jelly salad. All of which was delicious! 

On our way back, we reached the waterfall, and took a picture at the balcony overlooking the leaves, waterfall and the giant rockface. 

It felt good to go hiking again, and this place felt more like home. My poor phone almost ran out of room becase I took a lot of pictures! 

Return to Japan

Last week, I went back to my home away from home, Disney, and I had more of an opportuity to explore Japan. We started at Tokyo Disney, and it was a fun sense of Deja Vu where I felt like I knew where everything was, but in reality it was a different park. We arrived in time for the bright electric parade, which had really cool floats. They even had Pete's Dragon! 

Then we headed over to the rides and made Space Mountain a priority. It's required whenever I vist :)

We rode every big ride, except Splash Mountain, but that was fine with me. (That ride still scares me). We even saw Philharmagic in japanese. Once we finished Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, we headed over to the castle for Once Upon A Time, a show hosted by Mrs. Potts and Chip about all the Disney stories, especially Beauty and the Beast. The castle changed from a sky full of lanterns, to a house of playing cards, to a stained glass mosiac. It was really cool! 

After the show we hurried to Space Mountain, and headed out for our next day of fun. Tokyo Disney Sea. 

We took a shuttle to get there, and we got through the entire park in one day. We even saw the last performance of Legend of Mythica, which drew quite a crowd. 

We rode all the big rides, including the Storm Raider where we went inside a storm and tried to stop it from accelerating. We went on Tower of Terror which had a different story about an archeologist who collected rare items. He brought this Tiki to the museuem, and the Tiki was angry an cursed the elevator to drop. Honestly, I found it spookier than the version at Disneyland.

I finally saw Oswald, after waiting in line for the rain to stop, and we caught him just as he was leaving. 

My favorite snack was the mickey churro, which had a different flavor in each themed land. But I also got to try Seasalt icecream at the Arabian coast. (I couldn't help thinking of Kingdom Hearts) 

After watching a show about Genie, we headed over to the stage for Fantasmic, which gets me every time. It was a wonderful show, and the effects were amazing! 

The best rollercoaster we went on was Raging Spirits, where we were offered to the Mayan Gods as a sacrifice. Our fastpast gave us a time at night, which made the ride spookier, but we got to take some nice pictures of the park at night. 

After a magical day at Tokyo DisneySea, we headed out early for Artina cafe the next day. This place has been on my bucket list, and I'm so lucky that Gabriela and Les weren't too bothered by my fangirling.

The cafe was amazing! Our breakfast was chocolate and banana pancakes with cactuar logos on them, and cappuchinos with a moogle and chocobo in the foam ^_^

 I spent a long time walking around the shop,and taking pictures of the merchandise. 

But my favorite part of the cafe was their music section. They had the entire collection, available to listen to for free, and you could buy the soundtracks for a lot of the games. When I go back to Japan, I'm going there again. The prices were reasonable, and it was such a cool cafe. 

After the cafe, we went for a breath of fresh air to the Meiji Shrine. It was beautiful! I had a sense of calm as we walked in, and I even made a wish, said a prayer and found a tree that looked like something from Inuyasha! 

After that, we headed to Harajuku and found some neat thrift stores that sold name brand clothes and even kimonos for reasonable prices! 

We also found a big mall that had a really random selection of pricy fashion brands, but the top floor had the biggest stationary store I have ever seen! 

After Harajuku, we headed over to Akihabara to see the anime district. I found a few places featured in Densha Otoko or Train Man ^_^ 

There were also displays for the new Sailor Moon single Moon Pride ^_^

And I found some fun merchandise, including Sailor Moon make up, and Dragon Ball Z hairwax! 

Our last day was a short one, but a lot of fun. Unfortunately two places I wanted to go to don't exist anymore. They tore down the Ferris wheel from Dream High, and the Benoist building from Train Man was torn down a year ago. But we had time to go to the biggest anime mall, and I found way too many cool things.

After one last shopping trip, we had to go catch our flight. It was a blast, and a much needed break from the stress I was dealing with last week. I had so much fun! I learned a lot about navigation, and I can't wait to go back and see the historical sites!