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! 

Daewangam Rock

Daewangam Rock is one of the most well known places in Ulsan, due to the legend surrounding it. It began with King Mummu, the 30th king of the Silla Dynasty. King Mummu was able to unite the countries along Korea's pennisula in 668 AD. When he died, he wanted to become a dragon to protect Korea long after his reign. King Mummu was buried in the Eastern Sea to fulfill his wish, but his wife never forgot his wish. She was buried on this rock, to become a guardian dragon just like her husband. According to legend, the reason seaweed does not grow on this island, is because a guardian dragon lives here, protecting the island. 

Dae-wangnam Park is beautiful. The old pine trees tower above you as you walk along the path. A beautiful view of the cost, and a glimpse of the dragon rock can be seen near the Ulgi lighthouse.

We visited on the park on a misty and rainy day. The fog over the mountains and the cloudy sky added to the mystery surrounding Daewangnam Rock and inspired me to use this location in my Korean folklore story. (There is a dragon king in it) 

If you ever visit Ulsan, I recoomend seeing Daewangnam Park, and walking along Ilsan beach. At night, people light fireworks and shoot them across the sky. During the day there are some carnival games and snack vendors that line up around the shore. The park has a beautiful view of the ocean, the beach and the mysterious guardian dragon that may dwell under the island. 

Little Wonders

I made a new friend today, and she introduced me to the cute stationary store right across the street from where I work. It was really neat, and reminded me of Hobby Lobby because it had everything from craft supplies to planners. But the coolest thing about this place was the notebooks. 

It can be hit or miss, but the notebooks had so many cool quotes on them about life, love and happiness. I had to buy a few for my writing on the spot notebooks. 

It was a hidden jem among the hustle and bustle of the every day.