안녕하세요, 일본! Hello, Japan!

Oh my goodness. Where has the time gone? It has been a month and a half since my last blog update! I apologize for that! Things have been so busy over here in Seoul that I just have not found the time to write! I have been having all sorts of adventures so hopefully I can catch you up on the main ones of the last month or so.

When the last weekend of October arrived, it was time to go Japan! As part of my study away program, we took a 4-day trip to the Kansai region of Japan right in the middle of the semester. It was a nice break right after all of our midterms were over. We went to Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara. I could spend days writing about everything I did and everywhere I went! But I won't. I'll share some of my favorite pics from each place and explain where we went in each city.

First stop: Kyoto!

Kansai International Airport 

We left Seoul on Friday, Oct 28 and headed for Japan! I love how it only took us an hour and a half to get to another country. So much different than flying from the U.S. to Korea! We landed at the Kansai International Airport mid-morning, picked up our luggage, got straight on our tour bus, and headed for Kyoto, where we would be spending our entire first day.  

Our lunch on the bus. 

Pretty bento box! It was delicious :D

Our first stop was the Golden Pavilion! 

Pretty darn snazzy. 

There were hundreds of Japanese school children everywhere! They go on field trips all the time. We saw them pretty much everywhere we went. 

From the back. 

Gorgeous waterfall up the trail. 

More school children~and their matching yellow hats! ^^

I saw this on the side of the road as we were leaving the pavilion. Poor little puppy. :( Quite creative though!

Second stop of the day: Nijo Castle

Okay, so this place was pretty legit. Japan is such a beautiful place! It was easy to take good pictures because everything was so pretty. It was also perfect weather that day, which made for a relaxing stroll through the castle. 

Entrance to the castle. 

Cute little old man. I think he makes this picture complete :)

Pretty gold accents. 

This pond was one of the prettiest things I saw on the trip. 

Coy fishies! Those suckers were HUGE. 

Moat. I want one of these outside my house some day. 

Just in case......hehe :)

Gorgeous paths. 

So many trees!

That's it for day 1! More to come!

hails