🍱 Delicacy of the Day

ROÜGE - Leave Me Emotional

Alright, it’s about time we sent some techno.

This is by French Freak ROÜGE.

Like any good techno track, it’s simple, energetic, and has a good amount of melody.

It might not be the “traditional” type that you’d hear at Berghain. I'd say it’s beginner-friendly for anyone curious to get started in the genre.

Will sound modern to the purists, which, yeah.

It’s a good track. If you’re not sure give it a shot. It might surprise you.

Njoy.

💭 Quick Drivel

Before I continue with the remaining 28 days, I have to know:

Let me know in the poll below!

There’s still a lot to explore in a couple of other countries.

I’m thankful to those who want to read this drivel, but I understand it’s been a constant barrage of thousand-word behemoths.

Nuff Yappin, back to the adventure…

So this was it. The final day.

I overslept and woke up at 9am. One hour before checkout.

So it was the rush to finish packing and get everything ready to leave on time.

The host gracefully offered a ride to the nearest station. Never imagined this was possible.

After getting dropped off, it was a simple journey to Osaka.

The flight was late in the afternoon, so I had a couple of hours to explore.

So I left my luggage in a locker and went to the shopping district.

One of the travel friends I met on day 2 had recommended this restaurant, so it seemed like the best final meal.

Yeah, that was the restaurant's actual name.

It was this small spot hidden in an alleyway.

I got in and the owner handed me a menu.

It was a bunch of different eel dishes.

Which isn’t surprising considering he had LIVE eels in fish tanks behind him.

This was one of the best and freshest dishes I ate in this entire trip.

Highly recommended.

Since it was an hour away I decided to just start heading there.

It was a bittersweet moment, looking at the different cityscapes of Osaka, realizing it’s the final train.

Once there, it was the adventure of finding my airline!

“Hey so, do you know where Peach airlines is? I can’t seem to find it.”

“Sir, this is the wrong terminal. You must go to terminal 2."

Ah.

That would have been good to know an hour ago.

And so began the walk of shame to the bus to terminal 2.

The ride was pretty fun, but it was clear Terminal 2 was much older than the main terminal.

No biggie, I checked in for the flight and started walking to the security checkpoint before the gates.

And that’s when I saw it…

The gacha pods.

So I used my last coins to grab some last souvenirs.

After that I entered the security checkpoint to wait for the flight.

It was a simple 3-hour flight.

The plan was to write emails, catch up on journaling, do some client wo-

Ding dong

Flight crew prepare for landing

Yeaaah. That didn’t go as expected.

What was also unexpected was how GORGEOUS entering Seoul was.

The nightscape from the sky looks insane. If you ever fly into Seoul make sure it’s at night.

I was doing a bit of recording before the flight attendant kindly let me know recording wasn’t allowed.

It seems I wasn’t the only one, as shortly after they made a plane-wide announcement notifying that it was ILLEGAL to record South Korean airspace.

…ah.

Fair enough then.

We landed shortly after and had the longest immigration line of this entire trip.

After that I had to run to catch the last train to Seoul Station for the night.

Was fortunately able to get the train card and hop on the train before it departed.

From first glance, the trains in Korea are MUCH different than the Japanese ones.

They are bigger and there are no doors between carriages. They’re also a BIT more comfortable.

The train TV entertainment consists of anti-Japan infomercials, AI-generated ads, and the standard Asian reality show.

There was also a lot of “what to do in case of a train fire” infomercials that were giving a very nice introduction to the rail system.

After an hour ride we got to Seoul Station.

If Japanese train stations are big, Korean train stations are MASSIVE.

They’re also not as full of businesses as the ones in Japan are.

Regardless, everything was closed and there were no metros that went near my airbnb (it was 12am at this point).

So expecting to spend a fortune, I opened the Uber app to order a ride.

…to find that it was $10.

THIS was a dangerous discovery. 30-minute ride Ubers for $10? Sign me up.

The ride was insightful, as the driver was eager to talk to me.

We did it through back-and-forth Google Translate text-to-speech.

He told me to avoid certain areas (due to the homeless camps) and recommended some cool spots. There was also the mention of a tough economy and overall decrease in life quality.

Now I gotta say, Korea so far has a TOTALLY different feel than Japan.

It’s a lot messier, and it seems more chaotic.

Not that these are bad things, every country is different, and at this point I had been in the country for 3 hours.

Regardless, we got to the destination.

The reviews weren’t lying. This place was HIDDEN.

You had to go through a dodgy alley to find a random entrance that looked out of a movie.

Regardless, we made it.

I entered the room to see…

Pretty good! The space is kinda small but the view is AMAZING.

…but when I opened the second curtain…

This was very much a problem for tomorrow.

It was also hot as hell so I turned on the AC and left to source some water and breakfast for the next day.

That's where the differences felt more stark.

Saw a couple of homeless people sleeping on the street (which makes sense considering the economy of Korea, especially a capital city like Seoul)

There was a lot of trash in the roadside, ala New York

And the 7-Eleven didn’t have full meals like the Japanese ones.

But I was still determined to have a great time and see everything this beautiful country had to offer.

After stocking up on supplies, I got back to a room that was still insanely hot.

Didn’t think much of it. It was 1am and I was exhausted.

And so I called it a night there.

Little did I know…

This was just the beginning of a bumpy week.

Hz

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