What’s Tokyo like? Hard to explain - you have to experience it!

Even though it’s only a short, approximately two hours, flight from Seoul to Tokyo – these two cities highly differ in many ways. First of all, there’s a historic “connection” between Japan and Korea due to the Japanese colonial era on the Korean peninsula during the Jeoson dynasty. And as feeling already a bit Korean in a way, it was quite an interesting experience to go to Japan from this historical point of view. And even though many people in Europe or the US might think of Koreans and Japanese as pretty similar, as they’re both Asian, there are for sure cultural differences, as they occur in Europe where Italian and French are they same neither.

Fortunately, I had the chance to stay with my school-friend Nico who already lives in Tokyo for two years, and consequently knows the city very well and is also fluent in Japanese. This fact gave me the chance to not only experience Tokyo from the point of view of a tourist, but rather do things only local know, hang around with Japanese and explore many things that are for sure not stated in any travel guide but show a very “true” Tokyo and offers a lot of fun.

One of the first thing Nico mentioned after my arrival and when asking him what to do and see here in Tokyo (as you can see, my preparations for this trip were very sophisticated), he mentioned that Tokyo is not comparable to cities like Rom, where there are numerous cultural highlights you can name and people “have to see” in that city, thus every tourist tour includes them. However, the case with Tokyo in his eyes is way more in the way that you just have to experience it by walking around, paying attention to details and enjoy the Japanese culture. And after three and a half days in Tokyo, I couldn’t agree more with his statement.

Welcome to retail paradise!

If you love shopping and/or are interested in retail, I can’t recommend any destination more than Tokyo to go to (out of all the cities I’ve been to so far in my life) – why? There’s hardly any big brand that doesn’t have a flagship store in Tokyo – either on Ginze Street or Omotesando and surroundings. And now, combine this vast supply of great stores with the highest/best service culture in the world – et voilà, there we go, this is Tokyo! It was really a joy to walk through Ginze Street and have a look at various stores and their designs.

And as a business student, this is a really interesting activity, as one can see various different concepts and sometimes, some that implement a great marketing/retail strategy! E.g. the Abercrombie & Fitch flagship store, where everyone enters an elevator when coming into the store (or rather complex) that takes one up to the 8th floor. Then, one “has” to get down to the basement again and by doing so, just passes every of the seven floors below with tons of clothes to buy that are on perfect display, (quite loud) music, the smell of the A&F fragrance is surrounding one and the dimmed light is creating this typical feeling of the A&F store concept. And when looking down to the stairs from the 8^th floor, this store is furthermore also a little architectonical/photogenic highlight in my opinion.

But of course, A&F is by far not the only flagship store on a high level as there are various more worth mentioning. But as this would take me too long, I’d like to focus on two more experiences that stand out in my opinion (again, that’s really my personal opinion, and I haven’t seen all of the stores by far…)

Since having a flair for the watch industry and Haute Horlogerie, of course every store with watches wins my attention easily. And to be honest, I’ve seen quite some nice flagship stores and boutiques in the past, e.g. the one from IWC in Hong Kong, various brands at the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich, Taipei 101 or stores from the most famous brands in New York. But I think that this multi-brand “store” in Ginze St. is really one that stands out! First of all, because it doesn’t look like a store from the outside at all. It looks more like a little showroom, or even a little museum. One could even get distracted by the nice walls with plants and a waterfall-like wall that surrounds these little “museums”. However, the cool thing follows: When entering the Omega glass cube and looking at the watches, a concierge suddenly asks me if I’d like to see the Omega store. I was quite surprised at first, as I wasn’t sure which store he was talking about, since there were only six or seven watches on display in this little glass cube – so I couldn’t see a store at all. But when answering ‘yes’, the concierge just pushed a button and suddenly I realized that I was standing in an elevator – how awesome is that?! And quickly, I was at the Omega store on the first level. The coolest elevator was in my opinion the one from Swatch though, as it was fully covered with Swatch watches what made it almost like some kind of art exhibition in my opinion. There were a total of four stores I think, one of them below ground level and three above, all accessible by one of the described “little museum elevators”.

The second highlight worth mentioning and recommendable to every visitor to Tokyo in my opinion is the two level food court at the Mitsukoshi store. If you ever felt like buying an orange for approximately six US Dollars – there you can get one! As I haven’t bought and eaten one, I can’t say anything about the taste (I assume it is outstanding though), but from the exterior perspective, you won’t find any fruit or product that doesn’t look perfect and is on perfect display! And as mentioned before, the service level in Japan is incredible high as well what makes even walking around and looking at the counters an experience already.

A very un-touristy stay in Tokyo

As mentioned before, I was quite lucky to stay with someone who lives in Tokyo already for quite some time. This let me experience Tokyo from a very local perspective, what included the fact that we actually never dinned in a typically touristy restaurant, but rather a “Chnelle” as Nico preferred to label them. I was sitting in coffees, no one ever would consider even entering the building they are located in as it doesn’t seem fancy at all, however, the place could easily be located in SOHO in NYC and be a super hipster place. Or also enjoying a beer at one of these super tiny bars in Lion Gai where maximally seven people fit in – what great experiences! Furthermore, I was able to drink with great Japanese guys (friends of Nico), play ‘Risk’ on Sunday evening while enjoying (well, it might be the wrong word to be honest, as the food was not really outstanding) home-delivery pizza or find a super great single-speed store with a huge stock of everything a cycle-fanatic can think of (and in almost all possible colors)!

Another funny anecdote of how “off the beaten track” my stay in Tokyo was, is the “museum” visit I did with Yeni (Nico’s tourist guide ‘replacement’ on Sunday afternoon as he had to attend some school activities – but a clear optical upgrade :p). As the weather was really bad on that day, it was raining cats and dogs (or maybe ‘sushi and sashimi’ would be more appropriate in Japan, haha), we had to skip the sightseeing and shopping and look for indoor activities. Most of the people would now go to one of the various museums, e.g. art or history – but not us! Instead, we thought that something Tokyo-related would be somehow more fun and somehow, I was quite interested in earthquakes - yes, Japan experiences a lot of earthquakes, and we even had on in the morning of that day (3.9 but a bit further away from Tokyo), where one could definitely feel that the floor was slightly shaking – especially when sleeping on the floor, haha. And thus, we attended the life and rescue training of the Tokyo government in the afternoon! It is actually more designed for Tokyo citizens than tourists and not really a museum, but it was nevertheless a funny and very unusual experience. Furthermore, it was already my second ‘training’ here in Asia where I literally couldn’t understand a word. The first one was an introduction to Thomson Reuters Data Stream in Korean on SNU campus two weeks ago and the second one was this training in Japanese – no chance to get a single word, haha (luckily, at least the movies had English subtitles). The highlight of this training was definitely the earthquake simulation at the end (and also the only thing worth to go there in my opinion) – it was pretty impressive to experience a 7.0 earthquake! Unfortunately, it was not possible to experience a 9.0 (like the one in 2011, Fukushima) even though I asked for.

But to sum up, yes, I’ve also seen and done some rather traditional tourist stuff as seeing some temples, make a visit to Shibuya Crossing or the park near Tokyo Station where the emperor’s palace is located. But due to the bad weather (cloudy on all days and rainy on Sunday), the pictures are unfortunately not that outstanding – but definitely a good reason to come back to Tokyo and Japan again ;)

Nevertheless, I had some super interesting days and lots of fun. A huge thank you to Nico again for his hospitality and tourist guy skills – I won’t recommend you on tripadvisor.com though, as you might get too busy otherwise, haha.

Friends since the 6^th grade (1999) in Zurich – and still sharing great times!

p.s. one recommendation to everyone considering visiting Tokyo: Take enough cash with you! Not sure why, but it seems pretty hard to withdraw cash with your Maestro card and at most places/restaurants etc. you can only pay with cash! Thus, cash is King Kong – make sure to have enough with you when flying there – and since it’s an expensive city, take really enough with you!

Some things about Korea...

While sitting at Incheon Airport waiting for my flight to Tokyo, I realize that it is finally time to stop writing only about my travels here on the Korean peninsula and surrounding countries, but to give also an insight on the Korean culture and what it is like to live in Seoul and attend Seoul National University (SNU).

To describe my life here in Korea and Seoul in a bit funny way, I came up with a list of things that were for sure not invented here in Korea – this should put the view from a stranger on to Korean society… :)

Things that were NOT invented in Korea:

1)   The bin

You know the game ‘Where’s Wally’, don’t you? Replace Wally by a bin and you know what one feels like in Seoul when holding some trash in his hand, haha. I’m not sure if they forgot to plan them in the city council, if they try to cut costs in this way, if it is really not an issue for Koreans to carry their trash with them for 30 minutes… I seriously don’t know the answer. But fact is, that there’s probably one bin in an area of 10km² – or at least it feels like that. And thus, the best thing to do in the particular situation when you are looking to get rid of your trash and desperately trying to spot a bin – just play the game… “Where’s the bin?”

2)   The shower curtain

If you ever wondered where the word ‘bathroom’ comes from – Asia is the answer! The toilet is really somehow an “area of water”. This means, that you shower, brush your tees, go to the toilet on the same mater square – and you can do it actually all simultaneously, if you want, haha. However, one has to say that this concept of bathroom has the advantage of cleanliness, as you just clean your whole bathroom including the sink and toilet every time you take a shower.

3)   The beach chair, solarium and Hawaiian Oil

In case your entrepreneurial skills let you come to the conclusion that a solarium business in Korea would be a good idea – NO, it’s not! The reason is that for the majority of Koreans (and Asians in general), the role model of beauty is not to have tanned skin, but rather as white as possible. Thus, seats on the sun deck of a ferry and beach chairs (without an umbrella) are mostly free and the use of Hawaiian tanning oil is not very common, as people prefer rather a sun blocker with a factor of 50+.

I will continue this list if I encounter more “unusual” facts during my stay. But that’s it for the moment…

However, I’d like to continue with some characteristics of the Korean. It’s always fun to think about some stereotypes, especially in a foreign country. Now, what comes to my mind when trying to describe the ‘typical Korean’ based on my impressions over the last 10 weeks? Well, I tried to come up with a list of 10 attributes… (and to all Koreans reading this: please don’t take it too serious ;)

The typical Korean…

1)   has black or dark brown hair and eyes… and looks thus somehow the a bit the same as all the other guys

2)   Chances are quite good (>50%) that his/her family name is Lee, Park or Kim

3)   He can’t swim… or is just too lazy and thus, enjoys his tube at the beach

4)   loves to drink, especially beer and soju… it’s just a fact – but I like it, haha

5)   is very polite and helpful… it’s almost overwhelming how helpful you guys are sometimes

6)   is extremely honest… I guess I felt NEVER saver in a city. No one would steel something

7)   might be a world champion in queuing… (although Taiwanese are quite good too)

8)   is highly addicted to his smartphone... and chances are good that it is the latest Samsung device

9)   might be soon deaf… the clubs in Seoul are just too loud! (to all Phonak managers, this might be an interesting future growth market!)

10) Family and friends are very important… and boyfriends/girlfriends even more! (Special messaging apps for couples, couple-shirts, boys wearing cat ears in the amusement park…)

Next to that, I can state that I really enjoy my time here in Seoul. The weather is most of the time good or great (especially compared to St. Gallen), as we have had only a couple of rainy days so far… as described, the people are really friendly and helpful, and it’s just insane how safe it is in terms that no one would ever steal something. People just leave their smartphones laying around…  I guess these are things, one would not even do in Switzerland!

Made in Taiwan

What I like: Public holidays in Korea already in the second week of the semester. What I like even more: when they last for three days - and exactly on the ones when my classes are held. These circumstances consequently provided the opportunity to travel a bit - this time outside of Korea. After some consultation of different possibilities, Taiwan was selected as the final winner!

But what's coming to one's mind when thinking about Taiwan? To be honest, not too much for most of us... but hey, following the more explorative approach of life aka. "never try, never know" I was very keen to set foot on Taiwanese soil and figure out what this island has to offer.


Approaching Taipei

The flight from Seoul to Taipei was already providing the first highlight - Taipei Songshan Airport is definitely fulfilling all requirements to be labeled "City Airport"!
 

Not knowing that fact and approaching the airport with a descent from the West of the city, could lead to the fact that one is becoming a bit nervous in the plane as suddenly, skyscraper seem to be higher than the plane's actual altitude and one can literally see into people's houses (no doubt that the fact of flying low-cost airlines seems not a very promising fact supporting one's well-being in this particular moment)... luckily, the runway was at some point finally there and the plane landed safely!


Local specialties - Part I, a Typhoon

There are several Taiwanese specialties - and at least one of them is not culinary, but rather meteorological. As the weather from September until December is described as follows: "The best time to travel, as the weather is dry and sunny - except of the typhoons hitting on Taiwan during this season." Well, I can officially confirm this statement - unfortunately! While still at the airport, the news got around that a Typhoon (maybe it should be spelled "TAIphoon" - right?!) was hitting Taiwan in the South in two days. As this meant that the weather will be rather windy and rainy, plans had to be changed to avoid getting stuck in the South when the shut down the railway and every other public transport system.

Consequently, the famous gorges near Hualian had to be cancelled and Wai Ao, resp. Yilan, was the southernmost point of the trip. Nevertheless, this really small village is quite a well-known surfing spot in Taiwan and provided the possibility of some body-boarding - an activity that luckily can be done too, even there's rain and bad weather (and quite big waves on the plus-side!). Furthermore, on a nice day, the scenery on the East Coast of Taiwan is very nice and furthermore has some unexpected architecture to offer, or would you expect a museum like that in the middle of nowhere?!

And here some more impressions from the East Coast of Taiwan and some temples...

Local Specialties - Part II, Food

But not only in terms of the landscape has Taiwan a lot to offer - also in terms of food and culinary adventures! The local cuisine is inspired and influenced by many cultures and countries as Cantonese, Japanese, Portuguese from the former colonial period or of course, local herbs and tastes from Taiwan itself. 

The spectrum of food is thus huge and offers various opportunities to try new things. On a scale from excellent and very delicate to "not really my favorite dish", this week offered everything. On the rather negative side, stinky tofu is definitely a safe pick as this Taiwanese specialty tastes so awful, on almost has to vomit when walking by a food stand that sells it (which was unfortunately the case every now and then at the night markets). I have to say that the smell was so disgusting that I didn't try to eat it. Another "highlight" was a dish called Buddha jumps over the Wall - and so did I almost, haha. Black chicken feet... one has to get used to this!

But fortunately, I was able to experience some great food as well, e.g. the Dumlings from Din Tai Fung, the only restaurant (chain) in the world that was awarded with a Michelin Star for its dumplings! Really worth a visit... and then also some unknown food on the night market that tasted quite well - like fried potatoe with cheese.


Taipei - a surprisingly quiet city with a famous skyscraper


Due to the bad weather, I spent more days than originally planned in Taipei. But with some sightseeing, eating, partying and relaxing, this was not a too big problem to handle. Taipei is definitely a nice city, really cheap (even compared to Seoul) and impressed me with its cleanness and quietness. I was more expecting the chaotic and noisy Chinese city style - but no, it was pretty much the opposite! A great metro system and so quiet... even in the biggest metro station! Just great - I guess Zurich and especially the guys talking in the S-Bahn and Tram could definitely learn something here...

And yes, of course, a visit to Taipei 101 was on the list as well. It offers a truly nice view over the city (if the wheater's nice) and is just a very impressive building itself.

All in all, the weather could have been better - but Taiwan was still a great choice and I can really recommend it to everyone! Maybe one of the "hidden champions" in Asia as this country has a way more to offer than many think - and this at a truly affordable price!