In case you're new here, my love of Haruki Murakami is no secret. My first tattoo was actually inspired by his novel Dance Dance Dance!
So imagine my delight when I found not one, but three cafes inspired by him here in Seoul all within walking distance of each other. Let's take a look at them~
Read MoreWhenever there is a long weekend here in Korea, I try to explore a new city. On one three-day weekend in March, though, my boyfriend and I decided to spend time in a city I had already been to, albeit 5 years ago. Gyeongju was actually the first city I ever visited outside of Seoul back when I was studying abroad here. I was just following my friend's lead since they could speak Korean much better than I could, but this time I was excited to plan my own trip!
Read MoreI grew up next to the ocean and there are days when I still feel the need to be at the beach. Not that I ever go swimming in the water! I'm more of a admire-from-the-shore take-in-the-salty-air kind of beach-goer.
Read MoreUnless you're coming to Korea with a job that sets you up with an apartment, the top worry on people's list before moving to Seoul is how to find housing. I put together a little tutorial for the most popular online real estate service in Korea, Zigbang along with a tour of my apartment that I found through the site!
Read MoreYou might have already figured this out by now, but I love getting out of Seoul for the weekend. This past Saturday I woke up around 7am to head to the north western corner of South Korea, to an island called Ganghwa. It took about 2 hours to get to the island and then another hour and a half to get to my first destination, but staring out the window looking out on the green farmland and blue hills in the distance made the time fly by.
Read MoreI have had better than perfect vision since I was little, which is pretty lucky considering both of my parents have less than stellar eye sight. So imagine my alarm when I was unable to see things a few feet away from me when I supposedly have 20/15 vision.
Read MoreJune has probably been the month during which I've read the most books in a long time. After my mom let me know about the awesome app that is Libby, I was reading up a storm! While I don't know if I'll ever give up my preference for physical books, I thoroughly enjoyed using my digital library this month and plan to continue! Without further ado, here's what I read in June!
Read MoreHaving lived in Seoul for nearly 5 years now, I have spent a good deal of time admiring the Han River. From bus windows, bike paths, and even from a sailboat, the view of this huge river is always breathtaking. One thing I had never done, however, was to actually get in the water. Other than a quick sailboat ride about four years ago, I had never actually touched the Han.
Read MoreIf you haven't caught on already, I have a thing for fields of flowers. Perhaps it's because I grew up next to the Carlsbad flower fields that bloom stripes of bright ranunculus each spring. Or maybe it's my mind trying to break up the concreteness of my city life, drawing me to spots that make me forget I'm in a metropolis of 10 million.
Read MoreNever has a city taken me more by suprise than Jeonju here in South Korea. All I knew about Jeonju before visiting was that there was a huge hanok (traditional Korean houses) village and that the entire region of Jeolla is famous for its food.
Read MoreYou all know how much I love thrifting, so I'll keep this short. I recently went to Osaka and scored at so many vintage stores! Here are my finds along with a few pieces I picked up here in Korea this month!
What's your favorite piece you've thrifted?
Read MoreBack in 2012 before I went to Korea for the first time for study abroad, my parents and I took a Euro Trip of a lifetime! We spent a few weeks in Austria, Hungary, Italy, and finally, Switzerland.
We had our home base in Zurich, but we spent one of my favorite days outside the city with a stunning view of the Alps.
Read MoreLast April, I had the pleasure of visiting Japan twice for two different weekends. Originally, I just planned to see Kyoto and Tokyo with my mom, but after getting some serious inspiration from Neko Box, I booked a cheap flight back to Tokyo in order to visit the sleepy lake town of Hakone.
Read MoreMy dad is an eclipse chaser. Just 5 months before I was born, my parents were in Cabo San Lucas to see the total solar eclipse there the summer of 1991. I grew up with a massive poster of the event hanging on our staircase, passing it every trip up or down the stairs. So when a total solar eclipse was going to happen somewhere so easy to reach, and the path of totality coincided with the homes of relatives and best friends, how could expect him not to drop everything and go?
Read MoreEarlier this year I bought myself a Pentax K1000 and started to experiment with film after almost a decade of digital (read: iphone) photography. This May, while I was in Osaka, I decided to bring my camera along and see what I could capture in the city. I only shot two rolls due to bad weather, but here are my favorite results!
Read MoreMy first trip to the east coast was when I was 4 months old. Since then, my mom and I would go back and forth from California to New Jersey as often as we could, usually twice a year if we could manage it.
I grew up feeling like I was meant to be in New York City. We would always make a point to take the train in for the day or spend the night in the city going to all the museums, restaurants, and parks we could reasonably fit into a short trip. I remember the first time I was allowed to go shopping in Soho by myself so vividly it's as if it was yesterday.
Read MoreJust in case my hair isn't a dead giveaway, you should know that I am very, very Irish. Some of my ancestors made the move to America early on, sometime in the 1700s, but my great grandpa held out until the 20th century, staying in his little farm by the sea through his youth until boarding the boat to Massachusetts.
My dad recently got his Irish citizenship (which I am very bitter about, but more on that later) so my family decided it was high time we finally visited the motherland, dear Ireland.
Read MoreLast August I felt my feet itching to explore somewhere outside of Seoul again. I had heard about an international fireworks festival on the east coast of Korea and decided that that is where I would head to next!
One cloudy Saturday morning, my boyfriend and I hopped on the KTX at Seoul Station and cut across the peninsula until we reached the sleepy beach city of Pohang.
Read MoreThis past winter I received an email from a service called Usnaper, asking if I was interested in promoting their service. Usually I take some time to mull over the idea, but when I looked at Usnaper's site I knew this was a collaboration I needed to make happen!
Usnaper markets themselves as the AirBnb for photographers. You can browse their many artists (with skills in digital and film focused in portraiture, fantasy, weddings and more) and book them for a photoshoot while in Korea! They hope to be an international service soon.
Read MoreJust outside of COEX Mall in Seoul, lies an enormous temple called Bongeunsa. Technically, the temple used to be a brothel, but that's a story for another time...
I decided to check it out after work this week because after visiting it countless times during the day, I realized I never saw it at night. With Buddha's birthday celebration filling the temple with lanterns, what better time to visit?!
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