Day 8 Part 2 - Flight to Seoul

So I figured I'd change the page a bit because technically, the Japan part is over. Now we begin Seoul, Korea.

The last day was pretty sad as we were leaving a great city but at the same time we were super excited to be heading to Seoul. We arrived at the Haneda Airport and as I've said before, we had our luggages scanned before check-in. After checking in, we made our way to the gates. What we noticed during check-in and  the security scanning process is that the security personnel checking our luggages and carry-on bags were women (no older than 35 but between 25 and 28 ish). Just an observation. Anyways, we made our way to the gates and came across the Japan Duty Free. Everything was super expensive, we weren't really surprised. Anyways, we waited in the airport for our flight and it was mainly Koreans and Japanese people on this flight to Seoul.

When they finally called us to the gate, we entered the plane. We were flying with Korean Air, which is suppose to be a good airline. However, the take off was quite scary as it was bumpy and very shaky. The weather in Tokyo wasn't too bad when we left so we weren't sure if it was the weather to blame or a terrible pilot which contributed to a horrible take off. In addition, the flight was really bumpy and shaky. This isn't the type of feeling you want when riding a plane cause it pretty much brings up unneccessary fear and an uneasiness in the stomach. Our flight was only 2 hours so they got right on dinner for us which consisted of stewed beef with rice, smoked salmon salad, onions and apple jelly. Interesting dinner I must say. Time went by pretty fast and we were about to land in Seoul Gimpo Airport aka. the domestic airport. The landing of the plane I would like to add was also super bumpy and not smooth so I blame it on a terrible pilot once again. Compared to the Air Canada flight from Toronto to Narita, our AC pilot was pro and this guy on Korean Air was terrible!

So we exit the plane and wait for our luggages and after picking up our luggages, we exit the airport. We were really lucky that there was a subway station at the airport or else we would probably have to waste money on a taxi which by the way, we never took one but they seem pretty cheap. What can I say about the Seoul Metro? The fact that it's amazing. We pretty much owe it all to Tokyo Metro for teaching us how to use a complicated transit system because Seoul Metro is a derivative of that.

This is pretty much the Seoul Metro System, not any different from the Tokyo one in terms of the lines. Some facts which make the Seoul metro quite superior is the fact that this subway system has huge glass barriers that cover the railway. Like there's no way you can climb over the barrier, to put it in leymans terms the tracks are completely covered with this barrier and the only time it opens is when the train is arrives (I hear HK is similar). Also, the trains are super spacious. I think the size is like 1.5x the size of TTC trains back home. Also, the transit fare here is super cheap. When we got here, we used single journey tickets which one way was about 1,200KRW which is a little less than $1.20CAD. However, the next day we both got T-Money cards. When you buy tickets at the machines they drop a card and instead of inserting it into a slot (like Tokyo), you scan the card against the T-Money surface/card reader to enter.  Basically what a T-Money card is, it's a card you keep reloading money into to use for the buses and transit system. It costs 3,000KRW for the card itself and then you can reload. The perks of purchasing this card is that you make back the 3,000KRW you spend because each time you ride the transit system instead of charging you the usual 1,000-1,200KRW, it only charges you 900KRW which saves you a bit of money. I only suggest you get this card if you plan to travel A LOT during your stay here. We're here for about 9 days and we've been using the transit everyday sometimes more then 3 times a day so we're pretty glad we got the card. It's a lot easier than buying a single journey card each and every time we ride the transit system. Oh also, the subway is super clean, no garbage. The city invests a lot of money in city workers because the tracks are always clean and garbage free. There are about 3 to 4 city workers at each station doing the necessary activities that make a subway system clean such as changing the garbage, cleaning the escalators, and mopping. I wish Toronto was like that because then we would have a cleaner subway system!

So we made our way to our hotel which is close to Seodaemun Station. When looking for a hotel to book, it was more difficult to find one in Seoul because all of them were extremely expensive. This was an average priced hotel and next to the subway station so we thought it would be nice. The security here is fantastic, you need to scan your room card against the card reader in the elevator before you can enter any of the residences upstairs. The doors are steel, it's quite different from any other hotels. I think because these are also serviced apartments it comes with huge fridge, stove, microwave, washer and dryer and the other things like iron and tv. It also has like 2 huge closets to put clothes in so I think people often stay here for longer stays but we were pleasantly surprised that we paid a decent price for a great hotel. Also, when people knock on your door, they ring the bell and it's a digital command center so you can see who's outside your door via. camera.

Anyways, it was about 1am when we arrived, no time to explore cause it was late so we just went to sleep to prepare for Day 1 in Seoul!

-LD