MarkP24

Thank you so much for sharing this trip with us on FT!

Who did you arrange the visit to the DMZ with? I believe I read that you need to use certain tour companies. Thanks!

jaro

We used VIP Travel but there are plenty of companies (or platforms) offering the DMZ tour with different variations - only DMZ, DMZ + tunnel, DMZ + gondola, DMZ + strawberry picking. We went with VIP Travel as they were recommended on reddit, but otherwise Viator, GetYourGuide, or Klook have plenty of options available.

jaro

Last full day in Seoul started with a loooong subway ride to Gangnam neighbourhood, where we planned to have lunch and explore the COEX shopping mall with the picturesque Starfield library. Starting with a twist, a visit of Meta's office in Seoul:


After spending an hour there, we made our way towards the main attraction of the day - lunch at Jungsik, 2-star Michelin restaurant focused on modern Korean fine dining. Coincidentally, chef Jungsik was there on the day as well, but as a patron!

Flashy logo welcomes the guests in the dining hall

Sleek menu

Jungsik's philosophy

Main attraction is the 7-course tasting menu, with a different main / dessert choice. My partner opted for the 4-glass wine pairing; we did not choose any extras as we were sure we would be full.


Hot towel to start off the meal

Set of 4 appetisers - starting from bottom middle and going clockwise, we had: - Shrimp with rice porridge sauce - Scalop puff - Wagyu toast with parmesan and truffle - Deep-fried octopus - Korean tea to wash down the taste Deep-fried octopus and the wagyu toast were the best.

Caviar with fermented mackerel in a pear (?) sauce

Abalone in a creamy sauce (details missing)

Jogae Juk - shellfish in a vegetable broth.

Neungseong-eo, Korean fish in a creamy (details missing) sauce

Waiter brought the choice of weapon(s) for the main course, Laguiole steak knives.

Main course, Hanwoo premium Korean beef. Not asked for doneness but was cooked to perfection. Could have been bigger!

Main course's side dish, 5 types of kimchi - carrot, cucumber, garlic, sea weed, one more is missing

Apple Sorbet with coconut jelly balls and apple ice shavings

"New York to Seoul": barley cream choux, pecan praline, tuilles, burnt caramel.

Fine dining variation of chocopie

Overall I was happy with the lunch but I expected more from it - the service was sometimes too slow, we waited for 50 minutes between two of the appetisers while neighbouring table had theirs out after 10-15 minutes; the waiters were hard to understand, we had a hiccup when ordering the lunch as only my partner wanted the wine pairing; and it seemed other patrons who were Korean were treated nicer. 8.5/10, I would come again - however, reviews show the lunch menu has been getting expensive every year so I would like to see a change in the menu to justify the price

After 2.5 hours of sitting down, we were ready to walk around. Next destination was Bogenusa temple, also known as the birthplace of Korean Buddhism.

Entrance to the temple area

Buddha's statue by the entrance to bestow the visitors with good luck. He's happy as he did not have to sit through a 2.5 hour lunch

View of the main square with the hundreds of lanterns. You could buy a candle and make a wish

Self-explanatory

I have no idea what this picture is at this point

A gong used during the ceremonies

Last place on our list was COEX Mall and Starfield library; the mall was as any other shopping mall so we did not spend any extra time there. Quick picture of the Instagrammable library - you could read any book on the spot and the selection was huge - my partner found a section about crocheting. Most books and magazines were however in Korean


Wrapping up the day, we returned to the hotel, had a quick meal, packed, and went to buy some Korean almonds as a souvenir before dozing off.

The store could hold a record for most almonds per square meter or foot

Everything can be Kawaii'd and almonds are no exception

MarkP24

Thank you!

jaro

You're welcome, I'd recommend getting a tour as early as possible. Tickets to enter the DMZ are first comes first serve; our group got picked up at 6:40am and we did not have to wait for a long time to enter (9:15am) but later group from the same company had a slot at 1:30pm so they had to waste time around the initial area

jaro

Early alarm woke us up and we made our way to the airport using the same Airport Limo bus we took to get to the downtown Seoul. Short ride later, we are at Incheon's Terminal 1. For some reason, I was not able to check us in online, so we made our way to the check-in desks. My pet peeve with *Alliance flights is that having some status never fully translates to seat selection with the other airlines - I would love to choose exit row seats for free but in this case we coughed up the money


Forgive the zoom, picture of a not-so-busy check-in counter

Formalities later and a swift security and immigration check, featuring passport gates with a fingerprint scanner (!), we are tossed into the depths of Terminal 1. Eventually we find the lounge:


Entrance to the lounge

The lounge has a modern look with nice lightning and furniture

Quiet spaces with a lounge chair. They were all occupied at 7am with people sleeping in!

Not so great picture of the main lounge area

Some chairs.

Buffet choices were below average, in additional to the sausage stir-fry and scrambled eggs there was rice and gyozas.

Sad looking bread section, there was no Nutella / similar either

Salad bar

A popular lounge section, ramen bar!

Overall the lounge looks nice but the food is below average; online reviews seem to agree. However any food is better than no food and I can imagine having a comforting bowl of ramen before a long flight! Running out of time to take ramen pictures, we made our way towards the gate and boarded our bird.

jaro

OZ 118
ICN-KIX
A320
STD-STA 1050-1255
ATD-ATA 1130-1258
Seat 21K/J

Short review so not so much text but a few pictures:

Leg space for days, biggest exit row I have seen in a while, ignoring the bulkhead ones such as BA

Waiting to depart while delayed due to airspace congestion

Climbing

Cruising above the clouds during a sunny, turbulent day

Lunch, roasted chicken thighs with rice and vegetables in a miso-mushroom sauce. Vegetables is an overstatement, there were 2 carrot slices and a 1 piece of broccoli, that said the meal was good. The sauce was a bit too thick for my liking

Final approach to Osaka

Upon landing, immigration, baggage reclaim, and customs we made our way to our hotel, Aloft Osaka Dojima. Airport Limousine bus took a while again but nothing new under the sun

jaro

Old school, nice looking taxi - I snapped a picture in case I will not see another one. Opposite is true - it is hard to find a modern taxi in Osaka instead!

Aloft as seen from the street

Hip looking entry area, with bar to the right

and restaurant to the left. Serves breakfast / lunch / dinner and the prices are not too shabby

Entry to the room - bathroom to the right, (bed/living)room to the straight

Strategically chosen twin beds in the bedroom, as online reviews mentioned hotel rooms are small and the beds do not match the European sizing. The mattress and bedding is extremely soft though!

View towards the entry area, with TV and fridge on the right

Very granular lightning control in the room, USB ports are a nice touch.

Toilet reveals Japanese style toilet with heated seat and automatic lid opening / closing when you open the door / stand up to leave; toilet disinfection after you finish; and automatic flushing!

Hotel room checked out and luggages dropped off, we went for early dinner to a make-it-yourself-katsu place:

Our meal, beef katsu with cabbage and wasabi, accompanied by a bowl of rice, miso soup, salted cod roe, an assortment of sauces, and a warabi mochi. The katsu was breaded and very rare; you were provided a tiny stove to cook it yourself to desired doneness.

Next: Exploring Osaka and trying to take better pictures for the trip report!

BRITINJAPAN4

What was the make it yourself part ?

jaro

The cutlet itself was raw and it was up to you to cook it to rare / medium / well done.

jaro

Picture-only report as I'm tired after a whole day of moving around. Day 2 coming up in a few minutes


Quaint little cafe with messy tables as I was too eager to take a picture

Small fire engine visible on our walk through Osaka. What surprised me in Japan is how small the cars are - you can hardly see a full-sized car like in Europe. (or US!)

Namba Shrine

Good wishes written by visitors

Shinsekai, retro downtown area in Osaka. The pinnacle is 103 meter high Tsutenkaku tower with views across Osaka.

Tsutenkaku tower

View from the tower

The tower had a small exhibition about Glico, a food manufacturing company in Osaka. If you ever had Pocky, you had Glico-produced food!

Denden Town, a district in Osaka with electronic, manga, and anime shops.

Denden Town was full of interesting shops and vending machines; only Sriracha vending machine was worth taking a picture of

OG Japanese curry for lunch. We wanted to go to Coco (famous curry chain) but given they are in the UK, we found a small homemade place. Price for the plate above was less than 3 pounds!

Sennichimae Doguyasuji, street full of shops focusing on kitchenware. From cutlery through pans and pots until hobs, you could find everything here. Pictured is a random cutlery store

Glico sign in Dotonburi, a nightlife district in Osaka. We did not stay long as there were too many people.

jaro

Another primarily picture-only report, 1 picture is worth more than 1000 words. I hope the same applies for mine


Main objective of the day, Himeji Castle.

View from the castle towards the residential area

Internal architecture from one of the side wings - lots of wood and open spaces. You could not wear shoes inside; walking on the wood was definitely chilly!

Koko-en garden

More garden #1

More garden #2

More garden #3

More garden #4, bamboo forest

Wrapping up the day with a tasting flight of Japanese beers - session IPA, wheat ale, and a hard cider. The last one was my favourite

Next: exploring Osaka's Umeda district and 1* Michelin star omakase

Coathanger

Visiting Himeji was one of my highlights in Japan.

Being a weekday afternoon, there weren’t many crowds and it often felt like I had the whole place to myself.

Japan can certainly be frenetic, but there are those moments of quiet magic.

VorelNaCestach

I've seen a lot of vending machines selling a lot of crazy things but never Sriracha 😁
Did they have different flavours or spiciness?

jaro

Fully agree, it was nice to be in a less crowded area. The only crowds and queues were inside of the castle as the stairs are pretty steep and narrow.

Nope, all the same, which was even more perplexing.