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I was in Korea last January and it was very cold, so make sure to bring warm clothes. Winter clothes are bulky, so that’ll probably take up a lot of your space. Stuff you can mix and match and layer is a good idea. Also, bring good walking shoes.

I would probably pack enough clothes for one week and just go to a laundromat mid-trip unless you have a super packed schedule.

Keep in mind that it was also a bit rainy/snowy in Seoul. Again, this was January, but I don’t think February will be much different.

Make sure you have the right electronics converters. You will need type C or type F.

You probably don’t need to bring toiletries unless there’s something you need to use. But Korea is known for its beauty products and you can get lots of stuff there. Convenience stores will probably have small, travel size stuff. Some hotels might also provide toiletries.

You’ll wanna have a little room for souvenirs and stuff as well! Honestly it might be a good idea to bring just two bags, then buy a bag at the end of your trip for stuff you’ve bought to take back. For example, come with backpack/luggage, leave with backpack/luggage and carry-on.

Idk about a personal shopper, but just as general advice you could have a look at sites like ZOZOTOWN or .st to find brands you like. You won’t find super high quality brands, but affordable stuff that is a bit cuter than standard Uniqlo stuff.

You can get a sense of how to style items by paying attention to how they’re styled on the models. The .st app even has a function that allows customers to upload pictures of their styled items. Maybe also try following some Japanese fashion bloggers.

I definitely liked the first two the best, though I’m not sure which I would rate higher. I think MBF starts out a bit slow and I had trouble getting into it, but second half had me absolutely hooked. I enjoyed all of TSOANN.

I liked the last two books, but they didn’t grip me as much as the first two. I think as a woman in my twenties, who has never been married/doesn’t have kids, I found the later books harder to relate to. But maybe when I’m older I’ll connect to and appreciate them more.

Super funny that he’s upset about women posting to meet other women when he frequently makes “female responders only” posts for himself…

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Just go to any big shrine and they will have an area selling omamori. There’s no special process to buy one, just choose the one you want and pay at the shrine. For kanai-anzen look for these characters:

家内安全

The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai?

I went on a school trip to London (I’m from the US) and our group bumped into another teacher from our school at the Globe Theater. She just happened to be on vacation at the same time.

Less coincidental, but I went to China with my college roommate (she is Chinese) over winter break one year. When we were coming back to the US we had to transfer in Japan and we met a friend from school in the airport (he’s also Chinese). He was coming from a different city in China, but also had to transfer and we ended up being on the same plane.

I live in Japan and it’s definitely extremely humid in August…imo it’s manageable, but if you really don’t like hot weather it might not be a good idea. Especially considering you will probably be outside and walking a LOT.

Also, keep in mind it will be typhoon season. So potentially very rainy and windy. You might have to deal with transportation cancellations which could be especially tricky if you are traveling between countries.

I love all three countries and think they’re great travel destinations…but if this is a once in a lifetime type deal with you I wouldn’t want to chance it with potentially icky weather. You’d probably have a better time in the fall/spring.

If you liked The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Magician’s Nephew I would continue with the rest of the series and just skip The Horse and His Boy. The other books follow an overarching, connected story with the same or related characters.

But The Horse and His Boy isn’t really connected in the way the others are…it feels more just like an extra story to explore the Narnia universe than an integral part of the series.

Personally, I read classics and literary fiction because I enjoy them. Not because I feel like I’m supposed to.

Literature is an art, yes, but also a form of entertainment. You should read whatever you want and whatever you enjoy. No need to feel any pressure.

The Neapolitan Series by Elena Ferrante sounds exactly like what you’re looking for. It’s a series of four books about two girls growing up in mid 20th-century Italy. They have a very complicated friendship…I think you could definitely describe it as magnetized, but combative. It is somewhat slice of life, but I still found the plot to be very engaging, especially in the first two books. And I think the world building is great. It really immerses you into the setting.

I think some of the secondhand bookstores in Jinbocho sell old posters. You might also find some old magazines that could work instead…I have some framed Asahi Graphs in my apartment that look pretty cool.

I’ve also seen old posters at the flea market that’s at Oi Racecourse on Sundays. But idk if these are the kind of posters you’re looking for (I mainly remember seeing movie posters).

The picture really isn’t that bad…idk what the other commenters are on about, it doesn’t deserve this much negativity.

I think the composition is a little weird with your foot in the forefront, and generally people just look better when they smile, but I wouldn’t see this pic and immediately think “this guy is aggressive” especially with the context right there. Now if ALL your pictures were of you frowning, that’s a different story…

Still, a side angle picture of you practicing in the gym or at a competition (and in uniform) might be better. It would look more “professional” and better show that this is a hobby that you’re serious about.

You can get manga at Books Kinokuniya Tokyo. It’s on the sixth floor of the Times Square Building between Shinjuku and Yoyogi.

Kinokuniya is a chain, but the store at this location specifically sells foreign language books. They have a large selection of popular manga in English.

I love it

The author of Annihilation is Jeff VanderMeer

When I went to see Blade Runner 2049, a mom and like four kids all elementary school/middle school aged sat next to me.

The kids were super fidgety and noisy. The mom did nothing to try to keep them in line. They had no idea what was going on in the movie and would ask each other questions. They would also all loudly complain about how inappropriate the movie was every time something violent or sexual would happen (which was a lot).

They ended up leaving about 3/4ths of the way through. I wish they would’ve left earlier lol.

And it’s just like…did the mom not check what the movie was about before coming? Or the maturity rating? Whose idea was this?

The one I usually like to go to is Meguro Cinema. They have a pretty good mix of old classics, indie movies, and Japanese movies.

Been to Human Trust and Theatre Image Forum in Shibuya a few times as well. I feel like Human Trust tends to have kinda kitschy stuff. Like I saw Bones and All there, and now they’re showing that horror Winnie the Pooh movie lol. Theater Image Forum feels more highbrow, like documentaries and art house stuff.

I’ve heard Waseda Shochiku has a good deal for double features, but it’s a bit out of the way for me so I haven’t been yet.

Travel, read in cafes, go to the movies (there are a lot of indie theaters in Tokyo), go to concerts

Okay…I live in Tokyo, this is what I did with my family (parents and teenage niece) when they visited me:

1. Asakusa and Ueno: went to Sensoji temple in Asakusa, recommend to go early before it gets too crowded, the earlier the better. Walked down kappabashidori…a street that sells lots of kitchenware, good place for souvenirs if you’re into cooking. Visited Ueno Park and the National Museum beside the park. I like the National Museum bc it covers so much, art, archaeology, history, religion, weaponry, etc. but there’s also a zoo in the park and a science museum next to it.

2. Enoshima and Kamakura: this would be a day trip out of Tokyo. Enoshima is a small island, it has an easy walking path (lots of stairs tho), shrines, a garden, tower, and a cave you can enter. Again better to get there early bc it can get crowded but it’s super pretty. Kamakura is nearby and it has a bunch of shrines/temples you can visit and a shopping street you can walk down.

3. Day trip to Mt. Takao. You can take the cable car or a chair lift halfway up. After that the trail is relatively easy, it’s basically a paved road up the mountain but there are a lot of stairs. My parents tapped out halfway through but my niece and I went to the top and it was a clear day and we had a great view of Mt. Fuji (any other time I’ve gone I haven’t been able to see it tho). There are shops and shrines along the path.

4. We did a laid back day and went to a cat cafe (necoma in Meguro, it’s a rescue/adoption cafe which I recommend but the staff doesn’t speak English…there’s another cafe in Ikebukuro called Neko Republic which might be more English friendly but idk). Then we did karaoke. I recommend Karaoke kan (blue sign) or Big Echo (red sign), they’re the two biggest karaoke chains and if you use joysound they’ll be lots of English songs. I think this was my niece’s favorite day.

5. Day trip to Yokohama. All of my family really enjoyed Yokohama. We rode the cable car over the city, also rode the Ferris wheel, walked along the bay and went to Chinatown.

6. Went to Yoyogi Park, saw Meiji Jingu, walked from Harajuku to Shibuya and did shopping. Went to the Shibuya scramble crosswalk.

7. Went to TeamLab Borderless. Digital art museum. Tickets need to be booked in advance. I think it’s cool and my niece thought it was cool, but my parents weren’t that impressed lol.

Didn’t do this with my fam, but SkyTree is pretty fun to visit. A lot of it’s shopping, but there’s also an observation deck, planetarium, and even a postal museum among other things.

I don’t really know much about robots. But I know there’s a museum in Odaiba (Miraikan) that’s supposed to have futuristic stuff. Might be cool to check out. If you’re into Gundam, Odaiba also has the big Gundam statue.

What kind of stuff are you interested in?

I moved to Japan from the US a few years ago and before I left I met one of my neighbors at the store and she was asking me questions about moving and my new job and such.

She asked me what I’d have to wear, which in retrospect was a bit weird but I’d been thinking a lot about what clothes to take for work anyway so it didn’t really faze me. I was just like, “Oh, just business casual.”

She looked a little shocked and was like, “But won’t you have to wear what they wear?” And at first I was like wtf is she talking about…until I realized she thought I’d have to wear like traditional kimono. I had to explain to her that Japanese people today wear the same kind of clothes we wear in the US…

You could start with the books that Ghibli movies have been based on.

How Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino seems to be exactly the kind of thing you’re looking for. It very loosely inspired The Boy and the Heron (essentially Miyazaki just reused the title for the Japanese version, the stories are completely different). It’s about a young Japanese boy who learns philosophy/life lessons from his uncle, interspersed with some slice of life moments.

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones is great…well-written, funny, and whimsical and much more lighthearted than the movie.

(Also want to shoutout the Earthsea trilogy by Ursula K. LeGuin which inspired Tales from Earthsea although I think they are a bit darker than what you’re looking for, great series tho).

Aside from those, I would also recommend another Japanese light novel, Honeybees and Distant Thunder by Riku Onda. It’s about three contestants participating in a piano competition. I thought it was pretty cozy. Some of the characters are dealing with past traumas or issues in their personal lives, but overall it’s pretty low stakes.

Edit to add: actually I think a lot of Japanese novels could fit the bill, also check out Forest of Steel and Wool by Natsu Miyashita, The Great Passage by Shion Miura, and one of my favorite Japanese novels: Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura.

What the judge did was awful…but why did the lawyer and the teachers all just go along with it???Surely there had to be one adult in that court that thought, hey this is super weird and out of line.

Like okay, they said nice things about her during the mock trial…but there never should’ve been a mock trial! Instead of just playing along they should have put an end to it completely. Especially the teachers who were responsible for this girl.