Prelude to South Korea

When we left to go to Japan, it was very early in the morning. I had everything I needed to pack ready to go from the days before and the night before. My brother’s girlfriend, Rebecca, and her daughter were coming with us to drop off my mom, brother, and me at the airport.

This was the first time and the longest time I would be away from home. For one year. I was feeling good, determined. This was the moment I had focused on for so long, preparing as I could and learning what I could before I arrived in Korea. Those feelings I felt the day before and during my time in Japan would linger temporarily in Korea until they fully culminated once I arrived at my placement after the one week of orientation EPIK (English Program in Korea) had prepared for us.

I was very grateful that my mom and brother were coming with me to the airport.

Rebecca asked me when we arrived at the airport, “Leo, if I could convince you to stay right now, what could I do?” I said, “Nothing.”

I was pretty much ready and set to go. Quinn, she’s only a child, looked a little sad and in slight disbelief. I imagine she hadn’t yet experienced the emotions she was feeling.

We said our goodbyes. We entered the airport. I did not travel at all in 2024. I am making up for it in 2025 and 2026. We checked our bags at the counter and picked up our tickets.

I remember one of the people helping us at the counter was an Asian woman. Asian American, of course. She was pleased when I told her I was going to teach English in South Korea.

We had breakfast at a Mexican restaurant before we boarded the plane—one short flight to Boston, one super long flight to Tokyo from Boston.

When it was time to board the plane, this was the shortest flight we would ever take. The plane barely had any passengers or people. On the plane, I sat next to a very lovely woman. Her name was Elizabeth, and she had a Spanish last name. She was, however, of Chinese origin. She was adopted in Texas, where her parents were originally from. She and I talked for a bit as I asked her where she’s from and what she does for work. She told me she worked for a nonprofit involved in education in the Boston area, to which I told her I was going to teach English abroad in Korea.

We had a good conversation. She was glad my brother and mother were coming with me to such a faraway place. We arrived in Boston, and we had a long wait until the next plane left. We stayed at one of those cool Chase Sapphire lounges. They are quite amazing to say the least! We ate some good food, and we were all ready to fly on Japan Airlines.

My personal favorite airline I have flown on so far has to be British Airways, but I would put Japan Airlines in my top three easily. I sat next to my mom, and my brother sat behind us. We did our best to sleep and be as comfortable as physically possible on such a long flight. If you’ve ever flown a long flight like this one, you can probably relate to our experience.

It was one of the best feelings ever when we finally arrived. It was late at night when we got to Tokyo. A group of Vietnamese girls was on our plane. They still had to fly to Vietnam, which was like another five hours. God bless them. We were done with flying any more hours. We only needed to wait for my luggage, as my brother and mother didn’t bring anything heavy or big. We were tired but happy we made it to Japan safe and sound.

After getting my luggage and making our way through customs, we made our way to this “taxi” area. From the moment we were about to leave the airport, we got to experience how orderly and organized the Japanese people are. The airport security in Japan was professional and very polite. Japanese people, in general, were quite polite. I brought some trimming scissors with me, which they confiscated, but it’s okay.

The 2nd-longest plane ride ever completed!

When I finally arrived at where I would live, after unpacking all of my luggage, it didn’t seem as much as I thought, but I only brought one big suitcase. We took a taxi to our hotel, which was located in Shinjuku. It was about an hour, give or take.

Almost all of the Japanese taxi drivers we had wore masks. I don’t recall people wearing masks as much out and about. In Korea, I have seen people wear masks more often. When we arrived at our hotel, in the lobby was a very kind Nepalese man who brought our luggage up to our room. At the reception was a Japanese woman next to an Italian American man who was also very chill. Japanese people in general were quite chill, I must

We arrived at night, but not too late, just late enough into the night before midnight to unpack things a bit and prepare to go to bed. My brother was extra tired from what I can remember. My mom and I were used to traveling, but this had been our longest flight yet!

We faired better than when we went to India though that’s for sure! My mom and I woke up early enough in the morning to go out and walk about. My brother had a headache or something, so we took a walk to find a pharmacy after we had eaten breakfast. We walked to this beautiful little park near the hotel. The weather was fantastic for August.

We took a good number of pictures as we went about finding our way to and from the surrounding area in Shinjuku. I think today was the only day I had convinced my brother and mother to take the Tokyo subway. We left around noon to make our way towards Shibuya, where this big mall and the famous crossing you see on everyone’s social media is.

When we got back to the hotel, my mom and I spoke to the hotel concierge for a bit. She was a wonderful woman named Mari! She told us how we can add money to our phones to take the subway, and she recommended a few places for us to visit in the nearby surrounding areas. We would see her a few more times before we ultimately left to fly to Seoul in a few days.

Finding Hachiko

Much like in Japan, I would come to find that many buildings or even malls in Korea are built with multiple floors going up. The American landscape sure lends itself to massive, wide-open ranges where we can build as much as we want across multiple areas.

We did a lot on our first day in Tokyo, to be honest. We saw a good amount each day we were there, and yet, we would probably still need months to see just about maybe half the city!

At the Shibuya Mall, we found a Square Enix store with all Square Enix-related merchandise. Here, I had found a shirt which I just had to buy! It is the cover art of Final Fantasy III. We got hungry, and we got food in one of the nearby restaurants on the 35^th floor! We ate some great Italian food. I got some pasta, I think we all did, except for my mom.

When we were leaving, we saw our waitress going on her break, whipping out some cigarettes to smoke. My mom joked that she should smoke weed instead, to which she told us how harsh the penalty for carrying weed in Japan is. She then told us how bad the suicide rate in Tokyo is yet alone the country. She actually was not from Tokyo originally. She told us she was from Saitama. I did not mention it before, but Mari had also told us about the issues people have with body image here. I wish I could remember our waitress’s name, but between her and Mari, I felt like they both gave us some big insight into the culture of these people, the bad parts which we might not have been privy to knowing anyways.

The whole area was just massive, and my mom wanted to find the famous statue of the loyal dog, Hachiko. We went there after we explored the mall for a bit, and we were able to get her a picture with the dog. There were just so many people looking to get a photo there. It is the summer time, but man, there were so many tourists.

We got a bit lost on our way back to the hotel. We were trying to make our way back during rush hour, but the Shinjuku exits had so many multiple areas that we were not sure where we had to go to make our way back towards the hotel.

My mom ended up wanting to rest up for a bit when we got back. So my brother and I grabbed a drink before we met up with my mom for dinner. We had a heart-to-heart conversation about life and what I was about to get into. He had told me what his plans were with his relationship and moving forward, what the long-term goal was. Career-wise, he’s locked in; now it’s just moving the next pieces with settling down, buying the house, and making the family!

We had a pretty good dinner. Honestly, a lot of the food we ate everywhere we went was amazing, but the hotel itself was just awesome!