Welcome to the SHINee World.

To anybody who knows me well, you'll know I was sucked into the deep pit of the K-pop world a while back and I'm still yet to return. The main reason for that were SHINee, a beautifully talented fivesome whose music now holds so many memories to me.
I knew there was no escape when I found myself buying a magazine in Hong Kong, despite not being able to read a blind bit of Chinese, purely because it was the first magazine I'd ever seen with them on the cover. I'm 99% sure that magazine is still in my bedroom at home now.

I've had so many near misses seeing them live, that when they announced their Japanese tour this year, I'd set myself up for disappointment. A ticket lottery is the common ticket procedure over here, and I was unsuccessful the first time. Thankfully I got my second chance back in January, when a last minute second lottery opened. I applied; for two different dates and with three accounts, figuring I'd be unlucky again. Low and behold, persistence paid off, and this weekend I found myself in a slight state of bewilderment walking into the arena.

It was a good job I wasn't closer to the stage, because I know my calm demeanor would have rapidly changed into something that would have gotten me escorted from the premises. Needless to say, my rowdy Scouse side made an appearance during the encore, when I was hands down the loudest person chanting.

I spent way too much money on merch, I couldn't really take any pictures or videos for fear of being kicked out, but I did get to see bae. Key slayed as always, and was unnecessarily fabulous for the duration. He also had pink hair again, which I was delighted about.
Along with that, there was a little section of the show that was London themed, so I'm pretending they knew there was a Brit in attendance and did it purely for me.

While I'm still holding out to see them in Korea, as their Japanese image is too kawaii for my liking sometimes, it was something I never thought I'd get to experience and I'm so glad I did. Bonus being I could actually understand a fair bit of their conversations too.
If you're curious as to what it was like, here's one of their past concert tour performances: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVyyDHoNADI . 

Thank you SHINee, for helping me discover a love for sexually androgynous Korean men, that still worries my father to this day. I'm happy to report the yellow fever is still going strong.

Say B-I-G to the BANG!

I had an extreme fangirl moment last weekend when I got to finally go to my first ever k-pop concert. It was no other than Big Bang, and even on my way to Fukuoka it was still a little surreal I was seeing the first band I ever listened to back in the day. Now my lightstick and concert merch are gracing my kotatsu, as I have no idea where to show them off in my apartment and I want to relive it a little longer.

Kim’s tantosha (school supervisor) played a blinder getting us tickets, as we were floor level and pretty close to the front. Not what I expected at all. It’s definitely an experience I’ll never forget. Everyone around us was so lovely, and my favourites were two girls in front who were cosplaying and would scream to the death whenever TOP spoke. Said girl was also balling her eyes out at the end of the night. 

I was pretty impressed I understood the majority of what was being said too, even if I was singing the Korean to some songs because I know it better than the Japanese.

I think I’m more in love than I was before, that’s for sure. G Dragon was just GD; TOP made my life with his pink hair and being petrified of speaking Japanese; I’m 99% Daesung was on something, and whatever it was I want some; I have a new found love for Seungri; and Taeyang was bloody beautiful and doesn’t know it yet, but we’re getting married.

I befriended a 17 year old girl and her mother who were sat next to me during the concert. They were massive Big Bang fans, telling me they had VIP tickets for the show the next night too. Since this concert was getting filmed, like most k-pop concerts do, to get released later, throughout the concert you actually got instructed what light stick to use for certain songs. Cue my bewilderment since I couldn’t read the Japanese fast enough. 

Have no fear, my new adopted family helped me out straight away and we even had a little giggle at how foreign this whole experience was to me, compared to the resident pros like themselves. This was followed by us busting out some dance moves, or as many I could get away with without hitting the little old lady next to me in the head. Big Bang really have a varied fanbase.

At the end of the concert, confetti streamers were blasted from the stage, and the young girl managed to catch one and insisted on giving it to me. It wasn’t until later that I realised that the streamer was covered in messages from each member, names the concert, and is nice for me to have as a memory. She also took a picture with me, added me on LINE and gave me an update on how the concert the following night went too.

Now I’ve caught the concert bug since I was super lucky to get tickets to this, so here’s praying I get to see even more of my favourite k-pop groups on their Japanese travels while I’m still here. I’ve also earnt cool teacher points with my junior high school boys who found out I went and they’re going next month. 

Even though we couldn’t take videos, here’s a sneak peek of the concert in Osaka, which doesn’t even do how much it was bouncing justice.

Oppa Gangnam Style!

By the time we arrived in Seoul it was pretty late, so once we'd found where we were staying we went for a walk around Jongno. To say we fell in love with the place instantly is an understatement! It was so different to Hong Kong, and after getting some super duper not-made-for-foreigners spicy kimchi stew, we discovered how the back streets of Jongno were filled with food stalls with people of different age groups socialising. It was such a welcome change from the craziness of Hong Kong, so with a banana milk in hand (which is very famous over there) we headed back to come up with a plan for our time there.

The next day we headed to Chamdeongung Palace which was right by where we were staying. It was huge! We barely walked through a quarter of the entire place and the architecture was so intricate you could have taken photos all day. After leaving we roamed round a few random streets before realising that despite our early start, Seoul doesn't really open until 10:30am. This was explained on our last day when we left for the airport at 5am and the streets where still full of people at the street restaurants from the night before.

We headed to Insadong first and did some serious damage in Étude House, where I found the holy grail of liquid eyeliners. Yay for Korean makeup! I spotted a jipangyi stall which I was so happy about. It's soft serve ice cream in a corn-puff cone, the difference being its J-shaped and about a foot long. Tasty but the most awkward thing to eat when it's melting from both ends. Later we carried on towards Myeongdong which I loved. Every shop was blasting different kpop songs and it was the cheesy bright Korea I'd expected to begin with. Although I restrained my singing and dancing for Haruka's sake, I did treat myself to a SHINee album (or two) because you're only in Seoul once, right?! On that note, almost everyone under the age of 25 looked like they could be an idol, so Haruka and I were very happy "people watching", even if it was just cute guys.

We both wanted to make the most of the street food too, so when we were there we for some tteokbokki and a very random combination of a hot dog, wrapped in bread and chips that was deep fried. After that we got the cable car up to Namsam Tower, and the views of Seoul were stunning in both daylight and night. It's always shown in Korean dramas as a date place, but I swear Haruka and I were the only people there not on a date. The first of a few romantic locations we accidentally visited together during our travels!

The next day was all about the kpop! I managed to drag Haruka along to Gangnam to see the buildings of two of the biggest entertainment companies there, SM and JYP. Lots of picture taking ensued, we even chilled in a nearby Dunkin' Donuts for a bit in hope of seeing someone famous, but no luck. We ventured into SMTown Atrium which was literally heaven for me, with 5 floors of  SHINee, Girls Generation, f(x) and even a themed cafe.

Afterwards we met Haruka's friend Jay for dinner before he had to go back to the U.S. Military base. It was great having him with us because we could finally go places without English/pictures on their menus, getting to finally try Korean bbq, soju and bingsu. Since we were in Gangnam, I did have to embarrass Haruka when we got a picture at the dance stand, however I didn't dance too much...

Day 3 couldn't have been any more different to the day before. I've been wanting to visit the DMZ (De-Militarised Zone) between North and South Korea for so long, and was super disappointed that the tours weren't running due to MERS. Even though we couldn't go to the Joint Security Area and technically step foot in North Korea, tours were still running to parts of the DMZ. We went to Imjingak which was so surreal, as the barbed wire fences and flags, accompanied with the bad weather made it seem very eerie. Bombs were also being detonated as part of a military exercise in the distance too which made it seem all the more real. Afterwards we went to the unification observatory and got a chance to be within 2km of North Korean land, even seeing some housing through binoculars.

Later that evening we decided to go to the Han River, since I wanted to see the rainbow fountain show at Banpo Bridge. Turns out we majorly misjudged the size of Seoul and the chill timetable of the trains, so totally missed the show. It wasn't all bad though, we fell in love with Seoul all over again when we walked along the river and just spent time watching the world go by, filled with lots of people hanging out and doing the same as us on a Friday night.

On our final day we met up with Dongho, a guy we met at Keele last year who's now doing his military service. That was a surreal experience for all of us since we never thought we'd see eachother again after he left! We went for hotpot and got to try jeon, before Haruka and I headed to Hongdae.

Since this is the university area, there were a lot more international students around, the only thing I didn't really like about it since they were very overpowering. However, I did love the fact as soon as we arrived a group of super cute college boys were dancing kpop group dances on the street, and also playing a song that reminds Haruka, Jane and I sooooo much of first year!

After a failed attempt at finding the Hello Kitty cafe there (I found its old location, but the directions to the new one were awful), we ended up walking the streets after a few drinks rather than going to the clubs like we expected. We stumbled across two buskers who were absolutely adorable, and after dedicating songs to us in broken Englih, we got a picture with them. Sadly forgot to get any of their information, but it was a perfect end to a perfect trip.

Even though I couldn't read any Korean, I've never felt more welcomed in a country. The people were unbelievable helpful, along with even being apologetic that they couldn't speak English, or for assuming I could speak Korean after using a few phrases. Five days wasn't nearly long enough, and I know I've only just scratched the surface. Haruka and I both said the night we arrived how we could move there tomorrow, and I think Seoul will definitely be our meeting point after uni is over, even though it's not exactly in the middle! So thank you South Korea, for being more than I ever expected you to be. Not being just part of my trip to "get it out of my system", but making me want to explore you more.