Day 109: Time for part two of our Japanese adventure. These photos are all from Tsukiji fish market which is the biggest wholesale fish market located in central Tokyo. It handles over 2,000 tons of fish a day and is the center of about $5.5 billion dollars of fish trade each year. We were told to go early in the morning to catch all the action and although we missed the 5 a.m. tuna auction, there was still plenty to see once we arrived. Now, it wasn't quite as easy to get there as the Lonely Planet made it seem, but after dodging some aggressive cart loaders, scooters and fish trucks we made it to entrance of the whole sale market.

Once inside we were amazed with the sheer amount of activity happening all around us, colourful fisherman characters quickly going about their business almost oblivious to our presence.

The photo opportunities were everywhere, the trickiest part though was not getting in peoples way. We had to be vigilant not to get in the way of deliveries, pick ups, customers and local fishermen doing their thing.

As we snapped away we got the vague sense that tourists were not looked on too highly by the grizzled fishermen and that we were somewhat of a nuisance. We tried our friendly foreigner approach to gain their acceptance but the fishermen seemed relatively unmoved by our efforts.

However, once we bought some sashimi from one of the stalls, it seemed to change the fishermen's perception of us from tourists to customers. It was also nearing the end of their work day and it showed on their faces...

This younger fisherman was REALLY happy to get off work...

As we were leaving, one of the Japanese fisherman (pictured below) yelled out "Where are you from?" and when we told him Canada, he proceeded to speak to us in French. We must have looked surprised and he quickly noticed that we had no idea what he was saying. He said this was the first time he was able to teach French to Canadians which gave him a good laugh.

We figured it was a good time to leave when we saw them discarding large fish heads and closing up their stalls for the day.

We still have so many photos we want to share from our time in Japan that we'll be doing another post soon. We hope everyone is doing great back home, and we miss you all very much.

With love from South Korea,

Brandon & Shayna xo

Day 95: Hello everyone! As many of you know, we spent our recent Lunar New Year vacation in Japan. Ever since I (Shayna) heard about these Japanese snow monkeys a few years ago, I had my heart set of visiting them. Thankfully for me, Brandon was excited about a trip based around seeing monkeys and off we went. We spent our first two days sightseeing and people watching in Tokyo which we'll show you soon- but we thought we'd start with these pictures since they're some of our favorites.

We stayed at a small Japanese style hostel named Shimaya hotel that was run by the cutest and most generous couple ever (pictured above) . They drove us to and from the monkeys, as well as anywhere else we wanted to go, no questions asked. Once at the park, we actually had to hike through the Japanese alps (on a pretty small, icy trail) for 40 minutes to get to the location but, as you can see it was well worth it...

The temperature in the mountains can drop as low as -40, and to survive the harsh climate the monkeys spend their days bathing and relaxing in the natural hot springs in the area known as Hell's Valley.

Being in such close proximity to these monkeys was truly amazing. Watching them play, eat and interact with each other with no real concern for the strange people pointing cameras in their faces was unreal. Being that close to hundreds of monkeys is an experience that will stay with us for a lifetime.

We'll be back with a new post as soon as we can. We have tons of photos from Tokyo that we're excited to share with you.


With love from South Korea,
Shayna & Brandon xo

Day 68: Although this post is long overdue, we figured better late than never, right? So here it goes, the past 33 days in a nutshell. First of course was New Years which we spent with some of our friends in central Seoul with an insane amount of people. It was really cold and crowded, but we had a great night. They even sang Seasons of Love (from RENT) in Korean before the countdown, it was random but we loved it. After the countdown, the celebration really began, as the streets were packed with people firing off endless fireworks. It was definitely a cool experience.

The next day, we decided to go check out the biggest palace in Seoul since we were in the area. It was by far the nicest palace we have seen in Korea and made for some nice photos. We all went out for a nice mexican dinner afterwards and it was a great way to start the New Year.

Besides that, we have been keeping a pretty low profile since the weather has been less than awesome. I know winter is always cold, but it's been REALLY cold and so we haven't been having many weekend adventures. We have however explored Osan, taking photos of strangers, temples, and a random bird we came across at a make shift petting zoo in the middle of a huge Arboretum we visited one day.

The real good news is that in only a couple days we will begin our Lunar New Years vacation. We are heading to Japan to see Tokyo for a couple days and then we are on to Nagano to visit the infamous Snow Monkeys bathing in the hot springs. Hope everyones doing great and we miss you all.

With love from South Korea,
Shayna & Brandon xo