Watching that drama made me want to live in the United States for a while.

The female lead left a volunteer event because she said she needed to talk to her boyfriend. In Korea, that would be pretty hard to imagine. It made me wonder whether something like that would actually be acceptable in the U.S.

This is a hot spring operated by the town I live in.

This is a kakenagashi hot spring, where fresh spring water flows continuously without being recycled.

This one is operated by a smaller local ward within the area I live in.

And this is a unique hot spring with mineral-rich, slightly salty water.

Today, I visited the smaller hot spring, Minatoyu. It was small but very clean, and the salt ice cream sold right in front of it was especially good. There was also a nearby udon shop that doubled as a café.

I’m planning to visit the larger hot spring later as well.

I went to japanese yakiniku restaurant this Wednesday, with my coleagues.

Their Grill is very tiny. Using this grill, three people ate Yakiniku.

I ordered Chamiseul and Mikang Alchohol.

This Mikang Alchohol was great.

I could really feel the texture of the tangerine pulp.

We also ordered a kimchi set and a lettuce set, and the lettuce set alone cost around $7.

I think that price is ridiculous.

I also tried yakiniku with beef offal for the first time.

I tried liver, harami suji, harami, heart, and a cut called ‘korikori.

The texture of the liver was good, but its distinctive flavor made it hard to eat.

My favorites are heart and Korikori.

 I thought Japanese ‘horumon’ was similar to Korean gopchang(beef small intestines), but I found out that it actually includes a much wider range of organ meats.

I also learned that in Japan, beef is the main meat used in yakiniku.

I’d recommend this place because the offal had very little odor, so it was easy to enjoy. I used to avoid organ meats because of their strong smell.

I visited Kawazu which is famous for Wasabi.

This is wasabi-don.

I got a wasabi stem and grated it myself, then put it on top of the rice.

I also saw a wasabi farm.

They say wasabi only grows in very clean water.

That’s why the wasabi farm I saw was near a clear, clean waterfall.

Around the waterfall, they were selling various wasabi-related souvenirs.

What I also found interesting was that this area is associated with a very famous enka song—apparently, almost everyone in Japan knows it.

The song is called ‘Amagi-goe.’

I think visiting the area after listening to the song would make the experience even more fun.

When I don’t eat at the staff cafeteria, I buy side dishes or a lunch box from the supermarket and eat that instead.

This supermarket sushi didn’t come with soy sauce or wasabi, but I didn’t know that and bought only the sushi, so it wasn’t very good.

For the first six months, I’ll be in training and rotating between three branches.

At the moment, I’m working in a hotel’s buffet restaurant, and it seems like I’ll be there all month.

The job itself is okay, but the shift schedule and biking to and from work are tough.💦

That type of shift is called ‘nakanuke,’ a split shift with a long break in the middle.

I have to be at work by 6:30 or 7:00 a.m., work until about 10:00 or 10:30 a.m.,

then come back again around 4:30 p.m.

and work until 9:00 or 9:30 p.m.

After that, I eat dinner at the staff cafeteria and shower at the hotel hot spring.

It's a today's dinner.

By the time I finish everything and get back to the dorm, it’s around 11:30 p.m.—and I have to wake up again at 5:30 the next morning.🫠

And it takes about 20 minutes by bike from the dormitory to the hotel.

Especially after work, the road is so dark that it feels a bit scary.

But sometimes, on clear nights, I can see the stars very clearly.

Recently, there’s one more thing I’ve started seeing: wild boars. 🐗

Just this week, I saw two wild boars. It was the first time in my life I had ever seen one. A boar were running, and I was surprised that their footsteps sounded like a horse galloping.

* Woke up around 9 a.m.

*Left for the airport at 10:30 a.m.

*Arrived at Incheon Airport at 12:30 p.m.

*Entered the departures area at 2 p.m.

* My flight took off at 3 p.m.

* Arrived at Narita Airport at 5:30 p.m.

As we got closer to Narita, tall mountains came into view, and it felt new to me since I hadn’t seen that in Korea.

* Took an airport limousine bus to the Asakusa area at 6:35 p.m.

*Got off the bus around 8:15 p.m.

* Walked to the hotel and arrived around 8:40 p.m.

I thought I’d get there earlier than this.

I was exhausted, but I still had to eat, take a shower, and do laundry.

What I ate on my first night.

I haven’t had much of an appetite lately, so I couldn’t eat much.

After arriving at my accommodation, I just went to a convenience store.

One thing I like about Japanese convenience stores is that the salads are cheap and quite generous.

The dessert I liked the most.

This pudding was labeled as pumpkin pudding, so I bought it out of curiosity.

We used to play together when we were kids, but as we got older, we only saw each other on holidays and barely talked.

Because my mom, my aunt, and my uncle weren’t very close and didn’t stay in touch often, I think we naturally became a bit distant as well.

But since I’m moving to Japan and it’ll be harder to see each other, I thought we should meet once before I go.

It was the first time we reached out to each other and met up on our own, without our parents.

I want to make an effort to stay in touch more from now on.

The scammer told me that because I had canceled the phone numbers, I might face consequences, such as being accused of document forgery.

He also claimed that since I hadn’t followed his instructions, he wasn’t responsible.

Even though he sounded concerned, what he was saying felt more like a threat.

The moment I realized he was threatening me, I knew he was a scammer.

At the same time, I felt afraid, thinking, what if what he said was true? But I was sure he was a scammer, so I believed none of the consequences he mentioned would actually happen.

Today, I reunited with the friend I was closest to in the early years of elementary school after eight years.

We had lunch together in our old neighborhood, talked at a café, and then took a walk around the elementary school we used to attend.

I wanted to stop right away, but my information had already been passed on, and I didn’t know how to handle the situation.

But then I realized that it was my own information, so I could take action myself.

First, I contacted the carriers where the new phone numbers had been set up and tried to cancele them all.

But one carrier required me to visit their office in person to cancel the phone number. (That’s why my roommate and I went to Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province.)

For now, I canceled two numbers and temporarily suspended the remaining one over the phone.

And my roommate asked ChatGPT what to do and I took the necessary steps.

I took steps to block any loan applications or approvals in my name and to prevent things like non-face-to-face bank account openings using my name or phone number. I also had my ID reissued.