And even though we were welcomed by Mario at Osaka Kansai Airport, we got a very bad experience in this region. My SO was victim many times of anti-Korean racism. Not me, as Japanese people usually like white Europeans and Americans.
Kyoto
After checking at our hotel, we went to a yakitori restaurant for dinner. My SO noticed the pork belly was cooked differently than in the other tables, and two salarymen at the next table were betting for one beer, about her nationality (Chinese or Korean), before badmouthing about Korean people and government. And if my knowledge of Japanese isn't good enough to understand all of this, Jieun's Japanese is very good. She studied it at school, and has some Japanese friends living in Korea and Japan. She's able to understand what people say, and to have proper conversations in Japanese.
After this, we decide to keep dating. We went to another street, and to another place to eat and drink. We ordered some chicken and French fries, and beers.
Who ever got their French fries in an envelope ?! Everyone else got theirs in a plate, as it was shown on the menu. It quite meant "take the fries, pay and get out". Another form of anti-Korean racism. We ate them at the restaurant, while drinking and my SO smoking - in Japan, smoking is allowed in many restaurants, unless stated otherwise. After this, we went back to our hotel which wasn't far away, as it was past midnight.
Now, why is there a lot of anti-Korean racism in Kansai ? (as this didn't happen during our first trip to Japan, were we went to Kanto - Tokyo and Yokohama)
Korea was a protectorate of Japan in 1905. Japan then colonized Korea in 1910, until August 1945 and World War Two coming to its end. This period is also known as Korea under Japanese Rule. Starting from the 1950s, Japan made apologies to Korea, China, Taiwan, but people from these countries consider these apologies aren't enough. Also, as for now, Japanese and Korean governments hardly have a good relationship, and these forms of anti-Korean and anti-Chinese racism are made by people who are between around 20 and around 50 years old. I believe they are quite influenced by the government.
This resulted in my SO refusing to get out of the hotel room to visit the city. But she wanted me to visit and enjoy. After we talked a lot, as I felt like letting her alone is not a good behaviour, we agreed to do as she said. She stayed in the hotel and I spent the afternoon in the streets of Kyoto.
In front of the entry of Nishiki-Tenmangu shrine, next to Teramachi Kyogoku.
Inside Yasaka shrine.
After getting back to the hotel, we agreed to leave Kyoto the next morning/afternoon, to go to Osaka, where we wished there wouldn't be such a huge racism. The original plan was to put our suitcases inside lockers, and to visit Kyoto during the day. I thought about going to Kiyomizu Temple, or maybe to Kinkaku-ji. This wasn't possible anymore.
Osaka
We took a regional train from Kyoto to Osaka, which took about one hour between both cities. After checking at our hotel, we decided to date at Namba, then at Dotonbori. As I quite got lost while getting out from Namba Station, we already arrived at Dotonbori. We decided to keep walking and we were hanging out at Shinsaibashi, where we had dinner. We then got back at Dotonbori, which is very famous for its Glico running man neon lights, its restaurants and its nightlife. She started to hear bad comments about Koreans, and when she wanted to get takoyaki, she wanted some topping. The woman at the entry of the restaurant, where we were served, was behaving odiously towards her. Even though we ate our takoyaki, we felt really bad. We are respectful tourists, who respect others, and since these people are in their country, they considered they had the right to treat us like shit. We had a better end of the evening at an American pub, where music was played on a jukebox. The end of the evening was better ... until she got called names when getting out of the subway when we were going back to our hotel.
We found it funny.
Nightlife at Dotonbori.
All of this was too much for my SO, who decided to spend the end of our trip in the hotel room. She refused to get out of there, until the end of the trip - she would be victim of racism again, just because she is Korean. At her request, I went out in the city alone, again.
On the second day in Osaka, I firstly went to Den Den Town, which is the Osakan Akihabara - the otaku part of the city, with goodies shops, and maid cafés and other restaurants. I had a late lunch at a maid café, called Maidreamin, which is quite famous in Japan. I went to another one of the same branch, in Akihabara, in Tokyo two years ago, and I found it very noisy inside. This time was a little bit less noisy in my opinion. But the food was cute. But a bit expensive in my opinion.
I then was walking around Shinsekai, and coming back to Den Den Town to buy a present to a friend, then I was having dinner in another yakitori restaurant, where the owner's wife was talking to me in French. I also got a new friend there, and after dinner we walked again to Shinsekai, as it's more beautiful with all the lights at night. He then took me to Doubutsuen-mae Station, which made me able to get back to my hotel quickly - with food and beers, as my SO requested.
Kobe
... still alone. Same request from my SO, due to the same fear, which is understandable, but very unpleasing.
Kobe is at about 45 minutes away from Shin-Osaka Station. As it was my first time going there, I started to get lost in the city, until I stopped by some McDonald's and checked where I could go. I took the subway and walked to Motomachi, where there is Nankin-Machi (Chinatown - the name actually means Nanjing Town). I ate Kobe beef there.
This was good but quite expensive. And some other parts of Kobe beef cost 10800 yen (€82, almost $100). One part even cost about 50000 yen ! (€380, $455)
Guess who's going to steal your meal right after you paid it..
After this, I walked to Meriken Park, which is part of the harbour of Kobe. I went inside Kobe Tower, and had dinner close to there, before going back to Osaka. We left the next morning and came back to Seoul.
To commemorate the victims of the Kobe earthquake in 1995.
The end of a water jets show.
Kobe Tower and Osaka Bay.
I loved Japan. It always was a dream to me to go there. I grew up with Japanese pop culture (Pokémon, video games, then manga, anime, J-Pop, life in Japan nowadays) then got interested into traditions.. I quite idolized Japan too much, and I'm now back to the reality. Not all Japanese people are bad, not all Japanese are racists, not all Japanese people are good either. But this trip, which should have been a pleasant one to my girlfriend and I, was messed up due to the behaviour of some racist trash people. Going out alone, as she requested, wasn't nice for the both of us, at all. This experience resulted in us deciding not to go to Japan for a long while, and to go to some other cities / countries during the next visits, like Busan, Singapore, and some other places.
Sayounara, Nihon.