I have a lot to say, it was quite a lot to take in. Absolutely worth it.
If you are new to traveling, I would say Seoul is a good place to start in East Asia because it felt very Westernized compared to Taipei and Tokyo. I saw just as many French style cafes and restaurants putting cheese on everything as I did for the more traditional Korean food. I had the best breakfast sandwich of my life at a chain called Isaac. If you visit SK, please eat there. I spent five days there and that was enough for the city, but you could go further out to other cities like Busan and extend the trip. unfortunately, tours at the DMZ are not allowed at the moment, don't know why but I guess that's fine. Venturing in the countryside/DMZ puts you at higher risk for malaria vectors.
Tokyo is much more forgiving than even recent years because they are building the city for the Olympics and have encouraged more english signage and credit card transactions (although many places still operate under cash only).
But it still helps tremendously to understand common Japanese words or have google translate handy. Osaka was boring. Kyoto was fun for a day, and is great for day trips to neighboring areas (hiroshima, nara, etc).
Japanese baseball is a blast and you should experience it at least once. I could do a whole write up if you are interested. I spent about 16 days in Japan and I feel like I will need another two weeks in a future trip to see the rest.
In Tokyo I got severe food poisoning and ended up having simultaneous vomiting and diarrhea for 12 hours, followed by 24 hours of extreme fatigue. All I can say is don't eat the food at the Tokyo Skytree.
Not in Korea. But I did a little bit north of Mount Fuji. Tried to focus on hitting up more cities for my first time. Also, being in the countryside meant (per CDC recommendations) I had to bring malaria pills and get an expensive vaccine for Japanese Encephalitis. I didn't do either, so I limited my exposure.
I will say however, that while the cities are crowded, there are tons of side allys and streets where it can be very sparse and quiet. Felt almost like suburbs except all the buildings are 3+ stories tall.
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