This is the second part in a three-part travelogue by Evan Wini about his spring 2025 semester studying abroad. The first, “Seoul Travelogue: Dorming 7,000 Miles Away in a City That’s More Than Just Beautiful,” was published February 18, 2026.
While I spent the majority of my time abroad in Seoul itself, that isn’t to say I never ventured outside of it. South Korea is a small nation only in relative terms. It is still expansive, with a great host of areas to be seen. And that’s just within its borders, the extent of my travels took me beyond those, too.
While transportation within Seoul is a simple task given its subway system, travel from city to city requires a bit more forethought. There is no subway that you can simply scan in with a card and hop on. Most trips were arranged by TEAN, though one was arranged by Hanyang University itself, its international club specifically. Transportation was usually through rented buses to ferry us from place to place.
These excursions were my favorite parts of my time abroad. While Seoul is beautiful and I did find myself settling in quite well, the city view gets…monotonous after a while. These provided me the opportunity to see something totally different.
The first of these excursions was a trip to Nami Island, located in the middle of the Bukhan River northeast of Seoul in the city of Chuncheon. Buses picked us up for an hour-and-a-half drive to our destination. In hindsight it wasn’t that long of a ride, especially when compared to future trips. I would get used to these drives in time. But for the first excursion of my trip, it was quite bracing.
Nami Island itself was beautiful and well equipped for tourism with many monuments, memorials, and displays to see, various food stands and souvenir shops, bikes to rent for travel along the island’s trails, and even a gondola—akin to a ski lift—that takes you around a section of the island to see it from above. Its true beauty lies in its groves of blossoming trees. As we visited the island at the beginning of March, and the trees bloom in mid-April, I did not get to see them. It began to rain. At one of the souvenir shops, I bought an umbrella which lasted me for the rest of my trip.
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Our second major excursion was a two-day trip to the cities of Ulsan and Busan, on the southern coast of South Korea, organized by TEAN. It took us about two hours to reach Ulsan from Seoul on the KTX Bullet Train. A high-speed railroad system that connects all the major cities of South Korea to one another, the KTX can reach speeds of more than100 miles per hour. For a train traveling at such speeds, the ride was remarkably comfortable, smooth, and quiet.
After we reached our stop, tour buses took us to the four-star Lotte City Hotel Ulsan. I had the unique experience of getting a room all to myself, as my roommate for this trip was unable to attend. The evening of our arrival, we were treated to a dinner buffet and breakfast the following morning, both of which were excellent.
It was said Ulsan and Busan were home to South Korea’s economic centers. It showed. From the Ulsan Bridge Observatory high atop a hill, we got an incredible sunset view of the city’s edge, the surrounding mountains and hills, and the Hyundai shipyards in Ulsan.
Beyond the city, Busan’s Haeundae Beach provided a view of the sea and a beautiful coastline. The Mermaid Princess and Princess Hwangok statues stood by the shore. We noticed a man fishing out on top of one of the many sea stacks, which was quite entertaining. And we visited Gamcheon Culture Village, a dense and colorful neighborhood, well known for its handmade arts and crafts, built into a cliff overlooking the cityscape.
We set out to the city of Yongin for a weekday trip to Everland, South Korea’s largest theme park. There, my group spent quite a bit of our time just waiting in line to get on one single roller coaster. I’m not one for raising my levels of adrenaline, so I didn’t partake in many of the park’s impressive rides.
Everland had a zoo, which I did love. I hadn’t been to a zoo in quite some time, but it was once a favorite pastime of mine, so visiting this one was a nostalgic experience. There were so many different animals I couldn’t possibly list them all, but I remember seeing the likes of capybaras, lions, tigers, and even penguins.
Quite a few of Everland’s attractions were located at the tops of tall stairs and long ramps leading to the upper levels of the zoo. The panda exhibit was one such attraction. My group had grown used to this, and we decided to go see the pandas, but our long trek was all for nothing. The line to see them was too long to be worth it. We made our way back down and finished up the rides we wanted before the buses arrived to bring us back. Though Hanyang University’s Office of International Affairs had planned this Friday trip, it was not counted as an excused absence, so I may have skipped class to go.
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For the last trip outside Seoul, we joined students from all of TEAN’s programs in South Korea, including those from beyond Seoul. Coincidentally, I met three students in this group who, like me, were from colleges in Massachusetts. Together, we traveled to Tokyo, Japan.
I woke up at 5 a.m. to catch a flight from Incheon International Airport, where we were brought to the wrong terminal. A slight mix-up, but we boarded smoothly for our two-hour flight to Tokyo and arrived at our hotel in Shinjuku, an area known for its nightclub and bar scene.
Japan was incredible. It placed its pop culture on full display. Iconic characters and imagery from anime, manga, and Japanese cinema appeared everywhere in murals and statues. Overlooking a street near our hotel, a statue of Godzilla periodically roared, which was entertaining until the fiftieth time I heard it.
When I first arrived in Seoul, I thought I’d seen what a dense city looked like, but then I saw Tokyo. With skyscrapers towering above you at all times, amid a sea of people walking from place to place, Tokyo’s streets made Itaewon in the evening look like a walk in the park. It made staying together during tours somewhat of a challenge.
We were only in Japan for four days, so our itinerary was packed, but each day followed a predictable pattern: Wake up, follow our guides to a location, do an activity of some sort, then we could do whatever we wanted.
Day one we toured the area of Shinjuku and dined at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Then I joined a group for an evening stroll and saw the beauty of Tokyo at night. The electricity bill must be immense, but I can’t deny the beauty of it in the dark. Hilariously, a billboard on the façade of one building periodically plays animated videos of a cat. On Google Maps, it is listed as “Giant 3D Cat.” If the city of Tokyo has something in abundance, it is sheer, overwhelming personality.
On day two during our visit to Asakusa, a district in Tokyo known for its more traditional architecture and attractions, I was allowed to try on a kimono, a form of traditional Japanese clothing akin to a robe. It was fun to wear, and I like to think I pulled it off well, but the windy weather made wearing it difficult to say the least. And I think I prefer the hanbok I wore in Seoul. We also tried authentic matcha tea (not exactly my taste, but it was great to try) and visited Kaminarimon Gate, a Buddhist Temple in the more traditional area of the city. Afterward, we were brought to an aquarium—a little awkward, given the kimonos and their more traditional style and footwear, but as with the zoo in Everland, the aquarium let me revisit a piece of my childhood.
On day three, we were brought to Shibuya for “Hokusai: Another Story in Tokyo,” an exhibit dedicated to the works of the famous Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. It must be seen in person to be properly enjoyed. Making use of immersive surround-sound, wind machines, and animation, the exhibit made me feel as if I was in the paintings themselves.
Following that, we went to Mori Building Digital Art Museum in Minato City for a teamLab exhibit that was difficult to describe in all the best ways. The site was a large, continuous room with built-in displays everywhere and projectors that cast moving art on the walls, ceiling, and floor. The art shifted and changed, moved from room to room. You could enter one room multiple times without realizing you’d been there already. It was hypnotic, and I would love to see it again.
One of the dynamic art pieces of the teamLabs exhibition. Video credit: Evan Wini
On our own time after the planned tours, the group we formed on day one made our own trips. We learned just how confusing Tokyo’s subway is. It felt mind-numbing and difficult compared to the robust and rather simple-to-understand subway of Seoul. We also took strolls around Tokyo, visiting various shops, malls, and restaurants. One shopping center had an entire floor dedicated to manga, old collectibles and memorabilia, figurines, and more. The most fun I had, though, was in the simple things. Our group loved to spend time in an arcade near our hotel, from which we hosted many Mario Kart tournaments that, sadly, I never won.
As much as I thoroughly enjoyed these trips, I can’t deny that at the end of the day I loved nothing more than the sense of relief I felt returning to my dorm, swiping my card, hearing the whir of the lock, entering, and just collapsing onto that hard, uncomfortable table of a bed—just taking in the feeling of being somewhere I considered familiar. It cemented for me that there really is no place like home, even a home-away-from-home.
