Cheers for all that mate. Had forgotten about the DMZ stuff will deffo do that.
I actually wasn’t that arsed about going, but where I’m gonna be for the rugby later in the year it’s actually going to be easier for me to get to Seoul by plane than other areas I would be potentially interested in Japan, so I thought why not......
Seems like a great choice, I am sure you will enjoy it a lot.
Another interesting thing - A lot more people in Seoul spoke English than in Tokyo from my experience - which is I guess it is because it is more allied/tied closely with the US and has more Western/American cultural influences? Mostly positive experiences from the locals apart from one taxi driver who picked me up and as we started driving off and I began to speak English he screeched to a halt and started shouting to me to get out! I was also there for St Paddies where I tagged a long with a bunch of American/British English teachers in Itaewon.
For The DMZ - I guess there are a few tours that market themselves as this but the one you want is ran by the American Military and you start at the army base in Seoul and you need to give them your passport to be checked out in advance and stuff. I would recommend booking at least a few weeks in advance if you know your dates for sure. On my tour we also went to one of the discovered tunnels, saw the competing border villages with their giant flagpoles, went to an abandoned train station right on the border. And then to the DMZ itself, the one you see on the TV with the huts where they have the peace talks.
As relations seemed to have thawed somewhat since, you might get something different now. The American Military peddled a narrative the whole time that a united Korea was the end goal that both sides wanted and at some point it would happen and a United Korea basically was peace, which I found a bit much. But anyway, it was highly memorable.
I was also in Tokyo for almost two months, although I think that was 8 years ago now - so if you want to know anything about that city then I might know something too!