I have two drafts right now of my Japan trip. One is spiralling more and more out of control with details and blow by blow. In fact, it’s growing unmanageably long, and no one wants to read that. Maybe I’ll finish it someday. Instead, I’ll just share a much shorter, summary version that I wrote in an email updating family on my adventures so far. It’ll serve as content and maybe some day we can have the long form version.
School break was supposed to last to the last week of February, so it was a good time to travel. I spent most of January in the office, watched the Chiefs in the playoffs, didn’t do much, then took off for two weeks to Japan at the Lunar New Year. Japan was pretty great, as you know.
I took the bus Thursday morning from Gwangju and arrived in Busan late that afternoon. Busan is a thriving, busy city with lots of celebrities and parties and whatnot. I walked along the beach and waterfront most of the evening, then went to my hotel. The next day, after breakfast, I took a bus down to a little island right off the coast of Busan that used to be a hunting preserve for one of the old kings of Korea. There’s a neat lighthouse on the southeastern tip that’s the southeasternmost point in all Korea, and closest to Japan – on a clear day you can see it across the strait. I met a lot of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who were combing the island in force trying to recruit new members. Then I had to hightail it back to Busan to catch my ferry.
The passenger terminal is a lot like an airport, just with no runways. There’s a lobby and lots of desks with all the various shipping lines, a small cafeteria and coffeeshop, and a small security area. I checked in with about 200 other people who would be on the same voyage. Lots of really intense questions – How long would I be in Japan? Did I have a visa? Where was my passport? Why didn’t I have a return ticket? I was flying out of Tokyo? Where was my ticket? Where would I be staying in Japan? Etc. But I made it through okay, and went through security (not quite as intense as airport security – I could keep my belt and shoes on, at least) and waited at the gate for departure.
The ferry itself is a little boat, not even really a ship – about 150 feet long, two decks, mostly a passenger area with lots of seats, looks like the inside of an airplane. It’s mostly hydrofoil so the hull sits up out of the water. We left Busan early that afternoon and sped across the strait. It took about 3 and a half hours, very smooth. I didn’t get seasick at all. We passed the island of Tsushima (famous battle between Japan and Russia in 1905 there, start of the Japanese Empire) and went into Hakata port on the island of Kyushu.
Hakata and Fukoka are a twin city, probably hte largest on the island. The streets were wide and clean, much nicer than Korea, I noticed, and all the people were well dressed. It was early in the evening Friday night, and lots of people were walking home from work. The port itself was again like an airport, but very small – just a customs area, baggage claim (which I skipped – I only brought my backpack to live out of), and a small tourist desk in the lobby. I walked out into the city with only a paper map to find my hotel – no cell service yet until I could change my SIM. But I made it okay (good sense of direction) and enjoyed the mile-long walk through downtown Fukuoka. I also went to Hakata Station, which is a huge train station/shopping mall. There’s dozens of rail lines that gather there, more than ten floors of shopping, restaurants…tehre were thousands of people and so much light and noise that I was really disoriented. I couldn’t find a place to change money, so I instead used my American credit card to withdraw cash for the trip. I also grabbed dinner – ramen noodles – while I was there, then headed back to the hotel.
The hotel has a cat dressed like an astronaut outside, for good luck. Makes it really easy to find, too. It’s a capsule hotel, so all you get is a little bunk bed and some space for your personal belongings. Communal bathrooms and shower – very cheap and not at all bad if you don’t mind not having your own room. That night, I went up to the kitchen. It was Chinese New Year, so the hotel staff was celebrating with dumplings for everyone. While I was up there, a group of Chinese students – looked like they were in their early twenties – approached me and asked if they could use my table. They were going to celebrate with sake, you see. I of course let them use it, and they invited me to drink with them, so I did and celebrated the Chinese New Year. They were college students from Beijing, but we had a bunch of other guests come and join us when they saw how much fun we were having. There was a pretty American girl teaching English in Taiwan, another American working in Ulsan in Korea, yet another American who was just roaming around Japan, two Korean sisters from Seoul, and an elderly couple from Taipei in Taiwan. Some people only spoke English, some only spoke Chinese, some only Korean, some only Japanese, so there was lots of translating. I didn’t go to bed until late that night, but had to be up early the next day to catch my train for Hiroshima.
Gwangju Dreaming 