Major Developments... MAJOR!
So, let's start off with the good stuff. I went to Japan for the holidays. It was a wonderful but exhausting trip. Click on this link to read more about it and go to the links that have the pictures.
My trip was basically flawless, except for the very end which completely changed my life in Korea, but I'll get to that later.
The first two 1/2 days of the trip I spent in Tokyo. I met up with a friend from college who showed me all around Tokyo on my first night and on my first full day there. On the second day in Tokyo I was on my own to explore some of the less in your face touristy stuff. Here are the pictures from those couple of days: Tokyo
From Tokyo, I took the bullet train to Kyoto, which is full of temples and shrines. It's a gorgeous city but I took it a little easy because I seriously felt hungover after my trip to Tokyo. After all the walking and all the sights I tried to cram in in Tokyo, I needed a break in Kyoto. Even though there aren't nearly as many pictures of Tokyo, I felt like I saw every part of that city. Here are the shots of Kyoto: Kyoto
The highlights of Kyoto were my really simple yet gorgeous guesthouse, the monkeys that chased me and that I got to feed right from my hand, the bamboo grove that I lingered in because I seriously felt like I was in a different world, and the chance to hang out and meet people from all around the world. I went to a concert/show at a night club with Yui (the girl who worked at the hostel) and the most in love couple I've ever seen in my life, Suzy and Martin from Germany. I took a day trip with Lawrence, a guy from California who works at a recycling agency in Oakland. I also stayed in the same guesthouse as a guy who lives in the same city as me in Korea. We both knew we'd be in Kyoto around Christmas but we had no idea we were at the same hostel. It was quite a shock.
The sights and experiences after Tokyo made the whole trip worth it. I actually could've done without going to Tokyo, but it is an experience and something everyone should do.
After a couple days of sightseeing around Kyoto, I made a day trip with Lawrence to Nara, the ancient capital of Japan. The city is full of temples (including the largest wooden structure in the world housing a 50+ foot Buddha) and enough deer to feed Africa. I think I read a number somewhere that said there were about 12,000 sacred Buddhists deer roaming the streets, parks and temples of Kyoto. I saw about 6,000 of them and got pictures with about 500 of them. I fed 5 of them, and was head butted by 2 or 3.
On my last full day in Kyoto, it was very rainy so not good walking around weather. Fortunately I had made plans to take an hour and a half train ride to Himeji to see Himeji-jo, or Himeji Castle. Also known as the White Egret, not even the ugly weather could shadow the beauty of the castle. The pictures for Nara and Himeji-jo are in the same album: Nara and Himeji
My last few days in Japan I spent in Osaka. By the time I got to Osaka I was done walking around, but I did want to go to the Osaka aquarium because it housed a whale shark. I'll admit, the whale shark wasn't as big as I thought it would be, but the tank was one of the largest in the world so that might've given it a smaller appearence. It was still a beautiful animal. The other highlight of the aquarium, in my opinion, were the jelly fish. After the aquarium I rode on the world's largest ferris wheel . Here are the photos: Osaka.
The next 20 hours or so I spent cooped up in my hotel, taking many baths and just relaxing and watching BBC. I've never walked so much and done so much sightseeing in my life. It was all worth it but Japan did hold a few surprises for me. First of all, the food wasn't entirely different from Korean food. Well, that is to say, there's a lot of Japanese food in Korea so it was interesting to see how the food was different.
The sushi I had in Japan was, of course, amazing but INCREDIBLY expensive (when compared to Korea). I went to a converyor belt sushi place with Lawrence, and while it was delicious, it also cost me about 15 dollars, where as in Korea I might spend 6 to 7 for the same amount of food. In the sushi place a 16 year old kid escaping from his family was on his own eating sushi, and that was quite surprising becuase there's no way I would've gone to a sushi place on my own at 16.
The people were just as polite as everyone said and that was the biggest shock of all. That is, when I got on the subway for the first time in 15 months I wasn't pushed, shoved or bulldozed over by some older person trying to get on the subway when I was trying to get off.
But the most surprising element of the trip happened at the end...
So, while my trip went very smoothly, all of my travel experiences while staying in Korea and travelling around Asia had been too flawless (save for the ass taxi driver that almost made us miss our plane in Shanghai). I really had a bad feeling something bad was going to happen soon... and that something bad happened at immigration at Incheon Airport when coming back into Korea.
As I walked up to the immigration official I was relieved to finally be back on home turf (more or less) but I wasn't getting through as quickly as usual. The official was flipping through my passport as if he was looking for something. I don't know what though because my visa was very easy to see and I'd already given him my alien registration card. But he wasn't looking for either of those, he was looking for my re-entry stamp.
See how it works is that as an American, when you get a visa to work in Korea you are granted unlimited exits out of and entries into Korea. But once that original visa expires (mine expired at the end of August), even if you extend your work visa, the re-entry portion of it does not get extended. You have to pay an additional fee to get that ability. Well, I hadn't paid the fee. But I also hadn't been stopped when I left Korea when my trip started but everyone else I knew who was in a similar situation had been stopped. So, by not being stopped I just figured I had everything I needed to get back in.
I was wrong.
The official was looking for a stamp that I never got, and his only response was, "This is bad". I was sent into another room and the immigration official there explained to me that I would not be allowed to enter the country on my work visa but only on a 30 day visitors visa. I told her I was leaving on January 19th anyways and she responded, "Oh, then it's okay" but I followed with, "But I'm still working" and she countered, "That's not good".
So here's what it boils down too. I was allowed back in the country, but am not allowed to work. So basically, I finished working 2 1/2 weeks before I expected to. I'm still getting some stuff done at work, but not getting paid for it, and none of it is teaching, only administrative stuff. It's dissapointing, but I still get two weeks with my friends, and I still get to say goodbye to my students. I was devastated for the first couple days back in Korea because I had no answers, but once school started back up I got what I needed, even if it wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear.
So, I'm back in Korea, with no job and not a lot to do. Fortunately though it gives me time to get stuff done I just wasn't going to get finished, sightseeing stuff that is. I considered going to Beijing for a couple days, but with all the travelling I have ahead of me, doing any more travelling right now does not sound appealing. And it also gives me a chance to write down some stories in my blog of stuff that's happened in Korea that I haven't had any chance to write about.
So that's my life and basically what I'll be doing for the next two weeks. We are going to an ice fishing festival in a couple weekends so there will be things going on on the weekends to keep me busy, but wish me luck for the days when everyone is at work and I'm stuck in the apartment. Keep in mind, it's FREEZING in Korea so I don't know how much sightseeing I'm REALLY going to get done, but we'll see.
To anyone who reads this, wish me luck! The next two weeks are going to be... unpredictable.