Japan trip
Day 35
Back from Japan, the account is as follows:
Woke up early after only going to sleep around 4 hours before so as to ge showered and ready to go. Took a taxi to the bus station, a bus to the airport and a plane to Fukuoka. The whole process took about 4 hours once I got started. I took the shuttle bus from the international terminal to the subway entrance and bought an all-day pass. Headed to Tojin-Machi and walked to the embassy, with a little guidance from a passing Australian. I got there and was told via pointing and monosyllabic communication with the guard that the embassy was closed for lunch, and to come back in an hour. I spent an hour and a half wandering around the mall across the street looking for a place to check my e-mail and a Hello Kitty cell phone charm (don't ask). I returned to the embassy a few minutes before it reopened and met a few other wei-guk teachers doing the smae thing I was there for, and made friends. One was from Bowling Green, Kentucky, the other from Miami. It turned out that the one from Miami was staying in the same hotel as me, which was great because I had absolutely no idea where it was. The guy from Kentucky apparently was couch surfing through some website deal. So we headed to the hotel, grabbed a two hour nap and headed out to see as much of Japan as we could in the given time frame. Japan is notably difficult to navigate for a foreigner, simply because very little is in English. Whereas Korea has bad and often laughable translations plastered on most things, Japan has very little of that. The subway is partially in english, thankfully, because otherwise I probably wouldn't have been able to get to the consulate. Then again I live in a country where i don't understand most things, so it wasn't too bad. Dude and I wandered around, had a few drinks and tried to soak up some culture. Thankfully he spoke a little bit of Japanese, so we had a much easier time than I would have alone. I tried octopus sashimi at one establishment. We were both low on sleep and started to head back before midnight, under the assumption that the trains stopped then. The train turned and put us on the wrong line, but we didn't realize until it was most of the way to the end. Thankfully the train did not stop running, as it was nearing midnight, and on the way back up to the transfer point a cool guy that looked to be in his mid 60s got on the train and talked to us. Apparently he has been a musician in the Fukuoka area for about 12 years and answered some questions we had about Japan. I was kinda drunk, so Im not sure of how he answered. At breakfast the next morning we talked with a Portuguese guy who worked at a casino in Macao and went back to the embassy to pick up our freshly visa'd passports. Then we had about 7 hours to kill in the Fukuoka area until our flight. It was raining and apparently a holiday, so when we tried to go see the Fukuoka city art gallery, where they supposedly had some Warhols, Dalis, etc, it was closed. so we wandered around in the rain and saw other things in shops that we couldn't afford to shop in or use the products they were selling. We did find a decent burger chain called Freshness Burger and had my first decent hamburger in over a month. I'm told that they have a franchise in Hungdae, if I ever really get a hankering. We met up with the couch surfer at the airport, after I dealt with a non-communicative security guy that let me keep all of my shampoo and stuff, but made me buy a 260 yen (about $2.50) plastic bag to put it in. I did find the Hello Kitty charm there before I left, but it was still annoying. All in all a good trip.
Of course, pictures are up at my My Flickr.
Back from Japan, the account is as follows:
Woke up early after only going to sleep around 4 hours before so as to ge showered and ready to go. Took a taxi to the bus station, a bus to the airport and a plane to Fukuoka. The whole process took about 4 hours once I got started. I took the shuttle bus from the international terminal to the subway entrance and bought an all-day pass. Headed to Tojin-Machi and walked to the embassy, with a little guidance from a passing Australian. I got there and was told via pointing and monosyllabic communication with the guard that the embassy was closed for lunch, and to come back in an hour. I spent an hour and a half wandering around the mall across the street looking for a place to check my e-mail and a Hello Kitty cell phone charm (don't ask). I returned to the embassy a few minutes before it reopened and met a few other wei-guk teachers doing the smae thing I was there for, and made friends. One was from Bowling Green, Kentucky, the other from Miami. It turned out that the one from Miami was staying in the same hotel as me, which was great because I had absolutely no idea where it was. The guy from Kentucky apparently was couch surfing through some website deal. So we headed to the hotel, grabbed a two hour nap and headed out to see as much of Japan as we could in the given time frame. Japan is notably difficult to navigate for a foreigner, simply because very little is in English. Whereas Korea has bad and often laughable translations plastered on most things, Japan has very little of that. The subway is partially in english, thankfully, because otherwise I probably wouldn't have been able to get to the consulate. Then again I live in a country where i don't understand most things, so it wasn't too bad. Dude and I wandered around, had a few drinks and tried to soak up some culture. Thankfully he spoke a little bit of Japanese, so we had a much easier time than I would have alone. I tried octopus sashimi at one establishment. We were both low on sleep and started to head back before midnight, under the assumption that the trains stopped then. The train turned and put us on the wrong line, but we didn't realize until it was most of the way to the end. Thankfully the train did not stop running, as it was nearing midnight, and on the way back up to the transfer point a cool guy that looked to be in his mid 60s got on the train and talked to us. Apparently he has been a musician in the Fukuoka area for about 12 years and answered some questions we had about Japan. I was kinda drunk, so Im not sure of how he answered. At breakfast the next morning we talked with a Portuguese guy who worked at a casino in Macao and went back to the embassy to pick up our freshly visa'd passports. Then we had about 7 hours to kill in the Fukuoka area until our flight. It was raining and apparently a holiday, so when we tried to go see the Fukuoka city art gallery, where they supposedly had some Warhols, Dalis, etc, it was closed. so we wandered around in the rain and saw other things in shops that we couldn't afford to shop in or use the products they were selling. We did find a decent burger chain called Freshness Burger and had my first decent hamburger in over a month. I'm told that they have a franchise in Hungdae, if I ever really get a hankering. We met up with the couch surfer at the airport, after I dealt with a non-communicative security guy that let me keep all of my shampoo and stuff, but made me buy a 260 yen (about $2.50) plastic bag to put it in. I did find the Hello Kitty charm there before I left, but it was still annoying. All in all a good trip.
Of course, pictures are up at my My Flickr.