Aliens in Daegu

Our Chuseok passed quietly and much too quickly.  We spent most of our time just resting.  However, during the weekend, we got out to see one of the Twelve Scenic Sites of Ulsan.  We made our way out to Jakgwaecheon (spelling variable).  It's this river out in the middle of nowhere that has been oddly eroded out.  Way back when, I've heard poets used to go there for inspiration.  Apparently, it is also the place where one of the first Korean movements against Japanese occupation took place.  It is a beautiful place.  

 There were families with picnics set up all along the river and just up the hill was a nice, serene wooded area.

Alan's a poet.

 The river itself is teeming with minnows.  There were several very wet daddies and laughing children with nets attempting to catch them.  I managed to catch a baby minnow.  











Work has been..rough..for me.  The stories I come home with every day seem to really amuse Alan, but I can't believe some of the things I've seen in my classes.  So this weekend was a welcomed break.  Friday night, I went to UNIST's gym to swim.  I haven't swam with any sort of consistency since I was a freshman in college, so it's always a downer realizing how out of shape you are.  But after sitting through my classes and on the bus all day, it felt really good to get some use out of my muscles.  I got a month-long membership, so maybe I'll get back into some light training.  

This week, I finally got my ARC (alien registration card), which means that I'm now legal in Korea.  It's very difficult to do anything in this country without it.  So now, Alan and I are able to get real phone plans instead of our current pre-paid, credit plan.  The nearest Olleh global store is in Daegu which is about a 30 min KTX train ride away.  Alan found some salsa dancing in the area, so we decided to make a day of it.  The Olleh store is just a short walk from the Banwoldang subway station (orange line), just a few stops away from the KTX station (Dongdaeguyeok in the subway), so we headed there first.  Unfortunately, it was a bust.  Olleh can't do anything with phone plans on the weekend, and we can't get to Daegu during the week.  Now come Monday evening, we're going to our Olleh store in town to try out our Korean skills and get phone plans.  It'll be an adventure.



Even though we couldn't get phone plans, we still had salsa dancing that evening, so we had a hotel booked.  We stayed at the Goodstay New Grand Hotel right outside Daegu Station (orange line).  It was clean, conveniently located, and had all the essentials.  The bed is hard as a rock, but then again, so are most beds in Korea.  

As a side note, this is how the subways in Daegu tell you when you're train is getting near.  They have a cute little train picture that shows up two, then one stop away.  This one is one stop away from us.  

 We found a Thai restaurant for dinner called MK Suki.  To get there, we got off at the Myeongdeok station (orange line) and took bus 402 until we got near the point where google maps said the restaurant was.  

It turned out that it was a Chinese-Thai restaurant and thus had a menu for each food genre.  I got my usual.  Pad Thai.  :)  It was good and they bring out jars of the add-ons so you can add as much pepper, peanuts, and sugar as you want.  Alan, who ordered a dish expecting some sort of fried rice, was not as pleased with his meal.  But it at least filled his belly.  The food was more authentic at this place than any other Thai restaurant I've been to.  The place itself, though not as grand as Arun Thai, was pretty and I liked the table setup.  

Chinese and Thai menus

They give you a big glass bottle of water that you
can pour your own glass from.  

That evening, we ventured out for salsa dancing.  The club was called Babalu and is generally run by the foreigner salsa community in Daegu.  They have a beginner-intermediate lesson every week from 7:30-9 and switch between salsa and bachata.  Sometimes they have salsa parties afterwards.  This week turned out to be their first week back after a summer hiatus and so only a couple people stayed after the lesson.  It was nearly empty when we showed up.  But after not having even elbow room at Bar Latino in Busan, it was nice being able to open up and dance as we pleased.  The music was also played at a much more acceptable volume.  Alan wasn't able to stay more than 10 minutes at Bar Latino for the pain in his ears.  Babalu was much more pleasant.  We're hoping to try the club again on one of their party nights to see how it is.  






More observations about Korea:


During a half mile walk down the street in Daegu, we saw 8 (EIGHT) guitar/violin shops.  It's like the coffee shop thing all over again.  Koreans don't seem to understand that they're just going to run each other out of business by setting up shop right next to each other.  There's a lot of turnover in Korea in terms of stores and shops.  Places often go out of business within a couple years.  They don't seem to have caught on to one of the major flaws in their business plans.  


Koreans like to party.  This morning, while on the platform waiting for the KTX train, Alan and I noticed a man passed out on the isolated platform across the tracks.  He was just sleeping on the ground next to the rails.  We at first took him for a homeless man.  After a while, some of the station staff went over and woke him up.  He was dressed in a suit and tie with a fancy messenger bag across his chest.  Definitely not homeless.  I'm pretty sure he was trashed last night and passed out on the ground. 

Because I'm foreign, people automatically assume I can't speak any Korean.  I've mentioned this before as the surprise they all have when Alan or I say the simplest of phrases.  So, when the Koreans can't speak English, this translates into a sort of fear of us.  I walked into a coffee shop last night and stood there for a moment looking at the menu.  The two young female cashiers looked at each other with wide eyes saying "Moat heyo, moat heyo".  The conversation was essentially, "I can't do it, you do it!"  "No!  I can't do it either!"  It was highly amusing, especially considering neither of them had any idea that I could understand them.  So when I decided that I didn't want anything on the menu and left with a quick "kamsahamida", the look of relief and confusion on their faces was great entertainment.  



Here's to a good weekend. 

First Salsa Trip to Busan

This weekend has been pretty decent.  Friday evening, Alan and I were recruited to teach a beginning ballroom lesson at UNIST for the English Commons program.  We introduced ourselves and we had the ever amusing "OOOOOOOOOO" of shock as Alan introduced me as his wife.  Everyone seems to think we're too young to be married.  XD But, I must say, I feel some of Samara's pain now.  She has a hard time getting Case engineering students comfortable touching each other.  Korean-raised engineering students were infinitely worse.  When we told the men to find a partner, you would have thought I told them to eat worms.  I had to push most of them across the room and then drag people by the wrists and make them dance with each other.  Very few seemed capable of actually asking a person to dance.  And even after physically forcing a couple together, some of them ran away.

That's not an exaggeration.  They ran away.


Once we had everyone organized, the lesson went very smoothly.  We taught cha cha first, just the basic, new yorker, and alemana.  And we spent the second half of the lesson on tango, just doing the basic and progressive link. We were a little worried that tango would be too hard to start out with, but everyone was able to do it by the end of the lesson.  Our voices weren't too fond of us by that time, though.  We really enjoyed ourselves, and though this one was a one-time event, we're hoping that next trimester it will become a regular thing.


Right after the lesson, we headed straight to Busan.  We were going to spend Friday and Saturday night dancing, but we were beat by the time we got to the hotel.  We stayed at the Goodstay Queens hotel in Seongmyeon and it was a really nice hotel.

Generally it is fully light out by 6:30am here, but these windows had shutters on them that blocked out every last photon.  We were able to sleep in comfortably.  We went back to Arun Thai for lunch. The place is a foreigner trap.  As it should be...if you google places to eat in Busan, it's pretty much the first thing that comes up.  It's probably one of my favorite restaurants in Korea now.  The food is delicious and the restaurant is beautiful.  And they serve you plum tea for desert after dinner.  I can't wait to go back again.



After lunch, we took a walk over to Busan Tower.  It's not hard to find from the restaurant, but you can only get in from one cardinal direction and the hill you have to climb is rather steep.  They had a few cute little picture points outside for couples that we took advantage of before going up the tower.

Busan Tower

The tower had a really good view of the city (which is absolutely enormous), but "pretty" is not necessarily the word either of us would use to describe it.  The city is dirty and the buildings are poorly made with little to no design put into the architecture.  Things are falling apart everywhere.  We came to the conclusion that because Korea was forced to rebuild everything so quickly after the wars just 60 years ago, that everything was just thrown together.  It's unfortunate, really.  Traditional Korean architecture is very pretty.

North side of Busan

That evening, Alan and I went to dinner at a TGI Friday's located on the 9th floor of the Lotte Department Store in Seongmyeon.  We discovered that this should be a rare treat.  Everything is about double the price it is in the States.  Our burgers were $15 each.  Western food is very expensive in Korea.  

This is all you can see from the street.  The club is down the stairs on the left..

We ventured out to go salsa dancing that evening.  We had found a club named Caribe online but discovered that it is no longer in existence.  It has been moved to a place called Bar Latino.  It was a hole in the wall down some side street, but the inside of the club was nice.  

We had heard that the cover was 10,000 won a person ($10), so we were stunned when she told us it was 20k won a person.  But, we soon found out that there was a performance going on that evening.  The cover typically is only 10k won.  

The club is extraordinarily loud.  Alan wasn't able to stay.  He went to walk around for 20-30 minutes and let me have a bit of dancing.  Such the gentlemen he always is.  :)  I soon found, however, that we are completely outclassed by the dancers there.  We had heard that the Korean salsa community is very advanced, but it made me feel like I was starting all over back at the View when I was a beginner being thrown everywhere.  And they dance on 2.  Which I was thankfully forced to learn during my brief dance partnership with Myriah.  :) But I guess I just need to practice before we go back.  

Next week is Chuseok!  Two day work week!  Woo!

Dance Dance REVOLUTION

I've had some absolutely wonderful days.  And I've had some excruciatingly horrible days.  On this spectrum also lies my like/dislike of children.  I change my decision about whether or not to have kids almost daily.

 My biggest problem, I believe, is my inability to explain to the children what I want from them in Korean.  When I'm scolding them for misbehavior, I'm sure it just sounds like a bunch of scary gibberish.  In fact, I know this to be true because I had a student today say, "Jessie Teacher!  We don't know what you want.  Say in Korean!"  My Korean is getting better.  Much better.  I can understand a lot of what my students are saying to me and even respond accordingly.  My scolding vocabulary is just rather scant.

On the topic of my Korean skills, whenever I speak Korean to my kids they either break off into fits of giggles or say, "OooooooOOoooo!"  I asked my 7 year olds today if I sounded funny.  They said no and told me that I sounded very good.  The teachers have told me that it just sounds cute when a foreigner tries to speak Korean.  But it's not just children that do this.  It's everyone.  Pretty much any Korean that I spend any amount of time around reacts thusly when I speak Korean to them.  It's a bit of a damper on your confidence, having someone laugh at you or go, "OooOooOo, you speak Korean!" (pronounce with thick asian accent).  But as it seems to be innocent enough and you can't get away from it, it's just something you have to get over.

Apparently my kids also speak Chinese.  One of the students broke out some Chinese in class.  This conversation ensued.

Random student: Jasper! This isn't the time for Chinese!

Me: Jasper, you can speak Chinese? 

Jasper: Yes, everyone can (gesturing to the class). 

Me: I can't. 

Jasper: (looks up at me) I know. 


Gee, thanks kid.  :P






It looks like I've started my new job in a time of political upheaval.  My old supervisor finished her last day of work at the end of my first week.  I had a new supervisor by my 6th day of work.  Since then, a war has ensued between her and the English teachers.  The battlefield was laid open today as I watched the women argue in rapid Korean. It seems the first battle went to my supervisor.  As a result, all of my fellow English teachers have put in notice and are quitting at the end of this month.

I'm rather nervous about it.  This is the second time a trainer(s) has thrown me into the deep end and walked away before I felt ready to swim.  We'll see how it goes.





Alan has been doing well with his new position.  The professor changed his research project but Alan seems to be rather indifferent about it.   So he's currently researching ways to make a new compound of interest.  I'll have to let him speak for himself in regards to what he's been up to.



We've started dancing again.  After about a month long hiatus, I was really starting to miss it (my feet might say otherwise).  Tomorrow evening, Alan and I are teaching a beginning ballroom lesson on campus at UNIST.  We practiced a bit this evening and it made me a bit nostalgic for the countless hours of dance practice we put in at Case.  We decided on cha cha and tango for tomorrow and get about an hour to teach them.  Afterwards, I believe we are heading out to spend a salsa-filled weekend in Busan.

songpyeon

Korean hanboks

Next week, is Chuseok.  The Korean Thansgiving, and the biggest holiday in Korea I believe.  The children have been dressing up in hanboks (traditional Korean attire) all week.  Alan and I both get three days off from work.  5 day weekend!  Woo!  We had originally planned to spend it in Thailand, but those plans fell through and we currently are void of any thoughts of how to spend the holiday.  We'll probably travel somewhere in Korea.  Typically however, families get together and eat loads of food.  Just like in the States.  I've been told that kids love Chuseok, but mothers hate it.  After all, the kids just get to run around and eat delicious food while all the mothers and grandmothers out there have to cook and clean for

Korean hanbok

their entire extended family.  Sound familiar?  Shame there's no turkey.  Instead, the traditional holiday food is called songpyeon.  They're essentially sweet rice cakes filled with nuts or other goodies and are steamed with pine needles.














More observations about Korea.

This was the best picture of the scars I could find.
On my kids, the scars are just older, paler, and faded.

I started noticing that a lot of my kids had these weird 3x3 grid scar patterns on their upper left arm.  Today I realized that it's not just some of the kids.  Every single child has one.  I asked my elementary students what it was from, but their English vocabulary only enabled them to tell me that they were shots received as infants.  I did some research and found out that they're from vaccines.  One 3x3 scar pattern is from the TB vaccine and the second one, below the first, is from the smallpox vaccine.

keloid scar

This grid-like pattern of injection seems to be a more recent implementation.  In earlier years, the vaccines were given as a single injection and often formed larger, raised scars called keloids.  I've actually seen these scars too, but never realized they were from shots.









If you were previous unaware, meals in Korea are communal.  Wherever you go.  At a restaurant, you do not order individual meals for yourselves like in the States.  You order for the table and then you just take what you want.  Better eat quickly too or all the good stuff will be gone!  My meals at school are like this too.  I share with the other English teachers (though I generally only eat the rice...I've found Korean food to be a little hard to enjoy).  It's not bad, but sometimes I do find myself missing my own plate of food.  Also, water is not served.  Generally, you can find a pitcher somewhere against the wall, but you go get it yourself.  I think Koreans just go indefinitely without water and I've established that they are biologically related to the camel.  Alan and I go through glass after glass of water at our table while the Koreans all around us don't even have cups.



You never see anyone exercising here, bicyclists being an exception.  Apparently all the runners come out at night.  You must be fit, but no one can see you working towards it.  Shhh.


I had heard rumors that Korean toothpaste does not contain fluoride, a component involved in enamel strengthening.  The consensus seems to be that fluoride-containing toothpaste is available but not as common.  Whatever the problem, most of my students have some degree of tooth rot.  The irony in this is that Koreans brush their teeth after every meal.  The students (and teachers!) all have toothbrushes at school and everyone brushes their teeth after eating.  Doesn't seem to be doing much for them.



So, that's it for today's update!

Love Ballads and an Ostrich

Little Campus

I've been a kindergarten-elementary school teacher for three days now.  Day one, I showed up having no idea what to expect.

 First things first, you can't wear shoes in the building.  I was given a pair of slippers to wear.  The "no-shoes" rule seems to be very common in Korea.







That morning I sat in on two classes and after lunch, with no training, I was thrown into the deep end.  My first class was one of the classes from the regular kindergarten who we see once a day.  They spoke no English.  They asked me question after question in Korean and I just sort of stared at them.  It didn't help my classroom control at all.  Any time I told them to sit down or be quiet they just looked at each other and continued.  They had no idea what I was saying to them.

I did have one little girl on my side in that class.  Any time I yelled at one of the misbehaving boys, she got up from her chair, smacked the boy across the head, and sat back down.  I had to fight back my smile; it was hilarious.  Completely inconducive to my goal of calmness in the classroom.  But hilarious.  







Day two was a little rough as well.  First, in the morning, the director took me to the Immigration Office in attempts to apply for my alien registration card (ARC card).  He spoke no English.  We had our phones out speaking into google translate in attempts to understand one another.  It was sort of futile.  Made for a very silent car ride.  And I couldn't even apply for my ARC card.  I needed the medical check up first.

The class I had after lunch was awful.  I had to separate three of the kids.  I don't really understand why kids just feel the need to poke, prod, and annoy one another.  I had one more little boy that could just not keep quiet and it was as though he were being repelled by his chair, springing into the air every two seconds.


After school, the teachers invited Alan and I to go out to Korean barbecue with them.  No shoes again. We sat on mats on the floor and they brought out buckets of charcoal that were placed into holes in the tables so we could cook our own meat.  

Throughout the dinner, I watched my supervisor, my director, and a couple of the teachers throw back beer after beer.  My supervisor is rather rambunctious sober.  Her volume level just increased from there.  I'd read about co-workers and even their bosses going out and getting drunk together in Korea, but I didn't think I'd ever experience it.




When we finished dinner, everyone said they were going to a "norebang".  A karaoke room.  So Alan and I tagged along.  The first thing that happened upon arriving was the appearance of more alcohol.  The evening overall was amusing and enjoyable.  It was a good way to break the ice.  Or shatter it, rather.





Today, day three, I had to go to the Ulsan City Hospital for the medical exam.  It was a rather humiliating process.  The nurse I was with was pleasant enough. But overall the place was not clean and I felt like an animal being tested.



Teaching today was a little better.  I discovered that if I stop mid-sentence and do nothing but stare at the misbehaving child, it works wonders.  I also discovered that the younger the class, the less effective this is.

During lunch today, one of the teachers told me that the school had an ostrich.  A real ostrich?  From Africa?  Yes.  I didn't believe her.  Guess what.

My kindergarten has a pet....ostrich.

The school actually has dozens of animals.  No others quite so exotic, but they have chickens, rabbits, peacocks, ducks, birds, fish, and dogs.  And puppies!!

It's like a zoo.  I love it.  :)

Some more observations about Korea.

- Traffic rules are a mere suggestion.  Red lights stop no one. Other cars occasionally do.
- Jay walking isn't really a thing here.  In fact, it might cost you your life.  See previous.

Visas, Birthday Suits, and a New Home

So, I'd like to say that, after all the stress and worry and extra cash the E2 confirmation number caused by showing up late, I think it was worth it.  Japan was an amazing and beautiful country and I can't wait to go back someday.  While there, the visa process even seemed sort of secondary.  I dropped my passport off on Wednesday which took just a few minutes.  They told me to come back the next day at 1:30pm.  I showed up, expecting it to take some time to finish the proceedings.  But they had my passport waiting there, showed me my picture and asked if it was me, and handed it to me.  Couldn't have been easier.  My passport, however, feels infinitely more valuable after all of the legalities and time that went into that visa.  I treasure it dearly.


So after the two minutes it took to grab my visa, I got to cross something off of my bucket list.  Alan and I traveled an hour and a half up into the mountains of Japan to visit an onsen.  We found a few blogs online about the Ajisai No Yu onsen, here and here.  One of the blogs suggested calling ahead to see if they were opened.   So Alan called and they spoke absolutely no English.  But someone answered, so we assumed that meant they were open.

So we grabbed a train to the Yahata station about an hour away.  There's a free shuttle bus that shows up to the bus stop I think every 20-40 minutes or so.  (Probably whatever a round trip from the onsen takes).  We got lucky and the bus happened to show up 2 minutes after we got there.  Which is good because we had no idea where to wait.

The bus is pretty discernible and looks like this. 

The view on the way through the mountains was beautiful and really got me excited for the hot springs.

So we got there and had no idea what to do.  I took a few steps inside and was pleasantly greeted by an angry Japanese woman indicating that I should take my shoes off.  

We kind of just stood there a while until we figured out that you have to buy your admission tickets at a sort of vending machine.  They cost about 800 yen ($8) each.  You can also buy things like shampoos, towels, hairbrushes, etc for extra fees.  We gave our tickets to the above mentioned Japanese lady who now was actually pleasant after we had removed our shoes and she gestured that we should go downstairs.  

Down the stairs, you'll find the entrances to the male and female baths.  In blogs, I had read that ladies generally go through the red curtain and men the blue, but we waited to watch someone go in to be sure.  They have private baths for couples or families that you can rent out, but that defeats the purpose of experiencing an onsen, right?  I can bathe with my husband at home.  It's not every day that I have to don my birthday suit in public and bathe with the old Japanese ladies.  So Alan and I said our goodbyes and respectively headed inside. 

There's a locker room immediately upon entering that you stow your possessions in.  The lockers cost 100 yen but they spit your coin back at you when you put the key back in the locker so you don't really pay anything. As an ex-swimmer, wearing very little clothing and having things hanging out that generally shouldn't was nothing new, so walking around naked didn't perturb me much.  Walking into the bathing area to find all the 60+ year old women was the more troubling part.  It's a quick shock, but the appeal of the baths dissipates it quickly.  You're all there to enjoy the same thing.  

Now, onsen etiquette rule number 1.  You DO NOT go into the baths without scrubbing off first.  You all have to share that water, you'd better be clean getting in.  So there are two rows of little faucet stations with little stools to sit on and buckets to rinse yourself with.  They have body soap, shampoo, and conditioner provided (for the ladies at least.  Alan will have to speak for the men).  After you've scrubbed off, there are various baths and saunas that you can enjoy.  Alan said that inside, there was also a cool bath, but I never found that one on the lady's side. I just went right outside, which was glorious.  It was quiet-just the gentle hum of cicadas and I could see the mountains all around me.  It made me realize that my mind had been nothing but a train engine for the past week.  Loud and constantly chugging.  It felt great to settle down a bit.  

After you've finished with your bathing and you've dressed, there's a waiting area directly outside the locker area that has massage chairs and foot massage machines that can be used for a few hundred yen.  

Upstairs, there's a rest area that you can go to do whatever (nap, read, talk quietly, etc) and a restaurant on the third floor.  The good thing about the restaurant was that it also used vending machine tickets.  The waitresses spoke no English, so we just had to match the picture of what we wanted to the correct ticket to purchase and wallah!  Food!    

Even though the commute was very expensive and time consuming, it was definitely worth it.  Even if visiting an onsen wasn't something on my bucket list, it's still a great experience that I'd recommend for anyone.  Totally worth it. 

So Friday, we got back on the ferry to Busan, Korea and stayed the night there.  We found a great Thai place online that we sought out.  It's kind of nice to know that no matter where you go in the world, Pad Thai is pretty much the same.  :D They also served us plum tea for desert in really decorative cups.  It was delicious.  Sweetest tea I've ever had.  

On our way back past Busan Station to the hotel, there was a water/light show going on.  They had music playing and the water/light was synced to it.  It was really pretty and aesthetically pleasing to those who enjoy synesthetic experiences.

We got back to Ulsan this morning and met with our landlords.  Chung (whose first name is actually Youn-Jo I discovered) helped us with translation and took us to the store to buy a few essentials.  So we're all moved in now.  We have a home.  We have a washer (Koreans don't use dryers), fridge, stove, functioning bathroom, internet, tv, and AC.  We have no furnishings yet though.  So we'll be sleeping on the floor for a bit.  But Korean mattresses are notoriously hard as concrete, so I don't think I'll notice a difference from the beds I've been sleeping on.  XD  It's just good to not be homeless anymore.  

The view from outside our window

Cross Country Adventures

The last few days have been quite something.  And I learned a lot very quickly.  Particularly about what to look for when you want to book a hotel.  Location location location!

Monday, we grabbed a taxi to Seoul Station for the KTX train ride to Ulsan.

Map of South Korea.  You can see Seoul in the top left and Ulsan in the bottom right.  It's about a three hour express train ride.  

 It took us an hour and a half to get tickets because Alan tried to get us a $130 discount that a quirk ended up making us ineligible for.  :(  Worth a shot though.  When the train arrived, we thought we had lost the tickets we just spent so long trying to get. That was a nice panic attack before we found them again.  After getting off the train, we realized that our hotel was all the way across Ulsan.  It was probably after 10pm by this time.  We took a 45 minute bus ride to the general area and then spent a half hour dragging everything we own to the hotel.  The wrong hotel. (It happened to have the same company name).  My heart sort of sank when the front desk guy told us. But he took a look at the mass amounts of luggage we had and said he'd drive us.  He was heading home anyways.  When we pulled up and got out of the car, the entire street reeked of beer and alcohol.  And a drunkard came stumbling down the street.  And the hotel had no elevator.  The manager there came outside and with wide eyes said, "one night?  All of this, one night?"  He helped us get everything upstairs.  My first lesson in hotel booking.  Get a place near a bus/train station.  And make sure it's not in some drunken alley somewhere.

Lesson number 2 in hotel booking.  Make sure it's near where you want to go.  Just because the hotel is in "Ulsan" doesn't mean it will be anywhere near where you want to go.  The next morning, we got a taxi to take us all the way across Ulsan again.  We were meeting UNIST's International Center guy who was helping us get settled in.

Here's a general map of Ulsan.  The KTX train station is right smack dab in the middle of Ulju.  Our hotel was located all the way in Dong.  UNIST is also in Ulju, sort of near the train station.  I couldn't have picked a farther hotel.. lesson learned.  

Chung (that's his name) spoke wonderful English and took us out apartment hunting.  We actually got lucky.  The first place we went to was brand new, no previous tenants, and has an amazing view.  It's actually much nicer than the place I lived at in Cleveland for a year.  The landlords both spoke absolutely no English and were absolutely thrilled whenever I said "kamsahmida" (thanks).  The female landlord would sort of chuckle and I'm pretty sure mutter something like "Awe, look!  She can say thank you!"  Chung translated everything for us.  And we signed the contract.  The rent is not bad.  Less than what I paid in Cleveland.  But the deposit is a monster.  In America, the security deposit is typically equal to your first month's rent.  In Korea, it's anywhere between $5000-$10,000 USD.  Ours was $5000 USD.  It's a lot to cough up at once, but you can sort of think of it as a long term savings that you just can't touch until you move out! 

It was probably about 1 at this point.  We booked it back to the KTX train station.  It was time to head to Japan.  We took the 20 min train to Busan.  We got on the 1:21pm train.  Now, the internet says that you need you be at the International Ferry Terminal at least an hour in advance to boarding the ferry.  In fact, Alan read somewhere that they stop check-in at that one hour mark.  We started to realize that we weren't going to make it.  Dread began to creep into my chest.  This was our only shot at a visa run and these ferry tickets run about $200 USD a piece.  This wasn't something we wanted to miss.  

When we got to Busan, we had to hop on the metro to the next station over.  We had no idea which metro that was.  None of the workers spoke English either.  I had my handy dandy binder though with general directions and such.  I showed one of the elderly male workers the name of the place and he sort of gently took my arm and directed me.  

We got off the metro and the only directions I had were "walk towards the water".  We were surrounded by giant buildings.  Where the hell was the water??  Alan, being a human gps, found our bearings and got us there.  It was about 2:20pm when we got to the check-in counter.  We were supposed to be there before 2pm.  I was prepared to beg, but it wasn't necessary.  The lady took our reservation voucher and our passports, checked us in, and gave us our tickets.  All that worry for nothing.  

The ferry ride to Fukuoka, Japan was about three hours and was pretty awesome.  I fell asleep most of the way, but it was my first time being out on a boat in open water.  And when we started nearing Japan, the islands are absolutely beautiful.  It was nearing sunset too.  Absolutely gorgeous.  I wish I would have grabbed a picture, but I'll try on the way back.

You can see Busan in the background

Open ocean water

After getting through immigration, we hopped on a bus to Hakata Station.  Thankfully the city has free wifi in all the metro stations that can be used for 15 min at a time.  Yay google maps!  We hopped on the metro to Nakasu Kawabata and found our hotel.  I think we've discovered that our first hotel was more of the exception to typical Korean/Japanese hotels in terms of spaciousness.  Our current hotel (IP City Hotel Fukuoka) has a bed and just enough walk space to walk by it.  The Ulsan hotel wasn't much larger.  It's not a bad hotel by any means though.  Just small.  

Something I haven't mentioned yet about Korean/Japanese toilets.  They wash your butt.  No joke.  The Koreans especially are very particular about their hygiene and wiping yourself with a piece of paper until it comes back clean doesn't cut it for them.  It squirts a jet of water at your intimate areas and then dries you with warm air.  

Various toilet functions

I tried it once.  I've felt too violated since then to have another go at it.  Alan tells me that the one at Tria Hotel in Seoul even has a jet that moves in circles.  

Now, I booked the Ulsan and Fukuoka hotels somewhat together.  So I am being forced to learn the same lesson twice.  Location location location.  IP City Hotel happens to be located in Fukuoka's red light district.  

The view down the street from our hotel

There were "gentlemen's clubs" lining both sides of the street and the street was full of Japanese businessmen and ladies with their bust squashed as far up and prominent as possible.  I thought it was hilarious.  Alan wasn't as appreciative.  XD

Today we made it to the Korean consulate and they accepted my visa application.  I will pick up my shiny new visa tomorrow afternoon!  We wandered around for a bit after putting in my application and we found a small mall with an arcade.  The arcade was two floors and was absolutely awesome.  Now, it took us a second to realize when we had reached the "adult" arcade.  And you can see why.

That woman is gambling.  On a Mario Party game.  Japan. 

We had a really good time looking around the arcade.  A lot of the machines had anime figurines that you could win.  Some even had food.  

Now here are some immediate observations (and comparisons to Korea) about Japan (based off of the city of Fukuoka)

• Japan is significantly more liberal than Korea.  (But we already knew that) 

• Japanese men seem to be much hairier than Korean men.  Many of the Korean men I saw had absolutely no facial hair and very little to no leg hair.  Japanese men have loads of leg hair and facial hair is not uncommon.  

• Korean men all seem to have the same short haircut.  Japanese men have many various hairstyles and a lot have decently long hair too.  

• The clothing is much more liberal in Japan than Korea. Just check out how Koreans dress at the beach.   http://ulsanonline.com/Travel/?p=729

• No one rides bikes in Korea.  It's too hilly.  Everyone rides bikes in Japan.  At least in Fukuoka.

• In Korea, everywhere you go in Seoul, the signs are brightly colored, everywhere, in your face, and pretty much overwhelming.  This is not the case in Fukuoka.

• Japan seems to have a calmer feel to it.  The atmosphere feels more relaxed.  

• No one stares at us in Japan.  I don't know what the difference is, because we're probably even more of a minority in Fukuoka than Seoul, but no one even looks twice.  Anywhere I went in Korea, people just stared.  

• Korea is very cheap.  Japan is very expensive. 

• Korea is very very humid.  Japan is just very very hot.  

• The Japanese are not obsessed with cosmetic surgery like I found in Korea.  Most of the ads I saw going places were for plastic surgery in Seoul.  I haven't seen a single one in Fukuoka.  

So far, we've had quite the adventure.  We made it from the USA to Seoul to Ulsan to Busan to Fukuoka.  In a week.  I'm beat.  But I'm loving it.  

More Observations

I have some more observations about Seoul.

• Because I'm white, everyone automatically assumes I want help or that I'm lost.  I've got a human gps (Alan).  I'm good guys.  XD

• I would never ever want to drive a car here.  And you'd have to be clinically insane to be a bus driver.  I'm pretty sure I've been nearly killed just walking around.  Koreans are the most aggressive drivers I've ever seen.  

• I'm pretty sure that everyone smokes.  If you go on the streets during lunch time, you might choke.  

• Koreans must be camels or something.  I wrote last time about the weather being so hot and humid.  It's close to 90 degrees F here, and everyone's wearing loads of clothing.  There are no water fountains anywhere.  Again, how are they not overheating or becoming dehydrated??

• It's amazing when you have a language barrier how much can be communicated through a look, facial expression, or a gesture.  

I'm currently at Seoul Station about to board a train towards Ulsan.  We're still homeless for the moment, but are hoping to go apartment hunting in the morning before heading to Japan.  And boy, I thought Korea was intimidating where I can at least read the alphabet and sound out words.  Japan will be even worse since I can't read anything and speak even less Japanese than I do Korean.  We're going to try out an onsen while we're there though.  I'm so excited.  Huge Japanese custom.  It'll be awesome.  

I've also had the problem recently of mixing up my Spanish and Korean.  I keep nearly replying in Spanish when people speak to me.  Jessie, they're not the same thing.  At all.  Quit it.  I have to keep telling myself that.  

We got cell phone plans today.  It feels good to be connected to the world again.  :)

And that's our update.