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Published: January 24th 2011
Fish Face
One of many...Dear Blog Readers,
“Have you published another blog? Or is it another one of your essays?”
“Can you make it a bit shorter?”
“It’s not funny.”
“I’ll read your blog when I’ve got a spare day or two…”
My critics have spoken and as an honourable and flexible human being and blog writer, I shall respond to my critics by making this blog the longest “essay” that I have ever written. Why? Because Laura and I have just spent our first week in Japan and it is absolutely bloody fantastic!!! I would be doing the country and my blog-reading followers a disservice if I didn’t tell you all about it in every imaginable detail. I have decided to stagger the release of this blog into suitable sections so enjoy it at your own pace; and critics, let this be a stark warning, stop hither for your own sake!
Korea
OK, so maybe not the first thing I should talk about but we did have to spend Monday and Tuesday in Korea at ‘work’. Neither of us had any Winter Camp left nor had any of the teachers or students. In fact, to add insult to injury, I
Ice Cream
Earl Grey ice cream. was the first person in school on Monday morning! Not only that, the door to the teachers room was padlocked and I didn’t know the combination! Luckily, the unfortunate ‘phone-answering-teacher-for-the-day’ turned up shortly afterwards and let us both in. The Chinese teacher brought her two young boys into school whilst she worked for the morning. The two year old looked like he’d seen a monster when he saw me and seemed petrified of me since that moment. However, I think he came around to liking me because he gave me an orange as a present so I gave him a colouring in sheet in return. I was reminded that it was specifically a Korean orange, and therefore, superior to any other kind of orange.
The afternoon turned out to be quite busy actually. We arranged with Laura and Yuni to go for lunch together but Yuni got tied up with having to teach English to the students who do roller-skating. I’m still struggling to see the necessity for English speaking roller-skaters. However, we got a great bulgogi and galbi-tang from our favourite restaurant. Afterwards, I realised I was running low on contact lenses and that I’d need them for
Nosebleed 1
What a nerd. snowboarding so we went to a local optician in Boeun. Apprehensive at first, the technology inside the shop was amazing. The guy took my glasses, put them under a machine and instantly got my prescription! He looked at my eyes and then got me some contact lenses and solutions for £25 which will last me the year! Cheap as gamja! The weekend had been really cold and our hot water had stopped, but strangely, the hot water that was heating the floors was working fine. Luckily, Eun-bi was able to convey this to the janitor who used a large fan heater to melt the water in the pipes.
Before leaving to get the bus to Busan on Tuesday I had a morning in school. There was only the vice principal and the Korean teacher but we had a really good chat and I was pleasantly surprised at their level of English because they had no one available to translate! I asked if any of them had been to Japan, the vice principal said she had been one and filled me with confidence when asked of her opinion with, “Korea is better.” I then found out to my amazement that
Human Kine
Interesting objectives for a Walnut Cake company. she was going to England on Friday! I printed her off a map of London and told her where to go and what to eat. She seemed genuinely excited and I was slightly envious that I wouldn’t be tucking into a steak pie in a pub overlooking the Thames. We got the bus to Busan in the afternoon and arrived early evening with a relatively smooth journey. We found a Mr Pizza and got an early night in the same motel that we stayed at during Chuseok – the bloke remembered us and gave us a 10,000Won discount!
Unfortunately, a side effect of doing an Astrophysics degree is getting nosebleeds. On Tuesday night I woke up after genuinely having a dream I’d just been shot with blood pouring out my nose. I wrote a note to the cleaner in Korean trying to profusely apologise and offer an explanation that didn’t involve them calling the police for butchering a small child. Anyway, I feel that this should be relevant to the next few blogs as this event signalled the start of ‘Nosebleed Count’ or NC for short.
We woke in the morning and were trying to find a café
Leaving Korea
Annyeonghi ka seyo Korea. to have breakfast before the trip to the port. You would imagine they would be all open vying for the custom of hungry businessmen on their way to work, but no. They don’t open until 9am! Oh Korea. We arrived at the port of Busan and bypassed immigration with the tagline, “Brilliant Korea, wonderful immigration.” We were then slapped with a 24,000Won fuel surcharge but we only had 23,800Won between us in cash because we’d changed all our money to Yen. The women behind the desk resembled Stalin and acted like him by not letting us off 200Won! We had to exchange 1000Yen for a ridiculous rate just to get the money! Not a good start to the holiday.
The Beetle boat was dwarfed by the ferry next to it in the port. It is literally a bus on water which boasts that it can get from Busan to Fukoka in 2 hours 55 minutes. 3 hours and 17 minutes later we arrived in Fukoka and quickly got a bus to the train station. We had a JR Rail Pass exchange order (which you have to buy outside the country) and exchange it for the real thing at the
Emergency Exits
I love how they spell emergency perfectly. train station. We then booked all the trains that we wanted for the next couple of weeks at the counter and it was incredibly easy even though it was one of the things we were fearing would be the most difficult! Thumbs up Japan Rail! We then experienced our first bullet train to Osaka which was great! It was so fast and looks really cool. Laura thinks Virgin Trains are better though. Controversial. Here are her reasons:
- Cleaner
- The seats are comfier
- The trains run more quietly
- Nicer looking
- Better buffet cart
- Mirrors in the toilets
I think you will agree, the last reason is the clincher.
Tink and Laura
JAPAN TRAVELS PART 2 - OSAKA...COMING SOON...
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Pete
non-member comment
who is Oka?
Who is Oka and why don't the Japanese like them?