Last weekend was Solnal, or Lunar New Year, Chinese New Year, whatever, in Asia, so we had Monday and Tuesday off! This allowed us to final clean all of December and January's dust from our house today, but more importantly we made it to Fukuoka, Japan from Saturday-Monday. I will give a brief outline of the trip, plus we got about 40 pics and a video!
Friday night after work we headed over to Yeosu Bus Terminal to catch the 10:30PM bus to Busan. We arrived in Busan, and after an expensive (W20,000) taxi ride over to port, we found a cheap love motel and spent the night. The next morning at 9AM, we headed over to the domestic (lost in translation) ferry terminal, and then walked over to the international terminal. We got on the ferry, and had a great ride on the Kobee Beetle Hydrofoil. It was really cool, the boat uses a jet engine and rides mostly above the water besides a small fin. The ride was 115KM and took about 3 hours. We arrived in Fukuoka and found our way to the Central Hotel. Fukuoka was hit with an ultra rare snow storm (about 2 inches). So, we got many great pictures.
The first day in town we checked out the local shopping areas, andfound our way to this Canal City shopping mall. We bought nothing because any item would have literally busted our trip budget (Y30,000 ~ $300). Afterward we went back to nap so we could check out the Fukuoka night life. At about 10PM we meandered over to the downtown area, and searched and searched for a pub called Three Kings. We found it after about 1/2 hour and we rewarded with two pints of Old Speckled Hen for our troubles (for Y1,800). After that we went to another bar called Small Spaces. Like the name implies, it was a small, yet intimate and cool bar. There we had our first (and only) sake of the trip, and a few beers. We never found out the name of the beer because everything was in Japanese. We met a man from England who was the manager of a band named Keith who was touring in Fukuoka that night. He told us about how people in London were so excited about Obama, and the changing opinion of the world about America. It was much more rewarding then having to explain old Bush. They also played a video of a band called Special Others, who are part of the new Japanese Indie scene, that we really liked. I will post a video... On the way back I was devastated to find the famous Fukuoka food stands all closed, but was determined to get some the next day.
The next day we decided to try to see a few sights of Fukuoka, and decided to scrap our plans to visit Nagasaki (St Paul's sister city). It was raining, so we had to use umbrellas, but it was a little easier compared to heavy snow. First, we walked over to Subway to get our first subs since Itaewon... MMMMMMMMM! Then, we walked over to the Fukuoka castle ruins. The museum was closed, so we just enjoyed the beautiful moat surrounding it. After that, we took the subway out about 15 minutes to the other side of town. We were hoping to check out Fukuoka Tower and a temple, nearby. We tried to go to the temple first, but we were having a hard time finding it. We finally stopped and asked for directions, but the 7/11 employee didn't speak enough English to help us out. Luckily, a French guy who lived in the area was walking by, and he kindly pointed us in the right direction, on top of a large hill, and told us that it was the first time he had seen snow in town in a long time. On the way, we walked through a neat American style neighborhood, that happened to be having an open house. We decided to check it out, but unfortunately the interior design was modeled after an American home... it was gorgeous, but not too exciting! We finally got up to the temple, and admired the beautiful views it offered, which you can see in the pictures. We found the stairs on the other side of the hill down, which were only about a five minute walk from the subway station, although we walked for about 40 minutes to get around it the first time! We then went back for a nap.
That night we wanted to try a Japanese restaurant, so we went back to the same area we'd been in last night. We finally chose a cute looking place, but there were no pictures or English descriptions of the food. Luckily, a waiter there spoke excellent English, and helped us order... From the Italian style menu!! We order Fettucini with Oysters, which was great, but not what we'd hoped for. Later on we went to some of the many arcade rooms, and challenged ourselves with a bunch of the fun, crazy games. We managed to get a video of one of the Japanese gaming masters. The game's name was Pop'n Music... We headed home early so Dave could get his street food fix... Plus we only had Y1,000 left to spend!!
The final day we just slept in and took the now simple public transportation back to the ferry. We had a full day of travel: Ferry 2-5 -> taxi 5-6 -> bus 6-10, and made it safely back to Yeosu.
Overall, Japan was great. The people were incredibly kind, fashionable, and the culture is incredibly fun to observe. We say Sumo on TV, and the game nerds at the arcades, the most stereotypical things! The public transportation was intuitive, architecture reminding me of Minneapolis, and was great. We even discovered a new favorite band, Special Others, and Japanese indie rock scene. To any fellow Wayguk-ins reading this blog, I most definitely recommend a visit. I leave you with the music video that we saw in Small Spaces... Also, my sister is due to give birth to a son any day now, so wish her good health!
We miss everyone, please write!!! Anyoung Hasayeo! In the mean time, check out the pictures!
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