For New Years I needed, well, something New. Korea is no longer foreign. It's home. I needed to feel the unfamiliar again.
So I took a quick trip to Japan.
I was supposed to be at work. All the Koreans were on vacation but us dirty foreigners are required to sit at school and look busy all day. They were nice enough to send someone everyday to have me sign an attendance sheet. So, other than a few random administrative people, my school was a ghost town.
So I had to choose. Stay at school and get paid to take a nap OR turn off my cell phone, don't show up at all, hop a ferry to Japan for a long weekend and get thoroughly bitched out and have my pay docked when I got back.
Hmmm, follow the rules or go on a little adventure. I choose (and always will) the latter!
So three friends and I set sail for Japan! Having heard rumors of how expensive Japan can be, we decided to not travel far and stay relatively close to Korea. So we arrived in
Fukoka and ventured off to Hiroshima.
It was amazing how totally and utterly lost I was in Japan. In Korea, even though I have no idea what is happening around me, I can't speak and hardly understand the language, it's a familiar inability to communicate. In Japan, it was starting over. All the little things were complicated again, like not knowing what a taxi is called or what hand gesture you use to hail one.... and none of us knew which side of the car to get in... never thought about the Japanese driving on the left!!
I only know a few words in Japanese:
kon'nichiwa (hello) and
domo arigato (thank you very much). The latter of which I could neither hear nor say without immediately making little robot arms and mumbling "... Mr.
Roboto" under my breath!! It was definitely instant culture shock when we got to Japan... and it was fantastic!!
Hiroshima is a beautiful city, almost poetically so. It was such a (literal) breath of fresh air to be in such a clean, modern city, with wide roads and nice buildings... then you'd remember why Hiroshima is so new and the horror and atrocities responsible for it's new young appearance made your heart ache. You (as an American) almost felt compelled to walk around an apologize to everyone you saw.
Most places were closed on New Years so we spent New Years Day bonding. And how else do you bond with your friends other than strip down naked in public and spend several hours outside in the frigid weather, lounging in hot springs. None of us are particularly modest girls... but there was that first awkward moment when standing in the locker room in your underwear where you decide to count to 3 and everyone strips together and everyone just hurry up and look so we don't have to feel weird anymore. Though, you quickly forget you (and the hundred other women) are naked and we just had a blast at the bath house!!
We then ventured down to Miyajima which was by far the best part of the trip. I wish we had known what an amazing little island it was so we could have spent more time there. Miyajima is famous for it's Torri Gate especially during high tide when it appears to be floating on water. Of course, it was low tide when we were there. Though it was actually really incredible to be able to walk up to the gate (if you are willing to get muddy and seaweedy).
Then there was the food!!! Oh, Japan! How happy you made my taste buds! I had forgotten how delicious food could taste! It was amazing! Unlike my current culinary conundrum, there is more than one flavor in Japan.... there were thousands! Every meal made me giddy with delight!
It didn't take long to get on an "I hate Korea" kick. I loved everything about Japan! The food, the cleanliness and order, the sleeping arrangements (both countries sleep on the floor, but Koreans sleep on a flat blanket and the Japanese lay out a futon and a duvet!), the people (the Japanese were so cool! Overall Koreans are pretty vanilla. Everyone has the same haircut, their natural color or dyed a slightly brownish color, clothes are frumpy and dull, and self expression is non-existent. The Japanese are awesome. Everyone has crazy dyed hair, punk clothes, and a personal style that is solely Japanese. It's far more fashion forward and self expressive than anything I've seen in the States.) I loved everything about Japan.
I was around Architecture again! Oh creativity and expression... I've missed you! Every building was unique and definitively Japanese, both old and new. Modern Japanese architecture is personally my favorite aesthetic. Korean architecture is, well honestly, non-existent. They have lots and lots of temples, but they are all the same. If you've seen one, you've pretty much seen them all. Modern architecture in Korea consists of condo buildings... Always rectangular, always windows on one side only, always painted tan or off-white... now repeat 10 million times!
We finished our trip with a quick late night visit to Hiroshima Castle then a train ride back to Fukoka to catch our ferry.
My Korea hating quickly went away while buying the train ticket. A one hour train ride on the bullet train costs roughly $100. For that much money, you can take Korea's high speed train from the northern to southern tip of the country... TWICE and still have enough money left over for lunch and a cab ride back to your apartment! They weren't kidding when they said Japan was expensive!
Sheesh! Now I remember why I picked Korea in the first place... because it's cheaper than Japan!
We got to
Fukoka at midnight and had 7 hours to kill before our ferry back to Korea. We wandered the streets for a solid 3 hours, found a 24 place to eat and loitered there for a good 2 and a half and finally decided to just go to the ferry terminal. Too bad it was still closed and in an isolated part of town. Nothing tops off a great vacation like napping in sub-freezing temperatures, like a homeless person, in front of a public building.
And my school never did notice I didn't show up to work, so I got paid to go to Japan!!
