Ah Korea! What a wonderful country you are! In many ways I would like to live there! I was so relaxed and warm. I have heard from a lot of people that Korea is a lot like Japan from the point of view of the tourist. I felt a completely different vibe there though. I think I was ready for a holiday though. I have been a bit stressed out recently because of work and various other issues so it was a good chance to just forget about everything for four days. And I did just that. My mind was blank of all commitments back home and I just enjoyed myself. I have traveled in groups and on my own several times and I know the various pitfalls of both scenarios but traveling with Kosa was great. He is quite easy going and even stated that he enjoyed all the shopping I wanted to do! If this was actually true, I’ll never know. It is probably that Japanese politeness lurking under the surface of him. It was his birthday on the weekend so we celebrated that as well as Canada’s thanksgiving. It was also a holiday in Korea that weekend as well. The holiday is called Chu’sok. It is a Harvest Moon Festival. I don’t really know anything about it but it meant that Korean people were having a holiday at the same time as us which was cool. We met lots of fun people and had many drinks with them. I loved the food so much! It was so delicious and spicy! There was loads of meat and bbq as well. The sauces were so good. I am a big fan of nice sauces on things. I could rave about the food indefinitely. At any rate, we stayed a nice backpackers called Kim`s Guest House. The atmosphere was really like staying at someone’s house. Everyone sat around the breakfast counter in the mornings and ate toast. We rallied as many people as possible to go out each night as well. The owners of the place dressed up one guy who was staying there in a traditional Korean outfit. I don’t the name of it though. It was quite cheap to stay there as well. We paid about 50 dollars for 3 days. We were within walking distance of the subway and buses and close to the nightlife as well. There is a big university in that are as well so there were loads of young people. I think many of them were American soldiers. All the Korean people I talked to were very friendly to me. Especially the restaurant staff. The last night we went out we went to a little bbq place very late at night and couple that ran it were so nice. They helped me order and showed us how to cook the food. Then they sat down and had drinks with us until quite late at night. They didn’t know any English and we couldn’t really speak Korean but as we knew from Japan, a common language isn’t really necessary for communication. We used loads of gestures and a bit of English and Japanese.
The big differences that I noticed between Korea and Japan (during my very short time there) were cleanliness factors. Japan is a lot neater and people aren’t spitting on the ground all the time. I kind of liked to roughness of it. Sometimes Japan is a bit too clean and controlled for me. That probably sounds a little strange. There was also a lot of English around. I think this may be because of the American Military base. There were also y considering they would be a lot more American chains and products in the grocery stores. Although there were a lot of military personnel hanging around (both Korean and American) it didn’t feel like a tense environment. We weren’t even aware of the nuclear testing until we got back to the plane and saw the newspaper. Everyone in Japan was quite aware of it though. Apparently there was a Japanese news story in which they believed the Korea was trying to have the gases from the nuclear testing float over to Japan to get them. Although this is possible, it seems a bit unlikely considering they would have to depend on the direction the wind was blowing. It would put a bit of wrench in their plans it the direction should happen to change. The Japanese media seems a bit excitable to me.
We spent our days in a fairly leisurely manner. I went to a salon and got a hair cut and a massage. Kosa was going to get his hair done as well but we didn’t have enough time. We were going to a break dancing show after that. I didn’t make it to the break dancing show which was too bad because I could have seen Kosa dance in it at the end. He said he really enjoyed it though. I really enjoyed the salon though so I think it was a fair trade off. I got a Korean hair style and a massage. I think the staff at the salon were relieved that Kosa could stay for his hair. They were all clearly trying to make a game plan on how to style it and seemed quite nervous.
On the last day we went to a theme park that was themed like Oktoberfest. I thought that was really weird especially because I am from Kitchener, Ontario, home of Canada’s largest Bavarian festival, also called Oktoberfest. It was very much like home except with a lot more Korean people. We went on a couple rides and watched the skating at the indoor rink. I wished we would have had time to go for a skate but we really didn’t. We had to run to et to the airport after that so it was all we could fit in. The airport and getting home was a bit of an adventure. Kosa’s visa status is a little questionable right now so they needed to interview him for 2 and half hours upon returning to Japan in some kind of Immigration detention area. This was a bit troubling for more than one reason. We missed the last train home to Shiojiri which the immigration people were well aware of. They told me while I waited outside for him that they didn’t know how long it would be. They kept my passport and alien registration card for about an hour and then gave it back. It all got settled eventually and we had to spend the night in a rather expensive hotel after a very expensive cab ride back into the city centre. We took the first train back in the morning and I went directly to work. I was completely exhausted all day but the weekend of fun was definitely worth it.