Oh man, I'm sleepy. So sleepy. And I really tried to go to bed early. I did. And I let myself sleep in a little bit, all to no avail. Maybe if the stupid rain hadn't woken me up several times last night, I wouldn't be so tired. Stupid rain. Stupid off-shore typhoons.
I haven't posted in a while, clearly. Apologies all around. Here's a brief-ish description of my time away.
April 26-29
I decided to take an extended Golden Week trip, since the real GW sucked this year (the holidays didn't align properly, alas). Michelle and I spent the first days of our trip in Fukuoka, as we usually do. It was super fun, possibly more fun than other times. We sold some of our manga and I got three pairs of new glasses at Zoff, including the sunglasses that I've been wanting for almost a year. They are badass. We also finally ate at the Indian restaurant next to Ichiran, and it was delicious. Sag panir with cheese nan is the way to go, most def.
April 30-May5
Our trip took a turn for the worse when we went to Korea. Maybe it was because we'd had so much fun in Fukuoka in the days before, maybe it was because we stayed in Seoul instead of going to other cities, I don't know. But the general consensus was that Korea sucks ass.
The countryside is less-than-impressive, for one thing. Here, I'm surrounded by beautiful, lush green mountains, but there, the mountains and everything else just looked gray. Bleak. Not a great first impression. This is probably the result of pollution, a lot of which I'm sure comes from China, but whatever.
Seoul was also dirty and grimy. Not how I like my cities, or at least the shopping areas, to look.
The food looked gross. There, I said it. We looked at it, and it looked nasty, so we didn't eat it. And I don't even feel bad about it.
Lastly, the residents of Seoul were some of the most infuriating people I've ever had the displeasure of coming into contact with.
My biggest complaint is that they are line-cutters, which might not sound like a big deal, but it's one of my pet peeves, and fucking everybody was doing it, which to me indicates a system-wide lack of respect for others. Needless to say, lots of elbows were thrown on this trip.
Aside from the gratuitous line-cutting, I found them rude and pushy and they somehow managed to disrupt our paths everywhere we went.
Also, lots of public transport smelled like salami, which I fear has forever ruined that deli meat for Michelle.
Oh the plus side, we did get to see Ironman (twice!), which I don't think has been released in Japan yet. And the tickets were only 8000 won (about $8 US), whereas they are usually 1800 yen here ($18 US). And the people laughed at appropriate times during the movie, which Japanese people never do, because they are either humorless or retarded.
In general, people were normal-sized, which was refreshing, and they didn't walk around like the living dead, as the J-folks are also prone to doing.
And they had Krispy Kreme!!
I'm sure there are other good things about the country, but honestly, we didn't really see it. And I'm never going back, so oh well.
May 5-6
We went back to Fukuoka for a day and a half after getting back from Korea, and thank god we did. We definitely needed that time to "fix" our trip. I have never been so glad to get back to Japan.
Unfortunately, this was the last trip I'll be taking anywhere and the last time I'll see Michelle for a while. But I have to save money for shipping stuff home and for future expenses. Argh.
One of those expenses is my new apartment. My parents are going to pay my rent, which came as a big surprise to me, but I want to help if I can. Mom and Dad went to Charlottesville while we were in Korea and found an apartment for me. It just happens to be in my favorite building. Yay! More about that later.
So that explains a lot of the time. After getting back to Japan, I went back to work, and that's what I've been doing for the last week. Super fun, I know. I'm trying to keep my head in the game, as it were, for the next few months, but it's hard. Now that I have something else lined up, I'm ready to go home and do that. But not yet. Alas.
3 comments:
Was there a language barrier at all in Korea? How much Korean do Josh and I need to learn before we go next year?
There was enough English around for us to get around. But if you're going to travel on the subway, you should probably get a map and keep track of the stops, because the announcements were all in Korean. The staff at our hotel spoke decent English and you can at least point at stuff on menus.
I only know two things in Korean--"Anyeong haseyo" is hello and "Gamsa nidha" is thank you. But if you want to learn more, it might be helpful, especially if you're going places outside Seoul.
You gotta getcha-getcha-getcha head in the game~
Ugh, Korea has def ruined deli meats for me. People keep telling me it was kimchi that I was smelling, and I'm like it might have been kimchi that they were eating but it was salami that they were sweating. Gross out!
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