What not to do in Japan

Here it is. The Japan post. Grab yourself a tall glass of 1% milk, sit down and relax. You are about to join me on a journey to the land of the rising sun, love motels, homeless people, Buddhist temples and a story about an old Japanese lady becoming convinced that four English-speaking foreigners were only in Japan for the random and perverted orgies.

The journey began on Thursday, March 24th (as I recall) over a conversation supplied with much beer. The brothers Matthew and Robert were discussing travelling to Japan for the weekend. Sensing a chance for an adventure, I joined into the ocnversation; resulting in a "do you want to come to Japan with us?". Knowing that I had little money with me for such a trip, I said something to the effect of "By golly yes. Yes I sure would". Naturally, as is the case with most ideas beginning well into a second pitcher of terribly brewed lager, I figured that this idea wouldn't amount to anything. I went on to make plans to hang out with Golden, to check out the University campus over the weekend.

Following another day at work, I was back at Cheers (Tombstone) doing whatever it is that I do there. Somewhere around midnight, Matt wonders into the bar. Sensing my dominating presence (as I see it), he strides over to my table, tells one of the dozen bikini models sitting with me to take a hike to Mount Gajisan, takes her seat, and tells me that he and his brother will indeed be leaving for Japan at six in the morning. Completely fogetting that I had no money to pay for such a trip, I told him that I would be coming along.

When I say that I had no money, that wasn't entirely true. I did have money in my Canadian bank account. Realizing that it was possible that money might come into the equation when obtaining a ticket for a ferry ride to Japan, I left the bar and heading for the nearest Family Mart (equipped with an international bank machine). I insert my debit card, with the intention of withdrawing a few hundred thousand won...

"Transaction error"

I insert my credit card, with the intention of withdrawing a few hundred thousand won...

"Transation error"

I insert my debit card, with the intention of withdrawing a few hundred thousand won...

"Transaction error"

I insert my credit card, with the intention of withdrawing a few hundred thousand won...

"Transation error"

Shit.

Back to Cheers.

I inform Matt that the bank has been possessed by an evil spirit, who was determined to chase all waygooks out of Korea. Overhearing this conversation, a nearby eavesdropper informed by that all bank machines in Korea close by midnight.

"No problem", I think to myself. "I'll just take out some money when we get to Busan."

Around this time, Matt's friend, and soon to by my friend, Colleen, drops by. She's going to come to.

...and then there were four.

Seen after our party of four was finalized, Robert showed up. The four of us had a good 'ol time until the wee hours of the morn. Rob decided to get an hour or two of sleep, while Matthew, Colleen and I just partied all night until the kimchi fermented. After a quick trip to Colleen's place, and then to Matt's place to get Rob, we were on the bus to Busan. I think the price came to around 3,000 won, or about $3. Time: 6:00 am; Saturday morning.

After a 50 or 60 minute bus ride (which I slept though, on the floor in the back of the bus), we were in Busan (also known as Pusan). The Ulsan/Busan bus stops right at the end of the subway line in Busan. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the subway. It wasn't anything special though; just an average subway. I did take a picture of a building and of the ferry terminal though. You can see those pictures, as well as many others, just below this post; in reverse chronological order.

Upon entering the ferry terminal, I located an internation bank machine. Yippee!

"Transaction error"

Apparently Colleen was having financial woes too. This is where I learned what a good guy Matt is. Without question, he lent us the money we needed for our trip and told us not to worry.

Maybe he'd make a good Hell's Angel back in Canada. "Don't worry about the money, it's all taken care of...".

I'm still waiting for him to order me to perform a hit on one of his enemies.

One mix-up did happen here though:

Matt had pre-booked his ticket, while the rest of us were just buying standby tickets. When we'd arrived at the terminal, we were cutting it very close to Matt's departure time. Because of that, Matt had to hurry to catch his boat, while we were paying for our tickets. We ended up leaving on a different ferry, about a half hour later. The same thing would happen on the way back as well, because we'd all bought return tickets (for 158,000 won).

Somewhere around 8 or 9 in the morning, our group (sans Matt), boarded the "Kobee" hydrofoil to Fukuoka. It was a good sized boat, with two decks. It was equipped with a small bar/food stand and DVD players. The intercom intructions were relayed in three languages, which was nice; Korean, Japanese and English. After a three hour trip, we arrived at the Hakata port in Fukuoka, Japan (in the north part of Japan's south island; Ryukyu).

Upon arriving in Fukuoka, and meeting up with Matt, we needed to eat. The Pepsi and butter-roasted squid that I'd ate on the ferry didn't exactly hit the spot. We found a little restaurant right in the terminal and enjoyed some rice, pork and veggies. It was pretty good for food at a ferry terminal. Of course, I had to check out the washroom too! I was delighted to see one of those "squatting toilets" that I've read about. I'm sure that they're in Korea too, but I have not come across one yet. I took a picture of it.

Looking at the toilet reminded me that I had better things to do in Japan. The first of which was to aquire some Japanese yen. I was able to exchange the 60,000 won that I had in my pocket for a little more than 6,000 yen, with no difficulty, at the terminal. That accounted for about US$60. Colleen was able to find a tourist map, in English, of Fukuoka. Off to do touristy things we went.

In a short period of time, we came across the subway station/Japanrail station. This is the main hub that you can use to get around Fukuoka, as well as to get around Japan, via the bullet-train. I would go here if I wanted to see more of Japan sometime (which I definetely intend to do). Deciding that this would be a good spot to locate an internation bank machine, we went looking for one. After talking to many friendly Japanese people, we realized that we were standing very close to one the entire time! Silly English tourists... Colleen was able to get money from her Korean bank account (in yen of course). I tried to get money out of my Canadian bank account:

"Transaction error".

Shit.

Matt lent me 10,000 yen. Nice guy. Now I owe him 300,000 won.

Upon looking at our map, we decided to go and see a huge Buddhist temple that is located in Fukuoka. We were also hoping to catch some sumo wrestling. Matt asked a local were to go to see some sumo wrestling. After laughing at us, he told us that we'd have to go to Tokyo to see sumo wrestling. Silly tourists!

Onto the subway, which is every bit as modern and clean as I've imagined that a Japanese subway would be, we went. As well, the subway stations aren't just subway stations. They are a complete underground mall; with shops and resturants of every kind. The photo of McDonald's, as well as the one below it, were talking in the subway/mall.

Upon arriving at our stop, we walked up to ground level in the middle of Fukuoka (wherever that is!). One thing that I've noticed about Japan (at least here), is that it is very clean and seems very well organized. Most everything is spotless. I did notice the odd crack in the, otherwise well-kept, sidewalk. I presume that was a result of the earthquake that was experienced a week before. I saw no other evidence of the quake. This city seems to be built to withstand such a natural disaster. If a 7.0 earthquake were to strike directly in a Korean city, the deathtoll would be huge. Korean buildings are not build well at all when compared with Japanese buildings. From the outside South Korea looks like a first-world country, but that isn't completely true. Many of the back alleys here, and even some of the main streets, are lined with garbage. The streets are less well kept than in Winnipeg (that says a lot!). Also, there seems to little farms in the middle of the cities; like someone forgot what year it is. It seems so disorganized; like the third world is meeting a first world that has been forced upon them. In contrast, Japan looks like the Futureland that I saw when I was in DisneyWorld.

This was the point of the trip where I went crazy with my camera, and started to take pictures of every cool Japanese building that I came across. The old-style oriental buildings are in Korea as well, the the Japanese ones look so much nicer and cleaner. In other words, they don't have a pile of garbage sitting in front of them.

On our way to the temple, we came across a park where a large number (a few hundred) of homeless Japanese people were listening to a speech. I assumed that it was a Christian group and was putting on a free meal and gospel message of the risen Christ for them. It turned out that was the case. Can you imagine rising from the dead? It is difficult, if not impossible, to accept for some. Most Christians spend their time telling non-Christians how to live their non-Christian lives. I don't understand that. Anyway, Matt and I talked to the English (either Canadian or American, I can't remember) organizer/missionary guy for a few minutes. Before I knew it, we were helping to serve food to these people. It was awesome, and definetely one of the highlights of my time in Asia so far. We probably stayed in the park with these people for an hour or more. After a quick prayer (involving myself and a couple others from the Christian group), we went in search of Buddha. That is, the Buddhist temple.

The temple was absolutely stunning. I put up nine pictures of it. Everything between the photo looking onto the park, to the photo of the road, is from from the temple. It consisted of a fairly large lot, one very large building, one smaller building (probably a storage shed), small shrine, a few "pagoda" grave stones, a water well/fountain, and a monk burning insence/nice smelling garbage. We were allowed to go into the upper level of the temple, but the lower level was blocked off. I peeked inside, and it was a large open area with a shrine at the back and a number of cushions for monks to sit on. It was pretty much what you'd expect to see in a Buddhist temple. In the upper level, there was a main room. At the front of it was a small shop selling small souvenirs (necklaces, charms, etc.). At the centre of the room was a small shrine. Behind that, was an emormous statue of the Buddha himself; sitting in seiza (the traditional way). There was a small room behind the statue, with about a dozen beautifully depicted scenes of the history of something or other. There was traditional music and commentary in the background to add to the atmosphere. Unfortunatey for me, all of the commentary was in Japanese. I understood none of it. The pictures featured many demons and people fighting. It didn't look much different than something out of a medieval European depiction of the Apocolypse. It was magificant and frightening all at once. Since photographing the room was not allowed, I didn't take any pictures here. Colleen did though, but she didn't use the flash on her camera; so the photo didn't turn out.

I'm not sure how long we had spend at the temple, but it was getting a bit dark by the time that we left. We had all heard of a foreign bar called the "Happycock". We took the subway to the area that it was in, but we never did find it. We didn't really care. We just walked around and enjoyed the clean city of Fukuoka at night. Eventually, we came across an Irish bar called "Half Penny". It wasn't a large bar, but it has a great Irish atmosphere; complete with celtic music. There were a couple of other foreigners in the bar, who were teaching English in Fukuoka. We ordered a 900 yen(!!!) pint of Guienness for each of us (other than Rob, who only wanted a half-pint), and listened to the two guys tell us about the earthquake from the weekend before. Apparently, it was quite violent. TVs were knocked off of stands, bookshelves were emptied and knocked over, plates and cutlery were all emplied from their shelves. They honestly were fearing for their lives. Thankfully, only one person was killed; an older lady who was crushed under a bookcase when it fell on her. As I said earlier, if this occured in Korea where would've been a lot more than just one person killed. It sounded very violent. Back in Ulsan, I'd only felt a decent shaking. It certainly was not very violent; although I was frightened.

Deciding that drinking any more beer would send us into poverty, we chose to locate a place to sleep. We decided that staying in a "love hotel" would be the best option. We were wrong.

A love hotel is basically a place for Japanese people to hook up and have sex for the night. Men can take young girls here without fear of being found out. It's quite popular. The rooms are very nice and clean (as can be seen from my pictures), but the system is very strange. At the front enterance is a touch-display console. There is no front desk. You pick which type of room you would like (all with varying prices) and you see a list of what is available. A hotel employee then comes out and directs you to your room. Right inside is another console. This is where you pay; with either cash or credit card. The price of the room goes by the hour, and you check out at noon. So if you check in at 11pm, it would be a little bit cheaper than if you checked in at 9pm. Since we are cheap English teachers, we decided that we would pay for two people, and then sneak the other two into the room after a half-hour or so.

It worked horribly.

Matt and Colleen went in to get a room. Rob and I waited about 45 minutes for them to return. When they did, Rob and I snuck into the room. The strange things about these rooms is this: they lock from the outside. When you are in, the only way out is to call the office on the phone and ask for the door to be opened. They do open it, but it's a real pain in the ass. What if a guy was abusing a girl? What if there was a fire? What if someone had a heart attack? What if, what if, what if? It's a terrible set up and it should be illegal everywhere. I'm sure that it is in Canada. Another nasty thing about this hotel is that they have cameras everywhere. They are in the lobby, in the hallways, in the elevator, and probably strategically placed thoughout the rooms. Well, when Rob and I first got into the room, I jumped right into the shower. About the time that I finished in the shower, an middle-aged lady from the hotel opened the door and demanded to know why there were so many shoes in our room (in Japanese of course. She would speak no English). We figured out that only three(WTF?) people were allowed to stay in one room. If the four of us wanted to stay, we would have to get another room. A younger girl (our age) accompanied her, and tried to smooth everything out with the 20 or so words that she knew in English. They weren't even going to let us visit each other in a room at the same time! Fortunately, the young girl was a lot more worldly than the older lady and realized that our goal was to hang out and then go to sleep; not to participate in some strange 4-way sexual games (as the older lady seemed to be thinking). The girl took us to another room, where we paid about 4,500 yen (US$45) each for the room. We should've just paid 15,000 yen at the Comfort Inn. It was such a pain in the ass having to call each time we wanted to leave our rooms, knock on the door to the other room, and have our friends call to open the second door. To make things even worse, when we left our room, we had no way to get back in. We were locked out of our room. We went down to the main floor and into the employee area to ask the desk to open our room. The old hag was there and decided that we didn't have a room. We did, and I told her to open our room. She wouldn't. I was entering into my very first argument some an old, wrinkly, Japanese hag. Respect for our elders? She wasn't getting any from me at this point! The argument went something like this:

Her: "Damate...blah blah..." translation: NO! I will not let two males stay in the same hotel
room! Foreign perverted devils!

Me: "Hai(yes)" "We pay many yen! See our receit? Let us into our room!"

Her: "Damate"

Me: "Hai"

Her: "Damate"

Me "Hai"

Eventually, the nice, beautiful, younger girl came to our rescue and opened our door. I invited her in. She declined, but smiled at my joke.

It was at this time that I decided to just stick a pen in the door to keep it from closing all the way. It worked like a charm. We all hung out in one hotel room for a couple of hours, then went to sleep. Nice and clean hotel, terrible system.

I hate love hotels.

We woke up at about 8:30am the next day. We lazily got ready, and made our way back to the ferry terminal for the trip back to Busan. After a quick breakfast of rice, pork and curry, Matt was on his boat and we were soon to follow. The return trip only took about two and a half hours, instead of the three that it took to get there. Maybe it was better conditions on the water.

Whatever was the case, I had a great time in Japan and I hope to go back many times. If I continue with this ESL career for a few years, I'd definetely consider moving to Japan after a couple of years in Korea.


In case anyone was wondering, the only place that my bank card seems to work in South Korea is in the Incheon International airport. On Tuesday, I ended up going to a Korean Exchange bank, here in Ulsan, and have a teller manually check my credit card to give me a cash advance. I do have money now, and I've paid Matt back. It just took a bit of work.



A picture of the Kobee can be found at www.busanferry.co.kr. For some reason, the picture won't show up on this page.

Here's a map of the Yellow and East(Japan) Seas. Ulsan is located just north of Busan. Seoul is in the northwest corner of South Korea.