Japan Trip!

What an exciting week we had! We had only a 2-day work week. We got the news Monday evening that we would be leaving for Japan on Wednesday at noon. Such short notice! Thankfully it was okay with both schools, since it was our recruiter who made all of the reservations for us.

A couple of plants Nicole got
for Teacher's Day.

Wednesday morning went by fast. Nicole had to go in & do a quick morning lesson & finish her sub plans for the next 2 days. Wednesday was also Teachers Day in Korea. Nicole received: 2 little plants, a red rose, "I love you"/"Thank you" notes, 5 pounds of ginseng, & 1 giant vase of beautiful white orchids for the classroom. She left the ginseng at the school for everyone to share. We are definitely not drinking it. It's supposed to be very healthy for your body & act as a cleanse, but it is beyond bitter. John didn't get to enjoy teacher's day but we hope there are little gifts waiting for him on Monday.

On the KTX!

10,000 yen; approximately 100 USD

We headed to the train station to take the KTX/bullet train from Daejeon to Busan. The train went 250-300 km/h (160-185 mph). The scenery was amazing. Once we got to Busan we were distracted by some beautiful architecture & then realized we needed to get to the International Ferry Terminal soon to check in. After check-in, we exchanged some won to yen & got on the ferry. Three hours later, we were in Japan. Once again, we walked from the terminal to our hotel. It was almost an hour's walk. We finally made it to our hotel around 8:30pm. During the day, all of the discoveries we made & random things we figured out, we would say, "well we know for next time". Knowing that the likelihood of this particular trip happening again is probably minimal. But we did learn a lot of things along the way that could help us in the future.

Right outside of Busan train station.

On the ferry to Japan!

View from our ferry seats.

Japan was fantastic. Our trip wasn't long enough. In the 3 days we were there we played on the beach, saw the Yahoo! Dome, explored a small park, & did a lot of shopping (& bought many things for us & gifts for others). Of course, we also went to the Korean Consulate - the whole purpose for the trip was to get our E-2 visa stamps.

Palm tree in Japan!

Our hotel: Sutton Hotel.
Flags include: Where we're from; Where we currently reside;
Where we were & will return to; Where our dream destination is.

The amount of time we needed to be at the Consulate wasn't significant so we enjoyed getting to do some tourist-y things while in Japan. In our short time there we decided that we like Japan much more than Korea. First of all, there are more social rules in Japan that they follow so they are friendlier. Second, there is high pride in working. Wherever we bought anything (food, clothes, drinks), we were always treated very well & with big smiles. Third, everyone we spoke to also knew a bit of English, at least enough to tell us dollar amounts, sizes, or if we wanted a bag. Fourth, Japan has enforced smoking laws. In every building & on every street & corner there is a designated enclosed area for smokers. Smoking publicly is not allowed. How WONDERFUL is that?! In Korea, we can't walk down our own street without getting a whiff of smoke. Hell, we can't even sit in our own apartment without choking on smoke, especially in the middle of the night. Fifth, Japanese are much better drivers than Koreans. Finally, Japan is just so much cleaner; the air, the streets, we can actually breathe. It is more expensive to live in Japan, but if we were to ever teach English there, we would also be getting paid more.

John has mastered the art of sitting
upside-down!

Some old women were walking by
& clapped at Nicole's handstand.

A few things in Japan that we enjoyed... Japan drives on the other side of the road. Which means they also drive on the other side of the car! We were very thrown off by that. We still weren't used to it by the end of the trip, but it was fun to see. We took a walk on the beach (Seaside Momochi Kaihin Koen) & had fun being gymnasts in the sand. Once a gymnast, always a gymnast! On Thursday evening we went to the convenient store to get some plum wine (because you have to have plum wine in Japan!) When we were waiting at a cross walk, a taxi pulled up for a woman & the door opened with the push of a button from the driver. And then it closed itself too! We were probably too excited about that & then we were wondering why Korea can't do that!?

Poling at Seaside Momochi

Poling at Seaside Momochi

John getting beer out of a vending
machine in our hotel.

In our hotel, we had a giant tub! We had the best showers we've taken in a long time. Our toilet seat was also heated, how nice. Also, when we would take showers, there was a squared area of the mirror that was heated so that it wouldn't fog up & you could still see your face in the mirror immediately after the shower. Such a convenient bathroom we had! We also thoroughly enjoyed watching Japanese commercials. We may not know what they were saying but we were laughing a lot! There was one commercial with dogs in it that made us almost tear up from laughter. Unfortunately we couldn't find the commercial online, but here is a link to a similar one, same brand: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcoqSBIb268. Not quite as funny as what we saw, but same taste.

Hakata Station

It just so happened to work out that our hotel was less than a 10 minute walk from a 10+ story mall. With 2 separate sides. One side was all name brand, expensive stores (Gucci, Tiffany's, L'Occitane...). Then there was the bargain side. Our best friend on Thursday evening & Friday morning. We spent a good two hours shopping on Thursday evening & we each got a few tops & random gifts to send back home to family & friends. We also ate most of our meals at the mall. The top 2 floors & the basement had all kinds of restaurants & fast food places. We had to return on Friday morning because we didn't get to shop at our favorite dollar store: Daiso! It took up an entire floor. We spent 90 minutes in that store alone because it was so big.

What a sign... we saw at the mall.

Friday afternoon we had to return to the Consulate to pick up our visas. Everything went well! Surprise! Immediately after that we were on our way to the ferry back to SK & made it back home late Friday night. But before getting on the KTX back to Daejeon, we enjoyed some Smoothie King & a musical light show right outside the station for Buddha's Birthday. We very much miss having a Smoothie King around every corner of town. It was delicious. And we luckily have found one here in Daejeon that is near where our new apartment will be!

Yeah, visas!

On the ferry heading back to South Korea.

The rest of the weekend we were mentally & physically drained. There wasn't much that brought us outside on Saturday. Sunday we had a few things to do & we ended up going to Eunhangdong (old downtown) for dinner & sight-seeing. Nicole has decided that she is going to spend the rest of her weekends in Eunhangdong because that is how long it will take for us to see all the shopping places. It's fantastic!

Here are some more pictures from our trip to Japan. Enjoy!

Yahoo! Dome & The Hilton

Fukuoka Tower; the tallest seaside tower
in Japan; 234 meters high (768 feet)

Mmmm... plum wine!

Fifty Shades of Grey in Japanese!

Hard Rock Cafe!

Weird bird statue in the park

Zima?! In the 7 Eleven.

Hole in the ground toilet Nicole had to use.