Tsushima

So, Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) was this week, on Tuesday, and we had Monday through Wednesday off. Nice-uh. Most people were heading out of town, and my buddy Dave who hadn't left the country in the 6 months he's been here was itching to do the same. I would've been content to rest on my laurels and maybe go on a short day or two long trip within the country, but when he asked if I wanted to go to Fukuoka I said sure. I'd heard good things about it and it seemed we'd have a fun few days down there.

Another friend Oren joined us, and on Friday night we caught the midnight train* to Busan wherein we could take a ferry to Japan.

So we walked in to the international ferry terminal exhausted and groggy Saturday morning and tried to buy a ticket to Fukuoka. Sold out. What about tomorrow? Sold out. The next day? Sold out. I'd sort of expected this, Chuseok is the busiest travel time of the year in Korea, but I didn't want to be a Debbie Downer before we left and hadn't brought it up.

Despairing we collapsed on some benches in the terminal and slept a few hours. When we awoke, a few other ticket booths were open. One of them was for Tsushima. Well, if you've bothered to read the title of this entry you can probably figure out what happened.

It was alright. The town was a little on the small side, there was nothing to do during the day, things were more than a little pricey (honest to god the second you sit down in a bar they charge you 20-30 bucks for the table, even before you've bought a drink) and the 19-30 demographic upsayo (didn't exist). We had a good few nights out drinking, tho, everyone was superfriendly (the first place we went a bunch of Japanese ajosshis picked up the tab as we were leaving) and it was cool just to get away for a bit and add another notch on my belt.

But I won't be going back.

I managed to look goofy in every picture that was taken of me during our brief sojourn, and believe it or not the following is the least goofy looking and most publishable. Standing at the base of the hundred steps to enlightenment or somesuch nonsense (we climbed them and found only oversized hornets and a lot of moss):



*Ok, so we took a bus, but "midnight train" sounds so much cooler, and I've had that song 'Midnight Train to Georgia' in my head and on my iPod for about a month now.

Slightly Less Than 100 Bullets

My week, in bullet form:

-I visited the 3rd circle of hell, otherwise known as the Bukbu English Festival. "Bukbu" is the dong or gu or snot or flem or whatever the Korean word for district is in which my school is located. We took about a dozen or so of our best and brightest English speakers to compete against the other schools' similarly abled in a series of competitions...debate, essay writing, dancing, etc. It was the typical in its tedium, the worst part was that it took place on a Saturday. I don't like working on those.

-Speaking of tedium, two of our English teachers were leaving last week so we had a going away dinner. Imagine you're a young white devilishly handsome English-speaking male who's attending a 4 hour long dinner surrounded by 8 or so 40 year old Korean ajummas who despite their Korean Education Board-certified English speaking abilities persist in communicating in their native language. Imagine there isn't any alcohol being served. Imagine you have to pay 25 bucks for a dinner whose highlights include slices of tomatoes dipped in blueberry juice, undercooked un-de-headed prawns, and balls of fried squid. That was my Monday.

-I didn't go out this weekend, for the first time since I've been back. I was just too tired from work...I've been drinking too much anyway. I was up late Thursday at the Goose bidding farewell (again) to Sammy.

-I discovered this great performance by the man from the 2002 Grammys. As he said circa 1965, it should be played "fucking loud."