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.