My trip to Pusan, Korea (October, 2004)

So, Wednesday I found out that there is a cheap ferry nearby that goes from Japan to Korea. Then I looked at my schedule and realized that if I wanted to try it - I'd have to leave Friday. I could take a half-day vacation on the following Monday, but had class every Monday morning after that until February. So it was go now or wait 'till Spring. The ferry left Shimonoseki, Japan at 7:00pm (which is only 30 minutes away) on Friday and got to Pusan, Korea at 7:00am the next morning. The return was the same schedule, leaving Korea at 7pm and getting back to 7am, giving me plenty of time to get home and still make it to the office at lunchtime.

The point is, this didn't give me much time to get ready. But, thanks to the internet, everything went very well. Thursday I found a couple of sites that had some basic Korean words and phrases, a couple of maps of Pusan, and a few sites that had information about things to see and do there and how to use the subway. So, I had at least a little idea of what to do and could learn to say "yes", "no", "thanks", and "how much?" before I got there. That's about it though. Otherwise, I had no idea whatsoever of what Korea would be like, but that just made things that much more interesting...

I've put the pictures online, so you can click the link below to check them out. It is well worth some of your time to take a close look at many of them, especially the details in the background, etc. For example, Subway Sandwich signs, and such.

But, here are a few random notes about this and that before you go to the pics:

- The ferry was huge and had a disco bar with karaoke. There was a good restaurant, and several vending machines with beer and the regular stuff, too. You could pay for a private room, which looked about like a small hotel room, or for a room for 4, or buy the cheap ticket and stay on the floor in a room for 12 (which is what I did). There were also showers, and a big onsen (like a giant 20 person hot tub), as well. The ticket was $150 round trip, which is less than the cost of a one way ticket to Tokyo from here.

- My hotel was 5 minutes from the main train station, was very nice, had the first king-size bed I've seen west of Hawaii, and was only $30.

- A good meal was about $3. However, most of what they eat is so spicy that it would kill most other people. Made my lips burn for an hour after I was through eating...

- There was some kind of rally/demonstration in front of the station, so I got to see about 2000 riot police. There were probably 3 cops to every attendee. Nothing bad happened though, and everyone looked like they were having a good time as best as I could tell (except the cops). When you see the pics, notice how young the police are.

- Literally dozens of high-school and college girls came right up to me at various places and tried to speak a little English, which was consistently incomprehensible aside from "hello", "where from", and "speak Korean?" Lots of giggles thrown in, too. They love to take pictures, and to have their picture taken, so you'll get to see plenty. "Pu-reeze take a peek-cha, he, he, he, he, he."

- You can go anywhere in Pusan on the subway for about 75 cents. I also rode a bus for 20 minutes and it was about 20 cents. Very cheap.

- I went out Saturday night for some Korean bar-hopping and tried the following places: Dallas Cowboy (a bar/restaurant that played country music), The Hollywood Star (a booty-music dance club), Disco (a real disco), Kenny Rogers (another bar/restaurant - and it actually had a big picture of Kenny over the door), Xanadu (a pub-like bar, where the bar girl gave me free drinks), and I also went to one called New York, New York - but I was turned away at the door. "No, No, Korean only." I was told. No pics of bars, as the camera stays home when I go out.

- I have never, in any city, seen so many people still out in the streets after 10pm, and on into the night. I mean people everywhere.

- I read that there are a few Russians there, and I saw about a half dozen people that looked pretty Russian too me. But, I probably saw less than 20 non-asians the whole weekend. I can't tell a lot of Koreans from Japanese though, so I don't know how many Japanese may have been there. On that subject - never tell a Japanese person that you can't tell them apart. Many Japanese are quite openly racist (mostly older people) and consider Koreans to be "lesser" humans for some reason, so they get pretty angry if you imply that maybe they look like Koreans. I guess no one's ever told them that to the entire rest of the world a lot of them look a lot like Koreans...

- They eat dried frogs, and a wide range of things that I couldn't identify. I never saw any cats or dogs offered anywhere though (I think that may be more of a thing of the past).

- If you can find a parking place or an open spot on a sidewalk, you have a place to open a business. Right in the middle of the train station is okay, too.

- The only people I met that spoke any English, other than female students and a couple of bartenders, were the dozen or so Christians on the street that forced me to take some sort of pamphlet about finding Jesus. When I responded that I didn't read Korean they consistently shoved it in my hand and said give it to someone you meet. Go figure, the most annoying people in Korea are the sidewalk Christians.

- Japan has McDonalds and KFC (which actually serves some tempura-like chicken that isn't the Colonel's recipe BTW), but Pusan has those plus Outback Steakhouse, Pizza Hut, Dunkin' Donuts, and Subway, too.

- I only used a cab once and the driver tried to rip me off. I mean he went way out of the way to get where I wanted to go (and showed him on a map). But, I carry a hand held GPS unit when I travel, so when he stopped I showed it to him, pointed out our starting point, our current location, and the box-shaped dashed line connecting the two places on the screen - then gave him half the fare (still too much, really) and got out. He didn't say anything and I didn't look back. @#%$&%$# cabbies, same anywhere you go...

- Of the 20 or so TV stations I got at the hotel, 2 were some sort of math channels. Both had some professor-looking guy doing advanced math on a blackboard. This was on when I checked in, on later that night, and on again the next morning. I guess they like math. Another was a free porn channel, and another was a music video channel. They were playing Eminem's new video every hour I think. I also caught an Australian skit-based comedy show (like Monty Python or SNL), but I wonder how well foreign comedy translates. I wouldn't think it would work - but I'm only guessing of course.

- Americans call it Pusan and Japanese call it Pusan - but Koreans call it Busan. ???

Enough trivia - here are the pictures. Just in case you ever want to go, the stuff you'll see is mainly from the Busan Tower, the Jagalchi Fish Market, the Nampo-dong area, the Samgwang Temple, the Busan Station area, the Seomyeon area, and Haeundae Beach.