Well, I got up early today all excited about my trip. I put on all my travel gear and went into work dressed like I was on vacation. I was hoping this was OK – I’m still not too sure what my alibi is today. The only reason I’m going in to work is to save a day off. I’m hoping that I won’t blow it with my outfit. Turns out it was no problem. Most of the teachers had worked a really long day the day before because they had entrance examinations for the new students. Some had worked twelve or thirteen hours, so nobody really came in early. For the first twenty minutes it was only me and the vice principal. He made coffee for me, which was really nice. I don’t drink coffee but I had a small cup just to show him I appreciated the gesture.
At about 8:30 Mr. Hayashi came in and we sat and chatted for thirty minutes. Then he drove me over to Kakogawa station, which saved me about fifteen minutes and four dollars. I got on the train, and I was at the airport within an hour and a half. I cleared immigration and security without a problem, and everyone was speaking English with me. Usually I am disappointed when people speak English with me because I lose out on a chance to speak Japanese, but especially at the airport it is something they do without thinking.
I was a bit early so I sat and listened to music while I waited for the flight. The flight was full but they just let everyone board at once, and strangely it worked it pretty well. I was sitting next to a twelve or thirteen year old Japanese girl that was flying alone to Korea and then on to Russia. She is visiting her uncle’s family that lives there. We spoke in a mix of English and Japanese. She was pretty scared with the takeoffs and landings, so I tried to relax her by speaking with her during the scary parts. I probably just made it worse, though. Lunch was pretty good – a nice bento with sushi, roast beef, and potato salad. The shrimp that came with it was especially good – a feast!
The plane came in over Seoul, and I could tell right away that it was a lot different from Japan. The terrain is a lot more mountainous, and the housing was high-density and everywhere. From 15,000 feet it seemed more crowded than Japan.
I stepped off the plane, went down a very modern tunnel, and started walking through a very nice airport. I noticed immediately that there was more of a mix of foreigners here – Arabs, Russians, Africans, and Asians were all walking around. I joined the immigration line, and got into trouble right away when they saw that I had written my embarkation card in pencil. They sent me back to the table to rewrite it in pen, but all their pens were dry. I waited in line again, and the lady there gave me a stern lecture in Korean about something. I tried to explain about the dry pens in English but she ended up just rewriting it for me and glaring at me.
It was about this time that I realized that in this country I am completely without a language. I only know one word of Korean (“yes”), and so I am dependent more than ever on sign language and the ability of other people to speak English. It kind of came as a shock. In Japan I speak some Japanese, and so at least I have a sporting chance of communicating with someone. Here in Korea I am just plain out of luck.
Undaunted, I continued to customs and cleared without a problem – they didn’t even stop me. I exchanged my Japanese yen for Korean won, and suddenly had a huge wad of cash. There was too much for my wallet, so I had to split it up in my backpack, my money belt, and my wallet. The won is worth 1/10 the value of the yen, so it was easy to do the conversions in my head.
Now the trick was to find someplace to sleep for the first night, and then go from there. I stopped at the tourist information booth and asked about hotels. A very nice lady helped me make a reservation in downtown Seoul for about $90 U.S. a night. Not too bad considering the location and the time of day – the last thing I wanted was to be walking the cold streets of Seoul at midnight looking for someplace to stay.
I went outside and caught a bus heading towards downtown. The bus ride into town took more than an hour, but I spent it watching the landscape and the very interesting terrain. Once we got into the city it was really interesting to watch the people, the stores, and the traffic. I was pleased to note that they drive on the right side of the road here. Also, the cars were almost all Korean – I didn’t see one Japanese car during my whole visit. Lots of Hyundai and Daewoo.
My bus dropped me off near my hotel, and I started trudging down the street with that weird “I’m in a foreign country and nobody knows where I am” feeling. People didn’t really stare at me like they do in Japan, and I had to dodge a few motorcycles driving on the sidewalk. The roads were torn up pretty bad, and in the sidewalks were in disrepair. I also was surprised how much trash was blowing around – there were no public garbage cans, but there were piles of garbage that seemed to have been designated as “public”.
Just as things were starting to look bleak I found my hotel, a dingy white building that was one of the taller ones in the area. I went inside fearing the worst, and was very pleasantly surprised.
The clerks were dressed in suits, the lobby was beautiful, and everyone spoke English. They confirmed my reservation, gave me my key, and sent me on my way. The room was clean, small by American standards but large by Japanese standards. I had a big bathtub, steaming hot water, a double bed, and a TV. I was really impressed.
I dropped off most of my gear in my room, and then decided to do some exploring around the hotel. I took 70,000 won and hit the town.
The next few hours were spent taking it all in. I walked along big thoroughfares, tiny alleys, past endless merchants hawking cheap goods on the sidewalk. People were everywhere, and I found out that it’s perfectly legal for motorcycles to drive on the sidewalk, and it’s a great idea to move out of their way as soon as possible.
I stopped and ate at food stands, communicating only by pointing, holding up a finger or two, and waving notes around until I got the right one. The food stands were enclosed in plastic, so a customer would duck inside and be protected from the cold wind while they ate on their feet. The food was cheap – 50 cents to a dollar for each item. The variety of food was enormous – I ate spicy chicken, sweet waffle-like cakes, sausages, some kind of pot sticker type things. Some stands would give you a bowl of broth with onions floating inside. Everyone was kind and patient, as if they had foreigners visiting all the time. Strangely, other than the airport I had only seen one foreigner the first day I arrived.
Eager to continue my food orgy I walked down a particularly interesting street filled with art shops and restaurants – a little more upscale than other places I had seen. I found a couple of interesting souvenirs, and kind of ended up at an underground restaurant made almost entirely of wood. The owners had a menu with English, and so I was able to order easily enough. I ordered up a plate of “roasted beef”. I also ordered a beer, and the waitress seemed overly concerned about what kind of beer I wanted. I just kept repeating “beer”, “beer”, and “beer”. I had nowhere else to go – I said it in Japanese, just in case, but she was looking for some kind of guidance. Finally she came back with two or three beers and I pointed at one of them.
The roasted beef showed up and it was more meat than I eat in a month in Japan. It came with four other plates of spicy food, including all-you-can-eat kimchee. How did I know it was all-you-can-eat? Every time I killed a plate more came. I ate a lot – and this on top of all the street food I had eaten.
The bill came, and the whole thing was only about $12. Pretty good deal! I found my way back to the hotel, by now it was getting dark and I didn’t want to spend too long out on the streets until I knew my way around. I went up to my room and did some planning for the next day. After about half an hour of planning I hit the hay, ready for a big day of exploration tomorrow.
