Hello again
I'm in Japan. I'm in Tokushima on Shikoku island. I'm so happy to be traveling again.
I left Seoul on Wednesday morning after final drinks with friends on Monday and Tuesday night. Less than three hours later i was stood in Busan at the other end of the country thanks to the KTX high speed train which licks along at 300km/h or so. I wandered into the ferry terminal and managed to get a ticket on a busy little ferry called the Beetle which skimmed across the water at such a speed that we had to wear seat belts and there were warnings that we might have to slow down or make sudden changes in direction in order to avoid hitting whales. This must have been interesting for the rest of the passengers on board all of which appeared to be over sixty. I was one of the few people on board who didn't have grandchildren. It was at this point that i realised that all old people, no matter what the country, love the same things. Queuing - they just love being in a que even if they don't know what the que is for. Hot drinks - tea, coffee, soup, magma, anything liquid and hot has to be consumed no matter what the weather, time or location. Mints or boiled sweets and the sharing of mints and boiled sweets. Grey jackets. Free stuff - if it's free they have to have it.
Anyway, i arrived safe and sound that afternoon in Fukuoka on Kyushu island. I hopped on a bus into the city centre and found a little guesthouse that was already full but the nice old woman who owned the place called another guesthouse and showed me the way there. We were greeted on the street by a tiny old woman who was at least three times my age, had no teeth but kept smiling at me anyway and understood no English. But that was fine, the guesthouse was cheap and cosy and my Japanese skills amount to being able to say, "Hello", "Thank you" and "Yes". We did managed to figure out that i wasn't from the USA but from England at which point she smiled again and said, "Ah, Elizabeth".
I'd been to Fukuoka twice before, both times to go to the Korean consulate and get a working visa. I was walking around the streets again when i remembered certain things about the city from previous visits.
1. It's so quiet. There are 1.5 million people in Fukuoka but it's like a library. The buses cut their engines when waiting in traffic. People talk in hushed tones. Nothing is loud.
2. Everybody has a bicycle.
3. All the women are gorgeous.
4. All the men look cool.
5. None of the banks accept my ATM card.
6. Old women have no teeth.
7. They still haven't finished the train station. It looks exactly the same as it did 12 months ago. They must be building it out of matchsticks or playing cards.
This morning i got the expensive yet hideously fast Shinkansen better known as the Bullet Train from Fukuoka heading east to Okoyama on Honshu Island and from there a much smaller and slower train going south here to Tokushima on Shikoku Island. Tomorrow i will start walking and probably won't stop for about six weeks. The hike circles all of the island and is about 1500km long. I probably won't make all of it on foot but i really want to try. I've been thinking and dreaming about hiking around the hills, towns and cities of Japan for a while now so this is the chance.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Seoul again
Hello again
I have four days left at work and just over a week left here. I thought I'd write one more update from Korea before i leave.
My good friend Sang Min works at a hotel in Seoul and he called me late one Monday night asking if i wanted a drink. When i met him he told me he was eating dinner with the flight crew of Emirates Airlines who'd checked into the hotel earlier that day asking if he knew anywhere good to eat and drink. What he didn't tell me was that they were eating barbecued pigs cheeks and the Emirates Airlines flight crew consisted of a loud Brazilian pilot and a idiot Canadian co-pilot who's only topics of conversation seemed to be about the availability of cheap drunk women. They didn't seem put out when i told them about the fact that it was rainy Monday night and cheap drunk women on rainy Monday nights weren't something i knew much about. They seemed even less surprised by my slight confusion when they showed me pictures of their respective wives and children. Just to add to the mix two Indian guys who were part of the cabin crew turned up as well and one of them told me that he doesn't "eat anything that once had a face" and the the loud Brazilian guy waved his arms around pointing to the other Indian man proudly telling everybody that his friend was a twenty six year old virgin. Eventually we finished eating pigs cheeks and they headed off to find their friend a sexual companion for the first time in his life.
Sang Min got married a couple of weeks later at a church in Incheon city west of Seoul which was a rainy day but a nice one too. Whenever i told any Korean friends that my mate was getting married one of the first thing they would talk about was food. Would there be a buffet? What kind of food would it be? Would it all be free? At the wedding itself it seemed that most people were less bothered about the bride and groom and more bothered about the quality of sushi and pasta on offer. It was like a buffet with a wedding on the side. But Koreans are obsessed with food. It's almost as if every meal or snack is a new experience to be treasured. People often greet you not with "Hello" or "How are you?" but "Did you eat lunch" as if the contents of you stomach and current condition of your bowels trumps any other physical or psychological problems you may have.
It's been fun living here and there are rarely dull moments in Seoul but I'll be happy to move on. It's a bit strange living in a city where almost all the buildings, vehicles and infrastructure is younger than me. It's developed itself so quickly that people can hardly keep up with the constant state of change that is Seoul and Korea at large but somehow they've managed to go from an economy comparable to Bangladesh to an economy similar to Spain in just 55 years. But I'll be even happier to leave my job which has been a ball ache for a while now. I feel mentally constipated. As if my brain is desperate for a crap and is running from the knees down to the nearest toilet knowing that a load of shit is about to escape from it. No more teaching English to students masquerading as monkeys and working with managers pretending have cognitive skills. Dump.
So, I'll be on a ferry to Japan on the 27th and not long after that i should be starting a two month hike around the island of Shikoku following an old Buddhist pilgrimage of visiting 88 temples on the Japanese path to enlightenment. I guess that'll be the part where i mentally wipe my arse.
Have fun. See you soon.
I have four days left at work and just over a week left here. I thought I'd write one more update from Korea before i leave.
My good friend Sang Min works at a hotel in Seoul and he called me late one Monday night asking if i wanted a drink. When i met him he told me he was eating dinner with the flight crew of Emirates Airlines who'd checked into the hotel earlier that day asking if he knew anywhere good to eat and drink. What he didn't tell me was that they were eating barbecued pigs cheeks and the Emirates Airlines flight crew consisted of a loud Brazilian pilot and a idiot Canadian co-pilot who's only topics of conversation seemed to be about the availability of cheap drunk women. They didn't seem put out when i told them about the fact that it was rainy Monday night and cheap drunk women on rainy Monday nights weren't something i knew much about. They seemed even less surprised by my slight confusion when they showed me pictures of their respective wives and children. Just to add to the mix two Indian guys who were part of the cabin crew turned up as well and one of them told me that he doesn't "eat anything that once had a face" and the the loud Brazilian guy waved his arms around pointing to the other Indian man proudly telling everybody that his friend was a twenty six year old virgin. Eventually we finished eating pigs cheeks and they headed off to find their friend a sexual companion for the first time in his life.
Sang Min got married a couple of weeks later at a church in Incheon city west of Seoul which was a rainy day but a nice one too. Whenever i told any Korean friends that my mate was getting married one of the first thing they would talk about was food. Would there be a buffet? What kind of food would it be? Would it all be free? At the wedding itself it seemed that most people were less bothered about the bride and groom and more bothered about the quality of sushi and pasta on offer. It was like a buffet with a wedding on the side. But Koreans are obsessed with food. It's almost as if every meal or snack is a new experience to be treasured. People often greet you not with "Hello" or "How are you?" but "Did you eat lunch" as if the contents of you stomach and current condition of your bowels trumps any other physical or psychological problems you may have.
It's been fun living here and there are rarely dull moments in Seoul but I'll be happy to move on. It's a bit strange living in a city where almost all the buildings, vehicles and infrastructure is younger than me. It's developed itself so quickly that people can hardly keep up with the constant state of change that is Seoul and Korea at large but somehow they've managed to go from an economy comparable to Bangladesh to an economy similar to Spain in just 55 years. But I'll be even happier to leave my job which has been a ball ache for a while now. I feel mentally constipated. As if my brain is desperate for a crap and is running from the knees down to the nearest toilet knowing that a load of shit is about to escape from it. No more teaching English to students masquerading as monkeys and working with managers pretending have cognitive skills. Dump.
So, I'll be on a ferry to Japan on the 27th and not long after that i should be starting a two month hike around the island of Shikoku following an old Buddhist pilgrimage of visiting 88 temples on the Japanese path to enlightenment. I guess that'll be the part where i mentally wipe my arse.
Have fun. See you soon.
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