Fair warning...this is a long one!
"Hey girls I don't know very well yet...let's spend our fall break on a Japanese island where we don't speak the language, don't know how to get around, and lets just camp on the beach" says Meg. "Ok, I'm in" remark
All the Single Ladies. Let the adventures begin!
I had started reading blogs about moving to Korea long before I was even offered the position (ok, like a week before) and I had tucked away a few awesome trips people had blogged about. One of these trips happen to be to an island 52 kilometers (about 32 miles for the non metrics out there) off the coast of Korea that actually belongs to Japan. Tsushima offered beaches, beaches, some Japanese food, beaches, some hiking, beaches, some temples, and also some beaches. Sounds like an ideal vacation destination to me. (see more here
http://tsushima.weebly.com/)
We did have major chaos of finding out that camping season was over, busses apparently weren't very user friendly, the KTX was sold out for our return date, and we don't speak enough Korean or Japanese to make this all happen. A huge thanks to the Japanese and Korean speaking staff at APIS!! We finally got it all organized!
The KTX high speed train to Busan was WONDERFUL! So comfortable and speedy :)
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| Morning view on the KTX |
We spent the afternoon/evening at the beach in Busan soaking up the fact that we were officially on vacation. Good food, good location, great company!
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| Busan Hyundae Beach Sunset |
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| Beach by night! |
It was a really nice bonding time with the
All the Single Ladies (side note- APIS hired two families and 5 single ladies this year...we named ourselves...very creative, I know!) We finally had time where we didn't have to talk about school and Seoul and just got to know each other's lives. I am SO thankful for these girls - they really have become like family - there through tough stuff, family style dinners, and loads of fun!
After a really early morning and a 'hover craft' ferry ride, we arrived on the Island. Junko, our Japanese teacher here at APIS hooked us up with a car rental. Not a company, just a couple that rents out their car - it was great! Also, the fact that the lady's sign said "Mr. Mergan Peddlton" instead of Ms. Megan Pendleton was hilarious...and then us driving away, on the other side of the road, was probably equally as funny.
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| Korean picture pose on the high speed ferry |
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| The Merg...what a ride! |
We arrived, but could not check in so we went adventuring to find food. We returned to our hotel to find this...
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| View from our balcony - that went all the way around the corner |
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| Floor mat sleeping! |
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| I loved it so much that I bought a Kimono to take home! |
The room had two beds and three floor mat beds (which we are all really used to by now. That is a really common accommodation here in Korea as well and is actually really comfortable!) The view was AWESOME!!
We spent loads of time at the beach!
We spent one entire day just driving the whole island - Way to go Meg P. for being a trooper and driving the whole time! We met the only other American on the island who was actually getting interviewed for a TV show in Tokyo...so we might be on Japanese TV?!? I also requested that we try to make it to a really cool old temple for sunset to round out our adventure day.
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| Japanese TV! |
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| We got a bit lost, but look what we found!! |
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| "The Red Bridge" |
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| Busan on the horizon if it was a bit less humid. |
The other great excitement was the food!! We did a lot of pointing and nodding as we don't read any Japanese, but we had some awesome food. It was salty/savory which is very different from Korea. I can say that I was ready for spicy by the end of the trip. I guess my taste buds really have adjusted to Korean food. Breakfast was provided each day by our hotel...that was an adventure but it was great!
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| Day 1 breakfast: After day 1 the cooked the fish for us. The tofu in the white bowl was awesome though!! |
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| Alright Nemo...lets dance... |
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| Salmon, and egg, soup, salad and rice...why not? |
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| Dead fish on rice...most amazing sushi!!! |
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| We were BFFs by the third time that we ate here! |
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| Squid sushi...that's a new one for me. |
Overall, Japan was great! Beautiful, good food, nice people, and great company! Thanks Japan, I'll be back for more!
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| Sunrise on the last day |
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| Ships in the port at sunset |
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| View from the ancient castle location. |
If anyone out there is trying to do what I did (read a blog, take a trip) we took the
KTX high speed train from Seoul Station to Busan Station, stayed the night in Busan at the
Popcorn Hostel, and took an early ferry (
site to purchase tickets in English- Kobee Beetle) to Hitakatsu port on Tsushima. We ended up having to take a bus back since we waited too long to get the KTX back to seoul (it was Chuseok Holiday). I would suggest book early for KTX as one of our really, really nice Korean language teachers booked the bus for us (the site is only in Korean). We stayed at
Hotel Kimiso while on the island. They were awesome!
