Travel time

We need to pack and be out the door by 7 am Korea time, so staying up til 8 am PDT is cutting it close. Off to bed with me.

4:00 am.  Mom wakes up.
5:30 am.  Mom gets out of bed.
6:00 am.  Laramie gets out of bed.

The workers for the Hyundai Heavy industries plant began to arrive at the parking lot (which was part of our room's view) at about 6:30. By 6:45, or so, the lot had been filled and people began to double park along the aisles. By 7:00 they began to triple-park... until they filled every space available. If you arrive last you have to leave first, it seems.

We're off to a good start. After packing, asking Jesse about socks, and getting ready to check out, and we're down in the lobby waiting for Jesse.

Inhae's dad arrives a few minutes later, and we load up and leave. We're running about 20 minutes behind schedule to get to Pusan ferry terminal. Along the way I download all of my wedding & trip photos to Jesse, and we enjoy a pleasant ride. It turns out that when Jesse is bored he reverts to the Leavitt pasttime of trying to annoy people, primarily other Leavitts. Inhae had better watch out. The first drops of rain begin to fall as we leave Pusan; a good day to travel

The intersection at the ferry terminal is rather confusing when we see a taxi right in front of the lane we need to be in (facing the wrong way, no less), but soon Inhae has everything under control, Mom and I have tickets, and we're saying our goodbyes. Jesse grabbed us a korea sushi-like roll (what are they called?) for our breakfast, and we board the high speed ferry.

10:00 am. Onboard the ferry there is a tour group, a swedish guy and a couple from england that I noticed. They played a dvd rip of the Iron Man movie with korean subtitles--the english audio was not audible. After leaving past the breakwater in Pusan we were moving rather quickly. Mom an I both dozed, and the rain increased over the Sea of Japan.

2:00 pm. We arrive in Japan, fill out our immigration forms, and pass through customs. Immigration takes fingerprints and pictures, and it takes a lot longer than immigration in Korea.

As we are sitting in the bus terminal, a nice helpful korean family comes over and helps us with our travel plans--they give us a family bus pass, and point out the correct route to take. We look around a bit more, change some korean money, and then head out into the rain.

Bus 11, 19, or 50 will take us to Hakata station, and we hop on the 50, after braving a bit stronger rain for a few minutes. After figuring out how the bus tickets work--you take a number when you hop on and pay when you hop off the fare that appears on the fare board--and where we are, we arrive at Hakata station. We wander a little before finding the information booth that points out the Shikansen ticket counter down the hall. There appears to be less english spoken in japan than korea, and so after some halting negotiations about what we want, I use my visa card to purchase 2 tickets on the super-express for 29400 yen. We should make Kyoto in a little less than 3 hours.

We then make our way to track 13 and wait 10 minutes for the train to arrive.

The japanese girls dress very differently from the koreans, with much more variety of color and style. There is much more variety of color & print, style and selection. Even the business men, in their suits, have a different look, though the variation is much less; it's primarily the colors, along with the choice of tie. It may also be that the passengers of the super-express train represent a higher income bracket that the people that I saw in korea.

3:00 pm. The rain has cleared in Hakata, it seems, as we board the train. As the train starts to move, the city outside the window blows past. This is a train that feels fast, and as you watch the towns, hills, and valleys fly past (between the tunnels) you feel hurried to grab a photo before the next scene appears.

6:00 pm. Mom an I have snoozed our way along the misty countryside as rain streamed past our train window until we pull up in Kyoto. We know roughly where the hotel is, if we can get our bearings, and so I ask a security officer and he points the way I should go.

We check in. The room is small, but adequate and clean. We'll see what I think about the shower tomorrow. The attendant is very polite about showing us the room. Every phrase is punctuated with 'Hai'.

Next on the agenda is a Japanese phrasebook and a meal. We find the one in the department store behind the station; the other we find in a noodle shop down the street from the hotel. By the time we arrive at the ramen shop, we're about to collapse. It has been a long day and we've had very little to eat.

We choose the ramen shop after rejecting the teriyaki place that the hotel suggested. It was full of smoke, and to my sense, quite unpalatable.

While there a very helpful Japanese man assists us in ordering, and then begins to recommend places to visit in Kyoto and Tokyo. He likes the golden pavilion as well as the silver.

After paying for the meal (1440 yen) we say our thank yous and go to 7-eleven. We scout for treats and snacks, and the same gentlemen comes and shows us a map.

10:00 pm. It's a wrap.