Tokyo

The way you keep the riff-raff out of the gym is to charge twenty dollars.  You can charge twenty dollars for the pool as well.  And those customers who purchase discount tickets to your upscale hotel are certainly riff-raff. Well, at least we slept better last night.

I woke briefly when mom turned the air conditioning down, and took a picture of Tokyo awakening from the window. When you can see, we have an awesome view.

7:45. We're off to Tsugiki(sp) fish market for the first thing. It's about 4 stops away from the hotel, and, it turns out, pretty easy to find. Follow the fish market signs, and then your nose, and soon you'll be in a bustling market, filled with small white delivery trucks which are in the process of being filled with small white styrofoam boxes. The boxes are escorted by an army of snub-nosed delivery vehicles--the nose of the vehicle is round, and the driver stands on the front while the cargo area is a flat bed about 5 feet long. The speed all around, and crossing the street is like playing frogger.

The fish market is much busier than the market in Pusan--in part, perhaps because we're here much earlier in the morning--but probably mostly because it's Tokyo, and fish clearly moves from here to all parts of Japan.

Next to the fish market there are other markets. Notably, a vegetable market is right across the street. The market has food from around the world, and the fragrant strawberries, fat aspargrass, large radishes, and fresh cherries stand out.

Around the corner from the fish market we look for breakfast. We finally settle on a small sushi place, and get a tray of toro, otoro, and maguro tuna. Sorry, I forgot to take the picture because I was in too much hurry to eat.

9:45 am. We return to the subway, then the hotel, to pack our things up. We also finish our remaining food--a small creme caramel, a banana, and a banana gelatin "meal". The hotel room was quite nice... and we spent less than 2 hours here other than when we were sleeping.

10:45 am. Check out time. Not really, the hotel gives us until noon, but we'll need to be in the airport by then.

11:00 am. Puzzle time. How do you get from Ashikabara to NRT on the subway? It's easier if you understand that the subway trains in Tokyo often continue past the last indicated stop.  The answer is that you change trains twice, the second time in Ayoto for the Airport Narita limited express.

12:00 noon. The train passes through the Tokyo suburbs; mom and I doze to the gentle rocking of the train.

1:00 pm. Arrive at airport. The fare adjustment is 980 yen each. As we enter the airport the police check our passports. The airport is easy to navigate, and since we've arrived an hour ahead of schedule, we look around for something to eat.

We sit in a small japanese restaurant and order tempura with udon and chicken with egg over rice... then we look at mom's boarding time, which begins in 30 minutes, so we cancel the order and head for security. Security is pretty quick for an airport of this size. Soon mom is on the plane.

The last meal before leaving Japan is tempura shrimp with udon noodles.

Not sleeping on planes leads to several more movies on the way home.

1. Crazy Heart. A story about how a country singer was redeemed by a woman, and how he loses her love.
2. The Book of Eli. A post-apocalyptic story about preserving a book.
3. Sherlock Holmes. A hyper-aware romp through 19th century england.

8:40 am. Arrive in seattle, and pass through customs & immigration faster than ever. Now the trick is to stay awake all day and get back onto a reasonable schedule.

Tokyo subway tour

Awake at about 5:30.  I don't seem to be sleeping a lot this trip.  Showered and spent some time filling out the travel log from yesterday.  Mom also doesn't sleep very well.

For breakfast we visit a little cafe down the street.  Mom has an egg salad sandwich with ham, while I have waffles and fruit, with OJ.  We meet an martial arts instructor who gives a few tips on snacks to buy at a 7-eleven, where we stock up for the Tokyo train ride.

After checking out, the owner comes out to bow, and gives us a parting gift.

Before buying tickets to Tokyo we take a quick detour to the post office near the station.  The train is pretty uneventful, except we get off one station before the end of the line... I suppose that with a tokyo subway map we could have negotiated the trip, but since this was before our experience on the tokyo subway, we hopped back on and continued to the end.

1:00 pm.  In tokyo station we learn about different subway lines and train lines from a little japanese man who gives us advice on how to get to our hotel.  Change at the mita stop, and continue to shibakoen exit.

We're a bit early at the hotel check in.  Our room's on the 24th floor: 2423.  Nice room.  View is good, but could be better.

We plan a little, and then head off on what, in the end, becomes a subway tour of Tokyo.

2:30.  First up, Shinjuku.  Shinkjuku is one of the busiest locations in Tokyo, with millions of people visiting the station every day.  It also has Tokyo's biggest collection of sky scrapers.  It takes us a while to get our bearings, then we watch people for a minute before heading off...

4:00.  Next up, Shibuya.  Shibuya is Tokyo's time square.  The crowds flow back and forth across the busy intersection.  Google's office is nearby, so I take a slight detour to visit.  On the way back I'm snacking on a lemonade and some pretzels when I realize that I haven't seen anyone eating on the streets since I've been in asia.  I finish up a little more quickly, and before we leave we stop at the starbucks next door to watch the crowds flow again.

6:00 pm.  By this time it's rush hour, and we pick up a fairly packed JR train to Akhibara.  Akhibara is the place to pick up electronics and computer parts.  It's starting to get cold.  We check out a few stores, and I can find similar prices in the US, and I'm not really shopping, just looking.

We wander for a while, and see a lot of girls dressed up in cute costumes.  Mom finally takes a brochure and asks what they are doing.  It turns out that this is advertising for the japanese maid cafes.  The original idea is that the servers wear maid costumes and address customers as "master".

8:00 pm.  For dinner we went in search of a tempura place I saw in the guidebook, but were then derailed by a helpful japanese woman who lived in Oregon.  She said that Asakusa was known for tempura, and so we headed up there.  We saw a small gate, surrounded by market stalls.  We walked a few blocks looking for a tempura shop, but if there were tempura shops, then they had closed--most stores closed at about 9 pm.  We settled for a place that had fried pork.  I ordered curry with rice and mom ordered fried pork with cabbage and mizo soup.

After dinner we begin the trek back to the hotel.  We spent the day walking and riding subways, and we're worn out.  It turns out that the view is much better at dark.

Kyoto Station and the Shinkansen to Tokyo

Dinner in Kyoto

View Larger Map

The sushi here was good after a long day walking around Kyoto. The ginger was much better here than where we stopped in Tokyo.

Kiyomizu-dera Temple

Ginkaku-ji Temple

Kinkaku-ji Temple

Kyoto

Schedule: Nijo-jo, Golden pavilion, Silver pavilion, Kiomizu-dera.

Since we're staying in a traditional room tonight, we packed up our stuff... I threw in some wash... and we went to find breakfast. After breakfast at McDonalds--it was Y420 here for the same meal that cost W3000 in korea--we came back and used the drier.

First task is to figure out the subway. I bought a one-way ticket, but the day pass and normal tickets are sold by separate machines. Mom went and asked the agent how to do it. Since this had taken a few minutes we decided to return, take care of the dryer, and then leave for the day.

10:00 am. First, Nijo-jo. This castle was built in the 1600s for the Shogun, who used it as his seat of government for over 200 years. It sits in the middle of town, so it was only 2 subway stops away from the hotel. The castle had a couple of amazing things. First are the nightengale floors, which sing as you walk down them. They were designed so that nobody could come or go without being noticed. Second are the paintings. The walls and doors of the entire palace are covered with different paintings with representations of traditional themes. For example, the armoury has eagles sitting in pines. Third are the gardens. The gardens are amazing, and it does not appear that there is a branch out of place in the entire garden. Pink and white Azaleas. The crows

While waiting for mom to take my picture, a small group of Japanese school children come up to us. Each child recites, in order, "Hello, my name is ..., I am from ... prefecture.", and then proceed in unison, "May I ask you a question?". The question that they ask is "Where are you from?". We tried Utah, but they didn't know where it was, so we settled on "America", which delighted them.

We learned while talking to people that Japanese schoolchildren typically visit Kyoto on a field trip around 6th grade and 10th grade. They travel with a teacher in group of about 8 kids. And they were all over the place. If you want to go to a shrine or temple, just follow the uniforms.

12:00 noon. ish. Second, Kinkakuji, the golden pavilion. It's about 20 minutes by bus, near the hills. The entire building has been covered in gold leaf, and it sits near a garden and a reflecting pool. Dad would have loved it. Around the temple are some other amazing gardens. By the ponds are purple water iris.

On the way out it starts to rain, and we take refuge under the tiny shop awnings. They have samples out, and the school kids are tasting them; so do we. Cinammon cookies, sweetened rice balls that you dip into a black sesame paste, rice dumplings filled with strawberry, green tea, or sesame filling, wasabi peanuts.

2:30 pm. Third, Ginkakuji, the silver temple. This is across town from the golden pavilion, and so it took a bit over 30 minutes by bus to get there. Also surrounded by amazing gardens, including a rock garden with a semi-conic mound of sand as well as a raised bed of sand. I assume that the silver of the sand is related to the temple's name. Mom said that this was her favorite garden we saw today.

We saw many more europeans visiting Japan than Americans. I took pictures for several groups from england, as well as one couple from spain.

4:30 pm. Our final stop, really, Kiyomizu-dera Temple. This is a series of several bhuddist temples that are built on the mountain overlooking Kyoto. It was raining pretty hard at various times along the walk here, and it was a relief to stop in the protection of an ancient temple roof. These were the largest temple that we've seen on the trip, certainly larger than the temples overlooking Pusan. The temples were supported by massive wooden pillars and overlook a spring that you can pay a bit to drink. We thought that it was funny that the kids wearing face masks would take a drink from a communal cup, but the cups were placed into a UV sterilizer between uses. We both got drinks after the lady accepting the money packed up and left. I also took a photo for a group of 3 girls from LA drinking at the spring.

We were a little lucky on our timing, since most of these sites close at 5, while Kiyomizu-dera closes at 6 (well, except for the love stone, which is supposed to help you find true love, which closes at 5). Each site averaged about Y500 per adult to enter as well, and they don't take visa.

Walking back from the temple, all the shops are closing up. They sell trinkets, fans, chopsticks, and most of all, japanese traditional treats. We buoght a little bun filled with barbecued beef and onions, which smelled very good, and was quite tasty.

6:15 pm. We take another turn down an alley when another shrine comes into view, and we detour to look at it. A few blocks later we find a bus stop, wait for the pickup, and ride to the hotel.

Dinner. We're going to look for sushi.

7:00 pm. I had planned out our trip to the sushi restaurant, which involved changing trains at a subway stop, but it turns out that there are different systems in kyoto, trains and subways. The day pass doesn't cover trains, but it does cover busses. Another puzzle. So instead we walked and then rode the bus for a part of the way.

Found sushi, but we missed the place recommended by the book, which we encountered on the way home. It is a little nook, and if you're walking towards the river without reading Japanese... you'll miss it, as the black lantern that marks the entrance will be obscured by the shop next door.

The shop that we found was in the busy business district of Kyoto, around the corner from our intended destination. This shopping area was very upscale, in some ways similar to the mall we visited in Korea, but in others very different. There were a lot of people on the street, but I didn't see as many in the stores. Every so often a small buddhist shrine would punctuate the shop displays with lanterns, candles, incense, and a small bhudda.

Dinner was good. All of our meals here have been good. We ordered a set plate of Tekka Maki with another rice dish with an unknown (to me) name. It was flavored rice, noodles of some sort, and pork on top, also with one shrimp. It also came with miso soup, which was savory and hot, the transparency of the broth completely belying its flavor. Tuna rolls are my favorite, and they always leave me satisfied.

We walked home, and on the way ducked into little shops and convenience stores looking for treats and snacks. We found a few that looked good and I bought some strawberry filled chocolates, which were very tasty.

The room is measured in tatami mats, which are basically the size of a twin mattress, rectangular, twice as long as they are wide. There are 6 mats laid out on our floor so that the room is 3 mats wide and 2 mats long. The bathroom is smaller than in the western room, and there is no internet connection, but there is a television, minifridge, and table with 4 legless chairs. The windows are covered by typical japanese paper frames.

11:00 pm. Before bed I check out our seats on the return flight--both aisle, good.

Train and Rain

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.

Tradition

Jesse & Inhae

Wedding day

7:30 am. The hotel room was hot last night, and not as comfortable as the SeaCloud hotel.  Wonder of wonders, Jesse called before mom and I were ready.  So I took a long-ish shower in hot water.

Breakfast was McDonalds.  I had the pancakes, while mom and Jesse ate McSomethings.  Not very memorable.

Afterwards we walked to the Hyundai cultural center on the hill, where Inhae was getting ready for the big day.  Jesse, too, had to put on his tux and makeup.

11:30 am.  Mom and I are getting ready for the wedding, ironing our clothes.  The gold suit has a stain--or three--and mom is annoyed.  $10 would have bought much more attention to detail in Korea.

12:15 pm.  I go downstairs and find the party in full swing; After watching the three photographers pose Inhae in a small salon with a couch, I go to fetch mom.

Mihee, Inhae's mom, is wearing a traditional Korean dress, and it turns out that mom could have also worn one, if we had known.  When  I get married in Korea, I'll be sure and ask questions about traditions and dress.

Mr. Shim is greeting people, much like a reception in the US, and I think that both parents are expected to be there, but they are too polite to mention anything.  I stand by him for a while, and he introduces me to several people that come by, but not others--I assume that they are work colleagues.

By the entrance to the banquet hall is an interesting dispay with a couple of pictures of Jesse and Inhae.  In one, they stand side by side hugging teddy bears.  How cute!

1:00 pm.  People are getting seated.  There is a spot reserved for the groom's family, but the seats are empty.  There's a korean emcee as well as an american emcee, who direct the crowds--or mom and I.

I sit in front, in what would be dad's seat, if he were here, and wait while the procession begins.  First, the mothers arrive, light candles, and bow to each other.  The room laughs as mom nearly forgets to bow to the audience.

The crowd claps as each person enters.

The Groom--that's Jesse--then enters, walking down the aisle.  He bows to various people, then stands and waits.

Inhae's father escorts her down the isle.  When they arrive where Jesse waits, they bow to each other, and Jesse then escorts Inhae to the front in a cloud, with bubbles raining down upon them.  The bubbles that landed near the CO2 sat on the green ballroom carpet until the mist began to die away, when they would slowly pop.

After this the officiator begins saying a lot of things that Mom and I cannot understand.  It doesn't go on very long.

There is more bowing, to both families this time, and then Jesse is told to pick up the bride, address her, "Inhae", sit, then stand and say "I love you.".  He does it, but the Emcee tells him to say it louder.  The third try he finally uses a voice that projects to the audience.

And that was the ceremony.  No kissing, and very polite and formal.

After that, photos.

2:00 pm.  We have a small, more intimate ceremony with both Inhae and Jesse in traditional dress--Jesse in blue, which seems to represent the groom's family, and Inhae in red.

First up is Mom.  Mom sits behind a low table, with nuts and sweets arranged on it.  Jesse pours a traditional alcohol into a cup which Inhae holds and hands it to her (also adding in sotto voce that it's alcohol, and not to drink), where, with some prodding, she mimics drinking the cup. 

She gets to take a handful of dried plums? and chestnuts, and tosses them onto a kerchief that the bride and groom hold between them.  4 sons, 5 daughters.

Then she is told to give the newlyweds some advice.  And she mentions to always think of the other person, and to avoid criticizing.

Next I'm up, and before we I mimic the driking routine, we bow, head to the floor, as a sign of respect.  I don't get to add any more children to the mix, but do get to eat the candy.  Unfortunately I didn't get my chance to give advice, or I probably would have said to never go to bed angry at one another.

Inhae's parents are next, and by now Jesse has moderated the amount of alcohol he pours.  They both eat a sweet and give some advice.  Treat others with respect.

Finally comes Mr. Shim's cousin, who is a bit older than he is, and I couldn't understand his advice; It must have been something about always listening to Inhae because she's the boss...

And this is where the kissing comes in, as the newlyweds share a dried fruit, with Jesse holding it in his mouth to start with...

2:40 pm.  Lunch in the same buffet restaurant as last night.  I ate more sushi, mostly, and noodles.  Also a small salad and some bread pudding for desert.

3:05 pm.  Mr Shim takes mom and I on a driving tour of Hyundai Heavy Industries, which includes a shipyard, engine manufacture, large transformers & electrical components, and construction machinery.  The boat yards were amazing--very large sections of the side are built one at a time, and then welded together to form a hull section, like a slice of a watermelon.  Multiple hull sections are then joined together in drydock until the ship is completed up to above the waterline.  After that some of the upper hull and decking can be completed with the boat floating.  This is aided by 1200 ton cranes, movable buildings, and lots of people.  They build about 100 ships per year, at least 1 per week.  

The whole factory was huge, with a lot of ships being built at once.  I counted at least 2 dozen that looked like ships already.  Both mom and I were very impressed.

3:55 pm.  Tour's over, we say good-bye to Mr & Mrs Shim, and arrange a ride to Pusan terminal tomorrow.

5:00 pm.  After changing, Mom, Jesse, and I run errands... I'm looking for chapstick, and Mom is looking for mint Xylitol candy.  I find the chapstick, and Mom does not find the candy.

We then hike up a small hill behind the hotel.  I thought that it was a loop, but it doesn't look like it.  It looks out over a soccer pitch, but didn't offer an unobstructed view of the city.

Inhae calls when we're at the top--she has been off with friends and is now back at the hotel.  We walk back, past the hospital, and then decide to go downtown.

7:30 pm.  The Lotte department store has a huge ferris wheel on top of the 7 story building, and so we rode it.  Inhae is a little bit afraid of heights and on the sides you look down over the edge of the building.

9:05 pm.  Dinner time at pizza hut.  PizzaHut in Korea is a nice, sit down restaurant, and the pizza is expensive.  In additon to the pizza, we ate the salad bar, which had an interesting sweet potato salad, like a potato salad, and both apple and watermelon Jello.  The pizza was a bulgogi and bbq, and around the edges were interesting rolls of bread around cheese and sweet potato filling, that you dipped into the fondue cheese filling.

10:30 pm. At home.  Uploading photos.  Calling the US.  Writing up notes.  Getting ready to leave at 7 am for Japan.

Ulsan Whitehouse Lighthouse

Dolphins in Ulsan

Meeting the inlaws

The jet lag is not as bad this morning.  I tossed and turned, sure, but didn't abandon hope of sleep until 6:30.

Spent some time writing about yesterday's adventures.

7:00 am.  Mom and I went on a walk to the lighthouse along the beach (about 1.5 km).  We walked in the sea foam, and took it easy.  A swimming team was swimming the 2 km lap from the beach to the light house.

9:00 am.  Jesse tells us that we can be seen from a mile away, after he sneaks up and tries to grab me.  After a quick shower, we have breakfast, same as yesterday.

10:00 am.  Repacking our suitcases; I have to remove everything and refold it, any ineffeciency would make my suitcase too large.

11:00 am.  Inhae's father--our ride to ULSAN arrives, and we check out.  His new car is very comfortable, and we speed down the freeway.  On the way we decide to stop at the whale aquarium, where there are 3 dolphins.  The tank has an underwater archway, where we watch them doing tricks.

There is also a retired whale vessel, and across the street... Several shops selling whale meat 12 ways.

1:30 pm.  We met Inhae's mother, who is very busy putting together a feast in the kitchen.  There was a chicken salad, barbecued beef short ribs, noodles, fried battered zuchinni and mushrooms, etc.  Desert was a plate of very delicious strawberries and fruit.

I spent the next hour trying to get the slideshow to work on the televisions.  Finally success, though some of the photos are sideways.

Inhae's sister arrived, and then, off to the hotel.

5:00 pm.  After checking in, we change our dinner time from 5:30 to 7:30, since the feast at lunch hasn't left us with much reason to eat yet.  Then we went to walk down to a little white lighthouse near the beach.  The beach was a little torn up--new roads appeared to be in process, but slowly.  We had a lovely walk to the lighthouse, which is still in use, so we were turned out at dusk.  So we walked out to the rocks that it is warning about.

8:00 pm.  Dinner is at the buffet.  It's Parent's Day--the strawberries were a parent's day gift--and so the buffet is special.  This appeared to involve crab's legs and additional dishes, more sushi / sashimi.

Dinner in Busan

10:30 pm.  For dinner we eat bolgoi, where we barbecue pork on a little grill built into the table.  It was nice.  Then a walk back to the hotel along the beach.  The beachgoers are nearly all drunk or drinking, mostly in small groups of 2-5.

11:30 pm. I can't keep my eyes open any longer.

Busan: Geumjeong

6:00 pm.  Legs and feet are tired, so we've headed for the old fortress of Geumjeong, now a shrine, on the subway.  It's about 20 stops away, so it takes about 40 minutes.  At the exit we have a taxi take us to the bhuddist shrine where we find them performing their evening rituals.  We hike up the mountain for a few minutes, but it will be dark soon, and there's not enough time to make more than 1 km along the 2 km path to the peak.  As twilight deepens, we hurry down the granite boulders, as we've been told that the last bus leaves at 8 pm.  When we get back to the temple many of the paper lanterns are lit.  Another temple complex looks off the ridge to our north with more lanterns.

While waiting for the bus a taxi arrives, which we quickly catch for the base fare (2200 won).

8:00 pm. Subway back to the hotel.  Quite a few stops.

View Larger Map

Busan: Nampodong

4:00 pm. At the international market we could have bought a Louis Vitton for much cheaper than the department store. In the buildings and alleys they sell all sorts of goods: lighting, pots and pans, cloth, clothes, curtains, shoes, etc. You name it, they sell it. Most of it is low quality, but not all.

One of the coolest spots was a shop that sold art supplies. A classical calligraphy brush was over 100000won($100). Watercolors were also available; the prices were comparable with the US.

Another shop had a man who sold wooden plaques with designs that he wood burned onto them. A tiger. Celebrity faces. Whatever you wanted.

Jesse waited in a long line for a sweet fried doughball filled with nuts, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Mom and I had another coke.

After wandering long and hard, we bought a few very cheap ties.

Busan: Jagalchi

3:00 pm. Fish market.  Walking down towards the waterfront is a large fishmarket.  The fishwives stand over baskets of flounder, snapper, eels, crabs, squid, octopus, clams and other types of fish and shellfish, some alive, some dead, while people walk past, most of us just looking.

It was quite interesting to watch the fishmongers prepare eel:  First, fasten the head, make a slit up the abdomen and remove unwanted parts, then slice through the neck and peel the skin off.  They were quite quick.  Their technique was good and they were fast; imagine how many hours they have spent practicing.

A large, square building has more stalls, with fishwives spending their time--when they're not selling anything--cleaning squid or eels.  Upstairs are a series of korean restaurants where they serve sashimi.  Apparently you can select the fish at the market and have it served upstairs.  All we bought were a couple of cokes and some dried squid--squid jerky.

Busan: University

12:00 noon. Down, out, and off to Jesse's university, and our first coca-cola of the day. We stopped in at McDonalds, where Jesse says that he spent countless hours studying and getting free refills. We order a bulgogi burger, which is a pork sandwich with a bit of a sweet taste, and our sodas. McDonalds plus coke equals more energy for walking down the street.

Right outside the university the sidewalk is full of shops catering to students, mostly the hungry kind. Sandwiches, bakeries, coffee shops, bars, cell phone shops, and a small hole in the wall (decorated with brick-print wallpaper) that sells ice cream on a waffle.

We walked through the university campus, which was much nicer than I expected, level, and in the heart of the city. The university has added 4 buildings in the last year. We visited the student building, which is beginning to look a little run-down, with some cracks in the facade, and then Jesse took us to see if any of his professors were out and about. Since it was 1:00 pm, we're sure that the lack of professors was an indication that they were in class.

After school we bought a waffle cone for less than 1000 won. Great deal, and very tasty. Then back to the subway, headed for the fish market.

Busan: Shinsegae

10:10 am. The Shinsegae department store in Busan is billed as the world's largest department store.  It does not open until 10:30 am, though, so we wander around doing nothing for a while. Finding the street entrance, we wait until the doors open.

10:30 am. Doors open, every salesman and worker is at their station, cherrfully greeting the customers. Inside the escalator carries us up 9 floors, past all types of stores & departments, such as Tiffany's, Loius Vitton as well as local brands. The 9th floor had a performance hall, about a dozen restaurants (3 japanese, several korean, italian, chinese, etc.), a bank, and a rooftop park. Jesse really liked the bathrooms: "Probably the best bathrooms you will ever see", he says. There was also an ice-skating rink, a preschool, and a huge spa inside the store.

They didn't have everything--the bookstore was missing an english-japanese phrasebook.