Golden Week Travels

  Pusan, Korea Rep.
Sunday, April 29, 2007

Temple Buildings

Golden Week is the term used for the most popular week of travel/vacation in Japan.  This week falls at the end of April-beginning of May and consists of 4 holidays in one week. 

Temples

This year the April 29th was Showa Day (therefore making Monday the 30th a substitute holiday since Sunday is already considered a holiday in Japan), Constitution Memorial Day fell on the 3rd of May, Green Day on the 4th, and Children's Day on the 5th.  Fellow colleges therefore had a 3 day weekend, followed by 2 days of work, and a 4 day weekend. 

Secret Garden

Many people seize this travel opportunity though and take the 2 days off- but not cheaply.  Since Golden Week is such a popular time for vacations flights book up quickly and for a very high fare. 

Posing with our tour Guide

Still wanting to travel, I came up with the wonderful idea to take the FERRY to Korea for the week.  22 hours on a boat couldn't be that bad could it?  For 1/4th the price I was willing to give it a try.  Myself, a fellow Hyogo JET (Brenda), and her friend (Joe) visiting from America, embarked on the journey.  We took the train to Osaka and caught the ferry on Sunday April 29th. 

Raining

24 hours later we docked in South Korea to explore a rainy, smoggy, Pusan.  From there we traveled up to Gyeongju (an ancient, historic city in Korea) and on to Seoul.  Low on time, and dreading another 24 hour journey, we hopped on a plane from Seoul and made a direct flight into Osaka in less than 2 hours on Sunday May 6th. 

The next three entries include pictures from my experiences in Pusan, Gyeongju, and Seoul.  Overall South Korea was a pleasant country to visit. 

Spicy Cold Noodles

Spicy Beef Soup

The food was DELICIOUS and we found ourselves tempted to try every vendor food that we laid eyes on. 

Vendor Food

(Since many Asian countries are lined with vendors as if it's the VERNON COUNTY FAIR year round, this means we had a LOT of street treats.) 

Dining off Fine China!

Korea was also very green and full of foliage.  Lush trees covered the mountain sides, and green grass seemed to be everywhere... perhaps Korea has seen more rain than Japan lately.  I think the most shocking difference was the people.  Straight from the port we were made aware that we weren't in Kansas anymore- when we were poked and prodded by a man with a cane and shoved around by women with their granny carts and souvenir bags.  Kansai (the region in Japan where I live) is known for having rather assertive grandma and grandpas roaming the streets, but they now seem gentle and sweet after my experience in Korea.  No matter where we went, we were shoved around, often for no apparent reason. 

Posing with our tour Guide

We were also stared at constantly.  You'd think I'd be use to this from living in Japan, but the Korean stare and the Japanese stare are different.  In Japan, I sometimes notice that I'm being watched on the train, but if I look up and meet the gaze of the individual, they will immediately redirect their gaze- embarrassed and ashamed that they've been caught.  In South Korea they had no shame- they just met my eyes and kept on staring right through me. 

Apricot Trees in Bloom

It was soooooo intense that it often reduced me to the actions of a 4 year old.  I'd widen my eyes, glare, and even go as far as making strange faces... but they'd just keep staring, without a care in the world.  Perhaps they didn't notice me staring back, perhaps they didn't care, perhaps in Korea it's not considered rude to stare... I didn't have the courage (or the language ability) to ask.  Which brings me to the last difference between Japan and Korea- the language.  Either I'm getting pretty darn good at Japanese, or else Japan speaks a lot more English than Korea... I'm guessing number two.  We had a terrible time trying to communicate in restaurants, at the train station, and in the hotels.  Actually, we often had better luck speaking in Japanese than in English... especially in the markets, which surprised me and makes me wonder....  Is Japan the only country that tours Korea?

Enjoy the pictures!