Day 8, 9, 10: Korea

backtrack blog...

at Hakata Ferry Pier

got on the jetfoil from Hakata to Pusan (3-hour ride) and arrive at our first "foreign" land.
thought it'd be simple to navigate through trains, buses, and signals, but no.  once we got out of the international ferry terminal, most everything was written in hangul, and we had to be like kids and play a game of matching lines, squares, and circles to find the correct destinations and routes.

first thing i realized upon entering the train: it smells like garlic.
not raw nor cooked, but garlic that seeps through the pores after being digested by a human being.  it wasn't gross or anything, 'twas just how it was.  in a day or two, i too will be seeping garlic from my pores.

first train in Pusan

we get to the hostel, go out to lunch at the local town, get a huge meal of bbq pork + naengmyun for less than 5 dollars/person,

incredibly cheap and yummy food

explore,

nap, do research on our next destination (proving to get harder and more stressful by the day), and head out to the city at night with fellow hostellers.

dad excited to hang out with the young ones (me too)

at the first restaurant, they served us a pot of makkoli (korean rice wine) which then you water down with Sprite (or the Korean version of it).  you keep chugging the drink in a bowl-like cup, as you take shots of soju whenever the guys want to say cheers.  fun times.

hostellers

the next day, dad and i woke up before everyone else at the hostel and took off in stealth as we visited one of the UN World Heritage sites: Bulguksa temple in the Geongsang province.
we got to the site around noontime, and headed towards the restaurant area which was obviously established to serve tourists.  the 15 or so restaurants all looked very quiet.  before we could get to any of them, an old lady who was standing on the street corner spoke to us in Japanese and quickly pulled us into her empty restaurant down the hill.  before we knew it, she was cooking up a huge meal of dolsot bibimbap.  after serving the food hurriedly, she ran back to the same street corner to catch some more tourists getting off the next bus.

the meal was great, and upon paying the bill, dad asked if we could leave our heavy backpacks with her while we explored the temple.  "sure sure sure," she replies, "wow great!" dad says, and although i felt a bit skeptical, we entrusted our bags with the lady.

we climbed for about 10 minutes to get to the entrance of Bulguksa.  just as we were looking around to purchase entry tickets, an old man stops us and says, "you two left your backpacks at the restaurant right?  i saw you, i even saw you go into the bathroom at the bottom of the hill, here's what you have to do from here: go over to that counter, buy tickets, take a good look at the temple for about 1.5 hours, head to that bus station over there by 2:40, take bus #12, go up to see the big buddha, and then come back in time for your train to Seoul.  oh, and look, i have some extra time right now, so let me explain to you all the important sights within this temple!"  and so he does for about 10 minutes, explaining in detail the historical and cultural meaning of every aspect of the temple and the layout of the land.

dad listens carefully, as i get worried more and more about our bags..."he saw us?  he followed us up the hill?  he's telling us to take our time?"  the thought lingers for a bit, but we enter the temple and i forget about our bags for the next hour...

we realize there's not enough time to catch the KTX (high-speed train) to Seoul if we visit the huge Buddha, so we head back down to the restaurant.  my worries come back and i imagine a scene shady-man and the lady-cook going through our backpacks searching for valuable.  "i'll catch them red-handed..."
we get to the restaurant, the place is now packed, and our bags are sitting there exactly where we put them a couple hours ago.
we say our thanks, give the lady a tip and as we leave, we find the old man playing with a kid next door.  turns out he was the shopkeeper of a souvenir store and sometimes volunteers as a tour guide for the temple.

for a moment, i regret being suspicious of the two.  i know i need to be extra careful taking care of my dad, i've also read about so many horror stories, but i don't want to keep traveling suspecting everyone who approaches us with kindness.  i feel a bit torn as to how i should proceed in my travels...and life.

the KTX was fully booked with reservations, so we board the train without a seat and find space in between cars to place our bags and make our way through the 3-hour ride to Seoul.

good bye...the girl was crying the whole time.

dad a bit tired

KTX ticket inspector

we don't get to do much in Seoul.  we stay at a nice guest house with a Japanese speaking owner named Mr. Kim, and roam around the city for a bit to grab a nice dinner.  Seoul seems to me like any other big city in Japan.  the feel of the streets, the neon, the conbinis, the stations, are all pretty much the same.  the writing is different, the smell (garlic!) is different, and the young girls and guys here tend to have fuller bodies.  i realized this first within the girls (duh), they seemed to not be as skinny as Japanese girls.  then i realized that the same was true for the guys here.  i'm assuming that it's the mandatory military service that makes the men here stronger, and in turn affects the whole culture and everyone's understanding + preference of the body.

the next morning, as i was researching how to get to the Incheon ferry port on the shared computer, i catch a "Lonely Planet: China" book sitting on the corner of the desk next to mine.
"you going to China also?"
"yeah."
"when?"
"today, on a ferry."
"serious?  my dad and i are doing the same too!  which ferry?"
"the one to Weihai."
"oh, we're going to Shidao...wait, Weihai is like right next door to Shidao.  let's just catch the same one!"
"sure."
and so we make a new friend, Luke.  Luke is a 24 year-old from Ireland, and he's been in Korea for 2 years(?) now, and can read + speak the language.  let me tell you, having him around made our trip to the ferry port and beyond much much easier.

Luke

Korean couples like to wear matching clothes

cute

got on the ferry at Incheon, and although the bathroom smells intensely of urine, we enjoy the beds, the Korean cafeteria food, the amazing sunset, and beer at the empty bar lounge.

quoting Luke: "longest bridge in the world"

cafeteria food (amazing and cheap)

smoking room

BEER

my bed

bubai Korea.  and i was right, by the end of the trip, i didn't smell the garlic in trains anymore.

Day 11: in China

Made it from Korea (Incheon) to China (Shidao) via a 25-hour ferry, and now heading to shanghai.

Unlike Japan and Korea, China is huge...thought traveling from city to city would be a breeze, but my guess was so wrong.

The next 24 hours will be spent on this bus. A bit cramped, but I guess better than having to sit up straight...guess it's also time to catch up on my journal.

I am doing well.

Sent from iphone.

Day 4, 5, 6, 7: the difference

there's one huge difference between me and my dad.  this difference often causes me frustration and stress, while it makes my dad feel like he's always causing trouble.

to sum it up, here's (what i think) the two takes are on eachother:

Yuta: "gosh, dad's sooo lazy and unaware about things...that's why we end up having to change our schedule to wait for his India tourist visa!  it even caused us an extra 6,000 yen to get us into Korea. dad, shape up a bit and think ahead."

Toshi: "gosh, Yuta is sooo anal.  it's a journey!  why can't he just take it chill and go with the flow?"

on Day 5, i got us the wrong tickets out of Ishikawa into Kyoto.

the ticket that i wanted was 30 minutes earlier than the one in hand, and when i suggested we should go back and change it, dad goes "eh, it's fine, lets just sit and wait at a cafe."

and so we did with my sister Julia, who drove us to the station.

after about 10-15 minutes or so, we see Julia's father-in-law (Akitoshi Asano) and mother-in-law (Rite) running into the station to try and catch a glimpse of us to say "good bye".  we had been in Ishikawa for 2 nights, but since Akitoshi was on a business trip, we hadn't been able to see him.

Dad, Rite, and Akitoshi

after chatting it up for 15 minutes, we say our good byes and head up to the platform.  as my dad and i were roaming around looking for our train number, a distinguished looking man, well in his 60's, asks us "i overheard you talking in the cafe, you going to Nepal?  i've been going there every year for the last 16 years.  i have contacts and information if you need."

so the man and my dad sit down during the 2-hour ride to Kyoto discussing our Nepal portion of the journey.  supposedly dad gained some really nice information.

Dad and Nepal-man

AND THEN IT HITS ME!

wait! so what if dad was anal like me, and we decided to take the earlier train, just cuz it seemed more "practical"?  then surely we wouldn't have been able to see Akitoshi, nor would the Nepal-man have caught us to give helpful information.

suddenly, i had this realization that lifted so much weight off of my shoulders.

this is dad's dream.  i am helping to make it happen.

i'm not the one in charge, nor responsible for anything that goes wrong.

we'll just go with the flow, and see what unfolds.

so glad that i had this revelation prior to departing Japan.

tomorrow we set off to South Korea.  a place that dad nor i have never been to.

a bit scared...but also that much excited.

some other pics from Day 4-7 (sorry, unedited):

with Tetsu and friends, Kyoto

Tetsu and fisherman, Kyoto

with Nina, Osaka

Nina, Osaka

Kokura Gion Taiko, Kokura (Fukuoka)

Market, Kokura

Market-street, Kokura

Smoking Lounge, Kokura

Day 3: six hours

today was a travel day.
left all of what is happening in the Tohoku region to visit my sister (soon to be a mother!) and her lovely husband in Ishikawa.

when spending time with someone 24/7, you're bound to find faults within your partner, and sometimes the smallest things start to annoy you.  no matter what though, i decided to constantly take pictures of my travel partner, dad.
there's something about the action of taking pictures that refreshes your mindset.  for me, i try to find things that i don't usually see, try to look for deeper meaning in things, and simply try to take what is beautiful.

today, i was able to see two wonderful things within my dad.
1. he's always been good with kids and babies.  they just somehow gravitate towards him (sorta like how i draw in the ladies...j/k)  it's so lovely to see him interact with them.
2. we went into a dirty, cute little bar with tons of dvds and anime figures. the owner seemed a bit cold...and weird.  other than my dad, we were all probably worried about the outcome of the night.  but soon after my dad found a limited edition Pink Floyd album sitting on the corner of the counter, he wouldn't stop bragging about all of their concerts that he was able to attend.  the owner then quietly pulls out a dvd from his shelf and turns on a Pink Floyd live concert on his big flat-screen tv, full blast.  from then on, the album and drinks kept coming and coming...
although probably rare, i was able to catch the owner smirk two times while we were there.  i'm pretty sure he was smiling a huge smile within his heart.
without dad, i don't think any of this would have happened.

so, within 24 hours, i'm at a bar, in a city full of lights, homes, tall buildings, with tons of food and drinks.  six hours of a train ride and the situation is flipped.  i feel bad for leaving the volunteers behind to do so much grunt work in a seemingly hopeless setting, but life goes on for everyone else.  we have to worry about our own family, food, and happiness.  i'm sure there will be more of such times to come.  the experiences felt in the Tohoku region were real, there's no doubt about it, and i have pictures to prove it.  tomorrow, i'll leave Ishikawa behind to see Tetsu in Kyoto.  we'll probably chat over drinks again, and talk about his new grandchild and mother whom he's currently visiting.  i feel a bit sad but life goes on for me too, and hopefully sometime in the future, some of my experiences will be revisited, reflected upon, and it will serve some sort of meaning.  until that day comes, good bye Tohoku...

last photo with the volunteers in Tohoku

dad in search of a soba restaurant

train window

dad and kid

dad, julia, katsuji, and hot anime figure

bar

Pink Floyd friends

Day 2: although i don't believe in fate

fate has it that the small volunteer organization staffed with 3 members, is invited to a taiko event on 3/11.
the group produced by the same folks that taiko conference donated money towards...

so after taking a bath at the local bathhouse as a "volunteer," we set out to witness this event at the exact time of the earthquake, 1 year ago.

smack in the center of the o-daiko is my taiko sensei's signature "田中誠一" and i am forced to believe that there's something fateful controlling our every action.

i know that i can't expect anything being here in the Tohoku region.  but today i realized "useless" doesn't equal "hopeless."  dad, keisuke and i cooked dinner for the staff and members.  within all of the sadness, there was a ray of warmth that shined through.

a boy who lost his life loved blue "koinobori." his older brother made a call out and gathered all of these from across japan. he now performs taiko under these "koinobori" in remembrance of his younger brother.

taiko performance

signed by Tanaka Seiichi

volunteer group leader and a local

dad

the wind still blows

Kato family cooks dinner for the volunteer staff