Korea

I am now starting to travel a bit in between schools in Fukuoka and Tokyo and my first destination was Korea.

Between Fukuoka and Busan in South Korea there is a hyspeed ferry called "Beetle". It takes roughly three hours to do the trip from Fukuoka to Busan and is not too expensive either. And for Korea we do not need a visa, so it is very covenient.

Hm, how did I like Korea? Well, it was just a first impression since the stay was short. It seems that Korean culture is quite different despite the mutual influence and vicinity. I caught myself thinking how loud and impolite people were. Actually they behaved more than we in Europe do, but I seem to have gotten used to how things are done in Japan already. Korea seems to be less high tech oriented, a bit messier and less clean and people are not fashionistas like in Japan. The food is really spicy, but consists of various small plates like in Japan. I was a bit paranoid about dog meat... Karaoke is popular in Korea as well, but different. They sing on a stage, one person at a time, while the Japanese prefer small private rooms. And Korea is slightly cheaper than Japan too, but goods are not as nicely wrapped and presented on the other hand.

Busan is probably not the best place to visit in Korea. Not so much culture, it's a port city with a very international influence. I walked around in the city a bit, to see the fish market, the UN cemetery and a temple. In the evening I went out with some people from the hostel. We noticed that unlike in Japan, the beach is really lively in the evening (on a weekday), people sit outside, drink, play music, sing karaoke, etc. So a much more lively beach life. We found a nice bar on the beachfront, the "Fuzzy Navel" and played darts with the bartenders. A Korean girls who had spent several years in the US told us a bit about the difficulties of reintegrating into Korean society, that was really interesting and well-reflected.