Korea

A few weeks ago, we decided it was time to do a little exploring, so we jumped on a bus and then a plane and ended up in Busan, South Korea! Okay, that's not exactly how it went down. Actually, we knew before we even came out to Miyazaki that we would need to go to Korea to get our visas approved (loooooong story.....but I'm too lazy to tell it). Initially, we thought Casey would be the only one to go. And he did. Casey took a trip to Busan for what was supposed to be a quick day trip. However, he soon found that he had to stay in Korea because the visa processing took longer than he'd expected. He also found that we all had to be in Korea to get the business done. So the next week, Bridger and I joined him for a good ol' Korean adventure!

We boarded the early morning highway bus in Miyazaki at 5. We then took a flight out of Fukuoka and landed in Busan that afternoon. As we flew over Busan, my first thought was how HUGE is was. Holy cow. It seemed to stretch on forever, at least from the sky. It was easy to see that everything was quite condensed, with building right up next to one another, as is the case in Japan as well.

Once we landed, we took the light rail train into the city. As we passed building after building, I came to the conclusion that Busan was a bit "Disneylandish." Ha! Many of the buildings are colorful and odd-shaped.  A lot of flashing signs can be seen on the streets. Things are just really decorated there for whatever reason, and I seriously loved it. Oh, and there are so many businesses and buildings that it just adds to the Disneyland effect.

But anywho, we soon found the subway station, which turned out to be quite handy. (Oh, how I wish Miyazaki had a subway!) Casey is a fantastic navigator, so we got along just fine. It's a good thing the navigating wasn't up to me, as I am completely useless in that department.

We only had the equivalent of one day in Busan and wanted to make the most of it, so we began sightseeing even before we were able to check in our bags at the hotel.

Later that night, we walked around the city. And it was a blast. As it turns out, Busan is quite a fun, party place when the sun goes down. Kinda like a mini Vegas with lots of people walking the streets, loud party music playing, several street vendors and outdoor cooks. We walked around for a while and then realized we were starving. It's kind of an adventure to eat out in a foreign country, but we decided to be brave and walked into a cute, one-room restaurant. And it didn't disappoint! First of all, our server knew English (which was just so nice to communicate with someone for a minute!) Second, we got to eat the best food I've had since we came to Asia: Pork in plum sauce, pork in...some other spicy sauce, Kimchi (which, apparently is fermented vegetables...yeah...surprisingly good), and some sort of beans that were relatively hard, but pretty tasty. I even tried seaweed (The only nasty part of the meal.)

We then got ice cream at Baskin Robbins. Yep, that's right - a familiar company! But get this: We barely walk out of the shop and I take a lick and.....oh no!....it plops on the ground. Stinky Stinkersons. So Casey makes me kneel by it so he can have a good laugh and take a picture (while people stare at the foreigner and her fallen ice cream). I then make Casey walk back to buy me another one because I don't want to admit what just happened. Well, as we know, Karma's a...er..."beast." ("G" version right here.) Casey walks back into the shop and walks out 10 seconds later with the remains of his ice cream in a cup. Apparently he took a lick and it started to fall, so he did some sort of swatting action to save whatever he could before it hit the ground. He then grabbed a cup and ran out as the workers watched him. Soooo....he walks back out and is like "Yeah, we're not eating ice cream tonight."Don't be too sad because we went to another Baskin Robbins the next day and got more ice cream. So all was well. 

Getting long-winded again, so here's the short version of what else we did there. We walked around the fish market, which was interesting. Lots of dead, dried, skinned (or not) fish lying in rows. Narrow roads. Lots of stinky smells. We also walked around the underground shopping center that is really popular in the city. We took a walk to a beautiful temple and got lots of pics. And Bridger was constantly being poked, prodded, and "goo-gooed" at by the natives. And once again, he just gave them grumpy faces. He doesn't seem to really appreciate all the attention he gets here.