Girl Japan: Korea: Part 1 BUSAN!

I'm just going to give a basic rundown of my overall impressions of the trip. Sarah gives a much better and more thorough recap of our visit to the beautiful country. (Please see http://sapporosarah.blogspot.com)

So, the first day we (me, Sarah and Tarnjeet) flew into Busan (Pusan? Both spellings are used). Busan is a beautiful port city, much like Hakodate in Hokkaido. (Sorry if that doesn't mean much to anybody.) Busan is the second largest city in Korea, after Seoul. We were only there for one night, and quite an interesting night it was! The city has a kind of cool, funky feel to it.

So, first off, our hotel! Our trusty travel agent set us up in some pretty snazzy digs.

After us girls did our ritual, "Take a Lotta of Silly Photos in the Hotel Room," we mozied on downstairs for dinner (see facebook photo albums). There were a couple of interesting restaurants inside the hotel itself. They seemed quite western, and we really wanted to try some Korean food. So luckily enough, we found a nice buffet serving a variety of traditional Korean dishes. One of the highlights of the dinner was a conversation we started with the chef.

(Side note, the three of us don't speak a word of Korean. The most we could say was "Thank you." That was it. Some Korean people speak Japanese. Japan is so close to Korea, that many people will study some Japanese [for school, work, tourists, etc]. The older generations can speak some Japanese because of the Japansese occupation. Now, in our everyday life we're used to speaking Japanese in public. So, it's sometimes hard to turn off.)

When the chef first saw us, he tried to speak in English. And almost by reflex, we responded in Japanese. He was caught a bit off-guard by this. It was a pretty funny conversation. And every time we got up to serve ourselves some food, he'd open a tray and say, "Delicious! Delicious!" in Japanese.

Later that evening, we out to explore the nightlife. My first impression of the nightlife in Busan was that it looked very similar to Susukino, the night district in Sapporo. It basically consists of a strip of various bars and clubs. The really cool thing about Busan was that the people weren't as afraid of being forward. Many Japanese people, men in particular, get very nervous around foreigners. The men in Busan weren't shy. We ended up following this guy (I know, I know, it sounds shady, but it really wasn't.) to this really cool dance club. We had passed by it earlier, and made note that we'd want to go back and check it out. So it was a pleasant surprise when we found ourselves back at this cool-looking establishment. The waiters sat us down, brought a huge tray of food (fruit, ice cream, etc.) and beer. It was great! Now let me say, this place was HUGE inside. There was a huge dance floor, accompanied by a huge stage that the DJ spun from. After we built up a bit of liquid courage, we headed out onto the dancefloor. Now, I gotta say, Korea knows good dance music! It switched back and forth between hip-hop and Korean pop music. The K-POP was really catchy. And the most AMAZING part was that apparently it's required that all young Korean citizens know the latest dances to popular songs. It was great! Both the men and women were dancing. No one was shy. We loved it!

It took us a while to realize, but during one of our dancing breaks, we noticed something strange. A waiter was dragging 2 female customers across the club. At first, we were really confused. Where was the waiter taking the girls!?! Then, said-waiter slowed down as he reached a table of 2 men sitting right across from us. We looked around and noticed that ALL of the waiters were trying to match up fellow patrons! It was awkwardly-hilarious! Sometimes the matched couples would hit it off, but more often than not, the girls would wander off. The 2 boys sitting across from us had at least 12 girls taken over to them! I'm not kidding! Luckily, we weren't dragged off anywhere. I think one of the headwaiters (the same guy who took us to this amazing place) was trying to find some English-speakers, but he had no luck. It was perfect that we couldn't speak Korean, because we were left alone to enjoy the night and still have fun observing!

PICTURE TIME!

Teej upon arrival to Busan!