Tourist Trap

So, I'm home from Korea! Finally. You could say I arrived a day late and a dollar short. Korea was fun and awesome, but mostly I'm posting this in the odd chance someone is Googling about the Kampu Ferry and wants to go to Busan from Shimonoseki.

BE EARLY!

So, the website lists the departure times, but not the check in times because that'd be helpful. Even though I have had the exact same experience last time I was trying to come from Busan by ferry, apparently I never learn. I arrived an hour before departure time, ticket in tow, after a grueling 5 hour train ride, to find out check in closes a whole 2.5 hours before.

CHECK IN ENDS 2.5 HOURS BEFORE DEPARTURE!

So be there on time if you want to go. I wasn't, had to miss the next day of work. Couldn't reach my boss either; had to use the wifi to contact another JET to have her call my boss and explain. Never mind the pay phones with the international country codes listed, because they can't make international calls. Go figure. Or maybe I was just doing it wrong...

I first suspected something was wrong when the ticket booth window was empty. I ran upstairs to try to board, but discovered my ticket was useless. Eventually, some lady found me before I left and told me I could change my ticket for the next day if I paid some fee, but warned me about if I were late a second time, I had to pay full price. She asked how much I had, and fortunately I found a stash of money that probably would have caused me to have taken the fast train and been early if I hadn't forgotten about it or hadn't stupidly stashed it so I could take pictures of all the money. She looked really concerned with how little money I had. I told her I could just sleep in the station or on the street, but this didn't comfort her. She kept asking if I would really be okay.

I ending up meeting an English teacher from Laos. He was also late for his own ferry to Fukuoka. We ended up finding a motel in what was called Chinatown but appeared to be Russiatown. I was excited to read all the signs, but my Russian at this point has devolved to "My father is a biologist. Where is the library?"

At least you can get spicy fried chicken.

And prostitutes. I think. Didn't confirm, much to my new friend's disappointment. "What are they doing here...? Ask them what they are doing here..." Unfortunately, during one quarter of Russian, I didn't learn the word for prostitute. We did get offered "boom boom" though from a small, middle-aged Korean lady.

Next day, I foolishly decided to walk up a mountain and see a temple. The temple is nice, if a bit under construction  but the walk takes a while and a lot of energy - an hour uphill.

So, I eventually got home, and was only 6 minutes late the next day. I was able to rush through the customs line as a Japanese citizen. I guess most people coming in were Koreans. They converted my one hour of vacation time to one day, and I seem to have no problems. I was really lucky that because of the holiday on Monday, my Tuesday school was running Monday's schedule, and I was scheduled to just sit around all day doing nothing, no classes.

CHECK IN EARLY!