Adventures in Korea no. 1

The Kampu Ferry connects Japan to South Korea by a simple boat ride across the Strait of Korea. Since Daniel's and my visas were about to expire we were forced to leave the country and re-enter – Welcome to Korea!

We spent Sunday driving through Tottori, Hiroshima and Yamaguchi Prefectures – together about a 6 hour drive through the very rural Western Honshu. Our first goal was Yamaguchi City. We met Maurice there (the owner of the English school we work for), had lunch and bought our train and ferry tickets. After lunch we took the train from Yamaguchi to Shiminoseki – another hour of travel.

Shiminoseki is the most southern point of Japan's Western Honshu Island. It's a lively port town with lots of great Western amenities. We went through immigration and boarded the ferry here.

When I heard we were taking a ferry from Japan to Korea I was expecting the type of ferry you'd take from Seattle to Bainbridge Island – something breezy and a bit uncomfortable. The Kampu Ferry has all the amenities of a cruise ship – a restaurant, karaoke, an onsen, and being from Japan all the vending machines you could ever ask for.

We found our room – a large carpeted room with a tv, shelving and about 20 futons on the floor. It was like a youth hostel on water. After a night of vomiting I discovered that I do get seasick.

The ferry ride from Japan to Korea is about 10 hours – the boat leaves Shiminoseki at about 8pm and arrives in Pusan at about 6am.

I've always thought that all Asian towns are the same – temples, languages I can't understand, no black or white people....but Korea was a bit different then Japan. Much more westernized – 7-11, the cars drive on the right side of the road, lots of loud horn honking, and no Japanese mullets. The entire city smelled like kim-chee.

After a day of wandering Pusan I really missed Japan. I missed how kind and friendly the Japanese are and how fresh the Japanese air is. We'd only been off the ferry for about 8 hours when it was time to board again for our return trip to Japan.

I'm exhausted, so glad to be back in Japan and am in no hurry to eat kim chee for a while. Cheers!