We are Japanese if you please (Day 1)

I am finally all set up in my new apartment with internet, so that means I can take the time to write about my Japanese adventure. whoppeeee! (I'm not going to waste time going into the details and bs that surrounded the move, but just know that there is almost as much drama at school as there was at BI. ugh)

Anyway...Koreans celebrate the Chinese New Year. 2007 is the year of the golden pig. Lots of people seem pretty happy about this. There are plastic, gold-painted piggy banks everywhere. Everyone got a three-day weekend to celebrate. Instead of having wild new years parties, Koreans spend time with their families and bow at their ancestors' graves. And we heard that everything is closed. Not exactly a fun way for a non-Korean to spend the three-day weekend.

Because of this, Hannah and I decided to take the ferry to Fukuoka, Japan. That Saturday, we went down to the Busan port to board the ferry. I was imagining a Galveston-ish ferry with lots of cars and people standing outside feeding the seagulls, but this was a little off. Our ferry carried no cars and did not allow people to step outside. In fact, this type of ferry goes so fast, you actually have to sit in assigned seats with your seatbelt on, just like in a plane. We even watched a bad movie.

On the ferry we met two guys. Bart was cute, funny, and from Nebraska. Gordon was old, annoying, and from Canada. Somehow we all started talking and decided to go for some sake when we arrived in Japan. After we managed to shake Gordon loose (he was meeting friends in Japan), the rest of us went to a Japanese grill, where we had more sake and lots of good food. I really wish I could have taken more pictures, but my camera is trash. Batteries might have helped. At least I have proof of Bart....

In preparation for the trip, Hannah and I had done a little research on places to go to. One was this one restaurant with lots of good, cheap food. By the time we found it, waited to be seated, and looked at the menu, we did the calculations and realized we were in the wrong place because it was about $70 per person. They were really nice about us just leaving, and they explained that we had found the right location, but the place had closed, and this was the new one in the same spot. We had better luck, however, with the bars we researched.

We read about a country western-style place called Crossroads, so we made friends with this old man next to us at the Japanese grill who told us he was a jazz musician. He offered to walk us over to it, which was soooo sweet of him. We wanted him to come in and let us buy him a drink, but he said he had to go to work in the morning. The place was really cool. Just a dark little dive that actually looked exactly like something you would go to in Texas. They played Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and the like. It was decked out in American memorabilia, and had beers from all over the world. I drank Sol in honor of my Latina (err Fort Worth) friends. By the time we ran out of money for the night (don't even ask what I spent. Japan is tres cher!), we were running and skipping down the street to our hotel. How we made it all the way there with no directions will forever be a mystery to me. Bart had been planning on taking the train to Hiroshima that night, but we were too much of a distraction, so he crashed in our hotel room. I think we fell asleep talking about the free breakfast buffet we would wake up to. Sounds like something I would bring up, eh Emily?