Japan and Back

Wake up at 6AM. Taxi 5 minutes to the bus terminal. Drink a coffee out of the coffee vending machine. Get on the bus. Little over an hour later I get off the bus in Busan, Gimhae Airport. Board the Busan Air flight, small airbus with 3 seats to each side. 50 minutes later I'm landing in Fukuoka, Japan. Like going Miami to Orlando.

Convert my green bills for some fat beige bills. Wonder where all my green bills went... check again... 1, 2, 5... just five pieces of paper. It's going to by tight.

Shuttle to domestic terminal. 20 meters to the subway. Down. Size up the kiosk and step to the screen. Where's the English button. Gotcha. Okay... F-something something-machi... don't see it. Hit a button, another button, another button, panic as people behind me are looking onward with disdain (only perceived...disdain does not exist in Japan). Bingo. Subway... show the ticket make my confused lost face and a man points to a train and says "Okay." Okay is international and transcends borders, languages, cultures... everyone knows okay. Okay is better than yes. Yes can mean I don't understand. Yes can mean I give up so go away. Yes can just be polite. Okay is always okay, it is the real yes.

Train, 9 stops... or maybe 6. The subway doesn't seem as nice as Seoul's. But this is not the capital. Walk out and up. Hit the stoplight turn right. Walk till I see the Yahoo Dome, home of the Softbank Seahawks one of Japan's greatest baseball teams. Notice a Gap near the Yahoo Dome and smile that I just had a visit with the Samways. To the Korean Consulate. Closed for lunch. Walk around the nice neighborhood surrounding the consulate. Beautiful houses, Mercedes, BMW, and Harley Davidson... and great gardens with wonderful trees. Police tell me no pictures as I snap one.

Kill an hour walking around the adjacent shopping complex to the Dome. Then to the Hilton hotel. Then back to the Consulate. Drop off my passport pay 4,500 yen... expensive. Lose one of my paper bills. "Come back on Monday at 10AM." So I got the weekend. Walk for 3 hours till I find a guest house.

Guest house is full. Pretty girl says don't take off my shoes... shoes go back on. Says she can call another guest house for me. She does, makes a reservation for me, and I walk 30 minutes. It's nice, people are nice. Explain I'll stay one night.. if it's nice I'll stay longer. She asks for me to tell her if there are any problems. I walk into a small room 3 meters square or so. 2 sets of bunk beds. It's what I want. Cheap, clean, comfortable, and dorm style allows meeting people.

.... TBC