Thoughts and Bandaids

Holly and Ryan asked me what differences I saw between Japan and Korea and I thought about it and there were a few surprising differences. One, Japan is definitely cleaner. Japan is weirdly, freaky clean; I say that because even in the big cities there is no trash but no trash cans, is it amazing how clean it is. Now, I am not saying Busan was dirty I am saying it is just like any normal big city. Second, it is super duper hot. I have been complaining all summer how hot it is here but boy Korea is disgustingly hot. Now, this is not one of my finest stories but it is a great example of how hot it was in Busan. On Saturday, after the boat ride we took showers and then headed to the baseball game. Well, we just sat baking in the sun and afterwards got into a taxi to go to dinner. After a 20 minute (cheap) cab ride we got out of the cab and were walking down the street and I had to ask Holly if I peed my pants. Now, I know that is gross; however, we were so soaked with sweat that the rest of me dried in the cab but not my shorts so it doesn't matter how gross that story is it was more disgusting to be wearing those shorts.

Third difference is Korea is sooooooooooo cheap. I mean the cab rides were so cheap; a long ride would be like $5 where in Japan just getting into a cab the base rate is like $6.50. It is so cheap that on the ferry back to Japan there were all of these Japanese with huge boxes of ramen, clothes, and bags of food. They go to Busan to stock up.

The last difference is the English. The Japanese try super hard to understand but their english is just okay; where in Korea their english is suprisingly excellent. This includes the waitstaff and cab drivers. Even if they can't speak english they are really good at charades. Ryan left his ring in his hotel room and I somehow got it back after a game of charades.

On our first nite in Busan we walked around and grabbed some dinner and drinks. There were all of these people lining up to throw a bottle cap into little cups, like beer pong, and we couldn't figure out why they were doing this. Ryan and Holly jumped into line and as a consolation prize they got band-aids. We couldn't figure out the promotion until later on when we realized it was for shochu. Shochu is a distilled spirit with an alcohol content usually between 20-40 percent. It is commonly made from rice, sweet potatoes, wheat and/or sugar cane. It is usually served mixed with water and ice, fruit juice and sparkling water, or oolong tea. I said that after drinking too much shochu you will need the bandaids!

Also, there was this cute little boy who just kept coming over to us and staring. So we took a picture with him, his family was all into it - him not so much!