A little Seoul......

Over here in Japan the wonderful Golden Week has just come and gone. Golden week is essentially a long sequence of national holidays that occur together and result in a lot of time off during one week. I took two days nenkyu as well to give myself the full week off since my friend Sarah came to visit me from TO.

Well shite was it a good week! The first few days were spent sightseeing around Kyushu and exposing Sarah to all the wonderful facets of Japanese culture (like stripping naked and bathing communally with nosey, old Japanese women for example). We also went to Nagasaki city, but basically we took it pretty easy for the first few days, in preparation for the partying that was to come later in the week.

On Tuesday we went to Fukuoka and met up with Nicole and a few other people. We partied there for two nights, but alas had nowhere to sleep on the second night because everywhere was packed due to Golden Week. We tried to stay in an Internet Café but even that was full so we slept on the street for about an hour before giving up and heading to the airport to catch our flight to Seoul, Korea.

Well sleep deprived and hung-over (and somewhat shaken by a turbulent flight and a complete disregard for gradual landing procedures on the part of our pilot) we landed in Seoul early on Thursday. Not speaking any Korean and having only a vague idea of where our hostel was located, we nonetheless managed to find it with only a few minor mishaps (which even though they were minor, still elicited loud swearing from all of us as we were hot, dirty, exhausted and carrying all of our shit). Once showered and changed though, we all felt much better and thus the flask made it’s first appearance of the night (I think that flask is currently my favourite possession). We were joined in the hostel by three other girls as well, so in total there were 6 of us ready to take the big city down.

Well from there ensued three days of drunken debauchery with one of the most fun groups of people that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. We danced, we drank, we threw tantrums at idiot western men, we were pleased by how forward and aggressive Korean men were (in complete contrast to the shyness of Japanese men), we met various strange and fascinating characters of all races, religions and sexual orientations and just generally had a kick-ass time. Given how repressive Japanese society is sometimes, it was a welcome change for all of us. And holy shit did we let loose! It’s too bad that most of the girls that I went with are leaving this year, but Nicole and I have made tentative plans to go back (since she is staying another year as well) – especially because we have yet to see the Demilitarized Zone on the North Korean border, which is a good place to face military men with machine guns (and you all know that is my idea of a good time).

All in all Korea was totally different from Japan in so many ways and while I had a good time there, I have to admit it was nice to land back in Japan and be able to get on a subway without being shoved, groped or otherwise manhandled. It also made me realize just how clean Japan really is, and how incredibly efficiently everything runs. At the same time, it also made me resigned to the fact that I am going to be single for the next year unless I make frequent trips outside of the country….. ah well. At least I have my flask.