Comparing Japan and South Korea

[I've spent 31 months in South Korea between 2001 and the present. I've traveled pretty much all over the peninsula at one point or another. In comparison, I've spent a grand total of three days in Japan, and my travels were limited to Fukuoka and Beppu on the island of Kyushu. As such, I realize that this "comparison" can hardly be accurate; however, as several people have asked for a comparison, I've decided to write one, based on my limited observations.]

· The scenery in the countryside between Fukuoka and Beppu looks almost identical to the Korean countryside.

· There is much less Romanization of Japanese signage. Here in Korea, nearly all traffic signs, bus stop signs, and signs in the subways are written in Korean and Latin letters. Often signs are written in Chinese characters as well. Even if a person cannot read hangeul (한글 - the Korean alphabet) it would still be fairly easy for that person to navigate this country, assuming that he/she had a lick or two of sense. There were far fewer Romanized signs in Fukuoka than I am accustomed to in Korea... and there were even fewer in Beppu. Additionally, Japan uses three different writing systems. They used the Chinese characters (which are often used in Korea as well) as well as two different alphabet systems. (I'm simplifying this a lot, as I know next to nothing about this topic.) In Korea, you can almost be guaranteed that whether or not Chinese or Latin characters are present, 한글 definitely will. All you have to do is learn one phoenetic alphabet, and at the very least you can navigate. In Japan, it seemed pretty difficult to predict which set of characters was going to appear when...

· I've been told numerous time that Korean and Japanese have the same grammar. Just from being there three days and knowing only a few words, I was able to pick up on and recognize language patterns that paralleled Korean. In theory, someone who masters on language, should be able to do fairly well in the other just by studying vocabulary.

· Manners (at least during interactions between the average Japanese folks and foreigners) are very, very similar to the interactions between average Koreans and foreigners; however...

· ...there's much less staring at foreigners in Japan than in Korea. Here in Korea I've grown accustomed to people of all ages (although especially children) staring at me. In Japan, I almost felt like people who didn't have a reason to interact with me (such as store clerks, etc) did their best to pretend I didn't exist. I certainly didn't have people shouting 'Hello!' at me or nearly running me over in order to shout, 'I love to speak English!' from their car window (which happened to me this evening).

· There seemed to be more individuality in women's fashion than there is here in Korea. While a lot of the fashions were similar to the stuff that is popular here, I saw a lot of other styles, too.

· No hot red pepper! It's on just about everything one eats in Korea... and yet it was on nothing I encountered in any Japanese restaurants. Additionally, when I ordered my ramen in Fukuoka with the help of my cousin's Japanese friend, both she and the waitress warned me that the kind I'd selected (based on its picture in the menu) was "really hot and spicy" - although while I found it delicious, it wasn't spicy in the least.

· Pachinko all over the damned place.

· More handicapped people. Most seemed to have congenital disorders, as far as I could tell. I know that Korea is not exactly a disability-friendly society (although things have been slowly improving over the ten years that I've been traveling here), and Korean culture has a tendency to keep the disabled out of sight. It could be that there are the same number of disabled people here as there, but that Japan has a more open attitude. I don't know. I was wondering if perhaps the congenital disabilities were a result of the nuclear fallout from WWII, although I'm certainly just speculating out my ass.

· As I wrote yesterday, there seems to be an equally high prevalence of bob-tailed cats in Japan as in Korea (this could, in theory be related to the above point).

Cats of Japan

When my cousin and I arrived at our hostel - Happy Neko, or Happy Cat - in Beppu the first thing we saw were three adorable black, tiny, bob tail kittens. Sadly, I have no photographs of them, as they were a tad feral and skeedaddled as soon as I tried to play with them. I saw a couple of other strays in the area of the Happy Neko - whose owners apparently put out food for the neighborhood strays. They all had either bob tails or 3/4 length tails.

The only other cats I saw during my trip to Japan were in Fukuoka near the Shinto shrine we visited. I did get photos of them - all bob tailed, or with shorter than normal, oddly shaped tails. Here in South Korea, cats with bob tails or bent tails are very common. (The tip of Charlie's tail is bent, although you can't see it in photos. Her father has about a three inch bob tail.) I once had a vet tell me that the prevalence of bob tails in Korea is purely genetic (not due to mistreatment or disease). It would seem that this trait is present at least on the Japanese island of Kyushu as well.

The Japan Adventures, Part 5: Fukuoka Temple Time

Originally, our plan had been to spend Saturday afternoon at the monkey park, and then spend Sunday morning hunting for Shidaka's Utopia - an abandoned amusement park in the Beppu area. Unfortunately, between delays and rain, we had to forego the hunt for Shidaka's Utopia. It was lunchtime by the time we returned to Beppu from monkey mountain, and the weather was still pretty nasty. We decided to return to Fukuoka a little earlier than planned, in hopes that the weather might be better there.

We lucked out. The skies were rather hazy and dreary in Fukuoka, but at least it was dry. We checked in to our hostel, the rather awesome Khaosan Fukuoka, then set out on a tour of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in the Hakata district. I can't tell you much information about these temples (all the available information was in Japanese...) but they were pretty fabulous to look at, explore, and photograph.

Zen Buddhist sand garden

Shinto Shrine - unfortunately it had closed for the day just minutes before we arrived, and this was the closest I could get. See the cat in the tree? :-)

The Mountain Called Monkey

The Japan Adventures, Part 4: Monkeys!

Sunday morning, we got up incredibly early... only to discover that it was raining. The trouble with a super-short vacation is that you can't put things off until the next day on account of rain. As such, we set off for Beppu Station, where we caught the first bus to the Takasakiyama Monkey Park. [You can take bus AS60 or AS61 from in front of Beppu Station. In the mornings it leaves twice every hour, at 20 after and 54 after; in the afternoons it leaves at 20 after. The first bus of the day leaces at 7:54am.]

We arrived at 'monkey mountain' just as it opened (8:30am), and as such were the first visitors. And yes, it was still raining. Nothing like trying to juggle two cameras, various lenses, and an umbrella. Sigh.

The first thing you see when arriving at monkey mountain is a sign warning you not to touch, tease, chase, or feed the monkeys. It also tells you not to look them in the eye.

Monkey mountain is also home to an active Buddhist temple. While you can't tour the temple itself, you can see the exterior of several temple buildings (covered with climbing monkeys) as well as the occasional monk. Occasionally bells resound throughout the complex, and chanting is heard as well. (While the monks and the monkeys are colocated, the monkeys are cared for by a professional staff, who feed them and tend to any medical needs.)

I was worried that, due to the weather, the monkeys would be hiding in their houses and shelters... I needn't have been concerned. Not only were monkeys everywhere, but wet and bedraggled monkeys are even cuter than dry monkeys. There was so much unbearable monkey cuteness, that I felt like I could stay there forever and never grow tired of it. I took over 500 photos; I'll leave you to enjoy just a handful.

The Japan Adventures, Part 3: Fukuoka to Beppu

We arrived at Fukuoka on the morning of Saturday, June 4th, and had cleared customs by 11:15. Due to my work schedule (I work from 2PM to 10PM), I usually roll out of bed at 11:30 in the morning. Having completed international travel before the time one normally gets up certainly can leave one feeling a tad exhausted! From the Fukuoka airport, it's a short subway ride to Hakata station - the place you need to go in order to catch a train to pretty much anywhere else on the island of Kyushu.

At Hakata Station we met up with one of my cousin's friends, SF, who lives in Fukuoka. She suggested we go for ramen. I'd heard over and over that Fukuoka was famous for ramen, and that I absolutely needed to eat some ramen while I was there... my thought had been: Ramen? Seriously? I mean, I eat ramen almost every day for lunch (it's cheap, it's not disgusting, and it's easy to make at work), but I couldn't imagine going out for ramen, no matter how delicious it was purported to be. However, as my cousin and his friend SF were the Japanese speakers of our trio, I followed meekly along. The dish of ramen I had was not only the most delicious ramen I've ever eaten, but it was one of the most delicious meals I've ever eaten. It had such a rich variety of spices - and not hot spices like Korean ramen - that it was a complete mouthgasm. Absolutely wonderful.

Deliciousness!

My cousin and his friend SF in front of Hakata Station

After lunch, my cousin and I said goodbye to SF and hopped on a train to Beppu, approximately 2 hours away. I was quite surprised by how much the Japanese countryside looked like the Korean countryside.

Leaving the train station in Beppu, the first thing one sees is one of the creepiest statues I have ever seen:

The caption engraved in English just below it reads "The man called "Shiny Uncle" who loved children" - which does not make it any less creepy.

Beppu is known for its hot springs - this is actually the reason most people travel there. Granted we had gone there for monkeys and abandoned amusement parks, but hey, I figured I should point this out. Next to the creepy Shiny Uncle statue is the first hot spring visitors to Beppu are likely to see - and it's described as a "hand bath" (which mainly means a good place for children to splash).

Plan A was to head straight from the train station to the Takasakiyama Monkey Park... unfortunately, by the time we got there, it had closed for the day. I could have cried. [In case you want to visit, take bus AS60 or AS61 from in front of the Beppu train station. It leaves for monkey mountain at twenty minutes past the hour, every hour until 4:20pm, and the trip to the monkey park costs 230 yen.]

This way to the monkeys! Unfortunately, they close at 4:30pm.

Following our thwarted attempt to visit the monkey park, we checked into our hostel, the Happy Neko ("happy cat"), which is located right in the center of the main hot spring area of Beppu. This would have been a bit more useful had we gone there for the hot springs, but hey, live and learn. The area where the hostel is located is not only filled with hot springs, venting steam into the air, but it's a great pedestrian area, with paved walkways and tons of restaurants. (And did I mention hot springs?) After a yummy dinner of yakisoba, I decided that even though it was barely after seven, it was time to go to bed. There's only so much I can do on four hours of sleep.

In a bar in Beppu...

Yakisoba!

The Japan Adventures Part 2: Juvenile interlude

Unfortunately, there is quite a lot pertaining to travelling from Busan, South Korea to Fukuoka, Japan that lends itself to juvenile humor. I figured it best to go ahead and just get it all out there so we can indulge the 13 year old boy lurking inside all of us and move on.

For starters, Fukuoka is NOT pronounced fuck you okay, no matter how much your brain wants to read it as such. It's foo-koo-oh-kah. And that subway station on the Fukuoka metro that's transliterated as Gofukumachi? Also not pronounced the way your brain is reading it.

It would be a lot easier to bypass the juvenile thoughts, were it not for the fact that the airport code of Busan is PUS (this comes from the fact that Busan - 부산 - was formerly Romanized as Pusan), and the airport code for Fukuoka is FUK. Sigh. There's just no getting around it.

Now that we've indulged in some juvenile humor, we can move on to the actual trip. Stay tuned for Part 3: Fukuoka to Beppu

The Japan Adventures, Part 1: The part during which we are still in Korea

My cousin and I left work at 10pm last Friday, took a taxi from there to the train station, and purchased tickets to Busan (부산). As we waited for the train to arrive, there were several announcements concerning train #167 – our train – but as my Korean skills are embarrassingly shite, I couldn’t make out much more than the number. The train arrived at the appropriate time, and we boarded…

…my ticket was for car 13, seat 10D, and someone was sitting in my seat. I pulled out my ticket and showed it to him. Instead of looking apologetic and moving (as usually happens in such situations), he whipped out his ticket: car 13, seat 10D. I asked if he was going to Busan. The guy was wearing headphones, and I thought perhaps his destination was Daegu (대구) and perhaps he hadn’t realized that he’d arrived. But no. He was going to Busan, too. Weird. The ticketing system is electronic, so who knows how that happened.

Luckily the train wasn’t crowded, and there was plenty of room for me and my cousin to sit elsewhere.

Now, normally the KTX train from Daegu to Busan stops at the transfer to Ulsan (울산). KTX trains are also almost always on time. Our train was scheduled to arrive in Busan at 11:40. At exactly 11:40, our train rolled to a stop in… Gupo (구포). My exact words were “Where the fuck is Gupo?” Wherever we were, a good 90% of the passengers disembarked. Between the indecipherable announcements back in Daegu about train #167, the dude with the ticket for my seat, and the mass exodus of our fellow passengers, I began to panic that we’d gotten on the wrong train.

Luckily, my worries were for naught. The Gupo train station turns out to be connected to the Gupo subway station, and it’s a mere five minute train ride or so from the train’s final stop – Busan Station, our destination. [In retrospect, Gupo is closer to the airport than Busan Station, but… live and learn, I suppose.]

The Busan train station is located directly across the street from the seedy Chinatown/Russiatown district, located along Texas Street. How’s that for an international hodgepodge? My cousin and I got rooms in the "Kolon Motel" just outside of the ‘international’ district, and decided to do a bit of exploring. Unfortunately, as we had to be up at 6am, we didn’t do much other than wander through the district for about 45 minutes, counting prostitutes (sadly nearly all Russian), and confusing passersby by speaking in sentences which mixed Russian, English, and Korean. Or at least I did, anyway: “Кошка, кссс, кссс, кссс, привет! Hello, 고양이. 괜찮아요, Do you want to be my friend?” Okay, so I may have stalked some stray cats there, too… I am an international cat lady, after all!

Kolon Motel: A great name for your motel if it's on the ass-end of a seedy district.


WTF?? The Russian reads 'cheap cellular service' - cell phones, sim cards, and juicers?

The next morning we took a taxi to the airport.

Ages ago when I got my visa for Korea, the visa arrived stamped into my passport with a mistake: it says my gender is male. Er… it’s international cat lady, folks. I had no trouble entering Korea back in July or getting my Alien Resident Card shortly thereafter. In fact, I’d completely forgotten about this.

When my cousin (he’s a dude, btw) and I were checking in for our flight, there was some kind of problem with my passport. Apparently the stamp used to stamp-in my arrival time/date in Seoul was an a-typical stamp. The woman at the check-in desk kept handing the passport to my cousin saying, “Excuse me, sir, when did you come to Korea?” “Excuse me, sir, where is your arrival stamp?” “Excuse me, sir, did you come to Korea with a different passport?” After each question, I took the passport, showed the woman the arrival stamp, and answered her questions. Nonetheless, she continued to address them to my cousin.

It was only after comparing my Alien Registration Card with my passport and then conferring with her supervisor that she decided it was OK to let me check in. Sheesh. Only after that did I recall the misprint about my gender on the visa, which at least partially explained the confusion. Maybe.

The incorrect visa. (My passport and ARC both state that I am female, so god knows how this ended up on there!)

And lastly, the entry stamp which so confused the check-in lady at the Air Busan counter

But… finally! We were checked in and on our way to Japan!