Sayonara

On Friday night, I bid Japan farewell and sailed to Busan, South Korea, on a ferry from Shimonoseki. For some reason, I expected I would be lying on a dirty tatami floor with my bag as a pillow and that I would not be showering for a day, but even in second class, the ship turned out to be like a floating hotel compared to some of the hostels I've been staying at, complete with a convenience store, restaurant, and public baths.



Me shipmates, Caleb from California, Philip and Nico from Austria, and Chris from Vancouver.



After wandering around the ship and talking well into the night, we awoke to find ourselves in the port of Busan. It was a couple hours before we were allowed to disembark.


I found my way to my cousin, Daniel's, apartment. I found out I'd be sharing the floor with two new family members, Bacon and Egg.


Later we went to a water park. Despite the fact that the water was not deep enough anywhere and it was so crowded that nobody could possibly drown, everyone was required to wear a life vest and a hat, I guess because Koreans, for the most part, cannot swim. We got a good laugh out of this. Most of the women wore clothes on top of their swimsuits, like full on hoodies, because they were so self-conscious about being seen in their swimsuits. I think these observations were more amusing than the park itself.


This dude was staring at us on the subway because we were speaking English, so I snapped a shot of him. We later struck up a conversation with him. He was a nice guy who worked in the shipyards and was fascinated by the fact that we were Korean but raised abroad.