Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Japan


To obtain a Korean work visa, one must leave Korea (I know, it's strange, but someone is making money somewhere so that's how they do it), so I was sent to Japan to get my visa. This all happened quite suddenly. I was told Friday I'd be leaving Sunday. Wow.

In Japan I really had no idea where to go. Ok... maybe I had a little idea. I'd gotten some directions off the internet (which later proved to be wrong). The following story thingy will hopefully explain.

Here is a quick picture of my Japanese journey...

change Korean money to Japanese money (in Korea),
take airport bus to Incheon airport (in Korea),
go through customs,
get briefly stopped because bus pass sets off metal detector,
fly to Osaka Japan,
look for English signs,
buy train ticket,
get on train (luckily it was the right one),
be avoided like the plague (no one wanted to sit by me),
walk through giant mall trying to find Exit 25,
see strangely dressed people,
walk out of Exit 25,
follow directions to Holiday Inn,
enjoy the rain (for about 5 seconds and then I was soaked),
walk in the rain,
realize the directions are wrong,
flag down a taxi,
attempt to speak with driver,
pay lots of money and eventually get to Holiday Inn (which is now called the X Hotel),
go up escalator,
discover there is no escalator back down,
crash a wedding,
ask waiter how to get out of the building,
walk around more,
get a very bad headache,
eat a McDonald's cheeseburger set (I know, lame, I go to another country and eat McD's),
find the Korean consulate (it's closed because it's so late),
wander around more looking for place to stay,
find lots of bad places to stay,
finally find a nice place to stay,
experience multiple tiny earthquakes at night,
continue to have a very bad headache,
watch "The Time Machine" dubbed in Japanese,
sleep,
next day go to consulate,
give paperwork to them,
learn that it usually takes two days to process (my flight leaves in 7 hours),
smile and shrug and look pathetic,
get the lady to somehow magically process visa in one day,
walk around while waiting for visa processing,
find Predator,
see Lamborghini,
get lost,
find some familiar landmarks,
sleep on a bench with some bums,
get visa (hooray),
find airport bus (wrong bus, gotta take the subway),
run out of money (good thing I have a credit card),
take the subway back to Osaka's Kansai airport,
barely board plane,
sit next to guy who smells like smoke on my right and several babies on my left,
return to Korea (hooray),
take bus to Suwon,
visit old Academy and students (super fun, but I was tired),
have an Isaac's sandwich with Dave,
take bus home,
go to sleep,
wake up,
teach.

It was a wild and crazy trip. I'm glad to be "home".









































4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, praise the Lord you're still alive. I would have pee'd my pants from being so afraid if I'd have had that experience! You are definitely keeping your guardian angels busy (Notice I said ANGELS, plural!). :) I'm glad it all worked out. Anyway, you are in my thoughts and prayers. Man, I miss you! When you think about it, I've only seen you for about 2 to 3 hours in the past 15 months. I don't think we ever went that long even when we were kids and lived in seperate towns.
Love you cuz! Don't forget about us here back at home!

~Jennifer

Unknown said...

Ah, but finding Predator makes it all worth it....

lovelyfaith said...

That's awesome that you got to go to Japan! Maybe if I end up going there to teach you can come visit!

Jamie said...

Looks like the adventure found YOU this time... : )
I especially liked the "Get the lady to somehow magically process visa in one day" part. So...how DID you pull that off?