So, yeah, I went to Korea or whatever

About two weeks ago I had three days off so I figured what the hell, I'll go to Korea. Dansen was there so I wouldn't feel completely stranded in a foriegn country. It feels wierd to say that when I am in fact living in what could quite accurately be considered a foriegn country, but I feel very much at home in Japan now. Moreover, when I first came to Japn I had a place to go, a destination, and I was familiar with the language enough to navigate my way though minor hassles. In Korea I entered blindly and illiterately.
I boarded my plane in Fukuoka bright and early, it felt wierd to be punching the sky again. Living in the states I would fly more often, it's been nine months since I've stepped into one of those cigar tubes.
I spent most of the vacation wandering randomly with Dansen, having a great time meeting his Korea friends and eating wierd and wonderful food. I could give you a blow by blow of the trip, such an account though does not fit with my feeling of the trip. Usually I remember things in a linear fashion but here, for some reason this vacation comes to me as a series of impressions. I choose then to finish this entry in no particular order with no particular sequencing marks. What I remember, as I remember.
Eating spicy food with Hyung and Dansen whilst talking movies in a loud izakaya type establishment. I had a new pair of sexy, sexy sunglasses made, Dansen's friend negotiated with the shop manager to make sure I didn't get the foriegner markup. Three hours and only ¥11000 later, I had me some glasses. The last day, eating oxtail soup with Young-im. I found some metal chopsticks. They use those in Korea.
Those metal chopsticks made it very difficult to eat perhaps the most amazing meal of the last six months. Live octopus. Still writhing. You have to chew quickly so it doesn't attach to your mouth. It's tasty. I have a video. If you want it, send me an e-mail: evan.whitbeck AT gmail.com. It's a small video, so don't worry, but it suitable conveys the feeling. Expressed either as "tasty" or "気持ち悪い” (read: "ick").
I wanted to find dog, but I couldn't.
The giant underground CoEx mall, filled with young people and lights and stores. I bought some funny stickers there. And I found my store. Dancing at a club in shoes two sizes too small; they had a no sandals, no GI's policy, so I had to borrow a pair. My toe is still kinda bruised. I liked hanging out at the hostel, listening to a crazy Dane, drinking beer and watching some old movies. There was a stamp exhibition going on, it was amazing but there's only so long you can look at stamps.

So, Seoul was a lot of fun, but in the end, unless you have a long time to spend, any big city seems the same. Paris is Tokyo is Shanghai is Seoul. The language on the signs, the food and some of the shopping is different, but cities blur together. One has to live there, to learn the personality, to find the backstreets and to evaluate the craziness of the drivers in order to truly grasp the unique character of a megopolis.

Anyway, enough musing, it's time for me to go and get a haircut now.