Goodbye Korea...Hello Japan!

On our last full day in Busan, we started off the day at the Busan Aquarium, where we saw an "underwater magic show" and plenty of sharks, otters, and various other aquatic creatures.

The aquarium is in Haeundae a neighborhood of Busan with one of the most popular beaches in South Korea and a bunch of shiny new skyscrapers.

Haeundae Beach

For lunch we stumbled upon a bulgogi place, where we got a lunch special that came with a ton of side dishes. Just when we were stuffed full, they brought out noodles, rice, and soup, which were all included in the price.

Cook your own bulgogi

The rest of the day was devoted mostly to shopping! Emiko had to pick up a few things she can't get in Japan (or are too expensive in Japan), and we bought some souvenirs and various other Korean things since it was our last day in the country. We walked around Shinsegae Centum City Mall, the largest single department store on earth (it even has an indoor ice skating rink!) and went to two different Lotte Department stores, back to the Gukje Market, and the Jagalchi Fish Market.

BIG Department Stores

Various sea critters for sale in the Jagalchi Market...pretty gross

After an exhausting day, we had our last meal in Korea: tteokboki, twigim, kimbap, and noodles!

Emiko with some kimbap!

Thursday morning we packed up and headed for the port. Our hotel manager gave us a ride to the terminal, and we were on our way after exchanging all of our won for yen.

Exactly.

Three hours later we pulled into Fukuoka Port, and stepped foot in Japan!

After dropping off our stuff at Emiko's car, we caught a bus to Tocho-ji Temple. It's right in Fukuoka's business district, and the contrast between the serene temple and the surrounding highrises is really neat. Inside the temple is Japan's largest wooden Buddha, underneath which is a bizarre walk-through showing the various types of hell and a pitch-black series of turns in a hallway. It's supposed to be about finding your own path through the darkness, or something like that!  Japanese Buddhist temples are very different than Korean ones.  This temple had lots of crisp lines, paper doors, tatami mats, and muted colors.  The Korean temples always were very bright, colorful and full of objects and icons taking up space.

Tocho-ji Temple Pagoda

One of the possible hells you can get sent to

By this point we were starving, so we got some ramen for lunch. Fukuoka-style ramen has a pork based broth and is really delicious. At the place we went to, you first order your ramen from a machine, and bring the ticket to the wait staff. Each person has their own individual cubicle for eating ramen. You mark down on a sheet of paper exactly how you want it (firm noodles, lots of onion, extra spicy sauce, etc), and before you know it your personalized ramen shows up in a little box!

Personal Pan Pizza...err Ramen.

Next we were in for a special treat: a sumo wrestling match! We really lucked out on timing. There are only six grand sumo tournaments per year, each lasting just 15 days. One of the six is held in Fukuoka each November. We caught the last two hours of the tournament, where the highest ranked wrestlers compete. It was a really unique experience. The wrestlers do a lot of structured show-boating, where they do the big one-legged stomps, slap their thighs and bellies, and throw salt around the ring. They are allowed to do this for up to four minutes. Each actual match usually only took about 10 seconds or so.

Throwing salt before the match

After the show, we drove for about an hour and a half (paying about $30 in road tolls) to Emiko's town, Beppu, on the eastern side of Kyushu island.  We stopped by a small 8 seat restaurant to get some gyoza for dinner. It was like eating delicious hand made dumplings in someone's kitchen. Emiko's grandmother used to get these dumplings as a child.  Afterwards, we headed to Emiko's house to rest up for some touring of Beppu tomorrow before heading up towards Hiroshima on Saturday.

Gyoza for dinner! This one plate (three people's dinner) cost $18!