Busan Day 2 - Busan Out!

Today was our full day in Busan and we made the most of it. The weather was wonderful! The temperature stayed below 80 and there was a cool breeze. Perfect weather for exploring this coastal metropolis.

First, we visited Beomeosa Temple, another place I didn't make it to on my last visit to Busan. On the subway we had another person come up to us and ask if we were Spanish. Koreans are pretty good at pegging our ethnicity, they're just one peninsula off! Of course she also told Christina how pretty she was, a theme that comes up throughout the day!

Beomeosa is one of the most well-known temples in Korea, and it was easy to see why. This place was buzzing with activity from monks, temple stay patrons and worshipers. The temple is set high in the mountains in the north of Busan and has some amazing scenery. 

Beomeosa Temple 

Beomeosa Temple - Mountainous Grounds

Beomeosa Temple Door Art

Beomeosa Temple - Mountainous Grounds

Beomeosa Pagoda

Woodchuck in Shoes! Korea, you're so crazy!

What?! Mexican Chicken?!

Humetro (the Busan Metro) has an adorable mascot....but I don't know what it is. Rail car?

After the temple, we went to Seomyeon City Center to find some lunch. We found a Chinese restaurant and got some jjajangmyeon (noodles with a bean paste sauce with onions, pork and shrimp) and fried dumplings. Yum! Seomyeon area is sort of like a downtown, it's mostly a business and shopping area.

After lunch, we checked out the Jagalchi Fish Market followed by the Gukje Market for some souvenir shopping. The fun thing about the Gukje Market is that you get to negotiate prices. The venders know that as well, so they try to flatter you. Christina was told how beautiful she was at at least a couple shops! She obviously is beautiful, but I'm sure this is probably going to her head. 

Despite not being told how beautiful I was...I was able to talk down the price on a trinket to the point the vender called it a "tear price" and gestured that she was crying over it. I'm sure she still probably made a 300% mark-up!

I was reluctant to post about it, but all the walking in Busan makes you warm and thirsty and the perfect remedy for that is patbingsu! We stopped at a coffee shop and got an 8,000 won version of the dish. It was delicious! This one had tteok, ice cream, nuts, mochi and red beans. This version beats out Paris Baguette by far!

Jagalchi Fish Market

Busan's waterfront is pretty industrial...which makes me think twice about seafood here

More Patbinsu - Again, don't judge me! This was dinner.

After over-indulging, and swearing off patbingsu for life (or at least until Atlanta), we went to Taejongdae Park. The park is situated on an island off the southern coast of Busan.  It has great cliffs with views of the city and sea. I visited this park before and it's really beautiful. 

Taejongdae Art

This is how I appreciate art!

Sea at Taejongdae

Taejongdae - Christina

Lighthouse

Look! It's Japan!

By the time we left Taejongdae it was dark. We headed back towards Nampo and stopped at the Lotte Department Store to check out the sky deck. It turns out there is a children's petting zoo on the top floor. Anyone who knows Christina knows that animals are irresistible to her. She ran around chasing rabbits and petting pot-belly pigs for a good 20 minutes before we headed back to the hotel for the evening. 

This hamster is about the only animal that would let her touch it!

Tomorrow is our last full day in Korea. We're heading back to Seoul in the morning. We head back to Atlanta on Sunday. This trip has been a great opportunity for me, but way too short. There's always much more I want to do than I can accomplish. Anyway, next stop, Seoul!

Busan - Omurice, Buddhas and A/C

Today, Christina and I hopped a morning train to Busan. We arrived at noon and checked into our hotel in the Nampo area, near the gukje market and the Lotte Department Store. We dropped off our bags and ran to Lotte to catch the aquatique show and have some lunch in the food court.

Lunch was at a place called Curry Pot. I had omurice...I will admit that I had no idea what it would be when I ordered it..but it looked good! Turns out it was an Omelet wrapped around RICE (hence omurice!) it also came with a piece of tonkatsu wrapped around a sweet potato....see a theme here? I was clearly surprised by both items on my plate! The dish was swimming in a Japanese curry, so I'm assuming Curry Pot is some Japanese chain. 

T-Rex does NOT hate omurice!

After lunch we decided to go up the Busan Tower to check out the view. Christina really loves getting the lay of the land from above. Last time I was in Busan, I went up at night, so it was cool to see the daytime vantage. 

Before going up, we went into a small tourist shop near the base of the tower to bask in some free air conditioning. One of the vendors here swindled Christina into two packets of face lotion masks by telling her not to buy certain products because they were only for older people, and she was too beautiful to need that..."no no, not that one, that only for your mommy! You too beautiful!" Man, she knew how to play Christina! Consequently, if you're in Korea, and a beauty store vendor pushes some red ginseng products on you, you should feel insulted...or extra "mommy"-like anyway! 

While functionally helpful, this outdoor escalator tube was a breezeless oven!

Buddha en route to the Busan Tower. Korea is so colorful!

Busan Tower

Busan from above - Lotte Tower under construction

Lots of ships!

After the tower we hopped the subway across town to Haeundae Beach where we caught a bus to Yonggungsa Temple (용궁사). This temple is unique because its situated on the coast, not up in the mountains like most in Korea. I think it's my favorite temple in Korea! It may not be as stately as Bulguksa in Gyeongju, but it's one-of-a-kind location catches your eye!

Entryway pagoda...we could use one of these back in Atlanta!

Yonggungsa

Yonggungsa

Super Korean-looking Buddha

Main Temple - Yonggungsa

Intricate -Yonggungsa

Korea definitely catches your eye - Yonggungsa

Yonggungsa

Bonus Dragon - Yonggungsa

Hi Pigs!

Bye Pigs!

You knew this was happening - Yonggungsa

After the temple, we took a stroll down Haeundae Beach then caught a cab back to our hotel in Nampo. The cab driver went over the main large bridge across the bay and we could see the entire city wrapped in twilight and fog. Busan is a very scenic place! He also gave me pronunciation lessons on everything I said to him in Korean. After a couple years of on-and-off effort at learning Korean, it seems I'll never get the hang of it. Then again, I'm not sure if I should be taking pronunciation lessons from someone from Busan....

Haeundae Beach

Everything in Korea has a mascot!

After we got back to the hotel, we walked around the gukje market for a while. We both bought some souvenirs and hit up Paris Baguette for...you guessed it...Bingsu! 

Don't judge...you knew this would happen! It was my dinner!

We have no plans yet for tomorrow, but after what feels like about 10 miles of walking today, I'm hoping to sleep in. Our hotel in Seoul, while nice, had poor air conditioning and the hardest beds I've ever slept on, which is saying a lot considering how many Korean beds I've tried. The place we're staying at in Busan lets us make the room an ice cube and has almost America-level soft beds. Ahhhhh..... zzzzzzzz

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!