(post under construction, pictures to come...)
I had the opportunity to go to Osaka, Japan for a few days, July 17-20. I ended up going alone. All of my friends still had class for another week or so. My class ended that week and I had a long weekend before my summer English camp started. My main reason for wanting to go was The Great Japan Beer Festival. The Festival is held in three different cities throughout the year. I had an adventure just trying to buy my plane ticket to get to Japan. I had some major problems trying to pay for my ticket online, so I had to trek to the far side of Busan and buy my ticket at a ticket office (mind you this is all the day before I was panning on leaving).
With ticket in hand I came home and realized I didn't have any clean clothes. I washed a bunch of clothes (not having a dryer is a problem sometimes, like this time). My clothes were mostly dry when it came time for me to throw them in a bag for the weekend. I arrived in Japan no problem (Korean Air is great). Going through customs in Japan was mostly ok, until they opened my bag and my clothes were a bit damp. They became a bit suspicious of this, but luckily we were able to communicate enough for me to convey that I don't have a dryer so it was just a bit of water. After we cleared that up, the customs agent proceeded to open a binder and show me a picture of various drugs (this was his way of asking me if I was bringing any of these with me).
I made it through security... the easy part. Now I had to try and figure out the public transit system. I still don't really understand the Osaka public transit system very, but much better now than when I arrived. There is just enough English to make you feel like you might be able to figure it out, but then you are really just left helpless and confused. I stared at the two maps for a few minutes (like 10) and then put some money in the machine and got a ticket. I am usually pretty good at figuring out public transit, but this was crazy. I somehow made it to the stop that would be home for the weekend. Upon arrival, I showed the station attendant a picture on my iPhone of the hostel I was staying at. He knew the name and it was about a 2 minute walk.
I hadn't really planned anything in Osaka, except the beer fest, so I grabbed some tourist stuff at the airport and also at my Hostel. I took an hour to relax and figure some stuff out for the weekend. Friday night I went to the Osaka Aquarium. I didn't know at the time, but I guess it's one of the only aquariums in the world that has a whale shark. There was a giant Ferris wheel near the Aquarium, so I ventured over there and got a decent view of the city (none of the pictures turned out that great, it was a pretty drab day). I went to a large mall/eating area for dinner. Lots of good restaurants, but pretty overwhelming. Finally, my attention was grabbed by a delicious looking picture (I used my Korean know-how and took a picture just in case the wait-staff didn't speak English). I was able to use my personal translator, better know as my index finger, to order from the menu. When I got back to my hostel I grabbed a few Japanese beers from the local convenience store and watched some of the British Open (the time change worked out well, I was able to watch it every night before bed).
Saturday was the day I had been looking forward to since I arrived in Korea, the beer fest. That morning I went to Osaka Castle. It was quite the sight. It's all rebuilt and in the middle of what is now a park. Back in the day the park was the ground of the castle filled with houses for servants, soldiers, and whatever else you need to run a castle. It was destroyed by fire, I believe, and they only rebuilt the main castle. At this point my only companion for 36 hours had been my iPhone. While leave the castle I made my first new friend of the weekend, Chris (he had just finished his one year teaching in Korea and was beginning his 3 month adventure home to South Africa). We talked for a few minutes and I asked if he was interested in going to the Beer Fest, so he tagged along. We had a great time at the beer fest. It was great to have so many great beers. There were about 80 different beers, most (65ish) we from Japanese microbreweries and even a few American brews from Ancor Brewing Co., a great brewery in San Fran. At the beer fest, I met a lot of cool people and heard stories of drinking PBR while peering at Everest. Ended up making friends with three Japanese people. They took us around Osaka for the night after the beer fest, including to some great Sushi.
Sunday, Chris and I make the trek out to Himeji Castle, possibly the most famous castle in Japan. This castle is all original. In all it's glory it has never been involved in a battle. We made out way back to Osaka by late afternoon and met up with, Tomoko, our Japanese friend, for dinner and drinks. She took us out to Oko-no-mi-aki (99% chance that is misspelled) and sake. I went back "early" that night. I was pretty much out of the money I was willing to spend and I had to get up early the next morning to make my flight.
The only thing I did Monday was go to the airport and fly home. I packed a lot into the two and a half days that I was actually on the ground in Japan. I had a great time and go to meet some great people and drink some great beer. It was a nice weekend vacation to celebrate finishing my first semester in Korea.
