A Room With A View

Tuesday May 5 Day 7

It’s a travel day. Everything is going as expected, but not to plan. Perfect! We can’t all fit on the shuttle bus – awesome! We are late to catch the train – great! We manage to make it to Narita airport on time so it’s been an all right morning, until I am forced to check the sword. Who knew that bringing a toy sword on board a plane wasn’t going to fly? Not I that’s for sure. Relieved I don’t have to toss it all together, it gets bagged, tagged, and thrown on top of the suitcases. See you in Busan nephew’s Samurai sword. Problem averted and it’s smooth sailing through security. Bestie and I browse the airport shops and then look for a spot to get comfortable.

There is a fairly regular stream of nonsense and sarcasm that leaves my mouth, so it takes a skilled and astute individual to be able to recognize when I’m kidding and when I’m not. So when I suggest to Bestie that we wait for boarding in the massage chairs, she practically races me to them. I wasn’t kidding and she knew it. There was just enough time to work out the kinks of Japan before getting on our flight. Next stop South Korea.

Cue the fish smell. Might I remind you that I’m on an airplane (you should be yelling that last part). This is not a nightmare, my eyes are open and I’m actually watching the stewards’ pass out trays of this stuff. With one now in front of me, I’m still in disbelief. I felt certain that the smell had to be coming from a lone pescetarian’s special meal. Nope, it’s everybody’s’. I promptly hand my tray back to the first attendant I can and spend the next few minutes stressing about smelling like fish when we land. I resolve to sleep it off.

My phone starts to vibrate as soon as we touch down; it’s an email from the consulate. No big deal, just some emergency information and contacts to carry with me during my stay in South Korea. For the record, I have never been emailed by the consulate while travelling. Dorothy, we are not in Kansas anymore. This place is going to require more street smarts and we haven’t even left the airport yet. I’m happy that Bestie is well travelled and won’t be scared to explore regardless of how dicey it gets.

View from our room in Busan

We freshen up at the hotel and ditch a tour of the city with our group. Instead we take off on our own to check out the largest shopping complex in the world. Joined by Pretty Lady and her roommate, we walk together to the subway. The streets are not as clean and the people less friendly than in Tokyo. Not even on the subway yet, we have a small altercation. I’m not sure who pissed off the karma gods but this day continues to get worse.

At the mall our luck doesn’t change, Pretty Lady is declined when she asks to try on a dress and the reason given is that the dress is too small. Insert impregnated pause here. Ferocious at this point we head back to the hotel to call it a night, but not without incident.

The subway we ride back on is fairly empty, so the four of us sit on bench seats at the end of the car. Note that all the seats around us are unoccupied. A young guy in a baseball cap presents his iPad to Pretty Lady and she reads it out loud for the rest of us. “These seats are reserved, please abide by the laws of Korea”. We get up immediately and stand. At the next stop a local woman around my age sits in the exact same spot. What does Pretty Lady do? She pokes Baseball Cap on the shoulder and gestures about the woman now seated there. He sheepishly creeps over and explains to the woman in Korean, she tells him her ankle is sore and he tries to communicate this to us, but we are mad and escalating. At the next stop 2 more woman join Ankle Lady on the bench, and Baseball Cap slithers to the other side of the car to avoid having to take further action.

Not feeling this place at all, I bail on dinner plans and go back to the hotel room to wait for tomorrow to come. Bestie and Pretty Lady have their own adventure with Korean BBQ and then bring the after party back to our room. The dancing goes until dawn and I am unsure what time I actually fell asleep. With the alarm set for its usual time, tomorrow will be a better day.