Day 143: Training For Reality TV

I was up bright and early this morning - 6:30am!! My ride was coming to pick me up at 7:30am and I had to be ready for my busy (but short) excursion to Japan. It was great that my work paid for my flight and also arranged a ride for me out to the airport. Incheon International is kinda far from everything else (being built on an island off-shore) but is a really fabulous airport. All glass and steel, bright and shiny - it's a wonder of post-modern construction. A really spectacular gateway in and out of Korea.

Getting checked in was a bit tricky. I apparently needed a special stamp to leave the country since my old work visa didn't allow multiple entries. After being shuffled back and forth between several desks, with each employee looking more lost and confused than the one before, I was beginning to think I'd never get on that plane! Finally they just 'let me through' but told me I'd have to leave my alien identification card in the process. No worries there - I'll be getting a new one soon. Security and immigration were both crazy busy but finally I was through it all and it was time to board the plane.

My flight to Osaka on Asiana Airlines was a delight! The service was great, the flight really comfortable, the food quite yummy...I only wished it was longer! Just under an hour and a half later we were landing in Japan. Man, that was fast! Coming into Osaka by air was really cool! I had a window seat and was awarded with spectacular views of the city, harbour, and mountains below me. Osaka looked massive and modern and I could see many impressive buildings from the plane. We flew over this ENORMOUS bridge connecting two of Japan's largest islands and even over neighbouring Kobe. Kobe was severely damaged in a 1995 earthquake but there was no evidence of it now...

If I was impressed with Incheon Int'l, I was blown away by Osaka's Kansai Int'l Airport! Landing here was like stepping into the future! It's one of the biggest airports I've ever seen in my life and is built on an artificial island way out in the ocean, connected to the mainland by a super-long road/rail link. The terminal is UNBELIEVABLY LONG!! So long, that you actually have to board a small monorail train to take you from one end to the other! Riding a train *INSIDE* an airport??? How cool is that!!!

It was all smooth sailing until I reached Japanese Immigration...

Oh boy...

There was a MASSIVE line-up at Immigration! I guess several int'l flights just landed all at the same time? What else would explain the massive backlog? The line just crawled along at a snail's pace and I was getting a bit worried about the time. I had a mission to accomplish that day in Osaka but only a narrow window of time before I had to catch my return flight back to Korea. Massive line-ups are *not* part of the schedule!

Luckily I met two other guys in line who were doing the exact same visa run as I was and we decided to join forces and ban together. We shared each other's 'info sheets' that each of us were given about the visa run process and this is when slight panicking began...

According to Sean's info sheet, not only do all visa applications have to be at the consulate's office before 2pm in order to be processed that day (it was then 1pm and we were still way out at the airport!) but that the cost was $150 US!!! What the...!!??? Neither Greg nor I had brought enough Yen with us for that cost as we had both been told it was cheaper. We had no way to access our money in Korea and started to get worried that we had come all that way to Japan only to be short on dough for the application. Shit!

Finally we made it through Immigration and we immediately boarded the train that took us from Kansai into central Osaka. This proved to be quite a long ride as the station we needed to head to was the last stop. Murphy's Law! All three of us nervously glanced at our watches as our train stopped at every whistle stop along the way. We were really cutting it close for time!

We arrived at our station at 3 minutes before 2 o'clock - only 120 seconds to run and find that consulate's office and get our papers in! This is when the three of us stepped into "Amazing Race" mode and got all serious. It totally felt like we were on the show! We had just arrived in a foreign city none of us had ever been to with a mission to accomplish and the clock ticking! Would we make it?

We *BOLTED* out of the station and began running up the street, maps, directions, and papers in hand. The first thing I noticed was how INCREDIBLY HOT AND HUMID it was in Osaka. I mean Korea's humid all the time, but this was a different kind of humidity. A very, very WET kind. In about 10 seconds I was sweating like a racehorse but all I could think about was getting to that office in time. At first we couldn't find the consulate (in our mad running around the streets of Osaka, dodging speedy bicyclists, racing cars, and fashionable passerby that wasn't a surprise) and had to stop and ask for directions a few times. (Luckily Greg had a sheet that had, in Japanese, "Can you please tell me where to find the Korean Consulate? Thank you!")

RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN

Amazing Race, here I come! If I ever get the chance to go on that show (one of my Top Ten Missions In Life) I'm gonna be damn-well prepared after all my crazy travel experiences, that's for sure!! :-)

We found the Consulate and got our papers in just after 2pm. The lady behind the desk said there was no problem and that we could pick it up after 4pm. And also that the cost was only about $70 CDN. WHEW!!! SAVED!!

We then had 2 hours to kill so we decided to grab some lunch and walk around and try explore what we could in that short period of time. We wandered down some pedestrian streets and just tried to absorb it all.

AND OSAKA IS WAY COOL!!!

There were many similarities to Seoul, but it definitely had its own unique vibe. It was much cleaner and more modern than Seoul, and it was cool to see all the cars driving on the left-hand side. In terms of people, they also looked different too. The hairstyles and fashion seemed much hipper and much more international with a lot of Western influences. It just seemed like a more cosmopolitan city and it definitely seemed like a city I'd love to explore for a few days. Unfortunately all we had was 2 hours so we did a bit of shopping (picked up some cool T-shirts) and then went to find a place for lunch.

The only thing that I didn't like about Japan was the cost. OMG IT'S SO EXPENSIVE!!! We decided that since we were in Japan we may as well have Japanese food for lunch, so we wanted to find something casual and cheap. This proved to be near impossible!!! We went from restaurant to restaurant but COULD NOT find a lunch below $50 CDN!!! HOLY SHIT! Is this normal for Japan or are we just in a really expensive part of town? If these prices are average for here, how does anyone afford to live in that city!!!??? Finally we found a cheaper place (about $10 CDN for a very small lunch) and were pleased just to spend some time in a place that had air conditioning.

Thank God for Air Con!!!

After lunch we headed back to the Consulate and picked up our papers - everything went through and all three of us had bright shiny new Korean work visas. Yah!!! (a huge sigh of relief from me, considering everything I've gone through in the last couple of weeks!) And then it was time to head right back to the airport - no more time to hang out or wander the city.

This time when we got the station we noticed that there was an ExpressTrain option back to Kansai - way smarter! We bought tickets for this and were excited to see that this train was like a futuristic purple bullet train that looked like a giant submarine! So cool!! It brought us to Kansai in like half the time and we arrived at the airport around 5pm. Plenty of time to go through Immigration and catch our 7pm flight.

Leaving Japan proved to be a cinch and there weren't any line-ups at all. Next thing we knew we were back on the plane and cruising to Korea. Wow - less than 8 hours altogether in Japan and really only a mere two hours to actually see anything. It was a super short visit but a total blast and adventure. It definitely piqued (sp?) my interest with Japan and I'd LOVE to go back again sometime to explore more - if I can afford it!

I had a ride again waiting for me at the airport and was home in my apartment by 10:30pm at night. What a whirlwind day - but so much fun! This whole 'jet-set, lets visit a country for a day and run around the streets thing' was just the coolest adventure. And like I said, not having to pay for it was the icing on the cake! I was really tired for bed, and tomorrow was going to be my first day of teaching all by myself. Another big day on its way!