The Sea of Japan

After five fun-filled, utterly sleep-deprived days in Tokyo with Elliot, Vince and Elliot’s family (and family friends), I found myself back at school this morning. I’d just gotten back to Suncheon (via Osaka and Busan) the evening before. Needless to say it was strange to be back at school in earnest after two and half months of vacation (with four weeks of traveling scattered across it). Today was hectic too, being the first day of the new school year. There were many changes at school; the desks in the teacher’s room had been rearranged, there was a whole new grade of students, as well as a new principal and three new English teachers (all Korean, though one of them is only a temporary teacher). Because it was the first day of school, the schedule was pretty wacky, and I only taught one class today. That was probably fortunate for me. I think I needed to be broken in slowly. This morning we had a sort of introductory assembly, where the new principal and teachers were introduced, the school anthem was sung, and the different assembled classes screamed and applauded as they learned which teachers would be teaching who this year. This evening the new principal treated all the teachers and staff to a big dinner in the dining room of the local wedding hall (have I mentioned these wedding halls, where numerous weddings take place simultaneously and large lunches are eaten by hundreds of attendees?).

I’m still feeling a bit out of it from the travels. Even though it was a relatively short distance to go compared to my other trips, I missed out on a lot of sleep with the overnight buses to and from Tokyo and the Tokyo-nightlife combined with the daytime Tokyo-sightseeing. That combined with seeing a couple friends I knew from Reed for the first time since July, and how fun that was, the transition back to Suncheon felt pretty abrupt. All in all I feel incredibly lucky. The trip couldn’t have gone better. Elliot’s friends and family were so friendly and welcoming, I felt like I was sort of seamlessly integrated into their itinerary—I didn’t have to worry about a place to stay or how to get around.

It would be hard for me to describe or summarize everything we did and saw, but I will say that in general Japan does feel very modern and clean. Tokyo was pretty futuristic and a bit surreal, but was struck me the most was how quiet it was. In the subway stations all you heard was the rumble of the train and the clicking of heels. On the trains few people talked and I think cell-phones were banned. On the streets you’d cross in a gigantic wave of people, but the only sounds you’d hear were from the traffic or the big TV screens on the skyscrapers overhead. Or if you were in the right district, you might hear guys with signs or makeshift bullhorns calling out deals from brightly colored shop fronts. I think one of the most memorable things from the trip was visiting the huge fish market in Tokyo on the morning we arrived by bus at about 5:30 am, and seeing frozen fish, larger than I ever thought existed, being cut up on table-saws. Afterwards we had some delicious, incredibly fresh sushi at a little place nearby. Also memorable, our two sessions of karaoke and our last night when we visited Roppongi, the famous late-night district where doormen tried to pull us into clubs and when we did go into one we ended up having much more fun than I think any of us expected, just dancing to crazy remixes of American pop-songs that all the young Japanese people knew the words to (“You’re too good to be true, Can’t take my eyes off of you…?”).

The last day, before I got the night bus to Osaka where I would see Osaka Castle on a beautiful sunny morning and then catch my ferry to Busan that evening, we went to a Buddhist temple on a mountaintop that was still draped in slowly melting snow. It was beautiful and peaceful. Vince and I jogged the steep hill down rather than take the funicular and during the next couple days of transit ‘til I arrived in Korea my aching muscles were a very tangible reminder of what I’d so recently left. Tossing and turning in my berth, trying to get twelve hours of sleep to make a dent in the deficit I’d been maintaining, I truly felt like I was in some sort of limbo. I guess you’d call it the East Sea. Unless you are Japanese, and then you’d call it the Sea of Japan.