June 21-27, 2010
Well another week started, and I was still living on Blake's couch. Still having heard nothing from my school, I was getting worried that they may have forgotten about me, or if the fact that I was staying with friends meant I didn't need my own place to them. Then just as I was thinking it was time to make some calls, I got both an email and phone call from my recruiter. They both consisted of the same thing, but her need to be thorough was impressive. The issue with my apartment was not looking good, as the school had not yet found a place, and they were worried about the size of the bed I had requested. To me this did not sound promising, as it meant they were having a hard time finding a place larger than a shoebox for me to set up in. Either way, I relayed my concerns and my recruiter said she would look into it. The other half of the conversation was about my needed trip to Japan to get my Visa, but I'll talk more about that later.
During the day on Monday and Tuesday, I mostly hung out at Blake's to stay out of the heat; and since I was in, I tried to clean up a bit. Then Tuesday night Nate came over to Blake's after work and we watched the Mexico vs. Uruguay soccer match at 11pm. The object was to watch that game then grab a nap before the much anticipated Korea vs. Nigeria match at 330am, which would decide if Korea would make it on to Stage 2 of the tournament. However, Blake's friend YoungGin called and asked if she could join us for the game. This meant that we could not get in the nap we had thought about having, and that an all-nighter was inevitable. Nate called it a night after the first game, and left the 3 of us to wait out the 1.5 hours before game time. We did this at Blake's house until 3, then walked to the river to join the enormous crowd for the game. We thought that given the time there would be fewer people at the river, but boy were we wrong. It turned out that there were more than usual, due to the crucial outcome of this game. Luckily, the game ended in a tie and, with Greece's loss to Argentina at the same time, Korea got their birth to the next round.
After the game we headed to McDonald's for a breakfast sandwich on our way home. It was almost 630am and I had told Emily that I needed to come down for some new clothes and documents from my bags Wednesday, but was afraid I might not make it if I fell asleep. Then out of nowhere she called me and told me she had been up watching the game as well, so if I wanted to head to hear place then, that she would stay up to let me in. It was an extra 45 minutes that I had to stay up, but I couldn't pass up the chance to get some clean clothes. And my documents for the Visa trip to Fukuoka, I was about to make.
I got to Emily's around 730 and made a beeline for the couch, where I slept until 1pm when her alarm got us both up so she could get ready for work. I grabbed some new shirts and socks, and all my documentation from my suitcase, then talked for a bit with Emily about Fukuoka, since she also had to go there to get her Visa. She told me about some of the sights she saw and how I shouldn't take a taxi because they are so expensive, and you can walk most places. She headed to work and I headed back to Blake's around 3.
Once back at Blake's I packed up my backpack, triple checking to make sure I had everything I needed, and then had a two hour nap while I waited for everyone to finish work. After work Blake hit the gym, and then we went over to Nate's for some beers and meatball subs, and more soccer. We watched the Slovenia vs. England game, while watching online updates of the U.S.A. vs. Algeria on Nathan's computer, to see which teams would advance to the next round of games. We finished watching England and the U.S.A. winning and called it a night at 2am, as I had to be up and off to the airport by 6am Thursday.
While I was walking, I did see some pretty neat stuff. I started by walking past the Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome to the Fukouka Tower, where I took an elevator up to the observation floors to check out the city from above. It was a nice view, but I had lots of ground to cover, so I left there and started my downward spiral of lostness. I headed toward the Meinohama district to see the Ferris Wheel that is boasted as one of the world's largest. After seeing it, but not actually finding the entrance to Marinoa City (the amusement park), I accidentally flipped my map over and was looking at the wrong side of the city and thought I had to continue walking west to see some great sights. As it turned out, and I realized after two hours of walking in the wrong direction, the sights were to the east of Meinohama. So, disappointed in myself and with sore feet, I turned around and weaved my way back towards the rest of the city, following signs pointing to the city center. I walked inwards and found Ohori and Maizuru Park's, which I stopped at to sit by Ohori's lake, then continued my walk around some of Maizuru Park. After the parks, my feet were throbbing, so I hopped on the subway and headed into the city center, and got off at Tenjin Station. From Tenjin I walked around (just what my poor feet needed) to find a hotel. After pricing out a few hotels, and realizing the going rate for a single bed hotel room was $60-70, I thought about just sleeping on a park bench for the night. But then I realized how sore my feet were and knew that I had to get off them, even if it was only for a couple hours.
I bit the bullet and payed $68 for a place to stay, but they included a a breakfast, and the girls at the counter were cute and helped me find a place to watch that nights World Cup games. They pointed me in the direction of the closest area with a night life, and said I would be able to find a sports bar somewhere. So after a shower and some time off my feet, which were blistering, I limped out of the hotel at 1130 to find a sports bar. To my surprise, it turned out that the night life district in which they had pointed me was the Nakasu red-light district. Not what I was expecting, but I took it all in stride, wandering street to street looking for a sports bar, and trying to avoid the seedy night clubs and hooker bars. In the end I had almost given up, when I came upon a sign that was advertising the World Cup games, so I headed in and found a sports bar that was indeed showing the games. I watched the Slovakia vs. Italy game in an almost empty bar, with a few Japanese guys my age, who had befriended me, and who spoke decent English. After Slovakia won the game, they informed me that the bar was closing for an hour to get ready for the next game........Denmark vs. Japan (which had Japan's advancement to the second stage on the line), and made sure I promised to come back to watch. I indeed promised, because how many times will you get to watch a World Cup game in the country of the team that is playing, that and I had really wanted to watch the game anyways. So, I went back to my hotel and grabbed a 2 hour nap, since i had been up since 530am, and woke up just in time to head back to the bar for the game.
When I arrived, the bar had transformed into a huge party. They were definitely over capacity, but nobody seemed to care. The guys at the door recognized me from earlier, but were afraid to ask me for the cover price because they didn't think it they could translate it properly. As soon as one of them said a price, I handed them money and they breathed a sigh of relief and gave me the complimentary drink tickets and let me in. I quickly squeezed my way through the crown looking for my friends from earlier, but had no luck, so I just stood by the only spot in the bar serving drinks and waited for them to find me. While I was waiting to be found I watched the place light up when Japan scored their first goal, and then the party was on. People were constantly cheering and it was deafening, yet so awesome. Then, my bar plan payed off, and Yu (the guys name) came up for a drink. As soon as he saw me he squeezed his way though and grabbed my, a couple drinks, and then it was back to his table at the front of the bar to sit with the rest of his friends who showed up. We all sat together, while his friends talked to me and asked me all sorts of questions, and partied when Japan played well and eventually won.
After the game I went back to the hotel for another two hour nap before getting up for the breakfast at 9, and heading out to see a few more things before leaving. Unfortunately, my feet had blistered, and I looked like a hobbling fool as I walked to Teramachi temple area. After that, I had had enough and went to the embassy to pick up my passport, complete with new Visa, then grabbed lunch and went to the airport to wait for my plane.
My plane took off at 630 and I was back in Seoul by 730, and back to Blake's by 9. Once back in town, we had a boys night out scheduled for Friday, so I grabbed a quick shower and Blake and I headed to Gangnam to meet the boys for dinner. After some galbi we hit up Havana Monkey for some drinks before heading to the ever popular Gold Bar in Sincheon. Once at Gold Bar we sat around playing pool and darts, and Garrett and I talked football strategy (eventually he attacked me and I put him on his ass) until the sun came up and we all went home to get some rest.
I woke up at Blake's around one in the afternoon ad pretty much sat around all day waiting to go back to the Han River to watch Korea's next game against Uruguay, the first game in the second stage of the World Cup tournament. Blake and I headed to the park at 830, grabbing a pizza on the way and waiting for the game to start at 11. Nate showed up around 930 and we all sat together, under umbrellas, as it had started raining, until the game started. Once the game started, we lucked out and found a man selling rain ponchos, which we bought and put on so that our umbrellas weren't blocking everyone view. The game was looking with in reach, but in the end Korea lost a hard fought battle, which we believed they should have won, and were out of the tournament; thus killing the World Cup culture in Korea, and all the fun we were having watching the games outdoors with the thousands of fans.
Sunday was a relaxing day. I just hung out at Blake's until after dinner when i helped Danielle pack up some boxes she was shipping home, then headed down to have some late dinner with Emily and pick up some more clothes.
So, Korea put up a good fight but in the end the sun set on another World Cup for the Land of the Morning Clam.
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