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Camillia Ferry

Busan Harbor

The boat to Japan was pretty deluxe. All the kids on board were losing their minds over it. I overheard one girl talking to her mom in English saying, “I am the luckiest kid in the world, one of four lucky people, to be on this boat.”  Yes. I may have misled you about the hot tub situation, there was in fact a large and hot tub, but in a shower / bathroom setting, and divided by sex. The way I described it last, I may have led you to envision an Asian singles mixer, with bikini clad Japanese and Koreans, getting drunk on sake and soju, splashing each other flirtatiously and spraying hot streams of wet bubbles all over gawking passengers and the information desk in the lobby of the ship. Is that what you saw? That’s what I saw. Alas, no.

I would have totally hit up that tub. I was feeling sad about not having one last jimjilbang night in Korea before I left. I didn’t get in there though, because I made a friend. I have no problem getting naked in front of strangers. People I have conversed with are another story. Unless the first time we conversed we were both naked. Then it’s fine. I feel if you know me as a clothed person, I should remain that way forever after. It kind of makes dating hard. Just about everyone I’ve met so far, on this trip, has asked me why I’m single. I think I’ve just found the answer. I need to start walking around naked. I may not get a date but at the very least I’d probably have a free place to stay once the paddy wagon picked me up. Padded floors and walls, high comfort!

My new friend is a cute, twenty-year old Korean girl, who was on her way to Japan to visit her brother who is serving his two-year mandatory military term. Her birthday was on June 7^th, just eight days before mine, and her mother named her Saebom because of this. It means early spring in English. I broke out the talking translator, but most of our conversation was conducted through theatrical gestures such as fake crying and hysterical laughter in an effort to convey the proper emotion when our jimmy-rigged sign language fell flat. It gave the dialogue a cartoonish quality that I’d like to employ in my everyday style from this point forward.

Saebom didn’t want to walk around the ship alone. Koreans are really social, and they think things like going to dinner, a movie, or traveling around the world by yourself means you’re a little odd. I think there are pluses and minuses to both ways of seeing things. I saw a lot of teamwork going on in Korea; little siblings feeding each other, friends and relatives washing each other’s backs in the bathhouse, and people really making sure the older generation is looked after. I was putting my backpack on and Saebom helped my arm into the strap and said, “Friendship.” That is lovely. American individualism can often be an isolating social construct, but the hyper-social system puts people in a situation where their value is so dependant upon how others perceive them that they feel stuck and under constant pressure. South Korea had the highest suicide rate in the world in 2010. From what I heard from my professor friends, there’s so much weight placed on success that a lot of people can’t stand to let their family and friends down, so they throw themselves in front of a train instead. Sorry to get all Debbie Downer on you.

I don’t know if this will cheer you up or not, but here’s something I’m enjoying about Japan; the toilets start talking to you the moment you step into the stall. When you sit down they transition to a waterfall audio, presumably to mask any undesirable happenings during your bathroom visit. I wouldn’t know. Girls don’t poop.

I’m surprised by how different Chinese, Korean, and Japanese alphabets are. I never paid attention before, but they’re not really at all similar. In my opinion Chinese is the most beautiful, and I find Japanese typographically baffling. It’s completely inconsistent. Some characters are overwhelmingly complex, and others are equally as simplistic. A lot of it just looks like a straight up joke, all silly and sproingy, the kind of thing you’d see above a cartoon character that’s just been hit over the head with a mallet.

I haven’t done anything here yet, other than ride the bus to Hiroshima. It was the most beautiful bus ride I’ve ever been on. The whole way it was fluffy green mountains being swallowed by clouds and cute little Japanese houses. I’m in the Hiroshima bus station right now, waiting to catch an overnight bus to Kyoto. By the time I get to the internet to post this I’ll be in Kyoto.

In closing I’d like to tell you two things;

The other day I saw a small white dog that had a pair of blue eyebrows drawn on.

When we did our Karaoke in Jeju, it would rate your singing, if you got 100% it said, “Comgraturations.”