This is my old, and current, backpack. I would forget to remove those pins on all 4 plane rides so I'm really happy they never got confiscated, especially the ADIDAP pin (I think Nozomi and whoever it was she collaborated with only had 100 or so of them made). I've had this backpack since high school and it's gotten me through high school, college, every, single one of my trips, and just carrying stuff to the office everyday. Why is any of this important? Earlier in the trip, I did buy a smaller pack I could slip onto my belt but then gave up on it and still continued to lug around this backpack. Jacob and Ben would make jokes comparing it to a parasite that I couldn't get rid of. As funny as it was at the time, it might be true as the night before I went looking for another cheap backpack to replace it. Unfortunately, the new backpack I picked up at Don Quijote turned out to be not as big as my old backpack so it wasn't holding all my stuff. I ended up dropping the brand new bag in a pile of stuff on a counter in the hostel for things people were leaving behind. One day I'll figure out how to leave this one behind.
After figuring out how to get everything packed up again, I made it to Shibuya Station. Not wanting to take the local train, I decided I would pay the extra cost to ride the nice NEX train again with it's cushioned chairs and wifi. Unfortunately, I couldn't find where to buy the ticket so I ended up walking through the entire station using my Suica card thinking I might find an office somewhere inside. I did not. With time dwindling down, I just decided to jump on the train and play the "dumb foreigner" card, which, if you were with me at anytime this trip, you know just how easy it is for me to do. Almost as soon as the train started moving and the thought crossed my mind, "I hope no one comes around asking to see my ticket," the train-guy came by and asked to see my ticket. I shrugged my shoulders and showed him the Suica card. He shook his head and explained that I was supposed to buy a different ticket for this train. In English, if you're curious. My Japanese didn't suddenly become fluent, conversational, or even existent in just one week. Then he told me to just give him money. I don't remember the amount, but I do remember thinking, "Is this guy asking for a bribe?" Well, I gave him the money and he gave me a ticket and walked away.
Airport security from Japan to Korea was a little different than from the US to Japan. They let me keep my shoes and belt on as I walked through the scanner. They also confiscated my back-up lighter, something about you can only carry one. With no where to go for the next couple hours, I walked in circles catching Pokemon. I slept a lot on the plane ride from Japan to Korea. A lot. Way more than I normally sleep on planes and the flight was only 2-3 hours long. I mostly remember the food being a lot better than any plane food I'd eaten in a long time.
I was in a daze getting off the plane. As I mentioned before, I'm an excellent sheep so I just followed the line of people through customs and immigration and all that stuff. Knowing what I knew now about phone service (and how much I was going to need it), I decided on renting a portable wifi ... thingy from one of the kiosks at the airport. Then, I spent at least 15 minutes trying to work out if it was worth paying $50 a day for the next week and a half for the device and if I instead could figure out another way to get cheaper service before remembering about exchange rates and the 5000won/day price is closer to $5/day, not $50/day (not necessarily my fault since I'd been in Japan where 5000yen is close to $50).
A woman at a counter directed me on which train line to take to get to the hostel in Hapjeong (I'm going to misspell a lot) and she even gave me a map of all the lines which I would carry everywhere. In a just over a week, through all the folding and unfolding, I would eventually tear that paper in half. From Hapjeong station, it was just a short walk from the station to the hostel. All the exhaustion from traveling and walking though seemed to hit at once, built up as if all the energy I had just ran out at the same time. I really only remember getting through the front door and being greeted by the woman who ran the hostel. She briefly showed me around: the kitchen, the rooms, the bathroom, the showers. Then I tossed my stuff onto the floor and passed out on one of the beds with a heatpad already going, something about knowing I was from Hawaii and I was going to need this for the cold.
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