Although I returned to Detroit on the 24th, I'll try to recap Japan, Seoul and the DMZ the best I can...
Let's start with Japan.
From Seoul, we took a train to Pusan. From Pusan, we took a 3-hour ferry ride to Fukuoka, Japan. We stayed in Fukuoka for one night. Fukuoka was much larger than the small port city we had expected. It had buildings galore, a large nightlife and even a red light district. We started our first night off with an Izakaya.
All of the staff were really excited to have people to practice their English with and took turns walking into our room to ask us questions. Our waiter made us balloon animals and wrote our names with Japanese sayings.We were so impressed with the efforts of our waiter (it happened to be his birthday) and the rest of the staff that we left an American dollar and a quarter on the table, for something small they could remember us by. We said our goodbyes and left to explore more of the city.
When we were at least three blocks away and had made a few turns, our server showed up. He was all out of breath and his face dripped with sweat. We were so shocked, we didn't know what to make of it.
"You left this on the table," he huffed as he handed us our $1.25.
"Oh no, that was for you!" We explained. After he left, we couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of what had happened. First of all, how did he find us? He must have looked in every direction. Second, did he know how much $1.25 was worth in Yen? Considering how expensive Japan is, we decided he must've thought it was worth more. Last, we confirmed that it's best not to break the "no tipping" custom in Japan, unless we really hate our server and want to watch him run after us for 3 blocks.
We took the rest of the night to explore the city. The red light district was crowded with Japanese businessmen. Although I only had four days to speculate, I got the impression that people in Japan are much more comfortable when it comes to pornography. Even when we weren't in the red light area, it wasn't uncommon for us to walk into a convenience store and see four or five businessmen glancing at magazines (either cartoon or real) with half naked women on them. On the four hour morning bus ride to Hiroshima, I sat next to a man in a business suit who was reading a graphic novel with an almost naked woman on the cover. I don't even know what to make of it all, maybe it was a series of coincidences?
This is the A-Bomb dome, one of the few remaining buildings from the atomic bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima. I'm not going to go into too much detail, but it was a cool area with a museum and a lot of memorials. Naturally, they are all about promoting peace, love and harmony on Earth when it comes to nuclear weapons. Interesting fact: Even today, Hiroshima has an unusually higher cancer rate than other cities. The lingering radiation still has its effects.
From Hiroshima, we took a day trip to Miyajima Island, one of Japan's three most scenic views. The whole island was full of very friendly deer. They were so friendly, in fact, that there were several instances where I'd walk away to avoid getting my bag eaten.
On the ferry back to Korea, we had some problems involving "extra charges." Before the whole trip to Japan, we had purchased our ferry tickets about a week or two in advance. When we came to the port, however, we had to pay a $50 tax surcharge. Not only that, but we had to buy another ticket in Japan to get into the terminal itself. It was obvious we needed the terminal to get onto the ferry and I don't understand why the price of such a ticket couldn't just be included in the ferry ticket.
After Japan, we spent our last three nights in Seoul. We saw a lot of the city, but what stuck out most to me was our day trip to the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
It remains the most heavily fortified border in the world with strict dress codes and behaviors (don't point, for instance) that are heavily enforced. Needless to say, the tension of the atmosphere radiated around us. The tour was guided mostly by United Nations Command military personnel. First, we went to Camp Bonafis, named after an American captain who died in the 1976 Axe Murder Incident. The camp lies just outside of the Joint Security Area, a place where both sides can communicate with one another without having to enter one another's country. I was able to catch sight of both North Korean and South Korean guards, although the North Korean guards were at more of a distance (the picture above is a South Korean guard).
What was really interesting was North Korea's Propaganda Village. From watching the village at a distance, South Koreans were able to conclude that the village is completely deserted. The buildings you see in the picture are fake-- probably put there to intimidate South Korea. Speaking of intimidation, notice the flagpole in the middle of the village...it's the world's largest flagpole and flag. When the South erected a flagpole over 100m high near the border, North Korea erected the one it has today, over 160m-- pretty hilarious. 
We also got to see the Bridge of No Return, the bridge connecting North Korea and South Korea. In the afternoon, we saw the Third Tunnel, one of four digging attempts by North Korea to invade South Korea. It was dug for four years (1.1 miles long) before South Korea found it. When the issue was first addressed, North Korea claimed it was an abandoned coal mine from before the two countries separated. Walking through the tunnel, we saw the remnants of the vein attempts by the North Koreans to spray paint the inside of the tunnel black (honestly, who were they kidding?). When South Korea pointed out that the tunnel was comprised of bedrock and couldn't possibly have been a coal mine, North Korea then tried to say that it was South Korea who had tried to dig a tunnel to North Korea. Oh North Korea...
And now I'm back.
What's next? I'm working on acquiring a working holiday visa so that I may work in Australia for up to a year. I can't post details because I have none-- but details to come, I promise!
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