Now that I’m no longer a teacher – for the time being – it’s time to relax and enjoy myself.  It’s not all fun and games though, over the next month there are preparations to be made for the move to Qatar.  There are five years of Korean life to be packed up, thrown out, and given away.  There’s also the matter of my Korean pension refund which I can’t receive until I leave the country, which is what actually brings me back to Japan…

I decided on going by ferry from Busan to Osaka.  K and I visited a couple we know who live down that way and I came to realize that Busan is awesome!  We got some beach time in and I got to go swimming in the ocean at the beach, not Haeundai which is too crowded, but one of the smaller ones.

I took the panstar ferry which was an over-nighter.  Unfortunately there’s not really any English service so my partner teacher paid for it and I wired the money to her bank account.  My boat arrived in Osaka just ahead of a hurricane, good way to start the trip.  Being back in Japan has put me back to square one in terms of language barrier.  I didn’t realize just how easy knowing the language had made my life.  Suddenly I’m once again confronted with alien symbols and sounds, the feeling’s reminiscent of those days and weeks when I first came home.  Everything is new again, exciting and adventurous.  It’s fun and frustrating at the same time.

I visited Shin-Umeda city and Osaka castle and stayed with a Korean/Japanese couple who were kind enough to take in a couch-surfer.  I had a good time with them.  I left Osaka by train yesterday to arrive in Kobe 40 minutes later.  What can I say about Kobe?  The beef is good, AND expensive. In fact it was the most expensive meal I have ever eaten!