Journey to Japan and South Korea
It is 12:30pm – Ríša picks me up and we go to the airport. We arrive in Prague airport at 2:30pm. Check-in goes well, only on the flight from Seoul to Osaka we sit behind each other-the Jumbo 747–400 is full!
Yes, we fly via Frankfurt and Seoul to Osaka to visit our friend. We depart from Prague with Czech Airlines half an hour later but arrive in Frankfurt on time. Now we need to change for Korean Air flight to Seoul. It departs not far from us so we just pass several gates and we are there. The boarding is just about to start. It is our first flight with KE so we wonder what is the service going to be like, if they won’t disappoint us compared to CX or SQ. We take off half an hour later and fly over Germany, Switzerland, St. Petersburg, Siberia, Irkutsk, Mongolia and China to Seoul. The air hostesses look after us nicely, but the main thing about this flight is that for every three seats in Economy Class you get a plug so your laptop can be on throughout the whole flight. Korean Air offers on some of their flights (see www.koreanair.com) high-speed internet connection (unfortunately this service has been finished as the company providing this service, Connection Boeing, went broke). I successfully find a wi-fi net; I even find out from the airhostess that it is free of charge. So we spend the whole flight surfing the Internet and talking. When landing in Seoul, the plane „rocks“ a little, but everything’s fine and we land on time. Two gates from here is an Airbus 330 leaving to Prague in 30 minutes (unfortunately IT is not offered on that plane). The airport is huge and can be compared to those in Singapore or HKG. And they are building a new terminal! Though we both have cell phones with UMTS net, they don’t work here. We look at least for a free internet connection, we find it and write emails home. We also meet a group of Czech tourists, but we are not interested in where they are up to. We take a walk across the airport and I try some local meal (beef soup, rice, chilly, hot cabbage and a pumpkin-I don’t eat that) and Ríša films it. But I can see he is absolutely knackered and persuades me to find some space where we could take a rest. We find a place and he sleeps in a minute. Meanwhile I am writing these lines, during this trip I would like to write the promised backlogs from Rome, Paris, Lisbon, Bali and Singapore, hope I will manage. I can see they have changed our gate from 30 to 45. When Ríša wakes up I will tell him. Several useful info about this airport: its name is Seoul Incheon. In Seoul there is another airport Gimpo, but these flights don’t fly there. In case you think you could withdraw money from a cash machine here, don’t expect that! We have seen only one. There may be some in Exit, but we will be able to confirm this next week when stopping here to spend some time in Seoul. Don’t count on using Euro; nobody accepts them here (only exchange offices; shops and restaurants don’t). They only accept Dollars or Japanese Yens. And they will use a low exchange rate, but there is no other way apart from paying by credit card. You won’t get Korean wons in Czech banks. I will have to wake Ríša up in about half and hour, the boarding starts in an hour. It is 5:35 pm and it is getting dark. 90% of planes here are KE or Asiana, both are Korean airlines. In the afternoon and evening we also see other renowned airlines. Ríša wakes up so we go to look for our gate 45. We wander around the airport with a large number of shops. We get beer – a local beer. First we have to pay at the counter then they bring it to us. It is 2dl and costs 5000 wons (125 CZK). It’s a boarding time. We are supposed to sit behind each other, but in both rows there are people who belong to each other so after some complicated changes Ríša is sitting next to me. There are only three passengers of European look so we are very popular, especially among the kids, but even the adult ones. The flight is fine and after one hour and 40 minutes we land in Osaka Airport. The descending went very fast so half of the passengers hold their ears. After getting of the plane we take a train to passport control where we can see a half of the plane were Japanese and a half were Koreans plus some Hindus with Malayan passport. The passport control goes well, we just have to wait in the queue for a while. I switch on my phone and luckily it works. I receive number of SMS from Czech Republic that haven’t been delivered since our take off in FRA. We pass the control and we go to pick up the luggage. Our 2 pieces of luggage are the very last ones. Now the customs´- I go through fine but cannot wait for Ríša – the „security“ sends me away. I go out and see our friend Minoru waiting for us. We chat and wait for Ríša – they weren’t very happy about his plum brandy, Maxims and Playboys… they checked everything. At last, he arrives; we pick up the car and drive to our hotel, about 30 minutes from the airport. Minoru drives in the same manner as in The Czech Republic – it means, not very well… There are moments we are quite tense. We arrive in Tokyo-Inn hotel, it is a net of hotels spread over the whole Japan, where you can get an accommodation from 600 CZK to 1800 CZK per night, depending on the hotel location. The hotel has non-smoking rooms (which is difficult to find in Japan – everybody smokes here like a power station…). We have a cute but small room. These hotels offer you calls in Japan and internet connection for free. It’s 54 mb/s fast, so it’s great!!! I must recommend these hotels, you just enter www.tokyo-inn.com and it finds your hotel. The only problem could be finding out where actually is the hotel located, it is difficult to make the names out. It is better to ask someone local to help you book the hotel for you. The staff even understands a bit English which is not common.
We go to a pub for a while together with Minoru. Finally we find one but it is hard – most of the restaurants and pubs close at 10 pm or 11pm. We discovered one that closes at 1am, so we’ve got one hour and a half. We get a pint of local beer and surprise the locals by this order. Only Minoru is happy that we haven’t changed at all. We eat some local specialties and everything tastes normal. Maybe except of „battered and fried chicken gristles“ considered a local delicacy. They must have healthy teeth to be able to eat it. Everybody is very obliging, exactly as it is said – smiling and helpful. They thank you all the time and bow slightly.
We go to bed, arranging to meet Minoru at 9am at the reception. Some Skype chatting and then bed.
Kyoto
It is 8 am and we go to breakfast – it is a Japanese breakfast – miso soup (what a terrible thing, can anybody even like it?) and 4 kinds of rice triangles. One with fish, other with vegetables etc. It is quite edible. Plus tee, water or coffee. I assume we will be hungry soon. Minoru arrives at 9:14 and we go to catch a train to Kyoto, it takes about one hour. The system of trains and metros in Osaka, and in the whole Japan, is incredible. For one-hour journey from Osaka to Kyoto you pay maximum 400 yens. The best way is to divide five to get price in CZK, it is not exact but it helps. The metro costs from 150 to 250 yens. To understand the ticket machine is not so difficult, you just need to think a little. When going towards the train or metro you just put the ticket into a hole (you will know when you see it) and it’ll get to you back marked. It is very important to keep the ticket on you! You put it into the same machine when getting off the train or metro but this time it stays there. Without the ticket you won’t get out of the station. The journey is fine. Kyoto is worth seeing. It is worth spending some money for the train and go to see some of the temples, shiraie and beautiful gardens, but still one day is not enough. There are tens of them in the whole Kyoto. We visited at least the Royal Temple and some others. It is a good place where to spend money too. There are many possibilities to pray for love, money, business, life, health, family and others. Every time you need to give some money, light a stick, hit a bell, clap your hands twice or clasp your hand and then you just make your wish and it will come true…
There are Koreans and Japanese everywhere, no one from Europe. We travel by bus between the temples and are some kind of an attraction there. Almost every bus stop has a table where you can see where your bus is right now and what time it will arrive. Then you just get on and go. You pay when getting off. Every time you get on the bus at the rear and get off at the front. The driver always has glows and a mask over his mouth. At 4 pm we are already tired. We head for the Kyoto Shopping Centre to meet a friend of Minoru´s – Takuja. Before meeting him we visit a couple of electro shops. Everything is from 30% to 70% cheaper then in the Czech Republic. We have a lot to eat, meals you wouldn’t even imagine! But the most interesting is a stingray. Delicious! We miss out the local beer Asahi and enjoy the evening. From time to time we need to use a toilet and I must say that you will find every kind of toilet you can imagine here – from a hole in the ground with a ceramic hollow used as WC to a remote control toilet with heated seat and a wash before and after… Takuja is laughing broadly. It is 11 pm and we return to Osaka. Minoru is sleeping on the train, we get off at our station and Ríša and me go to a „local pub“ by the hotel. I haven’t seen so many drunken people in the Czech Republic throughout the whole year like here during the journey by train and the stations. Japanese just don’t know how to drink. We go to bed. Meeting with Masae and Arat awaits us.
Osaka Centre
Next day we sleep a bit longer, we have time as we are meeting Minoru, Masae and Arat at a metro station in the city centre. So we need to travel four stations on our own. We leave at 10:50. The station is not far. It takes us a couple of minutes to find a ticket machine. Everything is clearly marked. The only problem is to find a sign in English. But normally one of five is in English. Apart from the routing you can also find price for each destination on a table. Then you just buy a ticket and go. When the ticket is being controlled, it returns to you and you need to keep it otherwise you won’t get out of the station, well I’ve mentioned that before. We meet Masae, Minoru and Arat – it’s a beautiful six-month old boy. Very nice! We all go for a lunch. We choose a restaurant with tatami on purpose, so we sit there trying to work out what to do with our legs. We give our presents and chat. Masae still looks very beautiful. Our „little mole“ amazes Arat. We eat local noodles and beef and chicken. We get it even with a gas cooker so we actually cook it ourselves. We use chopsticks, which is not a problem for us anymore. You get as much water as you can drink is every restaurant here. Sometimes even hot Japanese green tea. That is however without any taste.
After lunch we all go for a walk in Osaka. We visit the Castle. First we get mixed with some models making pictures there, trying to take some pictures too, afterwards we meet a guy from Poland. The Castle looks interesting. However, it is only a copy. The original does not exist anymore. We use a lift to go up and we walk the rest to have a view of Osaka. Unfortunately, it is an industrial city so one can see only factories, skyscrapers, etc. After visiting the Castle we have a coffee for which we pay as a revenge for their lunch. We sit down in coffee chain Pronto. It is widespread here in Japan. They offer a good coffee, and delicious desserts for reasonable prices. Arata sleeps with the little mole. After the coffee Masae leaves us and we, together with Minoru go to the city center to do some shopping. We go through huge shopping centers, arcades, and shops.
There are thousands of people everywhere. We do some more shopping in electroscope and then we, together with Atashi who has joined us, go to a local restaurant to have a special Japanese meal, fish Fugu. It is a poisonous fish due to which, if not prepared properly, one dies in a few minutes. There have been several such cases. Therefore, we control with Richards local people look. We eat Fugu raw, fried, or boiled (we have to boil it ourselves again – it is enough to put it in boiling water 5 times and it is done). The fish is tasty; the best was the fried one. We drink local bear Asahi. After having beer, Minoru and Atashi start feeling good and they throw some food on each other. You can get Fugu in various styles for 4 people for 10 thousands yens. After meal we go to another restaurant to try a horse. Both, Ríša and me like it. It is raw meat, which one has to put in a sauce to make it edible. We want to continue in some bar but Atashi runs away. Therefore, we start looking with Minoru for a metro station to get to the hotel. However, metro in Osaka operates only till midnight. We take a taxi. The first fare is for 660 yens (it can be even more expensive not by much) for which the driver takes you first 2km and then there is additional fee for every 280m. We leave our stuff in the hotel and then continue to a bar. We are refused in one bar for not being Japanese. In the second one we are refused again because we do not have our passports. The third one is ok. We drink Cuba Libre. After 3 drinks we go back. Stopping a vacant taxi is a bit complicated but we manage.
Shinkanzen
The next day we agreed with Minori to do only some shopping and at 12am we will try Shinkanzen. We go shopping in the morning and again try to withdraw some money. It is still impossible although it is almost the hundredth cash machine we have tried. The fact that we have an embossed credit card Visa Business makes no difference, so we can use it only for direct payments. It is important to find out, prior going to Japan, how it is with your credit card in there. E-bank does not work. And if it works, than only sometimes, not all the cash machines will give you money. We have to exchange some dollars. The rate is not very good but it is the only way. Due to this delay we have to use later train to Tokyo. Even if you have a Shinkanzen ticket, you can change it for later departure at any metro or train station. The first change is for free. We change the ticket to 14:59 so that we can arrange a couple of other things with Minoru. We get back from the city center by metro with greeting cards and a letter to go with calendars. I was happy for finding the shop because in the Czech Republic it is not possible to buy such cards or for much higher price. Then I need to buy some bottles of Japanese whiskey for my friend. I bought many; so I hope I will be able to carry them, and that they will not get crashed during the flight, and I will to not have to declare them. We will see. We get to the hotel and have a great mandarin juice (it is like mixed compote with mandarins in a can bought in our country, but very delicious). Minoru is tired from our visit and sad for our problems with the credit cards.
We take a taxi for the railway station, I forget my mobile in the taxi, but the taxi driver was a good guy and returns it to me. Well, Japanese people are fain compared to others, as you will see later. We have 25 minutes so we go to see the hall. We come to the platform and get on the train. It is amazing! Like on a plane, but the space you have is like in a Business Class. We wave at Minoru and the train leaves at the exact time. There are three levels of fast trains in Japan: Nozumi – the fastest one, hikari – the second fastest, and the third one, I cannot remember its name.
The journey costs us 13,000 yens. The train is comfortable, we pass columns (actually we are not able to see them in this speed), and we pass Fujiyama. It can be seen well, but it is getting dark so it’s not possible to make a video. An interesting thing is the staff – every time they enter or leave the car they bow. Some of them just a little but some bow properly. In two hours and a bit we arrive in Tokyo, in Tokyo Station (the train junction, where all the fast trains, normal trains, metro and buses meet). We have a problem with orientation at the Station. We don’t realize we need to use our ticket when leaving the station. The system is obviously the same everywhere. We need to find out in what direction is our hotel. Ríša insists on walking, so we walk 15 minutes with our entire luggage to our hotel. After asking the way several times and without getting lost we come to the hotel. The hotel is 5 minutes on foot from Ginza and costs only 11,000 yens per night per room. Minoru helped with finding it. It’s just a three star but for one night it is fine. The main thing is the internet is free. After a while we go for a short sightseeing, we are tired so we don’t go any far. We go to a shopping mall, where everybody bows, and we feel a bit embarrassed about it. Then we come to Ginza – the most famous avenue in Japan, and the most expensive in the world. There are only expensive shops there. We walk through the whole Ginza and are hungry. We get an idea to go to KFC (Ríša refuses McD). We get there at 8 minutes to 9 pm. They tell us they’re closing at 9 pm and we can only get a take away now. With a bit of arguing I agree, we get the meal, but go to the second floor where we unwrap it… now I know we can finish it here… they won’t get rid of us anymore. Have you ever seen KFC closing at 9 pm? Well, in Japan it is quite common. After meal we go back to the hotel, one hour on internet and then bed. I get up at 10 am (I needed to get some sleep, but Ríša gets up at 12:30 pm – terrible! When he sleeps, he sleeps.
Tokyo
We are planning to go to Tokyo Tower and see the city from the top. We take metro (the orientation is very easy – everywhere in the info centers, hotels and metro you get a small map free of charge). The journey takes about 15 minutes and we get out about 150 meters from Tokyo Tower. It looks almost like the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Only it is red and white. Obviously we want to get to the top so we buy tickets including the entrance fee for the two floors of the Tower. A “lady usher” takes us to the elevator, bows, and we go up. You can see a lot from the first floor, but still it is not the right thing. The problem is we are hungry. Looking for a restaurant we find out there is one downstairs. A guy gives us “a permission-to-return ticket” so we can go down. We order local meal – again. Ríša gets something with eggs and I choose according to the pictures. I like noodles with something green, unfortunately they are cold noodles with seaweeds. But I’m starving so together with beer it is edible. We buy some postcards next to the restaurant and write them in a next-door café. I drink presso and Ríša his favorite latté. It is getting dark so we go up to the highest floor of the Tower. You really have to see this! It is a city of advertisements and skyscrapers beautifully lightened. We take lots of pictures and then on the way back we take many photos from the ground too. We take metro to Ginza, wandering around until 10 pm and then back to our hotel. Right next to the hotel there is a restaurant. Everything is in Japanese and the staff also speaks only Japanese. So we order by showing at something in the menu, wandering what surprise we’ll get. Plus we order “beer kudasai” which we manage perfectly. The only restaurant advantage is wi-fi connection so we can use internet. Ríša gets an omelette and I get noodles again. This time fried rice noodles.
It is morning and we finish packing. After the check out we go from the hotel. In 15 minutes an “air shuttle” departs from the Tokyo Station – it is a bus going from the city center to the airport. We take a taxi and arrive at the station in 4 minutes. Perfect. There is not much to say about the bus – only that it takes hour and a half and that we were not allowed to get off at the end when 2/3 of the bus was getting of, but we had to wait and get off after next 150 meters. The check-in is smooth and fast. We have a look at some souvenirs and think about a CD with local music. We also visit a viewpoint from which one can observe lots of airplanes. Just now there are some flights from Europe – KLM, Virgin Atlantic, LH, OS, etc. After that we have some food and buy local snake spirit. We buy two bottles each. We get an appetite for a quick presso and latté. We go to a restaurant – the service is quite slow, in the meanwhile we go to WC – and suddenly we find out that our flight is leaving in 15 minutes! And we have not found the gate yet! We run like crazy, but meet a deep check of everything and a queue, so we wait. A guy notices that we are quite nervous. He has a look at our boarding passes and calls the flight company that we are on our way. We continue to run and 2 minutes before the departure we get there. Sweating, but we made it. We go again with KE. We take off and flight around the whole airport. After getting above the clouds I start my camera and take pictures of Fujiyama, which is from one half above the clouds. The flight is ok and after crossing path with a JAL airplane in 800 meters from us we land in Seoul. We look forward to meeting Mirek. He is supposed to arrive from Manila. During the flight we are planning a joke on Mirek, so we asked a stewardesses to bring us beer cans, so we could pretend that we have been waiting for a long time and are completely drunk. However, the stewardess nods everything while she does not brink us anything. She did not understand a word. It does not matter. We pass through the immigration offices, collect our luggage and get to the arrival hall. We look for an appropriate exit to find Mirek. It is exit B and we are at F. After a nice walk we get to exit B, but Mirek is still not here. I go to info boot to ask whether Mr. Pokorny Miroslav was on board. They copy my passport number and claim that he was on the plane. It is interesting that in Czech no one would give me such information. No problem here. I go to another info boot asking for an announcement in Czech. Finally we announce him to go to the exit, but with no result. I go to beg an exit guard for at least having a look. I see Mirek and call his name. We finally meet. The director is happy that he can leave the airport after 5 hours, while he does not know yet, what awaits us in the hotel. Before leaving we go to try a cash machine, however the eBanka cards do not work again. Fortunately, Mirek’s silver card from GE does and we are getting some money.
History of Seoul
It takes one hour to get to the hotel. We check in and pay by card. After having a look at our room, we say that one room is enough for us. The director starts sweatting. We cancel the payment and pay only for one room. The room here means a bedroom with two beds, computer and a living room/kitchen with large sofa. The price for such a flat is 280 000 Korean wons. Nice price. After unpacking we go to the surrounding to find some meal. Mirek is very hungry accepting anything. Therefore, we enter the first restaurant about 100 meters from our residence. It is a restaurant in “Czech buffet style”. Each of us has a meal selected according to the pictures because nobody understands any English here. We are here as an attraction. We wonder how many employees are here in such a small bistro and no one works. Anyway, they prepare us the food. It is very nice but unbelievably hot. Some of us are unable to finish it because our mouth is burning. After the meal we go for a walk around. We enter a bar with almost nothing to drink. Therefore, we change the bar. We are not allowed to go to karaoke because it is said to be only for Koreans. Finally, we find a pleasant bar where we drink 3 beers and then go to sleep. The next day we will travel the whole day in Seoul.
It is a new day. We wake up – only Ríša is unable to stand up, which is, however, typical. We go for a breakfast to cafeteria downstairs in our residence. We have presso and cakes. After that we start thinking about our route. We find out that there is the hotel Intercontinental close to our place from which one can use a bus connection to the airport for a few bugs. It is our first target. Yes, it is possible to use a bus shuttle directly to the airport. After getting its schedule, we go to the Olympic Stadium. We go by a large complex of stadiums and take plenty of pictures. After that we visit a shop where we buy some souvenirs. And then we try metro. It takes a while to orientate ourselves but then it is good. A ride in Seoul’s metro is so experience. You meet a lot of sellers of socks and gloves here, that have to get through overcrowded cars yelling over the whole car. We get off by the main temple complex where guard changing takes place at this moment. The complex is very large and we spend a lot of time here. Time to time some Korean girls who are here on a school trip want to take a picture with us – oh well, we are the exotic ones here.
After two hours in the temples we become hungry and start looking for a restaurant. We find one, which we like most. However, they have only 3 different meals –on the other hand it is easier to choose. Mirek likes it the most. Ríša refuses to eat saying that he will eat later in KFC. During our way back we go through a cordon of armored policemen. There are hundreds of them. However, half of them do nothing but playing with a ball. Suddenly we see KFC so we enter it. Ríša orders a big meal and we have only something small. I would like to point out that only half an hour passed since we have been in the last restaurant. After that we start heading to the Seoul Tower, but we find out in the guide book that it is closed already. So we go to some famous local markets. You can buy anything you can ever think of here. An of course each of us buys something here. You can bargain, which can be fun sometimes. I buy a jacket, Mirek buys a jacket and Ríša keeps looking for some sport wear but he is still not sure. We get to a restaurant part of the market. There are lots of restaurants bounded and covered by plastic with variety of seafood specials. We decide to try some. We order a soup with mussels, oysters, egg legs, eel, octopus, and beer. After the meal we go slowly back through the market to the metro. It is 11pm. We want to catch the last train. Ríša tries again some sport suite, however, another “nice” Korean, which only lowers and refuses to communicate, discourage him. We manage to catch the last metro. One “kind” Korean helps us which line we have to take and how much we have to pay. Unfortunately, we haven’t noticed how skillfully he robbed Mirek. Terrible, we thought such thinks happen only in Prague, however, it is still not the last “funny” moment. The train ends unexpectedly 2 stations before our destination. The lights go off and people have to get off the train. We leave the train too and find out that we are in the middle of 4-lane road. All people from our metro start catching taxis and leave. So we also decide to use a taxi to get to the hotel. We find one after a while. We get in and I give the driver a business card of our hotel to show him our destination. Unfortunately, the driver only lowers and indicates that he does not know the place and he wants us to get off. We do not want to and the guy does not want to go. We stay about 10 minutes and keep saying him in English to go and he keeps answering us in Korean. Finally, a police car stops at us. We immediately talk to him trying to explain him in English that the driver does not know where to go and that he wants us to get off. Unfortunately, the policemen understand neither and our Korean enthusiastically explains something in Korean to the policemen. Mirek does not demonstratively leave the taxi. The policemen are helpless. They call somewhere and then they give me their phone. The problem is that it probably should be a translator but he knows only 2 sentences in English: “problem” and “please, slowly” – so nobody will understand us even here. We keep showing with Ríša’s assistance the business card of our hotel to the policeman. The policeman steps in the street and tries to stop another taxi. A few free ones go along with no response. Finally, one of the taxis stops. The policeman shows him the business card and we finally change the taxi and go. When approaching our hotel, the driver enthusiastically shouts “good” “ok” “good” … simply even he is happy to take us here. So this was the whole day in Seoul full of beautiful temples and fun we have been through.
It is our last day in Seoul, so we only pack and go for a taxi to take us to Intercontinental, from which we want use the shuttle. The taxi driver is totally gloomy and unpleasant. He does not even help us with the luggage. He does not even get off the car. Nice beginning. We get to Intercontinental and get out. Before we finish taking out our luggage, the taxi leaves. We find out that Kili’s rented camera with DVD stayed there. I immediately call security manager from the hotel. We find out that they have cameras and can control the record and use it to find the taxi. Unfortunately, their cameras are wrongly adjusted so that they cannot read the car sign. We leave by the shuttle one hour later and one camera lighter. Check-in is fine, only with another queue. It seems that we will have common flight with some “sporty Slovaks and Germans”. There were probably some tournaments. The flight is also ok. We fly again with Korean Air – jumbo 747–400. The meal I originally wanted is no more available so I get some local Korean meal – really perfect. Above Irkutsk we start walking around the airplane with Mirek and we find out that it would feel better with a drink. We take some whisky and coke. Above Saint Petersburg we finish and have a rest. The landing in Paris is without any problems. In a restaurant we meet a guy with a girl who flew from the USA and ended up in London. London does not check in for 2 days already, so they took train to Paris from which they fly to Prague. They borrow a mobile phone from us to have a few phone calls with their relatives to let them know where they are and when they will be back. During the last control before entering the airplane Mirek finished a redbull and we flight to Prague. We arrive to Prague on time.
So this was a short story about our travel around Asia. It is not much about sigh seeing although we visited some sights, but only about meeting other nations and life.
