Day 59: Osaka

I flew back to Korea today at 4:30! I had to move out of my room in Japan by noon though so I decided to head to the airport early. I had two huge bags that I didn't want to walk around with plus I would rather be early than miss my flight.

I slept in as late as I could and then quickly finished my packing. My map told me I could take a train from Shin-imamiya station straight to the airport, which was convenient because the station was only 10 minutes away. However, when I got there the train was on the information board, but it wasn't showing up on the time board by its platform. I waited for 10 minutes before I gave up on that train and tried to looking for other routes. There was another station attached to this one that had a train to the airport so I picked up all my bags and walked to it. When I got to the gates for the next station, I swiped my card and the machine went red and started blinking at me. I had to go over to one of the desks to get someone to let me through. I guess it didn't like that I had swiped at the other gate and then tried to go through another one?

It was super confusing to find the right platform because there were basically no signs for the line that I was looking for. I eventually found it and the time board had the right train on it so I was super relieved. Good thing I came to the station early...

The train was busy when I got on and there were no empty seats so I stood for most of the ride. I played on my phone for a bit and then looked out the window for the rest of the ride. We passed over the water at one point and it was really pretty.

When I got to the airport I tried to get the remaining balance off my transportation card, but they wouldn't give me any money unless I also returned the card. I wanted to keep the card as a souvenir so I chose to keep whatever remained on it.

Next, I had to find the other terminal. Kansai airport is huge and the signs are not that clear so this turned into a bit of an adventure. First I went across the wrong bridge. Then I went down some staircases that took me to a parking lot and a loading dock area (definitely not where I needed to be). I ended up asking someone that worked there for directions because I was too confused. I found out that I had to walk across this other bridge and down a different set of stairs and then get on a shuttle bus to transfer to the other terminal.

The other terminal was much smaller and there were no food places before security. I hadn't had lunch yet so I started to regret not buying food at the other terminal. I went inside and found out I couldn't check in until 2:30. I still had another hour and I needed to drop off my wifi modem so I walked around the corner to find a mailbox. After I dropped off the wifi package I found a little desk with an outlet nearby and sat down to wait.

When 2:30 came I lined up and checked in. Security went fine and I found some food places on the other side! It was a really small area with only a duty free store and two restaurants. One of the restaurants was a ramen place so I had ramen for what felt like the 100th time in the last week. Fortunately, I really like the ramen here. I wandered around the duty free area and got some candy to snack on before heading to my gate to wait. There was only one gate at the terminal and it was right by the shop. There were so many people with multiple duty free bags stuffed full of things they had purchased!

After an hour, it was time to board the plane. We walked downstairs and lined up to get on a shuttle bus to the airplane. The plane ride is less than 2 hours so I wrote some drafts for this blog on my phone and listened to music and before I knew it we were landing.

Customs in Korea is so fast and convenient. Way better than customs in Japan. There are no finger print and face scans and the lines are much shorter and faster. I didn't have to grab any luggage so I was out of the airport within an hour of landing. I had to pick up a new SIM card at the airport because today was the last day on the one I had been using before I went to Japan. As I was at the desk activating it, I noticed a small group of girls with big cameras waiting at the arrival gate I had just come out of. I asked the SIM card lady if she knew if there was someone famous landing, but she didn't. I continued to watch and soon enough a guy came out of the same gate and the girls swarmed around him to take pictures. He was too far for me to see his face, but he seemed nice since he stopped to sign things. I wish I could've gone a little closer to see who he was, but I was right in the middle of getting my SIM card and it felt rude to leave. After I got my SIM card I went downstairs to get on the subway.

I am moving into a new place in Gangnam for the next week. I left two bags of items at the last place I stayed at, but I decided it would be better to drop my stuff off at the new hostel first. It took me about 40 minutes to get to Sinsa station (the closest station to my hostel in Gangnam). The place I am staying at is only a 10 minute walk from the station but I found out that the majority of it is up a fairly steep hill. I also realized that there is no elevator and the guest house is on the 4th floor. Not looking forward to bringing my suitcase here. I met the really nice lady who runs it and checked into my room. She didn't speak any English so we just used Google Translate to talk (throwback to Busan).

The room is called a goshiwon. It is a really popular style of room in Korea for people who are looking for something cheap or short term. It is a very small room with a single bed, a bathroom, and a few shelves. Nothing fancy, but also not awful. The room I was in had a ton of shelves and I was looking forward to finally being able to take out all my clothes and put them away properly. I dropped my bags off on the bed and then quickly walked back to the subway.

When I got to Hangangjin station, I grabbed a tea at the coffee shop in the subway that I went to way too often when I was staying here last week. Then I walked outside to meet Martin. Martin and Kate were kind enough to keep my suitcase and a bag of my albums and posters at their house while I was in Japan. Kate wasn't home when I arrived, but I was able to have a quick tea with Martin. He was then kind enough to help me drag all my stuff back to the subway station!

They were doing a birthday event at my cafe for an idol/actor named Hyungsik from a group called ZE:A (I'm not sure if the group is still together since they haven't released anything in quite a long time).

I hopped on the subway back to Gangnam. It took me forever to push my suitcase up the hill near my hostel! Then I had to alternate carrying my suitcase and then my album bag up each flight of stairs because it was too heavy to do both at once. Definitely regretting not checking if there was an elevator at the place before booking it, but I'll survive. I was overheating so much by the time I made it to the 4th floor and I was super out of breath. I left my suitcase near the entrance and dropped my albums off in my room. When I opened my door to go grab my suitcase, one of the hosts had brought it up the stairs for me and was waiting with it by the door. When I had met the first host in her office I noticed that they had a ton of screens in the room with views of all the hallways. It was a little weird to know they were watching the screens at all times, but nice that they had helped with my luggage.

I was super excited to unpack everything since I could actually take all my clothes out of my suitcase. I only made it about half way through before I got tired and decided to take a break. My short break turned into me staying up until 5 am watching Netflix... oops. I still had half a suitcase to unpack, but I was way too tired at that point so I just went to sleep.

I am so happy to be back in Korea! I feel really comfortable and happy here and it's so nice to be able to read and understand the signs again. It felt like coming home after I landed :)

Hope everyone is doing well,

Emily

(November 23, 2018)