Journey to Japan: Prelude

Two weeks earlier...

What a reprieve! I finally got some much needed r&r. BCM didn't schedule me for any extra classes after I finished teaching at the children's winter camp. So, aside from my evening classes, I had the rest of January to spend as I pleased. For my first week off, I slept in until noon, watched movies on my laptop (Quantum of Solace, Slumdog Millionaire & more) read a novel (The Girl with a Pearl Earring), chatted to friends online, and studied Korean.

The first Thursday off work, I went out with Jihyun and an old hometown friend of hers, named Yugiong, who is in Seoul temporarily, taking a teaching course. We had a grease-drenched meal at Bennigan's (the western-style food here leaves a little something to be desired). Yugiong joked to us about her early curfew (yes, you can still have a curfew at the age of 22 in this country), advised me on the romantic needs of Korean women (apparently, you can never send enough text messages), asked me to assess her understanding of common English expletives, and addressed my confusion over the Korean educational system (they have an unfamiliar "three tier" setup here). I'd recently received a call from Yung-Jin, the manager of CulCom, inviting me to one of their monthly events, this time at his cafe in Sincheon. Yugiong helped me convince Jihyun to go to the party, despite her initial reluctance. Good friend indeed!

Hometown friends: Yugiong & Jihyun

Preparations underway for an ice sculpture festival in Hyehwa

Saturday night at the party, I met some fellow Canadians: Nick, Shannon, and Kaitlin--my future travel companions. All three are first-time English teachers (and long-time friends) from Halifax, who had been working for the past five months in the city of Uijeongbu, bordering Seoul on the North. Nick and Shannon had been hired to teach young children, from dawn to dusk, for a private Hagwon called Edubox, after obtaining their degrees in Canada. They'd faced their share of difficulties here, similar to the ones I'd encountered since arriving in Seoul. However, they were in good spirits; they'd just booked their plane tickets to Japan the night before, in preparation for a four day trip, to take advantage of the upcoming national holiday: lunar new year. I was feeling restless, because Jihyun was heading south to see her family for the week, Jared had just returned from his trip to Jeju island the week before, and Sean was leaving the rest of us at BCM for the promise of a new job, on the other side of Seoul. The Nova Scotianers must have noticed the glint in my eye when I said I'd love to join them for the ride. They told me they were game if I was: all I needed was a reentry visa for Korea and a plane ticket.

Shannon, Nick, Kaitlin, & yours truly

I decided to sleep on it. Jihyun had won a pair of tickets for an ice skating event through her cell plan provider, SK Telecom, and invited me as her guest. The ice rink was outdoors, behind a five star hotel, overlooking the Han river. The whole place was surrounded with painted murals, and coloured lights. The tickets for the event included free lunch, dinner, and desert, not to mention electric foot massages! Being the more experienced skater, I gave Jihyun some tips and dragged her in circles around the rink. I started racing around the rink on my own, and immediately bailed when two 9 year old girls crossed my path in different directions at the same time. Jihyun told me that her friend from her dorm had just been skating the day before, when her date crash-landed on the ice and broke his arm. Since their encounter in the hospital ward on the following day, they'd become an item. Go figure.











Jihyun helped me find the immigration office and left the rest to me, but told me that she was also trying to score a free stay in Japan, come next August. The students who make the grade on a national English equivalency test get invitations to stay in Japan or the USA for two weeks to visit 'sister universities' scouting for foreign applicants, and sit in on classes. Free room and board is provided for the duration of the stay.
As for me, I've been considering staying in Korea a few months longer than planned, on the condition that I get a better deal if I renew my contract with BCM. Either way, I decided that I might not get another chance to travel before August, and that I needed this escape for my mental health, to hell with the cost. So, on Wednesday, after a one and a half hour wait at the crowded immigration office, I finally reached the application officer. I'd applied for the multiple reentry permit, rather than the single one, and asked the officer if this would allow me to leave the country as many times as I wanted. He replied in perfect English with a barely concealed smile: "Well, if you have lots of money, you can visit many places. If you are a poor man, you have to stay here." He stamped my passport and returned it to me with my alien registration card. "You're free man now."