I had a few days off, so a work friend, Mina, and I decided to go to Korea's second largest city, Busan. It's on the south coast of Korea, 3 hours away from Seoul on the bullet train. People call it the San Francisco of Korea. It's beautiful. The downtown area of Seomyeon looks like this from my hostile window:
Also is Seomyeon, they have a branch of the school I work for, Pagoda, in the same building as an Outback Steakhouse. If I lived in Busan, I would never leave this building. Even though it seems to have fallen on its side:
Korean people love neon, and Seomyeon is one of the most heavily neon-ed places I have ever seen:
This is Mina way up in Busan tower.
All the cities in Korea have a huge bell. I don't know why, but here is the one in Busan. Enjoy:
Near Busan tower is the world famous Jagalchi fish market. It's the largest one in Korea. People in Busan are serious about fish. I saw at least 3 creatures there that I had no idea existed, and I'm not so sure I'm happy they do exist.
At the fish market, you can pick out a live fish and the fisherman will whack the head off of it for you. Then you take your jerking dead fish to these ladies upstairs and they prepare it for you however you want. I had this one raw. This was seriously fresh fish. We also had another fish that they fried up for us. I had to pick around all the various sacs and entrails on that one. Sounds gross, but it was delicious, especially with kimchi and soy sauce.
The harbor has boats like this:
And this:
Here's busan tower, the harbor and the fish market.
The next day, we went to Haeundae Beach, which is sort of like Korean Vegas, or Cancun.
Middle school girls love Haeundae beach. Some of them got picked up by guys on skijets and got rides around the cove in their uniforms.
Seriously, Koreans love neon.
Seriously
I had a great time, and to show my love for Busan, I now wear Busan's favorite fashion accessory:
