Day 11 – Back to Seoul

The Olympic Torch from 1988!

Trying to make a plane...

So today started soooooo early. But, like Andy, we slept in Kyoto and had to catch a plane in Osaka (at least now we knew what airport to go to!) It was already hot when we left the apartment one last time at 6am. We stood outside waiting for the bus, already dripping in sweat. Ugh.

The 25 minute bus ride took us to the Kyoto Station. We found the airport bus, but realized it was full and the next option wouldn’t get us to the airport in time. After a mad dash downstairs to try to figure out trains, Steve said “screw it!” and we grabbed a cab. It was a 1hr and 30 minute ride to the airport. I can’t believe there aren’t more train options from Kyoto that make sense. And you can imagine how much THAT cost!

We made it to Terminal 2, only to be greeted by a HUGE line waiting to get checked in (we couldn’t do self-check because we are foreigners.) I did ask a woman if we’d be okay in line as it was 8:45 and our flight was at 9:50. She spoke little English, but she said yes. About 20 minutes of waiting in line later, she pulled us out of line and directed us to an express counter. Thank goodness! We were able to check our bag, get our boarding passes and move on. I was also grateful that the security line wasn’t long either. We were able to get right through.

We had about 10 minutes at the gate before it was time to board. *whew!*  Our seats were at the emergency exits, which meant we had a lot of leg room and the sign above said “extra payment required.” I guess the lady at the checkout desk really looked out for us!

Two hours later, and we finally landed in Seoul. Unfortunately, the immigration line was long, so, once again, it took awhile to move forward. Traveling can really stink sometimes. Once through, an adorable Beagle sniffed Steve’s bag, and he was pulled out of line. Turns out he had forgotten he’d put some bananas in his bag when we were leaving this morning. He had intended to eat them, but with the rush to get to the airport, had forgotten them. Apparently if he ever tries to bring bananas into Korea again without declaring them, he will be fined.

We grabbed some sandwiches at the airport as we were starving, and then headed into Seoul on an express train to the city (now why didn’t they have this in Kyoto??) We found our little apartment, and got settled.

The library is HUGE!

Once back out, we took the subway to a HUGE mall (Em says it’s actually two malls that merged.) It was like I was back in America…Jamba Juice, American Eagle Outfitters, Nike, Timberland…just to name a few. In one large area, however, is a HUGE library. It’s awesome! It’s right in the middle of three levels, so the shelves go WAY up. It was most awesome.

Two towering "bookshelves" with books all along the second floor

Blueberry Juice

We stopped at a restaurant in the mall and had rice bowls for dinner. I got the Chicken Teriyaki, Steve and Emily had steak and Peter got the spicy pork. Boy was it spicy! We also had blueberry juice which was very sweet and bubbly.

Chicken Teriyaki Bowl

Steak Bowl

SM Town Entrance

HUGE screens outside the museum/store

We then walked around a bit, and Emily took us to the SM Store. It’s a four story store sort of attached to the mall. SM is the company which basically owns most of the K-Pop groups (including Emily’s favorite.) They have a museum and a café located within the store. It was very impressive. K-Pop is HUGE! And SM is right in the middle of it all.

Emily's favorite band, Shinee!

Clothes they wore in a video

Ice cream time!!

After that, we were pretty tired. We stopped for some ice cream, then Em wanted to go back to her apartment and get some things (she’s staying with us), so she and Pete headed back to her apartment and Steve and I navigated the bus system (successfully, I might add) back to the apartment. We settle in, and soon Pete and Em had joined us. What a day! I’m glad I don’t have to travel again for awhile. It’s so exhausting…

Some scenes from the mall: