Trip to Japan

Hey all, got back from my trip to japan to get my visa yesterday and had a great time. I took lots of pictures but have no way of getting them online until I get my laptop hooked up to the net. So I'll describe the trip as best I can and post the pics later.
I took a cab for the first time ever here on Thursday to the port, and grabbed a ferry to Japan. I met a few other foreigners going on thier visa trips too: Ben; a young british guy, Julian; an older Brit and Andrew a young American. Ben warned me off of the shitty coffee they were selling at the little restaurant there. He told me it tasted horrible and cost a fortune. It was almost like he read my mind b/c I was jonsing for a coffee bad. I hadn't slept too soundly the night before because of the jet lag and hadn't had a good coffee since I left canada. So I settled on a can of Nescafe from a vending machine cause (yep a can of coffee) it was cheap and black. It turns out it is also served ice cold and sweeter than hell. Well ont o the ferry I went.
I've seen my share of wacky japanese television back in North America and was wondering how odd the country would be. The movie they were playing on the ferry however was Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate factory- a psychedelic mess that proves when push comes to shove no one can out-crazy americans. The trip was fairly uneventful, the ocean view gets fairly boring ater a few minutes.
We got into Fukuoka Japan and decided to split a cab to the Korean consulate so we could drop our passports off for the visa and enjoy the rest of the day. Cabs are ultra expensive in Japan but split four ways it turned out to be cheaper than the bus ride and a lot less confusing. The consulate was on luch by the time we got there so we had an hour and a half to kill at the mall next door. We stopped into a 'Family Mart' which I would like to call Asia's version of 7-11s, but they have those as well. It was here that I spied one of the 'englishisms' that I have enjoyed so much here; translations that don't work out so great. This time it was a can of chocolates that said : "TRY MY LOVE, ITS WORTH IT!". I've also seen a cartoon sun on a girl's pencil case that said "I PREY FOR YOU!".
We then went to a coffee shop called the "HERO CAFE" and I had a coffee that lived up to the "GOOD TASTE COFFEE" slogan on its side. We saw some pretty OC looking americans wandering the mall and tried to make nice but they weren't especially friendly. We all stifled a 'fucking americans' exclamation for the ake of Andrew. The consulate soon opened and we were among about a dozen other visa seekers. Some friendly like the guys I was with, some not so much. they were from all over Korea but mostly Busan and Souel. After the application process and dropping our visa off to be picked up the next day we headed back to the hotel. Andrew was staying at a different one but we met another american named ally at the bus stop.
We got off in the downtown and had a surprisingly eventful walk to the hotel. Fukuoka looks like Yorkville only bigger. The guys and I played a quick game of curling that was set up in front of an office building on some astroturf, there was a camera crew there so we think it was for some news show or something. We also met a small pony some guy had on the street. Wow those last two things could really use some pictures. After dropping our stuff off at the hotel the two brits led us in a search for a bar. we settled for food first and hit a small noodle bar with some sweet old ladies behind the counter, and lots of pornographic magazines under the counter. Japan is weird. I hear that men read those thing while riding on the subway in japan.
Afterwards we continued the bar hunt. I wasn't really dying for a pint but the fact that no one knew where we were going turned it into a nice walking tour of the city. In korea a bar at 4pm is easy, in japan we kept on getting told to come back at 8. We accidentally walked in to a gay bar called g-hard, but honestly if they were serving yet we would have stayed. We made reservations at a bar called "The Happy Cock", and killed time at some after work bar for buisnessmen until that opened. Ally got drunk after one pint there and went back to hotel while we went to the 'cock.
The happy cock had an 'all you can eat/ all you can drink all nite' deal for the early birds for 1000 yen (roughly $10). Unfortunately when I got my wristband they forgot to take my money. Now knowing how much the Japanese pride themselves on efficency I thought it best just to quietly accept it rather than point out the oversight. The bar was nice, the food wasn't the best though. Pizza, fries, donuts and cookies for the most part. The bar got fairly busy, we ran into some other visa runners, and listened to bad american music from a long time ago (kriss kross will make you jump jump). Julian and Ben took turns trying to hit on the smoking hot japanese bartender, while I fed free beers to some guy from PEI I met there who didn't have a wristband. I probably only hadfour or five beers total, but the bartender must have I thoughtI had at least twice that. There was a black guy at the bar selling his rap CDs, he called himself Black Eyez. I told him I'd buy one if I had any cash left after my drinking, which he seemed to buy even though I had a visible wristband. At about 130am we decided to get going, Ben made a last ditch effort for the bartender's digits which he got. Although he was not looking too smooth at that point and i wonder if that was actually her number. Ben Julian and the PEI guy headed down to another bar called FUBAR while I went home. I was tired and frankly had had enough exictement for one day. Most other people on thier visa run had been in korea for weeks at least, so I was the only jet lagged one.
It was about 2:30 am when I got to sleep and woke up promptly at 4:30 am like I had been for the past few nights. Which is strange because 330 in the afternoon has no special meaning for me back home. Normally I would get back to sleep eventually but that night I couldn't. By about 6am I was getting hungry and new that I had a free breakfast buffet included with my trip that opened at 7am. So I took a shower and had a really nice breakfast. Many cups of coffee, some really lean sausage and bacon, some japanese seaweed food, some good fish, some pancakes (just so I could eat them with chopsticks) and tons of pineapple and fruit. I ate and drank coffee for over an hour, and was the only visa guy in the hotel up at all.
I went for a little walk around town and met up with Julian and Ally and waited until it was time to go pick up our visas. We also waited for Ben who didn't get into the lobby until about ten minutes after checkout. He and Julian had went to about three bars after Happy Cock and finaly got kicked out at five am. We went back to the consualte, picked up our visas and explored the tourist area near the basbal staium for a bit. they had hundreds of bronze cast hands on display of famous people that had visited the stadium for concerts etc. Once again damn pictures would be handy.
Well I'm getting damn tired of writing so suffice to say I got back to Busan safe, had a great ime in Japan (wish it wasn;t se expensive though) and might meet up with Julian at a bar in Busan tonight for Halloween. Didn;t think to bring a costume so I might try to cobble something together today. But this is my first weekend before worka nd I have a lot of stuff to buy/do. I'll check inwhen I can and hopefully put some pics up soon.
Oh yeah can;t figure out how to run spellcheck with this korean OS and don't have time to proofread so deal with it.