2002-10-24 - 5:03 p.m.

Sunday, October 20, 2002

(01:00)

Last year, I was in New Hampshire at my daughter's house, getting ready to fly to Korea. Tonight, I'm on a ferryboat heading for Japan to renew my visa.

Wow! That last wave was a good one! A large plant fell over on one side of it and the return toss toppled the "Captain's coat and hat" stand. My cup of coffee survived unscathed, thoough. I'm listening and occasionally looking at a Japanese version of "The Bong Show" on TV,- an amateur showcase. A few other passengers are up, too.

I Caught the 10:45 a.m. train to Pusan yesterday as a "standing" passenger. It only cost 13,500 won / US$10.80, so I got a squid snack. I fell in with a couple ajummas and we shared snacks. They had a kind of tender raw turnip, sliced, "soon mu," that went very well with the squid. Also lots of ginger cookies that were a little sweet for the above snacks, but mixed well with the coffee I brought in a pint plastic jug from home.

We got into Pusan at 4:15 p.m. (the train was the local, not an express) and I grabbed a cab to the ferry terminal. Camellia wasn't going to Fukuoka, so I took the Seong Hee to Shimonoseki. "Same diff," it gets me to Japan to get my passport stamped.

This is a Korean ferry, registered to Cheju, a large island off Korea's southern tip. Some vending machines take only won, others take only yen. I splurged on supper, a pork cutlet for 1,000 yen (10,000 won = US$ 8.40) at the "fusion" restaurant aboard ship. There was plenty of food,- a good salad with a slivered cabbage base, Thousand Island dressing, green pepper, burpless cuke, carrot slivers and dandelion leaves. Pan chan (side dishes) were pickled daikon, baby onions and red sweet pepper. A cup of miso soup with nori and diced green onion; a cup of rice. The main plate had a breaded pork cutlet (already sliced up), 2 baby carrots in a sweet & sour sauce, mushrooms & fried onions, one lone steamed broccoli floweret and a sprig of parsley. There was also a dark sauce to dip the cutlet bits in. It tasted like soy sauce with a dash of teriyaki sauce added, but it was thickened slightly (probably with kudzu) so that it stuck and didn't drip all over. I ate it all and went to bed at 7 p.m.

Woke up about 9 p.m. and came out to see what was up. The hostess was passing out dramamine and the outside decks were off-limits. There are two smoking stations indoors. These are containers with heavily weighted bottoms that look like small chrome trash cans, with a grilled top. I pulled an armchair over beside one of them. My coffee cup sits securely on the grill. (I paid 1,000 won for the first vending machine cup and refilled it with a mix of instant coffee, sugar and Frima(non-dairy creamer) that I brought from home in a "Tupperware" pan chan container.) I met a couple elderly Japanese men who spoke a little English, and we had an interesting chat. One said that Maine was the same size as Hiroshima Prefecture. That was news to me, but I didn't argue it. He wanted to know if I spoke French (Maine being next-door to Quebec). I chuckled, "Un peau." "Bienvenu," he laughed, and that was about the extent of that.

I got another three hours of light sleep, after I wedged my backpack on one side and a stack of spare bedding on the other to keep me from rolling too much with the ship. There are only two other women in a bunkroom designed to hold a dozen. Their large empty dufflebags indicate that they're entrepreneurs (smugglers). These enterprising women are the largest group of passengers, same as on the Camellia. They make a career out of bringing back all sorts of goods to peddle on the streets.

This ship, Seong Hee (pronounced /Sawng Hee/) is nearly new, launched Dec. 12, 2001. It is much nicer and more spacious than the Camellia, which is saying a lot. The second-class bunk rooms are separate compartments with air conditioning vents at floor level, so my sleeping pad has good air. Each sleeping pad has its own cupboard, 6 feet tall by 3 wide, with three shelves,- plenty of storage space. Each pad comes with two thick blankets, so there's plenty of padding and the floor is carpeted, as well. All in all, it is very comfortable. As you enter the bunkroom, there is a low bench and the usual tiled area for removing shoes, as well as a set of shoe shelves that runs floor to ceiling. We also have a TV, althought none us wanted to watch it. The giant-screen wall TV in the main lounge is plenty.

There is a video game room off the main lounge and 3 karaoke rooms, as well as a duty-free shop. This main lounge is about 60 feet long and 60 feet wide. There is also a kitchenette where the hot & cold water dispenser lives, my coffee-water provider.

I went upstairs to the restaurant. There are 6 decks that the elevator goes to; I don't know how many decks, all told. The ticket price was slightly less than the Camellia, but the meal ate up part of the difference. Food on ships always seems to run about twice the price one would pay on dry land. I must say that this food was about twice as good as the meal I had on the Camellia last spring. They offered me Western utensils, but I went with the excellent lacquered-wood chopsticks. I find chopsticks work better that forks in dealing with thinly sliced salad veggies. I can grab onto them; they tend to slide off a fork when "dressed."

The ship is rolling a lot less at 3:45 a.m. We must be near the lee shore. I shall try sleeping for a while, I think, despite having had a couple small cups of coffee. I've had about all the overnight Japanese TV I can take. The third "soap" since The Bong Show is on now. The best one was an historical costume drama with a mischievous mother-in-law.

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To be continued...

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Thanks for reading.

Happy Trails!

~ Sil

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