Colin had the International Vacuum Electronics Conference to attend in Fukuoka, Japan, so we took a trip to Korea to visit people and take a vacation!

We were both a bit surprised that in Japan, almost no one spoke English well, even at the hotel. The taxi drivers knew nothing and had no interpretation service. Taxis in Japan are very expensive - it will cost you about $5 just to go the first 3-4 minutes! In Korea, by contrast, we took a 45 minute taxi ride last year for only about $20!

Food in Japan is also frighteningly expensive. The fancy hotel meals went in the $30 to $100 range for one meal! Luckily the breakfast buffet was more affordable at ~$10 each, so we tanked up on breakfast. I had some food posioning from the flight, so I didn't each lunch the whole time in Japan, except for one lunch at a noodle house in a village packed with tiny shops for about $6 a bowl, the kind of soup that should cost about $2 in the US, or <$1 in Korea.

That said, I do have a lot of good things to say about Japan. It was extremely safe - We saw a lone, well-dressed woman walking under a dark bridge at 11:30pm in an area we would consider dangerous-looking in the U.S. We saw dozens of bikes parked everywhere, very few (<5%) of which had bike locks. Crime is very low there.

We went to Busan, South Korea by Jet Ferry boat, because it was cheaper than the airplane and actually more convenient because the airport is 1 hour from Heidi's parent's house, but the boat lands only 10-15 minutes away. Also, The distance from Fukuoka, Japan to Busan, South Korea is about the minimum between the two countries (3hrs at ~70km/hr).

Now lets get to the pictures! If you want a quick summary of the best photos, click Best Photos.

The "summary" version: Selected best photos!

Fukuoka, Japan.

Visit to Seoul

Busan, part 1.

Busan, part 2.

DaeJeon.

Busan Aquarium.