Busan. Lions vs. Lions. Izakaya's etc.

This weekend was a Japanese themed trip to Busan with Bobby to see the Lotte Giants (Busan) take on the Yomiuri Giants (Tokyo) for a spot in Sunday's final against the Lamigo Monkeys (Taiyuan, Taiwan) in the 2012 Asia Series. We then planned to head to Nampo-dong for some Japanese food with the tourists and see what happened.

It started with the almost routine KTX trip from Dongdaegu to Busan where we met around 1130 (Bobby coming all the way from Seoul had a rather longer trip). It was then off to Sajik Stadium to get tickets for the game. Sajik is much larger than the tiny stadium in Daegu and at 28,500 capacity can hold more people than Jamsil in Seoul, making it the largest stadium in the country (though dwarfed by every MLB park and the Tokyo Dome). It's an older stadium but still a great place to watch a game. I was a little disappointed by the low turnout for the game. It wasn't the final but it was likely to be the last game played by the hometown Giants. However we had a section of seating to ourselves and despite a strong wind were fairly comfortable.

Left to right:

Lotte Giants, Yomiuri Giants, Perth Heat 

the outfield

the infield

Rowdy Japanese fans.

The game itself was a blowout with Yomiuri scoring one run in almost every inning (though never more than one) and Lotte unable to get a run at all. Yomiuri are considered the best team in Asia (Yankees of Japan is a common comparison) and they went on to win the championship the next day so perhaps it wasn't that surprising. Still, fun to see that calibre of baseball in Korea.

After the game we headed to Nampo to find a hotel. My regular one was under renovation but we found another one for only 5000 won more with better heating, better bathrooms and no noise. Well worth the extra $4.70.

By that time it was only four and dinner wasn't on until seven so we ducked in to watch the new Bond film. I'm a huge 007 fan and while I did like this one a lot I do still think that Casino Royale is the better film. Still an cool movie.

We then opted to had out to see several of the Japanese places in Busan. Busan has a large Japanese expat community and many Japanese tourists visit every weekend looking for cheap clothes and food and a decent tourist city. As a result many Japanese bars (Izakaya's) are in Nampo with Japanese food, Japanese beer on tap and a few Japanese tourists inside. It's a real taste of Japan without the hefty Japanese travel costs. We spent the night drinking sake, Kirin and Asahi and eating sushi, seafood pancakes and assorted skewers of meat including beef, pork, cow tongue and chicken hearts. The deep fried chicken intestines were also a real treat (though a bar of soap would taste good if you deep fried it). It was a lot of fun and was a night out of Korea without leaving Korea. A pricey night by Korean standards but well worth it. We called it at about 2.

The next morning we got up, had breakfast and a coffee and had a few hours left. we decided to go and see the now largest department store in the world. I wasn't sure how much fun it would actually be but when you walk in to a four story fountain it's okay. On the 11th floor is an observation deck with some nice views of Busan.

Lotte Department Store

Four Story Fountain

Youedo from the observation deck

Busan Port

Busan Tower

After a while there we headed up to the train station, ducking in to pass the new Busan Modern History Museum along the way. I liked it though the anti-Japanese rhetoric was in full overdrive as is too often the case in Korea. The section on US-Korea relations was much more interesting and balanced.

Then it was off to Busan Station and home. One of the better trips to Busan for sure.