Meg:
We arrived in Busan by way of high-speed ferry from Fukuoka. We could have reached Zen Backpackers by Busan’s extensive subway system, but we opted for a cab. It dropped us off right in front of a high-rise apartment building, home to Zen Backpackers hostel. Once inside, we were greeted by our affable host, June Park. He let us settle in before providing us with a map of Busan and a wealth of information about the city and the immediate area.
We were starving, so we quickly followed June’s directions to the nearby thoroughfare, where we found an abundance of food choices. In addition to the sit-down restaurants, there were also plenty of street vendors, selling every type of food imaginable (and some that were beyond imagination, at least mine!).
After we’d eaten something, we got down to the business of exploring Busan. It’s well-known for its beaches, which are packed in the summer. As our time was limited (and we were headed to Hawaii from Korea, where we would get plenty of beach time), we decided to focus on one of the other standout features of Busan: The Jagalchi Fish Market. Located just a short subway ride from Zen Backpackers, it was a very different experience from the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo. With the exception of the electricity, it probably hasn’t changed much in the past couple hundred years or so, especially the outdoor stalls.
Frank:
If you know me, you know that the first thing I look for when I visit a new place, beside great new food, is a pool table… any pool table. Fortunately for me, in Korea I didn’t have to search far. All you need to do is look up (most bars and restaurants are somewhere between the second and seventh floors of the buildings). Almost every street corner had a billiard hall somewhere among the floors, all you had to do was look for the sign with the brightly colored balls. The only tricky part was finding the door and staircase that would lead you there.
Needless to say, Koreans like to play pool and they take it seriously. You don’t play in bars, and you don’t drink while playing. Most halls have the familiar tables of pockets billiards that we are used to here in the US. But most Koreans, and by most I mean pretty much any serious Korean player, play Carom billiards. And the really good players play three cushion billiards. Both games are played on a regulation size (4′6″ by 9′) table with absolutely no pockets. Carom billiards is played with 4 balls: Two red, one yellow, and one white. One player takes the white ball as his cue ball and the other player takes the yellow as his. The object is to hit your cue ball and have it touch both red balls in one shot, without touching your opponent’s cue. Each time you do this you get one point and get to shoot again. In three cushion billiards, you use three balls (yellow, red, and white) and on your turn you need to shoot one of the yellow or white (you can choose before each shot) and have it touch both the other balls. The catch is that the ball you choose as your cue ball needs to hit three rails before it hits the last ball. Play this game enough and let’s just say that you will develop a sick bank shot and you will never have to worry about being snookered behind a ball again.
While staying at the Zen Backpackers Hostel, our host June told us that he was one of the best players of this game around. I told him how much I loved pool and that I was very interested in learning about this game, so he invited me to come play with him and his friend that he had been teaching for the past few months. To my surprise, I beat his his friend in my very first game. Of course June beat us both, but by the time I left Korea I got good enough that I was playing and beating locals in pool halls across Seoul.
