Trip to Busan

Prologue

This trip to Busan started making me feel a sense of travel burnout. It’s not that I don’t enjoy going abroad, but traveling has started feeling like a game of capitalism to me. You pay for experiences, and the more you spend, the better the experience gets.

And for some reason, traveling abroad feels more and more formulaic, and somehow, it completely drains my energy. I never felt this way before.

• Booking flights and hotels: Comparing prices, hunting for cheap tickets and accommodations, checking reviews and room types. A bad pick can totally ruin your mood.
• Flying: Preparing passports, documents, luggage, transit to the airport, clearing customs, waiting, waiting, and more waiting.
• Landing: Finding the hotel, figuring out transit passes, rushing for trains/buses, confirming the itinerary.
• Check-in: Dropping off luggage, resting.
• Sightseeing: Pretty much just shopping, hitting tourist spots, eating, and grabbing coffee.

This whole sequence has become so mechanical. Every single step stresses me out, leaving me terrified that one small slip-up might ruin the whole trip. Honestly, I feel much more comfortable just staying home.

That being said, if you live in Fukuoka, I still recommend visiting Busan for a quick getaway—it’s super close and the flights are cheap.

Strawberry whipped cream cake and coffee from an unnamed café. The coffee in Busan—or in Korea in general—is usually quite good, though I’ve heard their Americanos tend to be on the lighter side.

83 Haechi

For dinner, we had this wildly popular Korean BBQ. It was insanely crowded; even though reservations are an option, we still waited on-site for over three hours before getting seated.

The main selling point of this BBQ place is that the staff grills all the meat for you right at your table.

Gamcheon Culture Village. We bought some socks and a pastry along the tourist shopping street here—the pastry wasn’t great. On a craving, I bought an ice cream too, which also wasn’t good 😂.

A few of my favorite Korean dishes:

• Samgyetang (Ginseng Chicken Soup)
• Tteokbokki (Spicy Rice Cakes)
• Ssambap (Rice Wraps)

The broth of the ginseng chicken soup was incredible. We ordered half a chicken; the meat was so tender it melted in your mouth, and the soup had a gelatinous richness to it that made every sip super comforting and hearty.

I really love pork soup rice (Dwaeji Gukbap) paired with salted pink shrimp paste. The very first time I tried it, I thought, Holy crap, this stuff is way too salty, how do people eat this? But once I gave it a proper try, I realized that saltiness brings out all the rich aroma of the pork belly. It’s so satisfying.

I definitely prefer this kind of humble, everyday food.

Yet another café.

Noticed that a lot of gym ads on the streets in Korea look just like this.

Next up was riding the famous Busan Sky Capsule.

This was a little trip I planned to unwind after quitting my job (without another one lined up). Traveling when cash flow is tight ends up making you feel tied down and constrained; taking time off while you actually have a job is definitely much more relaxing.

It was also my very first time traveling for leisure to a country other than Japan. Although I visited Korea back in 2019, that was for a business trip where I mostly stayed confined to the company’s designated training center without seeing much. This time, I finally got to properly explore and enjoy it.