“You have to pray to whatever sea god you worship that the seas and weather are good. If the weather is bad, the ferry will take you to Busan fine. The contents of your stomach will not make it to Busan though”
satoru1111
Reading Reddit reviews before the ferry ride from Hakata to Busan didn’t exactly fill me with a huge amount of confidence. The sea is an intimidating beast as it is, but sometimes even a boat trip around a quiet cove is enough to make me feel as if my throat is about to fight a losing battle with my stomach.
The day before, I made sure to stock up on seasickness tablets. I scoured the bottomless quarry that is Don Quijote, searching for my only apparent chance of survival. I was already feeling nauseous by the time I summoned up the courage to ask a member of staff to point me in the right direction. After eventually finding what I was looking for, I translated the packet with my phone. One phrase read ‘motion sickness’, another assured me that it ‘even works when drunk’. There’s always two sides to the story.
“The worst boat ride of my life… I prayed for the sweet release of death.”
SofaAssassin
Back to the day of departure and the ferry was scheduled to leave at 12:30 on the dot. We boarded at around 11:45. To my disappointment (or relief) we had been informed that lunch wasn’t going to be served on today’s crossing. However, as a consolation prize, we could queue for fifteen minutes at a vending machine for curry-flavoured pot noodles. I wasn’t in the mood for food but knew that, even if it wasn’t going to stick around for long, I should fill my stomach up with something, anything at all.
We found a table by one of the windows. The table’s legs had been nailed down, while the chairs were chained to the floor as if they were unruly pitbulls. Again, this also offered little reassurance. As recommended, I prayed to my sea god of choice. Whoever that was.
I checked the time on my phone. 12:23. Soon we would be embarking on our journey through hell. Or so I thought. As I looked out of the window, I suddenly realised that we had already set sail. The cyclorama of seaviews had commenced. Hakata Port was quickly disappearing from sight. I checked my stomach for any signs of mutiny. Nothing. I stood up and walked around the cafeteria. Still nothing. Instead of a boat ride to the abyss, we seemed to be gliding across the water with such calmness that I hadn’t even noticed we were moving. There was no rocking or see-sawing motion. Instead, we were drifting peacefully towards South Korea like a leaf across a pond.
Slowly, I gained confidence. Perhaps the dual-action tablets were working their magic. Even if they were, I couldn’t credit them with the glorious clear blue skies and seemingly never-ending views across the Sea of Japan. Mind you, I wasn’t quite ready to crack open a can of Clear Asahi with my shipmates just yet. I was confident enough however to load my trusty point and shoot camera and head for the viewing deck.
After around six hours, the glass and steel frontier of Busan slowly emerged along the horizon. Skyscrapers jutted out from the land like uneven incisors. Its sci-fi waterfront came into view, a sprawling metropolis that seemed to spill into the water.
As we neared the port, South Korea’s second largest city continued to grow and grow until it was towering over us, threatening to swallow us up in its shadow. Thankfully the sun was resolute that day.
I put my camera away one final time and simply enjoyed the views along with my fellow ferrygoers.
Here’s to Reddit for keeping expectations low and to the sea gods for making sure I made it to Busan in one piece.
Olympus Pen EE-2 | Ilford XP2 Super 400
Nathaniel Frankland 