A long weekend in Busan [6th-9th June]

This is a long over-due post so let's get things started, yeah? I just realised this was a month ago *sigh* so much for updating things better... oops...

Thursday 6th June was a national holiday and my school also gave us Friday off so, woohoo! 4-day weekend! What was also nice and convenient for us here in Gwangju was that there's now a bus that goes from Emart terminal all the way to Busan (and even to Haeundae beach) without the need to go into Seoul first. Me and Hanneke went together and met up with her friends before they left Korea.

We spent Thursday getting to Busan, it took about 4 or 5 hours in the end, but it was only a short walk to Haeundae station and then to our hostel. There's loads of places to stay around there and we managed to get a last-minute booking at Hello Guesthouse. We went down to the beach - only a short distance from our hostel - and walked up to the end where the small harbour is. We ended up grabbing a taxi and going a short way up the hill to Dalmaji Road, where we could walk through the trees and look back down on Busan and the sea as the sun went down. We were able to get a cab back to the main part of town too, which was lucky as it's a little far to walk but at least it's only a cheap fare.

Thursday night we went out to one of the Thursday Party bars before moving on to Fuzzy Navel where the barmen did tricks spinning bottles and things with fire. We ended up in a very quiet Wolfhound Irish pub for a last drink before making our way back.

On Friday we went separate ways; me and Hanneke went on the train to 경주시 Gyeonju whilst Melissa and Jongun went to another part of Busan (they had more time than us and were going to Gyeonju the next week anyway). It took about 90 mins but was worth it! Plus I think each single-trip ticket cost us about 6,000 won/£3.50, which was awesome.

We had gorgeous weather that day too - we walked although there are plenty of bike hire places and most people seem to cycle instead. Each place was a little far but slowly strolling around was fine, although we didn't have time to see everything in just one afternoon. We walked around some of the main historical sites, firstly 첨성대 Cheomseongdae (the astronomical observatory), then through the park/over the hill where there was once a fort to Gyeongju National Museum.

Music Core [15th June]

First off, excellent directions/hints/tips for MBC Music Core can be found at Korean Codex, here.

Warnings; extremely long post and lots of fangirling.

I'd decided to buy CD's for MBLAQ's fansign in Ilsan and as a friend was going to MuCore anyway there on Saturday, I decided to join him and see them at the music show as well. I went up to Ilsan on Friday night and crashed a friends place for a few hours before getting up at stupid-o'clock in time to get to MBC around 6am. They just started taking names for the list, and I ended up being 18; Corey came a few mins later and got 22.

Took me a minute to work out that this was actually an "18"...

We just sat there talking until it got to 8.30 or so, when we lined up again to take our actual numbers and for fan staff to check our things. Luckily, Corey had told me what I needed and I'd spent an hour on Friday night  trying to deal with iTunes and my friends glacially-paced laptop in order to print things. We had to have;

1) Photo ID - I used my ARC (Alien Registration Card) but I saw others used their passports.

2) A physical copy of the Sexy Beat album.

3) printed proof of the bank transaction when I sent them money to become an official member (the 3rd season A+ membership cards haven't been sent out yet).

and 4) printed proof of an online purchase of Smoky Girl song (I used iTunes which was fine, usually you have to buy from a Korean music site like Soribada or Melon, and I have absolutely no idea how to use them).

Most international fans would be able to sort out 3 of these (especially with being able to buy the single on iTunes), but I think not having official membership will put you way down the list, after official fan members (but I don't know for sure).

The MBC studio building is actually quite pretty!

Our time for pre-recording meant we actually queued up almost straight away and we were inside around 9.30 even though MBLAQ's pre-rec wasn't scheduled until 10.30. Sistar were currently filming, and we also saw Rainbow too. As the girl groups finished, all the fanboys in front swapped over with us in the standing area - it was a mad rush for no reason, and my bag got caught between other people, which was a bit nuts. Corey managed to go straight over to the side in the corner, and there was loads of room at that side. The fans next to us were there for Shinhwa, so they let us come right to the front in that corner and there was room for everyone and I could put my bag down too.

One OK Rock concert, Osaka [1st June]

Yet again, I flew over to Osaka for the weekend for a concert (previously, I went to see Daesung in Kobe). I was up at crazy-o'clock on Saturday to get the bus to the airport... but it was lovely and quiet in the middle of Gwangju at 6am!

A very quiet Gwangju

I met up with Jess at Incheon and we flew together. Sam had caught a slightly earlier flight, so we were able to meet up with her in Kansai Intl instead. We had a hotel very close the venue, which was really convenient so we could drop our things and go straight to Osaka Castle park.

By the time we arrived at the venue, there was quite a long line for merchandise, but luckily it moved quickly and we weren't waiting all that long in the end! We had a lot of stares from others in the queue, especially as it doubled back on itself. No-one was brave enough to talk to us though everyone was clearly curious about us... ^^;

Osaka-jo Hall

We all bought tour t-shirts and slogan towels! Someone kindly took a quick photo for us~ We went in the venue fairly early because we weren't sure where we had to go as we had 'block standing' tickets and entry numbers. It turned out we could go in straight away, which was good as we could stick together easily. Our tickets were for standing up at the top, behind the seated rows so our view was of the entire arena. We were able to find one of the last spaces without standing behind other people along the side and towards the front. This was fine until the girls in the seats in front of us came along and one was really tall and right in our line of sight..! Typical~

Jess, Me and Sam outside the venue

We managed to each find a spot where we could see the stage at some point, usually by leaning forwards or going and standing behind some guys to the right of us. It was actually nice to be in standing but still have room to move around, where we could jump about and have fun. We also had plenty of space behind us, so we didn't get squashed.