…off to Osaka.  Well, I’ll be flying but it’s technically a visa run.  Tomorrow will be my 90th day in this iteration of my Korea life.  As a lowly tourist that’s the maximum I’m allowed per stay.  So bright and early in the morning I’ll be catching the A-Rex (airport railroad express train) to Incheon where I’ll board a Peach Air flight to Japan.  I’ll chill out in the airport for a few hours and then catch a flight back “home” late in the afternoon.

Never had the Peach Air experience before but I’ve got low expectations.  It’s one of those “low cost, no frills” airlines and I understand it’s one of the first (or only) of that ilk flying out of Japan.  And the online reservation process was a bit disconcerting.  The quoted one-way fare from Incheon was something like W56,000.  The cheapest return flight was about W90,000.  And the fees and taxes brought the round trip to just under W200,000.  And then they charged me another W20,000 for paying by credit card, which is the only way you can pay online.  Bastards better not try and charge me for the oxygen I’ll consume on board!

And oh yeah, did I mention I suck at math?  I booked my return flight to the states for September 10 to accommodate Jee Yeun’s desire to be home for Chuseok.  Well, it turns out that July and August have 31 days (who knew?) so that means the visa I’m running to get will expire two days prior to my departure.  Ah well.  I do believe I can get a short extension at the immigration office by showing my return flight information.  At least that worked before.  Otherwise I suppose I’ll be a frequent flyer on Peach Air.

In other news, I submitted a resume for a contractor position on base today.  Yes, it’s true that I can admit that I may have retired a bit too soon.  Although it’s not really out of boredom that I’m applying for work.  A dart buddy mentioned that his company would be hiring 15 people or so (contingent on getting their contract renewed) and he said the jobs would pay about $22 an hour with a housing allowance.  That’s when my ears perked up.  The fact of the matter is I miss those heady days of having a paid for place to live (not to mention commissary privileges) much more than I miss actually working.  And that’s about the only way I can afford to live close to where I spend most of my time–Itaewon.

So, we’ll see.  The work has something to do with HAZMAT remediation, not exactly my area of expertise.  But the guy telling me about the job didn’t seem to think that would be an issue (he’d be my boss).  I’m not getting my hopes up or anything, if it works out I’d be happy to give it a try.  If not, well there’s always plan B.  Which I might need to come up with seeing as how Jee Yeun is talking about giving up her green card to avoid being hosed in taxes by two competing governments.  Apparently, the ROK will tax Jee Yeun like a foreigner on her property, and the USA will tax her on the key money she has deposited in the bank from that property.  As usual, it’s a royal cluster fuck.

And finally, this photo from last night’s dart action (actually after darts action when I was dancing with glee over a second place finish) was posted on facebook:

And a commenter said: I didn’t know PSY and Snoop Dogg were at Dillinger’s last night…

Everyone’s a comedian these days.

UPDATE: In addition to being math challenged, I’m apparently just plain ass stupid.  My nephew Justin is accompanying me on this visa run for the same purpose.  I purchased both tickets.  When I printed out the boarding passes Jee Yeun right away asked why I had booked the flight in the name of my other nephew Joshua.  I have no idea what that particular idiocy is gonna cost me.  Geez.