電車男？鉄子の旅？！

It seems that my other activities posting need to be on hold while I'm posting this. This is not a story about Hermès, and not the die hard train mania like 横見浩彦. This is one of my missions here in Busan to take photograph of all subway stations. Inspired by Tube Challenge of London Underground, my idea was not to be the fastest, but just complete every station in a day. It was the 3rd day of 추석(秋夕) holiday on 15 September 2008, I started my journey on 5:36am via 냉정(冷井) towards 양산(梁山). Since it was on a holiday, the frequency for trains was less, where I only managed to get every station done by 11:05pm or so at 주례(周禮).

Line 1

Line 2

Line 3

Here are some of the interesting bits I have encountered during my travel:

• The only time my one day travel pass (₩3500) failed to permit entry was at 사직(社稷) station. The staff at 사직 station was very helpful, and spoke great English as well. The ticket was reported ok by the handheld reader, and after a few insertion of ticket by the staff into the turnstile, I was granted entry.
• At 명륜동(明倫洞), the station master talked to me while I was about to take my photograph. He offered to give me a tour at his station, but noticed that I need to go to next station, he let me go. Spoke sufficiently well English. Maybe I should go and meet up with him again.
• When I was on my way to 부산역(釜山驛), a senior citizen 아저씨 (more like 할아버지) tapped on my wrist commenting about my camera. He also asked about the price, but I just use my standard answer, "I don't know. I can't remember".
• Line 1 frequency was way higher than Line 2 or 3, thus completing Line 1 was faster. Also, if stations are visited sequentially, not likely I would complete this. Thus, I had used Forward 2 Back 1 approach, which leverage on the time difference between arrival of opposite trains to snap pictures.
• Make sure you have sufficient camera battery. For me, empty battery hit every time the train was about to leave, making me needed to wait for next train.
• Some stations that allowed crossing over to another platform without exiting the ticket machine have only the middle staircase as the only option. Those on the side directly exit to the turnstile.