Izuhara from the harbour, looking across.

Izuhara (厳原町、いづはらちょう) is the main town on the island of Daema-do or Tsushima, in Japan but only about a hundred kilometres from Busan. The island itself is close enough that Busan can be seen on a clear day when the sea is low. It has a population of over 10,000, and the island itself closer to 50,000. Historically the island was a major crossover point in between Korea and Japan, and as a result a large number of tourists are from Korea, and many signs are in Korean. Average citizens, however, generally only speak Japanese though certain words in the dialect are from Korean such as the word chingu (チング, 친구), referring to a close friend. The local newspaper on the island records the dialect and publishes findings from time to time, but as these are rarities for local residents it does not provide much information for the outsider on Korean words regularly used in the language.

Old Izuhara tourist office, not used anymore. The town itself is not even close to this run down.

Izuhara is a well-designed town with a small river that goes through the centre road. There is a large temple in the town center. Another temple called seizanjin has a youth hostel for around 2000 yen (20,000 won) per night, the cheapest accomodation in the town. Hotels generally range from 5,000 to 8,000 yen.

Inside view of a ramen shop in the centre of the town. There are about half a dozen others.

There are a few places to drink at night, but there are precious few customers, and it is a challenge to find anything to do in the town at night. There is a coffee shop on the 5th floor of a drugstore with karaoke rooms as well, but once again generally fewer than five customers at a time. The sun goes down behind the mountains quite quickly, and the town gets dark about two hours quicker than one might expect.

[edit] Getting to Izuhara

Tickets can be bought through Dae-A Express Shipping for about 65,000 won or so each way.