Seoul

In honor of Stephen Colbert's "Black Friend" photograph, I decided to take my own version with the first Korean friend I made. His less-than-enthused expression makes the photo that much better.

Seodaemun Prison created by the Japanese to hold Korean activists fighting for independence during the Japanese occupation.

Street markets are much more prevalent than here in Japan. Each morning the main street near Ji's house was bustling with people selling food on the sidewalks. We also walked through some crazy markets, one near Namdaemun, selling anything imaginable. You can see street stalls and such during festivals in Japan and perhaps there's places with famous markets such as Takayama in Gifu-ken, but it seemed very common in Korea.

Counterfeit goods are readily available on the streets. I like this North Face knock-off.

On our way to an open air folk village museum, we were lucky enough to catch some traditional music and tightrope walking. The music was really interesting, it seemed way more lively and almost Indian in sound.

The tightrope walking was impressive, especially when he started bouncing up into the air and landing with the rope between his legs.

We walked up to the top of a hill in the center of the city, atop of which sits Seoul Tower, an eyesore similar to Kyoto Tower. The view of the Han river and its many bridges at night was impressive.

The Han river and the Seoul skyline during the day.

The Koreans seem to have a great love for paper lanterns, which I could definitely appreciate.

On the last day, Ji was incredibly kind and took us in her father's car about an hour outside of Seoul to an island famous for defensive forts. We also visited a very atmospheric temple.










An ancient burial tomb on the same island. Apparently Korea has the largest amount of such stone structures in the world.


Some very strong and bitter medicinal tea we drank on the temple grounds.

We ate at a nice place on my last night that seemed more like someone's home than a restaurant. There was a lot of artwork all over the walls made by the owner's friends. These photos are good examples of a typical Korean meal consisting of numerous small dishes.

Just a few observations and highlights from South Korea, based on only 5 days in the city of Seoul:

People are more casual; don’t dress up as much or seem as fashion conscious as the Japanese.

People don’t seem as eager to practice their English with you.

People looked directly at me when they spoke to me, as opposed to speaking to me indirectly through a third person.

Korea seems more raw and gritty than Japan. While seemingly just as safe as Japan, it had a dirtiness/grittiness that I haven't felt since being in a U.S. city.

People seem more outgoing and less shy. People were even smart-asses at times. Also, didn’t seem as polite as the Japanese. Touching was more common as well. I had people push me out of the way when they were in a rush. One thing that really shocked me was, during a cab ride, we were talking about something (I forget what it was) but we said something about a monkey. The cab driver recognized the word monkey, pointed at Mike's hairy legs, and said, "Monkey! Monkey!" Then he even went as far as to touch Mike's legs. I could be wrong, but I could never imagine something like that occuring in Japan.

The obvious bad blood between Japan and Korea and all the horrendous things Japan did during the war were quite out in the open. We visited a prison where Korean activists for indepence were kept and tortured. Also, since most older people can speak some Japanese, once when exiting a taxi I said "thank you" to the old driver in Japanese and he got somewhat angry (though he may have been slightly joking around).

The numerous times I saw the phrase "our patriotic ancestors" used in this Confucian country.

I met some Ethiopians, who both were extremely warm and friendly. At one point it was interesting to see a Korean man directly thank Woson for the Ethiopian troops who were sent to fight in the Korean War. Also, while touring the displays on torture in the Japanese prison, Woson kept commenting on how similar things were happening to activists in present-day Ethiopia (he himself was tortured before escaping to Korea).

The Western English-teaching crowd was hard to stomach. Had a guy tell me I was "gay." When I responded, "Are you kidding me? Are we in high school?" He then said, "Sorry man, I’m drunk." Makes me real excited to go back to America.

Very cheap. When you order a meal you get complimentary dishes, called sabisu in both Korean and Japanese (loan word from the English "service"). Usually its at least 6 or 7 small dishes, that you can get refills for if you ask.

I never ride in a taxi in Japan but in Korea it was the cheapest way to go if you had 3 or 4 people, though not so environmentally friendly.

Had a girl tell me I had "twinkle eyes."

Nobody sleeps in Seoul.

Seemed like there was a more international community (not just Westerners), but that could simply be because we spent some time in the main foreign neighborhood in Seoul where Eric lives.

White guys in Korea seem even more awkward than in Japan.

We met a Colombian who came to Korea with no English or Korean ability, simply because it was one of the few places you can go to from Colombia without the proper papers. The only English word he spoke was "Spectacular!"

Eric's neighbor, a Nigerian who works his ass off in a factory all day, was celebrating his birthday and gave us a 6 pack of beer for free. We were making Korean paper lanterns, so in return Mike made him a lantern using the colors of the Nigerian flag.

Everywhere you look on the skyline you can seen a bright red neon cross. I had no idea Christianity was so prevalent in Korea.

Many Koreans have "English names" because they say its difficult for foreigners to understand their names when they introduce themselves. I have to admit Korean pronunciation was incredibly hard.

The grand opening of a store, which was celebrating with an old woman dressed in a creepy clown costume singing Korean pop songs from decades ago. Old men were taken back to their youth as they danced suggestively with her.

One morning while sleeping at Ji's place (she lives in a neighborhood built on a very steep hill) we woke to the unbelievably loud sound of ripping and twisting metal. Just as unbelievable was the fact that we immediately fell back to sleep. Later we found out that an SUV which had been parked on the street just outside her house the night before, had somehow began rolling backwards and plummeted down a concrete stairway taking out the balcony of someone's home (Ironically, the previous day the man had been doing cement work on that very same balcony). Also, when entering Ji's house the night before I had noticed the SUV and thought to myself, "I hope that guy put his emergency brake on." Luckily it happened at like 5 am so no one was using the stairway at the time.

When I'm around Mike I can not communicate in my normal voice.

I discovered a new love for the word "parameter."