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Published: July 29th 2005
After a futile morning attempt at buying souvenirs in the Ginza District in Tokyo, Savitra and I bought some food to eat on the train and rushed to the airport station only to miss the airport express train by like a minute. We took the next train available, a commuter, which passes through Chiba (where my aunt's family lives, though in my rush I failed to call her, as I had promised my mom I would. Sorry Mom and Auntie!). Savitra did the unthinkable...he ate on a squeaky clean commuter train! Not once did we see people in Japan eat on a commuter train. It would be impolite and thus a mortal sin in Japan. Luckily we were already on our way out of the country.
My flight left for Korea an hour before his, so he watched me as I embarrased myself by walking into a wrong alcove at the gate. "Dumb dumb dumb" he said to me. What he should have said was "bum bum bum." I was embarcking on my make-shift one-man open-itiniery trip through South Korea and China.
I landed in Incheon Airport, which was a great facility. Immediately I noticed that the ultra-polite manners I was getting used to in Japan is not present in South Korea. I crowded into my bus while some old ladies pushed me around while trying to get their cardboard boxes onto the bus. Following the directions from the internet when I booked the hostel (I made it a point to book the first night in each country, as the entry visas require an address, and these days simply writing "hotel" does not seem to satisfy many customs officials) and from Lonely Planet guidebook, I took a bus to another airport, then the subway (its use of Chinese characters for station names was very helpful, since Korean is otherwise indiscipherable to me), then walked to the hostel (no sweat...actually quite a bit since Korea was just as hot and humid as Japan). An African guy walked out of the subway station with me. Then I saw several white guys. Where are the Koreans??? Apparently I was staying near an US military base and some embassies, and so half the people there are foreigners. I walked around the Itaewon District, whcih was an entertainment district geared toward foreigners. I met this military guy who was telling me about all the anti-American protests and the procautions Americans have to take. Another long-time ex-pat told me about how his Koreans would not invite him to certain Korean-only social events and so he is always the obvious foreigner no matetr how good his Korean language skills were. Since I have a similar appearance as Koreans (most people I assume I am Korean and not Chinese), I didn't notice this phenomenom until I had to speak. but once I open my mouth, I did notice the wall of exclusion rising. Korea will be interesting.
The nice lady at the hostel calls this area her little UN, full of military men, embassy folks and their hired non-Korean workers (mostly Nigerian for some reason), English teachers, and backpackers like me. She loves this area, except for being chased by Nigerian men at night. She spoke very good English as she lived in Monterey Park, California for a year before the LA Riots ruined her family's business and forced them to move back to Korea. At the hostel I also met a Japanese-American from Hawaii on a cultural exchange, a woman from Idaho (who ended her contract as an English teacher in Korea as she grew tired of the little Korean town she was at and wanted to see Mongolia and Beijing), and a ecology/bio-ethics professor from India who was in Korea to learn the local version of yoga. This last guy was amazing. He told me about the psychological and spiritual dimensions of yoga, aside from the physical aspect that most people only know about. He exuded such joy and openness, and he had a similar interest in international environmentalism that I had. We talked for a while before he recognized my obvious jetlag. Then off to bed I was.
The next day I walked around Seoul, to the giant Coex Mall where you can play free video games, and to the two palaces that the Koreans are rebuilding. The palaces are in the Chinese architectural tradition, but the Korean claim it as their own. The original buildings were burnt down several times, the last time was done by the Japanese, who even once used the imperial palace as a zoo. The billboard, otherwise factual and to the point, took an emotional departure to describe how cruel the Japanese were. Supposedly Koreans didn't even wear red clothing (as red represents Japan) until the World Cup was jointly held between Japan and South Korea. The Koreans, as far as I can tell, are a long-suffering but quite proud and nationalistic bunch.
Enough of Seoul. Time to go down to Busan. Next blog please!
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Tomo
non-member comment
Hey
Hi Steven. Please do not forget to contact our families when you will visit japan next time. I will be there. Japanese does not speak english as well, did you eat japanese traditional food like "Kaiseki Ryori"? I hope you doing well while travering all over the world.