Driving on Jeju Island

I’ve driven a car for many years in America, but my first time driving overseas happened in Korea while on Jeju Island. A friend of mine had strongly recommended that I rent a car on Jeju because the public transit there isn’t as good as much of the rest of Korea, so I made a reservation in advance. My car was a little white Chevy Spark. I didn’t name it Sparky—that seemed too obvious—but I wanted to stick with an electrical theme, so I named it Lightning. Thus, every time I got in that car I could say that it was time to ride the lightning.

Koreans drive on the same side of the road as Americans and road conditions there are good. Gas is definitely more expense on the island and thankfully I got through my time on Jeju needing only to refuel just before returning my car to the rental office. While I didn’t have any issues with Korean drivers I do think they are slightly more aggressive than we are. This is best seen at the myriad number of intersections on Jeju that just have flashing yellow lights for all incoming directions, so drivers have to figure out among themselves who has the right of way.

There are almost no cops on patrol on Jeju’s roads, and the ones that are there drive around with their police lights constantly on. I found this really weird and at one point I thought a motorcycle cop was stopping me but he just drove past after I pulled over. Perhaps to make up for its scarcity of police officers, Jeju has radar cameras in plentiful abundance. Thankfully my car’s GPS warned me whenever I was approaching one so I avoided getting any speeding tickets. Locals tend to go well over the speed limit on Jeju’s roads, slowing down just before hitting a radar camera and then speeding back up once they’ve cleared it.

Jeju Island isn’t that big, but it still can take some time to drive to various places and while driving along I sampled some Korean radio. I found quite a mix of stations while on the island, though some of the stations could only be received in certain regions. Among others, I came across an English language station, a hip-hop station, talk-radio station, a classical music station, and even a station whose offerings I can only describe as the Korean version of American country music.

I can’t really say I have any really crazy stories from driving on Jeju, but I do have one really embarrassing one. After picking up my rental car I started driving towards my hostel, which was on the south side of the island. It was getting late and at first I wasn’t sure if my car’s lights were on, but as it got darker it became clear that they were not. Somehow, someway, my idiot gaijin self couldn’t figure out how to turn on the headlights of my car. Thanks to my good vision I could still make out the road as I was going down the highway, but I knew it was really dangerous to be driving at night with only the parking lights on. Along the side of the road were these concrete barriers with gaps between them that I kept missing as I passed. Eventually I caught one of the gaps and safely pulled over. A minute later I found the headlight dial, slapped myself in the forehead for being so stupid, and then drove for another 30 minutes to the hostel. Please don’t tell any Jeju cops (or my rental car company) about this incident.

Lake Chuzenji

Sometimes the side trip turns out to be more enjoyable than the main event. That was the case when I was in Japan up in the mountain town of Nikko. I had come there primarily to see the Toshogu Shrine and some of the other shrines and temples nearby it, and while I was there I had also planned to take the bus over to Lake Chuzenji. The Toshogu Shrine was great, as expected, but real highlight for me of my time in Nikko was my short time at the lake. I got off the bus at the Ryuzu Waterfalls just north of the lake and after taking some photos I made my way down to the shore.

After all the hustle and bustle of Tokyo it had been quite a change to come to the town of Nikko, and an even bigger change to be walking along a lake up in the mountains. If nothing else it was definitely the quietest part of my time in Japan. Though I could occasionally hear a car go by on the road, I saw hardly anyone while walking the trail around the lake, with the most notable sighting being that of a small group of people who were flying a drone. Birds chirped, waves gently lapped against the shore, and the breeze blew through the trees. Since I had arrived in the mid-afternoon I didn’t have as much time at Lake Chuzenji as I would have liked, and being on the north side of the lake the sun was at times in a bad position for photos, but my visit was easily worth more than the price of the bus ticket I paid to get there. If I’m ever back in Nikko I’ll try to set aside most of a day to do a full circuit around Lake Chuzenji. It’s not what most people come to Nikko to see, but it’s something I’d recommend to anyone who’s in the area.

Helpful Koreans

Yesterday I wrote about Korea’s problem with suicide. It’s a very serious problem, but it’s not the whole story of the Korean people and their society. There are also many positive things about Korea, one of which being that the Korean people are very helpful and generous to foreigners like myself. I was in Korea for only about ten days, but during that short time I regularly had locals going out of their way to assist me if it looked like I needed the help. Probably the best example of this was when I was on Jeju Island and couldn’t get my car’s GPS to locate a particular beach that I was trying to get to. I was in a parking lot trying unsuccessfully to get a route to that beach when a young Korean man walked up to my car and asked if I needed assistance. After explaining my predicament he offered to help and then typed in the proper Korean name of the beach in my GPS, which got me the route I needed. Seriously, instances like this happened enough times that I could swear that at least some portion of the Korean population is on patrol for foreigners needing help.

Korean Suicide Rates

Wow. I knew South Korea (and Japan) had a problem with suicide in its society but I didn’t realize just how bad it was. As I learned while I was over there, South Korea has the highest suicide rate amongst the OECD nations, and the second highest suicide rate in the globe. The pressure to be smart, successful, beautiful, etc. is incredibly intense in South Korea and puts some Koreans in a hell that they see no way of escaping except to just end it all. Perhaps most horrifyingly, Korean suicide trends extend to the very young. While in Busan I was told about an eight year-old boy who had killed himself earlier this year because he couldn’t handle the intense stress related to his schooling. Eight years old. Let that sink in. A little kid who ought have had his whole life ahead of him instead chose to snuff himself out. He stared into the abyss of his existence and couldn’t find a reason to live. In today’s Korea that sort of broken hopelessness is all too common. Korea’s unrelenting drive to excel in everything has created one of the world’s most advanced countries, but at the cost of driving some members of its society to the point of despair and beyond.

“Hello, how are you?”

Generally speaking, I found that Japanese people keep to themselves and don’t try to initiate conversation with gaijin like myself (and no, this did not upset me). There was one notable exception to this general rule, however. At least two dozen or so times I had small children—normally part of some sort of school group—either pass me by or walk over to me and say “Hello, how are you?” Some of those instances were part of school projects they were completing (see my Origami Crane post from last month) but other times they didn’t seem to have any agenda. These kids didn’t know enough English to actually carry a conversation and our little chat usually ended after I gave them a reply. Perhaps they haven’t been fully trained in Japanese societal norms yet, perhaps they wanted to practice what little English they knew, or perhaps they found some sort of humor in speaking with me. As a bumbling gaijin idiot, I certainly can’t discount that last possibility.

Thanksgiving 2017

Today is Thanksgiving here in the United States, and I thought I’d take a break from my random stories about Asia to do something fitting for a day about being thankful. What I’ve got for you today is a mini-sequel to my Pockets Full of Soup writing piece from earlier this year. If you haven’t read that post already I’d suggest not going any further with this writing piece until you’ve done so.

Ok, I’m going to assume that you’re now familiar with the Pockets Full of Soup post. My sequel today is a very brief tribute to another person I’m thankful for in my life. His name is Ed.

I think I first met Ed a few weeks into my Freshman Year of college but it wasn’t until my later college days when we became closer friends. During those days he and some of his friends would hold a weekly game night at his apartment and we bonded over things like gaming and hilarious internet videos. Ed loved to host people in his home. He was also a gifted teacher, passing on a lot of practical wisdom to me such as living frugally and prioritizing what’s really important in life. I can also thank him for nudging me towards my first journey to Europe and the many insights he gave that influenced the way I travel to this very day. Perhaps most importantly, however, Ed held me to account during a particularly egregious moral failing of mine. That was probably the single greatest act of friendship he ever gave me. A true friend doesn’t look the other way or sugarcoat the situation when you’ve messed up real bad.

Happy Thanksgiving to any and all who are reading this. I hope this is a blessed day for you, and I especially hope you’ve got people in your life that you’re thankful for too.

Missing out on e-sports

In any extended overseas trip there will inevitably be times when things don’t go according to plan, and for me one of those times was when I missed out on experiencing e-sports in Seoul. E-sports is a big deal in Korea and I had intended on going to one of Seoul’s e-sports stadiums while I was there to watch whatever was being played. The day after I arrived in Seoul I looked online to see what the e-sports schedule was for the week and saw that two days later there were the semi-final matches of an Overwatch tournament. Ticket prices were very cheap, but when I followed the link to purchase a seat I found that they were all sold out. My heart sank a little, but mostly what I felt at that moment was disappointment with myself. I had made a very rookie mistake in not looking for a ticket far in advance and had no one to blame but myself for the situation. On the day of the matches I had meant to show up at the stadium to see if there were any unreserved tickets available, but I got bogged down in other things and wasn’t able to get over to the stadium. I had missed out on e-sports in Seoul. Next time I’m there I won’t make the same mistake.

Japanese and Korean smart phone usage

Many laments have been written over the past few years related to Americans’ unhealthy habits with smart phones. Our society is becoming increasingly addicted to our phones and face-to-face human interactions are suffering as a consequence. I’m not immune to bad phone habits and at times I catch myself checking Twitter too often. That said, as bad as America’s phone problems have become, they are nothing compared to what I saw in Japan and Korea. Their phone habits make ours seem healthy by comparison. I have never seen such large swaths of people basking in the glow on their phone screens. Particularly in places like Tokyo and Seoul you can get on subways, walk into restaurants, or just be wandering around town and see a legion of craned necks and hands holding small objects that dispense electronic cocaine. America certainly needs to improve its phone habits, but I suppose we can take a bit of solace in that we haven’t yet reached Japanese or Korean levels of phone addiction.

Japanese men and shorts

There’s something interesting about Japanese society that I couldn’t help but notice while I was overseas: very few Japanese men wear shorts. Young boys wear them, but I hardly saw any guys above the age of middle or high school who weren’t wearing pants. At first I thought it was just some sort of regional thing, but it held true everywhere I went in Japan. Even way out west in Kyushu where it can get really warm I saw almost no men in shorts. I have no idea why this is, but Japanese men just aren’t big on them.

Visiting the DMZ

On my final full day in Seoul I took a tour of the Korean DMZ. Early in the morning I got up and headed over to the USO office at Camp Kim. You can only visit the DMZ as part of a tour group and the group I was in had about 40 people total. Coming along with us was a Korean woman who served as our guide for much of the tour. It’s only a 45 minute bus ride from Seoul to the DMZ, which really gives you a good understanding of just how close South Korea’s capital is to the border and why Seoul would likely be badly damaged if war ever broke out. The first part of our tour took us through Camp Bonifas and we passed near a village that’s close to the DMZ. From what we were told, the villagers are farmers who are paid by the government to cultivate the land and are completely exempt from taxation and military service, however they also don’t have as many freedoms as other Koreans and have hardly anything to spend their money on. Soon we came to the Joint Security Area (JSA) where the two Koreas actually meet. The DMZ extends for two kilometers in either direction from the border and is full of mines, but at the JSA there is a small cluster of buildings right on the border that are meant to facilitate talks between the two nations. Blue buildings belong to the United Nations and gray buildings belong to North Korea. Right on the border itself are six meeting houses, three blue and three gray. A concrete slab in the middle of that row of six buildings marks the border. About 100 yards away from us, in front of a large building we could see a single North Korean guard. In reality there are many more North Koreans at the DMZ, however nearly all of them are out of sight. There was some sort of music playing in the distance, which I assume was propaganda music but I don’t know which side was playing it. Since we couldn’t move around much I wasn’t able to get the angle I wanted for my photos, but I got a few half decent shots like the one below.

We next entered one of the blue meeting houses. Inside are tables and chairs used during talks, and since it sits right on the border you are technically inside North Korea if you walk to the far side of the room. A pair of South Korean guards keep watch over the room and we were told not to interact with or stand directly next to them. I walked to the far side and thus entered North Korean territory, however inside that room it doesn’t really hit you that you’re in North Korea. Below is a photo of what the room looked like.

Soon our time was up and we had to leave the JSA. As we were walking to our bus I saw a very expensive BMW pull up and a civilian got out. The soldier who was walking with us had explained earlier at Camp Bonifas that the villagers who live near the DMZ oftentimes buy fancy cars because those cars are among the very few luxuries they are actually able to purchase, so I assume that civilian was one of the people living by the DMZ. The next place our bus took us to was Dorasan Station, the final South Korean train station on the train line that used to connect North and South Korea but is currently not in service. South Korea still hasn’t given up hope on Dorasan one day being in use again, so it’s kept very tidy for a place whose only visitors are tour groups like mine. Out on the train platforms you can see a train car that was imported from Germany whose original usage was as a peace car during the Cold War. South Korea used it during the years that the train line operated but now it sits outside as a mini-museum.

After a lunch break our tour proceeded to a lookout post from which we could stare out onto North Korea. The border line curves back and forth across the land, but it’s not too hard to tell where the North Korean side is because North Korea cut down most of the trees on their side of the border, both for fuel and to create an open no-man’s land. The rail line from Dorasan Station could be seen off to the left and to the right you could see the giant North Korean flagpole tower and the empty village that they use to broadcast propaganda across the border. Far off in the distance was North Korea’s third largest city, whose name escapes me at the moment. It had a number of taller buildings, though from what we were told, none of them have elevators because North Korea can’t generate the electricity that would be needed to power them. South Korean propaganda music was playing over nearby loudspeakers, so this might have been what I heard at the JSA but I’m not sure. It was an odd feeling to be staring out at what is probably the most repressive country on the entire planet. To this day I still can’t quite describe it.

The final part of our tour that day was a visit to the Third Tunnel. In the years after the signing of the ceasefire that (mostly) ended the Korean War, the North Koreans dug multiple tunnels under the border that would have allowed them to funnel thousands of troops into South Korea in the event of war breaking out again. The Third Tunnel was the third such tunnel that the South Koreans discovered, hence the name. It is deep underground and getting to it involves a long walk down another tunnel that South Korea dug so that people could go down and see it. No one’s sure just how many of these tunnels exist and it’s thought that there are many more that haven’t been discovered yet. No photos are allowed in the Third Tunnel, so I have nothing to show you of it, but I can give you this photo of the unification monument just outside of the tunnel’s entrance. Koreans are pushing two halves of a sphere back together, with South Koreans on the left and North Koreans on the right.

When we finished our visit at the Third Tunnel it was time to head back to Seoul. We drove along the river that flows through Seoul and out into the ocean and I couldn’t help but notice that the riverbanks were covered in barbed wire and watch posts. The Cold War may officially be over in most of the world, but it is still very much alive in Korea. If you are ever in South Korea and have the chance to take a DMZ tour I’d highly recommend going. It’s one thing to talk about North Korea—it’s quite another to see it for yourself.