David Grajal

Japanese society is very efficient, probably as much as Korean one but they give a lot more importance to quality and details. They are extremely polite, even a bit more than the Korean people. Korean people, as individuals tend to think only in themselves and their family while in Japan, people care a lot more about their neighbors. The two countries have strong nationalistic identities.

The night culture is completely different. In Korea it is completely normal and accepted to be completely drunk at night (even in the mornings) and the people only care when drunk people start fighting with each other or puking in the streets. In Japan people drink a lot but not as much. We only saw one drunk man and the people were completely annoyed with him.

About the language, It was very strange for me to discover that Korean people speak better English than Japanese. Japan has been always more foreign friendly and there are lots of foreigners in Japan but it seems that they are more attached to their language and culture than Koreans.

The cities look completely different. Korean streets are always packed with lots of stores and restaurants in the main floor. Furthermore the Korean streets are full of signs. The Japanese streets are cleaner, don’t have as many signs (only in the trendy districts) and they don’t have as many stores and restaurants. Also the restaurants and stores have a lot more style. Most of the Korean stores are clearly familiar businesses, while in Japan they look like in Europe. The Korean ones are always cheaper.

I start speaking about prices. Japan is not as expensive as it was before. Of course is still the most expensive country in Asia and for example most of the things cost twice as in Korea, but it is still cheap in comparison with the broken Spanish economy.

In Japan the manga obsession is a completely different chapter. There is manga for all kind of people. There is manga for kids, for teenagers, for blue collar workers, for housewives, for executives and I’m pretty sure there is also manga for old people. In Japan manga is considered another form of literature and the topics are surprinsingly various although in the magazines there are always pretty girls with tight clothes on the front covers. It’s interesting that Japanese people read books and magazines starting from what in my occidental perspective is the back cover so they flip the pages from the left to the right. This is another example of why in Japan everything is upside down.

About the language, they use what can be the most bizarre written language ever. They combine 2 different Japanese scripts (Katakana and Hiragana) with Chinese (Kanji) words. It must be a very complicated language to master. In spite of that, the pronunciation is pretty simple and compatible with English speakers. It’s not as easy for me, but all of you know my limitations with phonetics and singing.

After visiting the country I can say that I really like it, and it’s a very nice country to live… if you have the money!

Recently I went to Jejudo island with two of my Spanish friend in Seoul, Laura and Gema. This island is considered to be one of the most beautiful places in Korea and one of the favorite beach destinations for the people living in Seoul during the summer.

The peculiarity of the island is that there is only one road and it is open only when the tide is down. We arrived on the island on time and we were sightseeing, walking around the port and the beach and the main attractions. There were like tons of restaurants on the beach and we chose one random place to have lunch. We paid 22000 wons each for what was the best mariscada I ever had! Definitively,Korea is a good place to live if you love seafood.

While we were having dinner, the tide went up, and by the time we tried to return to Seoul, the bridge was closed. So we stayed trapped on the island for 4 hours, laying on the beach talking about our lives. That was a very good way of knowing these people!

In July I attended the 11th Bureyong mudfest, the most popular summer event in the foreign community and one of the biggest young summer parties in South Korea. We spent two days on the beach, taking sunbaths and playing in the water.

Mud-Showered

There were lots of Koreans but this place is specially attractive for foreigners because they don’t care about getting muddy. I think that approximately 50% of the people were foreigners, out of them probably 90% were ESL teachers.

The main attraction of the festival is the mud. Huge quantities of mud. Grey, sticky, oily and dirty mud. It’s a lot of fun and is also supposed to be very healthy being this mud is essentially the same mud you can find in the expensive spas.

The feeling of the mud is greasy. You can swim in the mud or paint your body when it is still wet. It takes like 15 minutes to dry on your skin. After that you look like a statue. And there is a plus advantage, the mud is the perfect sun protector!

Hitting on the Mudfest woman

Apart of the mud buffet where you can paint yourself, there were also giant slides, a mud jail, a soccer game and several mudfighting rings. I couldn’t try the slides but the rings were a lot of fun.

Other activities were dancing under the mud rain and color painting. As this is Korea, while we were covering our skin we were eating large quantities of Korean food and drinking a lot of soju.

“The Joint Security Area (JSA) or Panmunjeom, is the only portion of the Korean Demilitarized ZoneSouth and North Korean forces stand face-to-face. The section is reserved between the two
Koreas for diplomatic engagements, and until March 1991 was also the site of military negotiations between North Korea and the United Nations Command (UNC)” – Wikipedia

Recently I visited the South Korean Joint Security Area. It was a interesting trip discovering the last frontier of the cold war and my second experience with North Korea. Before being allowed to enter the JSA, I was given a briefing during which I signed a document which states, in part, “The
visit to the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom will entail entry into a hostile area and possibility of injury or death as a direct result of enemy action”.

JSA. In the back Panmungak which is the North Korean side.
This picture was taken from the pagoda in the South Korean side.

Once in the JSA, It was very interesting to be in the MAC Conference Room, the famous room where the peace negotiations took place. This room is the only place where you can be in South Korea and North Korea at the same time. The Military Demarcation Line runs underneath this room so technically you can cross over into North Korea!.

Inside the MAC Conference Room

I also have the opportunity to see the other notable landmarks within the JSA as the Bridge of No Return and the place where there was the tree where the Axe Murder Incident of 1976 took place. James Bond (aka Pierce Brosnan) crossed this bridge in a scene from Die Another Day. This bridge was used to exchange prisoners after the end of the Korean War in 1953.

Bridge of no return

I also saw from the distance the North Korean “Propaganda Village” and the world’s tallest flagpole. The flag must be taken down when it is raining as its immense weight cannot be supported by the tower.

In summary, this has been my more cultural and historic visit in South Korea. It was extremely interesting to see with my own eyes one of the world’s most heavily defended borders of the Cold War and the scenario where lots of recent historic events have took place is an unforgettable experience.

UPDATE 3/8: The video was not linked correctly, but now is fixed.

In the second week of July we had been two days in North Korea hiking Mount Kungang. It was not a real adventure. You can’t visit North Korea on your own, you must always go there with a tourist group and people related to the government always looking over your shoulder. That way they can control what you are doing and where you are and they can be sure that you don’t do anything inappropriate like speaking with normal people.

North Korea regime is the last communist state, widely totalitarian and considered to be a dictatorship where the main actor is Kim Il-sung, the country’s former leader. The current leader is Kim Jong-il, the late president Kim Il-sung’s son. The two of them are constantly present in huge mosaics all around the country. All the north Korean population wear a pin with the picture of the leader over the North Korea Flag.

This video was produced to remember the trip

When we crossed the South Korean border we entered in another world. There were North Korean soldiers standing perfectly silent every 500 meters. Soldier’s uniforms seems old, similar to the Russian uniform we are used to seeing in the cold-war era movies. North Korea has the fourth largest army in the world because close to 70% of the population can be called to arms if it is necessary.

North Korea is a natural paradise, when we enter the country we were shocked because it is very beautiful. Part of the charm is that there is no industry. At least in the area we visited, we could only see huge rice fields and small villages. Most of the villages didn’t have medium size familiar houses but only huge grey buildings. I suppose entire families are living under the same roof. We saw people working in the fields, normally by hand, sometimes with the help of animals. We only saw one tractor.

The area were we where residing is called 금강산 which is the tourist resort section in North Korea managed by Hyundai. In Spain we only know Hyundai motors but in reality it is a huge South Korean corporation (although recently it was divided in small pieces). The Mount Kumgang resort is the centerpiece of South Korean efforts to engage and invest in the North as a strategy to reduce hostilities along the world’s most militarized border. Hyundai’s founder is a North Korean and he has always been an important figure regarding the reunification of the countries. Indeed, the last day we were there, it was reunification day and there was a huge meeting in the resort celebrating the anniversary of the first reunification encounter after the Korean War.

Of course the most interesting views are when you leave the resort and are taken by bus to the nearby natural attractions. It’s supposed to be a clear area but you are not allowed to take pictures anyway. It’s easy know why taking into consideration we saw several tanks and rocket launchers in several close hills.

As I mention before every 500 meters or so there is an army member standing and controlling the area. I don’t know if this happens only in the closest areas to the resort or in the entire country. It seems that they are there to prevent the foreigners to go to restricted areas and to prevent the North Korean people to enter the resort. It may also be that the entire country is divided in small cells and every day one different civilian wears the military suit. That day he is responsible for controlling the people in the area and that can be the general idea, everybody is controlled by their own neighbors.

Returning to our trip, we hiked a beautiful mountain named mount Kumgang that is considered one of the most beautiful of the entire Korea. It was scary, especially close to the end. But it was amazing to see the old Korean women suffering a lot while climbing to the top. they had incredible strength and very strong will. In a very scary point I wanted to quit (I suffer vertigo) but when I saw a bunch of 50 year old women passing me, I realized that if they could do it, I must be able to do it too.

The next day we were exhausted and we went for a walk to the sea and the lake. It was a beautiful walk and we had the opportunity to speak with North Korean people. Most of them were creepy but some of them were really friendly and interested in our culture. I’m pretty sure none of them know where Spain is but all of them were smiling friendly anyway.

It was a very interesting trip in a very interesting country. Next stop, Japan!