Korea (대한민국) - Part 2
Continuing the trip in Korea...
March 14th. In Seoul, my friend and I went to Deoksugung Palace in the city's downtown. By pure luck we were there when they were having some event that reminded me the Change of the Guard in London, although the Korean one is just a recreation of the original (the palace used to be off limits to ordinary people). Some Western buildings also present at the palace grounds are used today as the National Museum of contemporary Art and part of the Royal Museum. There was some interesting exibitions on Korean art, but we could only see parts of it since we had somewhere else to go...
That place was a tour to Panmunjeom. The only place where North and South Korea hold talks together. The division built during the Cold War that still exists today. That was THE place I wanted to go in Korea. So much that I think it is worth a separate post that I'll upload soon.
After the tour, we decided to check Dongdaemun area, famous for its fabric and clothing markets. Even though we couldn't find the most famous shopping complex (it is open at late night, so probably we wouldn't see too much even if we found the place), we managed to go around some shops and buy something. Some areas reminded me of Cuidad del Este in Paraguay or 25 de Março in São Paulo, and it was strange being in that kind of environment again after years in Japan... I should be exposed to that more often or I may get unused to it.
The next day was also the last full day in Korea. Planning on visiting places around Seoul at least we went first to Gyeongbokgung Palace, the grandest of all palaces in Seoul. It is really large and our first spot where we felt like we were at a touristic spot. All of our previous destinations didn't had too many people around. And checking the story of the palace I realised something that Marilia also wrote on her blog: this palace, as many of the Korean historical sites, were reconstructed after they were destroyed by the Japanese. And seeing that makes us think about the complicated relationships between Korea (China, too) and Japan.
From the palace we went to the Insa-Dong market to look for souvenirs. That market displays many traditional goods and has many galleries around. A lively place especially on Sundays, when it becomes a pedestrian-only street.
The COEX Mall was the next destination. It is a huge shopping mall with many large stores, theater, night clubs and even a grand aquarium. The mall is located in Gangnam, where we strolled around later. That neighborhood may be considered the "new downtown" as its urbanization is relatively new and it became one of the most prosperous urban areas of the city.
On March 16th we just packed our stuff and headed to Incheon airport, still being able to watch some traditional Korean instruments performance there before returning to Japan...
If I have something I regret I didn't do in Korea was looking better for game centers. I actually tried looking for some, but couldn't find one it was said to be good. My main objective was looking for a place with a good Pump it Up machine and watch some good players since I used to play that game and still feel very nostalgic about it. This game is not available in Japan, and even after going to the country where it was created I just went to a regular game center by chance at Insa-Dong and to a crappy game center in COEX Mall (despite bad reviews I still believed they had changed... I was wrong). At least I played a little... and missed those days playing with friends in Brazil...
As a side note, we noticed far more girls in game centers in Korea than in Japan or Brazil. I wonder if video games are more popular among girls there. If that's true, I have to admit that Korean girls got some more points with me.
Korea seems more similar to Brazil than Japan. Especially if I were to define Seoul in a few words I'd say it's somewhere between São Paulo and Tokyo. Although in at least one point they're far more advanced - perhaps even more than Japan: internet connectivity. It is easy to be online. According to a manual (we couldn't check if it was true), even some post offices in Seoul have hotspots with free internet connection.
The T-money card system is also quite interesting. It is basically a technology for "virtual money" to be used to pay public transportation fares. It can also be used instead of debt cards in convenience stores and other businesses. Also because the rechargable devices are not only cards, but even devices as keyholders and mobile phone straps.
Still, talking to my friend we agreed that the most outstanding feature of Koreans is how they are "normal" by our standards. Fashion doesn't have as many extravagances as we see in Japan. That difference is more perceptible on the way girls dress themselves - to the point that we often could recognize Japanese girls in the crowd just by the way they dress.
More than fashion, Korea seems closer to Brazil (than Japan) in human relationship. According to a Brazilian friend living in Korea (who unfortunately I couldn't meet), Koreans are quite closed to outsiders. But once you manage to enter the group they're not too different from Latin Americans, for example. And quite hot-tempered too. Trains are a place where we noticed that. There was more conversation going on a train, while in Japan in many cases it seems to exist a non-spoken code asking for silence in such situations.
Finally, it was pretty weird explaining to people where did we come from. We actually came from Japan, but our countries of origin are different. Besides, both have Asian descendancy so we don't look like the image people have from our countries (European and Latin American)... Sometimes it was just simpler saying we were Japanese.
For those wishing to see more pics, check my Picasa album.
March 14th. In Seoul, my friend and I went to Deoksugung Palace in the city's downtown. By pure luck we were there when they were having some event that reminded me the Change of the Guard in London, although the Korean one is just a recreation of the original (the palace used to be off limits to ordinary people). Some Western buildings also present at the palace grounds are used today as the National Museum of contemporary Art and part of the Royal Museum. There was some interesting exibitions on Korean art, but we could only see parts of it since we had somewhere else to go...
That place was a tour to Panmunjeom. The only place where North and South Korea hold talks together. The division built during the Cold War that still exists today. That was THE place I wanted to go in Korea. So much that I think it is worth a separate post that I'll upload soon.
After the tour, we decided to check Dongdaemun area, famous for its fabric and clothing markets. Even though we couldn't find the most famous shopping complex (it is open at late night, so probably we wouldn't see too much even if we found the place), we managed to go around some shops and buy something. Some areas reminded me of Cuidad del Este in Paraguay or 25 de Março in São Paulo, and it was strange being in that kind of environment again after years in Japan... I should be exposed to that more often or I may get unused to it.
The next day was also the last full day in Korea. Planning on visiting places around Seoul at least we went first to Gyeongbokgung Palace, the grandest of all palaces in Seoul. It is really large and our first spot where we felt like we were at a touristic spot. All of our previous destinations didn't had too many people around. And checking the story of the palace I realised something that Marilia also wrote on her blog: this palace, as many of the Korean historical sites, were reconstructed after they were destroyed by the Japanese. And seeing that makes us think about the complicated relationships between Korea (China, too) and Japan.
From the palace we went to the Insa-Dong market to look for souvenirs. That market displays many traditional goods and has many galleries around. A lively place especially on Sundays, when it becomes a pedestrian-only street.
The COEX Mall was the next destination. It is a huge shopping mall with many large stores, theater, night clubs and even a grand aquarium. The mall is located in Gangnam, where we strolled around later. That neighborhood may be considered the "new downtown" as its urbanization is relatively new and it became one of the most prosperous urban areas of the city.
On March 16th we just packed our stuff and headed to Incheon airport, still being able to watch some traditional Korean instruments performance there before returning to Japan...
If I have something I regret I didn't do in Korea was looking better for game centers. I actually tried looking for some, but couldn't find one it was said to be good. My main objective was looking for a place with a good Pump it Up machine and watch some good players since I used to play that game and still feel very nostalgic about it. This game is not available in Japan, and even after going to the country where it was created I just went to a regular game center by chance at Insa-Dong and to a crappy game center in COEX Mall (despite bad reviews I still believed they had changed... I was wrong). At least I played a little... and missed those days playing with friends in Brazil...
As a side note, we noticed far more girls in game centers in Korea than in Japan or Brazil. I wonder if video games are more popular among girls there. If that's true, I have to admit that Korean girls got some more points with me.
Korea seems more similar to Brazil than Japan. Especially if I were to define Seoul in a few words I'd say it's somewhere between São Paulo and Tokyo. Although in at least one point they're far more advanced - perhaps even more than Japan: internet connectivity. It is easy to be online. According to a manual (we couldn't check if it was true), even some post offices in Seoul have hotspots with free internet connection.
The T-money card system is also quite interesting. It is basically a technology for "virtual money" to be used to pay public transportation fares. It can also be used instead of debt cards in convenience stores and other businesses. Also because the rechargable devices are not only cards, but even devices as keyholders and mobile phone straps.
Still, talking to my friend we agreed that the most outstanding feature of Koreans is how they are "normal" by our standards. Fashion doesn't have as many extravagances as we see in Japan. That difference is more perceptible on the way girls dress themselves - to the point that we often could recognize Japanese girls in the crowd just by the way they dress.
More than fashion, Korea seems closer to Brazil (than Japan) in human relationship. According to a Brazilian friend living in Korea (who unfortunately I couldn't meet), Koreans are quite closed to outsiders. But once you manage to enter the group they're not too different from Latin Americans, for example. And quite hot-tempered too. Trains are a place where we noticed that. There was more conversation going on a train, while in Japan in many cases it seems to exist a non-spoken code asking for silence in such situations.
Finally, it was pretty weird explaining to people where did we come from. We actually came from Japan, but our countries of origin are different. Besides, both have Asian descendancy so we don't look like the image people have from our countries (European and Latin American)... Sometimes it was just simpler saying we were Japanese.
For those wishing to see more pics, check my Picasa album.
3 comments:
Hmmm... relacionamentos.
Koreanos, de fato, sao mais abertos com seus sentimentos do que os japoneses. Em primeira instancia, isso pode fazer-nos achar que eles sao mais parecidos com os latinos: Eles gritam, eles abracam, eles xingam.
Mas tem algo que eles sao muito diferentes, ate mais do que os japoneses. O confucionismo deles corre MUITO mais forte: Se o cara eh mais velho, acabou, o mais jovem tem que ouvir, aceitar e calar a boca. Relacao entre homens e mulheres, tambem. A mulher tem que baixar a cabeca e dizer sim. Nesse aspecto, eles sao ate mais rigidos que os japoneses.
Mais proximos de um jeito, mais distantes de outro...
Ah não! Se você se acostumar a dizer que é do Japão, um dia vai acabar esquecendo sua origem tupiniquim!
Queria ver se algum dia você falasse que é brasileiro e os gringos respondessem que você mais parace japonês (como se existisse uma "raça brasileira" definida)…
Claus, eu ja ouvi sobre o sistema de hierarquia coreana. So nao tive oportunidade de sentir isso na viagem, entao a minha impressao eh como ta no blog. E de certa forma, o Japao tambem ja foi bem mais rigoroso nesse sentido...
"Valleius", esquecer eu nao esqueco nao. Ate brinco dizendo que vir ao Japao me ensinou que eu sou brasileiro. Mas dizer que eu pareco mais japones que brasileiro eu escuto direto aqui...
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