Seoul

I'm on the road again, after two weeks -- and approximately 15,000 words -- in the office. This is the first time I've been in Seoul since 1994, when I flew over from Tokyo to visit Dad when he was here on business. Last time I was here, I rode around in the backseat of a car most of the time and didn't really get a feel for the city. This time, I have been up and down hundreds and hundreds of stairs in the city's fantastic, inexpensive metro system, and I have a much better feel for the city.

I had forgotten how completely lost I am when trying to read hangul, the Korean language. Just like the time I visited from Japan, I like coming here because it makes me realize that I can actually read a fair amount of Chinese, even though I would probably tell you I don't read any Chinese. Korea, though, reminds me what it's like to be completely illiterate. I cannot make heads or tails from anything written here, and haven't even started to pick up on shapes or patterns.


But reading Korean in Roman letters isn't necessarily much easier, as the Korean transliteration system lacks any sort of consistency. For example, another sign just down the road reads Teheran-no, with "ro" and "no" both meaning street. I've gone to meetings in Chung-ku and Jung-gu, which are both the same place, and Kangnam-ku and Gangnam-gu, which are also the same place. Whew, at least when I had questions, I could read the imformation sign.


The TV in my hotel room has American TV, sort of, which is a nice treat. I actually get one of the Armed Forces Network's channels, which basically gives me a bunch of different US TV shows with cheesy Armed Forces PSAs. I now know, for example, that I can help reduce rape in Korea by locking my room. (The corollary to this one is that just because we're all in the military together doesn't mean that none of us are rapists.) I can also tell you how to get to Incheon airport via Army bus. Now if only I were eligible for the Army bus...

Yesterday, May 1, was kind of weird. Before buying my airline ticket, I checked whether or not May 1 was a holiday in Korea. Labour Day is a one day holiday in Hong Kong, and a one week holiday in mainland China, but not officially a holiday at all in Korea, at least according to Lonely Planet, the US Embassy and the Korea National Tourist Organization.

But while speaking to a lawyer on Monday, he mentioned that Tuesday is a holiday. Needless to say, I wondered if the several appointments I had set for May 1 would materialize or not. Getting on the metro on Tuesday didn't give me much hope for having any meetings: the train, and the streets, were all weirdly quiet, the banks were closed and most office building lobbies were occupied by a sleepy guard and nobody else.

My first appointment was there, as were, actually, all of them. Labour Day, it was explained to me, is a good communist holiday, so companies with strong unions -- and, apparently, banks -- are closed, but since the government is open, most lawyers are in the office, too, and therefore happy to meet with me since not much else is happening in Korea.

I've had a good, productive trip and have seen exactly one touristy thing, which I forgot to take a picture of, but I do have a few interesting photos. I've done a lot of walking, and crossing the street is something that the government wishes Koreans would do in an orderly fashion:


I took this on Tuesday, so nobody was really crossing at all, but I can report that these arrows are as completely ignored in Seoul as they would be anywhere else.

When riding the metro this morning, I realized that I could buy a CD without ever having to leave the train:


He's asking 10,000 won, or about US$11, so they're probably even real CDs rather than fakes. But after exiting the train, I walked past a guy who had several dozen DVDs spread out on the floor of the station and was selling five of them for 10,000 won. It's just a hunch now, but they were probably fake.

The other interesting thing I saw when I was in a high-end supermarket today were these packages of delicious-looking nectarines:


The price tag says 18,000 won for two nectarines. That's about US$20. They had better be delicious. There was a US$30 melon next to the nectarines, but that seemed like marginally better value for the dollar ... or the won.