#102 Notes about Seoul

Transcript

Alright, this episode connects up with last episode where I went on a hike up into some cool last mountains in Seoul and then walked down through a valley which in hindsight I'm quite sure a sign warned me about in case there was rock slides and stuff. Luckily there wasn't and I was fine. But then as I was coming to the bottom of that hike, I just had a note site assembled because I have not been recording in South Korea nearly as often as I did in Japan. Japan was every day. South Korea it's like every week or two, you know? Just compile up some thoughts. So these are those thoughts. This is just the end of last episode's adventure where I'm exiting Bukhonson National Park and I just have notes and thoughts. Whatever came to mind that I thought was worth mentioning about Seoul, South Korea. So let's go.

Alright well I got you here. I did take a couple little notes. It's like I next time I do a podcast I don't want to do like frequent podcasts like I did in Japan because with Japan it was basically just every day I could do a podcast because it was always a new amazing thing that I loved. It was like I can just keep saying like oh I love this. Oh this is so cool. Oh man now I'm here. Now I'm here. I wouldn't want to do this here because I don't want to be a Debbie Downer and it is just it is just too much of a 50-50 in Seoul. You know? If I did just record every day there'd be so many days where I'd be like oh it's all polluted and shit. Air being B is fucking me and it's a heat and I couldn't sleep and everything sucks. Not everything sucks let's say but you know just there's just no point. There's no point till I'm having a good day. That's what I want to report and then I can still bring up whatever weird stuff happened but I want to just catch the good days on this podcast. But what little notes did I take while I'm here? Oh yeah Taco Bell. So I do go to an unfortunate amount of McDonald's and Burger King because you can just go in and use their little menu and use your credit card. You don't have to talk to anybody. I'm not proud of it but I do that a fair amount. Taco Bell unfortunately didn't work out even when you choose English on their menu. It's not fucking English. It's like a third English. That's not enough English but I managed to use my phone to awkwardly make my way through the menus and then at the end I couldn't pay with the credit card or a t-money card. I needed like cacao pay or whatever these various Korean cash cards and I'm not going to get one of those just for this shit. That happened to me also at KFC because they have you can get just chicken skin which is what we always used to say when I was a kid like man I wish KFC just sold the chicken skin. They do that here but again I couldn't pay for it with a normal credit card or a t-money so I didn't. In both cases probably for the best. What am I doing? I don't need Taco Bell and KFC while I'm here. It's fucking insane. But I did notice just these I like these little cultural things of like things are very spicy here. The Mr. Noodles you probably want to put in half of the spice pack or you will die. It's so spicy. All of the freeze-dried noodles and you know they sell little uh little onigiri type things but it'll be like beef with chili powder and chili stuff and it's just like fucking spicy as fuck and it's very good but the level of spiciness is wild here and I noticed that at Taco Bell when I went into the menu for sauces because I like the medium sauce that's my favorite Taco Bell sauce. They don't have that here. They got mild and then it goes straight to fire sauce because they're like hey if you're not doing mild you're doing fire bitch it's South Korea. Why would you not get the fire sauce? So they only have the fire sauce even a big corporation like Taco Bell. It's like we're not gonna we're not gonna produce a bunch of medium sauce for this market. Nobody wants it and I love stuff like that because it's like a combination of a legitimate cultural phenomenon of the spiciness of food around here and it's shallow at the same time because it's about Taco Bell.

That's like my perfect wheelhouse and those two things they mix together so well. Shallow cultural observances. That's what I like and what perfect timing because I've just come to a little exercise yard that these do exist all over the place. Very often on these mountains you'll find little exercise areas with little machines and equipment to do exercise with.

It's a little hiker ASMR to let some people pass me. If you are fluent in Korean then I hope you enjoyed that conversation. I have no idea what it was about but again the beauty of not knowing it's like yeah you know I bet they're having a nice conversation they seem to be having a nice day. Lady has an umbrella that's a little weird. It's not overcast really today. Not raining since last night. Maybe it doubles as a hiking pole slightly I don't know. Anyway one thing I was curious about in South Korea is I was curious how things would go fashion-wise because like I mentioned way back in Japan I found it so like jarring to see a very rare I think it only happened twice a very rare North American lady wearing yoga pants in Japan because it happens all the time in North America and in Japan just absolutely does not happen so it really stood out and was like whoa weird weird it really brings into sharp focus what a strange fashion choice it is to wear your underpants outside I think but again I'm just a cranky old man that one cares what I think but I was wondering how that would go in South Korea because I'd heard about the the body con movement body conscious I believe that originated here and whenever you see like on Instagram and stuff or even I don't know kpop videos and stuff it is a lot of form fitting clothing and super hot stuff and kind of more sexualized still not to the North American degree like that's what I find so crazy about North America what we consider just casual Sunday clothes are so much more eroticized than even like hot sexy clothes from from anywhere else but it did seem much more so in South Korea and then my information about this country is all just from shallow sources like I don't know I watched some lady from America who moved here who was talking about how she did feel somewhat self conscious after she moved here about her looks because people are so concerned about their physical appearance here and you know I think how great the shoe sizes are with the with the millimeter system apparently clothing is not the same they just do free size which is just supposedly one size fits all but only if you're a teeny tiny little person which is also weird because people are not especially small here they're much larger here in general than they are in Japan there's lots of people as big as me if not bigger big Hawking Korean people walking around you know I mean there's small people too but it's certainly people are certainly larger than they are in Japan on the whole so it's interesting that they still do this shit where it's just they shame you into not eating to be small enough to fit into the one size fits all clothing so this lady from America who was still a very small person but not small enough said that she did often feel very put upon here in that sense and that you know as a foreigner people were just looking at her all the time but it has not been that way in my experience at all because I think I think that is true that if you're a foreign person you will get a lot of attention if you're a pretty blonde lady in her 20s you know Charla in Japan said that would happen to her in Japan all the time too she would be at like a temple or something and people would constantly ask to take her picture because she's a pretty lady and yeah you know that the Japan vloggers who are dudes would be like that never happened to me and it's like yeah because you're not a pretty lady because yeah in my experience no one ever looks at me for any reason really very rare you know maybe the lady who's like sweeping up the subway car accidentally dropped her broom on my foot once then she actually looked at me and I just smiled and was like hey it's all cool don't worry it's the blessing and the curse in both ways the blessing and the curse of being a woman as people pay attention to you maybe you want that maybe you don't probably you don't I would guess the blessing and the curse of being a dude is no one looks at you ever you're fucking invisible no one gives a shit so I'm certainly not feeling any of this sort of social pressure I think you know that's much more a female experience but even on that level just seeing people as they walk around to the city you know the locals it's not at all like a big fashion thing every once in a while I see somebody in like a cool mini skirt but you know even then it's probably because it's like I am at a hapjian station by hongkuk University it is like a nightlife area so on the weekends maybe some 10:00 slightly dressed up somewhat form-fitting slinky dresses but even then not that many and in a day to day just walking around it doesn't seem that way at all everybody's just a normal person dress kind of normal just doing the normal stuff I don't get any sense that people are particularly obsessed with their appearance or anything around here I think even that youtube lady I was watching I didn't watch her for very long because she was kind of religious and weird but uh but I believe she even did some modeling maybe so I mean I think it is just that's a whole different experience that's you know that's probably saying a lot more about her particular experience than anything about South Korea in general when she was claiming that they're all very body conscious and conscious of their looks I don't feel that that's true I haven't really noticed that at all everyone seems pretty chill and relaxed and no one seems to care however the point of this ramble and why it connects to exercise stuff in the mountains and the one very clear and unusual example I found that people maybe are a little more concerned with how they look than I thought they were is that it's very easy to find mirrors on these mountains you know mostly it's by the exercise machines but I found a couple of mirrors just in the middle and nowhere just like here's a little outpost with a little just a little stopping area just a little roofed place and here's a mirror you know case you got to check how you're looking and then they're like really common with the exercise equipment pretty much every piece of exercise equipment has a mirror on it because I guess it's like all right you just did your cool mountain workout but maybe you're a little disheveled now now maybe you make up got fucked up a little now you know you got to check maybe if you're a dude your hair is fucking messed up it's just so interesting that they have just mirrors that's where it becomes obvious that okay there is something going on here that I'm not noticing you know if the lady who's a blonde American semi model is noticing all the time that there's a bit of a fashion consciousness going on I guess it stands the reason that on the other end of the spectrum I would not notice such things because I don't even know what I'm looking for I don't live in that world so I don't even know what I'm not seeing but the mirrors are such a clear indicator because I've never seen that in my life I've never seen that anywhere and there's so many of them that it's so clear the message is clear after you've done your exercise or even just after you've been hiking for a while you may be concerned that something is out of place that you're not quite looking as tip top as you wish to be so before you exit the mountain and go back down into society here's the mirror mirrors for everyone plenty of mirrors check yourself out make sure you're okay so by and large I would still say I think that seems exaggerated this idea that everybody's so body conscious around here but then little stuff like that is very undeniable you know it's like well I can't deny that that's the thing there are mirrors on the mountains That's a little unique, a little unusual, because yeah, the only other thing I was really going by are young men's Korean comic books, which I do enjoy quite a bit. I like them. But I'm not quite sure what the situation is with porn in this country. Is it just like illegal or what? I don't know. I've got like a little VPN. The internet doesn't know I'm in South Korea, so everything's normal to me. I never really bothered to research it, because it's like, I don't know. Whatever, but I think I do believe that pornography is basically not. I've certainly never seen a porn store or seen porn magazines and fucking stores or anything. But what they do have are comic books, which are still edited down. Like you still can't show a dick. But these comics, they're all very generic and shallow. And they're like, they just follow the same basic plotline, 90% of the time, which is just, and these are basically porn comics. These are the ones that I'm reading, because I just think they're more interesting. But there's this whole raft of comic books here that are meant to be read on your phone, so they're like one big long vertical strip, and you just scroll, scroll, scroll. And the plotline is always, it's a young man, a young Korean man, probably with a mushroom haircut, because that was really popular a few years ago. He may or may not have just gotten out of the army. Like you can still learn things from these, which is what I find interesting. Like, it's like, oh yeah, of course, they're right by North Korea. They're in constant cold war conflict. It makes sense that you would have to be conscripted into the army here, much like, you know, with Israel or whatever. I just never thought about it much, but I learned. I learned through the porn comics. So maybe they just got back from the military. A lot of times they don't mention that at all, because I think they just don't want it. Some people don't want to talk about it at all. They just don't want to bring it up. 15:00 Very often, the people in these comics are like delivery drivers and the little scooters. And I like seeing these things as I walk around the real life place. It's like, oh, there's a military guy. You don't see them very often, but there's one. You do see the scooter people everywhere all the time, the scooter delivery men, who give no fucks about traffic in any way. They'll drive on the sidewalk. They'll weave through people. And these are not small scooters. You know, if I get hit by anybody, if I ever have an accident here, it's going to be the fucking scooters. Everything else is so like well delineated. They have this really cool thing when you're at a crossing. They still have the little, you know, little red don't walk, man. And you got to look for the little wait for it to turn to the green. Go ahead, hand. But they have in a lot of places in Seoul. Maybe the majority of large crossings, probably, they're everywhere. It's these like LCDs in the in the sidewalk, like a dotted line that's red. And then it turns green when you can walk. And it's so cool, because it's not like it's a problem to look for the walk sign, but it's so much easier to just see the great big dotted line in the sidewalk, embedded in the sidewalk, and just once it turns green, then you walk, you know, and it's like, cool. I love that.

Meanwhile, these fucking scooter people are just menaces. They follow no laws. It's like, fuck, why is everything else so well delineated? And these people are just going insane. But anyway, in these comics, many times, these young men struggling university students, or they failed to get into university, and they're almost invariably scooter delivery people. It's like fucking weird how if you've read one of these comics, you've read them all. They're so similar. But they're also neat because it's like a vaguely Asian style, but it's also a European style. This cool style I always liked about European comics where things are very clean. The artwork is very still. There's not like speed lines, and there's not busy nonsense. Japanese comics are full of busy nonsense. Tons of onomatopoeia words everywhere. Tons of motion lines. Everything's just a big mess. A lot of people going off model. A lot of just bizarre proportions. In Korean comics, the faces are still generally like manga. Although a little more realistic, but the body proportions and body types, everyone is just a normal looking person. And the environments are just the normal environment of soul minus the garbage. They do leave the garbage out. I've noticed. But it's just kind of cool because they're like the slice of life comics about just normal domestic problems that a young man might have. However, where it gets spicy is then they always inevitably run into some lady who they manage to convince to suck their dick. But that's the part where it's really unreal. Like this is though, like the rest of it was so accurate and it's so realistic. And I walk around and I feel like I'm in one of these comics. It's like much more so than Japanese comics. Japanese comics do not feel like Japan. Korean comics absolutely feel like Korea. Except that the female characters are the super body con characters. You know, he'll always meet our hero while always meet like some lady at the gym or just some chick at his school or even just some chick in the neighborhood who's wearing like the most sexy form fitting dress ever or wearing the yoga pants outfit or wearing whatever. And I was wondering how accurate that would be when I got here. Is that going to be a thing? And it's just not. It's just not a thing. It's so rare to see somebody, you know, it's more common than Japan, but it's very rare to see anybody in a slinky dress or a form fitting outfit or whatever.

It's not like the 1950s long skirt in the shawl like Japan, but it's just like a normal skirt and a normal, I don't know, maybe a tank top or something.

That feeling I mentioned in North America when people are walking around in their yoga pants and it's like weirdly like it sets off the same thing in my brain as a strip club does. Like something in my brain goes like, man, we are seeing way more of people's bodies than is normal to see outdoors. Ding, ding, ding. Wow. Get excited. You fucking weird little pervert. I don't feel like that in Korea at all. And I just wondered if I would. Yeah, because based on the comic books, the comic books paint it like it's the land of half naked women. And that's just, that's just not true. That's where it's weird because everything else about the comics is so crushingly believable. Oh, no. I can't get into school and I'm a delivery man and I'm still kind of fucked up from the army and I'm a loser. My life sucks and I'm stressed. 20:00 But then the sexy time parts fully imaginary and fully made up.

Man, so yeah, there's a couple of more people now. I can hear some people in the distance. I walked past one person. I just had to clam up for a moment about my talking about random porn comics. They're called Manwap, by the way, if you're curious. M-A-N-H-W-A. Again, it's like you read one, you've read them all. But I think it's an interesting cultural experience even just to check it out. Or even just that it's always about just adult people. I know that's a weird thing to bring up, but that's like weirdly hard to find. Japanese comics are always, if not mega creepy, even the normal ones, even the mainstream ones are always like teenagers and shit and they're stupid high school bullshit. It's kind of neat that Korean comics are about adult people and they're adult issues, they're adult problems. Like all the time, maybe again, maybe it's like a government clamp down thing where they're like, we're not going to do any of this weird Japan shit where you... Some chick is 14 years old and has giant tits and she's the main character. Everyone in Korean comics is an adult and very clearly an adult, like a super curvacious, Jessica Rabbit adult. I know. I think it's interesting. I think you can learn a lot from a culture based on their pornography or even just what they even have as pornography. What even exists? The fact that all that exists around here are comics, that's telling and that, I don't know, they're just not like anyone else's comics. They're very interesting until you realize that again, you read one of them and it's like, oh man, get ready to read the same exact plot 20 more times. So I don't read them that much anymore. But for a little bit, I was like, this is fucking neat.

And as for, as far as mirroring a society, yeah, they do a surprisingly good job. Superhero comics certainly do not mirror America. Japanese comics only mirror Japan in so far as the backdrop, the temples and the nature and the cities, but the characters not at all. Korean comics are like, yeah, man, besides the fact that you've made all these ladies way too sexy, way too sexed up. Everything else is like, yeah, this feels like Korea to me. This feels like what it's probably like to be a 21-year-old loser idiot who has a delivery job drive, who has a delivery driver job, words that I can't say.

Oh yeah, I don't think I finished that thought that there are more people here now than there were before, but still not that many. This little path by this creek, which I wish I had a distinct name for so I could tell you, they're still not that many people. This is actually really nice.

Okay, you can actually see this thing is significant enough that you can see it on the map. Chiang Sulu, C-H-E-O-N-G-S-U-L-U, is where I'm nearing.

Where is this going to take me out? Some bus stops, but I still have not taken the bus. Here we go. What's the nearest subway?

I've learned that it's generally just the name of the neighborhood, so probably it's Bo-Gun-Mong, B-O-G-U-N-M-U-N, where the Jung-Yoon market.

One of those. Oh, there's a temple. G-Y-E-O-N-G-G-U-K-S-A. Anyway, that's more than enough stuff you could figure out where this is. It's real nice. I like it. I like it a lot.

Oh, and it's called the Nature Interpretive Trail. Well, there you go.

Anyway, that's all my notes. That's all my rambling. Overall, things are certainly looking up. No question about that. I'm having a much, much better time all in all. Again, not to harp on it, but really the only problem is you just don't know when the death cloud's going to descend. And that is a severe problem, so I do feel like I have to keep bringing it up, but sometimes it's not here. Sometimes that isn't a problem. And when it's not, I'm really starting to see the beauty of this city. Again, the city itself. You know, hey, it's nice enough if you just want to hit a convenience store and go to a mall and whatever. It's okay. But it's really the extremely easy access to all these nature places. It's pretty fucking wonderful. 25:00 You know, nothing's going to top my precious West Tokyo, but West Tokyo is not easy to get to. This is more along the lines of like Fukuoka, as far as easy access. Although, I mean, if anything, I think I prefer that things are a little easier at Fukuoka. Again, this place is quite severe. These are some for real mountains.

I don't know. There's no point comparing to Japan. Japan's always going to be my favorite, but there's a kitty cat.

A white cat.

But I mean, there's definitely no question that when I first got here, I was very much feeling like, like, oh, man. Man, I'm like a little down that my time in Japan ended.

And again, no offense. No offense, so, but so, so seemed like a, what's that line of a, from family guy? Like, ah, man, I had such a crush on her back in the day. But now I have you, Lois, you're my, you're my silver medal. I was like, ah, man, so is certainly not Tokyo, but the longer I spend here, the more, that's feeling like an irrelevant comparison.

One place is not trying to be the other place.

And what Saul does have to offer is slowly revealing itself to me, and the good parts are really fucking good.

And here's the big sign, Fukansen National Park, kind of exiting perfect timing.

Oh, here we go. Here's a real good way to figure out where I'm talking about. I met the Junyun Park Ranger Post, J-E-O-N-G-N-E-U-N-G. Of course, that's where that sign was pointing me to, that's where I was heading to this whole time. So surely that Ranger Post is the best way if you wanted to start from here. That's surely not hard to find. And then there's that creek, and you can walk up it, and it's pretty as fuck, with optional mountain climbing. Yeah, dude, there's like this big map. Where am I now? Where was I before? What are we looking at here? Okay, here we go.

Yeah, I'm down there at the bottom. Yeah, I was way up there.

And yeah, there's so many routes still to go. Holy God, you could do this forever. This mountain is insane.

Yeah, I was definitely close.

So I was very close to a wall. Looks like it was another wall over this other part. That seems very cool, but I think I made the right choice because...

Yeah, it's starting to feel a little dark now. That peak, Sid and Bong Peak, that I decided not to go to, is almost 600 meters. So I was definitely not that high, but I was somewhere in those environments. I'm gonna try it out, man.

Oh, man, it feels so good to just not have the mask on, and just to be walking around like a normal person. I mean, I just really want to try to put a good spin on things. When you do have to wear a big, creepy mask to stop tiny particulates for several weeks, basically every day. It sure does make you appreciate when you get a few days where you don't have to do that. Okay, thank you for listening. That might be it for Seoul, but I got a little train ticket. It's only a 90-minute ride to the next city I'm going to, so I got the first class, business class, whatever the fuck. So surely I will chronicle that. So join me next time for that.