#123 Thank you, Busan! (Hwangnyeong Observatory)

Transcript

Well, this is pretty cool, kind of unexpected. I'm at Hwangnyeong Observatory, H-W-A-N-G-N-Y-E-O-N-G. And this mountain is literally across the street from my Airbnb. I've seen it many a time. In fact, the day, a few episodes back when I went up a mountain that was about two years old.

250 meters. The day that I was yammering about how I think I'm going to stay in Asia for longer. I was trying to come to this mountain, and I got distracted by that other smaller mountain, and I went there instead. And I've tried to come back here a couple of times, and I just kind of keep failing for various reasons.

It's not what I expected, because I did see that there's like two roads that lead up this mountain, one to a temple, and one up to like a power plant observatory, and one up to Beacon Fire Station.

So I really wasn't sure there was anything up here. I thought I might just go up a normal road and go across the mountain, but the mountain just kept going up and up and up and up. I wonder if on one of these signs I can see a height marker, but I'm in a guess.

I don't know. Are we up to 600 meters? Maybe. It feels pretty high. Yeah, there's one of these like a horizon maps that shows you all the stuff you're looking at. And yeah, the Guangdong Bridge, apparently, is the bridge that I saw from the other side from Moontan Trail. It's cool to see it from this side, because it's like, yeah, there's the park sticking out to where the mermaid statue was.

I'm on the other side of this shit. It's really cool. Anyway, the view from up here is awesome. So the mountain just kept going up and up and up. And just getting more and more rugged and less and less people. And I was like, man, this is not what I expected, but this is pretty cool. And then all of a sudden, I guess, because I intersected with the road, I took the littler road that went to the shrine. And then from there, I found paths through the woods. So I was just going up through the woods, but I intersected with that other road, the main big road that goes up and across. And just all of a sudden, boom, people everywhere, washrooms, exercise equipment, a cafe that I might hit on my way back down. Okay, I can go a little higher up. So maybe that's why they don't have a number for me yet. Gotta go a little higher up.

But yeah, it's just such a weird feeling. First off, just like that it's right across the street, right smack in the center, you know, just a little east of the citizens park smack in the center of Busan, just that there's this mountain that is so rugged. And it's just, you know, just a giant freaking mountain. Just so weird for there to be that level of nature, so super accessible.

And then it flip-flopped and then all of a sudden it's like, boom, big view, tourist-vill, cafe, parking lot.

But I don't know if my social decor I'm starting to fade from just walking around by myself for so long in Asia. But up here, it is like an amazing view at the observatory platform.

There were two other people there at the same time as me and it was an Asian guy and an Asian girl that were there separately. And because the lady was Asian, the guy clearly thought she was Korean. Started talking to her in Korean and she answered in accent in English, I'm not sure where she was from.

So he switched to his, his English and was like, okay, thought you were Korean, but can you, can you take a picture for me? But it wasn't just the one picture, you know. I've been roped into taking pictures for people. It's not so bad, but you see, you know, just got to help people get their pictures. But this guy was so fucking obnoxious that he wanted the panorama picture. So he needed her to take like five separate pictures and just the way, I don't know if this guy was just totally socially inept or if this is just the way Korean men speak to women, which could be. Based on their comic books, they're shockingly misogynistic, maybe not fair to judge people based on a comic book. But it was just super weird because it's like, you don't know this lady, you especially don't know this lady because she doesn't even speak Korean. Why are you being so impolite to her? But maybe it's one of those foreign culture things where it doesn't seem impolite, you know. You know, the many, many examples of that are just different cultures, I guess in my, in my life time, it's French people because I grew up going to French school and stuff. 5:00 Just the weird brusque way that some people communicate comes off pretty bad and sometimes, and that's how this guy was coming off. And just that it was like not just one picture, but okay, now, stand over here and over here. And he's like, can you count to three? Do the count down, say one, two, three, take the picture to make sure I'm ready, you know. I'm not quite sure what kind of panorama he was taking because he had to be in every picture. I don't know anyway. And she wasn't quite following as she wasn't doing the one, two, three, proper. So he got real like one, two, three, say one, two, three, please. And it's like, you can't just add please in and make it sound polite. You sound like such a dickhead. The fuck is your problem, dude? Anyway, I just laughed. Like, I guess quite loud because they both looked over. And it's like, oh shit, whoops, people can hear me. But, but dude, calm the F down. You fuck what the hell was that? What a dickhead. So anyway, it looks like a 422 is the height. Now that I'm all the way to the top. And yeah, from here, I can see the other side as well.

This is pretty wild, man. This is a good view. See, I would certainly recommend this thing. Not that hard to get to. I mean, and you could easily drive up here if you're a cheater because there's a road and a parking lot. But, yeah, it's literally right in the middle of town. This is the easiest for a view this big and a view this intense of like seeing both sides of Busan. This was the easiest one yet. It's just kind of ironic that it took me a couple of tries to get up here because it's if I'd just taken the main road and just not dicked around, super easy. But if you do dick around, that's kind of even better because then you go through the woods and have a little hike up here.

You can see from up here though. It was one of these days where it's not super polluted by local standards. You know, it's like 70 where below 50 is a okay.

But when I left the house, it actually didn't seem that bad. But then I did put on my mask on the way up just because I knew I'd be breathing at full capacity the whole way up. Super heavy, deep breathing. I was like, I'll just trust the number on the AQI fucking app. If it says it's 70, that's good enough reason to put on, you know, masks again or like less than 50 cents. Better just to put one on and ease my mind if nothing else. I know that I'm up here. It's pretty hazy. You can certainly tell.

And it's like quarter after five, it'll be a while till it's dark, but I have noticed that too that as the sun starts going down, that's when you can really more accurately determine what the haze level is. It's a lot easier to see if the sun goes down. But yeah, this is beautiful. This is real nice.

Huangyang Observatory. Definitely recommended. I haven't even hit up the fucking cafe yet. Super bonus. It's getting pretty fucking hot, so get me an ice fucking coffee. Jesus, I hope the washroom, now that I'm up at the proper top where everything is kind of built up and there's, you know, benches and proper fencing and stuff. I hope the washrooms nicer up here because there were two washrooms on the way up on whatever weird random mountain path trail I took. And they are the grossest washrooms I've been in yet in Korea, where just so gross that it's like, well, I'm definitely only going to pee. There's no chance I'm going to. It was like the squat toilet hole in the ground similar to way up on Bukansen, but yeah, just the ammonia smell was so bad that it stuck with me. Like for the next minute, walking away, I could still kind of smell just, you know, something sticking to me or just maybe just lingering. Maybe that was the radius of the washroom fucking shocking, horrible.

Technically better than nothing though. Yeah, I wonder. So from the original side, I was looking at, I could see where the mermaid mountain is. See if I can recognize any landmarks on the other side. Can I figure out where anything is? Oh, this is pretty creepy. I don't like being near the edge of this. This is a, this is a bit of a drop down.

Let's see. I'm looking into the sun on this side, so it's hard to tell.

I know it's very hard to tell from here. It's like, maybe I can find my Airbnb or something, but it's just a sea of buildings, just a sea of buildings. And it's enough haze today that it's at, it's that Photoshop thing. Reduce the contrast. But, what about the reservoir lake? Like that's out there somewhere. Yeah, I can't tell. Yeah, it's actually though just the right level of haze that it's actually a bit pretty today. It looks like one of those Jesus paintings, you know, the God rays coming down.

Oh, there's the Busan Citizens Park, which makes sense. I was just saying how this place is just east of there. And I've been there many times, but I needed to see it on again, one of these maps of what you can see on the horizon. Number three, Busan Citizens Park. Like, oh yeah, there it is, but even looking at it, like I wouldn't recognize it without the label. Turns out at 400 meters above, things just don't look the same. Parks don't look the same as when you're walking through them. Man, I wonder. I mean, if this is like a 70 day, when it was all crazy last week, when things were at like, I believe it hit 250. Actually, yeah, I did. It went a little above 250 because the, I wanted to see if the icon would change to like a man who has got skulls for eyes, but between 200 and 300 is the same terrifying fallout visage guy and semi-power armor trying not to die.

But yeah, I wonder what this looks like from up here on a 250 day, like you'd have to be fucking insane to come up here when the pollution was that bad. But I guess you could do it in a car and it wouldn't be so bad. It would just be interesting to see because the city looked pretty fucked from the ground. You know, just a little bit that I went and walked across. Well, that's what I walked across, that Busan Citizens Park. And it's like, well, this is pretty fucked, but yeah, to be this high up and to see this far into the distance with that level of pollution, I'm perversely curious. I would want to know, but since I don't have a car, hopefully I just won't be here ever again when the pollution hits that level of insanity. But even if I was, I would need someone to drive me. I would never in a million years walk up here.

But I bet it looks to fuck.

Oh, if I'm not even, I'm not even as walking toward the washroom, I can smell it. I can smell that awful super ammonia smell. No fucking thank you. I'm not even going in. It's just so like, well, that it just stays. Even though I was wearing a mask too, maybe it was sticking to the mask. I don't know, that smell is fucking horrible.

Going to hop back over to that little cafe. See how that's going. I have a feeling it might be kind of busy because it's Sunday today. It's quite a few people up here.

But I'll just get an iced fucking latte to go. And I'll just trust. Trust in the gods of the mountain that I don't ship my pants. I mean, you know, if I had to. What a bad, what a bad thought. The horrible little squat toilet hole in the ground.

Super ammonia mega blast. Oh, I hope that doesn't. I hope that doesn't happen.

And there's a lot of people with extremely random English phrases on their jackets and stuff. And South Korea way more than Japan because they know back in the day. You know, people would post funny pictures on the internet of like a grandma with a t-shirt that says, like, go fuck yourself. I remember there was this jacket that was floating around the internet back in the day that said this jacket is warmer than my family. It was just funny. But I didn't notice in Japan. I don't know how popular that is anymore. Maybe the people are aware now that that's kind of like a weird internet joke. It's for people to make fun of the English on your clothes. Because I didn't see much of that in Japan. But I do see a lot of it in Korea. Like, whole weird long phrases on people's jackets and stuff. I just passed a guy on his t-shirt. It said, with me ellipses you.

Which, I mean, it's basically just meaningless, but shouldn't it at least be the other way? With you. Me. You know, like, I'm here for you. I'll help you out. I'm with you. But no, it said, with me, you. It's like, no, I'm fucking not. I don't even know who you fucking are, dude. I'm not with you. Get out of here. Yeah, this side where you can see the bridge. Way better. Looks a lot less hazy on this side. And just the good old water, dude. Doesn't matter if you're right by the water. Doesn't matter if you're 400 meters up and several kilometers away. The water is just fucking pretty, dude. It makes everything better. The water rules.

Oh yeah, the guy's walking back in the front of his shirt. It's plastered with English, but I can't read it from this vantage point. With me, you.

So, yesterday I went to the airport just to make sure I could get there. Just not to leave until the day I'm leaving. I'm not leaving for a week, but just to do a test and it's very easy. You just go on the subway, not even that far from here, and you connect to the purple line. Turns out when I was talking about the blue line, there's actually two blue lines. I was on the white blue line, but there's a dark blue line as well. But anyway, purple line is another above ground train goes to the airport, very easy. And I love being above ground because, you know, 15:00 the other ground is just underground, but when you're above ground, you get a view of stuff. So, I was going to get off at the airport and just get a coffee and then head back. But it's like, okay, no, I mean, I don't need to literally walk into the airport. Like I'm going by it. There's the domestic terminal. I know what I need to know. So instead I just stayed on the purple line and went all the way to the end. And it was not a case like when I went to Ulsan where everything got super amazing right at the end. It stayed pretty consistent all the way. But it went to Gimhae, G-I-M-H-A-E. And it was just kind of cool to look at the window. It was like a fun little ride where it was more flat near where the airport was. And then as it went farther, it's just kind of, you know, nothing huge, but just relatively mid-sized communities in between mountains, like mountains on either side. Nothing that I was like, oh, I got to get out later on. I got to come back here and go there. But it's just kind of cool. It just seems like a nice little place.

And then I noticed even farther north from there is Yangsan. And Yangsan appears to be a similar situation, but even more tucked in between even larger mountains. And I think it's the green line. Yeah, it is the green line because that's where Yangsan takes you to the shore over to the beach where the mermaid statue is. And Yangsan was just, that's how I knew that's not where I want to go, or that's the direction to go home.

So maybe I'll do that. Maybe I'll just go to the end of that line too. And just see what Yangsan has to offer. See what that's all about. It is nice that, I mean, it does seem like Ulsan is even further. I think that's the farthest. But that you can get to Gimhai and Yangsan and Ulsan all on the Busan normal subway system is pretty fucking cool. That's a nice bonus to being around here. You can just go to these other cities.

Like if I do go to Ulsan after Jeju, it's just kind of neat that without too much trouble, I could just take the light to blue line down to Busan once in a while, come back here, get the best of both worlds.

It's been a while since I've done that because I mean Vancouver with its above ground train, it's like, yeah, definitely did the ride when I first moved out there around the sky train. And then when I moved back, there was extra parts, port moody and stuff, and went to check all that stuff out. And I remember I did that in Amsterdam too, just rode the system, just ride around the system, see what you can see, which in the case of Amsterdam is like, wow, this place really is flat.

Because it's kind of cool on the subway to go to random stops and get off, but it's so different because, you know, you can tell nothing, it's like you're just teleporting, you're just underground, and then you come back up and you're somewhere else.

It's real nice to just be able to stare at the window. And for $1.50, you just get to spend the afternoon scoping out large amounts of the world. And then you just get to spend the afternoon scoping out large amounts of the local fucking landscape.

Oh yeah, there's another bridge. Now I'm at an even higher up vantage point, Busan Harbor Bridge. That's a cool looking bridge too.

Wow, this place is really set up, so I'm at yet a third point now. There's so many different views from up here. And this one, number seven on this particular map, is the reservoir. But realistically, I can see the mountain next to the reservoir, and it's supposed to be behind it, but it's too hazy. Even at only a 70, just seeing at these distances, that's more than enough. That's more than enough to haze things up. I can't actually see the reservoir. It's cool, though, technically it's over there. Man, it seems far away. No wonder I was so fucking worn out once I would hike all the way over there, then hike up a mountain.

Even just judging by heights. So there's what all the heights of these mountains are. So one of them, I thought, like, is that the one I was on the other day, but it's only 300. This other one is 634. That must be the one, then, because I definitely was on a mountain that was 600 meters. And I was so blasé about it at the time. I'm like, yeah, 600, whatever. 20:00 Starting to realize that's actually quite fucking high. That is quite, that was quite a, because that was the day that then when I got home, I was like, I turned into stone. I couldn't move. I just laid down for half an hour, and it's just like, oh, it's like, oh, yeah, because 600 is a lot. All right, there's one of these view things. I'm never quite sure. Do I take my glasses off?

If I take my glasses off, it's a bit fuzzy. But if I had my glasses on, it's like looking through a virtual boy. It's hard to tell what's going on.

But can I see? That's so weird. We're looking at all these buildings too. All of these windows in the buildings with the magnifier, with the spyglass. I can't if you see anybody, but it seems weird. And then can I see the reservoir through this thing? It's very hard to look through with glasses, but what do we got?

That's just haze. Just haze bill. Still nice up here though. Pretty fucking nice.

All right, as I was going around to the different observation decks, I just kind of funneled down to a different path down than the one I took up. That is not taking me back to whatever the cafe was that's on top of this mountain. But that's probably a good thing, because yeah, that's the worry of like, oh, no, what if I have to use the washroom halfway down these terrifying washrooms? I mean, I think I'm not unique in the physiology that buying a gigantic ice latte is not going to make me not poop.

Is that a person somewhere that I can't see or some music just? Yeah, okay, there he is. I think there's, why would they have that just playing in the woods?

I was the guy walking by on a different route. But yeah, maybe that was a premonition, a premonition. I don't actually need a giant coffee. I wait till I get down to civilization. I don't need to buy a giant coffee on the mountain when, yeah, I mean, if anything's going to make me poop, that's going to be it. Why do that to myself? So this turned out better. And yeah, I'm on this nice little, nice little trail going down. This reminds me a bit of in Wanson in Seoul, in that it's a mountain right in the middle of town, where you can see on either side, different sides of the city. Very fucking cool. I wonder how tall in Wanson was. Feels about the same though, and this is probably a bit easier though.

Not that in Wanson was hard, but this is pretty gentle. Just see it, yeah, all around. All around. Can't find faults, man. Can't find fault with this. And again, just so weird that this is this is fucking across the street, a giant mountain that's fucking huge and has all kinds of different trails and paths and stuff on it, easily enough to eat up a whole day. And it was just fucking across the street, man. It's so weird.

It's just that it wasn't, it wasn't across the street as the crow flies. It wasn't straight across the street. You know, I had to go up the street and around to the side of the mountain and just not get distracted by other stuff. And then it's all set.

Yes, it's kind of cool because I don't actually know where this path is going or where it's taken me. This mountain actually seems to connect up to a lot more other mountains than I realized. But who the fuck cares, dude? Eventually I'll get down to the street and then I'll just be smack dab in the middle of the soul somewhere. It's probably a subway station right by wherever I come out.

Or I can just walk back fucking delightful.

Another one for the bingo card thing I keep bringing up over and over is the difficulty of going down mountains. So yeah, this is a super insane beautiful where the path I was on did connect up to the main road. So I could have looped back on the main road, gone to the cafe, walked down the road to get back to the city. But instead I continued down through this gorge and it's just mega beautiful. And this kind of reminds me of coming down off Buchansen and just being kind of gobsmacked at how beautiful some of these like following a ravine down a mountain things can be. 25:00 This one's a smaller than Buchansen, but super duper nice. Just beautiful just walking down these like stone steps with occasional wooden steps down through here. Not a fucking soul very busy up by the parking lot, of course. Down here, it's just me. But it's not too late in the day. I don't need to hurry down the mountain and it's just, you know, still sticking in my mind the other day. Just how remarkably weird I find it that I can hike up mountains and I don't seem to hurt my perennially weak knee. But then I go down and it's that sneaky thing because that's where it's like so tough to really pinpoint exactly what's going on because my knee doesn't hurt at the time. But if I hurry my way down it's going to hurt later and it just seems pretty incontrovertible at this point that it is the going down. And it does just make sense because man, I know I've said this all before but I'm going to say it again because I feel like I'm just a key and in more and more to the little specifics. Of this stuff like I went really fucking slow going up the mountain today almost comically slow but it's so easy to get into the zen of it to just get into the groove because if you try to go too fast, it'll just wear you out in your lungs will hurt and you'll have an unfun day. You go slow it's like what's the hurry I got all day. You can walk up a mountain and just kind of feel more or less the same as you would feel just walking across straight ground all day if you just go really slow you know you trade in speed for elevating yourself.

And it's just nice you just get into the groove and you just stop noticing how slow you're going because you're still you know you still get where you're going you know especially if you zen out a little and you're just not fully focused and you just get up to where you're going.

Whereas going down fuck me because today I'm like alright I don't need to hurry I do not want to injure myself no one else is even around this is beautiful anyway what's the hurry and it seems that I'm going to pop out kind of on the other side of the mountain the side that leads toward the bay and the bridge. So I'm either going to have to find a subway or or I'm going to have a pretty long walk around the mountain to get home so no big hurry whatever once I get down into the city I will not be near home.

And just trying to walk slow it's sort of similar in the sense that the more you do it after about five distinct minutes you know your body gets more used to it and you can do it more easily. But it's so much easier to just blank out your brain to just zen out when you're going up because up is so much easier where going down it's like relatively steep here so I mean I need to be mindful of every single step because some of it is dirt some of its rock some of its stone some of its wood.

And just having to be not only careful where you step every single step but but you know I guess it's that exercise thing right if it is just time under pressure that's important going fast and jerky is not good.

So just lowering myself with each step like not going slow in the sense of a clumping step weight clumping step weight I'm making sure every step is very deliberate. And very smooth as much as I can but that requires like real strain on your size and on your legs of just like you're in mid step during each step like holding things taught and tight and it's just really fucking tough.

Here's another exercise place. Exercise place number 150 that I've come across. Nobody here at this one though. But yeah, not only physically tough, but mentally because I'm listening to podcasts today, as I do most days, just listen to some podcasts, listen to some music, whatever. And I notice that I am not hearing the podcast I'm listening to because all of my attention, like when you're going up a mountain, you don't really need to put your attention on going up the mountain. You can listen to the podcast and just set your body to automatic trudge mode and make your way up. On the way down, I'm not hearing this podcast. I don't know what the fuck they were talking about. I realized like several minutes have gone by because I've had to focus on keeping my emotions super deliberate and watching my footing. It's like this is so much harder. Incredibly harder.

Or, you know, like earlier on when I realized this, it seems so weird. It's like, is this right? Is it true? Is it really true that it's harder to go down than it is to go up? And at this point, it's absolutely obvious. I just, there's no question. Going down is way, way, way fucking harder on so many different levels, different axes than going up. Anyway, at this gym, another thing that's at many of the gyms, is one of these little things with the minute mineral water. And I don't know that I would do this if other people were around, but I am sweating to death. And I've seen so many old men on the mountain, just ladling the mineral water on themselves. I'm doing it, dog. Taken off my fucking sweaty t-shirt. Underneath my t-shirt, I've got my little, hidden, wrapped around my shoulder, little, little satchel that has my, uh, passport and a backup bank card in it. Taken all that shit off, and I'm doing it. I am going to scrub myself down. I'm going to wet my disgustingly fucking sweaty skin with some nice mineral water and becoming more and more like a Korean old man at every stage. Oh, yeah, speaking of the sweatiness, I realized how I was saying how hard it is to find deodorant in Korea. And, uh, reddit claimed that all of young had deodorant. And I couldn't find any there. But it occurred to me. That's because, uh, the reddit post did not specify that it was a man posting. That was probably a lady posting. And it's so clearly delineated. The store is 80% women's, like, beauty products and stuff. And, like, a little men's section. So the deodorant they were talking about must be women's deodorant, which I mean, hey, what's the fucking difference? But anyway, I researched it again. And, yeah, I found many more references dating back like a decade to people going, like, what's going on? How come I can't find deodorant? And, like, a whole article from 2023 in-depth article that somebody wrote of, why can you not find deodorant in South Korea? And, partially, it is the, uh, most people have the, the gene that makes their sweat less, uh, pungent than North Americans. And, just culturally, I guess they just use, like, natural shit, you know, their way more into that, which is, like, a bad joke in North America. When you meet the person that uses the natural deodorant, that's a smelly hippie. That's a gross smelly person. But I guess if I end up being that person, like, I do think by North American standards, I'm less, less odory than the average person, but I don't know what that means in South Korea compared to a average Korean person. I'm sure I'm fucking disgusting. So, I mean, I don't know. I don't know what to tell you, South Korea, if you're on the subway, and smelly me is standing there and I smell bad. I don't know what to do. I tried, man. I tried so hard. And you just don't have fucking deodorant. The people writing goddamn long articles about why you don't have deodorant. I mean, I don't know what I'm supposed to do. And again, there's leads. There's like, oh, this store, that store might have some stores I've never heard of, stores that I don't know what they are, how they work or where to find them. So, it's like, I don't know. I don't know, man. I'm doing my best. But, but yeah, a lot of it is just with men specifically, it's like a culture more of, because it is a very active culture, obviously, with all of these, like, exercise things everywhere. But it's way more, like, just go out, have a jog, have a sweat, take a shower. You know? Take as many showers as you need. Take showers all the time. It's like, all right, I'm going to do my best. But anyway, okay. I'm going to fucking, I'm going to cool myself down, because I am a sweat box right now. I'm going to fucking, finally, I'm going to get some use out of the mineral water. I'm going to mineral water. My delightful Canadian skin. Okay, let's fade out now. Well, I'll fade out to the sound of the water flowing.

Fade back in. Oh, that felt fucking really good, dude. Because yeah, I'm like, I'm sweaty today where my fucking upper lip, I realized, it's like, mmm, salty.

It's like I've been eating popcorn, but I haven't just sweating like fuck. And I finished just as the one person that I've seen on this trail came down behind me, just as I was putting my shirt back on. So that's nice, because, you know, I feel like I'm, you know, like I was saying in Japan, I've just act like you're trying to get invited back, you know? 35:00 I think I'm doing okay with my complete lack of understanding of how anything works in any culture that, you know, just trying to not, not overstep bounds, not step on toes, not be weird. And I don't think there's anything wrong with me just splashing myself down with the mineral water. That's what it's for, but I still feel a little weird taking part in stuff when I'm just some weird foreign guy. It doesn't really know anything that's going on. You know, I'd rather just do it in the, all solo by myself, not around Korean people, like I'm trying to pretend I know what I'm doing, I'm trying to act like I know how Korea works.

But I think I realized too, I think I'm actually not that far from the ground, because I just realized like, was that sound happening the whole time I was yammering? I think it was, but I only just noticed it now, really, that that must be golf. That sounds like golf happening in the distance.

So nice. Mercy, mercy, mercy, that feels good. That is nice.

And this is my little taste of, it's like if I was in the ancient days, hiking the mountains, it's like, oh, look at that, a nice mineral water spring. Let's scrub down. Let's get rid of a little of this sweatiness. Man, that feels good. That's real nice. That's real freaking nice, man. I'm real freaking nice.

Well, I actually realized the path I was going to take, I think, does lead down to wherever that golf stuff is coming from. But the guy who walked by, he went a different way that I hadn't noticed, and it's like, oh, he took that path over there. So I'm going to take that path, because yeah, I don't need to hurry to the ground.

Anyway, yeah. That's nice. That's fucking delightful.

Well, here's something pretty neat. I'm walking along this mountain ridge now. I can see the golfers. It's kind of like that spot in Yokohama, where I could see the people doing archery. This is significantly less cool, just looking down at a bunch of golfers than it is archery. Archery was fucking red. But maybe somebody will hit the wildest fucking accidental shot ever, and smack me in the head with a golf ball back. I'm also noticing for the first time some mosquitoes. I guess we'll see how that goes, because man, when they get bad in Atlantic Canada, it's a fucking nightmare. You literally can't go outside really. They're just so insane. And I've never really had a big insect problem in Japan. I mean, obviously I was there pretty much in the winter time this time, but I was there in the summer in 2019, and it didn't seem that bad. So who knows what it'll be like in Korea, but perhaps this is the Harpinger of Doom, I guess we'll see.

But this is interesting. I found another spot where you could get the mineral water, because I really wasn't clear about like, can you drink this stuff? I noticed people on some of the mountains bottling it and taking it home.

And this had test report. This is all in Korean, but the translator is pretty good. Facility name and Chang Mineral Spring, ANCH, the inspection agency, inspection date was about two months ago. The water quality test results for the drinking water facility are as follows. Ordinary bacteria, less than 100 CFU per milliliter. I don't know what to see if you is, but total coliform group, non-detection, branched ecoli group, non-detection, shijella, non-detection salmonella, non-detection, ammonia, nitrogen, 0.5 milligrams per liter or less, nitrate, nitrogen, 10 milligrams per liter or less, consumption of potassium, something, 10 milligrams or less. Anyway, judgment, suitable for the above items. And then it says, if it is not suitable for common bacteria or ecoli, be sure to boil it before eating, which by eating they just mean ingesting, I'm sure. So yeah, it does say like, yeah, you could drink this, but, but I'm not gonna. Even the very mention of like, ecoli. It's like, even though it said, yeah, there's no ecoli. I don't even want a mention of ecoli. I don't want ecoli to be part of my life. And it's like, hey, whatever, you know, I always bring water with me. I don't need to, just to be on the safe side, though. I just don't want to be one of those, because I was just saying how, you know, I'm just kind of monkey, see monkey doing. I don't actually know how anything works. 40:00 I don't want to just be some weirdo who's like, yeah, this fucking idiot was traveling around fucking Asia, such a dummy. He didn't even know that there's like air pollution and stuff. The total ignorant dickhead was drinking the weird water from the mountains and he got ecoli and he fucking died or just any kind of bacterial infection or anything. Like, why? Why even risk it?

But I will happily rub it on my skin. That's delightful.

But it is weird that that whole idea of just like, don't worry. There's no ecoli. You know, this this notion of don't worry. There's no expires. I know I've mentioned it before. But it's just always on my mind, because I see it every day, that every single washroom, everywhere that I go, anywhere. I guess it really stood out when I was in Ulsan, right? So I started to realize like soul, jet-john, Busan, Ulsan, any fucking washroom, anywhere has an emergency button. You know, has like a fucking, hey, if anyone's fucking with you, if anyone's taking pictures or anyone's acting rapey, there's a literal button you can press right here.

And it's so ludicrously ever present. It's just everywhere. It's like every fucking washroom. Maybe not that one I was at today with the ammonia hole in the ground, but any even moderately used washroom that's like, you know, even moderately accessible to the normal public. And it should be a good thing. It should be a nice thing. But it starts to just beg the question, like, why is there a warning about photographs and about people molesting you everywhere? Is that really necessary? That seems so intense. But the feeling I get is that it's probably not just because, like, hija wives, hija kids, you know, I think it's more just, I think it seems to be how government stuff works around here. The socialism aspect of it is like once they decide on something, like, all right, we're going to put these in all the washrooms. They really do put them in all the washrooms. You know, it's like we're going to do this uniformly everywhere all the time till it's like ludicrous to an absurd degree.

So it's like not a bad thing, but it just starts to feel the opposite. Instead of feeling safe, it starts to make you feel like, am I in the land of the rapists? What the fuck is this? You know, it's like kind of weird. But that is the feeling I get is that it's like well-meaning, but they're like too good at it. They're too efficient. They've decided on a policy and then they've rolled it out. They've blanketed it out across the entire country with absurd efficiency. So every single washroom has a button. It's like if somebody's trying to touch your goodies, you press this button. It's like there's just no way that there's that much of a problem. The solution is just like, I'm not going to say outweighs the problem. It's a problem. If someone is fucking with you late at night at a public washroom, you're going to be very glad for that button. But it's like I've never seen that level of warnings. And emergency buttons and stuff. It's like, wow, it's everywhere. It's just weird.

But again, mine is not to judge. I say as I constantly judge all things around me all the time. Mine is just to observe. I'm just observing. That's all. I'm just noticing. I'm not saying you should or you shouldn't do that. I mean, hey, now that it's there, don't roll it back. It's not a bad thing. I'm just noticing that wowsers, that's a lot. That is a fucking lot. Strange to a North American, like I mentioned that. To my mom, I was calling home. I was like, yeah, there's all of these, like, hey, if somebody, all these, like, warnings in the men's washroom. Especially in the women's washroom, I feel like it would make more sense. So there are really a lot of men taking pictures of other men. But every male washroom has a little warning. Watch out for people taking photos. Press this button. And she laughed, you know? That's, I think, our first impression in North America is like, what a weird warning. What a weird sign and not to just pop up here and there, but to be in every washroom.

But I'm not criticizing. Again, hey, maybe you got it right, Seth Korea. Maybe this is what we need. Maybe this is, I mean, I very much do believe that we're all just fucking stupid monkeys and that you shouldn't give too much credence to the nobility of the human spirit. Because that's what lets pre-smallest your kids and let's teachers get away with weird shit. Just assuming that everybody's on the level is a dumb assumption. They're not. We're just horrible, horrible little animals that have base needs and wants and desires. 45:00 That will do terrible things if we can get away with it. The grand we of humankind, I think, you know, it's that it's a duality. It's quite amazing that we're conscious animals and all the stuff we've developed and all the things we've built. But at the same time, we're just the lowest little slugs. At the same time, we're little worms. We'll do the worst things. And it's like, wipe or ten that we won't. So, yeah, I don't know, dude. Maybe there should be warning buttons everywhere. The sharaa around here. Wow.