OMG Japan, DMZ South Korea

A lot has been happening in the last week and it would be crazy for me not to write about it. As some of you know, I am planning a trip to Japan in exactly one month where I will be in Tokyo for three days. Well at least that’s still the plan. There are still travel warnings for Americans on the US Embassy website, so I’m pretty much trying to keep positive and hope those warnings are lifted before my travel times arrive. If not, I’ve already considered reinvesting the Japan funds on another trip, so I guess I’m just waiting now. The devastating earthquakes and tsunami that struck Japan are tragic, and therefore it fuels me to still go because during this time I feel they could use my tourism dollars (much like tourism helped the post-Katrina New Orleans recovery) to help a bit in stimulating their economy.

I was touched to receive emails, tweets, and Facebook messages indicating concern from my family and friends, thank you. I, however, was not affected at all. It’s bittersweet, but Japan takes the fall for any turbulence that may occur along the Pacific Ocean because it cocoons over South Korea and there is a sea in between as Figure 1 depicts below:

This weekend was also personally eventful for me. Some things happened with some friends that are now comedic, and I got to go to Hooters in Seoul for a birthday. Hooters is not something most foreigners know about in terms of finding one in South Korea, but their entire clientele is just that, foreigners. Weird paradox I suppose.

The next day was entirely devoted to Korea, and I mean Korea, both ends. I took a trip with some friends to the DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone) on Sunday. The DMZ is the border between North and South Korea. The trip was great and we did it through a great company called Adventure Korea (www.adventurekorea.com) and that is also the company that my friends and I went white-water rafting through. The trip consisted of going to a bridge, the Freedom Bridge, that connects both countries, going into an infiltrated tunnel North Koreans tried to dig in order to sneak into South Korea, watching a DMZ film, going through the DMZ museum, looking through various souvenir shops, getting to see North Korea through a periscope, and going to the train station of the only rail that connects Seoul (South Korea’s capital) to Pyongyang (North Korea’s capital). Needless to say that I learned a lot from each part of the tour, and I mostly enjoyed the film they showed us about the DMZ (I want to look into where I can get a copy) and that I got to see North Koreans going about their day through the periscope. Also, I got to buy DMZ chocolate, North Korean-made soju, and North Korean postage stamps. To be honest, this trip to the DMZ has now lit a curiosity fire in me in wanting to visit North Korea at some point in my lifetime. A big part of me also wants the reunification of both parts to be imminent.

It still baffles my mind that the world allowed this country’s policies to happen. How does everyone in a country just “agree” that they will be isolated and allowed to be told what to do at all hours with no way out? It’s almost magical and I cannot wrap my head around that process at all. The thing that is now engrained in my head came from the DMZ film I watched where the fourth infiltration tunnel (and the last one to be discovered) was found in 1990. That’s crazy! That’s during my lifetime!

So those are the thoughts running through my head about that event. I’m still in the lent process of not eating chocolate, so I guess those DMZ chocolates are safe…for now. Also, happy birthday Jaz!

Moral of the story: Be grateful.

A Ling Thing

It was the about two days before I left for South Korea last year in June that I was packing and catching up on my podcasts via my Apple TV. One of my favorite ones, and a shame that he decided to cut his run on CNN, was the Larry King Show. As I was packing I decided to play my podcasts as background noise and images to get myself moving. I hadn’t noticed the title of the episode I was playing and when the interview began it was Lisa Ling (reporter, she used to be on The View) and her sister Laura Ling talking to Larry about Laura’s North Korea capture. A little background info: Laura was reporting in China near the North Korean border when a tour guide led her the wrong way and North Korean guards captured her and told her she had crossed into North Korean territory. Also, Lisa Ling had once been granted access to North Korea to take pictures and video of the wildlife there for an assignment, something that made the North Korean government suspicious as the family now had a history with the country. Laura was captured for some months and held in a cell when a former president came to her rescue, Bill Clinton. Kim Jong-Il had negotiated to let Laura go if Clinton would go and get her. As it turned out, Clinton was one of a scarce number of country leaders who sent his condolences to Kim Jong-Il during his father’s passing some-odd years ago. Kim Jong-Il wanted to thank Bill for his gesture and in turn return Laura to her family.

As I’m watching this intense interview and hearing Lisa and Laura talk about letters they exchanged during the capture, I must say that I gave every article of clothing I was packing a second look before placing it in the luggage. Now it’s comical, but at the moment I gave each shirt, sweater, and pair of pants the same look you give someone when they tell you that you are wrong.

It was all coincidental and decided to look at it just like that, a coincidence and not as a sign that I should keep my butt in LA. Okay, now fast forward to nine months later. I’m going to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) that borders South and North Korea on a tour this weekend. I must say I’m really excited because hear of people going and it is right along my quest do more actually Korean things during my stay here. Well like clockwork, the Lings do it again and find a way to give me information as I’m about to embark on another Korean destination. This Monday, I came across this op-ed piece that Laura Ling wrote for the LA Times:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ling-north-korea-20110304,0,1805224.story

To think that I come from one of the most technologically driven nations and I move to another one that compares well to it, it’s hard to think that some of the things she wrote about are actually happening at this very moment just miles away from where I am. I must say that I appreciate the work Laura and Lisa Ling do, I appreciate their experiences, and how they go about informing the world of the happenings in parts we would never know about otherwise.