Half day Japan | Half day South Korea

Day 21

So today was the day i was leaving for Korea!!


I slept light as I didn't want to miss my alarm to head to the airport. I woke up in my tunnel of a cute capsule which I really enjoyed! It was contained but not too tight or claustrophobic. 

Having a shower on the top floor (with great views) in front of naked women like 3 times my age was one of the craziest experience I've ever had. It was 6am so I thought I'd be alone. 

Dragging my bags, i took the sky access line  train to Narita Airport Terminal 2 via Oshiage on the Asakusa line then changed at Takasago for the Sky Access Express Line. It took an hour to get there so I slept on my hand luggage hoping no one would bother me. I kept looking for where i was so i wouldn't miss my stop and this bothered me.  

I love love love watching the Arrivals Terminal and seeing people reunited with their love ones. It made me excited to see mine. I sat and watched until it was time to check in my flight for South Korea at the departures. I was flying with Eastar jet which is like the Asian Ryanair. But it was a short flight and it got me from A to B so whose complaining?

My flight was at 11.50am and only three hours to Seoul. So as soon as I got on the plane, I fell asleep and literally as soon as I woke up, we were landing. Quickly filled in the immigration and custom cards (i was so curious whether i should note down the amount of Oreo Kitkat chocolate i had in my bag - i left it anyway and managed to smuggle a million of them through).

I was staying at Hongik University area which is obviously a student district so perfect for me and too amazing. I walked passed vintage shops and clothing goodies before reaching my hostel and planned to shop until night time (I was actually planning to sleep). 

Along the buzzing streets, there are many street performers doing magic tricks, dancing and spinning on the gum-less ground and singing in Korean which sounds like One Direction. It's sad because as soon as the performer finishes, the crowd is less and people walk away avoiding to give change money. To be honest, i kind of do this aswell unless the person is like super amazing. 

Two Londoners were also staying where I was so it was nice to get some familiarity although I was so close to going home. 

Apparently there was a MERS breakout in Korea and everyone i had seen (especially in the subway and arrival zone) were wearing a mask almost covering their whole face. I bought one for about 2 pounds but they're not easy to breath in really. I didn't want to google the breakout but eventually i did when i saw it in the news of 9 people dead and 2800 quarantined. MERS stands for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome and is an illness caused by a coronavirus. The symptoms are fever, hyperthermia, coughs and shortage of breath. You can prevent this illness by wearing a mask, washing your hands, avoiding big crowds and obviously covering your mouth when sneezing etc.

-
Korea has a population of 50 million people and it actually highly advanced as expected. They have sold more internationally branded cars than the US and their public transport provide smart cards you can use in all public transport and convenience stores. Almost like the touch'n'go credit card in the UK - is that not what they're called? The Seoul Metro Subway is one of the most heavily used subway systems in the world with more than eight million daily trips. It is also one of the biggest subway stations worldwide, running 179.4 miles in length.
-


So what about the Korean divide? 
The 1935 Allied victory in WW2 which ended Japan's empire of 35 years colonial rule in Korea led to the divide of South and North Korea. They were unified during the Joseon Dynasty between the the late 1300s and early 1900s. Then from 1910 for 35 years, Korea was a Japanese Colony. Soon after South Korea declared itself a nation in 1948.

To put it short and from what i understand, during the war, the Americans decided to split Korea in half along the 38th parallel of latitude. This was to ensure that Seoul would be within the American section from America's guidelines for administering Japan post-war. So those in the South surrendered to the Americans and those in the North, the Japanese forces surrendered to the Soviet Union.

So the soviets were the ones who appointed Kim II-sung (he who served during the war as a major in the Soviet Red Army) as the new leader of their occupation zone. He then began to go his own way, push away the opposite party (the capitalists) and demanded statues of his image around North Korea branding himself as a great leader.
A few years after, he attempted to unify Korea under communist rule and instructed an invasion (Korean war) of the South which lasted three years. Killing more than 3 million Koreans yet the countries are still divided along the 38th parallel and they remain separated by a 2.5 mile wide demilitarized zone (DMZ). The DMZ which remains the most tense border in the world.

In more than 60 years and still the divide remains with no known plans to unite. No tourists have been allowed to enter the North but recently they have allowed organised tours (which is a little silly as you only see what they show you) and strictly group tours into the country for a number of days. I had arranged a DMZ tour the next few days to see this border and attempt to question those in the military but it was sadly cancelled due to the MERS breakout and i was due to leave before they would allow it again.