After 4 years of living in Japan and intending to go to Korea, I finally did it. I now wonder why I didn’t go there earlier. It’s a beautiful country with a rich and interesting culture, a tragic history and an astounding amount of natural beauty. This doesn’t mean that I would particularly like to live there though. The following are a few incomplete notes that I took while travelling around the country. Everything is viewed with my bias as an expat from Japan. I intended to finish it, but don’t expect that I will, so I’ll just post it as is.
Nature
There is green stuff everywhere. Mostly trees, but also shrubs, grass and paint. Even cities have an amount of green space, which although not parklands of it is still more abundant than Japan. Trees flanking the roads, small rest areas completely sheltered by trees, shrubs as decoration for public areas.
Haze
There is a haze everywhere around the country. Even rain didn’t get rid of it. I couldn’t find anyone who could tell me if it was always there, although because no-one seemed to think it was strange makes me think that it is always there. There is also the possibility that it is caused by the yellow sand blowing in from China, lent a little bit of credibility by the fact that my throat always felt dry and raw when breathing through my mouth (bad habit I know), even in the national parks.
Rivers
Natural river banks on every river that I saw. No sand dams in any stream or river apparent in the national parks. The occasional sand dam in rivers outside of parks, however they were always small and finished tastefully in natural rock material.
Cities
Streets are wide and appear to have buried power cables in many areas. This dramatically increases the visual appeal of the area. Add surrounding mountains covered with natural trees and fascinating rock outcroppings and cities are often pleasant. Get into the back streets though and it quickly degrades into a semi slum. Funnily enough this was in one of the rich areas too. Perhaps some of the “inside clean, outside don’t give a shit” attitude that the Japanese and Italians also have?
Roads
The highways are open like in Australia, versus the fenced highways in Japan. Driving is pleasant, made more so by the abundance of mountains and valleys easily visible and in obvious natural state. Trees on the mountains are occasionally mono-culture log forests, but mostly appear to be naturally forested still.
People
Not anywhere near as polite as the Japanese. Lots of pushing and shoving in the cities with no attempt at apologies.
