Friday, June 20, 2008

I woke up this morning feeling a little better so Natalia and I went to In-sa-dong, which is a souvenir and tourist district. We meandered down toward the palace and asked a couple Koreans for directions and somehow managed to make our way there. The stores sold cute little bags, chopsticks, keychains, and other random goodies. Everything was just so colourful and cute and really cheap! The stores felt just like the stories in Hong Kong because they were small and they poured out into the streets. But the thing that stood out to me was how clean the shops were and how intent every storeowner was to make sure his or her shop was clean. Every store I went into, someone was sweeping or feather-dusting or wiping something; Koreans seem to be about presentation.

This could explain why everyone there is so well dressed. All the women look very glamourous and well put together; I felt very dressed down in comparison to them, which is sad since I actually tried to dress up. I think the reason why they seem to dress up so much is because Americans just dress down a lot. American style is jeans and sneakers and very lax, but Asian style seems very crisp. Men’s suits are sharp and women’s shirts are pretty and stylish. Americans don’t mind if their shirts and pants don’t match but in Korea, everyone seems purposefully dressed.

We took a plane over to Osaka, and checked into our hotel. Then we went out to explore the area a bit and to orient ourselves, and instantly, I was overwhelmed by Osaka. People here move so fast! We entered a swarm of people and just followed the stream. Everyone was walking very quickly and briskly, and I could just feel the speed of life in Osaka and in Japan in general. Another response to Osaka was the lights. The city was so bright; everything seemed neon or seemed to be very bright. Also, Japanese women are also very sharply dressed but their outfits seemed to be mainly black and white with only a touch of colour. And the noise level in Japan seems to be a lot higher than in Korea. I closed my eyes for a bit in Osaka to just listen and I could hear the loud clack of shoes and the murmur of voices of people navigating themselves through the crowd and station.

As we were walking around our hotel, I learned how Osaka is very multi-layer. Generally, a city is experienced through the ground level. But in Osaka, a city is the ground level, then probably the first, second and third underground levels as well as the many levels above ground. It was amazing to see a whole life underground; there were restaurants, bakeries, convenience stores, and clothing shops. The city seemed great at the ground but I couldn’t believe there could whole other cities just underground.