The incredible lightness of being rude

Sometimes, when I'm busy with work, I feel just like our President George W. Bush: I don't have time to read the papers, so I have someone else read them and then give me the gist. Courtesy Lost Nomad, I have discovered that Seoul ranked 32nd out of 35 on the list of most polite cities. Ahem, that would make Seoul the fourth rudest major metropolis, I suppose (fifth if you count the metropolis in the film Metropolis).

As others have mentioned at Lost Nomad's, there is certainly some cultural bias in the Reader's Digest survey, particularly in how they chose to measure politeness and hospitality. Seoulites screwed the pooch on the "door test" (whether anyone hold the door open for them), "document drops" (whether someone would help them retrieve a pile of dropped papers), and "service tests" (how many salesclerks would thank them for a purchase).

Now, had they had conducted a "walking-you-to-your-destination-when-you-ask-for-directions test," Seoul would have come out on top.

Let's face it, Seoul (and many other East Asian cities) run on a different dynamic than most North American cities. In Seoul, Hong Kong, and even Tokyo, you don't say "Excuse me," to every person you bump shoulders with. You'd never get anywhere!

Also, you don't say hello or nod to every person you walk past, which is how we do it in the Big Orange (frankly, it gets annoying).

Also, Seoulites tend not to mug people. That should count for something. Some of these "hospitable" cities are known for high crimes and misdemeanors; they should be impeached from the survey on that basis alone.

Poor Seoul. Our fair city digging new rivers and planting new parks right and left, but it just can't get a break.

Still, maybe this news will shame a few people into holding open the door next time (and I suspect that's why the Korean media is running with this). 30% is an abysmal rate.

UPDATE:
A slightly (only slightly) tongue-in-cheek comment I wrote on this can be found here.

Just thinking out loud

Just a thought: if North Korea test-firing their Taepodong-2 missile is proof that Sunshine Policy has failed, would North Korea not test-firing their Taepodong-2 missile be evidence that Sunshine Policy has succeeded?

And what would it mean that the Taepodong-1 missile, fired over Japanese territory occurred before Sunshine Policy really got going?

Tokyo and Seoul to cooperate on North Korea missile issue

Over a late-night chat last night, Japanese Foreign Minister Aso and South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Kimoon have pleged that Tokyo and Seoul would cooperate to stop Pyongyang's apparent plans for a test-launch of the Taepodong-2 missile that — scary, ominous warning — could hit Alaska, Guam, and possibly Hawaii, Seattle, and Los Angeles.

According to a joint statement, Aso told Ban during the twenty-five-minute discussion that a missile test would be a threat to regional security, while Ban replied it was necessary to cooperate to get Pyongyang to call off the launch.

At the same time, North Korea declared yesterday that it is not bound by its own moratorium on long-range missile tests (never mind the so-called Pyongyang Agreement in 2002 between Japanese PM Koizumi and North Korean strongman Kim Jong-il).

What does Seoul really think about the prospect of a North Korean test-firing of a Taepodong-2 missile?

What he said.

Somnambulistic in Seoul

I have just returned from Seoul City Hall Plaza where a crowd nearly the size of last week's match gathered to watch the Korea Team bring France to a 1-to-1 draw. Thinking that the hour was way too late and way too early, not to mention that people might be less excited about watching their team get defeated, I half-guessed that the number of people who would show up might fill the grassy area and the pedestrian walkways around City Hall, but not much else. I was wrong.

The crowd was close to the size of the previous match, but I think the Seoul Muncipal Police Department was assuming the crowd would be smaller: unlike with the Togo match, the section of boulevard between Namdaemun, City Hall, and Kwanghwamun Station was not blocked to vehicular traffic. That meant considerably less seating area for the well-behaved and orderly fans, so there was spillover in the smaller areas, like the roadway between the Bank of Korea and City Hall Plaza, that had not been crowded during the Togo game. At any rate, the ubiquitous white-shirted police officers (they changed their uniforms recently, looking a little Singaporeish) did a good job of keeping people in line, literally.

Wherever they were sitting, the crowd was ecstatic. Tying France in a war would be absolutely humiliating, but tying them in a World Cup soccer match is quite an achievement. With one win and one draw, Korea's chances of going on to the next round are much higher than before. The next match will be against Switzerland, and I'm sure everyone is rooting for Korea, because, let's face it, everyone hates the Swiss. Damn Nazi-collaborating peacenik posers.

Anyhoo, as I was walking down from my house to the Plaza, I was thinking that if — somehow — Korea pulled of a win or even a draw, nobody was going to get much work done. In fact, I'm thinking that today should just be declared a national day of recuperation.

My jinx, I feared, was still in effect, so I didn't watch much of the game. The people-watching alone is fascinating. At 4 a.m., the crowd watching the Korea-France match had as much energyy as the 10 p.m. crowd watching the Korea-Togo match.

The excited crowd, though, became a bit subdued after France scored sometime early in the first half. I'm guessing a lot of people were thinking at that point that they might have stayed up really late (or got up really early) to watch the Taeguk Warriors get slaughtered. The half-time enthusiasm wasn't quite as high as with the Togo match, even though Korea was behind by one goal in both cases, but this may have been because some people were taking the chance — at 5 a.m. — to catch some winks.

The crowd went nuts when Korea scored with about ten minutes left to play in the second half. My jinx may in fact be over, because the goal was scored at one of those moments when I looked up to see how much time was left and make sure the score was still 0-1 (there is too little reaction to the other team scoring, which makes it hard for someone not actually watching the game to know if the other guys have gotten another goal).

Morning started to break sometime late in the first half, and they turned off the street lights around 4:45 a.m. By halftime, it was completely light out. "This is not good," I thought to myself: the harsh light of morning was like a metaphor for the harsh reality of an impending loss. Maybe Korea won't get out of the first round, and 2002 will be — for now — something of a fluke. Boy, there are going to be a lot of tired, dejected people this Monday morning.

But instead, we will have people standing around the water cooler talking about this defensive play, or that near goal or whatever. I think people will be taking long lunches and they will be getting shit-faced this evening. I had thought about taking my pimped-out minivan around Yongsan again with the Taegukki flag waving out the moonroof, but I didn't want to contend with morning rush hour (flags don't flutter much when you're idling), and I'm just too damn tired.

Some more incoherent thoughts as I fight off sleep:

1. I couldn't find the sambap girl, even though I had 2000 won this time. I bought a donut instead (which I rarely do) when Dunkin Donuts opened early. Bastards were selling stale donuts from the day before.

2. Walking home, I saw a Caucasian guy with a French flag painted on his cheek. His apparent girlfriend had a Korean flag painted on hers.

I pointed to the guy's cheek and said, jokingly, "You're a brave man."

"Fuck off," he told me.

I hope not all Frenchmen are like that, otherwise that country will get a reputation for rudeness.

3. Niels Footman linked to me in the Joongang Daily again. It's going to sound like I don't care about football, but I really do, and this post is sort of supposed to prove that. Also, I now have almost a twisted curiosity how the K-blogosphere is going to spin this draw in the most negative way possible. Or maybe they'll forego all that this time, because it's France.

4. The crowds again were well behaved. There was a lot of garbage left — it's a crowd of half a million! — but a lot of people were packing up their garbage in small plastic bags which were put into larger plastic bags and those were collected by sanitation people.

5. At the Kwanghwamun gathering, there was a small "Porter" pick-up truck with a large, neatly written sign announcing a ceremony in the Kwanghwamun area on June 29 to honor those who died in the Yellow Sea naval clash with North Korea.

6. I'm wondering how many people stayed up really late to watch the game, versus how many people just got up really early. I'm doing neither: I went to bed at 11:15 p.m. and woke up at 3:30 a.m. Actually, I woke up at 3:00, reset the alarm for 3:15, got up then and did the same thing for 3:30. And after I'm done blogging this, I'm going right back to bed. I don't have to show up for work until three o'clock this afternoon.

7. Turns out my prediction was right about people taking today off as a holiday (hat tip: Andy Jackson). Also, "beer garden" is now officially part of the Konglish lexicon.

8. I now think Korea is going to be a formidable soccer competitor two or three World Cups from now (maybe even the next one). Simply put: 2002 and now 2006 have sparked (will have sparked) the hopes and dreams of quite a few young people who will now dream of gaining national glory — and glory for the nation — as footballers.

Look at the team that Korea has now: these people went into soccer and excelled at the game at a time when there was much less interest in it. Now think of a hundred times more youths pursuing soccer when they're young, and imagine what kind of pool of talent Korea will have down the road.

Sort of like Korea and women's golf.

9. During the warm-up friendlies, guests in the Plaza and President Hotels complained of the late-night noise emanating from the Plaza. For shits and giggles, while avoiding watching the actual game-play, I counted 132 rooms with lights on at 4:30 a.m. among the 320 rooms visible on the north face of the Plaza Hotel (that's right: if there's a job to be done that involves peeking into hotel rooms, I'm your man). Some of the guests in the rooms, it appeared, were watching the game on the several giant-screen monitors outside, from the comfort of their overpriced accommodations.

10. Some people bemoan that so many people who are cheering the Korea team don't have much interest in soccer...

More...

95 versus 44

A couple months ago, I was introduced (re-introduced?) to The Fighting 44's through AsiaPages' take on the group. I did not participate in the AsiaPages forum, I agreed with some of what Jodi wrote and disagreed with other parts. I checked out the Fighting 44's post, and the blog in general, and while I should say there is no love lost between me and the people who were banned, I don't necessarily agree with them being banned (but, of course, it's not my blog).

Anyhoo, a few days ago I noticed a spike in the number of hits to my Corea-versus-Korea post, all coming from Fighting 44's. Apparently, my post had become the subject of one of their posts.

All fine; a couple dozen different sites link to the post, and I get a couple hundred hits a week to it. But what took me by surprise was the response my post got from the Fighting 44's moderator:

Hm, interesting. This blog looks vaguely familiar. I believe he's either someone who was banned or associated with someone who was banned from this site.

"Whiskey, Tango, Fuck!" I thought. This person doesn't know me from Adam, but right off the bat, my credibility is being attacked and I'm being disparaged by some deliberately laid suggestion that I had probably been banned from their site.

The moderator has since backed off that claim, but she and some others on the site are still sticking to their guns on the idea that "Corea" is still a matter of pride.

Really, now? The whole "Corea" argument hinges on the idea that it's a return to the pre-colonial days, but the whole thing is a ruse: not only did the Japanese not engineer the name switch (Koreans did), but the Japanese authorities continued to use Corea and Chōsen. It is an utterly empty claim, and rejecting it certainly doesn't make me a "Japanese collaborator," as one person hinted:

Personally, I spell "Corea" with a "C" because of all the connotations attached with Japan's "historical revisionism." Even today, at prestigious East-Asian Studies programs in America, you'll learn how ancient Corea was a colony of Japan, because Japanese hegemony holds sway in the West. The spelling of Corea with a "C" is an act of defiance against Japanese hegemony and a show of solidarity with others who bring up these historical issues.

However, I am not on a campaign to convert everyone to my way of thinking. If you wanna spell it with a "K," go ahead. I am not gonna call you a mindless Japanese collaborator if you do. At the same time, I don't want to be called an ignorant nationalist simply because I use the "C."

Lastly, I have to call into question the need for some "open-minded" Coreans to debunk this whole issue. I have seen a lot of internet posts about this issue geared towards Westerners. The basic jist is "look at these stupid, intolerant, and racist Coreans. They are so brainwashed. But I am different than the stupid gooks, so please don't include me with them when you are making your own racist and narrow-minded assertions about them. Please exclude me from the rest of the Coreans at your exhibit for them at the World's Fair." I have hear this same kind of tone come through when discussing the Dokdo issue to the "East Sea" issue, and personally, it sounds like a lot of pandering to Westerners.

Kushibo, I do not read your blog and I don't know who your audience is, but is your post different? Also, do you really feel that the use of the "C" really threatens the legitimacy of other historical issues, such as the comfort woman issue? Personally, I see the use of the "C" as a single point (and hardly the most significant point) in a litany of historical greviences Coreans have towards the Japanese.

Yes, here are several people who are so ossified in their viewpoint that they cannot change it in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. That's not pride; that's plain, old foolishness. And it's the difference between staying mired in the single-minded activism of Asian-American issues of college to the point that it warps your values, and moving on into the real world where pragmatism wins the battles that need winning (yeah, I was there; some friends and relatives were casualties).

Unpleasant surprises

Racism exists in Korea, as does racial ignorance. There are loads of people who regard Blacks, Whites, Japanese, Chinese, Southeast Asians, etc., etc., with the vilest of prejudices. Others are less malicious, but they neverthless have unwittingly subscribed to a bunch of stereotypes that are nothing short of flat-out ignorance.

These include, among many others, beliefs that Blacks are predisposed toward violence and crime, that Japanese are sneaky, Chinese are dirty and low-class, or that "racial purity" is a noble goal that should be enforced at all costs.

Despite what I just said, I also have very high hopes about the situation in Korea. While some racists are truly mean-spirited and recalcitrant in their racism, I feel a majority are simply mired in ignorance. And that ignorance is being challenged right and left in Korea, both at the media level and the inter-personal level. The Korea of today is worlds apart from the Korea of ten years ago, and that Korea was a far cry from the Korea ten years before that.

From the influx of "international marriages" — 10% of all new marriages in Korea now — to the growing acceptance of ethnically mixed performers in the media and interracial couples in "real life," Korea has completely transformed (though there definitely is further to go). When I was in Korea as a teenager in the late 1980s, interracial couples risked the chiding of total strangers if they were in public holding hands (though much of this was due to prudishness that was also directed at Korean-Korean couples).

Korea has been moving in the right direction for quite some time. That it might seem other than that is that (a) Korea originally had so far too go, and (b) many racist Koreans wear their anachronistic views on their sleave.

As someone who has grown up in the United States, I'm well aware that racism exists. I've seen in-your-face racism, and I've witnessed very subtle — but nonetheless very potent — forms of racism. Some of it has been directed at me, some of it at others. Nevertheless, I like to think that the US has gone beyond a lot of the problems that still exist.

So when I see things like this, I find it very disturbing. Here are Americans suggesting that depicting Whites and Blacks pairing up "is an act of political-cultural subversion." This is in regards to a 2004 NFL television spot showing "blonde white sexpot" Nicolette Sheridan of the steamy Desperate Housewives series "smooching up to black football star Terrell Owens" in the locker room of the Philadelphia Eagles. In the ad, Sheridan drops her bath towel and jumps into Mr. Owens' arms. He says, "Aw, hell, the team's going to have to win without me."

Some choice quotes:

Like the Jackson-Timberlake performance, the Owens-Sheridan ad was interracial and brazenly soif only morals and taste had been the targets, the producers could easily have found white actresses who are less obviously Nordic than the golden-locked Miss Sheridan, but Nordic is what the ad's producers no doubt wanted.

This is not a misinterpeted gray area on the part of the writer. He makes it clear later:

The point was not just to hurl a pie in the face of morals and good taste but also of white racial and cultural identity. The message of the ad was that white women are eager to have sex with black men, that they should be eager, and that black men should take them up on it.

And this:

But the ad's message also was that interracial sex is normal and legitimate, a fairly radical concept for both the dominant media as well as its audience.

Nevertheless, for decades, interracial couples of different sexes have been sneaked into advertising, movies and television series, and almost certainly not because of popular demand from either race. The Owens-Sheridan match is only the most notorious to date.

In the minds of those who produced the ad, race is at least as important as the moral and aesthetic norms their ad subverts.

To them, the race as well as the religion, the morality, and the culture of the host society are all equally hostile and oppressive forces that need to be discredited, debunked and destroyed.

If the destruction can't happen at the polls or through the courts, they can always use the long march through the culture that control of the mass media allows.

Breaking down the sexual barriers between the races is a major weapon of cultural destruction because it means the dissolution of the cultural boundaries that define breeding and the family and, ultimately, the transmission and survival of the culture itself.

This sounds exactly like those anachronistic Korean supremacists everybody likes to bitch about. If the Chosun Ilbo linked to something like this, there would be outrage. Yet this was found on a site linked to by conservative darling Michelle Malkin herself, and a main writer of whom is a main writer of Malkin's Immigration Blog. [Michelle Malkin, a Filipina-American, is married to a White man; are she, her husband, and her children part of this "cultural destruction" the Vdare folks talk about?]

So how did I find this? No, I was not mining for trash on anyone. While perusing my sitemeter.com data, I found that the same google search that yields this infamous post also yields racist stuff in America, or stuff about racist stuff in America.

Through that same sitemeter.com google search, I also encountered this post, which makes me wonder: how widespread is it for Taiwanese (or Japanese) landlords to deny "foreigners" housing? I have helped many, many people with housing, directly and indirectly, and I have not encountered such a thing in Korea, though I'm sure somewhere in a country of 50 million people it has happened at least a few times, though I wouldn't call it widespread. If it were, the K-blogsphere would frequently carry tirades on it.

At any rate, racism in America does not excuse racism in Korea; nor vice-versa. And the existence of racist housing practices in Taiwan or Japan (if they do exist) do not justify less racist policies in other aspects of life here in Korea.

Everybody has got to clean house, starting with their own closet.

Notes on missile crisis

There have been hints over the past few weeks that North Korea is planning to test its Taepodong-2 missile, something Pyongyang denies but its neighbors are taking seriously. Reporters are that it may come as early as this weekend.

Tokyo has said that it will consider any missile that lands in Japan as "an attack." Shinzo Abe, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, also called on Pyongyang to abide by the 2002 agreement made by Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean strongman Kim Jong-il. The so-called Pyongyang Agreement is for North Korea to indefinitely extend a freeze on tests of missiles such as the one fired over Japan in 1998. North Korea reconfirmed that position in May 2004 at a second meeting of Kim and Koizumi.

The South Korean government, meanwhile, may reconsider some of its detente with Pyongyang, even if it means backing down or eliminating some economic projects.

And that is the only good thing that come from this: Seoul realizing that Pyongyang is not going to respond to unrequited love. The conservatives realize this, and so do a lot of the moderates. But maybe, just maybe, this is what the left (now barely holding on to power) needs to see. Well, some of the far-left true believers will say that Washington forced Pyongyang's hand in breaking its agreements and upsetting the status quo, but some of the less ideological will be duly reminded that North Korea really is the belligerent in this case.

I just hope Pyongyang doesn't accidentally hit Hokkaido, Guam, or Attu, because then all hell is gonna break loose.

Xinhua? What the ...?

I'm not sure where this Xinhua place is, but this has to rank as one of the worst tourism campaigns ever!

(I'm reminded of the old joke that in China, even if you're a one-in-a-million kinda guy, there are still a thousand people just like you! Make that 1300.)

Oh, and check out the guy scratching himself in the left-hand corner below. How embarrassing is that? Well, I guess if you're willing to do that in front of hundreds of actual people, it's probably no big deal to have thousands more see it around the globe.

Busy, but...

I'm gearing up for my (temporary) move back to the States, so my posts may consist more of pithy and/or thought-provoking one-paragraph notes rather than the comprehensive, this-resolves-the-matter-completely-there's-nothing-else-to-write post you may be used to seeing.

So anyway, here are some thoughts on recent events. Recent events you may not know or care about.

First, there is this. I don't know if this is genuine (and I certainly hope it's not), but I haven't yet had time to search for the video on-line and see it to judge for myself if I think it actually was made by US military personnel serving in Iraq. If it is not, then whoever perpetrated this ruse is a despicable sort for trying to defame the people who are risking their lives in Iraq; opposition to the war does not justify anything like that. On othe other hand, if it is genuine, ...

Then there is this. Future English teachers in Asia...? I mean, once they realize they're unhireable economic refugees back in not-so-Jolly Old England? (Just kidding; lighten up...I'm guessing the guy in question in Apkujŏng may not even be a "foreigner," English teacher or not, and I certainly don't think anything more than a fraction of the English teachers in Korea are of this caliber, antics-wise.)

And if you'd like to see Korean soccer fans taking over Frankfurt, one of them wearing a special World Cup hanbok, go here.

Little help?

Less is more.

If anyone out there with blogger/blogspot expertise can help out, I would like to know what the tags are for doing the "read more" function for long posts. As soon as I can figure that out, I will launch the Sonagi Consortium, which will (hopefully) allow good bloggers who get less traffic, to raise their profile. I will also be able to post some old papers from graduate school.

US team's kick-ass logo

I must agree with Andy Jackson: the US team logo rocks, but the US team does not.

An evening stroll

As many of my loyal readers know — especially those whom I invited to Kushibo 2006 in April — I live not far from Seoul Station in an area just outside where the "downtown area" ends on the map.

So last night, wishing to enjoy the balmy weather, I decided to take my evening constitutional through the central part of the city, as I am wont to do some evenings. There was a light breeze, and others were out and about for a stroll as well.

Much to my surprise, on the strip of boulevard between Namdaemun Gate and City Hall, the roads were blocked off and I began to encounter more and more people: a veritable throng. As I walked along, the throng became a horde, and the horde eventually became a mob. There were tens of thousands of people gathered in the middle of the plaza, chanting, wailing, and sipping 2000-won cans of beer. Nearby, a very attractive and very slim woman was selling sambap and assuring me of its deliciousness.

What on Earth could be the nature of this massive gathering? My thoughts immediately went to the Blue House, which would have been visible were it not for all the smoke from the fireworkers, and the smokers. And if it weren't nighttime.

Holy crap, I thought, President Roh must be shiitting in his pants (that extra i is so Sonagi can read this at work). Surely, this must be payback for three years of the Roh Administration's pandering, bending over to take it, fertilizer-for-guns activities.

A day of reckoning must have arrived: these red-clad firebrands were about to take down the government as their activist forebears had done in 1960 and 1987. Roh was on his way out; no doubt he was calling Pyongyang to arrange asylum (note to Roh: don't take the train).

I went over to the sambap-monger to ask what exactly was the nature of this display of people power. She refused to answer any questions unless I bought some sambap. I had no cash, and she was unwilling to give me her number so I could arrange payment later in the week, so I left.

As it turns out, these people had gathered to watch a football match. Despite frequent shouts of the country's name, this was no political rally, but a very neatly laid out sea of fans watching a soccer game in a very orderly fashion.

Ah, yes, I realized: the World Cup. That's this month, right?

I myself had avoided any and all talk of the World Cup for a number of reasons. First and foremost, I am a jinx when it comes to sports teams I hope will win: if I watch, I make them lose. It worked against the Anaheim Angels when I was younger, and this knowledge helped them win the World Series in 2002. I am also quite certain that by actively avoiding watching Korea's matches, I single-handedly helped the nation's team reach the final-four during the 2002 Korea/Japan World Cup.

I eschewed discussion of the World Cup also because the K-blogosphere is often just so predictably down on the Korean team that it has sapped and/or zapped whatever fun there was in watching the game.

And then there's the fact that I really didn't need to ride the emotional roller-coaster I get on when watching and hoping for a win by the favored home team. Plus my usual sports-spectating partner is in the midst of dental school final exams down in Kwangju.

So instead I people-watched. From the periphery of the crowd, it was quite a sight to see this sea of fans — really orderly fans — sitting down all in red with their glow-in-the-dark "red devils" horns. There's going to be quite a bit of irony when some of them encounter Satan.

Anyhoo, I did manage to videotape quite a few of the people, especially those wearing t'aegŭkki instead of normal tops. Mmm....patriotically sexy.

I ended up talking with quite a few strangers, some of them asking me to take their picture (I have a friendly face; I really ought to consider a career in ripping off unsuspecting tourists), some were just yelling random things at me in their excitement, others I had asked what kind of camera they had or could I take a picture of their temporarily tatooed cheek or breast (always yes for the cheek; always no for the breast). All the while I was hoping that Korea would score and some attractive woman standing near me would grab me and plant a wet one on me in a moment of football-induced ecstasy (to which I would have replied, "score.").

But no such luck. The wildest of the people there were already paired up with people on whom they would likely have planted a smooch in response to a goal. Those who weren't there as couples often looked mean or too intense. There was a truckload — a literal truckload as in a truck full — of girls dancing nearby, but I don't think they would have let me up there.

I did become fascinated by two groups of people nearby. The first was a couple of young women who seemed more obsessed with preening themselves and then taking pictures (of themselves) every fifteen or thirty seconds. I did ask the one girl what kind of camera she had, because it was amazingly thin (it would fit nicely into my North Face man-bag). It was a Sony; she paid 400,000 won for it.

She herself was awfully thin, and I surreptitiously videotaped her and her friend because (a) the preening was becoming comical and (b) she was an example of how a person can be, literally, too thin. As in unattractively so. It's hard to tell whether a given woman in Korea today is naturally thin or anorexic. I didn't see these two girls drinking beer or eating sambap, so I'm guessing they were the latter.

The next group was three young men (about nineteen) who appeared to be in competition to see who looked more like the guy in "The King's Man," the one who makes those commercials for the pomegranate drink that make you want to gag (the commercials, not the drink). These three men were wearing Disney nightshirts for girls (one had Minnie Mouse on it) and they, too, were preening themselves constantly.

Another man walked by on stilts, except the stilts were covered, so he looked like a ten-foot-tall man, although his height would more likely be measured in meters. He deftly walked through the crowd without tripping or stepping on anybody.

Every time Korea scored a goal, and once more when the game was over, someone at the top of the Plaza Hotel lit off a bunch of fireworks and then we were showered in burning paper. It was a lovely evening.

The game ended just about at midnight, and instead of tossing over Buicks and setting buildings on fire, the crowd dispersed and went home. There were people still shouting "Tae~han~min~guk!" (대한민국! 大韓民国!) and clapping, but most were trying to see if they could catch the last bus or train back to their sleepy communities.

I walked home, content that I had made a wise decision in purchasing real estate so close to the city center. Which would not have been the case had this really been a political rally set to overthrow the government. Then the best place to be is Ullŭngdo. Or Taemado.

When I got home, I suddenly felt the urge to relive memories from the 2002 World Cup. Back then, the games were played during normal waking hours (Korean time) and the celebrations and libations lasted for hours, well into the wee hours of the morning. This time the game ended at midnight, and lots of people were calculating how little sleep they would end up getting.

Nevertheless, I decided to get my large-sized Korean national flag, purchased for 2000 won back in 2002, and drive around Yongsan with the flag fluttering in the wind above my moonroof. When I passed groups of three or more people, I let my horn do the special chant. Most of the people responded with their own chant, while others gave me a thumbs-up.

So if I kept you up last night, I apologize. But just bask in the glow of these special memories. They only happen once, or twice. Maybe three times. [UPDATE: a similar report on a later match]

[Above: These American sports fans were not present at the 2006 World Cup viewing events in Seoul. Thank God.]