Myongdong http://goo.gl/6ZdPe
Tondaemun http://goo.gl/ez7Tv
Elsewhere http://goo.gl/kGjbY
A couple of years ago I met a bright and sweet Korean girl. I was very curious about her. Right before the humid summer of 1999, I decided to stop by her city on my way back to mine. I often have some weird thoughts and do incomprehensible things. And visiting Seoul is surely one of them.
There I encountered a culture that was in
my eyes so remote and yet so familiar, so acquainted but at the same time so
distant. I was simply stunned. That was the very first time that I experienced
cultural shock.Tondaemun http://goo.gl/ez7Tv
Elsewhere http://goo.gl/kGjbY
A couple of years ago I met a bright and sweet Korean girl. I was very curious about her. Right before the humid summer of 1999, I decided to stop by her city on my way back to mine. I often have some weird thoughts and do incomprehensible things. And visiting Seoul is surely one of them.
During my stay I walked around and hung around alone. For countless times, I was mistaken as a Korean at the least noticeable corners of the town. And perhaps for just about as many times, I was mistaken as a Japanese at the most popular tourist spots of the city. I found myself rather enjoyed being there without knowing anyone and without being known by anyone. I never knew that losing my own identity was such an amusing and liberating thing that I almost hoped that it would keep just that way forever.
The shots I took there were improperly exposed to the X-ray scanners at the many airports that I visited on that trip. As a reslut, only half of the films were physically salvageable. The restoration of the other half was an ongoing process that was never going to be completed.
(2001/3)
(2003/7) Revised
