Two FOREIGNERS Play Korea's HOTTEST New Sport
Nice meet you. Nice to meet you. Hey, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you Nice guy shipping people in. Hi, hi, I, oh really, I was
so way down there. Me too, man. Me too. So right now I am in Gunsam, and uh, I am surrounded by a lot of Japanese colonial buildings here. It's pretty interesting, you know. I've traveled a lot now in Korea. I've traveled from Busan to Seoul, up into Ginpo, Gangwa, from Paju all the way to Sokcho, from Sokcho all the way down to Pohang to Daegu, went to Ulleungdo. I've been to Samcheonpo , to Jeju, to Mokpo, to Gwangju.
I've done a lot. I've seen a lot here, and this is the first place that I've been to that still has a lot of the old Japanese colonial buildings. It's easy to forget, or it's easy just to look past that, and you just don't see a lot of old Japanese colonial buildings left over from the colonial period here in Korea. If there are buildings, I think they kind of blend in a lot more than the buildings that you would find in Indonesia left over by the Dutch, or in Malaysia and India left over by uh, the English and the British, and the Philippines with the, with the Spanish and Americans.
So you just don't see a lot of it, partially because when Japan surrendered, I read the first thing that went in flames were the Shinto shrines that were built all over the country. So a lot of Japan's Colonial past was just torched and destroyed for obvious reasons. And so it's just interesting coming here to Gunsan, learning about their history here.
You know, we cycled over that huge bridge yesterday to get here, and when we got to the port that was way over there to get down into the city center where, where I am now, I was thinking to myself like this is the straightest and longest road I've ever been on in Korea so far. It was just straight forever and ever. Well, that area out there was used to grow rice. Well, that was eventually exploited for the Imperial Japan's purposes and whatnot. So I just went through uh, some of the museums over there, and it's just interesting.
Of course Japan exploited the rice farmers here, they coaxed them into selling their land, and then basically made the farmers who own the land peasants and workers of their own land that they used to own. And then uh, yeah, the Japanese became extremely rich here. Uh, one thing I think it's easy to overlook or not think of when it comes to Japan's colonial rule here in Korea as a, uh, compared to the British in India and Malaysia, and the Dutch in Indonesia, and where anywhere else actually in Asia, is that the number of Japanese that were here compared to, for example, in India, I read, was about the same. So you had about the exact same number of Englishmen, or you know, maybe women too, but the same number of Englishmen in India as the Japanese here. But India is 33 times bigger than South Korea or the whole Korean peninsula, right.
Well I guess maybe not, I just did the, uh, South Korea including North Korea, I don't know what it is, but you know what I mean. So when you're in Indonesia, if you're just an average person, uh, if you're in India and you're just, you know, out in the countryside, the chances that you're going to come across a, uh, a colonist was pretty rare. But it wasn't the case here in Korea. There were so many Japanese here, like just in this town alone, there were over 8,000, Japanese, or over 2,500, uh, households. And so the possibility of the average everyday Korean to come across a Japanese was certain. There were teachers here, there were people working in banks, there were, uh, policemen, they were all over here.
And so the, uh, the oppression and the subjugation was felt, you know, firsthand by so many people here as opposed to, yeah, of course it was really bad in India, and Indonesia, and other places, but it was, it felt probably more like far off in a way. You don't, you didn't see the colonist firsthand by a lot of people. And so because, well, those countries are way bigger than here in, in South Korea. I'm not saying it was any worse or better, I'm just, I'm just, that's just saying, the Koreans, I don't want people to take this the wrong way. I'm sure somebody body from somewhere will.
But I just don't want to bite my tongue and put my foot in my mouth. But uh, here in Gunsan, it's another cloudy day. Um, I got out this morning, I wanted to check out some of the museums and stuff like this whole street right here has a bunch of, uh, has a bunch of old colonial buildings, banks, and whatnot.
And so Nick is trying to fix this tire, still working with that problem right now. And so I'll letting him handle that. I'm going to get out and, uh, just see a little bit of the city, and then we'll go from there. But let's drink my cafe latte, see how it tastes. Go check this out over here Yeah, I was reading there, the first thing that was torched when Japan surrendered were all the Shinto shrines that were built in the country.And so Japan tried to,
uh, convert all the Koreans here into Shintoism, and they built shrines all over the country. And so on August 15th 1945, when Japan surrendered, I was reading that the sky was lit up by all the, the Shinto shrines that were being torched. And so yeah, you can't blame the Koreans for destroying and burning everything that, uh, reminded them of Japan's colonial past. I just think it's really upsetting when outside countries invade other countries and destroy their, uh, history and burn their buildings, you know.
That's what's like come on, you're just destroyed, like why do you got to do that. Why do you got to do that. But when it comes to burning and torching your colonial oppressors' buildings, it's like yeah, have fun, have at it. Oh, I didn't check this one out, the Gunsan modern history museum. Okay, I'll go have a look in here and then report back to you soon Pretty cool space, just like every other museum, has a lot artifacts, a lot of relics from the past pottery and, uh, weapons and all different kind of things, like a whole exhibition room. Really cool, could spend hours in there, don't want to do that.
Uh, the third floor was really cool, they've basically redone, uh, like they built an entire city almost like 11 different buildings to resemble what life was like in the 1930s. You can interact with a lot of things, you can, uh, get on the, the bicycle, you can put on like the, the backpack, uh, straps that they would carry the rice in. Um, yeah, you can take your pictures. It's kind of cool. It's really informative, as you can imagine.
Okay, uh, I wonder how Nick is doing. Let's explore a little bit more, and then we'll go find them So I'm guessing down here we have some old Korean War artifacts and, and things like that. And so one thing I was reading is that Gunsan, for whatever reason, was kind of left unscathed from the Korean War. And so maybe that's one reason why a lot of the, the buildings here are left standing and uh, 2005, yeah, I don't think anyone had those during the Korean War.
If they did it would have been game over real quick. The low tides on the west coast are crazy.Look at all these ships just chilling in the mud, like stuck in the mud. You ain't going nowhere
Guess once a day it rises, and then I don't know, but hope you don't got to go nowhere, casue you can't, all the way down the coast. And I need to go to the bike store too, because my chain is so screwed up right now, because of the rain yesterday. So dirty, so rusty, so brown right now. I need to go clean it and get some lube on it Another interesting fact that I just learned. There's an Air Force base here, an American Air Force base with over 30,000 solders stationed here. That a lot. That's a lot.
And so I didn't realize that. Um, Nick and I, we got out last night, we walked around this part of town. It was pretty quiet, it was Friday night, and it was actually really, really dead. Not a whole lot of people out. I mean this area, you see it's a mixture of new or reformed places that look really trendy and nice, uh, and then places that are just crumbling and falling apart. But it's cool, you, you see a lot of artwork, there's a lot of paintings and murals, I mean it's really cool. Like this is just a, a mixture of the old and new right here.
I don't know, I don't mind it. There are times when even, even companies like Starbucks, you see this in Indonesia a lot, um, there's so many Dutch colonial buildings left over in Indonesia as you can imagine, and a lot of them are just falling apart, crumbling. But then big corporations and companies like Starbucks, or McDonald's, or whatever, they'll come in, buy the building, and just turn it into, uh, their shop, right, which in a way it's like oh, you know, big business coming in, franchises.But at the same time they also are restoring the buildings, and they still keep them, uh, they still keep the look. And so it's better than just letting it rot and just crumble, in my opinion. That's pretty cool. I stumbled upon this one.
It says it was built in the 1940s to serve as the residence for the judges and prosecutors of the Gunsan branch of the Jeongju local court. Wow, look at that stained glass up there. That is just baeutiful Chain oil, chain oil. It's really bad. Yeah, traveling, traveling, yes. Sir, where you there, uh, from? I'm from the US, America, America.
How does that guy get in and out of there? Yeah, I need a, I need a detailed wash really bad. Look at that Oh nice, nice to meet you. Nice toet you, nice to meet you he, thank you, thank you, thank Oh, the oil, how much? No money, no money. Oh, thank you so much, thank you, thank happy. Oh, thank you.
Yeah, awesome. Okay, my, my. Oh, thank you Okay, and your name, what is, what can I call you? What is your name? My name Thank you, nice guy. Thank you, thank you, thank you. All right, I need to go find my friend now What does this say? I don't know. That's okay. The, uh, the nice lady, she gave me two hotteoks, which is amazing, and, uh, I'm going to eat one of them while it's still hot, and I'll give the other one to Nick Very good. This one has some of the pine nuts in it, got some seeds in there
You can sit here and listen to music with your, uh, with your date. It's kind of cool. Let's try it out. So I think I missed the beginning of that, a wireless charger, and it'll connect to Bluetooth, and it's a speaker also, so you can listen to music. Let's try it out All right, yeah, it's got like, first let's check the charging phone compatibility is like oh, is it working? No, no, no. See if reset it, pressing the reset button helps, nothing. Good idea though, I like it
All right, real quick, what's the update on the bike? Uh, so I bought, bought a tire that was the wrong size, didn't fit, so I just patched the hell out of it. It was like so much glue and on the, on the tube, we've been on the inner tire. We'll see how long we make it. Uh, let's find the next bike, bike shu, and try and get a new tire. And your final thoughts on Gunsan? Half alive, half dead.
Half alive, half dead, yeah. It's like a patient n, where they're like should we save him, should we not save him. They're trying though, but they're trying. They're still trying to save. Like I said, over there, there are tons of,
uh, bus tour like buses, shipping people in. Hi, hi, I, you so really, I was so surprised. I just stopped by this, this bakery, very famous. Oh, this one right here, oh with the, the long line? Yeah, yeah, this is a really famous bakery, so I will just stop by here. But when I go through this road, I found you, you took picture over there. Yes I did. Wow, it's nice to meet you. Do you live here? No, no, no, no, I'm from Seoul.
Oh, you're from Seoul. So you're here just for the weekend? Weekend. There is a, do you know the, the, the big road? Mhm, over there, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm really happy to be there. Ah, it's very interesting, huh?
Yeah, yeah. Can I take? Absolutely, yeah. On road again, just can't wait to get on the road again One last thing about Gunsan that I failed to mention, I don't think I've ever seen more churches in a city in this place right here. There are churches everywhere There's another huge church right there. So the plan today, we're going to Jeongju, which is kind of back towards the direction we came yesterday, but not really. And so it's only like 50k, we're going to take it a little bit easier here today, and it's super, super flat.
Yeah, that's the plan. I did it again. damn. We heard a pop and we looked at each other, oh man, and, uh, we're like yeah, sure enough All right, new tube, I mean new patch. Okay, patch on. You weren't able to get a new tube, cuz they don't have them, do they? No, not the right size.
Yeah, that's what having a small Brompton, little small wheels like that. Nobody's going to have, especially in a small town like that, they're not going to have parts and wheels and things. Need a hand? No, I just put some of the stuff I need in back. Okay man, tough luck. That was the pop, was, that was the pop I think. So we heard it pop, and we thought sometimes you just roll over a, a rock or something, and it makes your tire pop for, you know, pops real quick, and usually it's, it's nothing.
But not this time. Okay, I'll try the new, the new patches, see those make a difference. Come on, you got it, come, come on there. Get in there. Doesn't me to do anything, that's the most useful. So there's a, he patched the, the tube of course, but there's also a little hole in the tire, so when you're cycling over little pebbles and things, that could snip the tube.
And so hopefully that does a trick, or at least helps a little bit. It won't, it'll do nothing First few pedals, working. It's working, It didn't explode. only got 40 more kilometers to go, but nice and slow today. See, we got five more patches. Interesting, looks like we can go, uh, ride on it, and just see what, see if we can get any information on it The old, old bridge right there, turned it into a walkway. Yeah, so we're about to link up to the bike course over here.
This isn't one of the major ones, but, uh, doesn't have a purple line on my map, on my, on the app that I use. And so it does have a green one, and so I think it's an actual bike course, just not one of the, the big ones Yep, and sure enough, this is a relic from the past. This was built in 1933 by the Japanese, it says, uh, the Bridge, completed in 1933, is a trace of Japanese exploitation, and a place filled with the joys and sorrows of the regoin A Catholic church built in 1895, burnt down during the Korean War, and then rebuilt in, I think I said It's crazy think that Catholicism has been here that long. I've talked about it a little bit before on my channel, but it's one thing I think even Nick was very surprised that he didn't realize there was this many churches, and didn't realize Korea was such a religious country.
Come down here and do some fishing. Hello oh wow. Today nice, look at that Nice, just lay them on the ground over here and looks like we'll be on this all the way to Jeongju. Like this river literally goes all the way into the city, I think. So nice and smooth, hopefully. Yeah, this is the, uh, that's the croquet thing, this is the croquet golf, yeah.
Basically you just get one good whack at it, I try and get in and like hole in one kind of thing. Yeah, check it out, let's see. It is a popular sport too I think everyone just gets one club too, that's it. Bam, it's pretty fun. I could probably have a go. I would have a go too actually, I wouldn't mind doing this. Got to hit a little bit harder that grandpa.
Let's see what grandma can do, she looks, uh, professional. She looks like a pro. Yeah, she got her stance going. Come okay, to the right All right, so this is called park golf, and so it's basically like croquet and miniature golf in one. And, uh, you just get one club, it looks like. And at the, uh, the top of each club there's like a little prong fork thing, and that's how you can pick the ball up out off the whole every time so you don't have to bend down and pick it up.
But what a nice little area to play too. Yeah, this is big, this is like Pebble Beach. Bam, into the grass. Oh, oh, into the rough, you don't want that they were waving us over and inviting us to play but we would love to do it but there are just so many people out today and, we could be out there forever there are a lot of holes i'd like to just play a few though, just two or three just to get a feel for it, see what it's like oh, inbound, okay, the green, still on the green, still in the fairway. I like we can just cycle down and see each person tee off Let's see it. bam, oo, you going to get to the green? Get one, get to the green, get to the green.
Oh, oh my. I wonder how many hole in ones you see out here, say oh. This is a long one, par four. Okay, so you would kind of think they'd be all par 3s, like real short, but no, they got par fours too. Something I've never seen in Japan, I've never seen in the United States, I've never seen in any other country. Have you seen this for before? Never, never. What wonder how old it is. Kind of a pretty spot where the river bends here.
I mean that's a whole different kind of scenery that I haven't seen before in Korea. All the yellow, all the silver grass, it's really flat here, you can't even see any of the mountains. It's really gray too, but it's nice, nice change of scenery. I saw you miss that putt, I saw that. He missed that pretty badly, and his buddies were just talking
and, uh, acted like he, he just walked over there, picked the ball up, ain't no gimmies can I see how heavy it is, can I touch? Yeah okay, it's like a mixture of like a, a putter and a driver. Driver, driver. Okay, yeah, and this is a par five, so I'm going say just like regular golf, par threes, four, and fives 10 years, not 10 years, 10 years okay. It is said that the first sports day park golf was created in Japan.
Ah, okay, but I've never seen it. Never seen it, no, not in Japan. Uh, in Japan they have short golf like this, but they use real golf balls, and you get two clubs, like one pitching wedge and one putter Yeah, yeah, so it's similar, but yeah. Would you allow me to try one time to hit it? Okay, it's okay, come off. You have to run and get it, I'm going, I'm definitely going to get it. All right, my first time playing park golf, par five. smack the hell out of it You have to watch them there, no, they're way down there.
Way down there, i got it. all right, I'm still worried you might hit them, but go for it. I know you're strong. Yeah, keep my head down embarrassing. All right, nice shot. that was solid, right? That was nice, that ain't too bad.
This is a par five, look how, how close I am to the green. Let's go for the eagle It's hard to judge the strength though, I have no idea. Let's see Oh, shank! oh no, that ain't good at all Think I'm in the water, water has here. I got to so, where do we play from if you get it here? I'm just going to move it over a little bit. Okay, let's go on the other side here Oh man, I'm all over the place. Oh man, my short game is no good.
We got two left. This is for birdie? oh no, man, this is par, I think this is par i think ow. Hey, then you can just pick it up. six. Do that, cool. Okay, your turn, you can't do it? Okay, I can't, need I, I'll just do one and see.
Okay, so Nick T is a lefty, and so they don't have any left handed clubs probably. Yeah, yeah, and so it's not one of those things you could just hop to the other side. How do you, how do you even swing? Yeah, I couldn't do it left-handed, honestly. We, I'll just try like this. Okay oh gosh to be fair though, I mean he's a lefty, he's a lefty, that's not what you want though. wrong hand left, yeah.
So I was asking him how much it is to play a round, and he like oh, it's free, it's, uh, you know, the city pays for all this stuff, which is really cool. I mean what great exercise for people, very, very fun. It's nine holes, real easy, get your setup, got two balls in the back, got your club Great sport, good job Korea and so yeah, it'd be tough for you to play if you don't have the right club, oh man, have you ever swung a club before? left-handed even? No. There you go, I went to the driving range but I was shipping everything. Yeah, okay.
About 10k from j, nice cycle today, different landscape than anywhere else I've seen in Korea. It's been nice, it's been nice.I'm glad we came this way, I don't think too many people do cycle this way, just because the other course is the main one. We got a horse up here a horse and a doggy. Hey horsey, got a horsey no, very random.
Your dog, your dog? Yeah, so cute. Yeah, this going's got to hurt eg, huh? Yeah, little Kind of looks like a busyish area we want to find some budae jigae, some army stew. That's what we're looking for. So we might want to bust out google real quick, the noodles need to cook a little longer, but do they?I think so, they're a little hard. Do they? Yeah, they do man. I like my noodles with bite. Okay, this is ideal.
I know what people think about that. Oh, you can add cheese? Yeah, we should probably add some cheese in here too. I think we had a little, a little bit.
2024-12-27 14:54
