From the top you’ll see what’s in every brochure worthy of the name Busan: the world’s fifth largest container port, the country’s second largest fish market, and the layer cake of nature’s simplest ingredients of land, sea and sky. You’re in Busan Tower. Since 1973 it’s been here, guarding the southeastern tip of Korea’s Gyeongsangnam…
Category: Asia
Shots in the Dark
Walk the Korean streets after dark and claim some night light. Cars and construction markers love a slow shutter and when every city and in-between town plugs in, it’s all pretty-gritty. The South Korean difference is that businesses might serve, pour, rack, massage or drop the mic to the 9th floor or higher. The world…
Bukhansan
After supporting the demands of the 12th largest economy, Koreans look to the weekend to recharge, or gallop. There are choices – wining, dining, singing and supra malls – but a purer escape is enjoyed by millions each year. It promotes itself just by being. Bukhansan National Park is a shared distraction, overlapping both Seoul…
Goodies (2016)
I was reminded why I travel on a recent trip to Fukuoka, Japan, that is as much for the small unexpecteds as what the brochure racks plug. A gruesome statue straddling the brother townships of Hakata and Tenjin was the give-away. Just shy of the sidewalk and under an eyebrow ridge of street-level architecture (a…
Busan Cinema Center (2012)
To the question whether it’s still open for business now that Busan’s international film festival (BIFF) has wrapped – absolutely. In front of me, I hold two brochures. The first is an upcoming schedule of film screenings and live performances both theatrical and musical, the second lays out the complex itself. How many square meters?…
Korean Sports Bars (2010)
With the cold still snapping at our heels there’s little motivation to exercise, we know. Better to sit with a pint and leave it to the professionals. The question is where to find a stooltop without the same old deja view? Here are a few suggestions to get you through the thaw. Rocky Mountain Tavern…
War Memorial of Korea (2010)
Since 1993, the War Memorial of Korea has sat hulked beside the U.S. army garrison in Yongsan-dong, Seoul. At 3,000 won per adult head, it’s less than a latte with slightly more value. Outside, exhibits make grand statements by grand design. Patton and K-1 tanks. A lone B-52. Korean test-pilot vehicles with frozen propellers, some…
Colin Moore 