Overall Impressions
In my mind, I keep comparing South Korea to the United States. This may seem like an obvious statement, but notice I say "compare" rather than "contrast." From my experiences, our cultures are very similar. South Koreans are a very hardworking, industrious, entrepreneurial people, and also like Americans, they don't seem to be overly curious about (or easily impressed by) foreigners. I was not a curiosity like I was in Japan. Also in contrast with Japan, South Koreans don't seem to have an obsession with image or perfection. Their streets and subways are clean(er than in the US), but not to an obsessive degree. The food was mostly okay - some seafood, but a lot of steamed vegetables which I'm not a fan of.
I mentioned the people not being too curious about Americans. The wikitravel article suggests that Koreans will want to practice their English with you. I found that not to be the case. Most Koreans I interacted with, aside from the hotel staff, spoke little or no English. Even the cab drivers were at a loss. I'm not one of those travelers who expects everyone to speak English everywhere I go, but I do prefer to dispel the myth that they do whenever I can - hard lessons learned in Munich still stick with me!
(My experience may be colored by the fact that I stayed in Seoul. If I had ventured out into one of the smaller towns, I may be telling a different story now.)
Because of a lesson once again hard-learned, I devoted one rainy afternoon to learning the Korean language. To my delight I quickly learned that Korean is not kanji-based (like Japanese and Chinese), but rather is based on a succinct and efficient 22-character alphabet. The characters in each word are then grouped by syllables, making it very easy to work out new words. An hour or so of practicing with an app, and I was off and running. It came in handy immediately - when I hopped on a random bus going to a random destination, I was able to read the names of the bus stops along the way to keep my bearings.
On the Subject of North Korea
On Tuesday morning, I got up much too early and hopped on a tour bus which went up to Panmunjeom, the heavily militarized "town" which straddles the border between North and South Korea. Our tour guides (one civilian woman and one US soldier) were very specific: do not take pictures outside of designated areas, do not take pictures outside of designated picture-taking directions ("toward the North Korean side, but not toward the right or left"), and do not make any physical hand gestures toward or attempt to speak to any North Korean soldiers. In short, do not do anything that would give anyone a reason (or excuse) to scratch an itchy trigger finger.
The closest we actually got to any North Koreans was when we went inside one of the MAC ("Military Armistice Commission") conference rooms. No Northerners were in the room with us, but the building itself straddles the border, and we were allowed to walk around (mostly) freely inside it. I set one literal foot in North Korea - that was enough for me. I picked up some t-shirts and shot glasses from the gift shop...yeah, there's a gift shop at the Joint Security Area.
On the Subject of South Korean Militarism
One of the things I noticed right away on my first subway trip were the frequent glass-enclosed cases which held gas masks and other self-contained breathing apparatuses. I then noticed the signs advertising military service for women, who are normally exempt from the compulsory service. Then later I noticed the proliferation of rather heavy-duty exercise equipment at pretty much every park in the city.
These people are pretty serious about defending their country.
And again, I have to contrast it with the US: the South Koreans (and in particular the residents of Seoul) live about a hundred short miles from a literal madman with probable nuclear weapons. Theirs is a militarism born not from an overblown sense of machismo or an overdose of testosterone, but from an actual threat to their very existence, one not of their own creation (you listening, CIA?).
It's so remarkable to me that so many people, both the Northerners and the Southerners, have to live in such a state of perpetual fear due to the insanity of one family, the Kims. And even more remarkable that the Kims are backed by both the Chinese and the Russians, neither of whom are even all that communist anymore. It's not even ideological anymore, it's just about pride and saving face. And...hating the US, of course.
In Summation
I think South Korea (again, like the US) is more than the sum of its parts. The people aren't out to impress anybody, they're not obsessed with perfection or saving face, they exist day to day under an extremely tense military situation, and they are a delight to interact and spend time with. I write this as I sit in Incheon airport waiting for my flight to San Francisco (got first class!), and I find myself sorry to be leaving. I'd come back in a heartbeat. (And a 15-hour flight.) (But only in first class.) (I'm a spoiled travel snob now.)
