The odd, rather unsightly metal piping coming down from the ceiling in the restaurant in the photo above is actually so that Koreans can barbeque indoors. And boy, do Koreans love their barbeque! But people in many countries love to barbeque, right? Sure, but in Korea, as in most places in Northeast Asia, most of the people are crowded, virtually in on top of one another, into the congested, litter strewn, noisy, neon scarred cities. Naturally, most Koreans don't have either a back or a front yard to barbeque in, of course, so if they want to enjoy an outdoor meal the way their Mongol/Turkic horse warrior ancestors did, they pretty much have to do it indoors. Sounds like fun though, right?
Mostly... it's really not.
At any rate, the tubes are supposed to basically suck up the smoke from all the braziers burning in all the Korean beef and pork restaurants that promise to deliver the penultimate barbeque experience without actually having to go outdoors. And those tubular metal contraptions do reduce the smoke pretty drastically. Well, when cooking beef anyway. When barbequing fatty pork however.... Nope. Not so much.
I'm sure they have Korean style eateries like that in Taiwan, China and even Japan nowadays, especially with all this "Korean Wave" stuff, and with the Koreans trying so very hard to export their CULTure all over the globe, mostly via their K-pop, K-this and K-that, but when I lived in Taiwan and later (regretfully) Shanghai, China, I didn't see all that many Korean style barbeque places. I'm sure there are plenty of eateries like that in those countries now, however.
Somehow though, I don't really see Korean style indoor barbeque places coming even close to competing with McDonald's for the global market any time soon. But I suppose one can always hope, right? Maybe if Psy started his own chain of indoor Korean barbeque joints, the whole bizarre dining experience would become his next big sensation. KOREAN BARBEQUE STYLE! Hey, you never know. At least then he wouldn't look quite so much like a one hit wonder outside of Korea.
Nah. Just not holding my breathe for any of that. Nope. Sorry.
At any rate, even after nearly six years in Korea, I still find the indoor barbeque experience to be rather odd. You do get used to it, but the ugly sight of all that internal piping drooping down from the ceiling doesn't exactly make for a very aesthetic dining experience. But then... it's Asia. Most diners talk quite loudly, and they leave a sea of smelly shoes in the doorway that you pretty much have to jump over just to get inside. And when they're finished eating, quite a few of them sit there and loudly suck their teeth for what seems like forever and a day.
It's Asia.
Oh, and in the very next picture I took that evening, the man in the white shirt (the one you can BARELY EVEN SEE, who's the ONLY ONE YOU CAN EVEN JUST SORT OF SEE IN PROFILE) started giving me the typical "Korean Death Stare." I really don't see how this photo would normally be harmful to him personally, or make any South Korean lose an overabundance of precious "face," especially since it's pretty obvious that there are quite literally hundreds of thousands and MILLIONS of Asian men who roughly fit his physical description.
So, honestly, I'm not sure why he should have to worry about me trying to blackmail him with a simple photograph of the outside of a common Korean barbeque joint. Although there IS a story behind why most Koreans tend to get very, very nervous when someone whips out a camera....
But from my quite considerable personal experience, many, many Korean men (and even some women) tend to be very, very tense, confrontational and even suspicious. Not all of them, to be sure, and certainly not because of their "race," of course, but an awful lot of Koreans seem to be abnormally uptight. That's CULTure for ya! In fact, Korean CULTure tends to be so oppressive that I am pretty darned sure that it is why so many Koreans tend to smoke like factories and drink like fish. What's that great old song by Billy Joel?
PRESSURE!
Pressure? What in God's name, you may ask, could possibly be a source of PRESSURE in South Korean society? Well, let's see.... There is built in MASSIVE social pressure to be PERFECT IN EVERY WAY in Korea, just for starters. In Korea, you're not to dare to be anything less than a straight A student (though admittedly, that's pretty much a feature of all the Northeast Asian societies, including China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea). You're not to even dare to be over or underweight in Korea either. As a result, you're never to even dare to be anything less than physically PERFECT. So naturally, plastic surgery is practically a national hobby in South Korea.
And that's just plain sad. And ironically, societally speaking, just not very damned pretty at all when you think about it. So much for skin deep beauty!
In fact, the CULTure that has evolved in Korea for centuries now often seems to be not only ridiculously oppressive, hopelessly perfectionist and incredibly demanding, but even at times quite mean spirited in many, many ways. Even not being in the correct age bracket in Korea can make someone an object of societal scorn. And God help you if you were born handicapped!
Don't believe any of it? I mean, just look at North Korea! 'Cause... psst! A CULTure doesn't just change on a dime at the border between any two countries (sorry, Canadians and some naïve Americans that may actually think that the grass is really greener just across the border from anywhere one might happen to have been born), or just because you draw a line on a map and call it "the DMZ."
But hey, if you DO buy into the idea that American and Canadian culture are so drastically different as to make one place hell and the other a virtual heaven, buddy, have I got some ocean front property in Arizona just waiting for YOU!
In fact, if that man in the white shirt in the photograph (that I took just because I, 1) enjoy photography, and 2) wanted to record what is still a very odd and rather foreign sight for me, even after all these years), if he had just chilled out and not felt the need to confront me with the typical aggressive Korean staredown, I very likely wouldn't have even remembered him at all. And I wouldn't have gotten yet another mostly negative impression of Korean society. And... I probably wouldn't have felt the need to be so frank and truthful about all this on the Internet.
Good work, Mr. Should Be Anonymous Guy With Black Hair and Glasses. Your behavior didn't save any face for your country or CULTure, I'm afraid. In fact, you lost a whole lot of face with your aggressive stare. You JERK.
