Foods

Foods

Japan is a bento. A pre-packaged, always tasty, always clean lunch box. Korea, on the other hand, is bibimbap. A messy, spicy bowl of everything.

One eats bento on his/her own. It’s not a communal meal. Bibimbap is to be shared with others.

In Japan, students usually live in their own apartment. It is very tiny and very expensive but somehow manages to have all the amenities – a little kitchenette, a little bathroom, and a little closet. They rarely invite friends to their apartment. In Korea, most students live in the so-called hassukjibs, a boarding house with shared common space owned by a Korean auntie who prepares breakfast and dinner for everyone. Living in a hassukjib provides a lot of social bonding. People of the same age who usually go to the same school live together, and eat together practically every day. They share everything.

In Japan, people on subway use their gadgets to play games, to entertain themselves. In Korea, they use their portable devices to stay connected with others. In Nagoya (and Tokyo and Osaka), it is a miracle to find free wifi. And most Japanese universities don’t have wifi (for “security” reasons, as I was told at Nanzan…). In Seoul, the whole city is essentially one large free wifi zone. Sogang University’s wifi is speedier than its counterpart in Google, Kansas. The second thing a Korean friend asks you (the first being your age) is your “kakao talk” id. Kakao talk is an interactive chatting system for smartphones, and EVERYBODY in Korea uses it. Staying connected in Japan endangers an individual’s sense of “security.” In Korea, to stay connected is a cultural rule. You must be connected to be cool.

A bento is a well-put together, sanitary meal. Bibimbap is muddled, messy and spicy.

In Japan, people put on face masks in the morning and take them off before bed. Boys and girls, old and young, everybody in Japan is germ phobic. There are no towels in Japanese bathrooms, because everybody is supposed to carry a towel of his/her own. Japanese streets are spotless, and it’s impossible to find a trashcan. One is supposed to put his trash into his bag and recycle it at home. In Korea, the only people who wear masks are the ones recovering from a recent nose job. EVERYBODY is always spitting on the street. Seriously. Women, men, children, adults. All Koreans seem to accumulate some form of phlegm in their throats and have no reservations about spitting it out in any public space. I was going to spare you, but to illustrate my point… Yesterday, at a bathhouse I witnessed two guys accidentally spitting on each other bare feet. They didn’t seem to care whatsoever. Oh, and talking about Korean bathhouses, they really need a cleanup… Moreover, one interesting comparison lies in the striking contrast between Japanese and Korean convenience stores. Take 7/11 for instance. Same brand, same size, same concept. Japanese 7/11 is an epitome of an organized, clean, convenience store. In Korea, it’s hard to tell the food section from the stationary section. Beer cans are next to diapers, and vodka by the milk bottles. Korean clerks seem not to care at least; they’re usually too busy chatting on kakao. And by the way, recycling? What recycling?

A bento is a pre-packaged meal. Bibimbap comes in all kinds and varieties and can be hardly prepared in advance.

Japanese people really appreciate a set of fundamental values that are shared by all members of the society. Patience, refrain, endurance, respect for elders. Conforming to these values is more well-looked upon than being original. Of course these values exist in the Korean society as well. But the fact that one understands what these values are seems more significant than actually following them. For instance, in Korea, when you joke around by calling a younger person “older brother,” people think it’s very funny, because it’s preposterous in the context of an age-based social hierarchy. In Japan, they just correct your jokes, even if you show clear understanding of social norms and values. There’s a rule for everything in Japan, whereas in Korea people are much more willing to improvise. In Japan, you NEVER bargain at a store. In many Seoul department stores, the clerk often responds to “how much is it?” by asking “how much do you want it to be?”

A bento is a very Japanese a meal. Bibimbap is the ultimate fusion.

No one in Japan speaks English. I’m sorry Japan, but your English education is a joke. Even those Japanese who study abroad often come back having had no or little improvement. As a recent article in the Economist wittily described it – Japan’s the only country that’s going de-globalized. Japanese radios rarely play English songs, Japanese movie theaters show 70% domestic movies, McDonald’s sells sashimi burgers. Japanese cell phones stand as the pinnacles of high technology but they only work in Japan. Koreans, on the other hand, are obsessed with English. Mothers are willing to spend the entire family budget on private English tutoring. TOEIC score is the equivalent of one’s IQ score. Every college kid in Korea speaks trillion times better English than his/her counterpart in Japan. Korea loves other cultures to the extent that it often seems to forget its own. K-Pop might be popular across Asia but in Korean bars/clubs/ restaurants, US TOP 20 is on the shuffle. The strange fascination with the West metamorphoses into Korea’s obsession with looking “white.” Most popular surgery in Korea? Double eyelids and high-nose.

My friend Jasmine once described Korea as the unruly offspring of an American mum and a Japanese dad. I like the metaphor, but I also think that Korea’s a much more interesting fusion than the metaphor suggests. I actually think that Korea should be number one destination in Asia – the Korean society with its strong rooting in Confucian values but enough international communication skills provides a much more digestible introduction to East- Asia, rather than the self-centered Japan or the overwhelming middle kingdom. Bibimbap offers a refreshing break from bento dinners. Sure it might be a bit too messy and too spicy but that makes the culinary experience that much more enjoyable – I think. And if you happen to start missing the law&order of the manga land, write a short note in your diary and suck it up with a glass of soju. Or even better, you can take a picture of bibimbap and send it to your Japanese friends on kakao. Ups, I forgot – they may not have the internet for security reasons.