[Opinion] “I love Korea”

I am a husband of Matsuda Katsuko, a Chairwoman of Alumni Association of Gyeongseong Women’s Teacher’s Training College who is an acquaintance of Kim Seong-yun’s, a PR Ambassador of Jeonju City. I had a chance to visit Jeonju recently when I was invited to a World Cup game there. During that visit, I had a chance to enjoy the picturesque landscape of the vast Honam Plain and exchange warm conversations with the people.

Although my three-day visit to Korea was a bit too short, I was deeply touched by the beautiful scenery and warm welcome that are hard to find in Japan these days. When going to Jeonju on June 5, we took a tourist bus at Incheon International Airport that took us down the Seohaean Express Way. As soon as we crossed a long bridge built over the sea, we dropped in a resting area to take some rest. While I was standing in a long line to buy some juice, a young man of about twenty years old who was standing right beside me turned to me and said very amiably, “You first, sir”. Deeply impressed by such friendliness, I was wondering how many more nice surprises were waiting for me in Korea.

That night, we had beef ribs for dinner at a Korean restaurant not far way from the hotel. Since I have a habit of carrying a pocket notebook with me to write down my impressions on everything that happens around, I asked a waitress about the names and peculiarities of each dish that were served to us in abundance that night and wrote them down on a memo sheet. It was only after I returned to the hotel that I found I had left my memo sheet in the restaurant. I immediately called the guide and asked her for help.

Next day, as we were heading to a restaurant for dinner after watching a World Cup game, I asked the driver to stop the bus near the restaurant where we had dinner the previous night. With the help of our guide, I asked the restaurant staff about my memo sheet and they handed it over to me saying, “We thought it was really precious to you…”. To add to my fascination, the memo sheet had been neatly ironed. I was moved to tears.

Before watching the soccer game that day, my wife and I made a gorgeous sightseeing tour about Jeonju’s cultural heritage: we were spiritually consoled by the beautiful Jeonju Inn, fascinated by the adamantine Pungnammun and comforted by the solemn and composed atmosphere of Dangok in Jeonju Hyangsa.

On the third day of our journey, we went to see a gorgeous traditional Korean art performance, pansori, given at our hotel in Seoul by Moon Dae-sun, a follower of Master Cho Sang-hyun, a human cultural asset, and two 5 or 6-year old girls – Moon’s pupils. Those cute kids were signing “The Legend of Chunhyang” following at times passionate and at times slow and sad rhythm of the drum.

As I was looking through the window at the receding landscape of Korean land sitting aboard a plane that was taking me back to Japan, I engraved in my mind these words, “I look forward to visiting Korea again someday to feel the enormous abundance of this country”.

Matsuda Toyoji (76, Srukawa, Tokyo Province, Japan)