[Cultural Reflections: A Journey Through Korea and Japan]-[Xochitl's Trip to Korea and Japan]

The A to Z English Podcast · B1 · 2025-01-22

📋 Summary

A Tale of Two Nations: Travel Reflections on Korea and Japan

In this episode of the Aid is the English podcast, co-hosts Jack and Sochal engage in a candid discussion about Sochal’s recent travels through Korea and Japan. The conversation highlights the stark cultural differences, linguistic ease, and the personal experiences that shaped their respective journeys.

Exploring the Korean Peninsula

Sochal recounts a comprehensive trip across Korea, starting from Incheon and visiting cities including Jeonju, Mokpo, Tongyeong, Ulsan, and Busan. A significant portion of the trip focused on historical and emotional discovery. In Mokpo, Sochal noted a "somber experience," reflecting on the "legacy" of "Japanese colonization" which left certain areas feeling "run down." Conversely, Ulsan stood out as a favorite destination, praised for its "natural beauty," the Daewangam National Park, and the culinary delights, specifically a "blood sausage soup" that Sochal deemed the best ever consumed.

The Linguistic Accessibility of Hangul

One of the most striking comparisons made during the episode is the ease of learning the Korean alphabet compared to Japanese. Sochal asserts that Korean is "the easiest alphabet in the world," noting that one could learn it on a "plane ride" over. In contrast, Japanese proved far more challenging, with Sochal remarking that it would take "years of study" to achieve a similar level of proficiency, making navigation in Japan significantly more daunting for a visitor.

Culinary and Cost Comparisons

Food and budget were central themes in the duo's comparison. Sochal expressed a clear preference for Korean cuisine, describing it as having "more flavor" and the right amount of "spice," whereas Japanese food was perceived as "more bland" and "greasier." Furthermore, the cost of living showed a notable disparity; Sochal was pleasantly surprised by the affordability of souvenirs in Insadong, where items were often under 10,000 won, compared to Japan, where even a "little trinket" could cost the equivalent of 25 to 30 US dollars.

Cultural Etiquette and Social Dynamics

Navigating public spaces revealed distinct social norms. Sochal observed that while Japanese culture is defined by "cultural etiquette" and a surface-level politeness where "everyone is under control," Korea—specifically Seoul—felt more aggressive. A "newbie mistake" involving a sealed coffee on a bus led to Sochal being "shoved" off by a driver, an experience that highlighted the "lower tolerance" for "nonsense" in a fast-paced city like Seoul. This was compared to New York, where people expect you to "get your crap together," as opposed to the more tolerant atmosphere found in other regions or the polite, rule-following environment of Japan.

Personal Loss and Sympathy

The episode concludes on a poignant note, addressing why the hosts were unable to meet during Sochal’s time in Seoul. Jack shares the heartbreaking news that his dog, Lily, passed away on the day they were scheduled to meet. Sochal expresses deep sympathy, acknowledging that in U.S. culture, pets are viewed as "part of the family," underscoring the emotional weight of their shared connection beyond the travelogue.

🎯Key Sentences

I really appreciated that aspect of my trip.

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📝Key Phrases

have the upper hand

go out of one's way

get your crap together

no one's got time for

on the surface

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📖 Transcript

Welcome, friends, to the Playful Scratch from the California Lottery.

We've got a special guest today, the Scratchers Scratch master himself, Juan.

Juan, you've mastered 713 playful ways to scratch.

Impressive. How'd you do it?

Well, I began with a coin, then tried a guitar pick.

I even used a cactus once.

See how they're scoring on us Shots left and right I know They know our next play Before we even make it We got to tighten up Off the court too Businesses track and sell Our personal information They dunk on us All the time with that data Wait, what do you mean?

We won't go into detail about that, but in this episode, um but uh social tell me about your trip to korea and japan that sounds like it was really exciting it was it honestly it was a really good time i had a really good time i flew into incheon airport and then from there i immediately took the bus

to jeonju which i really liked jeonju actually um i had a lot of fun there and then i stayed there for a couple days and from there i went to mokpo um mokpo was actually not my favorite i i felt like it was kind of sad i realized i realized later that there was a lot of japanese colonization in mokpo

which i think contributed to it was a bit run down in a lot of areas you know japanese colonization only ended in the 40s so you can still see the legacy like it was less than 100 years ago like it was like 80 something years ago So, I did learn a lot.

jehovah's witness or something or no one of those weird like uh what's that shin jengji cult i think i'm not familiar with that but i know what you're talking about you've never heard of these cults maybe i have yeah we're definitely we'll we'll do a separate episode so if you guys want to hear about how

i almost got abducted by some girl in a cult you definitely have to listen to my next podcast uh the next podcast episode we'll do this next week or something but it was this next week or something but it was a very it was honestly the most fear i've ever felt while i was in korea wow um it was very

creepy experience so that was not fun and um that was like on my last day in dong young so i was leaving um anyway so i actually had a really good time in dong young the food was really good and it was extremely cheap um and i don't know i really enjoyed my time there and after taongyong i went to ulsan i

want to say yes i did and you used to live there right so that was okay okay so i went and visited some friends i stayed with a couple of my friends which was really fun and i was like on the beach and i had the best um blood sausage soup that i've like ever had it was so good at this little place run

by she wasn't an old lady she was maybe like a middle -aged like ajima but it was so delicious it was in the jungle area of usan um and then i met up with some friends and i had a really good time usan is like still one of my favorite places in korea because it has so much natural beauty and it has like

the coast and the national park the daewangang national park and it's just and the food is really good i don't know i really love usan and that still stands um and from there i went to busan and i was just in busan like a night or so before heading out to um japan and in japan i landed in fukuoka um

and then my time in osaka which was a pretty good experience and then from there i went to tokyo which i actually really great great food there the food was good i will say but okay my thing though is that this is like a controversial take i i really like preferred my time in korea so much over my time

in japan and i prefer korean food over japanese food as well because korean food is spicy yes and i love the it's not too spicy it's nothing like mexican food but it has like some spice and like more flavor and i felt like japanese food has more subtle flavors um which was okay but i definitely japanese

food is like green tends to be like in some ways greasier but smaller portions you know yeah it's it is like that and it's more like it's kind of it's more bland like not in a bad way necessarily but you know like you get like fried food with like mayo on top and yeah unless you put like wasabi on there

just um you know explode your sinuses your nose you know yeah i hate wasabi the way that i can that i always think of wasabi is like when you drink soda too fast and you like burp and it comes up your nose that's how it feels when i eat i love that wasabi burn in the okay i like the taste of wasabi

but i hate when i have too much in the and the burn like gets me in the nose i just oh see i i love the note the nose burn that's what i go for jack you're like that's like maybe the most psychopathic thing you've ever said i don't think i don't think i've ever met another person who actually enjoys

that feeling but yeah if i if i don't get the the nose burn i'm it's not i didn't take it i didn't do it right that's how i feel yeah um but yeah i did enjoy my time in osaka one thing i didn't like about japan we should do a whole episode on japan just because jack and i have both been to japan so i

feel like we could talk a lot about it but just with the brief thing is like the transportation system is all private and i felt like it's a lot more confusing than korea's transportation system for me and also it's like a lot of the stuff is in japanese obviously because it's japan but in korea it's

super easy like even if everything is in korean you it's really easy to read the alphabet but in japan it's like not easy to read that never you'll never get it yeah it would take years of study to figure it out yeah and in like for korea like if you learn the alphabet on the plane ride you can learn

it on the plane right over to be honest you can learn it in a half an hour yeah yes it's really easy to learn it's literally exactly as easy as everybody does to me personally it's the easiest alphabet in the world of the ones i've ever studied which is chinese arabic you know whatever german english

spanish whatever but to me the easiest in the world is korean for sure you could learn the whole korean alphabet faster than you could learn one chinese word one character yes one character that's so true it's honestly yeah it's amazing how simple it is um and uh what would i say so there from then

i was in osaka quite a while and i feel like it was hard because of course i was budget i was but and the bed was like really uncomfortable and you know i have a bad hip from when i was born so it was like making my hip act up so it was like hard to walk and in japan you have to walk like everywhere too

oh yeah because 20 000 steps a day yeah that's exactly what i was doing like and it was so hard because like taxis are so expensive in japan as well so i didn't take one the whole time i was there because it's like they're expensive whereas in korea they're like super cheap right like in korea i honestly

um well i'll get i'll say that in a minute but anyway so in japan like you know that was so so and i went from osaku to tokyo and i actually really liked my time i stayed in osakusa pretty much the entire time i was in tokyo and um that was nice i went to the temple and i rented like a kimono and did

the whole like kimono rental thing which was really fun nice and i had like the yukatsu which was really delicious actually it was like one of my favorite meals um that i had there and i did have a really good time in japan and i would say one really big key difference about japan and korea is that that i

that i felt like a little more comfortable as someone who like doesn't like confrontation that much um in japan i feel like everyone is like super polite on the surface you know what i mean like right it's it's part of the cultural etiquette is it's just like everybody's under control there's no garbage

on the streets people follow the rules it's just everyone's like super polite like if you ask someone for directions i'll like go out of their way to help you or like they're really polite to you and i felt like in korea like if you're so likely to get yelled at like you're gonna like you're gonna get

if you don't know what you're doing too like you're definitely gonna get yelled at like at least once a week but if you just got there and you're like doing some dumb shit like not on purpose but like you're just like doing something that and slightly annoy someone you're gonna get yelled at like daily

because old people like they don't have time for your bullcrap you know what i mean old people get so mad so fast and it's like scary lower tolerance for uh yeah mischief i guess yeah or just like just doing something like slightly wrong like i remember that like welcome friends to the playful scratch

from the california lottery we've got a special guest today the scratcher scratch master himself juan juan you've mastered 713 playful ways to scratch impressive how'd you do it well i began with a coin then tried a guitar pick i even used a cactus once i can scratch with anything even this mic right

it is especially enjoyable knowing that my grandson is not sitting in a tub of skin irritating chlorine call now and receive free basic installation at 800 water 99 or visit us at life source water .com life source taste and feel the difference i was gonna get on the bus and so this is this was honestly

a huge newbie mistake but like i had a coffee but it was fully sealed so i thought it was fine because like it was fully sealed like there's no way it would spill or open or anything it was like a fully sealed coffee i was like trying to get on i was like going to get on the bus and the bus driver just

like pushed me off and i was like okay yeah and i was like huh and then he was like yeah but i was just like i was just in shock and he was like yelling at me about the coffee and i was like oh sorry sorry but i was just like scared because he like just shoved me off the bus and i like in japan like

that would never happen like the bus driver might be like oh sorry you can't get on with your coffee like you know what i mean but no one is gonna like physically shove you they're not gonna push you off yeah and that like scared me and then I was like scared that happened in Seoul and I would say people

in Seoul are like that more and like if you're in other areas like a lot of times people can be a lot more nicer yeah they're a lot taller more tolerant yeah so Seoul is a big city you know every no one's got time for any nonsense you know so they just you know like idiocy nonsense whatever like any

foreigner that doesn't know like what they're doing like no one has time for you it's like new york and it's like new york like culturally like in new york people are gonna be like get your crap together you know what i mean versus like la people will like tolerate you more you know that that's like

a difference kind of so yeah so yell at you like so that was that was something that was kind of overwhelming but i do i did miss korea and i got to seoul and and I had a really good time I spent almost my entire time in insidang I'd never been in insidang before yeah cobblestone ground and yeah like

art galleries and uh knickknacks souvenirs you know things like that I bought so many knickknacks I bought so many like souvenirs like traditional souvenirs for my mom and my aunt um and it was just so fun because there's so many like think traditional korean like souvenirs and things to buy and see

a lot of them are extremely cheap as well like i was surprised by how cheap especially coming back from japan again like i was surprised how much cheaper korea is once more it's cheaper yeah it's so cheap and so when i like saw the souvenirs i was like nothing is over like 10 000 or 5 000 it was like

amazing because in japan even like a little trinket is going to cost you like 3 000 yen or like the equivalent of like 30 us dollars basically you're 25 so it's as expensive um but yeah it went really well and then i wanted to jack and i were gonna meet up but unfortunately go ahead our poor uh our

little lily our our dog our that we've uh that we we knew for 10 years uh that we had for 10 years uh passed away she died uh the day social and i were supposed to meet so um my wife and i were kind of distraught and we didn't really know what to do and just so fun because there's so many like things

traditional korean like souvenirs and things to buy and see a lot of them are extremely cheap as well like i was surprised by how cheap especially coming back from japan again like i was surprised how much cheaper korea is once more much cheaper yeah it's so cheap and so when i like saw the souvenirs

and i was like nothing is over like 10 000 won or 5 000 won it was like amazing because in japan even like a little trinket is gonna cost you like 3 000 yen or like the equivalent of like 30 u .s dollars basically you're 25 so it's that's expensive um but yeah it went really well and then i wanted to

jack and i were gonna meet up but unfortunately my go ahead our poor our little Lily our our dog our that we've uh that we we knew for 10 years uh that we had for 10 years uh passed away she died uh the day social and I were supposed to meet so um my wife and I were kind of distraught and we didn't

really know what to do and uh so social was very understanding and and sympathetic um so thank you for that I appreciate it and I'm sorry i couldn't uh make it into seoul that day no worries i totally understand like duende is part of my family i feel like in u .s culture we see the dog as like part of the family and it's really heartbreaking when our old family

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