Earlier today we set out to visit what we were told was a “day of protest” in Seoul. The whole thing started as a spirited gathering of over 16,000 people at a large park near the government offices and ended up being the most intense day of my life, as we were caught in the middle of a clash between protesters and over 800 riot police in various districts throughout the city.

All of the groups protesting gathered first at Yeouido park where there were a number of speeches and performances.

The event started at 3PM and ended at around 5PM when everyone started marching out the of park and through the streets.

The crowds reconvened a large intersection on Jongno St., a few miles away, and tried to shut down traffic. As we walked into the mass of people to interview, we were surprised by hundreds of armor clad riot police charging the group.

Things intensified after that with a series of scuffles and confrontations between the more aggressive protesters and the police.

The police ended up dispersing the protesters only to have them gather again. After the protestors were pushed back for the third time, the crowds disappeared and regrouped at a nearby shopping area, Myeong-dong. Here an anarchist protest group used tools to break up the street and lead charges against police lines again and again throwing stones and sections of the pavement.

This was by far the most violent of the encounters that we had seen and ended with the police sweeping in from every avenue of three consecutive intersections and rounding up the last of the more violent protesters.

There is a lot more to this story, and we’ve managed to get a lot of footage with cameras world’s better and my point and shoot. So we’ll be filling in more as we get it put together. So far we’ve only seen one article in the English news about this (forbes), but it gives you some more background on just why these are happening in Seoul now.

We interrupt our seoul protest coverage to elaborate a little more on the life of an internet cafe refugee in Tokyo…

The one glaring financial flaw in my little scheme was food.  At the guesthouse, I could enjoy our cheap diet of rice, eggs, bread, eggs, rice, and eggs.  In the field, sorta speak, I couldn’t cook, and the cheapest available food sat in the convenience stores and 100 Yen fast food menus.  But with what I was about to put my poor body through, I couldn’t justify living off corndogs, rice triangles, and McPork burgers, so I needed to get creative, which is to say, desperate.

Meal 1: MOCHINAKO – Mochi, Kinako, Banana (150 Yen)

Mochi balls were like a kind of dumpling made from rice instead of flour, and I dipped those into a bad of mixed fiber and Kinako, a super-cheap protein powder.  I splurged on the banana – I think it was the only piece of fruit I ate in 2 weeks.  This little meal had calories and some pathetic attempt at nutrition.  It was definitely one of my favorite meals…because they did get worse.

(more…)

I know I blogged about this a bit while it was happening, but I slowly descended into a sort of sleep-deprived mania madness, and I lost the ability to compose coherent posts about it.  So now I can explain in a little more depth and lucidity…

The Backstory: We were so broke in Tokyo, mid-April, 2.5 weeks away from departure, and one of our monthly leases was up.  Renewal would be $500 we didn’t have.  We were already living in poverty in one of the world’s most expensive cities, so why not go one extra step…Manga Kissas, Internet Cafes: Tokyo is peppered with internet/manga cafes, a cross between an internet cafe, a manga library, and a hotel that rented cubicles instead of rooms.  You can rent by the hour or stay overnight.  They seem to be used for 4 things, as far as I can tell. 

First, people who have missed the last train home and who don’t want to pay the monstrous cab fees to go home.  They’re either Japanese salarymen, stumbling out of a client dinner, or those damned denizens of Tokyo with money to enjoy the nightlife.  In the cafes, you could hear them throwing up or snoring drunkenly. 

Second, highschoolers who want some private time – they live with their parents and they can’t go to love hotels.  In the cafes, you could hear them…well, you could hear them.

Third, manga lovers and gamers. I was actually surprised that people paid money to go to a manga library and read manga.  What kind of manga people read or internet sites they browsed is anyone’s guess, although, in the cafes, they sometimes sounded like the highschoolers.

Fourth, the internet cafe refugees or “cyberhomeless” – people who can’t afford the outrageously expensive housing in Japan but who have enough money to afford a $10/night roof.  They rove from cafe to cafe, catching 7 hours of peace at night to recharge for a part-time job during the day.  It was in this fourth class that I fell.  So instead of paying $500 for another 19 days, I’d pay around $12/night for sleep in Tokyo’s central districts.  I’d save money on transit, because I wouldn’t need to travel out to exciting Kanagawa.  I’d also still be tutoring, so I’d be making a decent amount of money.  The cafes had free coffee and juice, and I’d enjoy internet speed we only wet-dreamed about back at our guesthouse.  I’d sleep in the cafes when I could and then just huddle up on one of the trains and sleep as it wound its way around the city.  So I packed my bags…

and set out with 4000Yen, about $45, to see where it would all take me…