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To
travel to Korea from Japan, I would normally catch a military flight
from NAS Atsugi to the Air Force base at OSAN, Korea. From there I would
have to get transportation to SEOUL or which ever city I was visiting.
This is the flight line at Osan AFB.
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The
gate at Osan AFB opened out into a relatively small city that (in the
1970’s) really catered to the military personnel who were stationed
there and/or traveling through Korea. Just about ANYTHING that a man
could possibly want from souvenirs to custom-tailored suits...
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...and
everything from food to drinks to women...was readily available at very
reasonable prices on this main street leading out of the military base
into Osan.
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This
is a store window of a typical Korean brass wares store in Osan which
catered mostly to visiting military or other transient personnel.
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And,
while this photo of another brass wares store shows more brass products
available for purchase, the REFLECTION in the window of the four women
checking me out illustrates OTHER entertainment possibilities (if one
were so inclined)!
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“Mother of Pearl” (oyster shells) inlaid into lacquered wood
represented one of Korea’s most popular line of souvenir items.
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The
“Mother of Pearl” were used to decorate everything from large
chests to jewelry boxes to very small cigarette case holders.
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On
the trip from Osan to Seoul, I happened to pass this very old Korean
man walking along the dusty road carrying this huge load of tree branches
on his shoulders. I was so impressed that I asked my driver to stop
so I could get this photo!
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In
the same general area where I had taken the picure of the old man, I
took these photos of typical rural Korean farmer family which lived
in primitive homes covered with the ‘thatching’ that the old
man had been carrying on his shoulders.
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To
say that Korea in the early spring is pretty much COLORLESS is a bit
of an understatement. And, it goes without saying that these local farm
houses lacked most of the modern conveniences that we take for granted!
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I
was told that entire families normally continued to live in the same
‘cluster’ of houses and, as the children grew up and got married,
they simply added another thatched-roof home to the cluster.
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The
tile-roofed home(s) in the cluster was/were for the more senior member(s)
of the family. Of course, there were an incredible number of kids running
around everywhere. (What else can people do at night when they don’t
have TV?) <grin>
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The
city of Seoul in the early 1970’s (as seen from the window of my
hotel) would not exactly be confused with New York City (or any other
modern city for that matter)!
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There
was a great deal of construction going on everywhere, but, for the most
part, the city really lacked COLOR and appeared quite stark and drab
to me.
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While
I’m sure that things have changed incredibly in the 30+ years it
has been since I took these photos, I would seriously doubt that Seoul
has moved ahead of the more modern Japanese cities.
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While
in Seoul, I visited one of their local shrines which commemorated some
particular period in Korean history (which, needless to say, totally
escapes me at this point in my life).
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However,
Korea had it own unique decorative style of architecture and colors
which were quite different than Japan. I took advantage of these Koreans
taking photos of themselves to get their photo as if they had posed
especially for me!
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I
believe this was a group of school children who just happened to be
visiting the shrine as I was there.
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While
the lake and surrounding area might appear more ‘picturesque’
during the bloom of summer (than the early-spring time frame when this
photo was taken), it looked pretty bleak when I was there!
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