Trip to North Korea - review of an unforgettable journey (pt. 4)
It’s been a long time in coming, and I must apologise for that, but here is part 4 of my June 2005 trip to DPRK (aka North Korea). But I have a little time on my hands today and my fingers are ready to tap on the keyboard in an attempt to type something interesting for you all. I must confess that there are no video clip links in this article yet - they will be posted up in the next couple of days when I get some more time.
For a moment, read the scenario I found myself in at the end of the day, and try to put yourself in my position. It was 1am and I was in a hotel in Kaesong, a city 10km from the demilitarized zone (DMZ), probably the most tense place on earth. 3 hours previously I was eating dog for dinner and was now getting a massage from a North Korean waitress, with both the guides in the room watching on! I’ve found myself in a few slightly bizarre situations before, but that one probably takes the biscuit. But to find out how I got in that position, you’ll have to read on…
The day was mainly one of travelling, as we made our way from the capital, Pyongyang, to Kaesong in the south of the country. The tour bus headed out of Pyongyang and to one of the many checkpoints in the country. In DPRK there is restriction of movement for citizens. Unless you have a very good reason and permission, you cannot travel outside your home town or area. This is lessened a little during public festivals, but the checks are always there. The checking of papers was efficient, but thorough, and we were soon on our way.
We travelled initially on a 10-lane motorway, which was quite a sight. We must have driven on it for about 15-20 minutes, and nobody saw another vehicle on the entire road for the duration. There were a few bicycles and some people walking along the road, but no other cars, lorries or buses. The roads were not maintained too well, and there were obvious signs of neglect, with huge potholes in some lanes. In others there were sometimes mounds of dirt, just less than a metre high. They weren’t high enough to be barricades of any sort, but nobody could really work out what they were. I would have taken photos, but we were politely asked not to while the bus was in motion. I’m sure it was because we might photograph certain parts of DPRK that were not meant to be seen outside the country.
Example of a busy road in DPRK! You can just about see another car on this stretch.
Police procedures in Blackman case severely flawed (Japan Times)
I’ve read all the articles I’ve come across about the Lucie Blackman case and the acquittal of Joji Obara in her rape, murder & dismemberment. An excellent but very critical article has just been published by the Japan Times, and I thought I should share it with you here. It is very critical of the police action (or lack of it) which immediately followed reports of Blackman’s disappearance. It also, like I did, highlighted similarities between this case and the Lindsay Ann Hawker murder, the suspect for which is still at large. The question as to whether the Blackman case is going to be reopened has not been answered as of yet. But, the Japanese police have today issued arrest warrants for 2 North Korean “agents” suspected of kidnapping some children in the early 1970, so it looks like all their manpower is tied up in that case. Am not entirely sure that these agents will be: a, in Japan these days; and b, intending to return to Japan any time soon regardless. Ah well, that’s another story for another day.
Onto this news article. Let me know what you think and check out the Japan Times website for more writings on this case:
Approach to Blackman slaying hit, likened to Keystone Cops
Faulty police procedures seen foiling quick action, prevention
By JUN HONGO AND ERIC PRIDEAUX
After years of litigation closely watched around the world, the Tokyo District Court sentenced property developer Joji Obara to life in prison Tuesday for raping and drugging nine women, including Australian Carita Ridgway who subsequently died, but acquitted him of all the charges related to the death of Briton Lucie Blackman.
In the Blackman investigation, the highest profile of the 10 cases, despite pressure from the British government and frequent visits to Japan by Blackman’s family since her disappearance in July 2000, authorities were never able to assemble enough evidence to charge Obara, 54, with murdering the former stewardess-turned-Roppongi bar hostess. He denies the charge.
Blackman’s dismembered body was discovered in a cave on Kanagawa Prefecture’s Miura Peninsula in February 2001, about 200 meters from one of Obara’s many summer getaway homes.
Japan in the Springtime
As readers of this blog may know, I visited the Kansai region of Japan from April 6th to the 9th. This was 
the second time I have been to the area in Spring, following my 2006 visit with my good friend, Lindsey. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Japanese geography, the Kansai region of Japan (also called the Kinki region, which always raises a smile on my face!) is west of Tokyo, and it covers the cities of Nara, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe, to name just a few. It is a beautiful part of Japan and is well worth a visit if you ever make the trip to The Land of the Rising Sun, especially in the springtime when the cherry blossoms are out. On this trip, I was scheduled to spend my first night and morning in Osaka, before going to Kyoto for an afternoon and evening, and then heading to Kobe on the Sunday. The plan changed slightly though as it rained all day on Saturday, which made the Kyoto trip much less than enjoyable. I was wanting to walk around the city and parks and see the sakura in full bloom, but it’s not that nice to do when rain is constantly coming down.
Saturday morning was spent wandering around Osaka, and especially Amerika Mura - the American Village, where all the cool and crazy-dressed kids go to parade around in their fashions. It’s like a mini-Harajuku , but this one caters more for the host/hostess look, and the goth/lolita fashion. I’ve just scoured the net for photos of the former category, but can’t for the life of me find any, and I can’t remember the Japanese name of them. Just think guys in wide-collared, open shirted suits, with impeccably styled hair (akin to Ziggy Stardust in hair style), jewellery, and girls with big hair, also impeccably styled and dyed light brown. Once I can find some photos of this type I will be sure to post them. They are frequently sighted all over Dotonbori Dori in central Osaka. As for the 2nd type, have a look at the photo below (This Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons image is from the user Chris 73 and is freely available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Gothic_lolita_takeshita_street.jpg under the creative commons cc-by-sa 2.5 license). You can see the girl on the left is in lolita fashion (usually all-white or pink, with styles and materials reminiscent of the Victorian period… a very young image is desired, hence the teddy bear she is carrying), and the girl on the right has a goth look (dressed in all black, sometimes with a Victorian style and with dark makeup around the eyes, sometimes combined with whitened faces).
Having blog issues - stick with me!
This is just to apologise for the lack of updates recently. I have had problems with my blog provider and it’s taking a while to get things sorted. Everything will sort itself out soon though and I’ll be up and running ASAP.
Thanks for your patience in this matter! Continue reading this entry »
Family dive instruction - stressful!
It’s been quite a while since I have talked about diving, so it’s about time I got back to it. It’s been a busy weekend of dive instruction, which has been fun, challenging and at times, stressful. But it has been a learning experience for all concerned, and hopefully I can use my experiences to become a better instructor. It was my first experience of teaching children, and I can see why some instructors are turned off it so much. I’ve also got my Kansai trip from last week to talk about, but before that we have all things underwater to discuss.
Saturday was the first of about 5 consecutive weekends of dive instruction, which also includes Golden Week in the first week of May (9 days and around 30 dives!). There is certainly no rest for the wicked. My classes this weekend were all Open Water, which I haven’t taught for a few months, but was eager to start up again. I met the students and we headed to a beach for them to do the swim test and float test. Must try to get some laminated reading material for students doing the 10 minute float! They had no problems at all with that, being in excellent shape due to running marathons etc. So we then headed off to the pool and confined water dives. Neither of the students had any major problems during the sessions, and conducted all the skills with relative ease. To be perfectly honest, after all the teaching I’ve done since then, I can’t really remember much of the confined water dives from Saturday morning and early afternoon! Mr Alzheimer certainly has a lot to answer for… They completed the confined water work having mastered the skills they need to know, and I am confident they will have no problems in open water next weekend. But time was ticking on and I had things to do. I had to quickly drop off the rental dive equipment and then fly down to a Starbucks (seemingly my third home, behind my apartment and the ocean) to meet a student to go over dive theory. This was arranged at the last minute (in fact, during the morning’s confined water session), but I’d promised her a course for quite a while and so wanted to accommodate her into my schedule. She went through the knowledge reviews, the quick quizzes and the final exam with the minimum of problems, and was looking forward to scheduling a confined water session. As soon as she’d finished the exam and we’d got her paperwork signed, I had to scoot off to my next appointment: a theory session with a family I am going to teach the Open Water course to.