Visiting North Korea to see the Arirang Festival

Annyong he, this is Yomoken

※Annyong he means good bye in Korean, one of the few words we learnt in Korean.

This is a report of the famous Arirang Festival.

※ For those of you who are not aware of it, the Arirang Festival is a massive festival that do mass games and make human letters.

The Arirang Festival goes on for 2 months. Did you know about it?

I thought it takes place once a year on some kind of Memorial Day, for the general secretary to come out in front of the people. 

But that is not the case. During the 2 months it takes place around 3 times a week and is always included in the schedule of foreigners visiting the country.

Maybe you could just say that foreigners come to DPRK to see the festival. 

Some say that it is a government policy for acquisition of foreign currency, but there are not THAT many foreigners visiting as for it to be called as a policy. (from my instinct, there was about 100 foreigners on that day)

The venue is May Day Stadium, a sporting complex.

Not the Kim Yong-il Stadium which the World Cup Qualifier match was held at.

By the way there are heaps of local DPKR citizens attending as spectators.

Apparently there are many visiting from cities far away

Us foreigners are considers as VIP so we can enter without lining up in the row.

And the admission fee we paid was∙∙∙

100 Euros!!!

Still 2^nd class ticket. Soccer wise category 2.

There are 4 tiers for tickets and go from low priced to expensive,

3^rd class seat=80 Euros

2^nd class seat=100 Euros

1^st class seat=150 Euros

VIP seat=300 Euros

※Basically, all sales against foreigners in DPRK are done in Euros

Such expensive admission prices, you actually may be able to call it a policy for acquisition of foreign currency. ww

Locals did not have such nice tickets like us, just tickets made with cheap thin paper. The price must be extremely low.

The seats with a table in green in the back are VIP seats, not much difference.

While we were waiting the human letter makers team entered the back stands

The back stands are filled with people.

They are students. They look white because they are holding white panels for making the human letters.

Closing up on the picture above, this is how it looks.

People are lined up neatly and even the aisles are occupied. Against fire and safety laws?

When they flip there panels after the signal from the main stands, large human letters appear.

No words needed from here, enjoy with pictures and videos.

The leader’s portrait is made with human letters.

Light is shown above the human letters

The number of people dancing on the field is massive.

Children take part as well.

This many when they gather.

In fact, 120000 people take part in one Arirang festival.

It reminded me of the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics last year.It is like doing that once every 2 days.

Some day in the future if the Olympics are held in North Korea or the reunited Goryeo Republic, the opening ceremonies of that would be massive as well.

Now, it is not much but we have made a video from our coverage of the Arirang festival so see it here.

A 3 night , 4 day tour entered by land from China. Just that and the expense of 100000 yen. Plus that, you must pay a minimum of 80 Euros to watch the show. But it was an 80 minute show well worth paying for.

It made me hope that a day comes when the festival becomes more easy to access for everyone.

I think it is a tourist attraction that can attract a huge numbers.

In the end, when we were exiting the stadium, we bumped in to performers who were just dancing a while ago.

All of them were still in a excited state and even were waving to us foreigners.

I left the venue felling that I truly want to visit this again sometime in the future.

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We went to see the Arirang Festival

Annyong he, this is Ken
※Annyong he means good bye in Korean, one of the few words we learnt in Korean.




This is a report on the Arirang Festival, which is well-known through the mass media such as TV.


※ To make sure for those who don't know it, the Arirang Festival is a massive festival, where a large number of people can enjoy playing mass games and making human letters.






The Arirang Festival goes on for 2 months. Did you know about it?




I thought it took place once a year on some kind of Memorial Day to show and entertain the general secretary. But that is not the case. During the 2 months it takes place around 3 times a week and is always incorporated into the itineraries targeting at tourists to the country..


 Specifically, you could just say that tourists from overseas visit DPRK for the festival. Some say that it is a government policy for getting foreign currency, but actually there are not so many tourists as we can call it a policy. (according to my rough estimate, there were only about 100 tourists from overseas on that day)




The venue is May Day Stadium, a sporting complex.

Not the Kim Yong-il Stadium where the World Cup Qualifier match was held.

By the way, heaps of local DPKR citizens visit May Day Stadium as spectators as well as audience from overseas.

Apparently there are many visitors coming far from the city

We were admitted into the stadium without waiting in the queue because regarded as VIP this time.











And the admission fee we paid was∙∙∙








100 Euros!!! (≒13500 yen)

Still 2nd class ticket. It is equivalent to category 2 in soccer game.

There are 4 tiers for tickets,


3rd class seat = 80 Euros

2nd class seat = 100 Euros

1st class seat = 150 Euros

VIP seat=300 Euros




※Basically, all transactions with foreigners in DPRK are done in Euros



Such expensive admission prices, we actually may be able to call it a policy for getting foreign currency. ww


Locals did not have such nice tickets like us, just tickets made of cheap thin paper. The price must be extremely low.

The seats with tables in green in the back are VIP seats, not much difference compared with not VIP seats.

While we were waiting, the human letter makers entered the back stands

The back stands are filled with people.

They are students. They look white, for they hold white panels for making the human letters.






Closing up on the picture above, this is how it looks.

People are lined up neatly and even the aisles are occupied. Is it not against fire and safety laws?

When they flip their panels after the signal from the main stands, large human letters appear.






No words necessary from here, just enjoy pictures and videos!!

The leader’s portrait is made with human letters.

 

part of the human letters is sometime spotlit.

 

A great number of people are dancing on the field,

 

Children take part as well.

 

the phenomenal number of total performers..

 

Actually, 120,000 people take part in one Arirang festival.


It reminded me of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics last year. It is like doing that every other day.


Someday in the future, if the Olympics is held in North Korea or the reunited Goryeo Republic, the opening ceremony will be massive as well.






Now, it is not much but we have compiled our coverage of the Arirang festival into a film, so have a look below.

A four-day tour cost us more than 100,000 yen even though we chose to go into the country by land via China, not by air. On top of that, we had to pay at least 80 Euros to see the show. But the 80-minute show was well worth paying for it.


But, when considering the high expenditure, I hope that a day comes when the festival becomes more accessible to anyone.


I think the festival is one of the tourist attraction to attract a huge number of people.

 On the way to go outside the stadium, we bumped into the performers who were dancing just a while ago.

All of them were still excited and even waved at us foreigners.

I left the venue hoping in the depth of our hearts to visit here again sometime in the future.






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We arrived at North Korea by a sleeper train.

Annyeonghaseyo ! This is Atsushi.
Annyeonghaseyo is hello in Korean.

This report is about our North Korea tour of 3 nights 4 days.
This is a long report, so please read when you have a time!

At the very first day of tour, we met a Chinese tour guide who can speak Japanese and went to Dan Dong station.
(Dan Dong is located at the border between China and North Korea)

It's a brand new.

I had to go through immigration to cross over the boarder line.
I said goodbye to the Chinese tour guide here.

I passed the immigration and moved to the platform.

The platform loos modernized, but the trains were old-fashioned.

The destination was displayed in Chinese 

and Hangeul as the train goes across the border.

The passenger was waiting for the door's opening.

Most people wore badges.
It is strange that it is a sleeper train, though it is not a night train.

Because there was not enough space , 

we had to bend down when you sit on a bed.

It was three-tier beds, and many luggages were put in the empty bed.

The North Korean carried various goods into their country from China.

Look at this tiny bed.

It's too small for the giant Ken, 187cm tall. hahaha

It was 15 minutes late behind schedule and left Dan Dong.
At this point, we were not accompanied by any tour guide.

We were going to meet a tour guide at Pyongyang terminal, so we were totally free now!

We decided to take advantage of this opportunity!!

I captured on the film the moment we entered North Korea.

＜Subtitles translation＞

①We took a sleeper train from Dan Dong to Pyongyang.

②All of passenger had a lot of luggage for sell those goods in North Korea.
(They bought it in China)

③Why was the construction of this bridge suspended?

④because U.S.A. bombed the bridge during Korean War.

This video must be very valuable!
Sinuiju is a town of the border of North Korea side.

We arrived there at around 10:00 and undertook immigration check.
However, we didn't go to the immigration gate.

A lot of people wearing military suits got into the train and started examining everyone.

We handed in immigration cards, the form of super-flu countermeasure, passports and Visas.

They didn't stamped on the spot.

Instead, they collected all the passports of passengers and disappeared to somewhere.

This is the VISA I received from the travel agency before the immigration.

Then, security check was conducted.
They opened every single bag and inspect'em very carefully.

Took about 5 min per person.

We left Sinuiju at 13:15 because they checked all passengers in three-car train...

Give me a break.! We stuck at the station more than three hours.
Now I understand why they have so many beds in the train.

Anyway, my passport was returned with NO stamps on it.
A separated green VISA was given instead.

The stamp was on the backside.

The fact that the stamp wasn't set to my passport indicates that it has four days blank on it.

It might be happened that the entrance day is indicated one or two days delayed from the departure day because of time lag.

But, I've never heard of three days behind.

There are more than 100 stamps placed on my passport.
It's so tough to find the four days blank.

But Ken had just updated his passport just before this journey began.
So it's almost brand new passport, whose blank is so outstanding.

At last, we passed the immigration and stepped onto North Korean soil!

The train is made up from more than 10 units.

The scenery from the train is very nostalgic.

This was the only time we're allowed to walk around freely while we were in North Korea.

So, we talked to anyone in this train.

At first, I was afraid of doing this.

My first priority was to find a person who speak English.

(The guy in the film was the one.)

Then, surprisingly, we met a North Korean who can speak Japanese!!

The two guys were grim-looking but they were very friendly.
They even introduced us to another group having a party.

Sorry. I can't put the photo that I took with everyone. 

North Korean treated Heineken to unemployed Japanese drifters.
Fact is stranger than fiction.

I will report our North Korean journey in another day.

It's getting dark after a while.

At last, we arrived at Pyongyang Station at 19:30.
It took about 9 hours from Dan Dong Station.

It was already dark.

Two tour guides (43 and 39 guys) were waiting for us.
Their first words are "How brave you guys are. Do you realize the international situation?"

"Of course, we do." we answered.

Then we headed for a hotel and had dinner there.
We went straight to the bed.

Thank your reading this quite long diary.

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Visit the online soccer game company in Vietnam

Sin Chao, this is Ｋen.

In Hanoi, we visited Vietnam state-run media conglomerate company "VTC”, the online gaming company.

My former boss, who has various businesses in Hanoi introduced the president (Mr Phan Sao Nam) of above mentioned company to Assissi and me.

We asked company profile, the market potential of online gaming, and their description of the software.

Mr. Phan Sao Nam, who has responded to our interview very politely.

Although it’s impossible to list the whole interview, here are some of the interesting points we heard.

· VTC had a right to broadcast World Cup 2006 in Vietnam. Maybe next year's competition in South Africa as well.

- Services Division, including sales of games has been doubled from three years of service in 2006 with the target in this season is about 160 billion yen

- With its on-line game user is one quarter of the Vietnamese population (no exaggeration to say that almost all young people are the users.)

- The most profit-making games is called "Audition" which is dance game.

- Billing System (ESS) was built in-house, outside sales are also in sight (this area is undeveloped areas in Vietnam, so I think there is a potential.)

- 70% of users are accessing from outside their home such as Internet cafes.

- Thus, the peak time are 10:00 - 11:00, 14:00 - 15:00 and are different to Japanese situation.

· EA's "FIFA Online2" is the third most popular game. Of course, the most popular football game in first place by far.


Incidentally, FIFA Online2 number of users is 200 million in total, with approximately 40,000 simultaneous users.

Naturally, the popularity of the Vietnam national football team in Vietnam is high; however this is the fact that FIFA Online2 does not contain a representative of Vietnam.


The most popular teams are Brazil and England, followed by Argentina and Spain.

Incidentally, I asked popularity of Japanese team.

"Unfortunately, not very popular," said Mr Phan Sao Nam

Whoops…

Japan is not an Asian stars anymore I suspect…

For the club team, the Manchester United is overwhelmingly popular.

Merry Christmas in August??? Why???

The company is not only operating an online gaming business, but also trying wide-spread sports culture in Vietnam through TV and other media, and sponsoring a football tournament, investing into sporting industry, so to speak.

In addition, in the name of "eSports”, according to them, it is as an authentic sport, uses the body and brain”, they encourage to spread of the “game (online game) through sponsoring tournaments and other international competitions of egames.

Finally, we were able to get a message to Japan.


"It seems that presence of Japanese companies is completely gone in Vietnam compared to a decade ago. Years ago, made in Japan regarded to as high quality “The absolute power of brands”, however, Korean companies recently entered Vietnam and especially their image has improved among the young people. A lot would say Hyundai is better than Toyota and Honda. So please, Japanese companies, focus on more Vietnamese market, as we do hope to revive your brand image. "

Mr Phan Sao Nam said.

Mr Lee, Korean man, who has been a member since founded (left)

Of course, the company has a vision to enter the Japanese market, and collaborating with Japanese software companies to continually win in the Vietnamese market. (In fact, they already have strong relationships with Korean companies.)


If you are interested in Vietnam's online game industry by all mean, please let us know.

You never know what would happen.

Are Korean more realistic than Japanese?

Annyeonghaseyo! This is Atsushi!
Annyeonghaseyo is "hello" in Korean.

We visited South Korean Football Association (KFA) office.
It's located in a quite residential area, which is 2-3 km away from Myongdon.

I think Japanese are familiar with this place.

There is a display storing historical jersey of national Korean soccer teams.

As unusual ,we made an appointment before we visited here, because we're refused to enter South African Football Association.

The guy I'm talking to is Mr. Park who is in charge of media publication.

I gave a Japanese traditional craft called "Manekineko" as a souvenir.

Look at the Korean flag painted on its face!

They are available on the following website.

http://spazioincontro.jp/go2010/

Then, we started asking him about Korean soccer.

If you are not a soccer fan, just skip it.

What impressed me the most was the story about how Korean national team is preparing for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

He told me that KFA coaching staffs made a visit to South Africa during the Confederations Cup and conducted an inspection to choose training camp by checking its location or altitude.Then, they selected Rustenburg out of 10 host cities as the training camp.

Mr. Park made an interesting comment on Korean national team.

I asked him, "Japanese national team is aiming at making it to the semi final. How about Korea?"

He already knew about the Japanese ambition and replied, "Our goal is to advance to knock-out round."

This goal was set by the Korean national team headcoach Hun Jung-Moo and is regarded as "realistic" by public.

I'm not talking about which is smart, Japan or Korea.

Additionally, Mr. Park told me that Korean soccer players' slogan is always "Never give till the end."

By the way, I asked why Korean jersey is colored "shocking pink". 

He did't like the way it sounds. 

He collected it as "hot reds" which is a common way of calling it in Korea.

I'm sorry.

It is said that this hot red has been used as a team color since the World Cup 1954 in Switzerland. 


I also asked him about the influence of military-draft system on Korean soccer.
Did you know that one of the K League teams is military-based team?
The team is Gwangju Sangmu FC.


Sangmu's playing staff is made up of young Korean professional footballers serving their two year military duty. That means the squad is completely replaced in 3 yeas. It's unusual. 


This must be a big disadvantage in that the players are required to go through military training, comparing to other K League teams. But Sangmu FC finished their 2009 season at higher position on the ladder. 

I asked him if the military draft have something to do with the spirit of "Never give up till the end." But Mr. Park kept silent.

In the meantime, I had to wrap up the interview. 

I hope I can get to the point next time.

Check it our the K League movie!

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Why I came to Vietnam

Shinchao! It’s Yomoken.

※ = Shinchao, in this case it’s not “new bridge” in Chinese, but “Hello!" in Vietnamese.


Yesterday, we came to the city of Hanoi in Vietnam, all the way from Dalian in northeast of China.

Incidentally, we flew on China Southern Airlines from Dalian to Hanoi, stopped over Beijing and Guangzhou. 

It took 11 long hours to get to Hanoi and checked into the hotel after we left Guangzhou around noon.

They are a member of Sky Team.・ ・ ・ quality is so so.

Eventually, I was to leave China from Guangzhou, and during the passage of immigration there, a woman officer, flipping through my passport, was frozen at the page of Mongolia visa.

And she whispered to the officer nearby.

Then sadly I was restrained Σ (゚ ゚ д;)

and I was taken to the airport police.

It was nothing happened after about 15 minutes of checkups through my luggage, but I was truly wimped out when looked at jail like bars at the police station….


After leaving Guangzhou in China, our flight went quite smoothly to Hanoi which took about 2.5 hours.

We were so hungry after checked in at the hotel, although it was after midnight we immediately went to look for “Pho” noodle.

This rather fancy restaurant, the noodle cost 25000 Don (150 yen), which is higher than average.

The main purpose of this visit to Vietnam is to meet up with my former boss in the past I worked for.

Like me in a way, this guy has retired from a consulting firm in Japan, then came all the way to Vietnam, determine to run the businesses.

I wanted to see such “live images of succession” with my own eyes.


In fact, the hotel, where I stayed, is a part of his businesses.

Two-shot with the Japanese hotel manager

This is Little Hanoi, a mini-hotel. There are five hotels in this hotel chain, including "Little Hanoi DX" where I stayed.

“DX” in particular, their services included Japanese speaking reception, a 24 hours help desk and Japanese language PC. 

It’s the hotel’s unique selling point and for any Japanese people not fluent in English that they can stay here safe and inexpensively.


Apart from hotel operation they also have restaurant business to support. They offered to take me to restaurants.

The first shot was in this restaurant, the famous Vietnamese cuisine.


This is the owner’s suggestion, “soft crab”. The crab is so soft you can eat it just like that.

The best garlic seasoning

After that, we headed to the currency exchange.

A jeweler is doing exchanging business!

 I suspect they make more money than as a jeweler.

This is me, exchanging from China Yuan to Vietnamese Dong.

 Who do you think I am??


And again at dinner time, I was taken to a recently opened sushi bar called “SAKURA”.

It opened on August 1. A real bar atmosphere there is.

It reminded me that there were plenty of restaurants called SAKURA in Mongolia and China. Fine, "Sakura" is synonymous with Japan, I think, and the wording is kept a good brand image of Japan in overseas.

Here is the link to their website. Click. 

Menus are with French twist for some reason – Yummy.

Whoops, we haven’t been to sightseeing yet, other than seeing restaurants.

Oh well, this is my 3rd visit in Hanoi after all. I guess the last time was at Asian Cup in 2007.

Talking and listening to local people and local businesses people in the world is by far more interesting than usual sightseeing I suppose.

After we returned to the hotel and took a shower, I wrote this. Outside is a collaboration of torrential rain and violent thunder storm.


In a clear sunny day, you feel like being in the sauna after 30seconds walk here in Hanoi, I still hope for a clear sunny sky tomorrow. Good night.