I wanted to organize my thoughts on this, as I don't want to say that either Korea or Japan is better. They are both different. I am just communicating the emotional feeling that I have when I come to Japan, after living in Korea for a while. My Korean friend said that her other foreign friends had similar feelings.
I explained to my friend something to this degree. In being from Korea, I have a sense of pride that I cannot readily explain. I am not Korean obviously, but I am from the community in Korea. Thus, by people a member of the community, interacting and living there, I have this sense of being, this identity. I'm a foreigner of Korea, not a foreigner in general, if that makes sense. Thus with pride I say, I live in Korea: 韓国に住んでいる and that I study in Korea: 韓国の大学を勉強している. I don't need to belong or integrate here, but I can enjoy and share.
I get all kinds of surprises and interests in me. I try to tell them that I often traverse between Japan and Korea, so if they had friendship or other relationship, it would last longer than a simple vacation.
Another thing I felt, is that Korea has some advantages that Japan does not have. Many Koreans are very educated and well aware of things that are happening in the world. I feel though in some ways, that though Japan has this very modern advanced and system in place, far more advanced and sophisticated that Korea or other parts of the world, but most citizens here are not cognizant of this. There seems to be a minority elite that are the movers and shakers of Japan, while most just go about their programmed lives. In Korea, there's a higher awareness as to how things work, and many opportunities, if not in Korea, in the world. Unfortunately for Korea, painfully obvious is that most of the economy is in the control of a few families: 80% of GDP controlled by 10 families, and 60% of GDP controlled by 4 families that control biggest Chaebols (財閥 or 재벌). These families (the neo-yangban per say) lock of the resources and stifle innovation, which probably encourages masses to explore opportunities abroad, or allow their children to marry foreigners (something that was considered unfathomable a decade ago).
Oooh, I am getting way to intellectual. I only wanted to describe the feeling I had, but then well, I guess studying at Yonsei and doing my own research, a simple feeling or intuition turns into a thesis paper.
Another thing of interests were social patterns. Many here in Tokyo have rigid forms of social protocol, which causes many people to see Japanese as mindless robots. Though this is not the truth, but the conformity to social protocol of society is strong. In Korea, there is a conformity as well, but this is toward smaller groups. I felt that many Koreans act like herds of animals, always doing things in packs, rather than acting individually. In Japan, many act as individuals, as long as they conform to the social norms. And in Korea, it seems that many seldom do anything outside of a collective group.
In Korea, doing anything as an individual is considered rather awkward. Even many bars are often devoid of a bar, where singles can sit and mingle. Some bars that I found that do have a bar, but are typically empty, and if they are occupied, it is usually two seats with a couple there discussing some topic because the tables are all full.
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