Full Circle: Japan/Korea

Michael begins his time in Japan at Sado Island, where he meets the famous Kodō drummers. He participates in a morning run with drummer hopefuls and then takes his shot at the largest drum. Then it is on to Tokyo, where he meets up with Mayumi Nobetsu, a Japanese Monty Python fan. They tour the Asakusa neighborhood where they decide to bet on a horse race. Michael and Mayumi strike gold with a horse named Super License. The two also eat at a restaurant where the specialty is loaches who have been fed sake, the popular Japanese rice wine. Afterwards, they catch a punk rock concert in Yoyogi Park. Catching the shinkansen to Fukuyama, he takes in a Zen Buddhist meditation session at Buttsuji Temple. During the meditation session in the Zendo, he is struck by a keisaku, which is used to keep meditators from lulling off to sleep. In Nagasaki, he visits Huis ten Bosch, a Dutch-themed park set to symbolize old trading ties with the Dutch. After catching a ferry to Busan in South Korea, he meets up with Shin-Na, a journalist in the capital of Seoul. Shin-Na explains to him that there still exists animosity between Koreans and the Japanese, none more evident than in the fact that most Japanese cultural items are still banned in Korea. The two then witness a rally protesting generals' immunity from prosecution in a bloody massacre in Gwangju in the early 1980s. (About 3 months after Michael left Seoul, the generals were prosecuted and imprisoned.) At the South Seoul Marriage Hall, Palin and Shin-Na attend a wedding ceremony. Michael notices that the number of traditional Korean marriages are dwindling. Not too long after, Palin encounters his first roadblock of the journey: North Korea. He can only go with a group of foreign tourists (no Koreans are allowed) led by one of the Americans stationed at the DMZ. He then "crosses" the border in the Joint Security Area at Panmunjeom into the North; however, he cannot venture much further than that without being shot or arrested. A