"In Japan and South Korea, I Found The 'Ubiquitous Future,' Convergence, and a Video Camera in Fido's Dish" by Giving You A Voice Reporter at Large Jill Melchior, a recipient of the Roy W. Howard award for student journalists sponsored by Scripps-Howard.

Her prize was a two week trip to Seoul, South Korea, and to Osaka and Tokyo, Japan.      "Just hours before, my biggest struggle had been finding out which way to face squatting above the airport’s traditional toilet, a rectangular porcelain hole in the ground.  (I later discovered I’d done it backward.)   So I was a little skeptical when I mounted the hotel bathroom’s western-style throne with the keypad.  I stared at the knobs and buttons, all labeled in Korean text.    Never before had I felt so illiterate.  This may say, “Do not push the big red button,” I thought wryly as I inevitably reached for the button.   As you can imagine, my first encounter with a bidet was quite a surprise.   Touring both cultural sites and news media and technology hubs, I found the gamut of toilets I experienced in the first day were surprisingly indicative of the culture.   Allow me to elaborate.  Everywhere I went, I saw a juxtaposition of historical traditions (like the squatter toilet) and ultramodern technology (like the bidet).    In Seoul, for example, I had been warned before I left the U.S. to expect a permeating odor of kimchee everywhere.  Yet, I discovered that, although Koreans do eat kimchee with almost every meal, I did not notice the smell.   I developed a theory about why this odor disappeared.  When we took a tour of Samsung, we saw a slue of technology so futuristic it doesn’t seem real.  But some of it had already been released—among those, a kimchee refrigerator with filters eliminating odor.

(Pictured at left: Jill Melchior and Japanese woman.)

The technology in both Japan and South Korea was overwhelming, even eerie at times.  One cell phone company we toured is working on a phone with a tracking device “so you don’t lose your friend in the crowds,” the adorable tour guide explained.

If you punch in someone’s number, a map will pop up with their exact location pinpointed.  Incentive not to give out your number half-drunk at a bar, right?    Likewise, video cameras will be/are available to be installed throughout homes—even in a pet’s food dish.  By accessing the cameras from phones, you can monitor your house from work.   So, like any American, my mind raced to homicidal voyeurists.   I cringed at the idea of a Two Hour Photo serial killer sitting in front of a computer with a Mountain Dew leering at me through Fido’s food bowl as I lounged in my pajamas watching Seinfeld reruns.   “What precautions are being taken to make sure no one hacks into the system?” I asked our tour guide.   “Oh, it will happen,” she said nonchalantly.  “It will happen eventually.  But we are implementing lots of security to make sure it doesn’t happen often.”   The technology has also transformed news media overseas.  Convergence — various media like T.V., internet and print mashing together — has happened to a greater extent in the East.   At a T.V. station we visited, our guide pulled out his cell phone.  He pushed a button, and, much to our awe, a two-by-two-inch screen popped out, and the broadcast just taped in the studio was transmitted to his cell phone.   I asked multiple companies what they had done to prepare for transitioning to the new technology.  No one seemed phased by it.  They, in fact, sometimes seemed surprised I asked.  They simply learned it and adapted.   Then again, as a whole, the people have had to adapt often throughout their lifetimes.  We visited the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea and learned of the war hardships Koreans have endured—all of it very, very recently.    We looked across the border into North Korea where there is no freedom.  We visited a temple in Japan burnt down by a mad monk driven to desperation after years of war.  Koreans and Japanese, especially the older ones, had seen both poverty and riches, war and peace.   Perhaps that appreciation made the culture traditionally more genteel.  Everywhere we went, I noticed an overall politeness.  The airport was bustling, but courteously silent.  I did not see a single piece of litter in Japan or South Korea, but I could seldom find a trash can.  Likewise, people bowed when they said thank you.  Or hello.  Or goodbye.  Etcetera.    No one dressed immodestly.  Fashion required effort and planning, and the women were lovely.   Yet Americans were “the cool thing” in the East.  Everywhere we went, we saw tee shirts with English text scrawled across—often nonsensically.  (You wonder what they think of our tees with Japanese or Korean characters.)   For example, I saw an old man walking through an airport with a shirt that exclaimed, “Bed me, please!”  He was no doubt oblivious.  At the demilitarized zone, we saw a little girl, probably a kindergartener, wearing a shirt proudly proclaiming “Sexpot.”  The English coolness extends from clothes, though.  In a karaoke bar we visited, many American pop songs were available.  Not far away, the karaoke bathroom was labeled, “It’s toilet!”    So of course the English coolness appeared in the technological realm.  The catch-phrase for the ever-changing technology was “Ubiquitous World.”  Everything futuristic was “ubiquitous.”  It was written on posters, tagged to technology displays.  Tour guides proudly described the “ubiquitous future” their product would bring about.   The return has been equally eye-opening.  The Chicago and Denver airports were typically loud and chaotic.  I stepped on someone’s discarded McDonald’s bag.  Women wear sweat pants and a grubby, too-tight T-shirt, calling the look “sporty.”   Yet I can read the menu and order food I recognize.  I can strike up random conversations in store lines, and everyone speaks my language.  I can pronounce the street I’m driving on.    It’s not an adventure, but at least, it’s familiar.  Meanwhile, I answer my phone, reveling in the fact that I finally get service.  But when I look down, I notice the Samsung logo on the front.  Perhaps the world is more ubiquitous than I realized."   Copyright Jill Mechior 2006 All Rights Reserved

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