Fishy foot baths are all the rage in spas throughout the Far East. The bizarre trend started in Turkey where people pay to be immersed in a pool teeming with "doctor fish" that eat away at dead skin.
The treatment, which is also known as "fish reflexology," apparently results in super-smooth feet. Recently, doctor fish spas have popped up in Japan, Malaysia, Korea, Singapore and Croatia. After the jump, check out video footage of these flesh-eating fish in action.
On Tuesday, Paramount Pictures unveiled plans to open a theme park in South Korea, a country that's already crammed with movie studio resorts. Six months ago, Universal Studios announced its intent to open a similar venture. The trend started back in 2006 when MGM revealed plans for their Studio City theme park and film academy. All three theme parks will be located within an hour of Seoul.
The movie studios see South Korea as a "fast-growing and attractive market" because it's popular with Chinese tourists. The execs also cite the almost magical hold Korean pop culture has on the rest of Asia. Paramount expects to host over 5 million visitors during their first year in South Korea with attractions based on movies like "Mission: Impossible" and "Tomb Raider."
Paramount's "Movie Park" and MGM Studio City will both be neighbors in Incheon, a city that's about a half-hour west of Seoul. The Universal Studios park will be headquartered to the South in Hwaseong, which is connected to Seoul by subway. When all of the construction is completed in 2012, South Korea will offer visitors a world-class combination of theme park entertainment and barbecue the likes of which has not been seen anywhere in the world since Dollywood opened its doors in Nashville in 1961.
The South Korean government has been struggling with this bird flu thing. Early attempts to contain a fresh outbreak back in April were unsuccessful, and last weekend all the poultry in Seoul--about 15,000 birds--was killed in an attempt to curb the disease.
Now health officials are announcing plans to build a massive plant capable of producing a bird flu vaccine should the disease spread to humans, at a rate of 20 million doses per year. Which is great--though the plant apparently won't be finished until the end of 2009.
This isn't the first time South Korea has wrestled with the virus. The first local case was reported in 2003, and the country killed 5.3 million birds. During another spate of the disease in 2006-2007, only half that number were killed. In the past two months, South Korea has culled 7 million birds.
Worldwide the H5N1 strain of the bird flu has killed 240 people, according to the World Health Organization, and none of those deaths have been in South Korea. (Media scare says what?) Still, if you're in the country, probably shouldn't feed the ducks.
It's been a long time since young ladies in hot pants were strutting down the aisles of planes in the United States. But they do things a bit differently in South Korea: Being a beautiful flight attendant is such a posh gig, women sign up for classes to improve their odds of getting the job.
The ANC Flight Attendant Academy is one such school, where 20-somethings practice cabin announcements in English--and how to apply makeup. Since its such a competitive field, students say, women will diet, get skin treatments and even try plastic surgery to up their chances of getting hired.
While that may sound bad to some feminists, the norm in Korea is for women to be given limited responsibilities in the workplace. So even though appearance may play a part in getting hired, at least one potential FA doesn't mind:
[Being a] flight attendant is a professional job for a woman, so it's good for us.
Japan's sakura are widely lauded as the most beautiful spring blossoms in the world--except, of course, in South Korea. On the other side of the East Sea--or as your map probably calls it, the Sea of Japan--Koreans are proud of their own cherry trees, and have several festivals celebrating the arrival of the blooming season.
One of the most famous is the Gunhang Festival in Jinhae, on Korea's southern shore. This small port city about 40 miles away from Busan hosts this event annually, starting on Wednesday this year. The festivities not only celebrate the scenery but also commemorate Admiral Yi Sun-shin, who is famous for his victories against the Japanese navy during several invasion attempts in the late 1500s. Ahhh, nothing like the smell of flowers to remind you of bitter history!
In Seoul, the best place to see those pink petals floating on the wind is in Yeouido, on Yunjungno Road. Every year traffic is closed along a several mile stretch so locals and tourists can ogle the natural beauty without being run over. Don't let the daytime crowds deter you--during the festival the city keeps this street brightly illuminated well into the night.
Seoul's streets are a traffic-clogged melee of taxis, commuters and scootering delivery boys--a place where rules appear to be absent and the sight of cars rolling down the sidewalk is fairly common. It goes without saying, then, that cycling in the city is taking your life into your hands. But when gas is up, you gotta do what you gotta do.
In response to climbing oil prices, says the JoongAng Daily, South Koreans are taking a more active interest in greener options. CJ Mall, a Korean shopping site, reported selling over 1,000 bicycles just in the last month, the most popular of which was a $480 folding bike made by Strida.
Seoul and several other South Korean cities even hold their own "Critical Mass"--a loosely organized monthly parade of urban cyclists that takes place worldwide. (Though the "mass" looks to be pretty scant compared with rides in New York or Chicago.)
If you're feeling brave, fold out your ride and roll with the other Seoul cyclists this weekend; they meet every third Saturday of the month in front of the Kwanghwamun gate at 4 pm sharp.
Forget the cooked history books and wartime injustices, the Japanese government prefers to bury hatchets through feats of modern engineering. Last week members of the nation's parliament proposed building an undersea railway from Japan's southernmost island to Korea's port city of Busan as a symbol of peaceful ties. It would stretch 80 miles, making it more than twice the length of the Chunnel.
If it actually gets built, the tunnel would allow passengers to travel from Tokyo to London completely by rail. Whether it would heal the bitterness between the two countries is another matter entirely.
Korea was colonized by Japan from 1910 until the end of World War II. Much of the suffering Koreans endured during that time--including the abduction and enslavement of "comfort women"--remains officially unacknowledged by Japan today. Nothing a shiny new train can't fix, right?
South Koreans are still reeling after the nation's number one national treasure burned to its foundation early this week. The tragedy left locals and expats alike heartbroken amid Lunar New Year celebrations, and we're still shaking our heads in disbelief.
The Sungnyemun gate was more than 600 years old and had survived numerous foreign invasions and the Korean War--but it couldn't withstand the wrath of one crazy old man. Chae Mo, 69, apparently lit the wooden structure ablaze to draw attention to a personal land dispute. The kicker? Chae told police he had originally thought about attacking the subway system, but decided against it because he didn't want to hurt anybody--what a nice guy!
After an uproar about the lack of proper protection for the gate, the head of South Korea's cultural heritage administration turned in his resignation. The gate, which is more commonly referred to as Namdaemun, was near one of Korea's most famous open-air markets.
