Comments on: The Japan-Korea tunnel gets revisited

By: Aceface

Aceface — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 02:05:02 +0000

I dunno about that Joe.
When I was in Korea this May,I covered the event of inter-korean railway and went to this station a t Dorasan which was right near the demilitarized zone.ANd there was this gigantic board on the wall of station saying” destination to Europe starts at Dorasan”.And the rail from Dorasan goes always to Paris by crossing Eurasia…
The new presidential candidate Chung Dong-young is very keen on this project as well as his “progressive(in a very Korean context”progressors and even wrote a book on it called “Train ticket from Kaesong to Paris”.(Dorasan is right in front of NK city of Kaesong where joint-economic zone exists).So he may push Korea’s KTX (The current one is made with parts of French TGV in Korea,but they are designing new version)instead of Shinkansen.

I think we Japanese rather fly or use hydrofoils to Korea,but then again conservative candidate Lee Myoung-bak is thinking about building gigantic canals accross SK and he may wants to launch another mega-construction project with Japan without consalting beforehand.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 11:05:05 +0000

Japan is already negotiating with Russia on transforming the Trans Siberian railroad to 2-3 day delivery service to Europe with Shinkansen…Putin seems to like the idea…

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 11:01:56 +0000

Well…this might just get built…but only if Japan and Korea feel like they might get left behind. Since there is a proposal to build a cross straight tunnel from Taiwan to China (Hsinchu to Fuzhou), if the Chinese do this…surely Japan will cozy up with Korea to not feel “left behind”.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_Strait_Tunnel_Project

By: Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » Japan and Korea: tunnel

Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » Japan and Korea: tunnel — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 06:26:05 +0000

[...] Goh Kun, a former prime minister of Korea, is proposing a Japan-Korea tunnel as part of his campaign for president. Joe from Multant Frog gives some historical background on the proposal. Oiwan Lam [...]

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 04:36:12 +0000

But let’s face it: if Taiwan isn’t a country, then Michael Jackson isn’t black.

By: Mutantfrog

Mutantfrog — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 04:26:08 +0000

I’m fairly sure that last weekend I had a dream in which I was arguing with someone about whether Taiwan is really a country or not (I was pro-Taiwan as country). But I’m still not completely positive that it wasn’t a real conversation I had at one of the bars I had been in earlier that evening…

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 02:55:45 +0000

Something similar happened when I was in high school in Osaka. On the first day of world history class, the teacher went around the room and asked each student to name a country in Asia. I was last on the roster (having enrolled late) in a class of 40, so by the time they came around to me there weren’t many countries left.

I said “Taiwan,” which hadn’t been named yet.

The teacher (who was Japanese) said “Uh, not really, but all right. Well then, moving right along…”

By: M-Bone

M-Bone — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 01:41:06 +0000

I was in a ryugakusei Japanese class at a national uni. A student was asked “What country are you from?” and responded “Taiwan”. A Chinese student gave a haughty laugh and declared that Taiwan is not a country. VERY uncomfortable moment.

It makes me think that I’m lucky to be from Canada, a country that has very few beefs. Makes being a foreign student easier.

By: Mutantfrog

Mutantfrog — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 00:16:51 +0000

The comments at Marmot’s Hole do get pretty scary sometimes. I still like the posts by the actual blog authors, but I stopped looking at/responding to the comments section a while ago. I certainly wouldn’t mind growing the number of good commenters here, but I really don’t want it to turn into some crazy free for all.

“”At the university where I study/teach someone has gone around to virtually all of the maps hanging on classroom walls, crossed out “Sea of Japan”, and written in “East Sea”.””
In the international dorm where I lived in Kyoto 2002-2003 they posted a notice about SARS or something that said:

China

*Hong Kong

*Taiwan

which one of the Taiwanese students living there helpfully corrected with a magic marker. Not that I didn’t completely agree with the correction myself, of course.

By: Mutantfrog

Mutantfrog — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 00:07:09 +0000

“SK citizens DO have visa free access to Japan started from march’06.MF.”
Ah right. I remembered that they had set up temporary visa waiver programs twice for Korea, and they made the Taiwan visa waver permanent while I was in Taiwan (I think in 2005 still) and their was speculation that Korea would follow, but I must have missed the headline announcing it was finalized. Thanks for the correction.