Full Circle 2 – Around the Bubble 太平洋一周２ －バブルの頃

I recently read an old travel diary of a British celebrity, Michael Palin.  He has made a number of tv travel series, and also collected further notes and memories of his trips, and released them as books and audio- books.  The audio-book I listened to was, “Full Circle”, in which he travels around the Pacific rim. He goes from Alaska to eastern Russia, Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand, and then up through Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, the USA, Canada, and then back to Alaska. 

I wish I could have Michael Palin’s job!  What could be better than being paid to have a ten-month vacation, travelling around the world? 

According to his diaries, though, he did feel like he was going to die several times – including on a back-up ship travelling from the Philippines to Malaysia, which had only been designed to sail on the calmer waters of the Japan Inland Sea, and on a helicopter trying to reach an Alaskan island in very poor weather.  Plus, his diaries mention regular diarrhoea and sickness, long queues and unfriendly officials in Communist countries, and lonely hotel rooms. He heard that his wife was seriously ill and needed treatment while he was filming thousands of miles away, in Indonesia.  Perhaps the fantasy of constant travel, always planning a move toward the next horizon, is better than the reality. 

Part of the charm and interest of the travel diaries are that they are now quite dated.  He made the trip in 1995 and 1996.  So much would be radically different if he were to repeat the journey now.  It was fascinating to hear his impressions of Japan just a few years after the “bubble economy” had passed its peak. 

I laughed when he repeated in his diary a joke that a South Korean told him, concerning the difference in national character between the North Koreans, Japanese, and South Koreans. 

A North Korean, Japanese, and South Korean enter a restaurant together. 

“You’ll have to excuse me,” says the waiter.  “We have run out of beef, so you’ll have to do without.” 

“What’s beef?” asks the North Korean. 

“What does it mean to do without?” asks the Japanese. 

“What does, ‘excuse me’ mean?” asks the South Korean. 

The joke assumes that North Koreans live in poverty.  That’s easy to understand.  It assumes that the Japanese can always get whatever they want, and don’t understand doing without.  This might be because of the recent bubble economy, or Korean memories of living under Japanese occupation.  And the joke assumes that South Koreans don’t understand the idea of politeness.  I’m sure that none of these observations are fair, but they made me giggle anyway. 

If any production companies would like to film me travelling to all these countries again, to see if anything has changed, please get in touch!  “Full Circle 2 – This time a blind man travels the Pacific rim clockwise!”


Vocabulary:

a rim – an edge; the part where something ends

back-up – reserve; second option, if the main option is unavailable

diarrhoea – a stomach or bowel illness, causing normally solid waste from the body to come out as liquid

to be dated – to seem old-fashioned, or not to have kept up with modern times

to do without – to get by without getting what is wanted or needed; to live without luxury

to giggle – to laugh lightly in a silly way

clockwise – of a circle, in the direction that the hands of a clock move