Full.Circle.With.Michael.Palin.02.Japan and Korea
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00:30I'm on route to Sado Island, my first stop in Japan, on the way to Korea and China.
00:44I'm impatient to get there.
00:56Sado Island is where the Kodo drummers live.
01:23I first saw them perform ten years ago.
01:27Their sheer power and energy has stayed in my memory ever since.
01:35Which is why I've come to this modest, respectable, out-of-the-way island.
01:47In the Middle Ages, Sado was a place of exile where they sent those who disagreed with the
01:51government.
01:52Now it's where the Kodos work and train, and they've invited me to join them for a day.
01:59They're putting me up in a ryokan, a traditional inn called the House of the Red Pear.
02:04It's run by the lady who grew up in it.
02:09Hello.
02:10Michael.
02:11Michael.
02:14Right.
02:15Let's go.
02:16Mama-san showed me up to my room.
02:24Into the woods?
02:25Please.
02:27It's lovely.
02:29Yes.
02:30Right.
02:31Michael-san, this yukata.
02:32Yukata?
02:33Right.
02:34Yes.
02:35What?
02:36Shoes are wrong again, I know.
02:50I'm sorry.
02:51Yes.
02:52Yes.
02:53Dear.
02:54It's another shoe, a shoe error.
02:58OK.
02:59Yes.
03:00Yes.
03:01Lovely.
03:02That's a sort of, like a dressing gown?
03:07Oh, I see.
03:09Like you're wearing.
03:10Yes.
03:11Yes.
03:12Yes.
03:13Jacket.
03:14I see.
03:15Very nice.
03:16Obi.
03:17Obi.
03:18Obi, which is a belt.
03:19Yes.
03:20I'm not quite sure I put all this on.
03:21Lovely.
03:23That's in there.
03:24Right.
03:25Now, sleeping.
03:26Where do I sleep?
03:28Yes.
03:29Oh, I see.
03:30That puts that out.
03:31That futon.
03:32Yes.
03:33Do you put it out?
03:34Yes.
03:35I see.
03:36I...
03:37Yes.
03:38I think I'll lay it out.
03:39Good.
03:40Fine.
03:41Lovely.
03:42The ryokan is immaculate, like a newly-finished building.
03:43It's a beautiful place.
03:44Yes.
03:45Yes.
03:46Yes.
03:47Yes.
03:48Yes.
03:49Yes.
03:50Yes.
03:51Yes.
03:52Yes.
03:53Yes.
03:54Yes.
03:55Yes.
03:57Like a newly-finished doll's house.
03:58Everything has its place, even Mama-san's goldfish, which are fed every afternoon at
04:03five o'clock.
04:10Every morning at five o'clock, the Kodo apprentices begin the day with a 10km run.
04:18I've asked if I can train with them and my bluff has been called there are ten
04:29of us all together and in deference to my great age they've reduced the ten
04:33kilometers to nine on their return they make a lot of noise which welcomes the
04:50Sun and keeps down local property values
05:08this is where it all started the old schoolhouse which Kodo bought in 1981
05:13here a few carefully chosen apprentices spend a year in frugal almost monastic
05:19conditions they cook and clean for themselves they may not drink or smoke
05:24they have one shower and one stove between them they're here to drum
05:49the technique is based on the art of the traditional Japanese drum the Taiko
05:59the word Kodo means two things heartbeat and children of the drum the teaching
06:18emphasizes the need to play with the innocence and energy of a child
06:33they drum for 90 minutes each morning and each afternoon six days a week it's
06:39like playing in the Cup final twice a day
06:48at the end of the year only one or maybe two of these apprentices will be
07:04chosen to become full members of Kodo
07:10say you is 24 she's given up a job teaching English in Tokyo to attempt the
07:16near-impossible
07:29the sounds of drumming becomes like together with my heartbreak together
07:35yeah at first I have to I have to like think oh okay reason and I have to raise
07:41my my more I have to think at first then as I get used to maybe three
07:48minutes or an hour maybe sometimes it takes like two hours but as I play Taiko
07:54more more then I become a part of like Taiko in case you're thinking it's a
08:01youngster's game this is Yoshikazu one of the founders of Kodo in three years
08:07he'll be 50 Yoshikazu is one of the only two members of Kodo strong enough
08:17to play the hugely demanding big drum Oh Daiko at their new headquarters the
08:25other virtuoso Aichi Saito is auditioning for a successor
09:25back at the harbor the fishing boats are in most of their catch seems to have
09:47gone straight to the house of the red pair
09:55to accompany the shellfish and the seaweed there is bream and squid and
10:20scallops sea snails abalone and soy sauce and teriyaki of tuna stomach
10:26scarcely a denizen of the deep is unrepresented at Mama-san's table oh
10:36magnificent magnificent absolutely wonderful yes thank you thank you this
10:46is the hot side thank you well cheers bottoms up I'm terribly nervous I must
11:01tell you now on camera I'm terribly nervous I'm gonna do everything wrong
11:04but isn't it beautiful so all I've done is not the sake ever that's all not a
11:08big deal bottoms up and bottom did go up that's all no giggling thank you
11:15I get this meal back on the road delightful a little bit of this very
11:20succulent fish
11:26my crash course in Japanese cuisine is just a golden memory next morning this
11:32is modern Japan fast food for people on the moon
11:45even out here in the country a spotless train arrives at a spotless platform
11:55spot-on time
12:01we're on our way south across Honshu the largest of Japan's three main islands
12:06from the rice plains of the northwest coast to the rice terraces in the
12:10mountain valleys the journey to Tokyo surprises me two-thirds of this crowded
12:18country still consists of woodland and forest
12:31Tokyo fourth largest city in the world is another kind of forest dense
12:37uncompromising and overgrown it's the first megacity on our route and it's
12:43especially confusing if you're not Japanese
12:54there is someone I know here who might help me make sense of it
13:07she's a girl called Mayumi who was Japan's first and most loyal Monty
13:12Python fan a fixer rendezvous at a city center cafe but first I've got to find
13:23my way there on my own
13:27well almost on my own the only trouble is that though we've exchanged many
13:44letters Mayumi and I have never actually met
13:57Mayumi Nobita, you are? Hello, nice to see you. Am I allowed to give you a quick kiss?
14:04I don't do that in Japan too much. How are you?
14:09What is this? Somebody told you I was coming.
14:14Welcome to Tokyo. Thank you. How are you doing? Fine.
14:18It's very nice of you to do this crazy thing. It really is. But I thought we ought to meet after all this time.
14:23I think so too.
14:2620 years already. 20 years when you wrote me the first letter.
14:30I started learning English. I wrote, I am a Japanese. I am a girl. And then you wrote me back.
14:38I loved your letters. I was like, I'm English, I'm a boy.
14:4120 years. I'd be a young lad of 32. You're probably a bit disappointed.
14:45You look like this. Oh, that is wonderful. You're in the long hair.
14:49Holy Grail, isn't it? Yes, you're in the Holy Grail.
14:52Well, we got to meet after all this time. That's really nice.
14:56I've been trying to find my way around Tokyo, so that's why I thought it would be rather nice if you could show me around.
15:02Sure. All right.
15:04Leaving the corporate tower blocks and cold plazas behind,
15:08Mayumi and I head for the slightly shady street life of a working class neighbourhood called Asakusa.
15:22This street looks like a more gambling street.
15:25There's a stand for the newspapers of horse racing.
15:29There's a guy selling horse race tickets.
15:33And this gentleman here, I think he won something.
15:35Did he? How much did he win? Can you ask him?
15:37Excuse me, we're from England.
15:40A great gambling nation.
15:43He spent only 1,000 yen.
15:46He spent 1,000 yen.
15:49With this ticket, 5,000 yen.
15:52This is what he won.
15:54It means 370,000 yen he won.
15:57On a 1,000 yen bet.
15:59Good. Congratulations.
16:02Well, let's stick around. Back to your place.
16:04I feel a bit of racing fever coming on, Mayumi.
16:07OK, why don't we try horse racing here?
16:10Hot fever is number one.
16:12Do you want to try seven, super license?
16:15Super license, OK.
16:17BBC, very appropriate. Super license.
16:24I find horse race commentary is difficult enough to follow in English.
16:28In Japanese, it's totally impossible.
16:30For all I know, super license could have been carried off by extraterrestrials.
16:34I feel.
16:44We won.
16:45We won. No, number seven. Really?
16:55We won. Number seven.
16:57Well done.
17:00Really?
17:01Well, there we are, you see. Look at that. Number seven.
17:05Yeah, that's it.
17:07All right.
17:09Here we are.
17:11126,000 yen.
17:15On, what, a 5,000 bet.
17:17Right. Yeah.
17:18So it's about 12 to 1.
17:20And the horse was called super license.
17:22So, you know, there we are.
17:24We'd better not show this too much.
17:26A grand total of 845 pounds, 63 pence.
17:31The most I've ever won on a horse in my entire life.
17:36And this is mine.
17:42We celebrate at one of Tokyo's oldest restaurants.
17:45For 190 years, undeterred by earthquakes and American bombing,
17:50the Dojo Nabe has served the people of Tokyo
17:53as something they could not get in quite the same way anywhere else.
17:57There we go. Thank you.
18:07Well, I've been places without chairs before.
18:10I've never been anywhere without a table.
18:12News of my big win must have got about,
18:14for the owner of the restaurant himself, Mr Watanabe,
18:17insists on joining us.
18:20Mr Watanabe, what is it that you serve here?
18:23What's your speciality?
18:25Order Dojo Nabe.
18:26Dojo Nabe.
18:27Dojo Nabe.
18:28Yeah.
18:29It's a cooked loach on the spot.
18:33Cooked loach?
18:34Loach.
18:35I've no idea what a loach is.
18:39The loach is a freshwater fish
18:41which has two vital attractions for the Japanese.
18:44It aids both digestion and virility.
18:50Once selected, the lucky or unlucky loach
18:53are tipped into wooden tubs
18:55and served copious amounts of sake, the Japanese rice wine.
19:03They drink in the sake. They become full of sake.
19:06Enjoy drinking.
19:08Enjoy it, yes, all right.
19:10The loach get pissed.
19:12The loach get very pissed.
19:14And then what happens today?
19:17The tottering loach are then upended
19:19into a soup of largely secret ingredients.
19:23To complete the dining experience,
19:25each table is supplied with its own blast furnace.
19:33It's good for you.
19:34Has this recipe been in use for 195 years?
19:41No change at all from the beginning.
19:44I'm sixth generation.
19:46You're sixth generation?
19:47Yes.
19:48People who run this Watanabe family?
19:50That's a tradition.
19:52Is your son going to do it as well?
19:54Maybe. I hope so.
19:56He's working at another company.
19:58Who's he?
19:59He's a dishwasher.
20:00He's a dishwasher, is he?
20:02Starting at the top.
20:04Let's start now.
20:06Mr Watanabe's enthusiasm for loach borders on the obsessive.
20:10He even publishes a loach newsletter four times a year.
20:13Do we eat the whole fish?
20:15Bones and everything?
20:17Yes.
20:18And the leeks on the top.
20:20Yes.
20:21I don't do that.
20:23Let's get this off.
20:25The whole fish goes in, ready?
20:30It's hot.
20:31Be careful.
20:33The leeks, the onions are very, very good with it.
20:36They're really good.
20:39They have that nice sort of clean taste.
20:44They tell me the restaurant has a famous slogan.
20:47That's your slogan, yes.
20:49If you keep eating, you can't die.
20:51Because if you died, you wouldn't be able to eat the rest.
20:55This may look like a hallucination brought on by an overdose of loach,
20:59but it's actually Tokyo on a Sunday afternoon.
21:06A mile-long stretch of Yoyogi Park is closed to traffic
21:10and open to almost everything.
21:12But it's not just that.
21:14It's also a place where you can get a taste of what it's like
21:18to be in Tokyo.
21:20Yoyogi Park is closed to traffic and open to almost everything else.
21:28Or so it seems.
21:38In fact, it's all strangely clean and innocent.
21:41By dressing as English heavy-metallers or Dutch punks
21:44or American rockers,
21:46these young Japanese can be outrageous and blame it on somebody else.
22:01It's an acceptable way of showing off
22:03in a country where showing off is not encouraged.
22:06Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Shinkansen.
22:10This is the Hikari Super Express bound for Hakata.
22:15We will be stopping at Shin-Yokohama,
22:18Nagoya, Kyoto,
22:21Shin-Osaka, Shin-Kobe...
22:24It's time to leave Tokyo and Mayumi, my excellent host,
22:28and head south on the bullet train.
22:30It's time to leave Tokyo and Mayumi, my excellent host,
22:34and head south on the bullet train,
22:36accelerating fast until we're lapping the Tokyo suburbs
22:39at 2.5 miles a minute.
22:55The train will take us down to the southernmost island of Kyushu,
22:59from which there's a ferry for Korea.
23:02But we're almost 200 miles out of Tokyo
23:05before the featureless urban sprawl
23:07gives way to something like open countryside.
23:14Halfway there, we break the journey
23:16to look at a way of life which modern Japan has hardly touched.
23:30This is the Zen Buddhist temple of Batsuji.
23:34It's been a place of silence and meditation for 600 years.
23:39The immaculate grounds reflect the love of precision,
23:42order and formality which lie at the heart of Japanese culture.
23:51Seeing these Spartan surroundings
23:53makes me aware of how much clutter I carry with me.
23:56By the time I've climbed yet another flight of stairs,
23:58I'm ready to renounce all worldly goods,
24:01beginning with my suitcase.
24:09Later that afternoon, I'm summoned to meet the abbot, the Roshi.
24:14As I wait, I find my mind full of ignoble distractions,
24:17like, do they have chairs?
24:20Yes? Welcome to Batsuji.
24:22Thank you. Thank you very much for letting me come here.
24:25Yeah. I'm an abbot of Batsuji.
24:28Yes.
24:29My name is Sokun. Please call me Sokun.
24:31Sokun, yes. I will indeed, Sokun.
24:33I know I'm only here for a very short time.
24:35Yes.
24:36I'm here for a very short time.
24:38Yes.
24:39I'm here for a very short time.
24:41Yes.
24:42I'm here for a very short time.
24:44Yes.
24:45I'm here for a very short time.
24:47I know I'm only here for a very short time.
24:49Yes.
24:50But I hope I'll learn something.
24:52Uh-huh. Yes.
24:53Is it possible, Sokun, to say in a few words
24:56what the difference is between the Zen Buddhism that you practice here
25:01and more traditional Buddhism?
25:06Yes.
25:07We mainly practice Zazen, Zen meditation.
25:13And not only by learning from books
25:18but also practicing with our whole body, with body and mind,
25:25under the unity of body and mind,
25:28we can attain our true nature.
25:31And from the morning till night, for 24 hours,
25:36each moment is the practice.
25:43The most important part of the practice is meditation,
25:47to which I've been invited.
25:49It takes place in an old wood-beamed hall, the zendo.
25:54The monks live here.
25:56Each one has a tatami mat three and a half feet wide and seven feet long.
26:01And that's about all.
26:13It's rather like the first day at school,
26:16watching everyone else and hoping not to make some terrible gaffe.
26:28When we're all sitting comfortably, nothing happens.
26:35Once I've accepted that nothing is going to happen, calm descends.
26:41All I have to do is be.
27:05After what seems hours, a bell indicates a short break
27:08in which tired limbs can be rearranged before the next session.
27:20Then, as calm is descending for a second time, something finally happens.
27:38Just as I'm wondering what it must be like to be hit so hard,
27:42I'm offered the chance to find out.
28:09He really can't do enough to make me comfortable.
28:18And in the true spirit of Zen, I thank him.
28:24I learn afterwards that this is the kesaku, the warning stick,
28:29a means of ensuring that meditation does not become an excuse for a quick nap.
28:35You know the monks should sit for over 15 hours a day
28:42when we practise the big session.
28:49As I am only here for one night,
28:52what will I be able to learn in that time from being here, do you think?
28:56You? Yes.
28:58But this is your programme. You mustn't ask me.
29:05Interviewing me was a Zen activity.
29:12The spirit of the past haunts Japanese life in the most surprising ways.
29:24For 200 years, Japan hid away from the world,
29:27and the Dutch were the only people allowed to trade with them.
29:35It isn't a dream, you know.
29:38You might think it's a dream. In fact, I almost thought it was a dream.
29:41But, in fact, it is reality.
29:44Well, it's not actually reality. It's a fake.
29:48See, I'm in Holland, but I'm also in Japan.
29:53It's all very Zen.
29:58To celebrate this Dutch connection,
30:01a Nagasaki businessman has raised $2.5 billion
30:05to recreate 17th-century Holland on the shores of the East China Sea.
30:12Most of the historic Dutch buildings, including the Royal Palace,
30:15are faithfully reproduced.
30:17But thanks to modern Japanese technology,
30:20the canals are self-cleaning,
30:22and the merchants' houses are earthquake-proof.
30:31Four million Japanese come here every year
30:34to see what life in Europe is really like.
30:47This theme park with plogs on
30:49has rapidly become Japan's favourite honeymoon destination.
31:00TRUMPET FANFARE
31:24It's odd, but this celebration of historic links with the foreigner
31:28seems to me to be the fantasy of a country
31:30ill at ease with the rest of the world.
31:3699% of all Japanese were born and still live in Japan,
31:41a country with no minorities of any size.
31:44The Dutch village is a success
31:46because it enables the Japanese to be part of the wider world
31:50without ever having to leave home.
31:59The wider world has always come to Japan through Nagasaki.
32:03First, the Dutch came here.
32:05Then the British and Americans set up Japan's first railways,
32:08coal mines and shipyards here.
32:11And in 1945, the biggest bomb the world had ever known was dropped here.
32:19At 11 o'clock on a Wednesday morning,
32:22the equivalent of 22,000 tonnes of TNT exploded above this spot.
32:28More people were killed in this one blast
32:31than were killed in all the bombing raids on Britain
32:33throughout the Second World War.
32:45More than 50 years later, the Japanese make a point of not forgetting.
32:50School parties come to lay streamers made up of paper birds,
32:54a token of respect for the dead.
32:57They sing songs of peace a few hundred yards
33:00from all that remains of a Catholic cathedral
33:03that lay directly in the path of the world's second atomic bomb.
33:15The bomb that wiped out a third of Nagasaki
33:17was intended for the Mitsubishi shipyard.
33:20Mitsubishi survived and, with the help of American aid,
33:23became the world's number one.
33:26But as the Japanese learnt from others, so others learnt from them.
33:31Across the water lies my next destination,
33:34the country whose shipbuilders beat the Japanese at their own game.
33:42We're just about to leave Hakata Port in Japan
33:47for the ferry trip to Korea, another country.
33:51And I feel all those things you feel about travel at this time,
33:54a bit harassed with getting bags on and off and tickets and all that sort of stuff,
33:58but also a great curiosity about the country that we're going to see.
34:03Though Japan and South Korea are a short ferry ride from each other,
34:07they've never been happy neighbours.
34:09Tomorrow morning, I shall arrive in Busan.
34:12As I travel north to Seoul and beyond,
34:15I hope to find out more about this tiny country
34:18wedged in between Japan and China, our next destination.
34:25MUSIC PLAYS
34:30As we approach the land of the morning calm,
34:33I look out for images of Korean-ness.
34:36But the busy waterfront could be any modern city at rush hour,
34:40and the concrete apartment blocks stare blankly back.
34:45MUSIC CONTINUES
34:51The capital, Seoul, 300 miles north.
34:55A great new city ballooning out over the countryside
34:58from which it has sucked in 11 million inhabitants.
35:02These corporate office blocks belong to the secretive family conglomerates,
35:06which have guided Korea through one of the world's fastest industrial revolutions.
35:15MUSIC CONTINUES
35:18In the short space of 20 years, Samsung, Daewoo, Hyundai and others
35:24have won this old country new recognition.
35:29I walk through one of Seoul's markets
35:31in the company of a young Korean journalist, Shin Na.
35:35What do the Koreans think?
35:37Are they very proud of what they've done here in Seoul?
35:40Yeah, they are very proud.
35:42They've just gotten out of a war just 20 years ago.
35:45Who do they sort of measure themselves against, the Koreans?
35:48They always look to Japan.
35:50They always sort of measure themselves against Japan
35:52because Japan was also levelled by war
35:54and they rose out of the ashes and became a great economic power.
35:57So the Koreans naturally look to their neighbours.
36:00They still harbour a grudge?
36:02Yeah, there is still a great deal of anti-Japanese sentiment among Koreans,
36:05especially the older Koreans.
36:07Japanese pop culture, music, cartoons, things like that,
36:11are still banned in Korea.
36:13Japanese cars are banned.
36:15This anti-Japanese feeling is a surprise
36:18until you read the history books.
36:20Early this century, the Japanese occupied Korea for 36 years,
36:24pretty ruthlessly.
36:29Now the Koreans are determined to get their own back
36:32by winning the economic war.
36:34But Korean single-mindedness is showing cracks,
36:37especially among the young.
36:42Hanging here are photos of the victims of a massacre
36:45of 200 students in 1981,
36:48which has since traumatised Korean politics.
36:52There is outrage that the generals responsible for it
36:55have been granted immunity from prosecution.
37:12Police have deployed in anticipation of a march
37:15which might well end in a riot.
37:17Multiparty democracy in Korea is less than ten years old
37:21and a very demanding child.
37:27Shin explains that these confrontations are increasingly common.
37:31Protesters and police now know each other's tactics.
37:42But the cars are doing U-turns to get out of the way
37:45and to an outsider who hasn't a clue what's going on,
37:48it looks pretty threatening
37:50as students and union leaders take to the streets.
38:05How many do you reckon here?
38:07Yeah, several thousand.
38:09Several thousand.
38:11Shouting, shouting what? What are they shouting?
38:14The shouts of massacre and massacre the massacrerers
38:18are directed against the generals involved.
38:21But there's also anger at a much wider corruption in public life.
38:33This particular march was not in vain.
38:36A few months later, the generals were arrested, tried and imprisoned.
38:47Next morning, Shin and I are doing our best to cross the city.
38:52We've been invited to a wedding.
38:55In the South Seoul Marriage Hall,
38:57every single wedding day worry is taken out of your hands
39:00by an expert staff.
39:06Everything is for hire, except the guests and the person you marry.
39:19Brides can be dressed, decorated
39:21and delivered to the altar in rented loveliness within the hour.
39:28Shin tells me that one in four Koreans is a practising Christian
39:32and the ceremony laid on here is a mixture of Western religious ritual
39:36and Korean business opportunism.
39:39First, the Korean opportunism.
39:56The proud parents are nearby,
39:58the women in traditional dress and the men dressed as bandleaders.
40:02Their daughter is prepared for the 2.15 ceremony
40:05in the number two wedding salon.
40:17This family has opted for the simple piano accompaniment,
40:20knowing that the money saved can be spent on something more spectacular.
40:33Everyone is a bit misty-eyed by now
40:35and the in-house video is there to record it.
40:53Outside the wedding salon, the atmosphere is less sentimental.
40:57As the men of the family count the takings,
40:59the bride is prepared for one last photo opportunity.
41:08This is all that's left of the way they used to get married.
41:11The happy couple are immortalised by the most sophisticated camera equipment
41:15in front of Korea's rented past.
41:24This is the real thing, the Pulguksa Temple.
41:29Known officially as historic site and scenic beauty number one.
41:36In a place like this, you begin to get a clearer sense
41:39of what defines the Koreans.
41:43They have a history which is 5,000 years old.
41:46It's very different from anyone else's and they're very proud of it.
41:52Despite constant invasions, they've kept their own language,
41:55their own alphabet and their own architecture.
42:00Pulguksa stood for 1,000 years
42:03before being destroyed by Japanese invaders in the 17th century.
42:07It's now restored and after days among the concrete canyons of Seoul,
42:12its colour and craftsmanship is like a breath of fresh air.
42:17Today, when we leave Seoul,
42:19we shall encounter our first serious obstacle
42:22to progress around the Pacific Rim.
42:25It's called North Korea.
42:27And no matter how nicely you ask,
42:29North Korea is not really interested in seeing you.
42:32There is only one way to approach it.
42:35This is the very start of a tour into one of Korea's most famous landmarks,
42:39the Pulguksa Temple.
42:41There is only one way to approach it.
42:44This is the very start of a tour
42:46into what is probably one of the most militarised borders anywhere on Earth.
42:50So, special restrictions do prevail.
42:52First of all, I have to sign a visitor's declaration,
42:55which says, roughly, the visit to the joint security area
42:58will entail entry into a hostile area and possibility of injury or death
43:02as a direct result of enemy action, blah, blah, blah, blah.
43:05Although incidents are not anticipated,
43:07the United Nations, the United States of America
43:10and the Republic of Korea cannot guarantee the safety of visitors
43:13and may not be held accountable in the event of a hostile enemy act.
43:17So I just have to sign this, let them off the hook,
43:19and we can go on with the tour, which should be happening very soon.
43:25In front of them all is the motto of the 506th Infantry,
43:29some of the 37,000 American troops still stationed in Korea.
43:34The war they fight now is a propaganda war.
43:37Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Freedom House.
43:40Today's GI is double as guides, taking groups of foreign tourists,
43:45no South Koreans are allowed, right up to the border itself
43:49and right back in time.
43:51Here, the Cold War is still frozen solid.
43:55Out there is the enemy.
43:57Once again, you are still under close watch.
43:59Out there is the enemy.
44:01Once again, you are still under close observation,
44:03so we ask that you refrain from making any hand-in-arm gestures towards that side.
44:07Just off to your immediate front is North Korean Administrative Building.
44:10Ladies and gentlemen, it was built on a man-made hill
44:12to ensure its dimensions are one metre higher
44:14and wider than the building you are now standing on.
44:17We're in a world of minefields and tank trucks,
44:21B-52 bombers, attack helicopters and quick-reaction forces
44:26ready for combat in 90 seconds flat.
44:29..and come back out firing.
44:31Momentarily, we'll be going into the vicinity of the MAC building,
44:34so you may begin taking photographs at this time.
44:37From the way they talk, you'd think the Korean War had ended yesterday.
44:41In fact, it's never officially ended.
44:44In this temporary hut, actually built over the border itself,
44:47MAC, the Military Armistice Commission,
44:50has been trying to turn a ceasefire into a peace for 43 years.
44:54Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the MAC building.
44:56The MAC building is where the four types of meetings
44:58essential to the supervision of the ceasefire agreement are held.
45:01All of the meetings last three to four hours,
45:03but there's one on record that lasts 11 hours.
45:05Everything said in this building is translated into three languages,
45:08English, Korean and Chinese.
45:10Beneath all the military speak, the undeniable fact remains
45:13that these are the world's least successful peace talks.
45:17Most of the time seems to have been spent discussing
45:19the placing of the microphones or the height of the tables.
45:22If our flags are here, you can see I stand on a two-tier base.
45:25While they're standing on three, they're both equal in height.
45:28But as our guide reminds us, the only thing that matters
45:31is the line running down the middle of the hut,
45:33and that's not budged an inch.
45:36Therefore, those of you on my left, welcome to Communist North Korea,
45:39while those of you to my right are relatively safe from the Republic.
45:42If you wish to make a crossing into North Korea,
45:44please do so at that end of the table,
45:46and when those of you in North Korea wish to return back to the Republic,
45:48also please do so at that end of the table.
45:50If you have any questions, I'll be located to the southern end of the door.
45:52Rock soldiers.
45:56A bit busy in North Korea.
46:10I've been around a bit, but I've never known a more bizarre way
46:13to enter a new country.
46:21Crossing the frontier has been reduced to something
46:23halfway between a parlour game and a visit to the House of Horrors.
46:28Nearly there.
46:31Each is to go.
46:35North Korea.
46:37It's a chance for all of us from the lands of the free
46:41to experience a frisson of communism,
46:43a hint of what might have been, a whiff of the old enemy.
46:50As the tour rolls remorselessly on, my spirits remorselessly sink.
46:55No-one seems to care if nothing happens here.
46:58The military get their training,
47:00the South Koreans get their border looked after,
47:02and those like me who believe in human contact get depressed.
47:06It's a place deserted by common sense.
47:10Even when we are allowed a clear view of North Korea,
47:13the village we can see is just another piece of propaganda.
47:17No-one lives there.
47:19Well, this is it. This is the end of the road.
47:22We can't go any further into Korea
47:24without the risk of being either shot or arrested.
47:27It comes as a bit of a shock to find such a heavily fortified,
47:31potentially lethal border in the middle of the open,
47:34outgoing Pacific Rim area,
47:36but I suppose the immeasurable sadness of a place like this
47:40is that it's not a border between two rival countries.
47:43It's a border that separates one country...
47:47..from itself.
47:59As the flags come down,
48:01so do our chances of passing unhampered around the Pacific Rim.
48:05North Korea may be a brick wall,
48:08but it's not one on which I'm prepared to bang my head.
48:11I'll leave that to somebody else.
48:13I've got to get to China.
48:16MUSIC PLAYS
48:46MUSIC FADES