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On a jetty jutting out into the Sea of Japan, toward a pine-covered lighthouse isle, this metal tree of hearts is a rendezvous spot on the NE coast of South Korea. Visitors from all over Asia come to Sokcho to eat seafood and to see where scenes in “Autumn in my Heart,” one of the first internationally famous Korean melodramas, were filmed. (The open-mouthed fish-"bench” makes for a curious pairing, no?) To get here from Seoul: catch an ‘express bus’ from Dong Seoul Bus Terminal or Gangnam Express Bus Terminal. Buses from Gangnam let you off, after a few hours, at the Sokcho Express Bus Terminal, which is just a five minute walk from this jetty. Adjacent is a 1-km-long stretch of white sand popular on weekends. This unpretentious town is still a bit off the beaten path for most foreign visitors, although Seoraksan National Park is just west of Sokcho. The jumble of new construction (and lax zoning laws) gives this port-town kind of a frontier feel, but the people are friendly and the seafood is fresher than fresh. (Note: within Korea, “The Sea of Japan” is officially referred to as “Donghae--The East Sea.”)

Here in the world’s most internet-saturated country, with smartphones, high-speed trains and HDTVs, this streetscape caught my eye--lost in time. I was wandering the side streets near the seawall in Sokcho, South Korea; I didn’t yet know that this neighborhood was a relic of the Korean War (1950-1953). I came to learn that refugees fleeing the fighting in what would become “North Korea” ended up ‘squatting’ here, building small houses for what they thought would be a temporary stay while war flattened much of their country. Then came the stalemate and the armed division of the peninsula that had been a united country for over a thousand years. Their ancestral lands up north lost, they would have to make do with these ‘temporary’ quarters. Home would now be here, by the sea. Now, even a couple of generations later, this neighborhood is a reminder of the artificial yet all-too-real division of this ancient country.

“Mak-guk-su’ are hearty Korean buckwheat noodles--the rustic cousins of Japanese ‘soba’ across the sea...The port city of Sokcho is famous for its seafood, but just a few miles inland, in the village district of I-mok-ri, cold and spicy ‘mak-guk-su’ is the famous summertime lunch of champions, served with black tofu and ‘dong-chi-mi.’ Hmm...for the uninitiated, that name is hard enough to get over, and the description might seem scary; trying is believing, though, when it comes to seemingly ‘bizarre’ food. So, dongchimi is part cold soup, part beverage, part condiment, always served ice-cold. It’s a slice of daikon radish that’s been pickled in a briny mixture of green onion, Asian pear, ginger and green chili pepper. The crunchy disk floats in its clear sweet/salty liquid, which, due to the pickling process, is slightly carbonated! A pickled radish soda of sorts...I know it might sound radical, but on this humid summer day (Korea experiences monsoon rains)--one of the most refreshing ‘beverages’ I had in Korea! The chewy buckwheat noodles are garnished with thin slices of beef, vegetables, red pepper paste, a boiled egg, crushed sesame seeds, and shredded dried and toasted seaweed. (You’re given spicy mustard to add at will.) The black tofu slices are a mild counterpoint--and then the dongchimi washes it all down. Or you can order maekju (beer) or soju, a Korean ‘vodka.’ The easiest way to get here: print out the map from the website and hand it to a taxi-driver.

When hiking in parts of South Korea’s Seoraksan National Park, you won’t go thirsty. Spectacular crags all around, rustic restaurants dot some of the trails. Mountain spring water combined with rice from nearby paddies leads to fermentation...and voilà: “rice wine!’ Yeah, the milky-colored contents in the bowl look like porridge...but that chunkiness comes from the fact that the beverage is semi-frozen. Ladle some into your bowl and sample some of this very local “dong dong joo.” (If you’re familiar with Korean liquor, this is similar to ‘makkeoli.’ If not, there’s something else for you to try.) Slightly sweet, a hint of sour, and ice cold. It wasn’t my wife’s favorite, but I bottled up what she couldn’t finish--yep, the little establishment let me fill up my empty water bottle with it so I could take it ‘to go.’ Ahh, the alchemy of rice and mountains... [This particular ‘rest-stop’ for hikers is located on the trail to Biseondae in the Cheonbuldong valley. Avoid autumn weekends at all costs--the crowds are formidable.]

About 25 miles north of the site of the 2018 Winter Olympics, and just 25 miles south, as the crow flies, of the heavily fortified DMZ, the Jujeonggol valley in Seoraksan Nat’l Park is an oasis of jade-colored waters beneath pinnacles of pine-studded granite. Hiking in this valley, you begin to understand where the Asian landscape aesthetic comes from; the first time I came here, I felt as if I were moving about inside a silk scroll painting. Downstream is a Buddhist temple site with its famed Osaek medicinal springs--the high mineral-content water comes out of the stone slightly bubbly: natural carbonation! The tranquility of these valleys, far from the pulsating night lights of Seoul, belies the occasionally troubled past of Korea’s history; fierce battles were fought near here just six decades ago during the Korean War. But people have been seeking, and finding, solace in these mountains for thousands of years. Before today’s hikers came yesterday’s monks; some of the world’s earliest Zen temples are located in this region, built at a time when leopards and tigers were a very real threat in these forests. While much of Seoraksan National Park is easily accessible by public transportation from the nearby coastal city of Sokcho, this section is less-well served; renting a car would be a good option here.