BUSAN, South Korea — From the ferry’s deck I stared intently at the neon lights and skyscrapers of Busan until my eyes started to hurt. I thought of Christmas morning and my great-grandmother, who always said that an orange was a most cherished Christmas gift during her Great Depression childhood in rural Georgia.
I don’t know much about her brother Bo and never had the chance to meet him. I do know that he once ventured to this distant land as a U.S. service member. In these moments I was also reminded of a former Korean shantytown high in the hills above Busan we’d visited that morning. Black and white photos, dated to the 1950s, showed an impoverished Korea that I could not recognize, but that Bo would have.
As the boat passed under the suspension bridge that connects two of Busan’s islands, we heard shouts and laughter coming from the other side of the deck. A group of guys hopped around on one foot, their shoes strewn across the wooden floor. I wasn’t sure whether they were Korean or Japanese—it was a Japanese boat leaving from a Korean port—but after seeing our group, they asked us to take a photo of them. We asked them to take a photo of us. Then one of the guys yelled, “Together!”
We assembled for a group photo, and then dispersed as they began to resume their shoe-hopping game. It appeared that each was wearing sandals, as was I, so I walked up and asked to play. I had lost the train of thought about my great-great-uncle, but in retrospect I realize I regret that I will never hear stories about his time in Korea. The game’s objective was unclear, but they were flinging their shoes toward a wall—I did the same, as hard as I could. I hit the wall square in the center as my classmates cheered.
The Koreans, however, jeered. “Out!” one shouted with his hands crossed in an X. Apparently, the objective of the game was to get as close as possible to the wall without hitting it, an objective that took a little more skill than kicking my sandal as far as I could. Someone else stepped up and nailed the target spot-on. We cheered, too loud apparently, for a boat attendant scuffled over to send everyone to bed.
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