Day 4 (23rd Apr, Sat)- Part 2
Yonsei University
If I remember correctly, this university is the one that Jaeho attended in ‘Have We Really Love’. It is one of the top universities in Seoul. Just look at the crowd on a Saturday afternoon.
It is really a very nice university, with wide roads, pretty cherry blossoms, parks and european style type of little buildings. Nothing cold, big and unfriendly. Do take a stroll here if you have the time.
The concert stage was right inside the university. As we walked along, bus after bus of Japanese fans went by us. The whole place was busy with people- mostly women. We quickened our pace.
Doesn’t this look scary? The Japanese fans had to line up, according to their own tour group I guess.
The other fans, like us, were allowed through…. until we came to …the control centre, manned by these very handsome men…hehehe! Look how popular they are.
This is our ticket- only that it had a seat number on it. Hurrah! For a moment, I was worried that we may have to do a hundred metre dash to get the best seats.
Then it was waiting… and more waiting…. We were only going to be allowed in at about 2.30pm. But I guess waiting is something that all BYJ fans are familiar with.
Banner from cafe/daum
All the fans (other than the Japanese fans who came as part of the tour group) from Korea. Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong waited here- it was like a family picnic session. 🙂
Photo with Style, Hee-jin, some Korean fans and our star, Da Man. Don’t we look like a family? Isn’t he handsome?
It was really hot that afternoon. I mean really HOT! I felt as if I was going to melt any minute. Finally, it was time to go in. We were asked to take out our camera batteries, that’s why you don’t see many photos on the net. Still, some of us managed to sneak it in. Shhh…….
The orgnaisers were really kind though. We were all given a ‘seat’, to protect our butts from being fried from the hot sun sitting on the stone floor. Or was it cement floor? Memory really going…..
The stadium, slowly filled up. The audience today would be all his fans, that’s why today’s event was handled by BOF personally. We were seated on the left side of the stage and could see that the Taiwanese and Hong Kong fans sitting directly opposite us. All fans were seated randomly, more or less.
But really, I and the thousands of fans here within this stadium, only had eyes for one person. He was the reason why some of us had flew thousands of miles, over 10 hours of flight for.
It was only for Bae Yong Joon, and Bae Yong Joon alone.
So for the next 3 hours, from 3pm till 6pm, in the hot sun, we looked at him to our heart’s content.
What can I say about him? All the photos that you see just do not do any justice to him in real life. What you see from the photos is a handsome man. But what the photos failed to capture is his charisma, his manliness, his style, his coolness, his confidence, his sexiness, his friendliness, his presence and yes, his shyness. I’ve run out of description but I don’t think I can describe adequately how I felt when I saw him, even though he was so far away. My heart skipped a beat each time he look in our direction.
And for his fans, he did looked up at us every so often. The concert rehearsal was really especially for his fans and the whole stadium there was there to support him. I wondered how he felt?
But if you think he did not work and was only concerned with interacting with his fans, then you are wrong. He was dead serious in his work. There was this very simple scene where a few men would go up to him and he would pat the shoulder of one of them, as if saying ‘hi’. They must have done it at least 10 times. I couldn’t see what was the difference between the different takes as they seemed to be exactly the same to me….
But Bae Yong Joon never neglected his fans either. When he was not working, he would look up and wave to his fans, at all the different parts. And each time he did that, all the fans would stand up, shout and waved back.
But the part that I think drew the loudest applause from us was when he took out his beloved camera, and took photos of us, his fans. I guess he too, like us, want this to be part of his memory. The day, almost 6,000 fans filled a stadium, to watch and support him and at the same time, became part of his movie.
Only certain artistes performed for the rehearsal, which was understandable. By about 6pm, it was over. The producer, the MD of Blue Storm (?), another guy (can’t remember who though) and Bae Yong Joon were invited on stage to give a speech. Luckily, they provided a Japanese and English translator. However, the English translator was really lacking as she only translated the gist of the speech and not the whole speech, unlike the Japanese translator. They must really find a better one next time as it is totally frustrating not knowing half of what was being spoken.
All this time, while the other men in front gave their speech, he stood aside silently and at times looked down. He was especially shy when they mentioned him in their speech. Bae Yong Joon was the last to give a speech. When it was his turn, the other 3 men went off the stage, as I guess they knew, it was his show.
Bae Yong Joon thanked us for being there and felt sorry for us as it was so hot. Actually, I think he’s worse off than us, as he was wearing that thick “Staff” jacket, working and at the same time, still had to look good. It was then that he mentioned about the Japanese fan who had passed away. But he did not mention about her in name directly. He just said that for those who cannot be with us today, their hearts are here. It was only later that I found out what happened. Life is truely unpredictable isn’t it? But I too think her heart must have been there with us that day, watching over BYJ.
Was the show over? Not for many of us….
As we leaving, walking down towards the main road, we saw this, parked by the side road:
It was his car! I don’t think we’ve ever been so excited about seeing a car before. It was actually quite funny, to see all the women, crowding round the car, peering into the dark windows and taking photos of the car from every possible angle. I guess there is a certain sense of closeness we feel, knowing that this is his personal possession. But the most important realisation was- HE was still around. So now the question was- to go or to stay. I’m sure you all guessed what our decision was…. Hehe!
Besides us, there were many other fans, though mainly Japanese fans.
6.30pm——- 7pm——— 7.30pm———- 8pm—————-
It got darker and colder and colder. We moved around, jumped up and down, stuck our hands in pockets and tried to cover ourselves as much as possible from the cold. Should we go to the toilet (and risk miss seeing him) or just do it in the bushes (and risk getting arrested)? Do we have time to get a cup of hot drink or should we just freeze to death? Finally, we heard through the grapevine (thank you, you know who you are) that he would only leave about 9pm. We felt safe enough to go into one of the building nearby to well, do the necessary. We were near enough the road to rush out if necessary. The group of us decided to stay away from the crowd and went further down the road, near a hump. We figured that the car would have to slow down because of the hump- clever right? haha!
8.30pm———- 9pm———— 9.15pm——–was he ever leaving?
We had been waiting by the road in the cold for over 3 hours.
Suddenly, we heard a commotion from the crowd. He was coming out!
We got excited! Would he see us and slow down? My heart started to go: “Thump! Thump! Thump!”
And then his car was coming down the road towards us. We shouted and waved! And the car did slow down. But, no I did not see him. I was the first amongst the group waiting in the line and by the time he rolled down the window, he had already passed me by…… Sigh…….sigh again…. and sigh one more time…..
But I know most of the fans did see him and as we walked out, I could hear them talking excitedly about it. I think they will have sweet dreams that night.
Side note: There were many enterprising people who were selling Bae Yong Joon related things inside the university along the road. And they were doing a roaring trade. Wonder how Bae Yong Joon and BOF feel about it……
Well, after all the excitement and cold, it was time to replenish our energy. And we had a very good, cheap and satisfying dinner. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to take down the address of the place. Maybe Jos will know?
By then, it was nearly 11pm.
Wait, the night didn’t end for some of us- 8 of us to be precise. We decided to go and try something truely Korean. We decided to go to a jim jil bang.
What is it? It’s a public bathhouse/ sauna place. Apparently, it’s something that’s quite new in Korea, started maybe in the last 10 years or so. If you have watched ‘Lovers in Paris’, you would have remembered the scene where all 3 of them, dressed in bathrobes had gone to a sauna place. It was also the famous egg breaking scene by Kim Jung En, the female lead.
We were recommended one in Namdaemoon.
It costs 8,000won and you are given a t-shirt and a pair of shorts just before going in. You have to take off your shoes and deposit it in one of the many small lockers just outside the reception counter. We then went upstairs. The place is BIG!
There is a separate female and male section, where you change and deposit your belongings with the same shoe locker key. This is also where the public bathhouse is. Well, you all know what public means right? There is no cubicle, no shower curtain and the bathhouse is enclosed within glass doors. So…..you get to see them all in their natural state. But don’t worry, you can keep you clothes on if you are not going to bathe. Did we strip? hahaha! What do you think?
But in case you start shaking your heads and saying “No way am I going to such a place!”, let me assure you that jim jil bang is more than just a public bathhouse. It is so much more.
Outside of the male/ female section, is a huge common area. Here, there are different sauna rooms, steam rooms and even a cold room. There is a big area just for lounging around, with a big projector screen (they were playing Addicted when I was there), a game room, a restaurant, a smaller movie room, massage room, nail corner etc…. There are even small cubicles where you can sleep.
You can literally spend the night there (these places are open almost 24 hours). If you watch ‘My Boyfriend is Type B’, that is what Yong Min (Lee Dong Gun) did.
But it isn’t sleazy at all, At least not the one that I went to. There were couples, singles, and families there. I saw elderly folks, teenagers and even toddlers. I have been told that this is one for courting couples to spend time together.
For me, it was just very relaxing and nice, after a long day, to just relax in the saunas. In fact it got so comfortable that 2 of the girls fell alseep. Hahaha!
The one that I went to is call Sparex. Will have to translate the address though as the name card is in Korea.
And that, was the end of a very exciting, long day for me. It was 3am in the morning by the time I got back to Mr Park’s motel.
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