Arrived in Gwangju yesterday afternoon. A pleasant city, which presents itself as a city of art and design. There is an ‘art street’ which had a series of small shops, many with genuinely nice ceramics and paper work, a few galleries with average but not terrible stuff. There is an art centre which appears to be very busy indeed. There is a hipster quarter with coffee shops of all kinds, from sleek space ship styled ones to tiny basements containing only a single table with a pourover. There was also a very odd parade consisting of people in white carrying bowls of mud which they smeared over bystanders such as myself.
Less pleasing: Trump withdraws from the Paris agreement. This is how it must have been to belong to a distant Roman province watching Caligula and the rest at the centre. Only this time it’s actually the fate of the world at stake.
Also less pleasing, if on a more personal level: our bank card is not withdrawing money. This is irritating as the temple we’re going to, as well as the places we intend to stay in the following days, require cash payment.