Chapter 24
By the time I’d trailed around the airport with Assistant Manager Park and looked at everything there was to see, night had already fallen outside.
When we boarded the train to the hotel, it was already past 6 p.m.
“It’ll take about an hour.”
Even allowing for the delay from wandering around the figure displays, it wasn’t that late yet.
To be honest, up until we actually left, I’d wondered whether it might be better to skip today and just catch a morning flight tomorrow, since there wasn’t anything on the schedule.
“You said tomorrow’s schedule starts at 9 a.m.?”
“That’s right. The hotel’s a bit far, so if we get up around 7 and get ready, we can leave at 8.”
“Would’ve been exhausting if I’d come in on an overnight flight.”
“Of course. No matter how short the flight is, heading straight to the venue is tiring.”
As expected, listening to Assistant Manager Park, the expert in this field, was the best move.
Thanks to him, I even had some free time tonight.
“The business trip only really runs hard tomorrow anyway, right? Let’s go to an izakaya tonight and have a draft beer.” Assistant Manager Park said, clutching a pile of figures to his chest.
“You waited around while I was looking at things, so this one’s on me.”
“No, I was going to treat you this time.”
“Buy me one when we’re back in Korea. I’m the one who dragged you to Japan, so I should pay.”
“Fine, then I’ll take you somewhere good after we get back.”
“Okay, then let’s go somewhere expensive with tiny portions in Korea.”
“Haha, perfect.”
He laughed in satisfaction and pulled out his phone’s map app.
“I already looked up a few places we can go.”
The guy grinned and even waggled his eyebrows.
“We’ll have dinner and wash it down with a draft beer. Ah, just thinking about it makes my mouth water. This is your first time in Japan, right, Assistant Manager Kang? You’re gonna lose your mind after you try Japanese draft beer.”
All the way to the hotel, he held forth on the greatness of nama biru.
“Forget everything else. Draft beer really is different. It’s on another level from Korean beer.”
“You’re way too much of a Japan fanboy. Korean beer’s gotten a lot better lately.”
Internet forums loved to trash domestic beer, sure, but personally, whenever I actually drank foreign beer, the difference wasn’t nearly as dramatic as people made it sound.
“It’s not just any draft beer; it’s Asahi, right? I’ve had that from convenience stores too.”
“Convenience-store import beer for four cans a ten-thousand won and local draft are completely different.”
“I had Tsingtao draft in Shanghai and it was pretty much the same to me.”
“Ha, Japanese beer is seriously different...”
Assistant Manager Park shook his head over and over.
“Hey, once we dump our bags at the hotel, let’s go straight to an izakaya. You’ll see. It really is different.”
He said it with complete confidence.
“After you try it, you won’t even be able to drink Korean beer anymore.”
But when we finally got our bags unpacked and came back out, I already had a text waiting.
Park Assistant Manager: I’ve got a stomachache so bad I need to stop by the bathroom first. Go ahead and get there and look around without me.
From the airport lounge to the in-flight meal, he’d been eating nonstop. I’d known this was coming.
Me: Then I’ll go to the restaurant first and grab us a table.
Park Assistant Manager: Okay. Thanks.
Park Assistant Manager: Make sure it’s draft beer, though?
Park Assistant Manager: Not bottled beer. Draft!!
Me: Yeah, yeah, I got it. It’s still just beer though, so calm down.
Park Assistant Manager: No, seriously, just try it once, man.
Park Assistant Manager: This is really...
Leaving behind his sermon on Japanese beer, I headed out of the hotel.
Tokyo’s nighttime streets welcomed me with a warmth all their own.
This was my second trip abroad after Shanghai.
Of course, both were business trips, but being able to spend time like this on my own made it feel even better.
Best of all, this wasn’t my money. I was traveling on company funds.
Yeah, overseas really is nice.
Home was fun too, sure, but there was something about the atmosphere you only got when you were abroad that always made my chest feel a little buoyant.
Maybe it was the unfamiliar sight of kanji and hiragana and katakana spreading across the streets in place of Hangul that made my heart beat a little faster.
Still, this is totally different from China.
When I’d first gone to Shanghai, it had actually seemed pretty clean, all things considered, at least compared to what people worried about.
This is on another level.
To be more precise...
“This is about the same as Korea, isn’t it?”
Personally, I thought Seoul was the best city in the world.
It didn’t lack in anything, whether it was safety or cleanliness.
But Tokyo was in no way behind even compared to central Seoul.
I slipped into a McDonald’s and ordered an ice cream.
In Shanghai, the interiors had been clean, but the place would sometimes get dirty because customers didn’t clean up after themselves.
Like it looks clean on the surface but is dirty underneath, maybe?
But Tokyo was different.
It’s like what I’m used to seeing in Seoul.
Here, just like in Korea, customers cleaned up after themselves, and that kept everything tidy.
To go a little deeper, maybe it was a matter of civic awareness itself?
And if I compared the overall atmosphere, including people’s chatter and the sound of car horns...
“Japan’s way better than China.”
Not just for people like Assistant Manager Park who loved anime.
I’d often heard about people who only traveled in Japan, and now I finally understood why.
After finishing the city tour, we headed into the izakaya.
After scanning the menu, I remembered what Assistant Manager Park had said and placed the first order right away.
“Two draft beers, please.”
“Yes, certainly.”
Before the beer even arrived...
“Kang, sorry.”
Assistant Manager Park, who’d been tortured in the bathroom, finally showed up.
Because I’d been sightseeing on the way over, the timing had worked out about the same.
“Sorry. You weren’t stuck sitting alone, were you? These people didn’t even bring you a Korean menu...” He let out a miserable breath. “Ugh, you haven’t ordered yet, right? Should I call the server first?”
“No, I already ordered.”
“...?”
He froze, then seemed to catch on and nodded as if realizing something.
“Oh, you used a translator app?”
“No, I can speak Japanese.”
“?!”
His eyes went wide.
I’d recently spent a full twenty million won on translation and interpretation skills.
I’d debated between English and Japanese, and in the end I’d picked Japanese.
And sure enough, it lined up perfectly with this business trip to Japan.
“Wait, you can speak Japanese?”
“Yeah.”
“You can read it too?”
“Of course.”
“Holy crap...”
He looked genuinely shocked.
“We went to the same university and got jobs at the same place, so why does it feel like you’re the only one sprinting ahead?”
“I only started not long ago. Since I speak Chinese, I already know all the kanji, so that made it easier.”
“Ah, yeah, that makes sense.”
“Besides, you can speak some Japanese too.”
“Me? That’s just... from watching anime.”
More than that, I was worried about Assistant Manager Park’s stomach.
“Still, if your stomach hurts, is beer really okay?”
“Japanese beer is fine.”
“...You’d be the kind of guy to sell out the country if you were born during the Japanese colonial period.”
“Hahaha! Hey, my family’s full of independence activists.”
“Seriously?”
“For real. I even got a scholarship for it when I was a kid.”
“...What an unbelievable guy.”
Apparently what ran through his veins wasn’t Japan fanboy energy after all, but nama biru.
“Your draft beers are ready.”
Just then, the beer we’d been waiting for was served.
It was the same yellow color with a cap of pure white foam. On the surface, it didn’t look any different from Korean beer.
“Let’s drink.”
Assistant Manager Park was already smiling as he picked up his glass.
“Don’t be shocked.”
“Beer’s just beer.”
“We’ll see if you’re still saying that after you taste it. I’ve been to other countries too, and I’m telling you, Japanese draft beer really is different.”
“Pfft. Korean beer’s delicious too.”
Assistant Manager Park drank first.
“Ah, that’s good.”
He smiled in satisfaction and waved for me to try it quickly.
Honestly, I didn’t have high expectations at all.
But the instant I took a sip...
“!!?!”
Holy shit.
What the hell was this.
My eyes flew wide open, and I felt instantly sharp, like a fog had been ripped right out of my head.
One sip wasn’t enough.
Gulp, gulp, gulp-!
“Pwah-!”
I emptied half the glass in no time.
Seeing that, Assistant Manager Park chuckled and leaned forward over the table.
“So? Japanese draft is different, right?”
I had no choice but to admit it.
“It really is different...”
It was good.
If Korean beer leaned into carbonation to force out a cold, bitter heaviness, this was light and crisp, sliding down my throat as cleanly as if I were drinking water.
“This is seriously good...”
“Hahaha, I told you. Draft here is different.”
He snickered like he’d known this would happen.
“Want another?”
“Definitely!”
Assistant Manager Park called the server at once, like he’d been waiting for the question.
“Boss, two more draft beers and one assorted five-piece yakitori platter, please. Also, for a hot dish...”
I’d thought beer was just beer, but to be this different was beyond expectation.
Actually experiencing what I’d only heard about broke through my own narrow fixed ideas.
So this is why you need to go abroad.
How should I put it?
It felt like my vision had opened up and my horizons had widened all at once.
It wasn’t just beer, either. If my handicraft ability had stayed in Korea alone, I never would have even thought of figures.
I’d already wanted to travel and get out of the country for a while, but I’d never quite worked up the nerve to actually do it.
Maybe I shouldn’t just enjoy this through business trips. Maybe I should make time and go abroad more often on purpose?
For my own sake too, I felt like I needed to make a point of experiencing new cultures seriously.
***
The next day.
Early in the morning, we headed straight for Tokyo Big Sight.
The crowd is no joke.
It wasn’t just Japanese people.
Quite a lot of foreigners, Koreans included, had come here.
“There are a lot of Westerners too.”
“They say the truest of true otaku are Western otaku.”
“...Huh?”
“It’s a saying.”
“R-right.”
Assistant Manager Park started walking around slowly as if this place was familiar to him.
“Usually, the main attraction is the area where they sell doujinshi.”
“You mean derivative works?”
“Exactly.”
Beyond simple fanfiction and comics, there were quite a few adult works too.
The lines of people buying them made it clear the demand wasn’t small either.
“All we really need is an overall sense of how things work here. Our purpose for this trip is to understand the system.”
“Right, that part’s no problem.”
From the proposal our company had received, the direction they were aiming for would probably be something like this place.
The main issue would be how to differentiate it and advertise it in a way that fit K-culture.
After circling the interior once, we came back out toward the entrance to get a coffee and take a short break, and that was when...
“...What is that?”
A woman caught my eye, walking around in an outfit that left her belly button and the lower part of her chest completely exposed.
Her hair was bright red, and on top of that she was wearing blazing red contact lenses and carrying a huge staff.
“It’s cosplay.”
“Oh, people do that here?”
“Yeah. This place is paradise for otaku.”
“Oh...”
“She’s a cosplayer named Hanayuka. I follow her too, but now I’m seeing her in person.”
Apparently she was pretty famous, because a line of men with massive camera lenses were following behind her.
“From an advertising standpoint, hiring a cosplayer like that is the most cost-effective move.”
Assistant Manager Park added this while snapping photos with his phone camera, which he’d already pulled out.
“Usually, most people come because they like it themselves, but those famous ones are invited here.”
“Makes sense. Just like in entertainment, when you bring in one star and the fans follow, I guess a lot of people come to this kind of festival just to see cosplayers like her?”
“Exactly.”
Coming here in person, I could already feel our own ad planning starting to take shape.
“Still, there are a lot of people in cosplay.”
As I looked around, I found quite a few locals, men and women of all ages, enjoying cosplay besides Hanayuka.
My eyes were drawn to the outfits and props they were wearing.
“Are all those handmade?”
“Usually, yeah.”
“The materials look way too hot...”
“Most of the people doing this aren’t professionals, just hobbyists. Their costume-making skills are rough, and the stuff they buy is cheap to begin with.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah. Even the pros can’t really wear decent materials, either.”
“That’s too bad.”
In weather like this, they’d be shivering.
And when it was hot, they probably couldn’t sweat at all.
That kind of thing might actually be doable as handicrafts too.
Once I got back to Korea, I’d have to look into it seriously.
***
As soon as I returned home, I started digging into handicrafts in earnest.
Between AI and YouTube, finding information wasn’t hard.
Just in case, I made time on the weekend to go to a workshop and test it out.
Both work.
It seemed that making clothes and making figures both counted as handicrafts.
Of course, the biggest problem was...
This is terrible.
The line work is too sloppy.
The finish is garbage.
That damn craftsman’s spirit meant I kept trashing everything before it was even fully finished.
Still, what matters is what kind of figure I make, right...?
I wasn’t trying to make these just as a hobby. What I wanted was a side job that could make money.
But whether I make figures or character outfits, everything runs into copyright, so it’s hard to make a profit.
At best, if I stuck to restoration or repainting, I might be able to turn that into a private business, but that was more a matter of knowledge than talent, so it wasn’t easy.
I wasn’t about to build some grand factory, and licensing through the original rights holder just to make a few handmade pieces felt like a massive burden.
What kind of handicraft can I do that won’t run into copyright but still lets me use my dexterity...
Just as I was racking my brain over it, my phone buzzed.
Team Leader Han: Assistant Manager Kang, will you be coming to work tomorrow?
Team Leader Han: If you don’t have plans, would you like lunch with me?
(Emoticon of a scholar eating udon)
I snorted.
So my emoticon’s already gotten around.
Me: Sure.
Team Leader Han: I’ll wait in the lobby at lunchtime tomorrow.
Me: Okay. See you then.
Just as I was about to flip my phone over, thinking it was probably about work...
Wait a second.
Team Leader Han’s message flashed through my mind again.
“That scholar emoticon was something I made.”
Which meant...
“There’s no copyright issue at all?”
No, actually, the copyright belonged to me in the first place.
On a hunch, I checked the contract, and sure enough it was clearly stated there.
“Then if I make a figure out of that, there’s no way there’d be a problem.”
Beyond just the figure itself, if I even made the scholar’s outfit with careful attention to detail and dressed it properly, that would definitely have merit.
If I made full use of S+ talent, there was no doubt it would be competitive in the market.
Come to think of it, it could even create a positive cycle.
If the emoticon sold, it would create demand for the figure.
And if people encountered the figure first and liked it, they might buy the emoticon too.
If I play this right, this could really blow up.