The sun peaks over the horizon on a summer morning in the vicinity of Jeju's city hall.
In the middle of January as the snow collects on the imported palm trees, it's good to remember the feeling of summer living.
Flash back into August, to Jeju's 5-day market. The damp air is hot like sumo breath and giving expression to the malaise of the day, the sweating woman on the right (picture above) pouts deeply and dismally into her wilting cucumbers. Not that commerce slows as the heat rises, no; farmers and bargain shoppers come out of the woodwork for this, regardless of season.
If you can, imagine the sound and smell of an under-the-tent muggy gathering of fish being gutted while dogs bred to be in soup whine. The smokers smoke, the chickens cluck and shit, and customers elbow threw the sweating crowds to the isles where every sort of hill-side farmer peddles vegetables, pottery, CDs and snacks.
The market operates once every 5 days, specifically on days that end in either 2 or 7 (example the 17th, or the 22nd.)
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| A grisly scene from the seafood section of the market |
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| A fishmonger |
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| Possibly homeless or enlightened or both, a shopper with more character than most |
One noisy little restaurant at the market by the seafood section serves black pig, a famous Jeju delicacy. As I've been told, this a type of pig native to Jeju and one that feeds mainly on feces. As little as 40 years ago, to defecate in Jeju was to stick one's bottom out a hole in the house wall and drop a log into the pig pen. The pigs then dined. When mature, they were to be slaughtered and served. A 'circle of life' joke would be too obvious in this context I suppose. But the black pigs are delicious.
