==SOUTH KOREA==

It seems that a ghost has quite a special meaning to Korean people. We sometimes talk about it, are scared of it and even coexist with it. It is easy to find a bunch of college students having a conversation of their own ghost-stories in the lobby of a library during their coffee break. They sometimes swap their own personal experience of seeing real ghosts, then tremble with fear in their beds after going home. If you go to the outskirts of every city in Korea, you can't miss seeing the houses which are appointed as a fortune- tellers's home. They show off their occult power with how many clients they get every day. Moreover, it was natural to invite a fortune-teller when we had a family member who got sick for no reason at all. Then the fortune-teller used to perform a ritual called "koot", or spiritual-ceremony in the front yard of the house to appease the phantom which was believed to be picking on the patient.
When I was a boy, there was a show called "The Legend of Korean Ghosts". It was very popular with adults, but not with children. Because it was about the ghosts which are known to Korean people, it was too scary for even courageous boys to watch it through. It featured not only a female ghost who died by an unknown disease before she got married, so she was hovering between this world and another one, but also a hundred-year-old fox which had the magic power to change itself into a man. It dealt with various kinds of ghost and eerie phenomena. But ironically, even though I was a child like all of them, I used to watch it hiding behind my father's back. Then I barely slept at night. I was surprised when my friends told me they used to do exactly as I did. I wonder why! I don't know for sure what made us not divert our eyes from the show, but we were fascinated.
When I was a high school student, my friends and I had been to a mountain called "Un Jang San" where I happened to stumble across a bizarre thing. At night, one of my friends and I were having a conversation in front of a cliff not far from our tent. There I felt something behind me, staring at me. I looked back with wonder. Good thing I didn't faint at that moment, because there was a woman hanging on the cliff in a traditional Korean style costume - I am still not sure whether it was real or not, even now--. She had a pale and wooden-like face. I felt my hair bristle and heart begin to beat so fast. I could hardly breathe, paralyzed with fear. So stunned, my friend turned his head around to see what was going on. I could hear his cry.
We made an attempt to escape the area as soon as possible, but our bodies wouldn't cooperate with our wills. It was quite natural of us to crawl for a moment due to our powerless legs. Anyway we ran away from that terrible site. The next morning, we carefully approached the place. We expected there would be something that was so similar to the shape of woman which must have given us an eccentric illusion or something. Unfortunately, there was nothing but the cliff! We stood still for a while. Then my friend said to me, "The woman we saw last night might be a real ghost. She must have been killed by an accident or committed suicide in this area. With a deep grudging feeling, she couldn't go to the heaven. But we should not blame her for scaring us, because we had interrupted her deep sleep with our fussy talks. So she showed her appearance just a little. That's why we survived. I swear no one can save his life, if he has seen the real eyes of a ghost." I nodded and suggested we had to give our best condolences for her. That was all. We thought we had just had a chance to see a real ghost in our lives. There was neither need to call for the police nor a research team.
The Korean people refer to ghosts as our neighbors. That's why we prepare food and beverages on the day of ritual for our ancestors. We think the souls visit and eat the food we have made for them. How mystic a nation we live in!
I know I can't explain it to foreigners if they ask me why. But if foreigners just try to listen to the ghost stories, it will be a shortcut to understanding the culture of Korea. I don't insist the ghosts in Korea can be compared to the "dude-ghost" of the movie "Ghost". But in Korea, the word "ghost" means unexplainable familiarity. They never help their ex-family members who are in danger, but rather we are thankful if they don't bother us. We are just endeavoring to live together with them, not against them. Don't you feel some thrill that we live with ghosts?