Sleep is an optional extra

This is a City.
The city breathes, feeds on the movement of its inhabitants,
they pulse through grand arteries by day.
Returning through veins lit by neon at night,
seeping in to capillaries to eat, drink, sleep,
create the life,
That is a City.

I very much like to understand things, although at times it is close to impossible. So trying to understand here has been an interesting challenge. I don't think that you could come close to understanding the reality of the Korean people without spending a great deal of time amongst them, or learning the language. the language is something I still have to work on.
For a start I consider an element of the difference between the Koreans and the cultures I am a little more accustomed to.
Personal Space.
Koreans don't really have a personal space, by that i mean a sense of yourself individually and the area in which you are that person. This is expressed in a physical space that you occupy metaphysically. In Australia, this physical space is quite large, due probably to the abundance of available space, but I would also like to think that the individualistic spirit bred by isolation plays a part. Australians are always looking to do something different, and the moral high ground is not being concerned about what others think of you.
Korean has more of a community space rather than a personal one, both physically and socially. Being literally wedged into a train to the point that you might have problems breathing is an acceptable discomfort if it means that more of the community can be transported at once. Everyone accepts this so long as everyone is in the same position, forming a temporary collective. In Korea the moral high ground is doing what is popularly accepted as being the right thing, and this is generally what everyone else is doing.

I am still having a good time here, although I am still surprised that a New York Bakery would be considered as legitimate here, just as Aussie Kebabs were in Colombia.