It’s a sunny afternoon at the Jeju United clubhouse, and after two years of watching the team as a devoted fan, I’m about to interview their Brazilian born star. The JU players are loading onto the team bus out front as I wait for Ricardo Irineu in the lobby. I’ve been told that neither he nor his Portuguese translator speaks English, so I’ve brought along my own Korean translator to decipher the Korean translation of his Portuguese. We sit on a circle of plush chairs, a row of trophies …

It’s October, and that can only mean one thing for baseball fans around the world: it’s playoff time. And with baseball hysteria at fever pitch there’s no better occasion to check out a piece of Korean baseball history at the ‘Korean Pro-Baseball Hall of Fame.’
Its home is a small museum located next to Kang Chang Hak Stadium in New Seogwipo (Shinsikaji), just north of the World Cup Stadium. The museum is quite small, occupying a large room in the wing of a local sports facility. Despite …

Like most rocks of irregular shape and size in Jeju, the towering rock which stands guard over the southern coast of Jeju, has a name and story. It’s called Oedolgae or “Lonely Rock,” and depending on whom you ask, it was either dressed as a soldier to scare off Mongolian invaders, or is the remains of a woman who threw herself into the sea in grief after her husband died in a fishing expedition.
Regardless of whether you believe the legends or not, it’s hard to deny Oedolgae’s modern day power …