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I first moved to Los Angeles not long after Conan O\u2019Brien did, or more precisely, after he and his team resigned from the stewardship of The Tonight Show<\/em> which had relocated them from New York just the year before. But it didn\u2019t take him long to get back on television, and news of his exploits in Los Angeles swept through my Koreatown circles when his new venture, a cable show simply called\u00a0Conan<\/em>, aired a bit where he and Korean-American actor Steven Yeun hang out nakedly<\/a> \u2014 and, for O\u2019Brien\u2019s part, with characteristically comedic anxiety and discomfort \u2014 in a neighborhood Korean spa. (Well, not exactly a Koreatown spa, but Wi Spa, big complex over in Westlake popular with non-Koreans. Close enough.)<\/p>\n
And so, now that I\u2019ve moved from Los Angeles to Korea, it only makes sense that O\u2019Brien would follow to shoot a whole series of special segments on life in the Land of the Morning Calm<\/a>. (Which does have its precedents: Conan <\/em>has made a thing of location shows in places like Cuba<\/a> and Armenia<\/a>, and Anthony Bourdain brought his show here last year.) \u201cA while back, I got a letter from a fan who lives in South Korea,\u201d he says by way of introduction<\/a>, showing her letter (written an exam form) and the boxful of Korean snack foods she also sent along. He decided to take this young lady up on her invitation to her homeland, \u201cand that\u2019s when I found out that even though my show does not air in Korea, thanks to the internet, I have some fans there,\u201d hundreds of whom, instigator \u201cSunny\u201d Lee included, turned up to greet him<\/a> upon his arrival at Incheon International Airport.<\/p>\n
The Noryangjin<\/a> (in O\u2019Brien\u2019s no doubt deliberately clunky pronunciation, \u201cno-ree-on-gone\u201d) fish market, a PC game cafe<\/a>, the set of a television drama<\/a>, a tae kwon do demonstration<\/a>, a traditional restaurant<\/a>, the Bonkwangsa<\/a> (\u201cbo-gwong-sow\u201d) Buddhist temple, theJoint Security Area<\/a> at the Demilitarized Zone on the North Korea border, a K-pop video<\/a>: the journey passes through many of the spots even a casual Korea-watcher might expect, Conan<\/em> makes some more Korean fans, Korea gains some more of that ever-desired positive exposure in the West (and for that reason the shows\u2019s producers must have found the country reasonably cooperative), and we all get entertained along the way.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n