This is a story of something that I saw today which surprised me a lot. It was rather shocking but interesting to see how varied and special the human race may be. Just something I wanted to get out of my head and into writing for others to read. I find it a slightly interesting story. Sometimes I write about height just to write about height, because it is something that fascinates me. It is what allows me to continue to do this type of work, with such a level of determination and intensity bordering along the lines of obsession.

I have been in Seoul, South Korea for over a year now trying to start a cosmetic business with only relative success. Recently I decided to take a trip to it’s neighboring country, Japan for a nice vacation to rest my weary brain and just escape the crowded, hot and humid Seoul atmosphere. I did it last year in the winter where I would visit the city of Hakata, Fukuoka and Kumamoto. It was the first time I had ever purposely gone to Japan for anything since I usually fly through Narita Airport to go to Seoul or somewhere else in Asia. I was amazed at how clean, wonderful, quiet, and tranquil the country was from only being there for 2 days. It was an amazing experience and I promised myself that I would go back as much as I can. So I wanted to go back and enjoy the scenery, food, and environment again.

To go to the 2nd largest city in South Korea from its largest city, the easiest way I think is through taking the KTC Train route. It took me a little less than 3 hours to go from Seoul Station, Seoul to the Train Station in Busan. I am taking the ferry which will go from the Busan port to one of Japan’s ports. The whole process is rather straight forward but it is important to note that there is usually only 1-2 ferries that go to any of the specific Japanese ports each day, and some ferries only come every other day. I was late today and actually missed the ferry going to Japan today so i am writing this story at a local Guest House.

So What Happened?

I remember getting to the Busan International Ferry Terminal today and just casually glancing out the window of the Shuttle Bus. My eye caught the image of a middle aged man who was strolling towards the entrance to the ferry cruise. At first, I was thought that this extremely thin man was clumsily walking on stilts. This man was thin, very thin. His head was also disproportionately small compared to his body. The way that he walked suggested that he had very long legs because his gait was so large, so I thought that he was standing on stilts. I watched in amusement as he walked so awkwardly but his lower legs were covered by the hood of a car blocking my view. I kept watching him walking through the entrance of the ferry terminal until his lower leg portion became visible. He was not standing on stilts.

It was shocking to say the least. I didn’t expect to see such an outlier or person of this stature in a place like this. In general, the ethnicity of koreans are a very homogenous group of people. Most people were around the same height, same size. This man was multiple standard deviations away from the norm. His head clearly passed the top of the doorway, which I would later check and find to be 7 feet tall.

He would bend his head down to walk through the doorway to the cruise ferry and I was left wondering who was this guy who looked like he was over 7′ 3″? Could it be possible that in such a well tabulated and documented country like South Korea that there is still an unknown giant that has not been discovered yet? It is hard for me to believe because even in countries that are much less well tabulated and organized like China and India, most of the people with extremely tall stature are all discovered. How is it that in such a modernized developed nation has such a tall man not been noticed yet?

Maybe it is just me with my height obsession but this guy I would guess was at least 7 feet tall and at most 7′ 4″ in height. His build was so slight. His appearance was so out of place.

This guy is not Hong Man Choi (2.18 meters), Ha Seung Jin (2.23 meters), or Kim Young-Hyun (2.17 meters) . Ri Myung Hun is of course on the other side of the DMZ. I’ve been in Seoul, South Korea for over 1 year and the tallest I’ve seen of korean guys are around the 6′ 9″ – 6′ 10″ range. Still quite tall, but no giants, at least defined by me. This guy was older than them. He was thin, with very long legs, which looked unreal. 

So I guess for me at least, this story will go down as the story of the unknown, super skinny giant who left korea and went to japan on a cruise ferry. This story will probably eventually go down a an anecdote.

It is interesting that I would find this person because I remember well 2 years ago seeing one of the biggest women I’ve ever seen coming out of a Subway Station. She had the body and face similar to Kang Jianhua and I would have guessed that she was over 6′ 6″.