2001 - 2 months: Deadline for marriage and messenger of love
1998 - 6 months: Incompatible values ​​and great figures of world history
D-Approximately 60 days: Behold! It's time to embark on an adventure with the Ultra Monster series.
D-30 days: A lunchbox made from the skeleton of a crazy person and a human brain.
Day 1: What's in Dublin and what the bosses decide
Day 1 Morning: EU Blacklist and German POW Camps
Day 1 Afternoon: Haunted Houses and the Theory of Total Pleasure
Night One: A Couple with Eating Disorders and Silly Tears
Day 2 Morning: This Unfair World and Self-Destructive Service
Day 2 Afternoon: The ability to imagine fiction and the feeling of being in the middle of the night
Second Night: Feeling like a space traveler and looking like a blank cosmetics commercial face
Day 3 Morning: Breathing and the World of Sadomasochism
Day 3 Afternoon: Fragmented Estates and Sacred Duties
Third Night: Babylon's Corrupt Prostitutes and Two Plus Two Makes Five
Day Four Morning: California Dreaming and the Law of Diminishing Returns
Day Four Afternoon: Medieval Adventure and Lazy Sea Lions
Fourth night - Fifth day: The final destination of the van and the feeling of falling into a sulfurous hell.
21 Months Later: Various Stages of the Water Cycle and the End of Ambrose Bierce
Author's Note

“I hate Korea, but I like HJ.”
A young couple's honeymoon struggles against the ravages of life.

I don't know what will happen to us in the future.
On the subject of writing an essay like this, I might get drunk and cheat on him, or HJ might find the love of his life and leave me.
Then perhaps this book becomes an example of the bitter irony of marriage, love, and faith.
I might be a laughing stock for a long time.
Page 241

Jang Kang-myeong's first essay, "Honeymoon after 5 Years," has been published.
In short, this book is a story about novelist Jang Kang-myeong's belated honeymoon, and in long-term, it is a travel story about novelist Jang Kang-myeong's 3-night, 5-day honeymoon trip to Boracay with HJ in November 2014.
And to be precise, it is the story of Jang Kang-myeong, a man who grew up in Korea, was frustrated by his hopes, clashed with his parents constantly, and experienced both anticipation and disappointment about the future, and then, whether by chance or fate, met HJ in college and experienced the many colors of love. He is no different from us all.

During their three-night, five-day honeymoon, the author candidly shares stories about her youth, love, marriage, and life after marriage.
How did you find some glimmer of hope in yourself when you didn't see much hope? How did you escape from things like your first love, first sex, and first job? How did you date and marry HJ despite your parents' opposition? And how did you live in Korea until now without leaving?
Therefore, "Honeymoon After 5 Years" can be said to be Jang Kang-myeong's life story of struggles in love, marriage, family, and life, and how he lived without giving in to all of them.
But why did novelist Jang Gang-myeong have to go on a honeymoon only after five years?

How should we endure this petty world and spend our youth?

It's a petty world, and a petty youth.
No matter how much I look around, there is no sign of any mystery of the universe.
Reading the flow of the times and observing the people around us deeply all seem to be the work of someone else, not me.
“The only things we can love are two people, including myself, a few flower pots, and one or two animals,” and even that is difficult to maintain with just a reasonable mindset.
Every time we try to do something, trivial things come up without warning and shake up our peaceful daily lives.
And that too, almost every day.
Dating is hard, marriage is even harder.
Just thinking about weddings, dowries, and gifts gives me a headache.
The child cannot imagine.
Living alone is not easy.
So, as we pick up “Honeymoon After 5 Years,” we can’t help but ask:
What was Jang Gang-myeong like? A former journalist for a major newspaper, he swept four literary awards and emerged as a leading Korean writer. What is his youth like now?

A youth who, despite being in his ninth semester of college, still skips out on social gatherings with his seniors and juniors, moves out of his parents' house to live in a goshiwon (a boarding house), then moves into a studio apartment with nothing but a mattress and a motel refrigerator, feels the limits of his intelligence while taking industrial mathematics classes, prepares for job interviews at newspapers and broadcasting companies, but fails at all of them, and eventually gets a job at a construction company, but quits after a short time. How about this youth? Even if you substitute names like "Jang Kang-myeong" or "Jang Gong-myeong" for "Jang Kang-soo," he's the same youth.
And that kind of youth continues even after becoming a novelist and going on a honeymoon.
I thought, 'Can I succeed as a novelist?' 'How much will this book sell?'


Will I ever succeed? Did I make the right choice? Is this the right way to live? It felt strange to still be worrying about such things at forty.
Page 21

If, seeing a writer who says it's strange to still worry about such things at the age of forty makes you feel a little less trivial, then maybe that's okay.
At least I'm not the only one enduring this petty world.

Honest enough to be a fun worry

“Honeymoon after 5 Years” is Jang Kang-myeong’s ‘first’ essay.
Jang Kang-myeong's essay? Is an essay even fun? "Firsts" are always a mixture of anticipation and apprehension, hardened like clay.
Fortunately, as soon as I open the first chapter, '2001~D-2 Months: The Deadline to Get Married and the Messenger of Love,' such worries and concerns are completely washed away.
Whether you're a sharp-eyed person or a dark-eyed person, you'll find this essay incredibly entertaining.
So this book is not just fun, it is “absolutely” fun.
Just reading the titles of the eighteen chapters—"What's in Dublin and What the Bosses Decide," "A Couple with an Eating Disorder and Stupid Tears," "How to Breathe and the World of Sadomasochism," "The Van's Final Destination and the Feeling of Falling into a Sulfurous Hell"—is enough to make you laugh, so what more can I say?
So is that all there is to it? Of course not.
The author's deeply personal anecdotes are scattered throughout the book like people sunbathing on Boracay's White Beach.
Things that might be shortcomings, flaws, or things that one might want to hide are written about in the author's voice without any hesitation.
If you are a reader who has read books like “I Hate Korea,” “Bleach,” and “Homo Dominance” and has become curious about the author, you should read this book.
Then, you can say “Ah!” and know both the novelist Jang Gang-myeong and the person Jang Gang-myeong at the same time.

We decided to live well together without having children.
With that decision in mind, I went to a urology clinic in Sinchon and had a vasectomy.
I was afraid that if I hesitated, my resolve would waver.
When the urologist asked, “How many children do you have?” he lied and said, “I have two.”
Page 15

There is a sticker on the door of our storage room that says, “Filial piety is self-reliance” (HJ put it on).
My parents deserve filial piety from me, and shouldn't HJ's parents deserve filial piety from HJ? Takeshi Kitano once said of family, "They're things you want to throw away if no one sees them."
My family view is much healthier than Takeshi Kitano's.
I don't want to abandon anyone in my family.
It just doesn't let them meet each other.
So that they don't treat each other like bulky waste.
Pages 30-31

So, while reading the book, we get the experience of reading a travel essay that spans '35 years' rather than '3 nights and 5 days'.
It's so honest and straightforward that I worry, "Can I even write something like this?"
Let's think about it.
Has there ever been an essay like this?

Whether life is happy or unhappy is something you have to keep living.

In my opinion, a typical Korean wedding is very similar to Pepero Day.
It has become increasingly luxurious, decoration has overwhelmed the essence, and now it has become a huge industry.
Companies are promoting luxury, and consumers are falling for it even though they all know it's pretentious and foolish.
Why doesn't this madness go away? I think it's because everyone is cooperating with it.
Because those who do not cooperate with that crazy antics are treated as heretics, saying, “He’s a bit strange by nature.”
The more grandly and pointlessly you perform that crazy act, the more you are admired and proud of it.
(Pages 48-49)

HJ and the author say they wanted to have a 'good' wedding.
Of course, things didn't go as planned.
In the end, the couple did not get married, and instead took the subway to Mapo-gu Office to register their marriage. After leaving the office, they ate sundae soup instead of a buffet.
Without any advance payment or gift, I moved into a 20-pyeong rented apartment with only a refrigerator that my mother-in-law gave me.
The marriage started like that.
If it weren't for Korea, wouldn't they have gotten married anyway, just as they'd hoped (though it might not have been as grand as they'd hoped? They were both very cost-effective (not profit-conscious), and (even when they fought) they were both incredibly strong, so they would have had a "good" wedding.
But still, it's fortunate.
Because the couple stayed in Korea instead of going to Australia or Canada to get married.
In Korea, we continue to support and support each other, and live together being kind and affectionate to each other, asking each other “Do you like me?” whenever we get a chance and answering “I like you a little.”
We know.
I know that Jang Gang-myeong and HJ hate Korea (well, maybe they don't hate it) and that they find many parts of Korea unpleasant.
But they're both terribly good for each other.
Wouldn't it be enough if that love kept me from leaving Korea and allowed me to live a more enjoyable and meaningful life?
Isn't that enough? Whether it's a "honeymoon after five years" or a "honeymoon after 50 years," the only way to know whether life is happy or unhappy is to keep living.