The walkway leading into Icheon airport is hot and stuffy, and the middle-aged Japanese women are pealing off their jackets. I've just touched down in South Korea, only my home to Osaka (thank a lousy travel agent for that).

To do list: eat Korean food, drink Korean beer and check out the country's rabid gaming culture. Total time? Four hours.

I'm not in the terminal five minutes when I see a small internet cafe. Surely, while people are waiting for their flights, they gotta be playing non-stop StarCraft.

Everyone was looking at Yahoo News.

I see three kiosks off to the side. Bingo!

There's a coin operated PS2 with an EyeToy. The woman at the counter says they can exchange yen to won, so I get a couple coins and play what I think is FIFA. Toggling around, I try to figure out how to work the EyeToy. No dice, and I give up.

The other two kiosks are borked.

At the end of the walkway, there's a large Daewoo display, with cars and some bizarro mannequin with a smushed smile behind the wheel of a roadster. There are four cars, four cars I've never seen before, but that look like fine automobiles. A onion-headed man sits behind the counter, with just his eyes peaking over.

Catty-corner to Onion Head, there's Logitech steering wheel and footpedals, where I assume people can experience driving one of those four fine automobiles. I assume because the display is borked.

There's a lounge upstairs, which I decide to hit. Coming off the escalator, a sign catches my eye. "Game room." And there's an arrow for "that way." I knew it. There had to be something here.

The arcade's name is Place2Be, employing that Prince-style spelling which was popular in the 1990's. Maybe, it's still popular in Korea. I push open the door and go inside.

Alone and surrounded by broken game cabinets. The screen for every machine is pitch black. The cords up unplugged. The change boxes are ripped and gutted, and the floor is dirty. Am I supposed to be here? Are these cabinets supposed to be here?

A tiny sticker is on each machine's screen. It's in English and says, "Out of Order."

The "Happy Crane" has seen happier times.

There is one game working. Taito's 1995 arcade sleeper Bubble Memories. No, I did not play Bubble Memories.

Options spread thin and ready to cop a squat, I head towards the gate. The only thing in this airport that seems to work are the LG and Samsung flatpanels. I sit down and started watching a Pocari Sweat photoshoot. A businessman with a mole on his cheek stands up, changes the channel and stops at some StarCraft show.

Woah.

StarCraft is actually on Korean TV. Right. Now. The businessman scratches his mole, watches StarCraft for a moment.

I get out my camera, but can't turn it on fast enough. Mole has changed the channel and is watching Go. He plops down and stares attentively at the flat screen. What is he doing? I can see this boring crap in Japan? Change it back! I'm sure all of the hardcore StarCraft players are dying to watch endless amounts of that MMORPG.

Like honey on bees, the other gentlemen around me follow suit and proceed to watch Go for the next hour. He never changed it back.