How to pay rent

So, for those of you who don't live in Korea, I thought you might enjoy hearing just how it is we go about paying our rent.  Let's just say, for lack of a better term, that there is something not quite right about it!

1. First we wait for our gas and electric bills to arrive at our apartment.  They just show up in our door.  We think our landlord puts them there, but we're not sure.  There is absolutely no English anywhere on these bills, not even our name.  The only way we know they are ours is the fact that they are in our door.  We look them over for the largest, most bold number on them and assume that is the amount due.  Remember, everything is written in Korean script!  Think of it as an expensive treasure hunt... 
2. Then we transfer money from our bank in the states to the bank here on base.  Ironically, they are both branches of the same large American bank, but we can't withdraw money from our stateside account here.  Lovely.
   
3. Then it's off to the bank on base where we pull out a large amount of American cash, mostly in $100 bills.
   
4. Next we go downtown to a money changer where we exchange our American dollars for Korean Won.  For some unknown reason, the largest Won bill we have ever been given is 10,000 Won, which is like $10!  We don't know if there is a larger demonination or not, I have personally never seen one.  So, needless to say, this is an extremely large stack of money!  They have these money counter machines that count the bills for you, because there are just too many!
5. Finally we go to our realtor's office.  He is sort of a go between for us and our landlord (who doesn't speak much English.)  Our realtor speaks very good English (thankfully!) and takes care of paying our rent and all our bills... in cash.  (Notice the huge stack in the above photo!)  All these transactions occur only in cash.  At first I was way skeptical, but then I figured out that's just how it works here.  Everything is paid for in cash, from rent, to suits, to purses, to cell phone bills.  All cash.  Right...