So, Korea. Or rather, Seoul. I liked it, overall. It was so nice to finally have an exchange rate working in our favor. On top of that, just about everything is cheaper than you could find in Japan or the States, so there’s lots of fun to be had with that. I don’t know if I can say that public transit is better than Japan’s, but I will say that the subway in Seoul was easier to navigate and a whole lot cheaper without a dramatic decrease in efficiency. For 5 days of traveling in Korea, I spent a grand total of $15 on transit. Ok, $17 if you count the taxis. Also, the subways in Seoul have the tracks completely blocked off so that people have to try a lot harder to off themselves on the train tracks; sadly, it’s a common occurrence and cause for much delay in Japan. More importantly though, the food is awesome in Korea. In case I haven’t mentioned it before, there is no spicy food to be had in Japan, except for the Indian restaurants in big cities frequented by immigrants. Not the case in Korea; I’ll talk more about it later. Portions are also fabulously generous, I couldn’t remember a meal where I didn’t leave the table full. In Japan, I’ve lost track of the times where I’ve gotten my plate and my first thought is “that’s it?!” More on that later. Enough babbling, let’s get to it.
Subway. Very secure.
Money. Very convenient.
It was a bleak morning at the dorm. Even though we didn’t leave for the airport very early, lots of people, I suspect, spent a lot of time packing. Whatever the causes, just about everyone knocked out during the train ride to the airport. We chose the cheapest option to get to the airport and consequently spent more time on the train than we did on the plane. Two and a half hours later, we found ourselves wandering around in Narita Airport looking for a not-too-overpriced lunch. I guess that it might have been a good idea to buy some bento boxes at the very least, but there wasn’t much thinking going on that morning besides figuring out when the train was coming and how to get the last person out of the dorm on time. Anyway, Summer and I ended up sharing a tonkatsu sandwich, betting that we’d get something on the plane.
Sleepy time
Too cute
Hi!
After lunch, we forced our through Japanese customs, which actually wasn’t a very painful experience, except for figuring out which forms to fill out. After clearing customs, I was treated to my very first celebrity sighting. Tiger Woods emerged from what I can only assume was a VIP customs desk almost immediately after we had filed our own paperwork. He was dressed exactly like on TV, (red shirt, khaki pants) except for a baseball cap instead of a visor; though I thought he should’ve been taller. He also had two bodyguards, so I didn’t whip out my phone and get a picture to prove it.
Plane ride wasn’t bad. Lots of movies to chose from (I saw Despicable Me and still don’t understand the title). There also was a hot meal (!) and it was pretty good, much better than packaged sandwiches. One annoyance though, was that every time they made an announcement, the movie stopped. And every message was given in Korean, Japanese and English, so sometimes the movie seemed to playing one frame at a time.
Getting from airport to hostel was pretty uneventful. Both the bus from the airport and the map to the hostel proved to be entirely functional, so we made it there while getting lost only once. After getting settled and receiving kindly advice from the lone hostel employee on duty (he looked about as Hapa as I am—if I was Korean—and had a certain Orange County-ish twang to his voice) concerning the inadvisability of walking home alone, it was time for our first outing.
We left around 10 or 11 in the evening. We first picked up our rail passes for the subway, conveniently sold from a convenience store. Navigating the subway successfully, thanks to our resident expert on all things Korean (Erica studied in Seoul a year ago, she’s Korean too, in case it isn’t obvious), we arrived in district that stayed open well into the night. Lots of street vendors out and good food too. I remain convinced that the tater-tot-corndog is the greatest contribution to mankind. Fighting through the late night crowds, we came upon an indoor mall, still open and crowded. There’s a food court on the top floor, filled with delicious and spicy food; and a Burger King besides. We left at exactly the right time too. As we exited for the shopping levels, a lady at the table directly across from us starting eating something like a skunk marinated in…well never mind. It smelled bad.
So happy!
Mall that's open forever
Shopping after midnight was fun. Most of the experience was obscured by my encounter with the most beautiful coat I have seen to date. Everyone unanimously agreed that it suited me. The only problem was that it was priced at 120,000 Won (about $105). While this kind price is the norm in the States, I was still unwilling to throw out that much, especially when everyone insisted that I could find one for a better price elsewhere. Since the shopkeeper adamantly would not lower the price, we reluctantly headed through the other floors. We took a taxi back that night, for around 2,000 Won a head, and almost died apparently. I don’t think the guy was that bad a driver, but Summer tells me we were an inch from death, via a collision with a black taxi.
We rose earlier on Tuesday morning and grabbed breakfast at a local bakery that turned out to a chain. We did a lot of sightseeing and touristy things that day. Things of note include a plaza with a gigantic statue of the inventor of the Korean language. From the plaza, I spotted an armored police car, apparently there to discourage terrorists. The plaza seemed to be the happening place in Seoul, since I bore witness to my very first music video shooting. They were alright; borrowed too much from Gaga for my taste. This group seemed to be somewhat popular; I remember hearing that song on at least two other occasions while in Korea.
This dude invented Korean
Don't cause trouble in Korea
Dinner that night was an amazing affair. All-you-can-eat Korean barbeque. I don’t need to say anymore, but I will anyway. The place looked a little shabby, there weren’t any real windows, just clear plastic tarps, but everything about the food was excellent. We got aprons/bibs since we were cooking the food ourselves. Around 7500 Won for I-don’t-remember-how-much food, beer and Souju. Not a bad night.
Oh yeah, the night isn’t completely over yet. We had fun going clubbing around, but I won’t say much about it. I will say that Koreans are slightly more inclined to dance than Japanese, but both of them have a lot of cultural barriers to overcome before they can keep up with American establishments.
Summer's favorite Koreans
Wednesday didn’t go as well as it could have. We got moving a little bit too early and consequently stumbled around zombie-like for the rest of the day. After breakfast at the local bakery chain, we visited the Korean knock off of Disneyland, Lotte World. We didn’t go in though. I did though, shoot a gun for the first time. Never missed the target and even got a bulls eye (go me). We spent the rest of the day shopping, but didn’t really find anything that we wanted. Dinner was again, amazing. Separated from our group, we picked a place that looked pretty good. Everything was in Korean. Fortunately, a nice waitress helped us out with ordering. Our order happened to include the most expensive thing on the menu, but since it still came out to around $15, we gave her the benefit of the doubt. Thankfully, it worked out. We ate some of the best fried chicken I’ve ever had.
A souvenir
I don't get it
Thursday was shopping day! At long last, I found another seller of the coat I had been looking for. Since he was a street vendor, he was more willing to negotiate price. The price started out around the same as the department store, but with Summer’s help, was able to get 30,000 Won taken off. I was content for the rest of the day. I half-heartedly looked at shoes some time later, but all of them looked pretty cheap; I wasn’t feeling up to bargaining again either.
That pretty much concludes the trip. We were very sleepy for the plane ride Friday morning, but I still took the opportunity to watch another movie (Salt, for the record, was very entertaining and contained enough plot twists to keep me interested. But I must ask: when will we get tired of demonizing the Russians? Hollywood and the mass media in general seriously need to get over the fact that the Cold War didn’t end decisively. And while we’re on the subject of writers being painfully unoriginal, since when does a presidential authorization of a nuclear strike have a progress bar that is prominently displayed on every monitor in the room and conveniently freezes at 99% long enough for Angelina Jolie to have a climatic kung fu battle to death and then hit “cancel” to save the world? Sorry, I’ll stop now.) .
We’re back in the land of overpriced...well, everything now. I spent over $10 on a trip to class in Tokyo. I’m getting hungry an hour after meals again. I think I’m ready to come home.
But before that, some defining images of the trip.
Seoul at night
Modern art
Korean awesomeness
