Seoul Day 6: Saturday

I woke up late and was excited for the day because I was going to see a friend from college! We were going to meet at 16:00 and just do whatever she wanted to do. Her name is Courtney D. and she is awesome. I met her my junior year in college through our mutual friend, Anna M.

Whilst waiting to meet up, I decided to head to Itaewon and get a massage. I got off and had not eaten anything that day yet, so I went to get some mocha coffee and a piece of cheesecake. It is convenient that the massage parlour was just one level above it. I don't know about everyone else, but my preconceived notion of massage parlours were not a good one. I always thought they were sketchy places and it was because of this general stereotype that I was always hesistant to go into one. The people there were very friendly and I was immediately welcomed. I chose the deep tissue massage. It was 1.5 hours of pure heaven! The deep tissue massage revealed knots I did not know I even had in my shoulders and back region.

I got back and then rested some more, the massage made me sleepy. I met up with Courtney and then we headed to a new area, one of the university areas and we got some food. It was like yakiniku, but Korean styled! It was there where we caught up with each other. I had always felt that our mutual friend, Anna M. made it a little more interesting and I wondered how it would end up that crazy rendezvous in Seoul, but all went smooth. We were both grown ups about it. After an early dinner, we met up with some of her friends and we just chilled. The first place we went was a German bar with some absurd sexual name. I can't remember it, so it must have not been that bad. haha After that we went to another bar and was there for quite some time. We had yoghurt beer, which was kind of nasty, but grew on everyone. It was a good night for sure!

Seoul: Day 5 Friday

I got up later than the other days and had a late start out of the guesthouse. I took the subway to Hyewha stop and looked for the Lock Museum. I got out to another shopping area. It was a nice area with a lot of hip shops. My stomach grumbled and I found a place called Kraze Burger, which serves up hamburger concoctions. It was very good and I had some fries with them as well. I stopped at the local convenience, Mini Stop very close by and got some water and Pepsi.

After that, I went across the street to reorient myself. I found a Puma store and got some sweet kicks. A couple stores down there is a place called Basic House and I got a nice hooded sweatshirt.

I finally decided to find the museum and after getting lost for a bit, I found the place. It is called the Lock Museum, I know original right. It was supposed to cost me ₩5,000 , but there was no one at the place and there were not very friendly, so I just followed some women into the exhibit. The exhibit is not very big and it constituted of one main room and a couple little ones. The place had a lot of locks on display and it was really cool! I have always been interested in locks and how they work. I wish there were more explanations on how they worked and the differences between them. After browsing through the exhibit, I had a green tea latte downstairs in the café attached to the museum. It was nice as I read my book and just enjoyed myself. After that, I got a newspaper and headed back to the hotel. I didn’t feel like going out during the night because I was lazy and kind of tired. I ended up talking to the person at the front desk. She is very nice and probably one more generation older than me. I ordered some pizza from Dominos and shared it with her. It was nice to talk. I then met a retired couple from Finland and it was very interesting to hear their stories about traveling. Whilst chatting to them I overheard some young people checking in. I immediately picked out Spanish as their native language and introduced myself. There were five in the group and four of them were studying in Osaka (I can’t remember). The fifth worked in Taiwan and had met through their travels in Thailand during the summer. After they checked in and were settled, I helped out the Finnish couple find the right video camera for their son-in-law. After that, the group of students came back down and they asked me out. I obliged and joined them in finding a place to eat and drink some beer. We took a taxi and they insisted on going to the place where the hotel worker suggested. When we finally got to the area, they were enthralled at a crane machine where you could win stuffed animals. Finally, we got to the place, it was similar to an izakaya. We could only get beer and salads. When we were done, we went back to the guesthouse and splitted for the night.

Seoul: Day 4 Thursday

Waking up late is just a common theme of my trip. It suits me well because I can do things and go into the later hours of the night. When I finally got off to my day, I headed to the subway and took Line 3 to Anguk stop. I got out and asked a local policeman where Yogyesa Buddhist temple was. He told me to walk down the road and I was happy looking for it. As I could not find it and I came to a big intersection, I decided to ask for the help of the local information booth. I found the help of a very pretty Korean girl who’s English was impeccable. She gave me a local map of the area and showed me where it was on the map. I was very grateful and thanked her before getting on my way. I went down the way and ended up passing on my right and walked all the way down into what I think was the financial and business district. I did not mind walking and enjoyed the beautiful weather! I bought a local newspaper, the Korean Times and read it whilst walking. I ended up making a huge circle in my endeavours and eventually was on the other side.

After consulting my map, I found that the palace was a lot closer than I had originally thought and the scale of the map was a little out of proportion. I walked to the temple and it was gorgeous. There were tons of women there for some odd reason, but maybe it was the time of day for the women to get to the Buddhist temple and pray. I payed my respects to the temple and did not actually enter it because people were praying and there was not enough space. I looked for the foreigner’s information booth, but it was close and it was a shame because I would have loved to hear someone explain the significance of the temple and shrine. I stopped in the store for the temple and got a nice Buddhist prayer necklace and also some LED keychains and a Pepsi. I had seen the museum on my way in and decided to check it out.

The place was a small museum and I think it was more of a community center with an exhibit to show off some of the Buddhist artifacts. I went through the exhibit once and took some pictures. It was hard because there were not that many explanations on what I was looking at and they did not elaborate on it either! When I finished, I felt a little bit ripped off, but my luck turned for the better! I was looking at this room, and this lady noticed I was looking in her direction. She asked me something in Korean and I responded, “Sorry, I don’t speak Korean.” And she told me to wait. She brought me a nice looking old man who spoke English. He assumed I wanted a tour and I obliged. He spent the next hour telling me the stories that went along with all the pieces in the exhibit. I found out he volunteers there and gave free tours in English to anyone who happened to come through. He was very thorough in his answers and explanations and I was very grateful for this. After the tour, I went outside to find a place to eat and quickly found the shopping district of Insadong.

It was a hybrid street with shops surrounding it and people walking, but cars were still allowed to drive through it. I walked around and bought a Korean towel that I will hang in my house. I finally found a place to eat and they served the Korean equivalent of dumplings. I also had a clam noodle soup. I enjoyed my late lunch whilst reading the newspaper I had acquired earlier. The dumplings were very good and they were the best part of the meal. I walked around some more and decided to head back to the guesthouse.

I saw a place that sold guitars and decided to check it out. The place I originally saw did not have the kind of guitar I was looking for, so I looked for the subway. On the way, I found another smaller shop and stopped in. They did have a very nice acoustic electric bass, which was exactly what I have been looking for the past couple years. It is always more useful to have an acoustic guitar plus it is also ready to be plugged into an amp. I laid my eyes upon a beautiful orange guitar. I was allowed to strum it a little bit and I could tell the place was in desperate need to sell something. The starting price was a little more than I would want to pay for and I was able to bargain for a good price plus a nice traveling soft case, tuner and three picks! After buying the guitar, one of the ladies had to go get the case from a bigger store, so she left and I waited for her. I ended up talking to the two people left. The guy was the cousin of the girl who had left and the other one was just another worker. We shared our musical tastes and I found out that he liked R&B a lot and our tastes’ overlapped a little bit. We talked and when she finally came back, I was reluctant to leave.

I headed back to the guesthouse a very happy customer! After a nap and some rest, I headed out again to see if I could find a good hamburger. That failed, as I could not find the restaurant I was looking for. I ended up eating a cheap meal at KFC. That concludes my day!

Seoul: Day 3 Wednesday

My body is obviously still not ready to be over this sickness I have. I got up and got ready. Then I headed off to see Gyeongbokgung palace or the Palace of Shining Happiness. I took the subway from Eujiro-4-ga to Eujiro 3-ga and changed onto Line 3. I then go onto a new subway to Gyeongbokgung. You can tell you are a huge tourist stop when the corridors leading to the actual place is geared with pictures and columns of historical artifacts of Korean heritage. Once you walk out of the subway station, you come out next to the National Palace Museum of Korea. You walk up some stairs and you see the Palace of Shining Happiness on your right. It is huge. It is based on many other palaces in China with a basic square construction and conforming to the feng shui of Chinese belief. I had got there about 20 minutes too late for the free English guided tour, so I bought a ticket and watch a changing of the guard. I headed to the National Palace Museum of Korea, where they held exhibits of all the stuff that was found in the palace. It was very interesting to see and there were field trips of little kids everywhere. They were very cute and I was very intrigued by the way they approached the historical and significant artifacts. I took about half an hour to get through and it was not that much things to see. It was a lot of the same stuff over and over again and the misuse of space was misleading to the actual content.

When I finished, I asked one of the information ladies where I could find some lunch. She said you can go left outside of the main gate and then you will see alleys with many different noodle shops. I followed her direction, but was quickly distracted by all of the art galleries and exhibits around the palace. You could tell it was not that much of a tourist district, but maybe I was in the wrong place. I crossed the road and found myself looking at African art and Caribbean art exhibits from the outside. I then wandered into a Buddhist center and found nothing there. I came full circle and was very hungry.

I saw a cool sign with the destinations of other famous cities and how far they were from that one point, which lead me to a cool bookstore called Seoul Selection. It is a small, hidden place that requires you to go downstairs just to get to then entrance, but once inside it feels like a small, cozy bookstore where you can enjoy coffee and possibly just sit there and read for hours on end. I met a worker by the name of Lee Min-Kyeong. She is originally from Busan and we chatted a little bit about my life story and how I had come back to the motherland. Such as in China and Japan, the family name always comes first and hers was a very common Korean family name. We chatted about the music playing and she let me listen to some of the CDs that were on display. I read the articles on the wall and there were about Korean American author who had come and visited the store. Also, there were a lot of pictures of foreigners and postcards. I could tell that this place was a normal place for foreigners to hang out. This is what a bookstore should be. Someone who owns it and focuses on a certain way they are going to sell books. The bookstore has their own publication and even has their own travel guides. It was very cool to see that native Koreans can share their passions and thoughts with others to help better experience their home country. I had a coke and she told me about how they would be going to lunch soon. It was all in good luck because they would have usually gone to lunch, but this day was different. I was very fortunate to meet her and have a little chat. I saw a book, “Native Speaker,” by Chang-Rae Lee. It looked interesting and reminded me of my Asian American Community and Identities class. I read the back description and a little bit of it and decided it would be good for me. I have found that whilst in Japan, I have had more time to read books for pleasure; something that I had forgot existed whilst in college. I asked if I was intruding on their time and she said they would be leaving soon, so I picked up the book and two other CDs I had listened to. I was happy with my purchases and did not mind helping out the place. I would like to come back to this bookstore in my future trips to Seoul. She gave me a business card and wrote down her e-mail at the place. She said if I needed any books or guides, please contact them. I was very thankful and left. I decided to head back to the palace and explore more on my own before the tour.

I had a lot of time to kill and it was OK as I was able to see more of the palace grounds by myself. I got a lot of good pictures and wished I had a better camera, but was grateful I even had a camera. In the past, I would not have a camera to remember all the memories. I then joined the tour and stayed with them for a bit, I could not hear the guide and quickly became bored with it. I would recommend going to the earlier or the last one because I hope the group will be smaller. I left and headed back to the subway. I was very impressed with myself because I had not sat down a lot during this whole time. I am usually very impatient, but this is only true when I am with my parents. My parents do a little more than this and it is overkill sometimes. I got back onto the subway and read in my Lonely Planet guide about a place where they sell studs and stuff for piercings at a place called Crow.

It is located at the Ewha Women’s University stop. I got out and it was like a shopping paradise. Marketing serves well when catering to women. Most of the stores that were there were selling women’s clothing and accessories. I walked around trying to find this place, but as the common theme on my trip is being distracted, I quickly was dissipated from my original intent. I walked around and enjoyed the sunshine. I didn’t want to be drawn into the huge shopping mall I saw, so I continued to walk around. After a little bit, my stomach craved food and I was waiting for the right restaurant. I found it in the form of a Quiznos and was happy to have some western fast food. I sat down, my first real sit down in a while and enjoyed the food. After, I walked around and into some shops, but I ended up buying nothing. I found a place called, “Paris Croissant,” and was enticed enough to buy myself some pastries for breakfast the next day and also some other baked goods! Up and across the street, I found Starbucks and bought some coffee and a mug for myself. Coffee is so freaking expensive. I guess that is why I don’t drink coffee! Anyway, I walked around some more and found some cool stores, but nothing good enough to buy. The big hit was a Zippo store where I found a lighter I have been searching for the last two years. The design is one of an old dogfighter plane nose. It is the shark design and it is awesome! I collect Zippos and it was a good one to start the collection on! I came back to the hotel and was really tired, so I took a nap and got fresh for my time out on the night. I took a shower and then headed out to Itaewon for some dinner. I found it very quickly and decided on a Mexican restaurant called, “Panchos.” I met the host, Gabriel and I knew he was a Latino. It was nice to speak Spanish with the guy. He is a dancer who has moved around a lot in his life. He has spent the last 8 years in Seoul and is originally from Sweden! He had a very intriguing life story. I had the shrimp and chicken fajitas with Corona and was thoroughly impressed at how good it was! It was more tex-mex than anything else, but still to have a taste that reminded me of Texas was a good one. After dinner, I went back home and as before enjoyed the subway ride. This day was a really good one and my experiences of Korea are ones to cherish!

Seoul: Day 2 Tuesday

I woke up later than expected and I attributed this to my body needing to get over my sickness. It was about 10:30 AM and I took my time to get ready and finally left around 12:00 PM. It was really nice outside and I able to enjoy the day whilst I was walking around and to the subway. I took the subway from Euljiro 4-ga to Euljiro 3-ga and then transferred to Line 3, or the orange line. My plan was to find a place called Thai Spirit, a Thai massage place. I had to get off at the Sinsa stop, but I read about a restaurant called, Mad For Garlic. I got off at the Apgujeong stop and looked forward to this so described, “Italian fusion,” restaurant. Unfortunately I did not find it and was not that bummed about it. I was more interested by the environment I was surrounded by. The part of Seoul is called Gangham. I felt it was a more upscale part of town and it was littered by plastic surgeon and beauty salons. (See the subsequent post about beauty) I walked around for a bit and was just intoxicated by the similarities to a western city; it was a very bittersweet experience. The combination of the amenities of the west and the cultural awareness of the east was a lot to take in. I gave into my American craving and had some Pizza Hut. I know I know, I will take all the flak for this, but I have had Korean food before and I know what it tastes like plus it was lunch; I didn’t want something that was too heavy. I got a mini-pizza that was perfect for me and I really enjoyed the food. I admit there are a lot of things I have taken for granted when in the US. I took it for granted because I had never really realized how, “good,” it was. By good, I don’t mean that Japan or the east as I so call it is bad, but just different. There are different aspects to both societies and some of the things I miss from the US. It is only fair because I have spent most of my life there. Anyway, after lunch, I sought out for this massage place. I had to take the subway again from Apgujeong to Sinsa stop. I guessed the right way to go and found that the place does not exist anymore. It is near the Dongyoung hotel and it was nowhere to be seen. I was a little disappointed, but ultimately it was for the best. On my way looking around I found a cool Brazilian churrascaria. I stopped in and looked at their menu. I think I will head there later and eat there! I came back to the guesthouse and decided to rest up for the rest of the afternoon to be fresh for my adventures tonight! I went out at about 8:30 PM and made my way back to the Brazilian restaurant. It was absolutely delicious and I was very glad I made the choice. I had a caipirinha and it was very strong. I can see why people get very happy from drinking them! It is funny because of all places to have Brazilian churrascaria, I had it in the heart of Seoul in Asia! Afterward, I stopped at a local 7-11 in the area to get something to drink and a dessert. I got the subway back and this time I remembered all the small nuances of how to take the subway and got home very easily.

Seoul: Day 1 Monday

I felt a sickness setting in from the weekend; the combination of being tired and going out a lot this weekend did not equal a good thing. I noticed my throat getting scratchy. I spent most of the day resting up and just waiting for Angella, so we could go out later. The combination of her not being able to get keitai e-mails and me not be able to use a phone. I was in the room for most of the day and was in and out of sleep. I felt my body needed it and I didn’t want to push it just to spend some time today in Seoul and end up messing up my trip. So I sacrificed one day and I feel much better.

I went to meet Angella at Namdaemun market and we looked around there for a bit. We decided to try a Turkish restaurant in Itaewon area, also known as the foreigner’s area because of the proximity to the United States of America army base. It definitely felt like the place for foreigners and there was a lot of western influence such as Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts. We went to place called Salam. It was very good and Angella enjoyed it a lot. Afterward, she had to go home to work on her resume and we parted ways at the subway station! What a good day!

Pre-gaming for Korea!

Friday:
I just don’t like to pack. It is not of my favourite things in life. It makes me paranoid and nervous about the trip I am about to take. I got home early because we had JHS senseis come and evaluate our classes, so the rest of the staff had a meeting and I was allowed to go home early.

I got home and just started to pack and see what I would need for my trip to Korea and also for the rest of the weekend because I would not be coming back home for the whole weekend. I left around 5:45 PM from my apartment in Oma and needed to be in Mustu by 6:30 because of the Tanabu kids eikeiwa class. I got there a little late, about 10 minutes late and it was OK. The class went on for one hour and it was good. The only one who did the actual assignment was Kaho and it was OK for the level of her English. They were supposed to buy me dinner, but they did not have enough money and it was OK. I payed and went to McDonalds because I was still hungry.

I got some and then headed over to Mike’s where he was making dinner of rice and gyoza. Dave came over and got some food and we decided to go out and Dave was going to be our driver! It was nice of him to volunteer and I don’t know if he had enough money for drinking anyway. The first place we hit up was Gin’s and I had never been there before. It was a cool, American antique bar with a lot of reference to rock and roll. He played some cool music and had some interesting choices of video on his flatscreen. He definitely did not make me a whiskey sour, but more of a whiskey soda. Nobuko, Alex and Satoko were at One Love and they called me to see if I would join them. We eventually got there and it was a lot of fun! I saw one of my senseis there and his friend from Kawauchi high school who is married to another sensei at my school. He ended up buying drinks for the people at the table and it was a good time!

We stayed there for a little bit after they left and then went to a place I have never been, Sanctuary. It was cool to hang out there for the rest of the night, but it was kind of expensive with the table charge and all the three Cokes I drank. We met a lot of new people that night. I met Hitomi, one of Dave’s new friends and she was a sweetheart. Went back around 4:00 AM and Mike and I just crashed.

Saturday:
Mike and I woke up pretty late and he made some nice grilled and sausage sandwiches. It was really good. Mike took me to the barbershop and with his Japanese we got me a haircut! It was very interesting because my hair was kind of long and I cut it pretty short.

After that, it was time for some poker and Toby was at Mike’s when we got back. We had about 4 people and Yukko came up from Noheji to hang out with us! I had to go to the Lawson across from the Eneos on the 279. I came back and we started poker shortly afterward. There were about 10-11 people the whole night. We broke for dinner around 6:15 and were due back at 7:30 PM. Yukko and I went to Sukiya where we were eyed by some guys. I think Yukko was a little uncomfortable!

It was a good night for poker and it was a lot of fun to see so many people at the table! I felt bad for Yukko, so I left the table early and then went to Sukiya to meet up with Alex. Nobuko was nice enough to drive us to Sukiya and then we went to One Love in Alex’s car. We got there and we had a good time! We took Yukko to Ori. And Alex took me back to Mike’s and everyone was finishing up.

Sunday:
Waking up early after going to bed late was very difficult. I got up early because I was paranoid about traveling. I took a nice shower and got ready, when I was done, Mike was already up and getting ready too. We left before 9:30 and we saw Alex and Yukko coming back. It was nice to see them and they wished me a good trip. Mike and I headed off and went to McDonald’s for some quick breakfast. The drive was a good one to Aomori airport. We made it in pretty good time and it really helped me relax about how smoothly things went. I got there and the security is not as strict as in the U.S. It was very easy to check my stuff in and get it screened. I had about one hour to wait and it was nice to just sit and observe people. When we did go in to the actual gate, we waited a little more and then were allowed into the plane. The flight was a nice one, about 2 hours and 52 minutes from Aomori to Incheon airport.

I arrived and going through the airport was very easy. I got through immigration and got my bag really quickly. It was probably one of the fastest things I have ever seen. I exchanged some money and saw Angella waiting to greet me. It was nice to see a familiar face and we went to buy bus tickets to get me to my hotel. It took about one hour to get from the airport to my hotel and it was a nice way to catch up with Angella whilst on the bus. Once we got to the stop, we had to find the hotel and it was a little bit trickier than most. Since it is more like a guesthouse than an actual hotel, the place was hidden in a back alley. The area was not bad, but it looked like the equivalent of China town anywhere in a big city in the US. It reminded me of China town in San Franscisco for some strange reason. The place I stayed at is called Travelers A and it is very nice. The place is very welcoming and well lit with bright colours and it is a nice place to call home for the next week. The young woman at the desk was very nice.

I got into my room and got ready to go with Angella to dinner. We took the subway to get to the area where we would have dinner. We walked around for a bit and then got to the restaurant. It was very good and it was traditional Korean food, a rice bowl with various ingredients such as chili paste and a raw egg served in a very hot stone bowl. The dish was served with kimchi, traditional Korean appetizers and it was very delicious.

Afterward, we went to the bookstore to find me a Lonely Planet book guide for Seoul. The bookstore was very interesting. It was almost like a basement and there were a lot of people in there even late at night. We finished that and then Angella showed me how to get back to my stop and I ventured onto the subway by myself. It was a lot of fun and it was very easy because everything was in English. I was reading my travel guide so intensely that I almost missed my stop, Euljiro-4-sa-ga. I got turned around and exited on the wrong side and spent the next 20 minutes trying to re-orient myself to find my hotel. I ended up finding my hotel and it was a relief to be back! I checked my e-mail quickly and then headed to bed. I was tired from the combination of traveling, the long weekend and being in a new place! Seoul is amazing!