Trip to Seoul: Day 6 - Presidential election, vintage and ugly fashion

[If you want to read my travelogue from the start, it begins here]

My final whole day in Seoul I hade 3 hours before the evening to do some last minute shopping. Having some more work to do this evening, I will go directly for the pictures, which I know you like the most.

Korean men are no strangers for taking care of their skin or other parts, and why should they? I'm not there yet, but its probably just a question of time before (even) more men in the west goes beyond aftershave and deo in their morning duties). BB Cream above, but what is the other thing? Snail Cream! I will probably pass on that in the future too. ;-)

And again, some scandinavian culture makes it mark, at the COEX underground mall

Where I today found a record shop with lots of kpop. Orange Caramel was sold out but they had a lot of signed stuff for reasonable prices I think (like 48000 Won (320 SEK/48$) for a signed Girls Generation picture).

Yes, the election. Here we have thos student activists again with their peace-symbol looking rallying ... symbol.

So, yes, even though there is almost no snow, there is more than cold enough, -10 degrees Celcius, windy and sooo cold (I guess its the moisture).

Low fashion?

So, I may have implied, especially at home, that asian and korean fashion is just soo fine all the time, but actually thats ofc not true. There seems to be a rather thin line between high and low fashion. Rather scary things that looks like something your grandmother would have worn in the 60s 70s(?) isnät unusuall at all at street markets och the lower price range. In Sweden we have this cult of youth resulting (which is often nice but can be narrowminded) in people not stopping to trying to dress youthful after they get family or pass their 30s/40s. My imression is that in asia (yes very simplified and probably wrong) there is still a more general generational divide in styling. For a comparison sideways - the most usual election analysis have read before election day is that the 20- and 30-year-olds will wote for leftwing Moon, the 50+ for Park, and the 40-year-olds will decide. That kind of reasoning wouldn't happen in Sweden, at least not in such broad terms. Thoguh media often groups 65+ but that is more connected to their common interest as retiree's.

At Insadong, Ssamziegil, they have workshops you can participate in for a fee, one stair down.

Prices

View of Ssamziegil from second floor

Koreans love their head-,hand- and footwear. Especially in winter I am guessing.

And backbacks, god I saw a lot of nice ones. Lycky for me that I already ordered one from Yesstyle.com before I left for Seoul

Actually I did visit two new city districts, Itaewon and Hongdae. The first one is the (in)famous forigner living spot of choice, which ofc makes it both alluring and disliked by natives. You get all the kinds of stuff you get at such places all over the world. One the one hand, prostitution and such, on the other hand a thriving cultural life with many restaurants and shops you don't see in other places. JY Park sjöng om detta i sin retrostylade låt förra året. The thing is, I came there during daytime, I really couldnät have told it was a specially un-korean neighborhood beyond maybe a few more bars with european names. But it was 98% korean(looking) people on the streets, so Itaewon have nothing on some swedish suburbs I know of, that I promise you. Good or bad, I don't know, but I think this again reminds us how important cultural and national identity are for the Koreans, which somewhat reminds me of our sister country Norway. They also have a rather recent independence from day and are surrounded but bigger nations.

So, anyway. I went on to the city area I live next to, Hongdae, which is an area with lot of students from Hondik University, and naturally then has a lot of nightlife, shopping and not so pricey stuff but preferably a little different then your usual "Mart stuff". I found it to be a very nice area for small shopping, and found lots of fun stuff for very affordable prices.

Design galleria with very nice and different presents. Sadly I couldn't decide on what to buy, finding this place at the end of my walk, already having ticked of all on my list.

So, sorry sister, but these bees on a iron hexagon grille (for notes) didnt make it past the cut

Just out of coincidence I found this store in a besement which sold vintage clothes

and heres the logo, Divineshop

There I found a really nice leather jacket, which read "McGregor" and made in korea, but the shop owner said Japan, and when I googled it seems to be a replica of WWII A-2 flying jacket, a real find for the same price you buy a sweater at home. It really completed a kind of biker-yakuza look I had been imagining, haha. It looked somewhat like this but not as original, instead more lika a fantasy of world war two, with some stickers on it (flyer related but clearly of a more "war romantic" and recent origin). I'd guess my one is from 70s-80s.

It also finallly forced me to realize I have to give up my idea of only having hand luggage on the flight back to sweden, so now I will have to let the slightly broken one serve as bearer of extra clothes and such, and I will fill my new one (another very nice find) with the more precious stuff. I will look like a Himalyan Sherpa. ;-)

Kpop: Hello Venus (헬로비너스)

Hello Venus is a rookie group which now has released their second video, What are you doing today, following up the video Venus from earlier this year. They maybe doesn't measure up to their sister group After School, but these two singles are quite OK and somewhat cheeky and uptempo, I'd say.

1. Hellovenus - What are you doing today (오늘 뭐해) 
2. Hellovenus - Venus
3. Hellovenus - Mysterious
4. Hellovenus - Do you want some tea?
5. Hellovenus - Sticky Sticky

Trip to Seoul: Day 5 - Riverdance and Pig Feet

[If you want to start at the biginning of my travellogue, its here]

Well, to be honest I may have exaggregated the first part in the header a little, but what I *did* was at one point was cross the Cheonggyecheon stream on som stepping stones, making me "dance" in a fashion over a "river".
I had time for a 1,5 hour walk in the afternoon and what better way to spend it than walking? The Cheonggyecheon is a recreated water stream that originally was built over and used as road, but then reclaimed in 2005, and know gives residents and visitors alike a chance to stroll along a nice water stream, which is especially nice in summer I'd imagine. With minus 10 degrees, the dampness doesn't exactly add to the enjoyment, but the times the sun peeked around the skyscrapers it was quite OK. The place is evidently often used for romantic strolls also, from the top of my head I also remember that the kdrama Lie To Me had a scene recorded here.

The shell at the start of the stream is like Seouls version of Stockholms Sergels Torg, ie a place Seoulites go to celebrate great wins and such. The funny thing is that the sculpture "spring" is actually made by the swedish-born artist Claes Oldenburg.

And to the east of the sculpture the water starts.

I continued downstream a couple of kilometers which too me past Bangsan Market, Gwangjang market and Doota until I reached Hwanghakgyo (12th I think) bridge and Seoul Folk Flea Market.

Election banners, this one I don't think is actually for one of the main candidates. I usually have seen students carrying it, and its a play with the peace symbol. Some kind of activists?

Scyscrapers alla around

Bangsan market. Cooking apparel and specialist foodstuffs.

But mostly stuff for making food. And things more for office work.

Pig's feet, or Jokbal as its called, with the first two sidedishes. Very nice for a meat lover, and since it was cut thin slabs I didn't have to look at some feet too ^_^. I could feel the taste of marrow (meant in a good way). Cost 7000 Won (45 SEK/7 $).

And here comes a soup too. And I can't eat with sticks as usual, so I used my hands and got som paper towel from the caring food stall owner. The Kimchi I actually passed on, its a bit strong and with no rice I didn't want to "spoil" my meat experience.

The Pyeonghwa wholesale market. 

Most of the clothes was of some kind of 50+ asian style and patterns that made med slightly (sorry, but thats the truth...) queasy. There were some exceptions, but all in all, guess if I was happy to visit Doota again a final time. After looking around there  and reestablising my respect for korean and asian fashion, I found this resting spot called "FIKA - Swedish coffe break" which is quite spot on! They had menues with swedish letters like Ö in all the right places,  and the special "Semla" buns, and *even* earl grey tea. My respect for Doota went even one step higher then, haha. ;-)

The Fika Place got some strong brands as a support. Even Nubie Jeans ;-P

The Seoul Folk Flea market - "antiques", second hand and newer stuff like sportswear and a lot of other stuff. The green/purple line has a station close by (which has a little confusing setup, but I worked it out).

Fishing poles

Funny english text. They do their best, but I still think you would put effort to get spelling right when actually producing stuff in big numbers? ;-)

Kpop: Sunny Hill (써니힐)

Sunny Hill är ett väldigt bra exempel på hur grupper kan omformas i kpop:ens värld. Om det inte stämmer så kan medlemmar bytas, namn ändras och hela musikstilen ändras. Från att ha varit en ganska mähig grupp fick de en skarp och spretig, nästan svår stil, med ett helt annat anslag. Och såå mycket mer spännande. Jag brukar länka videor utan långa intron, som ofta koreanerna gillar ha, men här har jag behållit dem både för Midnight Circus och The Grasshopper song, de är värda att se åtminstone en gång. Det här är i min åsikt en av de mest unika grupperna från Sydkorea, som har en helt egen stil.

Update: The latest single is Goodbye to romance. I Usually dont that much care for ballads, but since its a nice video and from Sunny Hill, I will make an exception.
Update: New album and single, and it looks promising, more like the "old new" Sunny Hill.

• Sunny Hill - Monday Blues
• Sunny Hill - Goodbye to Romance
• Sunny Hill - Midnight Circus  (så j-a bra)
• Sunny Hill - The Grasshopper song (musik och video i perfekt union)
• Narsha ft. Sunny Hill - Mamma Mia (nej, inget ABBA-relaterat)
• Sunny Hill - Is The White Horse Coming? (백마는 오고 있는가)
• Sunny Hill - Pray  ( 기도, den är faktiskt lite grym, för att vara kpop)

Trip to Seoul: Day 4 - Mechas and Ho's

This travelogue (which starts here) is all fun, but being here on business, I should of course talk about that to and show some pictures:

University of Seoul

Well then, now that is out of they way. ^_^

Later the same day...I hurriedly visited Asias largest underground market, below the big COEX expo. Here I must mention at least a few of the stores that caught my eye. The first was Aniland, a must visit for all Totoro fans (even though they sell alot of other cutesy stuff too):

Sugar rush or what - Christmas AND Totoro!

And the store.

The next was a toy store (didn't remember the name as it didn't matter - it looked rather generic) where I from my swedish point of view noticed some stuff you don't see that often at home. First there where a lot of Mecha (jaoanese fighting robots) building kits:

And then I found this kind of buildning kits where the parts where made of some kind of wood (bamboo?) and it was all different sorts of buildings or vehicles sometimes. Rather neat and detailed.

 Last and certainly not least was the extremely big Bandi and Luni's bookstore, which was maybe the biggest one I've seen, and definitely so in one plane. Just their section of english (ie original) books was  way bigger than I've seen anywhere in Sweden.

A fun thing they had, like miniature lego blocks, each measuring roughly 2-3 mm a side.

Colorful bibles, just a reminder the Koreans actually have a long Christian tradition

After that I just had to pass the nowadays well-known city district of Gangnam, and specifically Rodeo street (there are other more suitable names of streets and such, but G. and R. will do).

Actually it was almost an anticlimax, the main street was more like a row of showfronts and almost no people going in or out. I wouldn't say the place was dead, it wasn't any impressive at all. The best part was actually when I by mistake went up the wrong escalator in the luxiorious subway station and entered a subfloor like the one in Shinsaegae (or Harrods, London) even though this seemed even more special, with waiter-kind of people standing around at food disks or food courts.

Louis Vuitton

SM Town - known to all k-popers. I tried to see something when I seemingly disinterestedly walked by, but of course nothing came up ;-P

And of course a gift-wrapped building.  ^_^

So guess what caught my eye here, then? The master of bad puns inside of me woke up with a start. This was probably the best thing in my 45 min visit in high end Seoul, haha.

And a evening meal, and FINALLY good black tea, with a thick blueberry-filled waffle made on order. All for a quite OK 4800 Won (32 SEK/4,8 $). Add to that a giant spicy sausage bought from a street vendor 10 minutes earlier and they whole sheebang cost me no more than 6600 Won (44 SEK/6,6$), ie like a fast-food meal here in Seoul.

Not so much to tell as the earlier days, but I got to sleep too ;-)

Trip to Seoul: Day 3 - Kpop, Namsum Tower and Jump!

New to my travelogue of Seoul, you may want to start at day one here:

So, owing to late shopping at Dongdaemun yesterday, and the 10 km walk home ofc, I hade a record late breakfast at 12.00. Yes, thats extreme, but then I'm mostly still on Swedish time ie one could argue I woke up at 3.00 in the morning. ;-) Here is my lunch:

So before going to to first must see of the day, Namsam Tower, we walked through Myengdong and Namdaemun market (again), and here I got a revelation. Well, sort of. We passed by the wonderful Ttrak of Bloo (no, not "track of blood") which is a heaven for a kpop-lover.

The thing is, before going to seoul, I had tried to distance myself from kpop fandom feelings and instead be like "yea, whatever". I mean, what is a week in the heart of kpop, eh? My defences thoguh began falling bit by bit by hearing kpop hits all the time and being surrounded by all theese small signs of kpop, kdrama and just general cultural markers you see all the time at home when you watch it. Like:

Seeing Lee Min-Jung från Big, and many others, doing ads.

And I think I saw Bae Suzy from miss A in two different ads at a TV in just one minute. She seems to be really popular. I first saw her in the above mentioned tv-series Big. I will blog about that one later on.

Anyway, Ttrak of Bloo was the obviouos end to my self-deluding, since I left that place all warm over carrying with me treasures you cant guess! CD:s? Well, yes. Hmm, well maybe that wan't to hard, but still look at what I found (and this was just a minimum choice from my side, made possible by extreme self-control...):

From left to right, up to bottom it is:

• Ga-In with her latest album, featuring the single Bloom. I actually boought this on principle, even though the tracks are good too, because the music video depicts a female sexuality beyond the male ppoint of view that pervades kpop.
• Super Junior photos, presents for home
• Gangnam Style with PSY. Well, ofc I HAD to buy one of theese. Its shaped like a box of burnable DVD's and really a nice memory of what happened to kpop in 2012 on the world stage.
• Ornage Caramel with their second mini album. Aing among other tracks. The group that brought me inte kpop.
• Sexy Love with T-ara (7th mini album). One of my favorite bands and tracks this year
• Orange Caramel again, this time with the latest Lipstick single.

Even though they are nicely packaged, the albums usually only costs roughly 14000 WOn, ie 95 SEK/14$. To be honest Im not even sure if they are compatible with my swedish CD-player, but the Books that comes with the album and just supporting the bands I have already downloaded from the internet felt right. And since I was such an enthusiastic customer (yes, I tried not to giggle or drool to much), he even threw in two free posters (orange caramel, yay!).

This was sorely tempting, signed CD's by the stars themselves, I really had to lay of them (this time).

So, if you are in Seoul and likes kpop, I warmly recommends this place. It is in the southwest end of Myengdong, you enter the market area from the Myengdong station and turn left at the first street and walk towards the distant Shinsagae department store. Close to the end of the street you find it on the left hand side of the street. Or google for this: 부루의뜨락 on Google Maps.

Dazed by this, feeling warm and cozy inside, the walk then went through Namdaemun market and then down towards Namsum Tower. Given the choice between taking a challenge or doing it the easy way, I did as usual and took the long way. Literally.

Instead of going by the cable car I thought I'd walk up to Namsam Tower, but that was quite a long and steep walk. I'm in quite OK shape, but a brisk uphill walk, though a very beutiful (certainly in spring/summer), still took me roughly 35 mins and weak in my legs. Ah, who am I kidding, I liked it!

Anyway, the tower and the view was as expected, no more or no less. The interesting thing was the tradition of couples placing locks on places they could, usually up in the tower I thought, but here they were on iron christmas trees. Nice idea:

A guy making fast food in a very effective way. Almost worth paying to see.

The hard way

Free show of traditional martial arts at the top

View towards north and downtown Seoul (well, just a small part of Seoul, actually)

Christmas locker trees

See, trees made completely out of locks, often with romantic texts on them

After Namsam tower it was evening break and then time for the Jump show. It is a kind of show popular in Seoul where you actually doesn't need to understand any korean since, beyond some basic korean sounds korresponding to "ouch","hello", and so, which you get anyway, its all about the acting (out) and the martial arts. Its a story about a family who has a break in, and combines slapstick with sound effects and great showmanship. It comes warmly recommended.

Just a snapshot before the show, I didnt dare photograph more...

Just one more comment, a general one:

After two and a half days here in Seoul using the subway I have noticed something I haven't seen an the subway, at least not nearly in the same scale, as in for example London, Beijing or Stockholm, and that is the dynamic merging of business=shopping and subway. Often you either have the subway stations contain shops on the way to the exits, or you have belowground transfer corridors (can be even kilometers!) with sopping stalls, or even stand alone shopping centers, all of these usually situated below street crossings as to serve as an alternative to pedestrian crossings. Its all very nice on makes the subway a lot more "Lived in" and comfy almost at times. And between midnight and 5:30 in the morning the entrances and first hallways are left open for homeless to sleep in, which seemed to be done in a relatively orderly fashion.