Seoul Trip (English Part1)

Last year, I had several opportunities to visit Korea as I stayed there over new year for my fourth time. Then now I finally assembled and patched some notes and pictures I have written or taken on my journeys into this article.

Seoul, A capital city of Korea where I have always been to is never flat. Literally, most of the areas of the city are slopes since it is surrounded by a rock face mountains.

The city becomes very cold in winter that it was actually colder than Canada last time I went there.

My eyedrop which I left at night in a car was frozen by the next morning. That probably explains why I have hardly seen anyone ride a bicycle under the cold weather and hills.

The cold also made everyone wear a long down jacket which transforms a human into a worm. First off, I thought it looked lame but there was not any other option to save my life. Yes, I bought it and It somehow became cool eventually.

I went to Itaewon, a famous area for its nightlife, to experience a club culture there. I did not like the atmosphere on the street as it reminded me of a hateful city where all flashy tourists and drunk people go crazy at, Roppongi.

The first place I went to is Cakeshop. They have already earned its reputation recently. It was an Asian tour of Actress at that night and I was kind of excited until I found the nightclub is not smoking free.

Unlike Japan, indoor smoking is basically banned (and I really appreciated it) but somehow people still can smoke at a nightclub. So I eventually gave up waiting for his performance and took a cab.

This is another place called Soap and I loved it because they banned smoking.

This one is Seendosi, a new hotspot for young people. It was bar night when I visited there so I could not see how it goes as a nightclub but an atmosphere and DIY style interior made me feel so comfortable. And yes, smoking free.

Gyeongbokgung is one of the few tourist places I went to. There were so many visitors wearing Hanbok, A traditional Korean dress, just like the ones in Asakusa.

My personal opinion is that anyone who goes to other countries in any forms should look up the culture and history of where they travel and understand them in advance. Then pay their respect during the visiting. So I think it is kind of insensitive for us as a Japanese to just dress it and leave everything behind about what we have done to Korea in the past and related conflicts between the countries.

That is actually what was inside of my head all the time on the trip. I always felt some sort of tense when I spoke my mother tongue on the street, in the restaurant or any public place. Probably I was overthinking but there are the facts that we dominated and terribly treated them before and I could not help feeling guilty about it.

To be continued→