Seoul

Well, I've just come back from being in Seoul, South Korea, for three days. I enjoyed Seoul. I was comparing it with Japan a lot, because the two countries have a lot in common, I think.

Seoul, though perhaps a less popular tourist destination than Tokyo, is more tourist-friendly and tourist-oriented. It seems like most people speak a little English, or at least, are not intimidated by foreigners coming up and speaking foreign languages to them. A lot of stores seemed to have products geared to a foreign market, too. I think one benefit is that Seoul seems to have a tighter concentration of tourist-popular areas. Seoul is a big city, but a lot of the popular places are in walking distance in the middle. Whereas in Tokyo, the popular places are all quite widely spread.

The people were a bit more friendly and outgoing than in Japan. Several people randomly said "hi" to me, shopkeepers were genuinely smiley and friendly, and I got 'interviewed' by a couple of Korean uni students in different locations.

However, on the 'dealing with foreigners speaking English' point it's a bit difficult for me to compare the two countries.

See, I knew very little about Korea before going there; my only research consisted of finding out about some famous sightseeing places. I had booked it so soon before going (I was literally confirming the flight two days before leaving), I didn't have time to do much research. The day before leaving, I found out purely by chance, talking to one of my students, that the water is unsafe to drink. And I only realised, through putting two and two together, that Korea's toilets are like China's - you often can't flush paper, but should put it in a bin beside the toilet.

My ignorance about Korea included the inability to say even one word in Korean. During my stay I became just about familiar with how to say 'hi' and 'thank you', but that's about it. It took me a full day to learn 'thank you'. For some reason, Japanese words stick in my mind much more easily; I think because Japanese pronunciation is much more straightforward.

Anyway, as a result, I could only rely on English, gestures and so on. So I'd go up to people and just randomly speak English. I have actually never tried this in Japan. In Japan, almost without exception, I will speak Japanese first, and only switch to English if I get completely stuck and the other person has to 'rescue' me. So I don't know how Japanese people would react if I only used English. But in Korea, communication was never a problem.

Seoul seemed a bit more polluted and humid than here. The mornings were kind of hazy.

Korean food was delicious. As you'd expect, there was a lot of kimchi. Sometimes I'd order a dish and get anywhere from 4-7 little side dishes accompanying it, with various vegetables and kimchi. To be honest though, it was a bit spicy for comfort. The best thing I had was chijimi, the vegetable pancake. I had one with stalks of green onions, and octopus. Really good! But I ate far too much.

Spiciness aside, in some ways Korea is a better place for food than Japan, I think. You can get some Japanese food there, if you like Japanese food (and I do like a lot of Japanese food), but Korea has much better snacks, and a much better coffee culture. In Japan, at least half the snacks and desserts you see are pretty miserable-looking, and there are only two or three coffee chains that produce decent cappuccinos in the whole city.

I thought perhaps Japan's poor coffee was just an Asian thing. But Korea is bursting with cafes, and has loads of coffee store chains, all of which are as good as any I'd find in Australia. It was nice to be able to try some different coffee places, not just go to Starbucks all the time. Also, the Korean coffee shops had much nicer-looking desserts than in Japan.

Also, everywhere you go in the shopping areas, there are little carts and stalls, everywhere, selling freshly-made pancakes and waffles, and various fried and barbecued things I couldn't identify. I tried a few and they were delicious. ^_^

There's going to be a festival from this weekend, so some things were being set up for that. I don't know if this is normal, but we saw lots of police officers. I mean, buses and buses of police officers. And setting up sandbags, etc. Many of them had riot shields. I walked past the entrance to an underground shopping mall, and passed about thirty cops, all sitting in neat rows on their riot shields, looking at the entrance. They looked pretty young though. I'm glad I wasn't coming out of there; I'd be rather taken aback to emerge to that sight. I have no idea what that was all about...

I also saw a few cops walking down the street holding up 'Free Hugs' signs...

I went with an ex-coworker. We did some of the usual sightseeing things, and went to a club. I also got a body treatment massagey thing. Very nice. ^_^

As for the tourist places we went to, you can see them on Flickr. Okay, I really should go to bed. Tomorrow I'm off to Atami, a hot springs town in Shizuoka!