Ten Things To Do

Over at the Seoul Podcast, Zenkimchi, Jennifer, and Stafford gave their "Top Ten Things To See in Korea" and "Top Ten Things To Do In Korea" lists. After ruling out crossover, it came to a list of fifty-seven things.

I thought I'd add a few of my own. They're not all "Must See" items, but they're things that have helped make my time here more enjoyable in one way or another, or some of my favourite memories of being here.


My list is biased toward Seoul, because I've always lived here, and not had my poop together enough to travel the rest of Korea as much as it deserves. . . but here she is, folks.

Roboseyo's ten things to see:
In no particular order:

10. coex at 1am when the late movie gets out and the entire rest of the mall is abandoned. . . but you can wander around wherever you like

9. Pukhakdong, the neighbourhood between inwang mountan and pukak mountain, and the trail up inwang mountain, as accessed through the neighbourhood on the north side of inwang mountain.

8. new year's eve at boshingak

7. lantern festival at Buddha's birthday; especially tapgol park after dark that night.

6. either a pro gamers (online gaming) league competition, or a b-boy competition

5. (for tourists) the seoul city bus tour (for people living here) the performances and demnostration in Namsangol folk village on Chusok, or at least the traditional performance in Jung-dong theater beside Deoksugung.

4. the look on a Korean's face when YOU ask THEM "where are you from?"

3. at least two UNESCO world heritage sites located outside of Seoul

2. the Korean food at a busy restaurant where you are the only person there under 60.

1. Jongmyo Park on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon in summer, spring, or fall: go dancing with the old people, and watch them just hanging out.



ten things to do:


10. attend a protest, whether you agree or not (but if you disagree, shut up, and stay away from the anti-american ones, dummy.)

9. Speak gibberish to a person who wants a free English lesson. . . bonus points if you're approached whilst naked, in a sauna.

8. Get a letter to the editor or an op-ed column published in Korea Herald, Korea Times, Joongang Daily (inside the International Herald Tribune), or a magazine.

7. Dance with an ajumma. Dance LIKE an ajumma. Boat tours are somehow the best place to do this.

6. Skinny dip in a pond on a hiking mountain trail, when you're really effing hot.

5. Get away with something because you're not from around here.

4. In fresh snow, slide down the steep hills in Olympic Park's Mongchontosong Fortress on your butt. Be careful about where you do this, because some of the hillsides have jutting branches. Try the ones towards the south side, in the direction away from the Han River.

3. Play in the water fountains, either in City Hall Plaza, or Seoul Forest.

2. play gostop or yutnori with a korean family, and/or learn three Korean drinking games (sam yuk ku is a good start, as is kong kong chil bang!; at least one must involve variations on rock, scissor, paper)

1. learn to read hangul. preferably in your first month.




You can read their entire list, and listen to the podcast here.

Or you can read it here, with all the links that screwed up my post's formatting, and add to it Brian's list of cool stuff to do in Jeollanamdo.


57. Watch someone else eat live octopus

56. Suwon’s Hwaseong Fortress

55. Yongsan Electronics Market

54. Convince an old man to give you a ride on his motorbike

53. Sunday at the Seoul Racecourse Park

52. Watch a pansori

51. Myeong-dong on Christmas Eve

50. Apgujeong’s Rodeo Street

49. Korean booking club

48. Go shopping at Dongdaemun Market

47. Dinosaur footprints in Goseong

46. The Island of Uido

45. Innertube down Cheonggyecheon River

44. Eat all the food samples at the Lotte Department Store in Myeong-dong

43. Get kicked out of Lotte Department Store (for eating all the samples)

42. Taekwondo (www.kukkiwon.or.kr)

41. Crash a wedding at a wedding hall

40. Seoraksan Mountain, especially in autumn

39. Anywhere in Jeollanam-do

38. Seoul from any high place (Namsan Tower, mountain)

37. Ruefully mock a Korean child by refusing to speak in English

36. All-nighter in Hongdae

35. Bulguksa

34. Bomunsa Temple and Seokguram Grottoon Buddha’s Birthday

33. Folk Village in Suji

32. Ride a yellow bus around Namsan Mountain

31. Go on the psycho Chucky doll ride atEverland

30. Temple stay (www.templestaykorea.com)

29. Namsan Mountain in Gyeongju

28. The DMZ

27. Eat a live octopus

26. Changdeokgung Palace

25. Get into a fight with a drunk ajosshi while eating odeng

24. Hike a mountain

23. Byeongsan Seowon Confucian Academy in Andong

22. Seven Luck Casino

21. Get an exfoliating skin scrub at a Jjimjilbang (Sauna)

20. Insa-dong’s hidden alleys

19. Climb over the tanks and planes at theKorean War Museum

18. Noraebang

17. DVD Bang (bring Purell)

16. PC Bang

15. National Museum in Gyeongju

14. Korea National Museum in Seoul

13. Anapji Pond at night

12. Watch a shaman ceremony

11. Submarines at Seoguipo

10. Cheonggyecheon River at night

9. Sleep in a nasty yeogwan

8. Steal a Korean flag from a lamppost onAugust 15th

7. Charcoal Sauna

6. Go fishing at the Cheonggyecheon River

5. Spend the night in a sauna

4. Woljeongsa Temple

3. The city of Gyeongju

2. Go to a country restaurant/see the countryside

1. A Korean (Jennifer said it. Don’t blame the guys.)

So, I'm on the Seoul Podcast

The Seoul Podcast is a podcast about Korea and the interesting/goofy stuff that goes on here, run by Joe McPherson, also known as Zenkimchi. Last week, I was the featured guest on the podcast, and we talked about the complaining expats topic, and went through some recent news items and goofy happenings here in Korea. The first hour especially, where we talk about complaining expats and people leaving nasty comments on webpages, is interesting, I think. However, I'd have to give this podcast a pg-13 rating for some of the joking that goes on -- if you don't like locker room talk, you might want to skip minutes 72 through 80 -- bit of dirty joking in there, prompted by a weird article about bumsecks from some Korean paper or another.

However, you can hear what I think about this and that, and I think the podcast is mostly entertaining: we laughed a lot while recording it. It was cool being on the show, and I met Joe a little while ago; he's a nice guy, so this is all good.

Have a listen if you like, and order one of the Dokdo T-Shirts if you like.

I'm Guessing Like Father Like Son

Dad. It's your birthday today (it's the 12th still back in Canada).

Tons of love.

Somehow, you just know these two are preachers kids too (like me)




P.S.: thanks for this, too:

September 11th, 2001

Was it really seven years ago?

I woke up early that morning, to feed the landlord's horses. I came upstairs to collect the dogfood the landlady set out for me every Tuesday morning, and she had the TV on. I'm pretty sure she was crying.

I listened to the radio most of the morning, and then biked limpidly to my university to be around other people. Most people were in the student lounge, watching the widescreen TV, and I remember being upset that they kept repeating the footage of those damn buildings going down. I was outraged that by the evening of the SAME DAY, I was already getting desensitized to a set of images that should NEVER cease to shock anyone, fucking ever. I watched President Bush's address in the evening, and felt apprehensive when he said he would also consider any country harbouring terrorists as an enemy: I remember saying to somebody that day, "I hope they go after Bin Laden with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer."

By sheer coincidence, the next day the Red Cross had been scheduled to have a blood donation clinic in one of the residence lounges, and students from my school packed the station out all day long: we had to reserve times.

It was a bit later before I saw this: satire website The Onion's greatest moment, their 9/11 issue, which somehow, magically, managed to capture the equal parts fury and fear that everyone felt those first two weeks, while making us laugh all the harder for feeling so sad together.

The 9/11 Onion: the headline at the time was "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" and that pretty much summed up what everybody thought when they found out.

What I Love about Korean Middle-Aged People:

They not only do stuff like this. . .
they put together a temporary stage, and do it in public!
(note especially the old lady haircuts, which are EXACTLY like old lady haircuts in Canada.)


Ajummas play a funny role in Korean society. . . they're a much maligned group known for elbowing people to get empty subway seats and bawling out vendors in harpy voices for refusing to cut another bit off the haggled-price, but then, they can be hilarious and charming sometimes, too.

(Ajumma at her worst:)


(at 2:35 in this video, Halmoni -- the older, meaner version of ajumma, shows up and basically terrorizes everybody for the rest of the song)


However, sometimes Ajumma can just be wonderfully fun. Here's another story about a delightful encounter with the Korean Ajumma.

For you Expats in Korea who like to get worked up about things. . .

Here.  Go have fun with this. The comment board is actually a howl to read (linked from The Marmot Hole's sponsors) -- especially when, uh, Gerry gets involved.

It's like putting two bees in a jar and shaking the jar.

What to do for Chusok?

As we all know, it's either impossible, or hella frustrating to travel during Chusok.

If you're stuck in Seoul, and all your Korean friends are out of town, I feel for ya.

Here is my list of things to do:

Wander around the abandoned (or nearly abandoned) downtown areas. It's absolutely eerie.

Don't go to Lotte World or Everland: families go there, in lieu of leaving town and getting stuck in traffic. You'll never see it so crowded.

photo from here. Yes, I KNOW this one's actually Tokyo, but you get the point about crowding, yah?

Go to the palaces: almost every palace has something going on at Chusok, events, demonstrations, cultural whatchamacallits.
And, Roboseyo Recommends: Namsangol Folk Village, by Chungmuro Station always puts on a show at Chusok, with tons of traditional performances to see on the main stage.
More to do here.
Or, Roboseyo REALLY recommends:
Because everybody's out of town, and it's September, Chusok is the best time to get out and hit the mountains around Seoul. Here are directions to a few (I like Inwang Mountain myself), but personally, I recommend heading to the north end of the light blue subway line, getting out at Sanggye Station, looking around, and heading for high ground. (Bukhansan is popular, too.)More on mountains in Seoul from Galbijim.

and who knows: maybe I'll see you up on the hills.

Yeh.  The mountains.

Move Over, Paul McCartney, there's a new King (Jong-Il) in Town

As you know, back in the '60s, there was a rumor that Paul McCartney had died, and been replaced by a lookalike name William Campbell, who could be distinguished from the original Paul by a scar on his upper lip. The link above catalogues the clues supposedly left in album art and lyrics on the Beatles' albums recorded after that. (The Wikipedia entry.)

Now, a Japanese Professor is claiming that Kim Jong-Il, too, died, way back in 2003, and was replaced by a lookalike. They claim voice and height discrepancies to support the theory. . . hard to confirm when the guy's the most well-protected recluse in the world. More here.

While I'm pretty sure Paul's death was a hoax, it's also pretty likely North Korea would crumble within the week if word leaked that the Dear Leader was actually the Dearly Departed Leader. . . there's also news that old Kimmy collapsed last month, though as always, this kind of stuff is impossible to confirm, when the national North Korean press agency releases announcements that their dear leader completed a round of golf at 38 under par, while wrestling off man-eating tigers, learning Arabic in a week, and impregnating North Korea's fair virgins with his sheer charisma and a special Baby Gaze he perfected during a week of meditation three feet above the peak of Geumgang Mountain.

Still. . . watch carefully, ladies and gentlemen. Things might get really interesting around here.

You don't know these guys, but you know them. R.I.P. Don Lafontaine

R.I.P. Don Lafontaine (the first one)


The man who invented the phrase "In a world. . . " for movie previews.
Don, featured in an insurance ad:

A Demonstration of the Way Navigating the K-Pop Scene Sometimes Feels Like Wading Through a Swamp Of Cute

except instead of algae floating on top of the water, it's English sentence fragments.
Lee Hyun Ji 이현지 is the perpetrator today.

The entire video. . . if you dare. (Pay special attention to the E.T. appearance two-thirds in.)