Korea

N Seoul Tower

Today my family and I drove up Namsan to visit a newly renovated Seoul Tower.  It’s my third trip to Seoul’s major landmark and my first since it reopened to the public.  The first two times, I climbed up from to the tower only to find it still under construction.  Not this time.  Today I knew it was open because the local media played up its grand reopening late last year with considerable fanfare.  The tower has officially been renamed the "N Seoul Tower," with the "N" standing for Namsan (in English, South Mountain).  I think it’s a bit silly, but apparently the refurbished tower had to have a new name.  If the name really needed to be changed, then I think the name "Namsan Tower" would have been a much better choice.
 
We drove up Namsan and parked not far from the tower.  We then walked the short, inclined distance to the tower’s base.  Along the way, we bought cotton candy for my son.  He ate it with a vengeance.  I also surveyed the lone remaining section of the old city wall.  Originally built in 1395, the section was mercifully spared by the Japanese, who dismantled Seoul’s walls during the Japanese Colonial Period (1910-45).  The wall runs along a public pathway that winds its way up to N Seoul Tower from the east.  The area on top of Namsan is fairly large and paved with flat cobblestones.  The area near the tower is covered with wood decking built during the tower’s renovation.  I thought it was very tastefully done.  The base of the tower has a fast casual restaurant and a spartan gift shop with very few trinkets.  Surrounding the tower are a few shops, including an ice cream and coffee shop, kitschy photo studio, convenience store, and a ticket shop.  I paid much too much for a tiny cup of espresso while waiting for my wife and son. 
 
Reading the N Seoul Tower coffee shop’s menu board reminded me just how much one company can influence the Korean language.  Although Starbucks Coffee borrowed many words from the Italian language, gourmet coffee terms in Korean such as "tall caffe mocha" very much follow Starbucks’ convention.  Virtually every gourmet coffee shop in Korea uses the same coffee terms as Starbucks does.  Even the Korean terms follow the Italian pronunciation very closely, right down to doubling up consonents such as "machiaTTo."  The attached photo shows some coffee selections and their Korean equivalents.  The Korean translation written in hangeul is virtually the same as it is in Starbucks’ Italian-English.  Koreans are crazy about gourmet coffee, and there are many competing chains.  None have had quite the same impact Starbucks has had.  It’s amazing that Starbucks has had such an impact in Korea that it introduced a new set of vocabulary into Korean.
 
We decided to forego visiting the tower observatory today because visibility was too poor.  When we were home the day did not seem so hazy, but the sunny blue skies were a bit deceptive.  The residual smog that blankets Seoul was very apparent when looking down from atop Namsan.  We decided to save time and money and view the city from the base of the tower instead.  The view from all four sides is rather nice.  The view of Seoul to the north looking towards downtown and Bukhansan National Park offers the best view.  The southern view along the Han River and Yeoido Island is also nice.  Today however, visibility was too poor to view Seoul in great detail in any direction.
 
Blog Note:  I couldn’t resist posting a photo of my son taken a couple weeks ago.  Proof positive that my son can walk on water.  And, he’s wearing mismatched blue and green socks, his favorite combination.
 
For the Shutterbugs:  I posted four new photos taken at the Seoul Millennium Hilton as well as photos of our visit to N Seoul Tower taken earlier today.  Enjoy!

Distracted by Jumbotrons

Driving in Seoul is bad enough that drivers don’t need any further distractions.  Call it a clash between the highway and Korean digital superhighway.  Seven giant Jumbotron digital billboards are strategically placed around downtown Seoul in order to maximize viewership and inadvertantly distract drivers.  I usually don’t pay much attention to them while driving, but tonight I could not help it.  I was driving south towards Namdaemun in heavy traffic when I stopped and waited for the red light to turn.  As I waited, I couldn’t help but stare up at a monstrous digital advertisement featuring tennis sensation and stunningly beautiful Maria Sharapova.  The giant, digitized Wimbledon champion hits a few tennis balls that precisely hit a faraway target.  Then she suddenly hikes up her tennis skirt to reveal a portable media player strapped to her attractive, shapely leg.  I did not catch which product she was pitching–perhaps it was a Motorola product.  (When the beauty outshines the product being marketed, it’s overkill.)  No matter–the whole scene was rather distracting.  As the majority of drivers in Korea are men, I suspect that I was not the only male driver distracted by this huge, seductive advertisement overshadowing my line of sight.  When the traffic light turned green, I drove on and immediately thought about how easy it would be for this type of advertisement to cause traffic accidents.  While that speaks volumes about Maria Sharapova’s beauty, it doesn’t bode well for Seoul’s traffic safety.

Random observations about Korea

How was your Christmas, Dear Reader?  We had a nice Christmas at home.  Some of our family friends came over on Christmas Day to celebrate the holiday with us.  I hope you also had a wonderful Christmas or Chanukkah, if you celebrate either one of them.
 
I had the day off from work today.  In the morning, I went to a dentist’s appointment.  Most Koreans went back to work today; I’m glad to have had an extra day off.  In the afternoon, my wife and I had lunch at a Greek restaurant in Itaewon called "Santorini" and then went shopping.  We left our son home with our nanny.  It was nice to get away for a change and have some quality time for ourselves.  My wife finally bought a new wallet, and I made her promise to throw away her old one.  The faux leather has severely cracked, and she was using a paper clip as a makeshift zipper.  Her new red leather wallet is a nice upgrade.  In the afternoon, we stopped by Starbucks for some coffee and then went to E-Mart for more shopping.
 
I am always on the lookout for new and interesting observations about Korean culture.  Four came to light today.  I had planned to write about two of them, but I figured I might as well pass them all on to you.  In the morning when I went to the dentist, I passed by a group of elderly Koreans cleaning up a neighborhood.  I might not have given it another thought, but then I recalled a recent article I read in Seoul Magazine about elderly Koreans’ dedication to recycling and conservation in Korea.  I was amazed that a group of elderly Koreans, perhaps in their 70’s, would venture out on an absolutely freezing morning after Christmas to clean up the neighborhood.  The article mentioned that recycling in Korea is generally unprofitable and that the elderly do it mainly as a public service.  The Korean War and its aftermath significantly impacted the psyche of the elderly, and many grew up during long periods of tremendous scarcity.  I really admire their dedication.
 
I made my first visit to a Korean dentist today.  His office was filled with memorabilia from his alma mater, the State University of New York at Buffalo.  Dentists often post their credentials and diplomas on the wall for patients to see.  However, this dentist went so far as to prominently display posters of Buffalo and the university campus, alumni bumper stickers, and other varsity products.  I found his dedication a bit amusing.  It also reminded me just how much Koreans value an American university diploma.  Whether they graduate from Harvard University or from Podunk College, Koreans prize American college degrees because they are highly regarded in Korea.  Many equivalent degrees from top U.S. schools are held in higher esteem than degrees from top Korean schools.  I wondered why so many Korean students would work so hard to get into top Korean schools when they could earn a degree just as highly regarded from a U.S. school.  In some respects, it appears more difficult to earn admission to an elite Korean school through the rigorous college entrance exam than to be admitted to a top U.S. school.
 
At "Santorini" Greek restaurant, my wife and I dreamed about living someday in Greece.  We were not quite so enamored with the food.  Greek is one of my favorite cuisines, and Seoul has just two Greek restaurants, "Santorini" in Itaewon and a gyros joint near Ehwa Woman’s University.  We ate gyros, but they did not taste quite like they do in the United States.  For one, our only meat choices were limited to pork or chicken, not beef and lamb, as are more typical in Greek cuisine.  The avgolemono, a lemon chicken soup, was too brothy.  Following our meal, I asked the restaurant owner why they did not serve dolmathes, one of my favorite Greek dishes.  (Dolmathes are grape leaves stuffed with rice and minced lamb and served hot or cold with a side of tzatziki sauce.)  The owner commented that they cannot buy grape leaves in Korea.  It reminded me that some ethnic foods are virtually impossible to reproduce in Korea.  Likewise, I imagine that Korean food is nearly impossible to find in some parts of the world.  I wondered how many Korean restaurants are in Athens, Greece.  Not many, I reckon.  Good luck finding kimchi near the Aegean Sea.
 
At Starbucks, I met an American businessman who has lived in Korea for over two decades.  Out of curiosity, I asked him if he knew four long-time American expatriates I met in Seoul.  He said he knew every single one of them personally!  I met all four of them on different occasions for different reasons.  It reinforces the fact that the long-term American expatriate community in Korea is extremely small.  If we were to stay longer, I too would become, for better or for worse, part of this small circle of American expatriates living in Seoul.  It definitely does away with one’s ability to remain anonymous for long.