For about five years I’ve had it in mind to pay a visit to Seoul, South Korea. It’s only about a 2 hour flight from Tokyo and is cheaper to visit that taking a train to Kyoto. About every other person I’ve asked would tell me it looks exactly like Tokyo, then write it off as not worth the visit. I’ll never take their advice again. I LOVE Seoul. Waki and I flew over last Friday morning to that beautiful city and loved every minute of it. The people were endlessly kind and friendly and the city has an incredible artist community.

We stayed at an traditional Korean inn for the first night. We had our own room in an authentic Korean courtyard that looked like a scene out of a museum diorama. Our room had sliding doors and antique furniture inside. The courtyard had a little pond and a sauna room which we enjoyed that evening. It was run by a little family who cooked us an exquisite dinner that we totally didn’t expect. Breakfast the next morning was equally impressive with grilled fish and Korean pancakes stuffed with vegetables and all kinds of fancy pickles. The surrounding neighborhood was simply jaw dropping, lined with ancient traditional Korean houses(like the one we slept in) all the way to the train station, then from the train station onward, endless art galleries and teahouses. We sat in one teahouse on the second floor of a gallery building and as we sipped tea and enjoyed sesame cookies, a parade marched by! Not just any parade though, it was a parade of traditional Korean dancers and a man dressed like a king of a Korean history book riding a horse with men dressed like soldiers around him. We couldn’t believe our luck.

The rest of the trip we spent exploring the city and eating lots of spicy food. The city recently opened a massive river that cuts through the city center and is lined with nicely designed walkways and cafes. The city itself looks like an odd mix of Japanese and Chinese design aesthetics with some originality mixed in(if that makes any sense). Getting around was easy with the cheap taxi cabs and subway system. We couldn’t get over how nice the cab drivers were to us, everyone was so friendly and polite. It was a really nice getaway for the weekend, I can’t believe I didn’t bother to visit earlier. Now I’m looking forward to going back again!

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 8:45 am and is filed under Japan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.