Around
Seoul

To me it's a little weird that Seoul is spelled S-e-o-u-l, which makes it rhyme with "sole' or "soul," giving rise to punny jokes such as calling Koreans "Seoul brothers," etc. What's weird is that Seoul is actually a two-syllable word which might more accurately be spelled Saw-ool or Saw-ul. The first syllable sounds like the past tense of "see," and the second part is something like "pool" without the "p."

However it's spelled or pronounced, Seoul has an energy that you can feel as soon as you step off the train. As I walked around it the thought that kept going through my head was that any trip there was just like a frame grab from a movie, a snapshot of a freight train as it roared full-speed into the future. I think I'm correct in saying that the world has typically thought of Tokyo as being a teaming hive of worker bees, but I can tell you that Tokyo seems self-satisfied and laid-back compared with the tempo in Seoul.

That said, I went to Seoul looking for the past, then Seoul that I knew in 1987. I found a little of it, but just a little.




 My mother-in-law made the trip from Busan to Seoul with us. Although she lives in Japan, she keeps an apartment in Inchon, southwest of Seoul, so we stayed with her there instead of staying at a hotel. Each day we took the bus into Seoul, and this is the street in Inchon seen from the bus stop. Korea has a large number of Christian churches; and you can see the spire of one in this shot.
We had gone up the Busan Tower for a panorama view, so we thought it would be nice to do the same from the Seoul Tower. Both towers are on hills, but Seoul's Namsan, plopped right in the middle of downtown Seoul, is certainly the bigger of the two.
It was actually a little too hazy for picture taking, but you play the cards you're dealt. I was planning on going back to my old stomping grounds south of the Han River that divides Seoul, so I took this picture of the area. Although I could make out where I used to live from there, it isn't visible in this poor quality picture.

Seoul being the dynamo of energy and building that it is, II certainly expected the apartment buildings of Idanji in Jamshil, pictured here, to be long gone, since they were fairly dilapidated even in the 80's when I lived there. But no, there they remained in all their "majesty." At center above the off-white buildings of the danji you can just see the curved roof of the Olympic Stadium, built for the 1988 Olympic Games. In the upper right is the Han River again.

 
I was surprised to find that the romanizing system for the Korean language had changed since I'd last been there, and the Korean consonants that lay halfway between their English counterparts had all been changed to voiced consonants when romanized. Specifically, p's have become b's, k's have become g's, and ch's have become j's. Accordingly, Pusan is now Busan, Kimpo Airport is now Gimpo Airport, and Chamshil Station is now Jamshil Station. So here's a picture of the underground shopping mall at Jamshil Station, which used to be predominantly clothing stores in the 80's. It now seems to be more into hardlines. Since it's now the station for the upscale Lotte World complex, I expected it to have gone considerably upmarket, but that doesn't seem to have happened much. In Korea as in Japan, it's common for subway stations to also have sometimes huge underground shopping areas.
This is basically the view from my old apartment, although I used to live on the 4th floor and this picture is from the 15th. We were glad to find that Jungang Market in the foreground, although it is now white and grey, was virtually unchaged inside. There were even still spreads of black market American goods from the military bases, almost surprising considering that there are many more American import goods available on the shelves legally these days. The Hanyang department store in the background across Teherano Blvd., however, was a different story from the Jungang. It had changed a little, you might say, since it was now a giant hole in the ground with construction cranes sticking up from it. When I last saw it in 1996 it had become the Galleria, and a sign said that it was the future site of a new improved Galleria. I'll check out the new one the next time I'm in Seoul.
I had to take a little trip down to the Kangnam Station area to look in on my old school, ELS. A young teacher there told me that they had just done the extensive renovations to the reception area the month before, and indeed it still smelled of fresh lumber and paint. I'll spare you the picture, but the school looked different, inside and out. Then I took a walk down to the former "Love Chicken," the little corner pub where Bob, Jay, Kevin, Stuart, and I, among others, used to enjoy a bottle of OB or two after classes. I discovered that it is now the Terre de Glace ice cream shop. The door on the corner, though, made me still able to identify it as the Love Chicken.
The young teacher I mentioned two pictures ago told me that it wasn't all that popular among teachers to go to Itaewon, the miracle mile of bars and shops that sprang up outside the gates of the Yongsan Army Base, for the night life these days, because there are plenty of clubs closer to the school now. When I lived there, though, Itaewon,was the place to cut loose. We went there by taxi, because a trip there had always meant a taxi ride -- Itaewon was halfway up Mt. Namsan and a subway would have had to have been blasted through the rock. However, upon arriving, I was surprised to find that man had eventually prevailed. This picture is living proof that there is a subway stop right at the main intersection now, across from Burger King and in front of the Hamilton Hotel.

My personal favorite haunt was the Heavy Metal club, which now looks like this. We didn't go inside, but I was happy to see that on the right side of the orange sign just above the door, it does say "Heavy Metal," although it's just barely readable in this picture.
In the taxi on the way to Itaewon we passed a huge, important-looking building neither of us remembered ever seeing before, and the driver told us it was a war museum dedicated to the long history of protecting the Korean Peninsula. Our interest piqued, we went back to it after our little walk around Itaewon. Although I could have selected a picture of the many tanks or planes outside, including a retired B52, I'll include this one because I like the effect of the pillars and the lighting. Although I'm far from a war or even history buff, we stayed there for hours looking at all the exhibits. The place was pretty much deserted except for us, so it doesn't look like it's exactly a financial gold mine. Still, I can say it was definitely worth a visit, and I particularly enjoyed the rooms dedicated to the Korean Conflict in the early 50s. I came away with a much better understanding of what had happened.
We had to go back to Seoul Station to catch our bus back to Inchon, so on the way we stopped to walk around the Namdaemun (big south gate) shopping area. Particularly colorful were the displays of Korean jinseng root preserved in jars.
Namdaemun isn't exactly the bargain that it was in the 80s, although it is still just as bustling and colorful as ever. We wanted to find a bulgogi restaurant but couldn't, so we eventually settled for a dinner of samgetang, something between a soup and a stew with a whole young chicken in a bowl with rice with jinseng root and broth. It was delicious and we were glad we had chosed that restaurant and dish.

OK, I wasn't going to include this, but what the heck.. By coincidence, our last night in Seoul was the night that the Korean people were giving their last show of appreciation to Guus Hiddink, the Dutch captain of the Korean national soccer team that came in 4th in the 2002 World Cup games while we were there. Although Mr. Troussier, the French captain of the Japan team, quietly escaped from Japan nearly without notice, we had to take this picture of Mr. Hiddink over the linked arms of security guards who lined the parade route across the width of Seoul. For me it was quite an interesting contrast.

You must be Hiddink....;-)


Korea has come a long, long way, and if it had been like it is now 15 years ago, I may never have come to Japan and my kids would be speaking Korean now, I guess. I know Korea still isn't exactly the first place that comes to mind when you think of a tourist destination, but it really has got a lot to offer. One think I should mention, though, is that Korea uses 220 volt current with round, European-style plugs. Luckily I always carry plug converters when I travel and my sister-in-law had a step-down transformer, but be sure you're ready for the electricity situation if you're planning on using a laptop, etc.

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