I arrived at Inchon airport at 0400 Thursday morning, which is noon Edmonton time. I slept for a total of one hour on the plane, but every time I fell asleep sitting up, I'd wake up immediately when I was about to snore. It was quite a jolt, and I think I scared everyone around me a few times.
After I was picked up, the first thing I did was buy one of these: Pine bud drink. It tastes like pine needles, but it's actually good. I think it would be pretty popular in Canada, given the chance.
The company put me up in a love motel for a couple days, although I didn't find out what kind of motel it was until after I checked out. That would explain why they had softcore pornography on channel four. They were not showing the Simpsons at 5:00.
I was dismayed to find that the previous occupant had taken the shower stall with him, and alarmed when it sunk in that this is how people bathe here. When you shower in Korea, you wear rubber slippers and stand over the drain.
This is what I see if I step out of the motel and turn right. It's a narrow street, but it's connected with a mildly wider street on which I was standing.
This is the main street. As far as Korean streets go, it's about average, unless you look at the real traffic veins. You should see this area during rush hour.
This car, which I call a microvan, has about the area of a VW bug but it seats six, just like a regular minivan. Contrary to what I expected, Koreans are quite a bit larger than the stereotype. On a regular subway train, with 50 people standing in my immediate vicinity, I can usually see about two people of comparable height to me. I've even seen two girls who are almost as tall as me, with heels.
I remember these gimpy little pickup trucks from my first visit. These things and microvans are interspersed on the streets with scooters and really sleek Hyundai sedans.
I asked a girl what a Pocari is, and I'm proud to report it is not an animal.
These are the girls in the office who trained me, Hanna and Catherine. We were trying to get the camera to work when I accidentally took the picture, but I think it's better than the next one.
I took a brief visit on a Friday night to Sinchon, one of the main nightclub districts in Seoul. The place was alive with activity, but I was looking for Drug, the punk club.
It was closed that night, but the door was unlocked and I could hear music coming from down a set of unlit stairs. I wound my way down the pitch-black staircase and came through a door into a cruddy basement where a band was practicing. There was one girl there not in the band, and she had enough English to tell me to come back Saturday night. I tried asking her where else I could find punk music, but then she told me she doesn't like punk and was only there because her friends were in the band.
I did find one music store that specialised in electronica, but they had a small indie section and I picked up two CDs:
Global Corporation
and Run Carrot (the third from the top). Both of them are typical streetpunk--well played, but they don't really sing with a lot of passion. I'll wait til I see them live.
