Umbrella Katana! Ain't no passing craze!
There is no cause for alarm. It's not real
28 April, 2023 | Seoul, South Korea
The flight in was extremely short and uneventful - a fast train to the Osaka airport, an hour on a plane, and a fast train out of the Inchon airport into Seoul.
At one time it was common to receive this advice while traveling internationally:
“Oh, no. Google maps doesn’t work in our city/country. Download this local app.”
This was almost universally a lie and the local app was total garbage. True to form - Naver is the app recommended for navigating Seoul and is, in fact, absolute dogshit. It crashes consistently, burns battery power like a drunken sailor consumes rum, and here’s a screenshot with an English translation:
The issue is that, for the first time in my travels, Google and Apple maps actually do not work. Not for walking directions at least, and you’ll want to walk/transit everywhere. This is potentially a problem because, like Japan, Seoul is only occasionally a grid.
But it’s fine. I took a scenic route to my hotel and set myself up there. The room was modest but considerably larger than any I had been in since Sydney. The toiletries included a tooth brush, disposable razor, condoms, and a “feminine cleanser” (??).
Before I was completely settled my phone started going absolutely nuts with repeated Public Safety Alerts with, again, no translation.
I was pretty hungry getting in, so I went down to the front desk to ask for a recommendation for somewhere to eat nearby.
Clerk: “What would you like to eat”
Me: “Oh anything local and fresh would be good”
Clerk: “Well….”
*a middle aged couple - man and woman - walks in*
The clerk immediately starts talking in rapid Korean to the couple while gesturing at me. In short order, the man motions to follow him and we are off. A lackadaisical five minute walk later, we arrive at a small restaurant where I am sat down, ordered for, and I needed to repeatedly refuse to take the man’s umbrella after he offers it. Another hospitality blitzkrieg. Rest assured, I will get a chance to pay this forward near the end of the trip.
What was ordered comes out hot. Still boiling in fact. A stew filled the stone pot: meat-on-bone with rice noodles, vegetables, and of course kimchi+rice on the side. I am starving and consume 100% of it, trying to emulate others in the restaurant on methods and etiquette. I will admit finding the addition of a long spoon, paired with chopsticks, to be substantially more practical than Japan’s exclusive use of the latter.
The 28th of April was a Friday night and, despite having done quite a lot today, I always try to go out on these weekend nights. This night was no exception, and I had scoped out several places nearby that I wanted to try. In my next post, I’ll talk about how I got lucky - in the meeting a new friend fashion, not the other meaning - by pushing myself to go out despite the rain and my fading energy level.
