Our Seoul and Tokyo Adventure: Day Nine

Although we'd been carrying them around for more than a week, it was only today that I noticed the cute message on one of my parents' housekeys (the only comparatively low-tech, non-electronic key of the bunch):

After having spent our other Seoul days wandering around the downtown area, we decided to head to an entirely different part of town today: Apgujeongdong. Lonely Planet Seoul describes the area as "a haughty haute couture shopping area . . . [where] young women wear Westwood and are as wafer thin as their mobile phones, which they use to ring their cosmetic surgeons while nibbling a tiny slice of green-tea cheesecake in an all-white well-being café." This pretty accurately describes the overall aesthetic of the area--although without being able to read Hangul, you may not realise the incredible number of plastic surgeons in the area (and I do mean incredible--my dad said that no doctors ever left his hospital for private practice, except for plastic surgeons, who would set up shop in Apgujeongdong and then quickly zoom beyond their previous salaries), and there are still nice places to walk on the side streets that aren't quite as upscale. In any case, Bob was curious about the neighbourhood and pointed out that we like wandering through Tokyo's ultra-upscale Ginza, and I hadn't been to Apgujeongdong in many, many years, so we decided to give it a try. We caught a different express bus from Suji, arriving a bit sleepy (the bus got stuck in some pretty bad traffic) and hungry--the perfect excuse for a snack! Since we were in Seoul last year, a new American chain has cropped up almost everywhere, and I must admit that it's a chain that I don't mind:

Although coffee is popular in Korea, most coffee consumed is of the instant variety. Cafés often serve up watery espresso-based drinks, and then of course there's the ubiquitous (bad) Starbucks coffee that has long taken over the city. I liked The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf when I was in Los Angeles (which is where I think the chain started) and today's coffees ended up being the best we had in Seoul during our entire visit--still miles and miles behind our beloved Monmouth, but after too many cups of instant, it was still nice to savour some proper coffee along with a creamy slice of tiramisu. After we finished our snacks, we wandered across the street to another branch of Kosney,

where I resisted buying anything after realising that everything I wanted was either large, heavy, breakable, or all three!

This Apgujeongdong building was very strange,

and we wandered through quite a few of the neighbourhood back streets before heading to the Hyundai Department Store in search of a late lunch.

Their basement food court was a little less user-friendly for Bob than the Lotte basement, with no English and very few photos of the various food choices, but we wandered from place to place and I read out the menu options and described some of the dishes that Bob hadn't yet tried. In the end, he grabbed a California roll and tonkatsu combo from a deli outside the food court while I queued to get my lunch. Thankfully, it was a bit past the usual lunchtime, so there were plenty of seats (something that's often a problem if you want to eat during peak periods).

I didn't end up taking a photo of Bob's lunch because I didn't think it looked so great (which would end up being closer to the truth that I realised), but here's my delicious kalguksu (handmade knife-cut noodles in a rich broth) lunch, which I was very happy to find out came with one of my favourite ban chan (at the upper left): seasoned perilla (also known as shiso) leaves, perfect for wrapping around mouthfuls of rice.

After we finished, we had a peek at the Hyundai grocery floor--known for its high level of service and even higher prices.

"How can they pay so many people to work here?" Bob wondered aloud, and there did seem to be one employee for every two customers!

In Korea, fruit is typically given as a special gift, all boxed up (the better the department store name on the box, the more special the gift) and even dressed up for the occasion. These melons probably cost 20-30,000 Won each, with several to a box.

Before we knew it, it was time to head back to Suji, since we said we'd be back in time for dinner, and after this morning's traffic, we didn't want to take any chances on the return journey. Before dinner, we were spectators at a Suji tae kwon do school's annual "promotion" night for the youngest students (including a family member who takes classes there), and it was quite the experience! Each belt level performed together, with a series of sparring matches and kicks.

I wouldn't want to meet this girl in a dark alley! (Even her sparring partner seems a bit hesitant, don't you think?)

Every student, regardless of level, broke a wooden board with her or his foot.

Just when I thought the evening was over, the instructor started calling all the moms up to the centre of the gym, where (to my complete disbelief) they all attempted to break stacks of five boards, set up on blocks. If they were successful, they were called back to attempt seven, and then nine boards. The whole thing looked super-intense!

Then it was the dads' turn--with eleven boards stacked up, some of the men really took a big swing at the task at hand!

After these displays, Bob and I felt like the weakest people in the room. This type of participation would never happen in Canada without waivers being signed and proper instruction given, but tonight's parents weren't given any help at all--they just walked up to the boards and off they went, without exception. After all the martial-art excitement, we headed back to (you guessed it) Suji Restaurant Town to try our third restaurant of the complex. The robust decor seemed to fit with the board-breaking theme of the evening,

although I'm not sure what it all had to do with the restaurant's specialty, roast duck.

With a rather light array of ban chan (the pink one is one of my favourites--a non-spicy gimchee made of giant radish, immersed in a tangy, refreshing broth) and a nice salad,

the final course of the meal was one of my favourites: dul gae su jae bi (perilla leaf and black sesame soup made from dough flakes).

A thick soup with nutty sesame overtones, the soup was a brilliant way to end this cold winter night.