Our Seoul and Tokyo Adventure: Day Two

After my parents' typical breakfast of a lot of fresh fruit and some cereal, we went into full lounging-around-the-house mode, intending on having a thoroughly relaxing day to ease through our jet lag. We opened the package of soft rice-cake and sweet red-bean treats that I bought at Narita Airport, and had a mid-morning coffee break:

My mom had an appointment during the day, so my dad decided to take the opportunity to make one of his lunch recipes. He wanted to look "professional," so he took out a pair of disposable plastic gloves and got down to work, assembling his sweet potato, spaghetti sauce, and cheese delight:

His creation turned out to be pretty and delicious:

We enjoyed our lunch while Bob told my dad about his own breakfast creation. My dad listened to the impressive array of ingredients (Bob's six topped my dad's three) and then suggested that Bob try out his recipe, so we made a shopping list and set off for their local grocery store (it's actually a department store with a grocery store in the basement), the E-Mart, which is about a ten-minute walk from their place. While the population of Seoul is about ten million, greater Seoul (including Suji) houses some 23 million people (two-thirds the population of Canada!) and so it's understandable that all new housing for some time has been built vertically, in the form of enormous high-rise apartment complexes. Everywhere you look in greater Seoul, these pastel buildings form communities that seem to be made out of Lego blocks and candy floss, and the most desirable are the new builds, which are either built in existing areas or, in an unimaginable phenomenon to me, also crop up en masse, resulting in entire "new cities" forming all at once, complete with all the services that cities require. When my dad retired (although he seems to have a rather loose definition of "retirement," since he still teaches one graduate nursing course and does more than his fair share of Korean-to-English translation for members of his department who submit articles to foreign journals), my parents decided to move out of Seoul proper, and bought their place in Suji before it was built. When they moved, Suji didn't offer much in terms of amenities, and they found themselves driving everywhere. Now, Suji's caught up to their needs, with more walkable shop and restaurant choices than they could ever use! The E-Mart is one of their (and my) favourite destinations--a good-for-everything department store, with low prices and a wide selection. The three of us bundled up and walked along the main road down to the E-Mart,

passing this moving company setup along the way. Bob and I found the sight quite something, but my dad seemed surprised that we were surprised, since that's how everyone (including them) moves in Seoul.

We successfully purchased all the ingredients for Bob's creation at the E-Mart--except for feta cheese. Apparently we'll have to go to another department store that has a better cheese selection for that "fancy" ingredient. Here's Bob carrying home our E-Mart purchases:

By the time we got back, my mom was home and after a bit of puttering around the house, it was dinner time! We had what would end up being Bob's and my favourite fish, gum teh (I have no idea if there's a Canadian/UK equivalent), along with a lovely array of ban chan:

Hmmm . . . how should we end this slow-paced day full of relaxing, eating, and a bit of walking? How about a familiar game with a bit of hangul (Korean script) thrown in?