The Seoul of Korea: Culture, Pop Culture, and Poop Culture
- Jackie Endres
- Dec 3, 2019
- 10 min read
In an icy blur, our trip to South Korea is over. Sandwiched by our two months in Japan and our thirty-day guided tour of SE Asia, we had what felt like no time in Seoul. But, in just five days we covered much ground (55 miles on foot, actually) and have almost too much to tell.
Seoul does in fact, have a lot of soul. But it’s more than just wordplay. There’s an electric personality to the city. And, despite the cold cold (seriously, it’s cold) temperatures right now, we encountered a welcome warmth that invites tourists into its multitude of sacred or offbeat experiences, kitschy or cozy cafes, and historical or oddly specific museums. We tried a little of everything.
Culture
It’s Complicated
Some of our education on the history of Korea came from our time in Japan where we discovered Japan’s centuries-long mistreatment of the Koreans. Occupation, plundering, cultural genocide bloodied the Japanese’ hands. In one tour we did in Tokyo, the guide mentioned that the Japanese tend to really like Korea and visiting there, and many are K-pop fans. But she admitted that the feelings aren’t mutual and that while Korean is a popular language to learn for the Japanese, there really aren’t many Koreans willing to visit Japan these days.
In Seoul, we learned that the tensions aren’t over. There were at least two Japanese companies (including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.) found guilty of war crimes against Korea (from 70+ years ago) and ordered to pay compensations, but they have yet to do so. We were also told that the Japanese clothing store Uniqlo was once so popular in Korea that a majority of its sales were from Korean stores; however, in a few short years since an unofficial boycott, those sales have dropped precipitously to almost less than 1 or 2% (estimates). (Fact-checking our Korean source, the numbers don't quite check out, but we did find that South Korea does account for around 8%, and year-on-year sales in the neighboring country have dropped by 40%.)
There’s a lot to unpack, and it’s not just with the Japanese. North Korea comes up frequently in conversation with varying opinions over the ongoing peace talks with the northern neighbors. One South Korean we met believes that there is bad propaganda out there to demonize the north and ensure no reunification is realized, but that the people are suffering and the government wants to fix that. Another Seoul resident told us he believes that peace talks are only lip service, offering evidence that during peace talks, covert tunnels from North Korea have been uncovered with the NKs shrugging shoulders, avoiding responsibility. It’s hard to know what’s true, and I guess that’s the problem — for the decision-makers, the influencers, the voters, the observers...
One thing is for sure. If we had Facebook relationship-statuses for countries, Korea would have the most “It’s complicated,” especially with NK and Japan, but also China and the US as lines blur and prioritization of defense or trade allies are considered.
With our basic knowledge, we set out to learn more.
The War Memorial of Korea
Much like our trip to Hiroshima, our morning at the War Memorial of Korea (WMoK) was filled with both education and deep and conflicted emotions. But contrary to Hiroshima, the WMoK is a place where the United States is portrayed as an ally and a main reason for the independence and current, comparative, peace In South Korea. The Korean War is nicknamed The Forgotten War in the U.S., because, in addition to it being overshadowed by the Vietnam War and WWII, there was censored coverage of American participation. We didn't know enough about this conflict at the start, and though we now know much more we still feel ignorant. It’s worth studying, as some of what went down still has implications for our complicated relationships with North Korea, China, and Russia. Here is a good resource to get started.
Though we spent the majority of our time learning about the Korean War, the museum wasn’t just about that, but all conflicts the Koreans have been in over time, replaying for us not only the history with the Japanese, but also giving greater detail on a long history of other invaders including the Chinese and Mongolians.
Tours
In addition to educating ourselves on the history and foreign relations of South Korea, we also wanted to dive into other more current and less heavy cultural experiences. And, with such a brief trip, we left some of our cultural immersion up to the experts and booked three AirBnB experiences. We did ...
A tour of the hip neighborhoods and cafes of Hongdae and YeonNam with Ko:
A night hike and dinner (with Korean drinking game) with Sam:
And, kimchi-making with Grace:
Grace was the best, so she gets her story told.
You guys. If you ever go to Seoul, go meet Grace. We’ve done some travel. We’ve done some trips. We’ve done some tours. This was, without exception, the best curated cultural experience we have had.
I booked this evening as a surprise for Heather’s birthday (if you haven’t yet wished her HBD please do send an obnoxious message her way now), and prepped Grace in advance letting her know the special occasion. She said she was excited and would be sure to do something extra for Heather.
First of all, let me tell you about Grace. She was a badass cosmetic marketer until she got married and quit her job. Her mother is a kimchi maker from a coastal town south of Seoul and so Grace took what she knew so well and turned it into a class. She is inviting, engaging, funny, and yes, we have a bit of a friend crush on her.
The evening started with us all slipping into something more comfortable (Korean house slippers and an apron) and gathering around the table. Grace schooled us in kimchi (there are more than 200 types) and set the table for how the evening would unfold. Then, it was time to get dirty. We chopped the giant daikon radish and other ingredients. We made the kimchi flour glue. We spooned salted shrimp, Korean chili (for the love of god, don’t use Chinese-sourced chili powder as apparently there was a scandal where the factory grinding the powder in China was found to be grinding the resident rats right along with it (unsubstantiated story)), sugar, and fish sauce into our bowls. We mixed with gloved hands. Grace took our pictures.
And then, our kimchi was ready for storage. She brought out jars to put the two types we had made into to bring with us to our next stop. (Currently hoping they aren’t exploding in our checked bags as I’m now writing this en route to Thailand. Update: arrived safely in Thailand. Stunk up hotel room. Left behind.)
Kimchi takes some time to settle into its flavors, so she had already prepared some for serving and then... the feast.
Grace brought out four types of kimchi (mustard leaves, green onion, fresh, and sour) and then filled the table with kimchi pizza; lettuce wraps with pork, tofu, and seafood ingredients; rice; chili paste; a gnocchi-type dish that made me want to lick the plate; and the Korean birthday soup.
When mothers give birth, they drink seaweed soup every day for several days following in order to replenish strength and lost nutrients. In tradition, then, on a Korean’s own birthday each subsequent year, they will drink this soup.
Grace had prepared the special soup (which takes hours) as a menu item for Heather, and also had used ingredients reserved for New Years' celebrations for another dish. When serving the food and explaining the birthday-specific care she took, Grace spoke kindly, wishing Heather an excellent year and then wished us all the same. I was so moved by the thoughtful preparation and consideration that I actually teared up. I couldn’t have imagined a better execution of making the evening special for Heather. The well wishes, the soup, the gnocchi-type dish that was prepared for us with elevated ingredients usually reserved for New Years... it was so, I really don’t have a better word in the English language for this than loving. It felt totally loving. (And a little bit of the Danish hyggelig as well).
In short, Grace, we love you. Thank you.
Some other cultural things we did as told in a nice photo collage:
Iwha Mural Village
Gyeongbokgung Palace
Gwanghwamun Square
Bukchon village (including a weird experience where a Chinese tourist followed Heather, enthusiastically taking pictures of her, so I returned the favor with a forced selfie)
Cheonggyecheon stream
Pop Culture
Music
Perhaps the most recognized export of Korea currently is its youthful music scene. This is evident nowhere more than in Hongdae where most evenings you can find artists or bands playing in the streets (with a permit) trying to generate a following. (Did we mention it's cold?)
I will also let you know that I found a K-Pop Christmas playlist on Spotify for you. It is delightful, especially because there are a handful of words in each song in English which makes me feel like I understand Korean for a hot second until I realize that they are just singing words like, “Home for Christmas,” in English.
Nanta Cooking Show
This story doesn’t quite match the Maiko experience, but, well, it’s up there.
One of the off-the-beaten-track experiences we discovered was Nanta Cooking Show, a live theatre experience with five performers who spend the evening cooking, singing, playing make-shift instruments (like bucket drums), dancing, doing magic and acrobatics, and playing with the audience. It was like a less intense and more humorous Blue Man Group.
Early in the show, the performers were preparing a soup for a wedding and there’s quite a bit of visual story-telling that demonstrates the efforts to get it right. (The show is basically all physical comedy and a few universal English exclamations like “wow!” and “ok!”)
About midway through this portion, two performers left the stage and headed to the audience. Heather had originally wanted to not select the seats we ended up sitting in because they were too close to the stage and she didn’t want to get chosen.
We got chosen. More accurately, I did. My hand was taken from my lap and I was led to the stage where I was handed an apron and a tiny hat with a chin strap.
I was then given soup, a spoon, and motioned to keep eating the soup. My partner on stage was given similar treatment and we both looked at each other, and started consuming spoonfuls of the soup.
The performance continued with more physical comedy that included chasing a fly, and every so often they would stop to remind us to keep eating the soup (as we got distracted by their antics).
We finished with the “fly” landing in mine, and the performers distracting the man with whom I was on stage and switching bowls so he had his last bite from the “fly” (there was no fly, just my germs) soup.
The man finished the last bite, we were walked to the front of the stage, wedding music started playing, rice was thrown, and we were told to bow and that we were now married!
Sorry Heather, I guess you were right about the seats. And I got unexpectedly married in Korea.
No photos were allowed inside the show, but the above was actually pulled from Nanta's website, which will only be up for two weeks, so this is also a fun view:
Also, for my troubles, they gave me this teeny, non-digital souvenir photo.
Running Man Thematic Experience
Running Man is based on the popular Korean TV competition show, and as a visitor to this experience, we got to try our hand at winning. How? Racking up 80 points in one hour by completing physical (running, jumping, throwing, tapping, hanging, and screaming) and mental (seek and find, coordination button pressing) challenges and by scanning our borrowed bracelet on every R light-up circle we could find in each of the rooms (room of mirrors, pitch black room, and crouching room).
It was wild, and a lot harder than expected. In addition to all of the random challenges, there were also six hidden briefcases, and if you didn’t find those, you couldn’t accumulate enough points.
We read reviews of countless tourists falling just a few short because of the difficulty, but Heather and I worked together to prevail and each ended up with a cool 83 points to win the prize certificate, badge, and of course, pride.
Tricky Ice
We also went to another trick art museum, which, tbh was really only half as good as the Japanese one we did, but here are some pics.
What made it worthwhile was the combo ticket to the Ice Museum which is a small space almost entirely made of ice. You can sit on a throne or make an ice angel, stand in an iced high heel (Heather’s fave), watch Brian Williams (#freebrianwilliams), or sail down an ice slide.
Cafes
And then, Korea has amazing and themed cafes. We, of course, avoided any of the animal cafes (that have real animals like meerkats, sheep, and foxes), but that doesn’t mean we missed seeing some wild things.
Harry Putter
Here is (what we believe to be) the knock-off Harry Potter cafe, King’s Cross 943. I don’t think it was JK-sanctioned given that Harry Potter isn’t present anywhere, and there are no butterbeers but “wizard drinks,” but it was fun nonetheless. (Also, by the way, HP had Platform 9 3/4, not 9 4/3, so, upon further reflection, this is definitely a knock-off.)
Cafe 2D
Then, there Cafe 223-14, which is named for its address but it is so much more. This trippy cafe is created to appear two-dimensional. The tables, chairs, the drinks--everything designed to feel like a cartoon existence (based off a Korean TV show where the characters are trapped between this world and a 2D one). Because this great spot was not far from where we were staying, we were able to visit after our tour with Ko and sneak in for a cafe drink just before close and get a sense of how being in an illustration might feel.
The Poop Culture
But Harry Potter and storybooks don’t tell the half of it.
Here is another cafe we visited for lunch, called Ddong (Korean for poop) cafe.
We ordered curry and risotto, and yes, they tasted much better than they looked. In fact, it was the only time I wanted to scrape the sides of the toilet bowl.
But that’s not all. I’m not sure if it’s all of Asia, just Tokyo and Seoul, or somewhere in between, but we have encountered a huge fascination with poop.
Even the Ice Museum had sculpted a toilet scene.
But, the superlative so far of poopsperiences has been PooPooLand. In a combo ticket with the Running Man Thematic experience (and not affiliated with Cafe Ddong at all), we got to visit the adjoining PooPooLand. Parents, share this one with your kids.
It was pure magic.
Upon entering were immediately greeted with a hall of bare booties encouraging us to "Put your hands on butt and pray for a better bowel movement."
(It was a trick.)
The rest of the museum was like a cotton candy dream. We dressed up, posed, passed through the digestive tract, and raced down a rainbow poop slide. While the Unko museum in Tokyo was thoughtful and carefully done, this was a little more rough around the edges, which in my humble opinion actually made it feel like free-flowing fun was more encouraged. We obliged.
Seoulong, Korea
Overall, we had an insane amount of fun in Korea. Though we are sad to leave, our skin can’t take much more of the cold and dry (Heather has been getting bloody noses and my hands are scaly with bloody knuckles). We have hopes of returning again someday in less of a whirlwind (there’s a now-defunct theme park we really wanted to hit but ran out of time, as well as much more hiking to be done in better weather).
So, skipping our normal midwestern late fall by being in Japan’s mild, running-in-shorts climate has made us soft for sure. Which, we fully accept about ourselves and as such, are now headed to Thailand where it is 92°F instead of 32° and shouldn’t hit another cold spell ... well until maybe next winter.
Stay warm everyone!
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