Back in Seoul

The Seoul Fringe Festival 2010

Manolo — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:13:39 +0000

For those who are in Seoul these days, there is an event you cannot miss. The Seoul Fringe Festival, which takes place every year in the area near Hongik University will be taking place from August 12th to the 28th.

This year’s festival poster.

Hongdae Area, or just Hongdae, is the area surrounding Hongik University, and one of the most vivid areas in Seoul. Being Hongik a university manly for art-related studies, the area surrounding it is full of art galleries, street markets, coffee shops and other interesting places. Hongdae is where Koreans try to scape from its Confucianist rules and become free. Many Korean alternative music groups (like 10cm, Crying Nut or Deli Spice) started playing for free in the streets of Hongdae.

Any weekend you can see performances in this ares, but during this festival there will be many more, and also during weekdays. There will be lots of live performances in the streets, and art centers. Outdoor performances are free of charge. Indoor ones range from 5,000 KRW ($4) to 15,000 ($13).

To give you an idea of what you can find during the festival, here is one of the promotional videos with images from last year’s festival.

Boryeong Mud Festival

Manolo — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 09:08:04 +0000

The Boryeong Mud Festival is one of the most popular events of the summer in Korea among the foreign community in the country. This festival started in 1998, when the city of Boryeong decided that it would be good to have a small mud festival to promote the products based in the mud that the city produces. After some years, the festival attracts millions of people every year and its popularity keeps growing year after year. After missing this festival the last two summers, this time I could not miss it, so there we went to spend the weekend in this city in the west Korean coast.

Andoni was one of the first ones to jump into the mud.

Group picture on saturday. Even though it rained a little, it was not cold at all and we could enjoy the mud.

Of course, we couldn’t miss a music band in the festival. If was funny to see them struggling not to get dirty with mud.

Although there were also quite many Koreans in the festival, the truth is that more than half of the people in this festival are foreigners living in Korea, among whom the festival is quite popular.

During the night there is also quite a good atmosphere in the festival, there are concerts, lots of beach-bars open, fireworks, etc.

After the rain on saturday, on sunday we were lucky enough to enjoy a great sunny day.

As the pictures that I took were not as awesome as I would have liked to, here you have somebody else’s much better ones.

Korean Music: Super Junior

Manolo — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 12:51:02 +0000

I wanted to recover a section I had quite abandoned to show you a group that… “surprised” me quite a bit. It is “Super Junior” (슈퍼 주니어), no less than ten (yes, ten, and they used to be 13!) that have become Asia’s teenagers’ idols. I say Asian because they are succeeding not only in Korea but also in countries like Japan, China or Thailand.

Super Junior, when they were 12 members, apparently all of them in love with pink color.

I also wanted to show you one of their last songs, “No Other” (너 같은 사람 또 없어) where you can see how different the Korean (and Asian in general) musical culture is compared to the west. To tell the truth, it is quite difficult for me to imagine this kind of song succeeding in the west, but on second thought, the style does not differ much from a song that became a great hit in Spain not long ago, “Amo a Laura” (I love Laura)

Korean Movies with Subtitles

Manolo — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 13:56:18 +0000

For those who are in Seoul, since a couple of weeks ago, it is finally possible to watch Korean movies with subtitles in English at the CGV movie theaters in Gangnam, Yongsan, Myeongdong, and Guro, thanks to the Seoul City Hall and CGV itself. I think this is a great idea, as there are a great community of foreigners in Seoul who were really looking forward to watching recent Korean movies with subtitles in English. I got to know about this initiative because we got an invitation to see one of these Korean movies with subtitles in exchange for filling out a survey asking us what we thought about this initiative and whether we would be willing to watch more Korean movies if they offered them with subtitles in English. Of course, I guess the survey showed that foreigners in Seoul are looking forward to watching Korean movies, and the initiative has been passed. Now we (foreigners) only need CGV offering schedules of movies in English on their website

Poster of 방자전 (The Servant), one of the most popular Korean movies this year, which we were invited to watch.

Yellow Dust Storm (Hwangsa)

Manolo — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 09:58:18 +0000

The Yellow Dust storms (or hwangsa, as they call it in Korea) are a phenomenon quite common in countries like Korea, Japan, or China. These storms are basically dust clouds coming from the Gobi Dessert that are brought to Korea by strong winds. This dust, on its way to Korea is mixed with sulfur, ash, carbon monoxide, and other pollutants released by Chinese factories, and passes over to the two Koreas, and Japan as a yellow fog which makes you not feeling like going out at all.

View from my window, on a day with hwangsa.

During days with hwangsa, it is very common to see people in the streets wearing these surgical masks to protect themselves from the dust, from children to the elders. These masks are usually sold in the street or in the subway stations, and there are a lot of different models to choose from (someday I will make a post about those too).

A child protecting himself from hwagsa with a mask (and from the cold with his bear hat.

Buddha’s Birthday

Manolo — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:09:57 +0000

Last May 21st was Buddha’s Birthday. Being Buddhism the majority religion in Korea, this day, as in many other countries in Asia, is celebrated in a very special way. During all the week before this day, several parades take place around the most touristic areas of Seoul. We decided to take a walk around Gwanghwamun and Insadong during the first day of the celebrations.

The parade in Insadong reminded me of the Cavalcade of Magi in Spain.

Pungmul performance during the parade.

As in Chinese culture, the dragon is a very important figure in Korean culture, and it is very present in all Korean celebrations.

Chariots were made of a kind of paper with light inside, which made them very colorful at night.

View of another chariot.

Lanterns are everywhere in the city during the Budda’s Birthday previous days. All Buddhist temples, as well as the busiest areas of the biggest Korean cities are adorned with lanterns like these during these days.

More lanterns

View of the Jogyesa Temple, with all the lanterns for Budda’s Birthday.

Also for this occasion, the Cheonggye Stream (a.k.a. Cheonggyecheon) had this great look with all the lanterns.

Trip to Hong Kong

Manolo — Sun, 09 May 2010 13:09:36 +0000

Last week I had the opportunity to visit Hong Kong, a city which is famous for its awesome skyline, shopping malls and cheap electronics

When you arrive in Hong Kong, the first impression you get is that of a developed city, but still with many characteristics typical of China. I thought Seoul was a city of contrasts, but in Hong Kong contrasts are much, much more exaggerated.

Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, and you can feel that just seeing some of its apartment complexes, true swarms of people.

Of course, one feels proud seeing Spanish brands so far away from home

The sea is one of the things I miss the most in Seoul. It definitely gives any city lots of life, and mixed with a great skyline… it’s just a perfect place to stay.

Hong Kong is also popular for its martial-arts movie stars like Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan. Here is Bruce Lee star.

The view from our hostal was probably the worst I have had to deal with, but it was cheap, the room was clean and there was hot water, so we decided to just keep the window shut.

During my trip to Hong Kong, I could meet my friend and former internship colleague Javier, also known as Chicharrero por Hong Kong. He also visited Seoul not long ago.

It seems that they also eat Jamón in Hong Kong.

Filipino women gathering on their day off. There are around 140,000 Filipinos in Hong Kong. Most of them are women who came to work as maids or nannies. On sundays, they gather together near Statue Square to socialize. We could see groups of Filipino women doing all kinds of cultural activities, traditional dancing, praying, playing cards… not a bad way to spend your day off.

Indonesians in Victoria Park. In a similar way to Filipino servants, there are also many Indonesians in Hong Kong. We could also see their gathering place, and I can assure that there were many, many of them.

But probably to see the most impressive Hong Kong, you have to see it during the night. The skyline, the lights, the life of this city made us forget how tired we were after walking around all day long.

The skyline light show takes place every night from 8 to 8:15 PM. It is recommended to get there in advance, as there are a lot of people and it is not easy to get a good place to see the show.

Street markets in Hong Kong are quite similar to those you can find in Seoul, selling all kinds of fruits, some of which I had never seen before.

Jiwon and Nuria at a street market near Central.

Hong Kong street market.

Awesome view of Hong Kong from the Victoria Peak.

View of the Bank of China Tower at night, undoubtedly one of the most representative skyscrapers of Hong Kong.

During our last day in Hong Kong we decided to visit another attraction of Hong Kong, the Big Buddha, or Tian Tan Buddha, located in Lantau Island.

Nuria and Jiwon in the cable car that goes to the Big Buddha.

We were not very lucky, and happened to go on a very cloudy and foggy day, so we couldn’t see the Buddha from very far away, which is one of the best sceneries.

Jiwon with the Big Buddha.

Korean Music: Lee Hyori

Manolo — Sun, 09 May 2010 07:32:41 +0000

Taking the opportunity brought by her new album release, H-Logic, I thought I would dedicate this post to one of the most internationally best known Korean singers, Lee Hyori (이효리). I am quite sure she is the highest paid female singer in Korea, and also one of the sexiest, although being 31 years-old, she is starting being a little too-old for a music market (the Korean one) which is full of teenager groups.

Hyori started in music as a member of teenager group Fin.K.L. (핑클). She would soon stand out and decided so separate from the group and start her solo career.

“10 Minutes”, from her first solo album.

“Mr. Big”, my favorite

First song from her latest album, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”.

I remember when I first arrived in Korea this Hyori poster for Cheoeum Cheoreom soju was in every bar. But this soju brand’s posters are for another post

An Afternoon at the Ice Rink

Manolo — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 07:19:55 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, taking the chance after Kim Yuna’s win in the Winter Olympic Games, we went skating to the ice rink in Jamsil. This ice rink is inside Lotte World, but you do not have to pay the entrance to the theme park if you only want to skate. You can skate as much as you want (there is no time limit) for 13,000 won. Wearing gloves is mandatory (I guess they don’t want cut fingers on the ice rink…), but you can also buy them there for 1,000 won.

There were two things that surprised me. One is that there were many children skating, and many of them taking speed skating (the boys) or figure skating (the girls) lessons.

View of the ice rink right after being cleaned-up (every hour more or less everybody has to go out during 15 minutes so that the ice rink can be cleared of scratches in the ice).

People skating. On the left you can see the children learning how to speed-skate.

The second thing that I saw was that there were many couples wearing “couple t-shirts”, a trend in some Asian countries by which couples wear the same clothes to show their love in public. This is not just limited to t-shirts (or hoodies in this case). You can also find “couple pants”, couple shoes, couple cups… and some couple even dress totally the same, from shoes to cup…

Couple t-shirt model “heart”.

Couple t-shirt model “posh”.

Couple t-shirt model “cute”

And the speed skating star. Born to skate!

Street View in Seoul Subway

Manolo — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 06:46:54 +0000

After a couple of months waiting, finally here is the solution to the “Life Changes” mystery:

The Seoul Subway “DigitalView”.

It is all about some cabinets that have been installed at the the line 1, 2, 3, and 4 Seoul subway stations (what about the other lines?). These cabinets have an interactive map of the surroundings of the station, and a touch phone that allows paying phone calls using the T-money card.

A different view.

Touch phone that allows paying using T-money.

I am not sure whether or not this will change anybody’s life, but I think it’s a great idea. These new booths have, on one side, a public telephone (during the testing period you can make free national calls, including cellphones!). On the other side there is room for an advertisement that I guess they will use to finance all the operation. In the center there is the main device, a huge touchscreen that very much reminds on an iPhone, showing information about the subway station’s emergency exits, nearby restaurants and interesting places, news, and even a Google Streetview-like interactive map of the subway station’s surroundings. They have called this map “Digital View”. I recorded a small video so that you can view the “device” in action: