E-Mart Supermarket & Grocery Store South Korea

This week we take a secret spy cam look inside an E-Mart store in South Korea.
I managed to sneak past the border patrol and enter the mart carrying my sophisticated surveillance equipment. I am now reporting this to you in an encrypted broadcast.
It was a dangerous mission and several people almost uncovered my subterfuge as they glanced into my shopping trolley but by using escape and evasion techniques I was able to get out of there alive! Lets take a look at what kinds of hidden and unspoken about goodies South Koreans are enjoying that the rest of the world is unaware of!
(P.S. I was getting over a throat and chest infection this week so I chose to rest and recover rather than go out and get worse as I am going on holiday next week! ^^ but more on that later. Hope you enjoy this simple post this week though.) ^^

E-Mart is one of three (or four if you count Costco) major supermarket and retail outlets in South Korea. The other two are Home Plus and Lotte Mart. Selling not only food items, most E-Marts and other like stores sell clothing, toys, books, automotive, computing items, sports equipment, music and more. Its effectively a one stop shop for all your needs.
Check out the link below if you are curious about what you can buy in South Korea:

www.emart.com



As I said before I will be on holiday for the longest time in 3 years! I will be taking 5 days off to enjoy South Korea so I will be posting late next week with a few highlights from my trip. So enjoy yourselves this week and if you are also on holiday next week have a fantastic time! ^^

Norebang 노래방 Korean Singing Room (Karaoke)

Norebang 노래방 Korean Singing Room (Karaoke)

Well with winter coming on things are starting to get quieter, not many events are on my schedule and generally its too cold to go outside :(
This is my 3rd winter here and I am still not liking the winter.

So I have reached into the archives to pull out this weeks update, Korean Norebang. If you are in Korea you will know all about these places and if not let me tell you a story. Norebang is very popular in Korea with several Norebang rooms on every corner (or just about). The idea is to go there with your friends (perhaps sober or more likely drunk) and make the biggest fool out of yourself or become a workplace singing legend. ^^

Being so many around the quality and costs vary but you might pay 20,000 won for an hour of singing and you may get bonus time for singing well depending on the singing program they use.

The Norebang featured here is rather a new one near Konguk University and had a glass windows and a view overlooking the street.

So perhaps it time to torture you with some of my "hits" from the 80's and 90's ^^ Hold on to your hat!











Well there it is for another week. ^^
See you again next time for another look into Korea, until then have an amazing week! ^^

Korean Apartments (Officetel) and A Korean Flea Market

Finally as promised I will give you an apartment comparison post.

There are many different types of apartments in Korea but in my opinion an officetel is perhaps the best kind for a young person or language instructor in Korea. The advantage of an officetel is that it will usually have some useful businesses in the building. For example my building has several kinds of medical clinics, a pharmacy, Baskin Robbins, a chicken store and a CU or Convenience store. Right next door is Starbucks and across the road is McDonalds. Also there is literally over 100 different restaurants around my building.

I think the advantage of an officetel is that you are high up and protected from the weather (no flooding). They are also modern and have a good bathroom, cooking facilities and in some cases a big living area with  lots of storage space. Anyway the apartment I live in now is the best I have been in so far in Korea ^^

Here is a look at all the apartments I have lived in so you can see the difference:

Number 1


Number 2


Number 3


Number 4 the Officetel



So there you go. An apartment comparison for you so you know what is on offer here when you arrive ^^

This weekend I also had the chance to visit a Korean Flea Market at Ttukseom which is right on the Han river. Every month there is a foreigners market but this month there was only two foreigners; Singapore and Vietnam. Anyway take a look at the video ^^



Well that seems to be all for this week. Next week there is a body art competition being held in Daegu. Here is the link if you are interested:

http://www.korea4expats.com/events-in-korea-Intl-Bodypainting-Festival-1-2-Sept-2012-Daegu-6485.html

I might see you there ^^ Until next week have a great time ^^

Seoul Life

Today 15 August 2012 is Independence Day for South Korea so I am at home on a rainy day posting this blog entry :)

So this week I thought I would post up some videos about normal life and things you will see here in Seoul. I remember when I was in New Zealand I would be curious about simple things like this, the weather, how things would look different and what unique things you might see. So here are some videos about that.

August is a little slow for events but September promises a whole lot of interesting things happening around Seoul so I will keep you posted :)

Some interesting storms in July this year:





Driving around the streets of Seoul:



Some helpful robots that you maybe lucky enough to see ^^




Well thats all for this week. I promised you something about my apartment a few weeks ago.... *^^* I hope that I can do something on that and comparing all of my apartments in the next month.

Well until next time have a fun and fantastic week! ^^

Charlie Brown Cafe / Nature Cafe / Comic Book Store Hongdae (Book Sae Tong)

So this week I am following up on my promise (or idea) that I had last week about posting some more interesting cafe's/places in Hongdae.

Charlie Brown Cafe Hongdae Seoul South Korea.

Just like the name says it a Charlie Brown Themed cafe not unlike the Hello Kitty Cafe also in Hongdae. Here you can buy coffee and cakes with the characters of Charlie Brown either a powdered likeness on the cake or coffee or cakes in the shape of your favorite character. There is also lots of merchandise to get your hands on here as well as display models and toys to enjoy or take pictures of :)

So I have a series of Directions for you (and maps of course) :)

From Hongdae Station:

Exit 9 walk straight past the road immdiately to your left and take the next left (main road). Walk up to the end of the main road and take a right down another main road. Walk down (you should be on the right side of the road) until you can see a park/concrete rest and performance area to your right (it will be above you and steps will lead up to it) walk past it and immediately take the road/alley right after the park on your right. Walk up the hill and you will see Charlie Brown Cafe.

From Hapjeong Station:

A little more complicated... (Blue Line on Map) Take exit 3 take the 4th street on your right (Main Street) Walk on the left side of it (you will have to cross over somewhere) and walk up the street until you see a park (just keep walking you will come to another main road just keep following the road it will go left and up toward the park). Just befor the park there is an alley/small road. Walk up there and you will see Charlie Brown Cafe :)

If you are a little more confident (Purple Line on Map) Take the 3rd street to your right and just keep walking until you see the park area then turn right and you will see it a little bit down the street.

From Sangsu Station

Exit 1 walk straight up the main road until you see the park. Take the alley/road before the park on the left and walk up the hill. You are there! :)

Hongdae Park is quite famous with foreigners and the like. Just look for some trees and a large open space with some seats. It is close to a lot of stalls selling nic nacks or small jewelry and soft toys / toys.

More Charlie Brown Cafe Pictures and Hello Kitty Cafe Hongdae. If You want more information about Hello Kitty and directions visit my earlier post here:

http://rawrkorea.blogspot.com/2011/08/hello-kitty-cafe-directions-cats-living.html

Thanks Nature Cafe Hongdae Seoul South Korea

Our next cafe is a little interesting to say the least! If you are missing all those sheep from your home country or you are just interested to see what a sheep looks like, sounds like and feels like but don't want to visit the country or go rural you can see one in the heart of the city!

Thanks Nature Cafe boast 2 sheep at any one time that live just outside the cafe in a fenced area. You can drink coffee at tables surrounding the fenced area and pat and feed the animals.

The cafe is downstairs so you can easily miss it if you are not careful!

Here are the directions from Hongdae Station.

Exit 9 walk straight past the road immediately to your left. Keep walking to the next main road. Take a left. Walk almost to the top of the street. Its about 15 - 20 meters before the end of the street. Look to your left for this cafe and this sign....

Go down stairs and enjoy :)

You thought those were the real sheep?..... well here it is the genuine article :)

Book Sae Tong Comic Book Store Hongdae Seoul South Korea

Another interesting place to visit is the comic book store in Hongdae. Located close to the subway this store has literally thousands? tens of thousands? hundreds of thousands?! of comic books. Mostly in Korean but I do believe there are small sections for Japanese and English as well. So if you are learning Korean and are bored of text books this might be the place for you to find new motivation for reading. And at great prices (varying depending on which comic series) at around 3,000 - 5,000 + won its cheap as well!

Here are the directions:

Hongdae Station exit 9 or 8.

Exit 9 take your immediate left and the next left (you will see Burger King on your right). Keep walking almost to the end of the street. You will see it on your left.

Exit 8 take your immediate right then take the next right walk about 20 meters down the street and you have arrived! :)

And last off I went to Times Square near Yeongdeungpo Station Line 1 (I think I will do a video walk through of this complex because its huge and interesting) and went to my first 3D movie in the worlds biggest cinema! So I took a couple of pictures but it doesn't really show the scale of the place.

Well that's all for this week. Next week I have made a plan to visit Songdo City and Hello Kitty Planet so stay tuned for more Kitty :) Until then have a fantastic week!!! :)

Seoul Racecourse Park

Off to the races!

Saturday we took a trip to Seoul Racecourse Park which can be found on subway line 4 (just follow the punters to the right exit and main gate).

This seems to be a popular pass time for Koreans based on the number of people at the races on Saturday. The racecourse is pretty impressive too. You can stay on the grandstand side or cross to the middle of the track where there is betting booths and a cafe and activities for the kids.

There are several betting books available and to me they looked pretty confusing....

I gave my friend 10,000 won to place a bet just for fun... she chose #1 and #7 for the 2pm race and guess what.... she won.... 167,500 won! 2 races later we repeated the same formula and... she won again! not as much this time but still that is impressive for the first time at the track... maybe next time I will give her all my money :)

So here is a little footage of the races:

There is also a museum and a small art gallery to look at while you are waiting for the next race to start...

There was also an appearance from the aerobatic team (I later found out that there was another air show on that weekend...)

We also took a trip to Seoul Grand Park... but I will keep that for another day :) (when its cold and horrible) :)

Here is a short video though:

Well until next week have a fantastic time :)

Taekwondo Black Belt, NZIE Teach Overseas Korea, Drum Cat

Finally after 3 months it was time to celebrate at the arrival of my Taekwondo Black Belt!!!

It was also a farewell to my "foreign" taekwondo friend Amanda who has now left Korea for other adventures around the world. I wish her and her boyfriend all the best for the future :)

So here is a picture of everybody at dinner last week:

Saturday I went with my friend to meet up with some New Zealand teachers at 3 Alleys Pub in Itaewon. Geoff and Mollie were there as well. It was great to see them and also strange as the last time I spoke to them I was in New Zealand preparing for my Korean adventure!

So if you are in New Zealand you can check out their facebook page and contact Geoff if you are interested in a Korean adventure of your own :)

http://www.facebook.com/TeachOverseasKorea

This could be a picture of you?....

Finally for the weekend we attended a fantastic performance called Drum Cat. Five Korean women playing drums and a cameo from a Korean violinist made for a fantastic night out with high energy and banging and thumping and dancing and clapping :)

We had the front row and I cant think of any place better to be to witness such a fantastic musical and visual display.

So here is a clip so you know what its all about (kindly uploaded by someone on youtube :)

The cats :)

Ok so that's it for this week but I hope to bring you something really exciting and special next week so until then have a great week! :)

Apartment # 3?! Yes that's right but more about that later....

On Thursday I went back to Sydney the restaurant which I mentioned in a previous blog and this time I took some pictures of the restaurant and it decor for you to look at.

Its a very nice and interesting restaurant so if you get the chance I recommend it.

Ok Sunday I went to my friends church to watch some of the performances. There were also some Somalians and Kenyans there who performed as well so I got some of their performances on video. Have a look:

And finally Saturday was another big move across from Gyenoggi Do Namyangju to Seoul. So now I live in the big city and also have a new and exciting job with many opportunities to follow up on. So perhaps I will talk to you more about that at a later time... But for now here is my new apartment:

So until next time have a fabulous week :)