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This is Noryangjin seafood market, the main seafood supplier to the whole city of Seoul and its vicinity. If you are a hard-core fan of Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market who love waking up damn early in the morning to catch the auction there, here is a place not to be missed. (read more about Noryangjin seafood market at http://english.dongjak.go.kr) Even though the picture was taken by the time it was closed, we could still see the traces of busy daily transactions taking place here.
There are about 10 million people living in Seoul. Sure the city is crowded everywhere you go. This is Myeong-dong, one of the most popular stops for shoppers. The urban landscape flooded with neon signs is similar to the one in Tokyo. (see 001_empire of signs and 002_signtecture at http://urbanomania-jp.blogspot.com) They all share some similarities to the ones found in Tokyo, vertically longish shape with lively colours, and very dense, a lot of signs all over the place. The only difference is of course the Korean text.
We all know that the US has got movies from Hollywood as one of their most valuable exports. The same applies to Bollywood in the case of India. But Korea is probably the only country that makes a lot of cash out of its drama series. It is a real phenomenon. Even in Singapore, one fine day out of the blue, all VCD shops have at least a whole corner dedicated to Korean dramas. All travel agencies provide tour packages to Korea to see some of famous shooting spots or film sets. (they call those theme parks, yeah right…) Kids start to learn Korean language and cooking. Bae Yong Jun is more well known than Kofi Annan and Rain’s tickets are far more expensive than Madonna’s or Michael Jackson’s. It seems whatever related to Korea is now so cool. (this rule applies only to S. Korean products, so Kim Jong Il is out of the picture even though the dude has got cool hair cut) Anyway, no explanation better than seeing for yourself, if you have a chance to travel to South Korea, please spare some time to shop at this duty free shop at the airport. This is so unbelievable…
