Yesterday Was Just Not My Day

Yesterday was one of those days that I would just like to forget. Thankfully, I didn't take it too hard and I kind of just laughed it off but it was just a strange day overall.

Well it started off as a normal Sunday morning. I went to Starbucks and got a cafe latte, a blueberry muffin, and read my Bible. Then I met my friend Peter Kim at Gangnam Station at 11:30am, so we could eat lunch before going to church after that.

Then the day went awry. After Peter and I ordered lunch at Dos Tacos, I went to get soda from the soda fountain. After I poured my drink, I slipped on a wet spot that was on the floor and brought down one chair as I was falling. I don't know how but thankfully I didn't spill soda anywhere. I actually kept it upright! One of the staff members apologized, but that was it. There's one more thing to be thankful for. I didn't hurt myself too badly; It scared me more than anything.

Then Peter and I went to a cafe to get some coffee. My ATM card is starting to get old (they're made really poor in Korea), so sometimes it takes awhile but it does work if you swipe it hard enough. The woman tried a few times to swipe my card, but asked if I had another card. I said I didn't and I just said "It's okay. Don't worry about it" and took my card from her and didn't get coffee. I was already full and didn't need any coffee anyway. Peter ordered his coffee, picked it up, and we were on our way to church.

After we got to church, I went to the bathroom. Next, I did my business and I flushed the toilet. I know that some Korean toilets aren't made well especially in old buildings, so they put trash cans next to the toilet if you need to put used toilet paper in it. Well, I thought that I wasn't going to use that much toilet paper so I didn't put the used toilet paper into the bin (I hate putting used toilet paper in a trash can. It's really gross to me). Unfortunately I didn't know that I just made a mistake by throwing the used toilet paper into the toilet. I apparently DID use too much toilet paper and it clogged the commode. I tried to flush it a couple of times to no avail. After the third time, I had no choice but to try to lodge it out with my hand. Um, not ideal in the least. However, there wasn't a plunger or any tool to help relieve the situation. And of course that didn't help. I tried to flush it again and water started to overflow...Ugh. I gave up and just soaked and washed my hands THOROUGHLY. Wow, could this day get any worse?

Well, it did. After church,  I had coffee with my friends which was harmless enough. Then my friend Evan said that he and his fiance were planning on going to Panda Express inside the IFC Mall in Yeouido. We had to take the subway (Line 9) to get there. After getting on a packed train at Shinnonhyeon Station, things seemed to be pretty normal until we get to Express Terminal. More people packed in like sardines which is always an experience. As I was reaching for a hand ring, I smacked a woman in the head and I heard a loud "Ow". I apologized in Korean but she gave me a dirty look so I said it in English "I'm sorry!" Then she finally gave me a slight bow to acknowledge that she accepted my apology.

Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy

The Eeriest Place in Seoul, South Korea: Yongma Land

One day I was searching for a unique thing to do in Seoul and came across an interesting place on the blog www.boboandchichi.com. The blog is run by Scott Herder and his fiancé Megan. In one of their blog posts they wrote about their experience at Yongma Land, which can be found here.

While looking at their blog post and Wikipedia, I did some research about Yongma Land. To keep it simple, it's a small amusement park that opened in 1980 but closed in 2011. Why did it close down? A bigger amusement park in a better location was constructed on July 12, 1989. That amusement park became known as Lotte World. While Yongma Land is in a very random area of Seoul, between Yongma Park and hiking trails, Lotte World was placed right next to Jamsil Station.

Here's a little about Lotte World and its effect on Yongma Land. Two subway stations intersect each other at Jamsil Station (Lines 2 and 9) and the station itself is only a 10-minute stop from Gangnam Station. Lotte World is also half indoors and half outdoors, so it still attracts a lot of people regardless of the weather. Finally, Lotte World was placed inside a shopping complex along with Lotte Department Store. This made it a much better option than Yongma Land. Yongma Land's fan based dipped after the 1980s and never recovered after that hence it's closure.

Today, the owner of Yongma Land keeps it open for a niche group of people: photographers, video producers, people into cosplay, or random amateur photographers like me that just like unique experiences. When you go there, you just have to pay W5,000 to make your way around this abandoned amusement park. Does it seem a bit creepy? It is a bit weird when you get here, but it's also very nostalgic. You can get a piece of 1970s and early 1980s Korea at this place. That's something that you can definitely take away from this place. Scott Herder and his fiancé have nicer pictures than me, but here's what I got from the place. Enjoy!





How about a kiddie train ride with a canopy of trees? Were the trees to protect the kids from the sun? Who knows?

Here's an overview of the theme park....

And some children's rides that have seen better days....

The famous Viking ride that is full of rust....

Or a spinning ride that actually doesn't look too bad....

More kids rides that are all clustered together. The genie might want to grant this place one more wish...

Apparently this is a an octopus ride similar to the tea cup ride at Disneyland...

Once you get past the weeds and children's rides, you can see a carousel. Sometimes the owner turns on the lights later on during the day....

Here's Michael Jackson in his glory days......

And a sad looking fire truck......

Do you notice the creepy looking snowmen in front of the carousel?

And finally some old bumper cars that looked like the ones I used when I was a kid (I'm 42 now).....

What was my experience like? Well, I enjoyed checking it out. I walked from Manggu Station and it was a bit inconvenient trying to weave through the residential streets and finally finding Yongma Park. Then I had to start heading up a path just before seeing Yongma Land off to the right. A hiking trail was just behind it. Just trying to find this place was great for exercise, but on a humid day, I was sweating a lot. I can see why this place went out of business. The location is very bizarre, which just makes this place even more eerie. You can get interesting pictures here, but it's definitely only a one-time event for me.

How to Get There: It's about a 15-minute walk from Manggu Station, but it might be easier just to take a taxi from the station. The taxi driver should know Yongma Land but if all else fails, here's the address that you can type into Naver Maps:

118, Mangu-ro 70-gil, Jungnang-gu, Seoul 02180

Cost: W5,000

Phone Number: 010-9671-6104

Estimated Time You Will Stay Here: 1-2 hours

Scott Worden (The L.A.Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy

A Japanese Student's Perspective on Smiling at Strangers

Last week I taught an older Japanese student, by the name of Hoji, who has a Korean wife. We had a very interesting conversation about how we view Korean culture. There is one thing that he could never understand that I also wish happened more often in Korea: Smiling at strangers.

Hoji admittedly told me that he has no problem smiling at anyone he meets on the street. He said that it was common in Japanese culture to smile at people on the street. This was new to me since I never realized that in big cities like Tokyo or Osaka. However, I do remember people smiling as I walked into a restaurant or store. He felt as if Koreans were a bit cold in that regard.

The topic of the class was shopping and experiences in a store. One of the questions was related to having a bad experience in a store. Hoji told me that although he can't remember a specific time in a store, he did recall a negative experience in a Korean restaurant. One time an older woman ("ajumma") server was really rude to him. He asked for more side dishes (which is common to ask for in Korea) and she gave him a dirty look. He didn't understand why she was so mean to him. I told him that I had a similar experience twice. I had gone to two Korean restaurants often in my local area before I got married. Yet the older women never treated me as if I was a frequent customer. I got average to poor service most of the time. And of course they didn't smile.

Then Hoji told me his wife's perspective on smiling to strangers. She told him, "Stop smiling at everyone! People are going to think that you're weird or a pervert especially if you smile at a young girl." We both laughed as he explained how his wife viewed his constant smiling.

I explained to Hoji that a similar culture is in Russia. I had a Russian friend tell me that if you smile at a stranger, that person might think that you're up to no good. My wife (who is a Korean Chinese person from Yanji, China) said the same thing. If someone smiles in China, most people might figure the person smiling is going to scam them or try to get them to buy something. That actually makes sense since the only time that strangers were friendly to me in China were for the wrong reasons. Two people tried to drag me into an art gallery in Beijing to buy fake artwork after pretending to be friendly and wanting to get to know a non-Chinese foreigner. Also, on two occasions in Shanghai, a couple or group of three young people tried to take me to a "tea ceremony" to pay for overpriced tea after pretending to befriend me.

But there's also another reason why people in China or South Korea don't smile and that comes down to Confucianism. Confucianism has a hierarchy system. The husband, older person, or boss is on the higher end of that list. Strangers are at the bottom. In fact, they don't even count. It's an "us" vs. "them" mentality as mentioned by another blogger by the name of Mike. He's a Westerner living in China and he will give you the run down of how Confucianism works in China and how it relates to how Chinese people never smile to strangers. You can find his post here.

There are some things that I miss about American culture and that is one of them. I don't want to have to ignore strangers on a street. I miss saying hello and having small talk with people I don't know. The last time I was in California I experienced "reverse culture shock". I was at a salad bar at a pizza parlor and out of the blue I hear a woman say to me "Doesn't that soup look good?" I almost didn't know how to react since I've lived in Asia for awhile. So it finally clicked and I said, "Um yeah it does look good!"

It has become too common to have a straight face as I commute to work and back in Seoul. I'm trying to keep myself aware that it is indeed okay to smile at strangers. Since I'm not Asian, I do have that advantage since they'll just think I'm being friendly because I'm a foreigner. I can use my "smiling foreigner card" any time that I like!

Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy