Day 02: Myungdong, Gangnam, Noryangjin Fish Market, Dongdaemun

To start off the day, we are at a little stand just outside of our hotel in Myungdong called 호봉 토스트. This stall serves a variety of toasted sandwiches and freshly blended fruit juices for around 3,000₩ each.

I ordered the 호봉 Special, which had a warm toast sandwiching a slice of ham, tomato, red onions and chopped potatoes, along with a plum juice. I'm mind blown at the sweet, savory taste of my sandwich and freshness and pulpiness of my juice! The drink was so refreshing, I came back later on for some orange juice too! Also I ordered in Korean, but the shop owner was also fluent in English, Chinese and Japanese. And the workers were so hospitable, setting up seats for us outside of their stall.

Like many of the other surrounding stalls, this was broadcasted on a TV program.

We walked around Myungdong, which has so many streets for pedestrians (rather than cars) and there are so many cosmetic shops, the same ones just storefronts away from each other.

The only cosmetic store I was interested in was Shara Shara, since their products are difficult to obtain for foreigners and their endorser is none other than Myungsoo. (This was taken before 9AM, when all the shops were stilled closed, hence why the L cutout isn't visible). The first Shara location I saw in Myungdong was a very cramped hallway and had aggressive sales ladies who kept insisting that after spending 100,000₩, then I'd get the L goodies (face mask sheet, postcard and tumbler), and a smaller purchase wouldn't consist of anything. She even argued that other Shara locations have run out of the L face masks, so I'm lucky that it's available here. Frustrated with the ridiculous pricing on my precious L (though of course he's priceless!), I left empty handed, hoping to run into the other Shara branch in Myungdong.

After a few blocks, I found another Shara Shara in a nice, larger and roomier corner location! Here's the gorgeous storefront. And better yet, inside the shopping baskets were the L face masks as freebies! Already I knew I'd have to buy something this time.

At the register was the collection of L freebies, including posters (only 3 left), postcards (only the black version left), face masks, notebook and tumbler, which would need a purchase of 75,000 or 150,000₩ for various freebies.

After discussing with the sales lady, she generously made me a deal: I spend 30,000₩ and receive a poster (which I already have) or the other L face mask and a postcard. I decided to buy a 28,000₩ body scrub that had a "buy one get one free" promotion and a random 2,000₩ item. I'm so happy to have continued my Myungsoo Day with these amazing goodies; it's like spending $10 for each Myungsoo good and getting the scrubs as a bonus!

Afterwards we went to Lotte Department Store in Myungdong. Just outside is a food stall with unexpectedly pricey, but delicious, street food. The 김밥 was the best!

Though we were quite full, we then went to the basement of Lotte, which consists of a very glamorous food court that has vendors such as Beard Papa's (that has 빙수 and fresh fruit drinks, much different from the States!), Chinese food Korean style, kimchi, udon, sushi conveyor belt, and raw seafood like abalone!

From here, it was off to Gangnam to Samsung D'Light! This Samsung store is located in the Samsung building and takes up the first three floors. The top floor has high tech displays and a very cool 3D experience in an elevator about storing data. Also on that floor are various home entertainment rooms and a test kitchen. The second floor has motion-sensored video games and a counter of cameras with still life objects at a table to test out the cameras. The bottom floor had all the phones, tablets and accessories. I came into the store not interested in purchasing anything, but just as I stepped onto this floor, Infinite's "Reflex" played which really made me feel high-kind-of-happy. Speaking of infinite, there were sadly no endorsement advertisements in the store.

However, on display was the Samsung Round, a curved phone, but the workers said this phone was too outdated to sell. Also on display was the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom 2, a phone with a high quality, built-in camera, which wouldn't be released until the following week. As these phones aren't available in the States, I hope to get my hands on one!

Next stop was Coex Mall! Just as the taxi was pulling up to the mall, I saw the most beautiful ad: it was a small truck with L's Bravo Viewtiful Part 2 on the side! I found this surprising, as it's been about nine months since his book came out.

Coex is currently remodeling until December 2014 so some areas were closed. Besides the aquarium and movie theater inside, there wasn't anything else. Despite a lack of interesting shops, it was well worth the trip as I got to see an ad for L!

Following Coex was Kyobo Tower, to visit its basement shop, Kyobo Bookstore. In this shop, the left carries books while the right has a joint CD shop called Hottracks. This shop is a bit small, but I found the three products I was looking for! Sadly there were no posters to give away though. There was even a copy of Infinite's instrumental CD, Origin, still available for 24,000₩!

For dinner, we went to the Noryangjin Fish Market (노량진수산시장), which was like a large, open warehouse. The first floor had many vendors selling live and frozen seafood. Most don't speak English, but there are a few English speaking vendors floating around to help guide you. Once you purchase your seafood, which is then placed in plastic shopping bags, you go to one of the many restaurants on the second floor or the back of the first floor. At the restaurant (some of which are floor seating, others at a table), you pay a base price for entering, and then an extra charge per dish cooked using your just-bought seafood. The chef also discusses how he'll cook each dish for you, such as sashimi, steam and BBQ.

One thing this market, or Seoul in general, is the live baby octopus that can kill you if its tentacles suck onto your neck while swallowing. Here's a blurry photo of the octopus, which was still wriggling around in the dish! To finish off the perfect evening, this restaurant played songs from Infinite's latest album: "Reflex," "Season 2," (which I thought "Last Romeo" would follow, because who would just play an intro song), and later on, "나란 사람!"

It was difficult finding a taxi at the fish market, but eventually we followed one taxi on standby who got out of his car to hang out with a group of other standby taxi drivers. We approached him and instead his friend spoke to us in Konglish. They were very nice and eventually decided to drive us despite being on break. While we were speaking in Korean, some guy had slipped into the back seat of the taxi! Our driver began to get in, and was shocked to see someone back there. His friend opened the door, shooed him out, and kindly let us in. I finally had my first real conversation with a Korean, which was very exciting! Proves to me that maybe I can get, eventually without the use of English.

Our last stop for the night was Dongdaemun, which is a shopping district with five multi-level malls of fashion shopping! Despite being like a nigh market, several floors, as well as this underground mall, sadly closes earlier than expected.