A Few Seoul Notes

I have had a wonderful opportunity to observe and learn about a different culture while in Seoul. This is a very vibrant and fascinating place, and I have had an excellent visit.

My observations here are just my subjective take on a city I have barely experienced, obviously, but I have nonetheless tried to be somewhat factual, and to not sound too nuts.

The first take: The city of Seoul is really well-organized, and built for people rather than just for cars. Seoul accommodates walkers and bikers, and is well-lit, with lots of useful signs to help one find places, and to get un-lost. (Many signs are in Korean and English. But not all.)

Partly this sense of organization is because so much of the physical city was deliberately destroyed in the 20th-century under the Japanese occupation, and then in the Korean war; a lot of this current city was built fairly recently. The historic palaces largely survived, and some old sections of the city; much is fairly new, and the city continues to grow up, and out.

The public transport system is great. The subway cars and frequent buses are heated in winter, have a/c in summer, have wifi, and helpful announcements in Korean and English at each stop. The subway stations each have very decent bathrooms, and usually shops and stalls for drinks and snacks (which are forbidden to consume on the trains or buses, but you can stuff a nice pastry in your pocket for later).

There are the most wonderful neighborhoods to visit, full of character and color. Below are pictures from Zaemiro, a central area decorated with tributes and celebrations of Korean cartoon culture.

And at the end of the decorated alleyways is the Seoul Animation Center, with a children’s indoor play area, and downstairs, a very popular free comics library, with endless shelves of Korean comic books, and books in many languages about animation and cartoon art.

The place was full of readers of all ages! And the comics were organized in thoughtfully labelled sections. The librarians amongst my readers may wish to take note.

I have found people all over Seoul to be kind, patient, and polite. Particularly with my terrible spoken Korean. I made an effort each day to greet and express gratitude using my limited vocabulary, and people were always incredibly polite about my mispronounced efforts. I found this charming and endearing.

This is all part of Korean culture, of course. Koreans center the importance of the consideration of others a great deal. There are commercials about it on tv, and videos playing on the screens on the metro trains and buses to remind people to not poke others with a bulky backpack! If one is not old, one does not sit in the old-people seats on the bus or train! And the people do stash their backpacks, and avoid the seats for old people if they are not old. No one eats on the trains and buses. People patiently queue in line for transport. People hold doors for other people.

It is not that people don’t do this in other places I have been — it is just that the intention to be considerate here seems so serious and real.

That is not something anyone would ever say, for example, about Philadelphia.

The many bike paths I have explored in Seoul are well-maintained, and free of trash. I repeat: they keep the bike paths clean here!

At Lunar New Year I took a share bike for a ride on a section of the riverside trail, and there was no garbage to be seen whatsoever. No broken glass or strewn trash. And I saw no graffiti either. (Does graffiti = art? That is another discussion. But I do not always welcome graffiti on my bike path.) Seoul is just a really well-kept city. It is swept and scrubbed.

(Why yes, I am wearing my collapsible travel bike helmet in that photo there! How attentive you are to have noticed.)

In a city this large, it is hard to find privacy, a spot for oneself anywhere.

Everyone lives in an apartment, which means shared space, and the scale of building interiors generally is small by US standards. So homes, shops, offices, businesses, schools, and even department stores are often very compact spaces. The buildings can be tall, but inside the spaces are more bijou, petite, and minute.

But there are also, throughout the city, so many places designed for people to sit peacefully, reflect, enjoy a break, or just be in one’s own space. I am always noticing benches and seating woven into the design of the city. It’s okay to stop and set a spell.

Below is the women’s restroom foyer in the Gangnam Subway Station. Take a load off! Set a spell.

I think that the city’s culture has evolved to afford people a sense of respected space, even when the actual numbers of people make this hard. So even when others are all around, there seems to be respect for the piece of space you are occupying.

Which isn’t to say you will never get bumped into in the city of Seoul. But the bumper will probably apologize and bow to the bumpee, acknowledging that the bump never should have happened.

You will see tons of dogs in Seoul, mostly very small ones, because these are uniformly apartment dogs. But dogs in Seoul get out and about, for walks of course, but also carried in baby carriers, special backpacks and frontpacks, and in strollers. These are definitely cherished pets, wrapped up in blankets, and wearing warm winter sweaters and hats.

Those are some dogs for sale in a window, typical of the dogs seen all over town, and also some nattily dressed Cat Cafe cats.

I know I keep going back to what everyone is wearing here, apparently now including the canines, but it is a telling aspect to observe. I have asked a few people here about their fashion choices, and everyone was simply surprised by the very question. Of course, it is winter, and one wears black! So I have come to see fashion in Seoul as a reflex, rather than a choice or mode of self-expression, and that is, I suppose, part of the way a culture manages to be so very gracefully accommodating: when things become reflexes, done naturally, in a way that makes things work for the larger community. In clothing, the reflex is to fit in seamlessly. In dealing with the overwhelm of life in a crowded city, the reflex is to make the effort to respect the space of others.

But I have only been here a short while! So these are my short takes. Seoul is a wonderful place to visit, full of kind people and very well-dressed dogs.