Day 2

I wake up around 8am.

It's sunny and the temperature is expected to be around 20 degrees during the day.

I decided to have breakfast at Namdaemun today.

It's quite far from B4 station, but it's a good opportunity to take a leisurely look around the city, so I walk to Namdaemun.

From B4 to B3, there are a row of wholesalers of lighting equipment and plumbing equipment, and the shopkeepers are busy lining the sidewalk with their goods.

Come to think of it, today is Wednesday, so it's normal for them to be working.

I find "Hotel Kukdo" along the main street near B3 station.

This is the hotel I stayed at when I first came to Seoul over 10 years ago.

It was in such a good location. The building was even more impressive than I remembered. I looked it up later and found that it was about 10,000 yen per person per night.

From B3 to B, there are more and more people who look like tourists.

I also see groups of Chinese and Middle Eastern people.

My daughter says that there are no Japanese cars on the road.

Indeed, most of the cars are Hyundais and Kias, and among the foreign cars, Mercedes and BMWs are the most common.

Korean cars are also pretty cool, with big sedans that look sturdy.

From Etsu Station, we head south to Myeongdong Station, which is the Myeongdong area.

It's still morning, so the famous food stalls aren't out, but the street shops are open and there are a few people walking around.

From Myeongdong Station, we head west to Namdaemun. The market here is bustling from the morning.

For breakfast, we wanted to eat cheap and filling Namdaemun Kalguksu, but my daughter said she couldn't eat a hearty meal in the morning, so we settled for oden and tteokbokki from a food stall.

We also wanted to buy the famous vegetable hotteok, but there were no stores there, so we gave up. (Actually, we were in the wrong place...)

This market has many clothing and shoe stores, but there are also many people trying to sell counterfeit goods. They are clearly selling counterfeit goods in the storefronts, and it seems like there are super copies in the back of the stores. Camouflage clothing was also sold in the center of the market. Here I bought some cheap pajamas, sunglasses, socks, etc.

By the way, the best money exchange shop in the city this time was not in Myeongdong but in Namdaemun.

From here, I headed towards Seoul Station, and on the way, I walked along "Seoul Road", a former elevated road that is now only for people. At Lotte Mart adjacent to Seoul Station, I made a "WOW Pass Card" for my daughter and charged it with T-Money, which can be used together.

From Seoul Station, I took the subway back to Myeongdong Station.

I had only just passed by before, but this time I accompanied my daughter to check out the stores for clothes, cosmetics, accessories, etc., but it seemed like there were too many stores to choose.

I was getting hungry, so I had yakiniku lunch at "Wangbiga", which has several stores in Myeongdong.

Digital kalbi, the store is small but the atmosphere is good. 15,000w per person, 13,000w during weekday lunches

My stomach was full, so I went to look for souvenirs for my workplace and family.

I looked around a lot, but in the end, I went to a specialty shop because HBAF's honey butter almonds seemed to be the least risky.

It's good that you can sample them here. The newly added seaweed flavor was also delicious.

It's about 7,000 W per piece, but if you buy five, it's a little cheaper, from 35,000 W to 30,000 W. I bought about 10,000 yen in total.

In the evening, I went to see the play "NANTA" that I've been wanting to see for a while.

Actually, I had a chance to go about 10 years ago, but for some reason it fell through.

The play lasted about 90 minutes, and was set in a restaurant kitchen, so it was apparently enjoyable even if you don't understand Korean.

The venue was in a building in the middle of Myeongdong, and it was a hall with seating up to two floors for about 200 people.

I booked a seat in the center of the fifth row from the front, and the venue was almost full.

I won't go into details because it would be a spoiler, but the five performers were well-paced and I enjoyed it until the end.

From Myeongdong, we walked back to the hotel. We had walked quite a bit, so we took a break at the hotel.

Around 8pm, we were hungry again, so we went to Dakgalbi Alley in Dongdaemun.

Myeongdong Dakgalbi near the entrance was full of locals.

When we sat down, they started slicing the chicken in the pot without any instructions.

There were Japanese instructions on how to make the sauce, and the smiling male cashier at the register told us how to adjust the heat and when to eat it.

There seemed to be a few famous restaurants around, but this one was delicious as well.

I think it was about 25,000w for one chicken for two people. It came with green onions and potatoes, and we had extra udon noodles to finish off the meal.

After we finished eating, we went to check out the famous "yellow tent" near Dongdaemun Culture Park.

We walked back, but our legs were like sticks, and we had walked more than 33,000 steps that day.