At the game, I couldn’t help but feel out of place. Baseball in Korea is technically the same as baseball in America. There are 9 innings, 4 balls, and 3 strikes. However, there are some cultural differences that make it feel completely foreign.

Here are my quick observations about professional baseball in Korea:

First of all, there are no peanuts or popcorn. Everyone drinks beer and eats chicken. I walked by no less then 3 KFCs between the subway exit and my seat in the stadium.

Also, the mascots are all cute. I guess in Asia, everything is cute. So this was no surprise.

However, I found it fascinating that the teams are not so much differentiated by city or region, but by the corporation that owns it. For example, the Tigers are owned by Kia, which is known in America as a car manufacturer. Samsung owns the Lions. LG owns the Twins. The list goes on and on. I guess Japan does the same thing.

The stadiums let you bring bags inside without first checking its contents. You can also bring your own drinks and food from outside. Lastly, there’s a small price difference between food that’s sold inside the stadium and food that’s sold outside. However, the difference is very small. It’s not like in the U.S. where a cup of beer suddenly doubles in price because you’ve passed a turnstile.

Surprisingly, the baseball fans in Seoul (despite being loud) are orderly and actually stay until the very end of the game. That is, they don’t leave during the 7th inning to avoid traffic. Even if their team is being badly beaten, they stay until the bottom of the 9th to cheer on their team. That’s dedication. I guess if everybody left early, it would be like admitting defeat. Koreans don’t like to lose.

Lastly, the fans are incredibly well-coordinated in their chants and cheers. There must have been over 25 different cheers, and every fan knew how to recite and conduct hand gestures perfectly. What was most incredible was that the fans sustained the cheer throughout the play. Honestly, Korean baseball fans put American baseball fans to shame. This may not be a popular thing to say, but American baseball fans can learn a thing or two from the Koreans.

Here are the Bears fans, waving their white noise-bangers.

Here are the Tigers fans, waving their yellow noise-bangers.

Finally, here’s a video I took of a cheer. Notice how all of the Tigers fans are synchronized in their movements, even while the pitcher throws the ball. Then, after the play ends, the Bears fans (in white) respond with a cheer of their own.

Overall, it was an amazing experience. When I heard I was going to come to Korea, I had no idea I would end up at a baseball game. But I’m certainly glad I made the trip. Of course, I ended up eating chicken and beer and even participated in some of the chants. Most of the songs were popular American songs and chats with Korean lyrics. So I just sang the original version.

I don’t think American baseball will ever be the same for me again.

More theater posters from Korea. This time, it’s Hairspray! Sadly, I can’t look at this poster without picturing John Travolta dressed in drag, sporting fat makeup.

Welcome back to the third installment of the ‘Seoul Oddities’ series of blog posts. As I walk around Seoul, I take a lot of pictures. Some are funny. Some are memorable. Some are strange. My hope is that these posts will help you see the lighter side of Korea! Yes, there are many differences between the U.S. and Korea. But there’s also plenty of cultural overlap.

Here’s a poster for Chicago.

In an earlier post, I mentioned an abundance of chicken and beer restaurants in Seoul. Here’s an example of one. I was speaking to one of my clients about chicken and beer is not a thing in the U.S. and she was shocked. “On the other hand, chicken and waffles is most definitely a thing.”

Here’s a picture of street food that I took in Itaewon. Wandering around Itaewon, we ended up in some dirty alley where you could sit down on a bench and order tofu and ramen. The food was actually pretty good. Best of all, the entire meal (for 8 people) was $30 total.

Here’s a road cone, I think. Whatever it is, you can’t deny that even the most mundane things in Korea are exceptionally cute. I took a picture of it while walking around the Sinsadong area. However, I’ve started seeing more of these cones in other districts.

I really like this little restaurant that I found in Insadong. First of all, its mascot a a freaking panda! Second, the panda is wearing a bib because he’s hungry. Third, the panda is eating meat instead of bamboo. Finally, the panda’s face is in the logo! Okay, I’m having entirely too much fun with this.

This is a comic I found on the subway wall. I’m not sure what is going on here. They look like gangsters to me. Is this an ad or a public service announcement?

In Insadong gallery, there are shops where you can pay an artisan to carve your name on a stone to create a cell phone charm. I just think it’s funny that there’s an ‘SK Telecom Stone’ on the very right.

In Korea, Hyundai is more than a car manufacturer. They actually own and operate many diverse businesses. Here’s a big Hyundai department store, for example.

The clubs below are the best of the best and I give them my stamp of approval. Here they are:

Club Octagon

This was the first and best club I visited in Seoul. We were there to celebrate my buddy Luke’s birthday and reserved two tables.

True to its name, Octagon’s design revolves around the octagon shape. All the tables are octagons, the dance floor is a giant octagon, and even the hand rails are octagons.

There are three levels to the club, each surrounding a large pit area like an old Roman gladiator arena. To reach the pit, you must either walk down a stairway in the back or take an elevator down. My only complaint about Octagon’s design was that the bathroom is small and the line can get quite long.

If you look at the Club Octagon website, they boast about having an indoor pool. However, as far as I could tell, people were not allowed to wade into the pool. It existed only for decoration and to serve as a barrier between the lower level tables and the dance floor.

Club Ellui

I decided to go to Club Ellui with Raj and Jens. The line was very long but moved fast. Unfortunately, I didn’t check out the Club Ellui Facebook page for a coupon and ended up paying 4x the admission price. However, I did get a free drink coupon, stickers, and a CD out of it.

Personally, I like the layout of Ellui more than Octagon. The club is more spacious and is divided into three areas: the main floor, black room, and white room. There are also separate dance floors. If you want a more quiet, chill experience, you can get a table in the black room. For special VIP treatment, go to the white room.

However, Ellui’s sound and lighting system isn’t as good as Octagon’s. To make matters worse, the cooling system doesn’t circulate cold air across the entire dance floor. So you’ll get hot very quickly.

Overall, the vibe I got from Ellui is that it’s more laid back than Octagon. It’s easy to see why this is the #2 club in Seoul. The people at Ellui don’t look as posh as Octagon’s crowd, but they appear more genuine, i.e. less plastic surgery, more urban fashion, and more ethnic diversity (Japanese, Americans, Chinese, and even some Indians).

If you’re visiting Seoul and want to go to the best clubs, you simply must visit Octagon and Ellui.

After pulling an all-nighter to celebrate my classmate’s 27th birthday last night, I woke up this afternoon in my hotel room to discover that my friends had already gone out to get breakfast. I decided to explore Seoul on my own.

First stop: going to Skin Food to pick up some cosmetics for my girlfriend. Walking aimlessly, I eventually found myself in Insadong, a neighborhood known for crafts, artwork, and tea houses. There are many quaint little shops and eateries scattered throughout a labyrinth of alleyways and black tile roofed houses.

The main Insadong gallery is a huge tourist trap. On the positive side, most of the locals can speak Mandarin, Japanese, or English.

Of course, traffic has heavier than usual today. Today is the beginning of a long weekend because Monday is Buddha’s birthday. In Korea, it is a national holiday. Usually, people make plans to travel to Jeju Island or Busan. My team considered doing the same. However, we could not find any open hotels. We even tried using Airbnb but came up short. Instead, we might go and watch The Avengers in 4-D.

I’ve already seen The Avengers in 3-D with my girlfriend in Sacramento during the opening weekend. I enjoyed the movie a lot! The 4-D experience is supposed to be quite spectacular because the seats will shake and rotate. Also, the seat in front of you will spray your face with wind, water, or scents. You can actually smell and feel the explosions. I am excited.

Quick sidenote for any future Seoul-travelers: the cab drivers here are pretty horrible. If you ask to be taken to a neighborhood that’s “not worth the driver’s time,” they’ll drive off. Technically, this is illegal. However, the cops don’t enforce it. In New York City, the trick is to jump into the cab first before stating your destination because once you’re inside the cab, the drivers can’t refuse you. In Seoul, the cab drivers lock their doors. Last night, we probably hailed close to 20-30 cabs. None of them wanted to take us from Itaewon to Myeongdong. Finally, we had to wait until 6:00a and take the subway home.

As I said in previous posts, I am in South Korea with Haas classmates for three weeks on an international consulting project with SK Planet. Specifically, I’m working with the ADF division, which focuses on developing mobile applications for the global market. Every morning, from 10:00a to 7:00p, my classmates and I work in the SK Planet office alongisde developers, product managers, and marketing managers to enhance the mobile app development process.

We work hard. We also play hard.

Every year, the team goes on an off-site sports event. Basically, the guys play soccer, basketball, and jok-gu (foot volleyball) while the girls um… ride bicycles and clap for their male coworkers. Yeah.

Specifically, we took the bus from Myeongdong to Yongsan. There are parks and sports facilities sandwiched between the river and freeway. Continue reading after the jump for more details!

There’s free gym equipment underneath the bridge. Why join a gym in Korea when you can just work out in the open air? Actually, I had a clumsy accident here upon arrival. I walked into a bench, skinning left kneecap and bruising my shins.

The guys from SK set up a tent (in SK colors of course) and laid out a tarp. They also brought a chair for the big boss. There was a game of foot volleyball already going on. Popular in Korea and Southeast Asia, foot volleyball is similar to volleyball. However, instead of bump-set-spike, you have to use your head or foot to knock the ball to the other side of the net within three attempts.

People brought snacks such as chips and onion rings. Also, there was makgeolli in bottles. It didn’t taste as good as the makgeolli in restaurants. However, it was portable. So that’s a plus.

Before the serious competition began, one of the ADF team members led the others through a stretching routine.

Chicken and beer: a popular combination.

Here’s my classmate playing basketball with some ADF members. The sports contests are supposed to help the employees relieve stress and increase their morale. I asked one of the team leaders whether there was a prize. When I discovered there was no prize, I suggested the winning team should have their pictures posted at the entrance of the office for one week. The losing team should bow to it every morning. The Koreans liked the idea.

Here’s me chillin’ in the most awkward and flimsy hammock ever.

Later, we moved to the soccer field for the main event. By the way, the tall golden building you can see in the distance is the 63 Building (also known as 63 City). Not only did it used to be the tallest building in Korea, it was featured on the cover of Sim City 3000 Unlimited. Nerdy fact, I know.

Once the game got underway, it wasn’t long before the first goal was scored. During breaks, some of the players drank beer and chain smoked. Take that, lungs and liver!

The girls (and a few guys) sit and cheer on the soccer players.

As the sun began to go down, the sky displayed pretty colors. This area is really pretty and I would like to come by in the future and ride a bike down the lane.

One of the teams won the game, but I’m not sure which. I was busy running around the sidelines taking pictures. Also, I couldn’t understand any of the Korean that was being shouted.

Here’s the final team photo. After the sporting event, we went to dinner at a pork restaurant. Basically, we drank a lot of Hite beer and Soju and ate a lot of fatty pork. The big boss paid for everything. Great thanks ADF for being awesome!

When Koreans go to a restaurant, they usually drink beer or soju with their meal. (The first cup is bottoms-up!) Sometimes, they also drink Makgeolli, a milky rice wine that I wrote about in a previous post. More rarely, friends or business partners may go out to special ‘whiskey bars’ where beautiful women pour your drinks and laugh at your stupid jokes.

I’ve mostly been drinking Cass, a light beer that’s mostly tasteless but surprisingly strong. Another Korean beer is called Hite. Both types of beer are used to make bombs, which are mixtures of beer and soju. I’ve always been told not to mix alcohol. But in Korea, bombs are not only welcome, they’re encouraged.

There are different combinations of beer and soju, each with a unique name such as atomic bomb, stink bomb, super bomb, or dirty bomb. Koreans really care about seniority, so the youngest person at the table normally mixes bombs for everybody else. The oldest person, if he pours you a drink, you have to accept it and drink it. There are no exceptions.

Mixing bombs is somewhat of an art. At the most basic level, it means pouring a soju with precise measurement into each glass and then filling the rest with beer. Sometimes, mixing is done creatively. For example, some people will stack shot glasses filled with soju on top of the beer glasses and then hit the table with their forehead to cascade all of the shot glasses into their respective beer glasses.

Korean beer costs 4,000 KRW per bottle in restaurants and bars, which is roughly $3.75 USD. That’s a pretty reasonable price, I think. However, a bottle of soju (which is basically a light vodka) only costs 2,000 KRW. So if you’re looking to drink on the cheap, you’re better off drinking soju than beer.

I guess this explains the high number of drunk people I see on the street. Sometimes, when I’m walking around the city at night, I see businessmen unable to walk straight, laughing at god-knows-what. Korean people find it uncouth to drink in public (i.e. on the street) but they think it’s acceptable to fall down drunk so long as you don’t have a drink in hand. It’s very interesting.

If a man stays out drinking too late, he doesn’t go home to his wife and children (because he doesn’t want to get scolded). However, hotels are expensive and crashing at a friend’s house is frowned upon. So most guys will just go to a spa, sober up in the hot tub, and sleep on the floor. I was told that “the rocks on the floor will contour to your body, creating a wonderful surface.” Okay, then.

In terms of exploring the Seoul nightlife, my friends and I recently decided to visit the college town next to Hongdae. (Don’t worry, we didn’t do anything cray.) We figured college students would know how to have fun!

First of all, the Hongdae area is filthy. The ground is littered with trash. The air smells like smoke. It reminds me a little bit of Telegraph Street in Berkeley. However, our walk through the area was bizarrely awesome from an ethnographic standpoint. We saw no less than 10 different “Ho Bars” and several instances of male chauvinistic chest-thumping by locals. We also saw an enormous dog that would best be described as a ‘dire wolf!’

We ended up going to a tiny hole-in-the-wall bar called Vinyl. The place had two tiny tables with a maximum occupancy of 10 people! However, the walls were filled with old college posters. I took a picture:

The unique thing about Vinyl is they don’t serve you drinks in glasses or even paper cups. You get a plastic baggie with a straw, Southeast Asia style! Normally, I would be turned off by such a claustrophobic place. But the decor was just so whimsical that I can’t help but like it!

In one of the earlier excursions to the Hongdae area, we visited a unique dive bar called Bar Da. From the outside, it looks like a run-down, abandoned building where serial killers stash their victims. But when you climb the dilapidated stairs and open the grimy door, you realize there’s an actual business here! The charm of Bar Da is that it’s utterly terrible. But it’s so bad, it’s good. For example, all of the menus are hand-written, half the lights don’t work, and the chairs are falling apart. It’s a horrible place, but you can’t help but love it.

Inside Bar Da, we met a Korean girl from the Philippines who told us she was in Korea to learn her native language. Being from the Philippines, she naturally had perfect English. However, the first big question she asked us was whether we could help her score some weed. “I just want to fucking get high,” she confessed to us.

Being tourists with no intention to get thrown in jail (which is how Korea deals with pop smokers), we ignored her pleas.

Later, she asked us: “How old are you guys?” My friends and I gave each other odd looks and then told her our ages. ”Just so you know, I’m 18,” she responded. Awkward.

Since she was being very strange, we ended up just ignoring her and talking to her marginally more mature friend instead. Unfortunately, she turned out to be quite an aggressive gal, basically forcing one of my classmates to become Facebook friends with her. She also refused to believe that we were students from Berkeley, saying: “You lie. Foreigners always lie.” Quite rude. I hope my classmate ‘unfriended’ her.

We left the bar pretty soon after that and ended up getting some Italian food from a local restaurant. Hilariously, it turned out to be one of those frilly places designed for young guys to take their sweethearts out on dates. Filled with flowers and lace, the interior decor resembled that of Barbie’s dream home. We decided to eat there anyway.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by some of the so-called Western-food in Seoul. For example, “Chicken + Beer” appears to be a very popular combination. There are no less than a dozen restaurants in Myeongdong alone that cater to this strange combination. Basically, the water gives you a pitcher of beer and a bucket of chicken. Yes, this is a thing in Korea and it is huge!

Oddly enough, waffle restaurants are very popular in Korea as well. You may be wondering “is a waffle restaurant what I think it is?” Yes. There is apparently a very high demand for waffles because I literally pass by 3 waffle restaurants every morning on the way to work. Myeongdong is pretty much comprised of waffle restaurants (and boutique cosmetics stores).

Imagine if Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles came to Korea. People would literally have heart attacks from over-excitement.

All kidding aside, Seoul has been quite the adventure. But what I’m really craving is some good ol’ fashioned American fast food.

Today, on the way back to my hotel after a long day at the office, I saw an old Korean grandma clutching her shoulder in pain on the side of the road. She had gotten clipped by a car’s side mirror. The worst part is, the driver exited his vehicle and started to yell at the poor woman!

Frankly, I’m amazed the city doesn’t block off Myeongdong from car traffic to protect tourists. I understand that technically there are sidewalks and streets. But the difference between the two is blurry since motorcycles gladly drive on the sidewalks and hundreds of people are forced to walk in the middle of the street because of the street vendors. The entire area should be converted to a giant pedestrian-only mall!

However, the highlight of the tour was Dorasan Station, a functional train station that connects North and South Korea. The rail was used to ferry supplies and workers from South Korea to North Korea’s Kesong City. However, transportation was cut off in 2008.

Dorasan Station is really interesting to me because it combines two of my weird interests: Asian history and political marketing/propaganda. It’s big, clean, and wholly unused. But the government maintains the station as a symbol of future Korean reunification. As a tourist, you can buy a ticket to stand on the platform and wait for a train that will take you to Pyeongyang. However, it will never come.

There are also posters everywhere with inspirational messages such as: “not the last station from the South, but the first station toward the North.”

Here’s the ticket I bought. It costs 500 Korean Won, which is a little bit under $0.50 USD. Apparently, the fees go toward maintaining the quality and cleanliness of the station.

Tourists can also take pictures with the South Korean military police. If you ask nicely, they will even take out their batons and pretend to hit you. Of course, if those hilarious pictures fell into North Korean hands, I’m sure they would be used for propaganda by the state-controlled media (e.g. “in South Korea, MPs hit poor travelers!!”)

However, the most strike thing for me was the visual difference between North Korean and South Korean land. On the North Korean side of the fence, the hills are brown and stripped of resources. Due to lack of efficient energy production, North Koreans chop down trees to heat their homes. The land is barren. On the South Korean side, the lands are not only green and fertile, but also dotted with huge modern skyscraper condos. The quality of a country’s leadership really makes a difference.

I’m traveling with a German and two Indian Americans. The local Koreans speak English to them by default and excuse them from accidental rudeness because they look obviously foreign. However, if I do something inappropriate out of ignorance, the locals just think I am a local idiot. They don’t realize I am also a foreigner until they talk with me.

My classmates are running a tally of the number of locals who automatically think I am Korean vs. non-Korean. So far, only two people have guessed correctly.

Naked Museum! It’s open for ALL. What can I say? Sex sells.

“Corean Cafe.” One of the interesting things I’ve noticed is that when you go to a sit-down restaurant, only one menu is given. In the U.S., every person at the table gets a menu. But in Korea, the oldest person at the table is expected to order on behalf of the group.

There is no shortage of Engrish in Korea. For example, this store is called SARI: The value want to possess. This is why Babelfish needs to be retired.

Warning! You may fall comically!

Many of the stores also have adorable names and logos. For example, this store is called Le Bunny Bleu. In Korea, cute is culturally acceptable for adults.

It’s the Catch Me If You Can musical, localized for Korea. Not pictured: Hairspray and Wicked. I’ll try to snap a picture of those posters the next time I walk around town.

Something I am still not used to is that in Korea, bicycles, mopeds, motorbikes, and pedestrians share the sidewalk. It’s common to see motorbikes speed through a busy walkway while civilians leap to the side to avoid being crushed, GTA-style.

The picture above is a cute rice bowl I found outside a Quiznos in Itaewon. I’ll write about Itaewon later. Suffice to say, it’s a sketchy part of Seoul where all of the foreign soldiers and English teachers hang out. You can probably guess what goes on there.

If you are a foreigner, the taxi drivers automatically ask you if you are going to Itaewon. I think the Korean people are collectively trying to keep all undesirable, loud foreigners in one district as part of an ingenious ‘containment’ strategy. Having walked around Itaewon and observed the locals, I completely sympathize.

When I was preparing to come to Korea, my girlfriend told me that couples like to visit Namsan Tower to put padlocks on fences. At first, I thought the idea was kind of silly. Padlocks? But then, I looked into the details and realized it’s actually an ingenious marketing campaign to boost tourism in Korea and give locals the opportunity get a bird’s eye view of the city and have pride in their home.

Last night, I went clubbing at Club Octagon until 5:00a, fueled by energy drinks and coffee. I woke up at 11:00a with no hangover (thankfully) and joined my colleagues on a nice stroll through the city. We ended up at Gyeongbok Palace, a Chinese-style palace.

Later, we walked all the way back to Myeongdong and ultimately decided to visit the Namsan Tower.

The tower is actually only a few blocks south of the Ibis hotel in Myeongdong. However, reaching the tower is a multi-step process. First, you ride an elevator from the sidewalk to a parking lot. (An escalator would be more convenient.) From there, you have to climb several sets of stairs to buy tram tickets. The tram takes you to a deck surrounded by romantic French and Italian restaurants where you have to climb a steep set of stairs. Afterwards, there are more stairs and more tickets to buy to reach the observation deck. Koreans have truly mastered the art of ‘free to play’ and ‘microtransactions.’

Here’s the elevator to the parking lot. The other option was to walk up the hill. However, our feet were tired from exploring Seoul on foot.

I bought a lock. It was expensive due to people’s high WTP. However, you can’t put a price on love.

Here’s the tram from the lot to the tower. The lines were very long. You can also see Namsan Tower in the distance. At night, the tower lights up.

Here’s another picture of the crowd. The tram fits a lot of people and moves very fast. However, there are only two trams servicing thousands of tourists.

Here’s a view of Seoul from the tram. I was lucky enough to be smooshed against the window.

As you can see, the tram was very crowded.

Once we got off the tram, we had to climb more stairs. Our legs were killing us. Our feet were about to fall off. However, we were determined to make it to the top before the sunset.

There was a neat pavilion we passed by. As you can see in the picture, a lot of couples visit Namsan Tower.

This photo gives you an idea of just how many locks are in Namsan Tower. I estimate there are over 100,000 locks. Some of them were quite old and rusted. It’s good to know the custodians don’t periodically remove the locks.

Here’s a view of the city.

This sign tells people not to throw the keys off the deck and even goes so far as to mention the use of security cameras. There are special trash bins set up for people to toss their keys away.

Here’s me looking for an empty spot to place my lock. There weren’t any empty spots. However, I noticed that may new locks were placed on old locks, creating unbreakable chains of locks.

Here, I am hanging the lock. Thanks to Jens for taking this picture with his HDR-enabled iPhone 4S.

I ultimately placed my lock in front of the radio tower. If I ever come back to this lock, I will be able to see the sunset.

Here’s another shot of my lock.

There’s a display that explains the story of the locks. Damn, I should have invested my money in the lock industry. Can we set up one of these at the vista point in Tilden Park?

Here’s a far shot of the deck. There are locks everywhere! My yellow lock is not in this picture. But if you were to stand in my place and turn 90 degrees to the right, you’d see it. If I ever come back to Seoul, it’d be cool to try and hunt down my lock.