Korea [韓国] (Daniel)

Korea [韓国] (Daniel)

Beside Japan, Hippo Family Club also has a division in Korea, based in Seoul. Being the wonderful company that it is, Hippo Japan sent me to Hippo Korea to participate in a upcoming camp for exchange students.

At the airport in Korea, I was met by Guri-Guri-san, a Japanese Hippo member currently in Korea through WIP [World Internship Project]. He asked me what I wanted to do first, and I promptly replied; "I want to go to GUNGNAM!"

You see, I've always thought it would be cool to dance Gungnam Style in Gungnam-gu, a very fancy district of Seoul.

With that, we were off to Gungnam-gu, where I danced Gungnam in Gungnam.

I'm sure everyone knows about PSY and his world-famous Gungnam Style song and dance. But, my parents also read this blog and I don't think they know. So, the following video is for you, Mom and Dad:

Now, I have my own Gungnam Style video!

Aside from Gungdam-ing in Gungdam, I had fun just looking around and making observations of Seoul and the Korean people.

I thought Korea was going to look like a mini-Japan, since Korea was colonized by the Japanese until the 1940's. Well, the airport, Gangnum, and the center of Seoul did resemble Japan a bit. But as soon as I left the city and went into the suburbs - the environment was completely different! Seoul has more trees than Tokyo and tons of identical high-rise apartment buildings that make it look kinda like Russia.

Another thing I found interesting was the amount of churches. Churches everywhere! And they are easily identifiable by their tall steeples with crosses that glow in red or white at night. You can count multiple crosses from anywhere in Seoul, and I remember once counting 8 from a certain point where I was standing.

Lastly, I enjoyed the large amount of advertisements that used Korean pop stars to lure bait. K-pop is a huge industry, quite popular in the US as well as Japan. K-Pop stars can really sell.

I remember seeing the above ad and was almost convinced to by some DUN.SUM.COOL -- just so that I could feel like "part of the band..."  "

Spending time in Korea was great, and I'm very happy for the experience. I'll write more about my Korean adventure in upcoming posts...