I knew virtually nothing a week before going to visit

So the one thing I did was to take a look at Google Maps and scope out the place from the air and the streets

One thing I noticed was the clusters of residential apartment buildings

I also saw some beautiful mountains surrounding the city and a huge river

Since I knew zero about Seoul, I put the word out on the social medias and some kind people agreed to show me around

so here's what I experienced during my one evening, two days and one morning in Seoul.

And by the way,

I was going to make this a

Chronological video, which it'll kind of be... But I'm going to seriously get sidetracked and jump back and forth in time throughout the whole thing

It'll be fine

But we have to start somewhere, so how about at the amazing [ Incheon ] airport

Yeah, I'm using Google Translate for all the Korean names because well, I'm guessing he's better than I am. Google Translate: [ Incheon ]

I couldn't really ask for much more of the airport; beautiful, clean, spacious, modern

Everything from immigration, to picking up luggage, to exchanging cash, to getting Wi-Fi was easy

Although I did get dinged like five percent on the exchange

Finding where the trains were was simple and my next task was to get some t-money

No, no not this guy. These guys

once in my hands

I loaded it up at the kiosk and was ready to ride on the public transportation or buy some stuff at the convenience stores

The train system was fantastic

It's quite affordable, especially in comparison to fares around Tokyo, for example

Getting into the heart of Seoul from the airport cost me four thousand one hundred and fifty won using the A'REX all stop train

Which sounds like a lot--but it's really about four U.S. Dollars. Okay quick pause here

I'll mention money a few times

The quick and dirty way to figure out how much Korean currency is in US dollars is to divide the number by one thousand

Yes one zero zero zero, one thousand. So if you have five thousand won, that'd be five dollars

Okay back to trains

Anyone who has traveled Seoul knows that it's about an hour commute to the heart of the city from the main International Airport

Along my ride in, what caught my attention right away was the roads

the width of the roads were a lot more similar to what I saw on my visits to the US and to what I was

used to in Japan

For example, let's pause it here. That's ten lanes in total in Japan the biggest expressways

I've seen have six. While usually there are only four: two lanes going one way, two lanes going the other

All right. So that's the highways, or expressways-- or whatever you call them

The local roads were even more noticeable to me.

In Tokyo, you can find some eight laners every once in a while

But the design usually includes a median, more likely it's a 2 or 4 laner

Honestly, some of the streets in Seoul reminded me a lot of some found in Vancouver in Canada

And also like some cities I visited in the United States

Anyways to sum it up: coming from Tokyo, I noticed that there were bigger roads and more cars in Seoul

When I got more into the city, the train went underground and well the underground is boring footage

So let's just skip forward to getting out and about at night

Now, the point of my trip wasn't to go and party or do the tourist stuff. But because of what I needed to film

Which was not actually this video

I ended up staying in the university area of Hongdae where I'm told the young people like to let loose

Here, check this photo out:

Notice anything? My wife did.

Arm holding

After she clued me in, I opened my eyes and saw there were public displays of affection all over the place

yep, PDA all over Seoul

Now depending on where you're from. This may be mild or tame, but coming from Japan

This seemed wild, absolutely wild. Anyhoo-- nice park, fun atmosphere

Lots of people enjoying a night out with friends and lovers

I was getting hungry and needed a bite to eat. Since my only friend in Korea ditched me.

Thanks T

Just joking, wedding anniversaries are important things.

I had to try and solve my hunger issue all by my lonesome.

I decided to limit my risk and pick a place with picture menus.

Now I heard Koreans were fairly decent at English and I was in a university part of town

So I decided to simply say the name of the menu item:

Number one, aged beef steak.

What I got back was a blank stare ( laughs )

But hey, that's why the picture menu so I pointed at it and it was all good

I did do a couple hours of language study. But out of all that time

The only thing I can say was [ Kamsahamnida ], which I think means. Thanks

But who knows if any Koreans understood me when I'd mutter it. I know you're wondering.

No, I don't think it was the number one aged beef steak in Seoul

But I will say that within that building-- sure I'll give them that

After eating, I went to some different areas

These much more party like. I noticed so many things but to keep this video from going off the rails

I'll just talk about one of them right now

street food and street vendors

It was a nice atmosphere and so much stuff that you could easily buy while walking the streets.

Come to think of it,

I only ever filmed people getting it. I didn't actually try any myself, but I'm sure it was all good

Okay off to bed.

I woke up and during the day I did the thing that I came to Seoul to do

So we're gonna skip right to the night, where I did have some locals to show me the ropes. First stop was Korean BBQ

Alcohol and meat, sounds like a fun time

Yeah... I've got that whole Asian flush thing.

What? You've never heard of it?

Thanks to my DNA

Alcohol makes my skin turn red

It's called Asian flush and it affects about 36 percent of North East Asians with higher rates among Asian Americans

Yep, so no drinks for me, but it was fun to watch

The meat on the other hand, was great . It's the perfect thing for those of us on the low-carb diet

Now I've been to Korean barbecue in Canada as well as in Japan, but it's fun to experience the real thing in Korea

Of course Korean food in Korea is good

After that I was going to go home but somehow another friend joined and I was off to a pub inspired by old-school Korea

The ladies prepared [ Makgeolli ], which is an unfiltered rice wine

You can see how it's cloudy. Since this is an old-school bar

They used these golden bowls, which is reminiscent of what was used over a half-century ago

And because you had [ Makgeolli ], you also need to get [ Pajeon ] which is a savory pancake

There was also [ Naengmyun ] which are thin chewy noodles in a cold vinegary broth

Of course, the ever useful scissors were used again. The food? All good

I had to try a bit of [ Makgeolli ], Asian flush or not.

[ Geonbae / 건배 = Cheers ]

Okay, good morning. I showed up earlier than when I was to meet a couple fine folks. But really, kids to my eyes

So I decided to take a stroll through the enticing gates at [ Deoksugung ]

I had a chance encounter with this group. This was the changing of royal guards by the way

I found it quite fortuitous, as it seems they had an eager following. To get my shots

I didn't even have to run around like a groupie, lucky me

Another type of group I encountered were students, some of them were having discussions in English

So I'm assuming they were from the United States coming for culture studies. That'd be a cool experience for a Korean-American

I believe most students were coming from within Korea though and in case not a bad field trip to take

After leaving the palace gates I met up with my first set of tour guides Jonas and [ Yeon Joo ]* *I hope this is right... if not, I'm sorry.

I was expecting to solely go by subway and foot, but instead I was told that taxi would be the best way to quickly get where

We were going

taxis in Tokyo can be pricey so it was welcome news to her that taxis in Seoul are quite affordable starting at

3,000 won for the first two kilometers

Where we headed to was an area in [ Nakwon-Dong ], it's full of small little alleyways and chic restaurants.

Apparently it's not a foreign tourist hotspot quite yet, but it is popular among the locals

It's taken an old area and made it hip with stylish cafes and shops

And then there was time for lunch

No, we didn't eat at this shop, which is making [ Mandu ]. We went to the more geriatric area just a few blocks over

That's where I noticed this. I was pretty sure what was going on but I had to ask to confirm

Yep, this random stuff on the road was saving parking spots

In fact,

I had encountered scenes like this in my first night in the city

Kind of like how someone in Philadelphia will call savesies after they shovel the snow away

Except in Seoul this seems to be happening without snow

But back to our meal,

I'll let one of my tour guides, [ Yeon Joo ] explain what we are about to eat.

Okay, so this is cold noodle ( naengmyun )

There's two versions, with broth and no broth. We got the one with the broth.

And this has vinegar and pork flavour

Usually it's really chewy, so you have to chop it up with the scissors before you eat it.

Koreans do the cross like this-- one way this, and one way this ( cutting noodles vertically and horizontally )

This is mandu.

I think it's the same, equivalent to gyoza in Japan... But this is a steamed one.

This one is kimbap

It's similar to sushi rolls. Like maki.

Pickled radish, and... what do you call,

Some green salad and the most famous Korean dish kimchi fermented cabbage

Next on the itinerary was going back to the west side of town to [ Mangwon-Dong ]

Now we're standing at the entrance

To the Mangwon market and this is close to the World Cup stadium

So like until 3-4 years ago, one celebrity ,

They put this area on his show

This place was quite bad

but he revived this place and the market get famous with a lot of foods and like, snacks.

So a lot of people visit during weekends with--for dates or family

I was told this market was made by the Japanese, way back when. It makes sense as the overhead structure is very similar to what

I've seen in Japan

For example, this is an arcade in Asakusa in Tokyo

However, the atmosphere is completely different. Whereas in Japan vendors sell their wares mostly in shops

You can see here that the goods really bleed into the streets

Reminds me a bit of the shops I'd see in Chinatowns

Some vendors will be selling directly from the farm. So it's kind of a farmers market as well

This store is where they sell kimchi, the most famous Korean food-- And they also have salted

Side dishes (banchan) that you can eat. Everything, they put in gochujang, which is the red paste

that all the Korean dishes use and they put salt, soy sauce, everything and you eat (banchan) with some rice. And it's really good

Korean people love to eat with their dishes

One of the things that visitors writing about the area seem to do is try and sample the large variety of food along the way

I did partake in a few samples, but I was so busy filming and had only so many hours in the day

So I sadly didn't take too much time to stop and taste everything

I'd recommend spending more than 30 minutes that I did and to come with an empty stomach

Despite some taxi rides

I did find myself traveling on the Seoul metro system again. I found it quite easy to navigate

The main system in Seoul proper is Seoul metro, which has nine color-coded lines.

Every time you get on the metro. It's only 1,250 won with the t-money card for up to ten kilometers, which is incredibly cheap at just over one US dollar

Every station I visited had protective walls

Which was very nice to see, in Tokyo many stations don't have this and every year there are many accidental deaths

One thing that was hard for me not to notice, was the relief goods storage area and the smoke masks

on some of the video streams

They also had a depiction of what to do in the case of emergency like a fire in the train

I had heard that the trains can be loud with people talking-- and yes, people do talk on their phones at times, but it's much

More quiet and orderly than public transit I've taken in Vancouver and out of the five or six trains

I caught, volume levels didn't seem that drastically different from those in Tokyo trains

Although I will say the Seoul metro system has way more video screens

Now I really wanted to see inside different types of housing while in Seoul, I'm a creeper what can I say.

But seriously, it's something that a tourist wouldn't get the chance to do and I wanted to be more like a local

I totally failed in this regard, but I did get to know a little bit about the different types of housing

That's because my next local guide, Peter who's an architect, was able to share a few things with me

These buildings our office-tels which are rooms that you can rent for business

But that also have amenities like a small kitchenette so that some people actually end up also living where they work

Besides them and perhaps hard to distinguish, are the regular housing

This area is really close to the old palace walls

so right after you get past the skyscrapers you get these little houses crammed on a hill.

You may have noticed that some of these are falling apart. Why is that ?

I was told that some of these types of areas were redeveloped into clusters of skyscrapers