White Day in Korea: Cafe Slobbie + Snow Queen, Hongdae, Seoul, 14 March 2013

I've always heard about White Day that's celebrated in Japan and Korea. Basically, Valentine's Day (14 Feb) is where the girls give boys sweet stuff and on White Day, the boys give girls sweet stuff in return. Javin and I managed to catch White Day in Seoul in our first few weeks there and it really is quite a big deal here. You see couples EVERYWHERE and girls are all holding flowers/candy/chocolate/others (please state). Koreans are really into these couple things and the idea of love. Like the really romantic and sweet fairytale type of love. You can tell from their dramas.

We went to Hongdae and had dinner at Slobbie, a restaurant that promotes healthy local slow food. Please google "slow food" because I'm not an expert on it. They serve vegan/vegetarian options in meat-is-everywhere Seoul, so it was great for us. The deco is nice and the food was not bad. Not spectacular or outstanding, but simple and homely, if you get what I mean.

After dinner we took a walk around Hongdae. Hongdae slowly became my favourite place to hang out with Javin after school or on weekends during our short stint in Seoul. In the pictures you'll see my favourite street snack (don't know how many times I've said this already) literally called 'egg bread', overpriced egg tarts (kaya toast is seriously overpriced here too), the famous playground from the drama 'Mary Stayed Out All Night' which was a bad drama that I never finished after a few episodes and this classy restaurant/bar that had pretty lights on bald trees (it was winter).

Dessert at Snow Queen to end the day.

Shopping in Seoul

I am always getting questions about where to shop in Seoul, so I considered doing a post about it for the benefit of whoever might need it. I decided to write this post today because I was just browsing online Korean shops and I'm in the mood to talk about shopping!

I did most of my shopping online while I was in Seoul because it's cheaper and way too convenient, but will talk about four places I have gone to for actual physical shopping. All pictures are not mine and are taken from visitkorea unless otherwise stated because I didn't take pictures while I was shopping.

1. Dongdaemun

Ah Dongdaemun. The first place everyone thinks of when it comes to shopping in Seoul. It's a whole area of shopping centres (think copies of Bangkok's Platinum) that is bustling with people even after midnight. Most of the shopping centres that I like are open from about 10 pm to 4 am, so I would only recommend DDM to people who have the time and energy to go shopping during such late hours.

This is the most useful map I could find, from daodaodao.com

Forget Doota and Good Morning City. They're overpriced and I can find some of Good Morning City stuff online at half the price. The shopping centres I like are wholesale shopping centres congregated near Dongdaemun History and Culture Park station Exit 2 (head right after exiting, see map above).

For sunglasses, spectacles, bags and caps,

NUZZON (뉴존 in Korean if you want to google map it)

NUZZON is also awesome for guys' clothing, but not so much for the ladies.

For ladies' clothing,

U:US

It's opposite NUZZON and has really really beautiful clothes but the first and last time I went there I couldn't get anything because all of the shops I went into told me that they were wholesalers and only took large orders ): It's still worth a try though, because my blogshop bosses managed to buy some pieces there when they came to Seoul!

apM and apM Luxe (very near apM)

They have stuff like U:US too, but are more open to individual shopping as compared to U:US from my experience.

Note: clothing price ranges from 20 to 30 SGD but the designs are really gorgeous and the quality is good compared to what you typically find in Platinum in Bangkok and Argyle Center in Hong Kong

For ladies' shoes,

Designer's Club has a decent selection, but for most of the shops you have to order before 2 am or so (do ask) and collect your shoes at about 3 am.

For the guys,

NUZZON and apM has pretty good stuff. I'm not sure about apM Luxe because I didn't check out the guys' stuff while I was there though.

2. Hongdae

This is the main shopping area

I like going to Hongdae because besides the shopping, there is a lot of good food to choose from. There are also youths busking around the area, usually during weekend nights. So the feel is the best among all the four places. To get there, take Exit 9 of Hongik Univcrsity Station. Go straight and take the second right. Keep walking and you'll see the stretch of shops.

3. Edae

Edae is where the famous Ewha Women's University is located. There are a decent number of shops, but I find that Hongdae has a better variety and the clothes are nicer. Ewha University Station, Exit 2.

4. Gangnam Underground Shopping Arcade

Not a lot of people know about this place, but it's not bad! The prices are lower than those found in Hongdae and Edae, but the the ambience isn't as good as the other two. It's easy to find items for about 11 SGD each and for sale items, prices can get as low as about 6 SGD. I got a neon pink skirt for 11 SGD and earrings for slightly over 1 SGD each. It's crazy crowded on weekend afternoons though, so it's best to go on a weekday.

The arcade is located at Express Bus Terminal Station, Exit 8.

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Shopping is one of the things I really love about Seoul. Seoulites' dressing and make-up is quite different from that of Singaporeans (and probably from the rest of the world). It's normal to dress up even for school (heels are everywhere) with just-stepped-out-of-the-salon hair and a significant amount of makeup on. Even the guys dress up. Singaporeans are much more casually dressed, but in defense of our country, I guess it's just not in our culture, plus the hot weather dampens any mood to dress up so most would just opt for comfort.