Trip to Korea - Day 1 (Seoul, JunoHair, Garden5 Mall and Lotte Tower)

After being married to a Korean woman for 3 years and being together 13 years, it was time for me to finally visit Korea. Originally I came to Canada from Russia and my wife came from Korea (South Korea, of course). She has never visited Russia, but my mother came to Canada one time before, and my wife's parents also came to Canada recently.

The main goal of the trip was to visit the parents and to see Korea.

I have never been to Asia before.

Table of Content

• The Flight and Arrival
• The Way From Yeoju to Seoul
• Seoul
• JunoHair
• Garden5 Mall
• Lotte Tower
• YouTube Video
• Relevant Links
• Conclusion
• First Impressions and Key Differences (Korea vs Canada)

The Flight and Arrival

The flight started with a fight

Lucky for us, we don't live far from Toronto Pearson International Airport, so getting there, checking in, and boarding wasn't technically an issue. The issue was my mood, but  I managed to resolve my internal struggles, and we successfully departed while praying to god.

We are on the plane

The flight is tough, 14 hours, but the food on Korean Air was pretty good. They offered some alcohol, but I prefer not to drink on such long flights to make sure I make it to the end in one piece.

Dolsot Bibimbap (돌솥비빔밥)

A while ago, I took long train trips in Russia, but then you could sleep most of the time, and there was much more personal space, so this long flight wasn't easy for me. Plus, a woman sitting next to us was constantly coughing; however, we, and most people there, were wearing masks.

After the arrival, we went through customs relativelly quick as Canadians don't require a visa when coming to Korea.

Our line was the one for foreigners because my wife is also Canadian

Incheon International Airport reminded me of Pearson in Toronto, although they're all a bit similar. No need to say that everything in the airport is modern, clean and well-organized.

We are getting out to catch a cab

Before leaving, we got an e-sim there and had no problems activating and using it.

Our way to Yeoju from Incheon took around 1.5 hours by taxi

For me, it was always fascinating to see how Koreans build condominiums, one by one and all identical if it's the same builder. It looks surreal at night.

Parents prepared dinner for us at home.

Korean homemade food (and even food outside) is very healthy

We also were carrying quite a few Canadian gifts for Jiyul's (my wife's) friends. Koreans love and respect everything American, while the rest of the world respects everything made in Korea.

Some of the gifts (at the top) are made in Russia

The next day, we had two main plans in Seoul with Jiyul's friend:

1. Jiyul wanted to do her hair at JunoHair
2. We wanted to visit the Lottle Tower

It was time to go to bed.

The Way From Yeoju to Seoul

It's not an easy way

Yeoju is a city south-east of Seoul.

It's in the middle of the country

The population is just 114,750 people as of September 2024, yet it has quite a few important historical sites which we will visit later. My wife's parents moved there because the previous place where they lived had nothing around; they couldn't even go for a walk.

The way from Yeoju to Seoul involves at least 3 steps:

1. Get to the Yeoju subway station
2. Get to Seoul by subway
3. Get to the final destination in Seoul in our friend's car, luckily

Jiyul's father gave us a ride to the Yeoju subway station

I got a T-Money card, the card that Koreans use on the subway and other public transportation, and generally had no issues paying for the commute. Everything is automated; you just tap, same as everywhere these days.

Wearing masks in the winter helps to stay warm

Korean subway was clean, fast and organized, same as everything in Korea.

We had to get out at Imae station

It was pretty cold in Korea in January. Honestly, felt even colder than in Canada.

Seoul

No time to enjoy, too cold

We just arrived in Seoul, and I finally saw a piece of real Korea.

A lot of signs with different fonts, exactly as I imagined

We didn't have much time to look around as our friend was supposed to pick us up soon. The friend, Eun-nyoung, arrived fast and picked us up right there.

Huge thanks to her, as we would suffer a lot without a car

We briefly visited her place (which can be seen in our YouTube video) and headed to JunoHair. We are not really going to explore Seoul today. We'll only visit one neighbourhood.

JunoHair

Fancy Korean hair salon

Somehow, my wife wanted to go to a proper Korean hair salon, as she explained that only Korean hairdressers know how to deal with Korean hair. I wouldn't know anything about it, but whatever my wife wants to do, I am supporting.

JunoHair is a famous franchise chain with many locations.

The address: South Korea, Seoul, Songpa District, Beobwon-ro, 55

The place looks fancy, not Supercuts, but I guess Canada also has places like that.

Preparation

While waiting for the procedure to be done (it takes 5 hours!), Jiul's friend and I went for a walk to explore the neighbourhood. We stopped by Daiso, which is like Korean Dollarama.

A gift for my ma, who collects owls

As it was cold to walk outside, we went into the Garden5 Mall located nearby.

The final result in terms of the hair was this:

It wasn't cheap

The hairdresser, who also happens to be the owner of the place, gave us additional products as a gift and asked us to come there again when we come to Korea.

Garden5 Mall

While we are waiting

This is an average-sized mall with a couple of floors to explore.

There were a few slides for kids inside

We had a bite at Flair.B cafe to recharge and went through the place. To be honest, I am not a big fan of exploring malls, but still, it was interesting to see if there are any differences between Korea and Canada. I didn't find that many; the malls are pretty similar everywhere.

We should have ordered more at that time

The only interesting fact for me was that the cafe's payment system was from Hyundai, and the whole mall, it appears, was owned by the Hyundai corporation.

This is the payment system

These big corporations (Chaebols) own a lot in Korea and are involved in many industries (not only manufacturing their main product), including real estate, medical, finance, IT, etc.

Another interesting observation was that the air quality on that day was pretty decent, and overall, in my whole trip, the air in Seoul and Yeoju was good, but we did get a lot of warnings (text messages), 3-5 times a day, about the air quality, so that's still a big issue in Korea.

We stopped by a grocery store where I found Canada Dry:

I was looking for Canadian products, but couldn't find much else

We also really enjoyed these noodles:

The woman was making them right there

I don't think that those are very special noodles. I guess the fact that they were freshly made and we were hungry were the main reasons why we enjoyed them. They were also very spicy, and I liked that.

Lotte Tower

A must-visit place

Lotte World Tower is the tallest building in Korea, and that's where many tourists go to get a good look at Seoul. Getting there by car wasn't perfectly simple. We had to stay in a few traffic jams and go down countless levels in the mall to find a spot.

Although we were able to make it to the top before sunset.

The view is great, but it could be a bit better if not for the clouds/smoke

There was a huge lineup on that day, which was a bit frustrating, but I will try not to complain. It's a huge city, and it is what it is. This tower is located in a huge mall called Lotte World Mall, and people come there not only for the tower but to shop and chill as well.

We had to take that photo

There is also a spot where you walk on the transparent glass and can see the ground down below. Can't help but compare, but the overall experience reminded me of the CN Tower in Toronto.

Finally, we stopped by a Mipojip seafood restaurant at 300 Olympic-ro.

A huge selection of seafood

I really appreciate the food, but at that point, we were so tired, so we only wanted to get home and sleep and couldn't properly appreciate the variety of the food.

YouTube Video

See more in the video

Here is our YouTube video about the first day:

Trip to Korea - Day 1 | Seoul | JunoHair, Garden5 Mall and Lotte Tower

We have a series of 8 videos from Korea on our YouTube channel.

Relevant Links

What was mentioned in the article

Here is the list of relevant links:

1. JunoHair: https://www.junohair.com/
2. Lotte Tower: https://seoulsky.lotteworld.com/

Everything else is really big companies or well-known places.

Conclusion

Final Thoughts

Being married to a Korean woman and being together with her for 13 years gives me my own understanding of Korea every day (for example, I listen to Korean every day and eat Korean food a lot). When I actually came to the country, it wasn't something really out of the ordinary for me, maybe because of my wife, maybe because Korea is a very developed, westernized country and doesn't really differ from Canada in many ways.

First Impressions and Key Differences (Korea vs Canada)

1. Korea is cleaner overall, especially Seoul vs Toronto
2. Almost no homeless or addicts on the streets
3. People dress really well and care about their look more than in Toronto
4. "The look" is more standardized and more brand-focused, rather than "being different" or "cool" in a way among some Canadians. Many Koreans compete in being more "on the point" or "in trend", rather than trying to be cool by being different and denying the mainstream, like some people do in Western countries. When many Koreans were wearing fleece, this trend came to Canada only in 3-4 months. Not that I am fashion/brand obsessed, but just something I noticed.
5. Almost no foreigners in Korea. My wife told me that most of them are in specific neighbourhoods (Itaewon and Hannam-dong), but I haven't seen many. 95-99% of people in Korea are ethnic Koreans, which is very different from Canada.
6. People are more organized publicly. I mean that they line up properly in the subway, wait for their turn, yell a bit less in public places, etc.
7. Prices are similar to those in Canada. Restaurants are cheaper in Korea, but groceries in Korea are a bit more expensive.

Overall, this is just the beginning of the trip, and I am too tired to make any serious conclusions.