I'm glad I'm not stylish...in Korea.

Wherever you go in the world, you're going to see people and music which reflect that specific culture. So I want to tell you about the things that I have overlooked while I've been here. I want to start with fashion. A few weeks ago we went to the market. I did not need any clothes since I have not been here long, but Mike, Joel and Dave needed some stuff and I'm always up for something.




As you can tell, it's not the kind of place where you could get nice clothing. They had a lot of used clothes, old electronics and some really creepy pornography. We could not find anything that we wanted, so we decided to sit and get a bite to eat. It was there that we ate some gross quail and some pretty odd pig's head. (You eat the skin off the face.) After that "wonderful" meal Dave, Mike and Joel still needed some new clothes and were not ready to give up yet, so we decided to walk to the mall. I hate malls so much. In fact, the last time I was in a mall was with Uncle John in Cincinnati when he was looking for a phone charger. I even commented that I hoped I wouldn't be in a mall for a year. I don't think he likes them either. So we walked down the road. The area we were in in called Dangdae-mun. It is a huge market district. Major markets, like Namdae-mun and Dangdae-mun, provide another place for Korean food as well -some of which I had never seen or heard of before. I had trouble identifying much of it.

I have never been stylish and neither have my friends. We're happy dressing the same way we have since middle-school: khakis, solid polo's and that's about it. Sure, I wear tye-dye's, shorts and sandals from time to time, but that's not stylish by any means. I know we didn't live in a big city, but still. This is a picture of us during Spring of 2004.

Both South Korea and Japan are somewhat of a beacon of fashion in Asia. From what I've read, the Chinese youth and older frantically try to keep up with South Korean fashion. They buy posters and shop at South Korean stores in China in hopes of looking as "cool" as the people here. I do not think they look very "cool" here, but I'm not into fashion or Korean, so what do I know. There are tons of models here from all over the world (especially Russia) and there is not a huge difference between the fashion you see models sporting and what the people wear. The college-aged and twenty-somethings are the ones who are typically setting or following the trends very closely. The Japanese and Koreans dress very similarly and both countries seem to share fashion ideas and styles. Just like at home, pop stars influence styles heavily and start all sorts of awful fashions.

This is a trend that is slowly moving its way to Korea. I have not seen it yet, but it is apparently real big in Japan and seems to be doing well here. I think Japan might put up with a lot more than here. I assume the women would not be able to dress like this if they still lived at home. Personally, I don't mind it too much, but I wouldn't really want to see my wife or daughter in the outfit.

This is a pretty typical sight in Japan, but it's all over the place here. If you want me to pick up anything you see on this post, just let me know and I'll put it in the mail.

I put these two pictures next to each other to show that all the fashion is not odd. The girls on the left reflect a more typical Korean fashion, but the two on the right are right up there. If you are married, you will probably dress more like the ladies on the left. Age is a factor as well.

So we left the market (which was located in an old baseball stadium) and walked to the mall. We passed people selling everything imaginable. Piles of clothes, shoes, sunglasses, wallets and hats were on both sides of us. We stopped at one place to check out the shirts. In the middle of the piles was man selling the clothes. He was shouting like he was an auctioneer. The clothes were all awful though. So we arrived at the mall and it was so different from those at home. Instead of individual stores, there were just salespeople standing in front of their small display that might have two manikins (sp?). The clothes had pockets all over them, big letters and usually had English written on them. Of course, the English didn't make any sense. It would say things like, "I'm off to island, so bad you?" and "Don't talk to me if you're hungry." I'm serious, those are two that I can remember. It seems like they could find someone to proof-read them before they go out. So the guys and girls have interesting fashion and it's not like home where there's a lot of variation, in most cases they all dress the same.

I will not buy the clothing here. It's just not me. Besides, would you really want to see me in some of those outfits?

I know that this wasn't the most interesting post, but I figured you guys should get to see what I have to see everyday. Also, I'm trying to set up the blog so I can post videos on here. I'm in the process of doing it, so be patient. When I get that set up, I will address the music, or as it's called here, K-Pop.

Honestly, I do know anything about fashion, so who knows what's trendy...