130709-10 Date in Seoul

ok, the team has a bad habit of doing everything last minute, but i don't. so when i heard the busan event was the coming weekend, i woke up everyday and work till late for my karma costume. but i figured out it was more worth it to go on a date then to keep staying home while i'm in korea, and i was still confident of finishing my stuff.

so my dear suggested that we go on a full day trip to seoul and stay over there at a themed hotel, and of cos i had to go along with it *_* tee hee~

we went to gwanghwamun since i wanted to try the famous samgaetang in the area. when we reached, it seems that there was some martial arts performance going on. they had the audience break the wooden planks... wooo..

then they did some kicking tricks... and there was no mistakes at all!

and the performance wrapped up with a photo taking session with the audience (of which was not that greatly received... whoops).

we then went just below king sejong's statue... there's actually a huge museum on hangeul and on korea's (or even the world's) greatest navy tactician, lee soon shin.

acks, couldn't get king sejong in my self-cam.

and so down we went into the basement into the world of hangeul~~

it was actually far better than i had expected... there's so many lcd panels displaying a myriad of things and the whole set up is really hi-tech and modern, i was shocked!

and then there's also the museum of the genius navy tactician, lee soon shin, who actually appeared in a drama i was then watching called the Gu Family Book 구가의 서.

and we examined what's inside the ship. oooh the contemplating shadow of 00 makes this scene looks like it's from a movie *_*

there's even a panel for you to take photos, add a message then add them to the pile that's already there. and then send the photo to your email.

we also went for a round of shipping battle game where you could shoot enemy ships or fire bombs at them. hoho

and here they showed video clips of how lee soon shin managed to overcome the formidable japanese army with his knowledge of the weather and the lands.

his surround ships tactic

after that we somehow went back to the hangeul place since there was sometime before the 4D movie starts and chanced upon the hangeul library.

and chairs made out of hangeul

on the far side of the hangeul place, there's also an astronomical circle and other displays

some models of the ancient instruments

and then it's back to our 4D theatre. it was a pretty good show, there's wind and water from the back of the seat as well. whooaaaa. this museum really rocks.

although i think 00's toothy grin is the funniest. i've never seen him make these kind of faces in photos. i had a good laugh >.<

and to end off the trip, i absolutely had to take a picture on the seat where king sejong sat. hurhur.

after the museum, we went to find our samgaetang! it was near exit 2 at gyeongbokgong station.

never expected it to have such a fine decor inside and outside... a really touristy place indeed!

their menu doubles up as a bill... neat!

we ordered samgaetang and ojgaetang (4th item from the left top), just to try a variety.

ojgaetang soup (bottom pic) tasted like it had brand's essence, and i totally loved it. the little cup of ginseng liquor, as they said, was supposed to be poured in the soup but i totally drank it raw. yeowwwch. and samgaetang as the rumor has it, is really delicious. the soup just tastes different from other samgaetangs i've had (not that i've had many). and i like the glutinous rice that's within the chicken. jjang!

after that we went over to times square, at yeongdeungpo, where i shopped like crazy, while 00 devil maker all he way =.= it was boring to look at things alone, but at least he waited very patiently. *muacks*

at night, we went over to our themed hotel. it's about 60k-120k a night, depending on the size of rooms you want, which is actually pretty cheap considering it doesn't matter how many people stayed in. 

oh, and i walked in the lobbies of I and F and it was different so i supposed each building had its own theme. but i was sure that every room is different. check out their site here.

we had the 80k room and it was huuuuge.

the only complaint i have is they probably didn't do a very good job at cleaning because i spotted hair stuck on the comb that's supposedly disposable... and the aircon looked like it was in the middle of being fixed since the cover was opened =_= otherwise, we had a pretty good sleep ^_^

and the next day, we checked out at 12 and had breakfast (well, that's what i'd call all the first meals i have...!) at tomstoms cafe, where they served corn pretzels and cheese toast.

it was all delicious, except it may be too much carbo for 2 person, especially since 00 didn't much like bread that much so i had to finish all the pretzels and 1/3 of the toast x.x at least there's ice red bean!

it was so-so actually. bleahs. continued shopping some more before we went back yongin for the day... oh by the way i wanted to get a light brown color for eyebrows and i think this is the best i've seen. if anyone goes to japan, help!!! it's so expensive in korea and singapore!

Day 3: Busan Comic World

woke up early to get ready to go bexco... but because there were still several things that were incomplete so we stayed till 1pm to finish up and check out.

the event was at bexco, a rather large convention centre. kind of like our suntec city in a way.

ready to be dressed~ i did quite a simple base make up for saber.

there isn't much photos that was taken because ta-sem was busy taking videos... so here it is~

i was actually quite disappointed that i had to go out with an unfinished sword. oh well... better next time... here's waky and me - waky looking crazy as usual. hahahha. i think he's the one who suffered the most, having to finish his costume till morning, and cosplaying the next day. then again, WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO BE SO LAST MINUTE... hmphhhhh!

cosplaying in korea is a new experience for me. firstly, they don't seem to welcome cosplayers that much. all cosplayers had to be registered, and you have to pay additional for entering. the money is used for clearing rubbish at the end of the day since cosplayers generate quite a lot of rubbish. tsk. however, they set up a pretty decent dressing room for us, so that's not so bad.

in busan, or rather in korea, there's not a lot of armoured cosplayers so passers by were pretty much awed by our berserker and shiny saber.

i watched a bit of the competition and most involved fighting. and they are all pretty good!!

we left about 5+ for dinner afterwards. in fact, we had to take the bus back to yong-in but because i didn't get to sightsee much i chose to stay another day and skip school xD in the end, all of us except jooa stayed because there was no seats left for the bus back... we had dinner at the interchange anyway, where their oden is pretty delicious.

then we checked in at a nearby motel - ta-sem and waky are pretty much dried out so they retired early for the day.

however since the night was still young, me and sy went over to the shopping district as well as the yeungdeungpo festival. just in time for the last day!

it's actually lantern displays, and we sort of had it at our chinese garden every year. it wasn't as big and as impressive as mentioned (or maybe cos it was the last day?) but it was still pretty nice.

we then went up to the busan tower since there's not much to do there! see the bulding at the back? that's lotte mall, where we will be heading next for shopping.

before we headed off, there was a heart-shaped seat so i dragged 00 to take a pic with me. hohohoh. but it was so bright so we can't really be seen properly. oh well.

and then it's off to the shopping street!

samsung even has their own clothes and fashion... wow.

there seemed to be some festival going on which was in the middle of being cleaned up when we reached. oh well.

look! my shop!

within the mall itself there was some nice metallic cut-outs on display so i took a picture of it as well. laser cuts are not only trendy in fashion, but in buildings and displays too!

we took the train back to our motel, since it cost us almost 20-30k just to take the taxi... never believe the koreans when they say it's near. tsk.