Seoul First Impressions: A Shock to the System

Seoul, welcome! After months, something different. A new country. It felt like appropriate timing in all honesty. Japan was incredible, but we were ready for new adventures. I think I underestimated just how comfortable I had become there, though.

Truthfully, I know very little about South Korea. That has been on full display over the past fifteen hours or so. I forget in just how much depth I became familiar with Japan before arriving. I understood far more nuance, and I think it has taken being away from that environment to really appreciate that.

Granted, I just got here—hence, first impressions—but Seoul has been far less familiar to Japan than I’d anticipated. Pretty much everything feels just one degree removed. I think that slight, but important differences are harder to adjust to than large and obvious ones. When I walk into the convenience stores here, they are laid out in a similar way, with similar items, and the same facilities. Yet, the prices all have an extra zero, the aisles are more cramped, and filled with slightly different colours of cup noodles. When I walk up to the counter, I suddenly realise I don’t know how to speak this language, nor can I read the words. I accidentally start blurting out onegaishimasu, turning my frantic effort to communicate politeness into something closer to offense.

In some respects, everything feels alien again. I’d become complacent. I had taken three months of experience and immersion and effort for granted. Here, it feels like I’m back to square one.

As I ran along the Han River this morning, I saw cherry blossoms in the park, but, at the same time, the view across the water was a strange, modern dystopia, shrouded in a thick smoke haze. I hadn’t really experienced poor air quality up until this point—ever, really. Not a fan. Robotic-looking, copy-and-paste apartments blocks dominate the skyline in many directions. The way they each have emblazoned numbers on their side reminds me of my brief time in Singapore.

It isn’t as though I don’t like it. In fact, I feel incredibly excited. I want to soak it all up and experience everything this city has to offer. But I won’t get to the same depths as I did in Japan.

South Korea is different, in a fascinating, but also scary way. Our time here is incredibly fleeting, but I’m keen to try and understand. Being an ignorant tourist isn’t the worst thing. We’ll see how it goes.