Korea again, but this time SM town!

So, stress, stress, and more stress is the name of the game. So to take a reprieve from all the hell that is now my life I went to Korea. The land of cute things, fashion, beautiful scenery, k-pop, and damn delicious food. I spent five days this time with it all ending with a trip to the SM TOWN family concert in Seoul. Arrived on a Wednesday afternoon after a short flight from Kyushu, Japan to Seoul via Asiana airlines. Turbulent as hell but for an hour flight they did give me a full lunch. I can't complain too much.

Red velvet cupcakes!!!

Day 1: Arrived at Incheon and rode the fabulous train system straight into main Seoul. I actually like the Seoul rail lines better than Japan. Super cheap. I recommend getting a T-card from the ticket booths or conbini's that way you don't have to keep buying the temporary cards and exchanging them. You can just hop from one train to another quickly. Went to our hostel a place called Shinchon Hostel. Nice place, they spoke lots of languages so it was easy to communicate. Room was clean staff was friendly and we headed out to the surrounding area. We were near ewha's women's college so there were many cute shops and interesting place to go. We did a bit of shopping and found this amazingly cute little cupcake shop on the main street. We  also got dinner at a local place with a nice local vibe and customers.

Day 2: We explored more of the area around and took the local train to hongik university area. There was lots of art and we visited a local art school that produces its own pop art merchandise. Bought some really cool screen printed things. I really enjoyed all the art in this area. Apparently some of the art was even featured in dramas that I have not seen. I spent a lot of time walking around and visiting small areas. I went to corso 10 cosmo and a designer clothes botique. Got to see the crazy lady gaga shoes where you have to walk on your tip-toes too.

Day 3: It was all shopping! myeongdong and dondemon for the win. This day we changed hostels to a guesthouse. Haemil hanok was an amazing little traditional korean house with the nicest owners ever. It was located near Anguk station. I got a bit lost and asked some random people for help were the owner of the hostel came and found me on the main road. He led us to the hostel and made us delicious food. We booked the deluxe room  and had plenty of room to spare. The private bath and cute room decorations were awesome. Super helpful and kind people run this place. I went to the fubu store which had new pictures of TOP to drool over and I picked up a new sweater. Went to BSK and got new shirts. I think I bought about 5kilos of facial products. Overall nice day, I went back exhausted.
Day 4: Sightseeing. Went to Seoul tower where I was jealous of all the couples and there locks. Couples lock the lock on the tree to signify they will be together forever. Went to the top and laughed when I saw the 10,000+ km to Chicago sign. You can take the cable car to the top and then a separate elevator to the top. After the tower we went to an art museum that had giant spiders outside of it. Took pictures and ran into a takaki murakami statue. Got Vietnamese food for dinner and hung out along the river walk in the middle of Seoul. Very beautiful and relaxing.
Day 5: Concert day!!! Doors didn't open until 4:00 so we went sightseeing in the traditional village near Anguk station. There's a really pleasant walking course that we followed and we could see many cool little museums. We met the official knot maker of Korea. Any time a drama, the emperor, or real traditional art is needed this women was the artist. She showed us giant cases with beautiful accessories that must have cost a fortune to make. We also saw all of the old houses, you can't enter because people are still living there! After we went to a duty free shop in gwanghyamun and saw the large gold statue of King Sejong and the palace in the back ground. We happened to run into the changing of the guards and watched their procession. A last minute decision left us running to go to Coex to see the sm.art exhibtion at coex station. We arrived at sm.art and walked around viewing what there was to see. first was a virtual runway. It looked like the artists were walking down a large road. There was the genie dance camera, where you can make it look like you are dancing with your favorite artists. Overall it was very fangirly but over all a guilty pleasure. Lots of star handprints, purikura with sm artists, tons of cutouts, and special goods as well. The best part was the two 3-D performance stages. One was shinee where the projection was so real it looked like they were actually in the room. They sang sherlock and hello. The other was a trippy 3-D glasses show where the best dancers of Sm showed off their dance skills in outer space. As we left we even noticed there was a little cafe as well! Now for the concert. I bought my tickets online from Japan with a daiko service. I paid only a tiny bit more than the Korean price, but I didn't have extremely close seats. I was in the stands, but this was a blessing in disguise because the concert was 5 hours long!!!! The floor area was mostly standing and standing for 5 hours would have sucked. Didn't even try to get goods when I saw how long the line was. Went straight in and took my seat in the bleachers. Another lucky thing was that the floor above me cover me from the rain. I didn't have to wear a poncho.

Here's the set list.

FLAG CEREMONY: Yunho and Changmin | Siwon
1. Opening Song – Jonghyun, Changmin, BoA, Luna, Yesung, Taeyeon, D.O, Chen and Luhan
2. The Grace – One More Chance
3. Zhang LiYi
4. Chu Ga Yeoul – Vincent
5. f(x) – Pinocchi
6. f(x) – Hot Summer
7. Kim Min Jong
8. Like A G6 – Key & Kris & Amber
9. Changmin & Kyuhyun (with Taemin)- Just The Way You Are
10. EunHae – Oppa Oppa
11. EXO – History
12. EXO – MAMA
13. Taeyeon – Devil’s Cry
14. SNSD – Run Devil Run
15. SNSD – Genie
15. SJ & f(x) – Oops
16. SHINee with Luhan – Lucifer
17. Super Junior – Superman
18. Super Junior – Don’t Don
19. SHINee – Ring Ding Dong
20. Super Junior – Bonamana
21. SHINee – Juliette
22. SHINee – Love Like Oxygen
23. Ryeowook & DO – Missing You (Fly To The Sky)
24. TTS – Twinkle
25. DJ Got Us Falling In Love Again – TTS, D.O, Luhan, Sehun, Chanyeol
26. Dance Battle (Yunho, Eunhyuk, Tao, Kai, Taemin, Yoona, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Victoria)
27. Rising Sun Dance Stage – Yunho, Taemin and Kai
28. BoA – Hurricane Venus
29. BoA – Not Over U
30. BoA – The Shadow
31. Super Junior – Sorry Sorry
32. Super Junior-M – Perfection (Korean ver.)
33. Super Junior – A-CHa
34. SNSD – Mr. Taxi (Korean ver.)
35. Jonghyun & Taemin – Internet War
36. TVXQ – Maximum
37. TVXQ – Mrotic
38. TVXQ – Keep Your Head Down
39. SNSD – Gee
40. SNSD – Kissing You
41. Super Junior – Dancing Out
42. BoA feat. Taemin – Only One
43. f(x) – Electric Shock
44. SHINee – Sherlock
45. SNSD – The Boys
46. Super Junior – Sexy, Free & Single
47. TVXQ – Rising Sun
48. All Artists – Hope 

To be continued!