Night in Seoul

May the fourth (on the fifth) be with you. (That will be relevant in a minute.)

Sorry about the trees

Seoul is a very exciting city in the day and the night. This past week, we've done some fun afternoon, evening, and night activities. One of the great aspects of Seoul is how safe it is. The streets are well lit, there are people about, and no one gives you any trouble, or gives you a second glance.

One of the city walls lit up at night

Seoul is a walled city. Perhaps I should say, part of Seoul is a walled city. Seoul was, for many centuries, a walled city. Modern Seoul extends way outside of those walls. But the walls still stand with four major gates and four minor gates.

Heunginjimun Gate, looking at it straight on

The other evening, Alrica and I headed over to Naksan Park. This park is just on the inside of the eastern city wall. Here the wall rises up the side of Naksan Peak. It's a great place to watch the sunset.

The camera doesn't quite capture the full majesty

Then we walked back down the mountainside along the wall. We reached Heunginjimun Gate, the major east gate of the wall.

Another view of Heunginjimun Gate

Last night, May 5, Seoul did another drone show as part of the Seoul Spring Festival. Hopefully, my picture above and my comment at the start of the post is making more sense to you. Yes, it was Star Wars themed. It wasn't on May the fourth, but May the fifth be with you too.

As before, it was spectacular. There were two types of images. One was the portrait. The drones took shape and lit up, and there were completely recognizable storm troopers, or Luke Skywalker (and it looked like Mark Hamill), or Darth Vader. (Or the Millennium Falcon, which maybe isn't a portrait, but it was the same sort of image.) The other was animation. The drones took a planar shape. And then by changing the colors that each one was emitting, they showed you a seen like watching the pixels of a screen show a movie. We saw the battle between Luke and Darth Vader from The Empire Strikes Back. Also, at one point, the drones took that planar shape to match the view from the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon. And then you saw the view through the window like you were in the cockpit.

Bad guys can't aim. But they look menacing.

My pictures have some trees in the way, as you probably noticed. But here is a link to a video on YouTube someone took of the show if you want to see what I mean.

The force is strong with Seoul.

Noun Noun

One day, early in our stay in Seoul, we were riding on the bus. Alrica noticed a business named Elfbar. She pointed it out to me and I said, "How nice that the elves have a place to kick back with some soju or beer." But Alrica disagreed with my interpretation. She said, no, it is a bar that served drinks made out of liquefied elves. Her example was a coffee bar that serves coffee drinks. It doesn't serve drinks to coffee.

The selfie culture is huge here, though that's not unique to South Korea

Disagreeing on such a crucial topic, we decided to ask our kids. Our son also interpreted it as a place where elves can go to drink. But our daughter said we were both wrong. It is a bar made from elves. The very beams that hold up the building are, in fact, processed elf. I suppose this is in the the vein of a candy bar, which is a bar made out of candy. Alrica pointed out that we didn't see any little elf limbs sticking out. Our daughter countered that explaining that of course you wouldn't see that. The construction company sanded it down after they erected it.

The Elfbar that started the conversation

The trouble is the noun which is being used to modify another noun. In this case, "elf" is being used almost as if it were an adjective. Though there is already an adjectival form of "elf", namely "elven" or "elvish" if you prefer. So what does it mean when "elf" is used as an adjective? Here is my list of possible interpretations. Let me know if you have others that I've missed.

• An establishment that serves beverages made with alcohol to a primarily elven clientele.
• An establishment that serves beverages made with elves to a primarily human clientele. Alrica's example: Coffee bar or juice bar.
• An establishment that gives you a plate and lets you select vaious preparations of elves in a buffer style. Think of a salad bar.
• A plank made from elves, something that has been pressed into a rectangular shape, as suggested by my daughter. This would be comparable to a candy bar or a bar of soap.
• Similar to the one above, a rod or dowel made from elves which has been formed into a cylindrical shape. Like the bars of a jail cell, a steel bar.
• A lofty benchmark to which humanoid races aspire. We have to clear the "elf bar". Think of the crossbar in track and field events like the high jump.
• A legal society for attorneys with pointed ears. Consider being a member of the bar.
• A prohibition on the improvement of elves.
• A unit of air pressure as experienced by non-human humanoids.
• A measure of music played by elves, most likely on the lute or mandolin or pan pipes.

We have now seen other Elfbars throughout Seoul. Seems to be a chain. You will be surprised to learn that all of my suggested interpretations above are wrong. Turns out, Elfbar is a vape shop.

Maybe Elf and Bar mean something different in Korean

Now, having overanalyzed the term Elfbar, let's take another noun noun combination. What do you think this is?

Much like Elfbar, do they serve to cats? Or do they serve cats?

We don't need to make another list. Alrica already knew what a Cat Cafe is. Apparently, you get a coffee and sit down in a room full of cats that then come walk over you and rub against you while you drink your coffee. I suppose that is attractive to someone, but I know one person who is not that someone. Cats are fine, but I don't want them brushing their fur against me while I am drinking coffee. (Though, I don't want to be drinking coffee either, so there is no part of this scenario that draws me in.)

Lotte is one of the major corporations here, the chaebol. The chaebol are the super huge corporations, usually owned and run by a family and the members of that family are just shy of being royalty. They have a lot of influence and power in South Korea. Lotte is a big grocery chain. There are Lotte department stores. And one of its subsidiary businesses is Lotteria, which is a fast food restaurant. We've seen Lotteria in a few countries, but decided to try one here in Seoul.

One of the great things in many restaurants is the kiosk. What a wonderful invention! I can change the language and then read the menu, order what I want, and pay at the kiosk. Yes, my number is still called in Korean, so that can be a stumbling block. But at least I have an idea what I am ordering.

I found it funny that on the kiosk, when you clicked the Desserts category, you saw a lot of food choices that were very much not desserts.

Hot Mini Pork! My favorite dessert! Or wait, Long Cheese? How to choose?

Also, while eating in the Lotteria, we saw this sign.

If we're not allowed to eat and drink here, why do you have tables and chairs?

I had a guess what the sign meant and once I translated it, I was correct. It is saying you can't eat food or drink from outside, that wasn't purchased here. But if I just went by the image...

Seoul is full of walk signals. And unlike New York City, they mean something here. People do NOT cross against the signal. (I've actually seen one man doing so, but from the way he was staggering, I am reasonably sure he was drunk.) You can actually get fined for crossing against the signal, and this is enforced.

However, after the introduction of the smartphone, Seoul encountered a new problem. Many people were looking down at their phones as they walked, not noticing they were at an intersection, walking into the street against the signal, and getting hit by vehicles. Here is how Seoul dealt with that.

That red is a series of lights in the pavement. They will turn green when you can go.

These lights are at the ground level. So even if you are walking with your head down, you see either red lights or green lights at the corner. Hopefully this makes you aware you are about to walk into traffic.

It's genius. Though I'm not sure what to call it. A walk signal itself is a noun noun, if you think of "walk" like, "I'm going for a walk" or it is a verb noun if you think of "walk" like, "She told me to 'Walk this way! Talk this wa-a-ay'." Maybe the light in the pavement could be called curb walk signals, so noun verb noun. It's a whole part of speech sandwich. And if you wanted that sandwich at Lotteria, I suggest you look in the desserts menu.