Seoul Local Custom Tips by AKtravelers

Korea has this great holiday called children's day, where most businesses close so that parents can spend the day with their kids. On 5 May, the parks and palaces are full of families and most tourist attractions put on special demonstrations for the children.

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It must be considered good manners to cover your mouth when you laugh in Korea. Certainly, this is not a western trait -- at least as an American, I find it acceptable to show a lot of teeth when I laugh. In fact, with a good hearty laugh you might be able to see all the way to my stomach. But not in Korea.

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It is very common for female friends to walk arm in arm or to hold hands while walking in public. This does not always require corn on a stick.

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Most city parks are jammed with retired men passing the time. Often, you'll see them engaged in very competitive games of go. One of the best place to see this is Jongmyo Park, right by the famous shrine of the same name.

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I have been to professional baseball games in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Taiwan and Korea and the only place I have seen cheerleaders is in Korea. Okay, Japan has guys with whistles choreographing chants and songs, so I guess technically they are cheerleaders, but what I'm talking about is young women with pom-poms that dance and gyrate to the music. That's what they have in Korea.

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Unlike most westerners, it seems that most Koreans do not seek a sun tan. Good for them! I'm sure they have low rates of skin cancer.
The primary manifestation of this trait is that, on sunny days, you will see many women carrying umbrellas. In Insadong one day, I saw this being taken to an almost humorous extreme -- the umbrella taxi. As part of a performance art piece in 2005, for a few won, one was able to hire a person to carry an umbrella for you and keep you shaded as you walk down the street. Pretty clever.

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The swastika sign has always meant temple in Asia. The Nazis appropriated it and reversed it, making it a universal symbol of evil in the West.

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If you are in Korea in early May, make sure you join in the celebrations for Buddha's birthday. There are parades spread out over three days, paper lanterns everywhere and on one Sunday they closed off a street in Insadong for a variety of tents demonstrating Buddhist practices. There was a tent where you could get a leg massage and another where you could have small candles burnt on your hands to purify your body. They even had a tent titled "Try North Korean Food" -- ironically the table tops were empty! It's pretty clear that no one involved even cares if you are Buddhist, as one tent had a lantern-making contest for foreigners.

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If you visit Seoul, be prepared to eat kimchi. A Korean would not consider a meal complete if it did not include two things: rice and kimchi. In case you don't know, kimchi is cabbage fermented with garlic anf red peppers to form a moist spicy concoction that is a featured side dish. Actually, to say it has to be cabbage is a lie -- there are kimchi zucchinis and kimchi cucumbers and several other varieties. It is said to be a good Korean wife, a woman must know how to make at least 16 types of kimchi and there is a kimchi museum outside Seoul which features hundreds of kimchis.
Note also in this picture that cissors can be used as a utensil in Asia.

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If you go to a traditional Korean restaurant, be prepared to sit on the floor at a small table -- especially if you go with Koreans! For most Westerners, sitting on the floor for extended periods of time can quickly become uncomfortable. Drinking doesn't really help -- except if you allow for the fact that it makes you pee, giving you an excuse to get up and stretch your legs. So, what I do when I walk into one of these restaurants is try to get a seat behind which sits a wall -- allowing me something to lean on during respites in the meal. I also recommend wearing pants that are dark to hid the inevitable staining that comes from chopsticking kimchi over your unsettled legs.

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