No matter where you are in Seoul, you will always find good food. Restaurants there specialize in one thing and they do it well. For example, we stopped in Myung Dong Kyoja (yes, there is also a Los Angeles location), and the line was out the door, but, as soon as you are in, you order one thing, it comes right away and there is no fiddling around–eat and go, give up your table to the next patient customer–or get the stare.

Not only restaurants, but, anywhere on the street…. good treats are often presented in an even more interesting way. I guess there has to be something to attract the masses. Like fashion, Seoul food is trendy, foods come and go and there is always something new.

Travel=Inspiration.

Even the vending machine lattes rival the boutique cafes in Los Angeles…. sort of.

Seeing the photos of the Korean Pavilion at Shanghai World Expo blew me away! The pavilion was designed by Korean architectural firm, Mass Studies with the theme of ‘convergence’ in mind. It’s an amalgamation of ‘sign’ (Korean written language) and ‘space’: signs become spaces, and spaces become signs.

The exterior of the building is made up of 3 dimensional sculptures of the Korean alphabets, Hangul. The positive and negative spaces created by the geometric shapes of the letters invite the audience to interact with the space of the pavilion as well as the system of signs, the language of Korea. What better way to introduce Korea than with the language of Korea itself?

Seeing this building reminded me of the Upcycled Street Banner Bags that we introduced from Korea. The overwhelming popularity of the bags surprised us at first but it’s easy to see the universal appeal and beauty one finds in language, the geometry of lines and spaces.