Golden Week Day 1: Seoul Plane, Seoul Train, Seoul Food

It's that time of year again... I had some time off work for Golden Week and needed an adventure that would compare with last year. Quinn has always wanted to visit South Korea, so we decided to ignore some widely-publicized travel advice and head to Seoul for the week. We got tickets with Peach (Japan's first low-cost carrier!) and flew from Kansai to Incheon.

Gus is an excellent little world traveler; he handled the whole airport and flight experience with hardly a complaint. The guy at the KIX immigration desk was a little confused about why he had a US passport with no entry stamp for Japan; we had to explain that this was his first time leaving Japan.

Once we arrived at Incheon, we rode the airport express train into Seoul station and then the subway to Myeongdong, where our hotel was.

The main shopping street in Myeongdong. It goes on and on like this.


Once Quinn and Gus were settled down in the hotel, I ventured out to find us some dinner. Myeongdong has lots of restaurants, and even more clothing stores and a couple of motorized mannequins that bow to prospective customers, but I was having a hard time finding food to go.

Until, that is, I spotted it in the distance: Shinsegae, a giant Korean department store. And where there’s an Asian department store, there’s a basement-level food court.

I got some spicy fried chicken, some kind of green vegetable, and some kind of black rice thing. Overall, day one was a success.