I spent a couple of days in Seongnam, the first planned city of South Korea. Two of the international schools in our athletic conference are located there. This was my second trip to Korea and I gained a few more impressions of the neighbor of Japan.
Korea is very similar to Japan in many ways. It is modern, clean and a fully developed nation. The Koreans seem to have a bit more of an edge, both in their demeanor and the architecture and infrastructure, compared to the more sedate Japanese culture. The citizens of both countries come from the same gene pool and both were heavily influenced by China throughout their history. Both countries have extremely homogeneous populations.
There seemed to be more and larger apartment complexes than in Japan cities. The restaurants and hotel were more spacious than in Japan.
My new favorite Korean dish is Bibimbap, a bowl of rice mixed with veggies and some type of protein. Delicious, especially when served in a hot stone bowl and lots of red chili paste and kimchi.
Seongnam started to relieve the congestion of Seoul, but the city has overtaken it. It is a really nice area and similar to our suburb of Osaka. There are lots of parks and they have kilometers of bike trails along the rivers. Our hotel was near a large mall and plenty of really good restaurants. I was working a lot and didn’t have time to really enjoy much of the city.
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