korea :: seoul :: general

[thomas_highstreet]

great, one vote for each.

im buying all three, will decide later... i need a new razor anyway, ill catch the dregs

[Guest umhaha84]

I think it depends on how he decorated his bathroom,

[mrchariybrown]

black chrome would've been an insta-winner.

[greasypeanut]

yeah Tomatillo is a ripoff of CHipotle's model. tastes a little different but it's not bad for Korea, at all.

.

ive been craving chipotle. can u tell me where a tomatillo is?

[dismalfuture]

there's one outside Jonggak exit 6, past Deutsch Bank, next to Au Bon Pain. I don't know where the other 2 are , I think some part of COEX and then Kangnam Finance Center (?). It ain't Chipotle but it makes the old 'Korean taco' places like Taco Chili Chili look real stoops.

[dizzhizz]

the Tomatillo COEX location is located in the basement of the Hyundai Dept. Store along side the other food stalls. It's tiny but it's there.

[b.e-n]

aight i'm in my apartment, i forgot how much i missed the heated floors and fried chicken and naengmyeon delivered to my door. i got cigarettes - dunhill sunsets, they're not bad (for 2 dollars, especially). can anyone recommend really good cigarettes?

[Guest umhaha84]

To everyone who's in Korea and loves Sushi.

go to Takumi, www.ktakumi.com

[FJO]

I'm goint to Japan in january and I was wondering how much of a hassle it would be to fly out to Seoul from over there? Does anybody have any experience with airlines and shit like that?

Thanks in advance.

[thomas_highstreet]

use HIS japan or HIS korea. return flight will be around $400usd at a pretty standard rate, might get a bargain if any offers are on.

i just bought a flight seoul-->tokyo - osaka-->seoul for about 400-450usd inc. taxes. not the best deal out there but not too bad. the period im flying in is pretty much the peak time.

i heard you can get them for as low as 200usd, but im yet to find one like that.

flight takes under 2 hours. and in seoul, both incheon and gimpo are fine to fly in too as public transport in korea is cheap and both (obviously) have good connections to the central seoul.

[dismalfuture]

To everyone who's in Korea and loves Sushi.

go to Takumi, www.ktakumi.com

link don't work, but I'd try it out. I don't even like sushi that much but I know the difference between bad and good, and I try to take my girlfriend for sushi when she starts going crazy and gets homesick for Japan and it's good to know the different sushi places.

We normally eat sushi at the Park Hyatt, which is decent. Not the best of our lives, but for Korea, very edible, and they don't give you the wack ass chobap modeum type fishes that you normally get at a japanese-korean restaurant here; it's the legit kinds of fish.

The Ritz Carlton, where I had sushi recently as well, has a japanese joint that has kinda B grade sushi and it's pretty expensive; old-school Korean dining I guess.

[Guest umhaha84]

^search takumi at naver in korean its across the street from Galleria.

[JDM]

any of you live in officetels? whats your monthly fees look like? maintenance and all that shit

[dismalfuture]

^ I do, one of the newer loft-style 2 story ones, but they all essentially cost the same.

Deposit: 10, so figure $10K by the time you go in because of the exchange rate

Rent: 900/month

Maintenance fees: 100 a month, basic rate

water and gas, about 20-40 a piece except in winter, when gas will go to like 100-150 a month because of the ondol

electricity - 150 a month except in the 3 hot months; this year I thought my AC went bad and it never cooled my apt down; that month we ran the AC everyday all day trying to get it to cool down but the bill was $700 in July. We called the LG maintenance in and they told us the AC was just too small in capacity for the room, basically.

shit is not cheap. Then again, full on jeonse is only like 80K and a full buy-out is like a quarter mil to 400K or something depending where it's at (I like the location of mine)....

[JDM]

your fees sound kinda high from what ive been told by tenants

all the places ive visited said 150 usually, including maintenance, power, etc...

-200 in the winter time when everyone turns up the heat and summer if u use the ac alot. maybe they just lying to me

i been looking for jeonse officetels with 90mil for a couple weeks now, really hard to find in a decent area. with the current interest rates and all

[thomas_highstreet]

i passed on some shit hot places for literally half that rent... if i was paying 900, id stomp up the extra 5 and rent an actual loft (not officetel)

[dismalfuture]

the reason my fees are higher (I know they are, I watch the electricity meters in the hallways): korean people don't really live in their places, they're always out at work, drinking soju, going to love hotels, or drinking soju. If they are home, they sit in the dark in their underwear and watch TV and eat chips and crackers and never cook.

I actually live in my place, use the stove like it was intended, wash my many clothes often, use cooling and heating when I want to, and my girlfriend and I each take a shower everyday and clean up the house regularly using water and electricity. I guess it adds up. I don't watch TV but I leave my computer on and sometimes a light for my dog at night.

I like my officetel though, it's exactly halfway between SHinchon and Ewha subway stops, buses are plentiful even though I don't have time to ride them, taxis will stop right in front of my house, close to a bank with an intl ATM, several grocery shopping options and restaurants that are open late, Family Mart on the first floor, security guy gets my mail parcels everyday and I just have to sign for them, and there's the baseball batting cage across the street.

[dizzhizz]

those prices listed by dismal are pretty much in the ballpark, as jeonse prices for small one room apartments in my neck of the woods go for about a little less than 200K USD for something as tiny as a 18-pyung apartment.

my management fees also come out to less than 90 USD but will shoot up once summer or winter comes around, using the a/c or heater non-stop.

[JDM]

im guessin you live in the posville building dismal, i looked there but cant do 900 a month + bills

think im movin in to gaia officetel which is right down the street, would like a loft but dont wanna live in the country to afford it

thanks for the replys

[djrajio]

Hi, what does officetel mean?

Approx how big is a pyung compared to a meter or 畳（じょう）?

[JDM]

officetel technically means office + hotel. officetels are supposed to have more amenities, like 7-11s and other random stores on the first few floors. officetels are closer to public transportation usually

you can run a business out of it or you can live in it. and the utilities cost more than a normal apartment in seoul.

and 1 pyeong is 3.3square meters

[dismalfuture]

im guessin you live in the posville building dismal, i looked there but cant do 900 a month + bills

think im movin in to gaia officetel which is right down the street, would like a loft but dont wanna live in the country to afford it

thanks for the replys

yeah I do. I have a friend who lives in Gaia too, it's like 700 a month or something, maybe 8, but as I recall it's not enough to justify giving up the 2nd story loft. I have the dog, so being able to sleep on a different floor is pretty key for me, plus you get the stacked storage.

THere are a few double deckers around Gongdeok 5-guhri as well, for Mapo subway, I think they're a bill cheaper than Posville, maybe one or two at Hongdae station that are probably no cheaper than Posville.

[thomas_highstreet]

i think i might be living in sinsa.. unless dis gives me some v.good reasons to move north of the river.... what u saying B?

i found a bunch of o.k places but its harder for me as i can only commit to a 3month contract at the moment, if shit goes well i'll renew, but that's my cutoff for the time being.

[dismalfuture]

sinsa is lookbook.nu 2007 ground zero type steelo, I guess if you like that shit man... not saying that up here is any better, but you know how I feel about how much I want to pay for my fake shit.

[thomas_highstreet]

10characters

[Guest umhaha84]

i think i might be living in sinsa.. unless dis gives me some v.good reasons to move north of the river.... what u saying B?

i found a bunch of o.k places but its harder for me as i can only commit to a 3month contract at the moment, if shit goes well i'll renew, but that's my cutoff for the time being.

always a GANGNAM concept. BALLAAAAAAA

[JDM]

yeah I do. I have a friend who lives in Gaia too, it's like 700 a month or something, maybe 8, but as I recall it's not enough to justify giving up the 2nd story loft. I have the dog, so being able to sleep on a different floor is pretty key for me, plus you get the stacked storage.

THere are a few double deckers around Gongdeok 5-guhri as well, for Mapo subway, I think they're a bill cheaper than Posville, maybe one or two at Hongdae station that are probably no cheaper than Posville.

found a place at gaia lettin me put more than 10mil down so rent is cheaper. on 5F so the view sucks and it faces that coffee bean with the womens one rooms above it

would like a loft but cant find any that will take more than 10mil deposit

[dismalfuture]

I hadn't been to Samcheongdong in awhile and I went over recently to find some decent Korean food, and it turns out that the place is a fucking shitshow nowadays, it's packed with people day and night and they've opened a Dunkin Donuts and a Kraze Burger there, what a fucking shame.

[dismalfuture]

once i get some more scratch together I am probably just gonna jeonse it on a converted cafe/bar space or something in Hongdae, or get a newer villa in Itaewon.

[dismalfuture]

I bought some assorted groceries a the intl market in Itaewon tonight, the Pakistani guy there kinda recognized me after my millionth visit there and hooked me up with some free Halls. He saw my crazy assortment of stuff and asked if I owned a restaurant, and I realized he was speaking to me in near-perfect Korean. Shit was both highly impressive, and embarrassing for me. I need to go back to Korean school.