The skin care industry is notoriously recession-proof. According to Euromonitor International, this industry even grew during the global recession between 2007 and 2011, by an addition of $15 billion to reach a value of $96.5 billion in total. And I’m betting that the Korean women were among the […]
Bukchon Hanok Village is a great destination for visitors to Seoul who are interested in seeing a village full of traditional Korean houses called ‘hanok’ that date back to the Joseon Dynasty. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about here. When you get off the Anguk metro […]
The Sea of Shoes blogger Jane Aldridge has been raving about Seoul as a shopping destination on her blog. Speaking from my personal experience, Aldridge does not exaggerate one bit when she described shopping in Seoul to be “overwhelming”. As for me, I can’t think of a shopping excursion […]
Every Seoul tour guide will point you to Myongdong and Itaewon as the main shopping destinations. Don’t get me wrong – you won’t be disappointed. But if you subscribe to the belief (as I do) that fashion is a serious form of art and just looking at exquisite […]
It always seems incredible to me that so many of the ancient archeological discoveries are ornaments and body care products. But then I look at my own stack of fashion magazines and think, why shouldn’t they be? A passion for beauty and self expression are probably just as […]
Jane Aldridge, author of the wildly popular fashion blog Sea of Shoes, is in Seoul checking out its fashion scene. She calls the city “overwhelming” and professed to never having “experienced anything like Seoul.” She’s showing off her newly acquired avant-garde style top and skirt by Stylenanda here. I’m looking […]
We had a party over the labour day weekend and at some point during the evening there were about 15 kids of varying ages running around in our basement. At first I tried to provide appropriate toys for all of them but quickly gave up the effort. One […]
Lucille Ball of “I love Lucy” fame once said that the secret to staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age. Had she lived in Korea, I have a feeling she would have actually looked older than her age from the stress of having […]
There’s something about the North American ritual of going to the movies and sharing a large tub of salty popcorns. Movies and popcorns are as familiar a combination as it gets. In the same vein, drinking beer or soju in Korea is universally linked to eating bar snacks […]
One of the my favourite memories of travelling through Nova Scotia is seeing fishermen at work. On one occasion, I saw several fishermen sorting out a huge pile of freshly caught mackerel. The glint of the silver fins flying in the air was so brilliant in the sun, […]
Utopian architecture is a concept that has been been explored by many idealists throughout history. And why not? Seeking idealism in architecture would be a natural arrival after a thorough review of a dwelling, office, gathering place, etc. But how about something more abstract such as depicting the Buddhist […]
If you have visited Vancouver in the past couple of years, you may have seen the 14 laughing bronze men known as A-maze-ing Laughter by the English Bay. In fact, you may have even gotten your picture taken there. The residents and visitors were overjoyed when they learned that […]
Spring has sprung With the abundance Of blossoming flowers I think the poet of this poem – Scott Austin is the name – would have loved Hwajeon, a traditional Korean cake made with flowers which captures the romance of the spring blossoms. I saw them at the Korea Food Day […]
The beginning of any celebration – especially one that spans over a number of days – is usually comprised of a giddy sequence of exultant speeches and activities. The celebration of ‘Korea Week’ (June 25 – July 1) was a bit of an exception to this tradition as […]
It’s no secret that little girls love poufy princess dresses. Bows, flowers, frills, ribbons, sequins, whatever the embellishment of her choice is, the usual motto is not “less is more”. Incidentally, if you are a grown up woman living in Seoul, you don’t need to give up playing […]
If you are a baseball fan, you may already know that the LA Dodgers are coming to Toronto to play against the Blue Jays from July 22 to 24. And you would probably know that these are extremely rare sort of games – something that happens maybe once […]
At the entrance 1 of the Anguk Subway station in Seoul, there is a large tiled wall, each tile lovingly hand-drawn or hand-written by different people. Some are poems, some are sketches, and some are stories – random thoughts placed side-by-side making up the whole wall, thoughts as […]
They are hard to miss. From neighbourhood corner stores to luxury department stores, virtually everywhere you go in Korea you will see mounds of these. On the streets of busy shopping districts like Myongdong, sometimes they are even handed out for free. These are facial masks, or face […]
The world has never been richer, safer, better educated or better connected. More people now die from climate change than terrorism. The world is not only heading in the right direction but this is the golden age. So began last night’s speech titled “Constructive Power Diplomacy” by Paul Heinbecker, a former advisorto successive Canadian […]
My husband claims that the reason why he doesn’t have any allergies is because he spent some of his toddler life in a farm exposed to a million germs. I’ve been countering this argument by claiming our toddler boy’s cashew anaphylaxis was not alleviated by the less than […]
