Originally Posted by
LapLap
I never did get a handle on the city. Thankfully, my father in law came over from Japan to see us for a weekend. He is fluent in Korean and lived there for a time in the 1980s. He said is it was unrecognisable now from how it was and he struggled to get a handle on it too. We did have a couple of great nights out, MrLapLap’s dad loves Korean food and was the ideal companion for evening drinking and dining.
Which brings me to 2023. We had the chance to travel to Japan this summer with long stopovers both ways in Seoul. It being hot and having a child as a companion we decided not to go. Instead we paid the modest extra and got direct flights. I’d love to return to Korea, but not central Seoul with someone who is still a child.
I first heard this from my Korean-American friend. Her dad had grown up in an area near downtown until he was a young adult (late 1970s). When he came back to Seoul in the mid 2000s, he couldn't recognize his old neighborhood. I've gone through the same experience as I now no longer work there and only visit every 2-3 years. It feels like a different city on every visit. A lot of my old haunts are now vaguely familiar.