Coex Revisit

Yesterday, I went up to COEX to do some shopping and browsing. BK was busy playing basketball and having an appointment with his coworkers to watch Volleyball, so I was on my own.

I'm pretty sure that just about every foreigner-teacher goes to COEX more than once or twice. The more we go the more we are able to navigate our way around the maze that is this mall, and find our way to the stores that we enjoy. There are also many places to eat inside the mall that offer more than your usual Korean cuisine.

So come with me as I revisit COEX and take a look at what I saw this time.

A chest for sale in a window display~

I went inside the Hyundai Department store's food level, where there is a food court, deli and supermarket.

Inside the supermarket area is a section dedicated to "world" foods. I saw food mostly from Japan and America. Some of the American goods were surprisingly a shelf of Organic brand products. It was like they took a slice of an health foods store and put on their shelf. But the prices were really high.

These flavored salts caught my attention and reminded me of my family's favorite salt seasoning Herbamare.

When seeing these displays of foreign goods put in their own section of the supermarket I couldn't help but recall a similar situation back home. For example, at the supermarkets back home there are usually a few aisles dedicated to "Asian" foods, or "Latin" foods. I can imagine people of those origins going to that supermarket and seeing these aisles and feeling how inadequate they represent their foods from back in their country. Thankfully if you live in a large city you can find specialty markets for Korean, Chinese or Latin food. So I guess it goes the same for an American living abroad, your national products are put on a shelf, in a special section and highly priced.

Moving on, like I said one of the best aspects of COEX is that you can get a bite to eat that consists of familiar foods from back home. One great example of this is the On The Border restaurant.

Or you can try out what is offered inside the food court, which does have a Sbarro pizza counter.


COEX is of course a busy place with all ages of people coming and going throughout its halls. Yet, I would say the majority of mall goers are teenagers. This is true for any mall, so why should it be different for Korea?

Therefore you can find teens in groups milling about the mall giggling as they go along their way. While I was there yesterday there was a talent show going on. I am unsure whether the participants on stage were teens but they gathered such a crowd.

I finally came to my favorite store inside COEX, which is called Ani Land. Inside is a great collection of Ghibli character toys and also cute stationary store items.



A very popular activity here in Korea and Japan (likely the same in other parts of Asia) is taking pictures with your friend inside photo-booths. But these are not your regular photo-booths, for after you get your picture taken you can spiff it up with hearts, cute backgrounds, angel wings and other digital add-ons.

I tried to figure out how you pay and how to operate one of the photo-booths but for the life of me didn't understand what to do. Plus, this photo-booth operation was next to an arcade and the gun-shooting noise was a little too much. I figured I would come back with BK and we can get some cute pictures together.

Another great place to visit inside the COEX is the Apple Store or as this place likes to call itself the A# Shop. A mecca for Mac and iPod lovers it houses Macbooks, iPods and the gear you need for both. Hint!!: They were having a sale on last year's model of Macbooks...looked really great!

I picked myself up a screen cleaning kit, due to that my Macbook's screen has been getting a little grimy lately. I did however, contemplate buying the new iPod Touch 16 Gigs because my iPod Touch from last year is only 8 gigs and is sometimes not enough. But I didn't...might as well use the money for something else.


Well after the A# shop I got a bite to eat and browsed around a bit and then went home. I did find what I was looking for, although I can't reveal what that is because it's a secret. (has to do with my anniversary with BK)

The weather is a bit warmer than usual which helps one get over their winter grumpiness.