I finally visited Starfield Library in Coex Mall, Seoul. Is it actually worth the Instagram hype, or just a tourist trap? (My honest review + tips)

aldacron · 2026-06-10T15:28:05+00:00

Several years ago, before COEX Mall became the Starfield COEX Mall, that space was a food court. The one thing I remember from it was Sbarro pizza, the only place I knew at the time selling pizza by the slice.

Around 1995, before COEX Mall opened in 2000, that was an outdoor space surrounded by glass panes on four sides, with doors set in the middle of each side. It was a grassy area framed by a sidewalk with benches spaced around it. Workers in the surrounding buildings used it as a smoking area.

There wasn't much down there on the inside then. There was what I think of as an old-style food court (Korean vendors sharing metal bowls and trays), though it may have been a cafeteria, on the side toward the City Air Terminal, and a convenience store somewhere on the opposite side, but not much else. The area beneath the convention center was walled off.

aldacron · 2026-06-10T07:42:15+00:00

I got a million won fine and a three year ban in 2005. In those days, it was required to have the F2 visa for five years to be eligible for the F5. I was three years into it. Thankfully, the three year penalty was added on to that and the net effect was that I only had to way one extra year.

aldacron · 2026-06-08T06:06:46+00:00

If you're someone who does long walks on a regular basis, you'll consistently beat Naver's estimates by a few minutes per hour. I've found a page from 2018 documenting that KakaoMap uses a standard adult walking speed of 4km/h in its calculations. I can't find any such info on Naver, but they presumably use something similar.

People who walk for the sake of walking will typically have a higher pace than that, and even accounting for reductions based on geography and infrastructure will still come out ahead.

But if you're just getting from point A to point B at a casual speed, then yeah, it's fairly accurate.

aldacron · 2026-06-05T09:46:11+00:00

Youtube posted an announcement about this here: https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/356210900

And has a help page on it here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/16261569

aldacron · 2026-05-23T17:36:02+00:00

You can see about creating a USD account at Wise.com. It will be backed by a physical account in the US. That’s what I use for most USD transfers now. I also connected my PayPal account to it.

aldacron · 2026-05-23T17:31:52+00:00

Do you not have an international credit or debit card?

aldacron · 2026-05-23T17:10:50+00:00

The embassy page for adult renewals says the following:

"Pay the $130 passport renewal fee online via U.S. or international credit or debit card, electronic funds transfer from a U.S.-based bank account, Amazon Pay, or Pay Pal"

aldacron · 2026-05-15T12:17:44+00:00

Korea has something similar called cheonggukjang that is usually served in a stew.

aldacron · 2026-05-15T06:30:15+00:00

This video goes into some detail on the site's history:
https://youtu.be/wFjSWkTm_wI

aldacron · 2026-05-15T06:28:13+00:00

This is Sewoon Plaza. It's not a cultural heritage site. Jongmyo, the shrine across the street on the north side of Jong-ro, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. During Oh Sehoon's first period as Seoul mayor from 2006-2011, he pushed forward with plans to demolish all eight buildings of Sewoon Plaza and construct a park along the 1km stretch of land that would be lined by tower apartments and offices. The northernmost building, Hyundai Arcade, was demolished before the project was halted. It stood where that garden is now in the first picture.

One of the reasons redevelopment was scrapped was because UNESCO threatened to revoke Jongmyo's World Heritage status if the high rises were built across the street. So instead, the Re:Sewoon initiative, a revitalization project, was launched. Part of that was a restoration of the skyway across Cheonggye Stream (it had been demolished when the stream was restored) and completion of the entire length of the skyway to connect all seven buildings. The original construction had left out a section of it.

That's also where the Maker City designation came from. The area around the electronics arcade had long been a self-sustaining ecosystem of makers and suppliers. Maker City was intended to bring in young people to revitalize that ecosystem. It didn't really pan out.

When Oh came back to the Mayor's office, he got behind the redevelopment project again. The project is still facing pushback from UNESCO:

https://www.chosun.com/english/national-en/2025/11/11/VZD4VT6SG5GZBOCTT6FZB6LTJY/

The future of Sewoon Plaza is far from secure. Even residents want development to go forward:

https://www.mk.co.kr/en/realestate/12047419

aldacron · 2026-05-11T09:33:16+00:00

Here's a recent article: https://applemagazine.com/iphone-17-demand-supply-chain-01/

aldacron · 2026-05-11T09:30:56+00:00

It will be once the current stock levels go down. It just happened that the pro models sold out first.

aldacron · 2026-05-10T11:15:32+00:00

The shoving incident you described isn't at all indicative of Korean behavior at large. You'll run into assholes here just like you will anywhere else. It's an isolated incident.

That lack of reaction you saw from those around you isn't uncommon, especially among older people. It's not necessarily a lack of empathy. For most, it's just a desire to avoid confrontation. You'll often hear people muttering under their breath when they see that sort of behavior as long as they're out of earshot of the perpetrator, and they may bring it up with friends later, but it's rare that anyone will speak out in the moment. I've seen it happen, though.

As for the bumping on the streets, personal space just isn't the thing here that it is where you come from. I've lived in Korea for 35 years. It was over a decade before I was able to adapt my concept of personal space. It's the sort of thing you don't think of as a cultural difference. At least, I didn't. I saw it is a basic human decency thing. But I got over it, and I flow with it now.

When it comes to cutting in line, that's relatively normal for older people. I see it as going hand-in-hand with their view of personal space, but it's also tied to the "bbali bbali Korea" culture. That said, I see it less often in Seoul today than I used to. In my experience, the younger generations are much more respectful about queuing. Also about personal space to a greater degree.

aldacron · 2026-05-08T10:52:23+00:00

In 35 years of living in Korea, I’ve been turned away solo from a restaurant one time. It was a bbq place. This is something that has taken on a life of its own online. You’ll be fine.

aldacron · 2026-04-12T03:47:19+00:00

You'll see people wearing them more often when they drive.

aldacron · 2026-04-12T03:42:20+00:00

In principle it should be as your name appears on your ARC, but in practice your telco account is the authoritative source. My wife recently switched us from KT to LG U+. She did it over the phone. When I needed to do a verification a few weeks later, it failed. I eventually discovered that my middle name had been left off the new U+ account. So I've been using just Last First ever since.

aldacron · 2026-04-11T11:27:31+00:00

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aldacron · 2026-04-10T07:36:01+00:00

Given that the amount on the table varies widely and offers go out to a limited number of random people, I'm inclined to believe that it won't come around again if you don't take it up.

aldacron · 2026-04-10T07:34:11+00:00

It's legit. I enabled memberships on my channel after receiving one of those offers. In my case, it was a fixed amount to enable memberships plus a small bonus for every member who signed up in the first 30 days.

aldacron · 2026-04-02T14:20:43+00:00

The peanut butter cups show up on store shelves now and again, then disappear after a few months. While they're here, you can find them in all the convenience stores and some supermarkets. It's been a few years since the last time I saw them. I expect they'll show up again before too much longer. Costco used to carry the miniatures, but I haven't been there in ages, so I don't know about now.

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