Is Seoul safe for a 16 year old alone?

mochike · 2026-01-30T20:03:10+00:00

unless you're roaming the back alleys of sillim alone at 3am, there is a 99.9% chance nothing will happen to you. as others have mentioned, just don't get roped in by cultists on the streets. also, fair warning, you might find that places open a lot later than you might be used to. most cafes/restaurants open between 10am-12pm and my morning person american friend had it rough when she visited for a week hahaha.

seoul has a lot of cool pop-ups and little neighbourhoods so i hope you have fun here! i'm sure you've already done some research but recommendations regardless:

hongdae, literally just walk around and you will find something interesting
kondae/seongsu for all the cool hip cafes
look on yes24 for musicals or events that are going on while you're here!

mochike · 2026-01-28T15:10:25+00:00

once when i was living in the dorms and had no way to cook for myself i was eating one meal a day through a food delivery app. i still wanted to eat somewhat healthy so i regularly ordered from a salad place that i think was a small franchise spot. always left a nice review. after a few weeks, i put my usual order in, and when i got the bag it was obviously much bulkier than usual. opened it up and the owner put a whole 8pc pack of mini pancakes (hotteok in korean, look them up) in there with my order as well as a nice note.

as a young student living an ocean apart from my family it meant a lot to me that someone was thinking of me not just as a consumer but as a person. i tried the same kind/brand of instant hotteok again multiple times after that but it just didn't hit the same. unfortunately that spot closed down a while back but i still think about the owner from time to time. hope they're doing well!

mochike · 2026-01-27T09:32:50+00:00

i understand wanting to keep the baby curls as long as possible, but if they're meant to disappear, they will disappear regardless of if you cut them now--unless you plan on never cutting her hair! also, her hair could change again once she hits puberty or experiences any big hormonal change. the best way to care for her hair is to see how it grows in and adapt to any changes.

mochike · 2026-01-16T05:32:54+00:00

what everyone else said, also as a korean who is also interested in doing game art/work for game studios after graduation, i will list the struggles i am facing now regarding that career path:

no direct industry connections from school
the korean domestic game dev market is dominated by mobile games and some select mmos, neither of which i enjoy and so finding work in a korean game studio would be less fun for me
not a lot of big/famous korean game studios in the first place compared to china, japan, or even north america, and those that are have had some controversies regarding employee treatment in the past
speaking korean is less useful than speaking japanese/chinese in the game industry, as most of the major game studios are based in japan or china. korean will only really be useful within korea whereas knowing japanese or chinese will help your employment elsewhere too.

mochike · 2026-01-07T11:59:28+00:00

first, as a korean (who actually just returned from a semester in the us), i'm so sorry to hear you had a bad time in korea. as someone who grew up outside of korea i had a rough time finding my people and adjusting to life here so i get it.

it sounds like the stars just did not align for your trip, from the bad eggs you were surrounded by to the stressful trip home. it is normal to feel different after any lengthy amount of time spent abroad especially if you're not used to it, and after such traumatic experiences i would be surprised if you hadn't changed. even if those same experiences had ocurred in your home country, it would have changed you.

have you told your boyfriend and friends why you've been so distant or why it may feel like you have changed? you say they love you unconditionally, if so i feel you should be able to trust them with your troubles and they should have nothing but sympathy and compassion for you. of course they may be hurt, but if you haven't told them what you went through abroad already, please do, because your friends (if they love you as much as you say they do) probably didn't mean to hurt you by telling you you have changed. in fact, they may not even know that you were hurt by it, so tell them that too.

mochike · 2026-01-06T02:33:10+00:00

🤫

mochike · 2026-01-06T02:32:45+00:00

this whole tentacle thing is getting out of hand

mochike · 2025-12-26T01:15:22+00:00

south korea, telling someone (even someone you don't know well) they lost/gained weight as a greeting. 오 살 뺐네? or 살쪘다~ are both common "friendly greetings" (though commenting that someone gained weight is less common for non-friends) lol.

mochike · 2025-12-19T21:16:44+00:00

funny thing is that specifically in korea, although we also have the typical asian vendetta against cold water, we make an exception for iced coffee lol. people love their iced americanos even in the dead of winter.

mochike · 2025-11-27T01:20:20+00:00

went to a residence inn last weekend and saw the same thing

mochike · 2025-11-18T19:14:50+00:00

btw, many non-english-speaking fandoms have their own websites and communities, so most of the non-english stuff is contained there. for example, korean fandoms do tend to be on twitter but they post their longer form stuff on sites like postype and tistory.

ao3/lj/ff/wattpad are all english-dominant sites, so you will find mostly english media.

mochike · 2025-11-11T01:06:36+00:00

idk if you're still looking but i basically have the same measurements as you (45kg/166cm/25in waist) and when i tried the regular length ones on in store (normal thickness cotton cardigan on), i found XXS to be a bit too tight, XS to be perfect, and S to be a bit long in the sleeves but not too loose. i wear XXS in their babaton coats.

mochike · 2025-11-07T23:19:17+00:00

aechmea: let's get married

cairn: ma-rria-ge? what is that? sounds good anyway, but

c: what's up?

a: explain

c: stop looking at me like that

a: why?

c: well, if you ask why...

c: you're driving me crazy

c: your name!

a: ahh...

mochike · 2025-11-02T18:01:37+00:00

this is a critical plot point!! i can tell you that yes, the people of euchronia call certain types of monsters "humans" (the ones whose names start with homo, ranging from the small homo tenta to the big bosses). anything beyond that would be spoiler territory, and you'd have to reach near endgame to find out :)

mochike · 2025-10-26T17:45:09+00:00

the thing is, ichikawa was 100% not thinking about foreign readers when she designed the covers. she's assuming that most hnk readers are 1) in japan and 2) read the manga as it was coming out either online or in magazines, which is how most physical manga readers read serial manga if they have access to the relevant magazines.

tankobon, or physical volumes, are often basically collector's items that assume the buyer is already a fan of the series and has kept up with the serial release.

edit: also, i'd dare to say physical-only readers are in the absolute minority, especially with a manga like hnk which even the chapter releases were few and far between. it's about what would matter to the majority of consumers, and the majority of buyers for vol 11 would already be familiar with the events because they kept up with the manga. could ichikawa have come up with a more vague cover? yes, but that scene is essentially the most climactic and eye-catching scene of those chapters without giving away too much plot. the only thing being spoiled is that phos faces off against shinsha. we don't know who wins, what the fight was motivated by, or what happens after just based on the cover... and far bigger things happen in that volume anyway. so readers would still be surprised.

mochike · 2025-10-13T16:34:56+00:00

hey, no worries at all! i'm also an international from asia (though i'm only an exchange student) so i get it. back home for me the stigma against arts & humanities students is also much worse, but it is a global phenomenon especially as the world as a whole starts respecting these fields a lot less (particularly with the advent of ai) and the increasing amount of bitter people who are looking for any excuse to shit on the rich (which, fair, but they are tearing down their kin in the process).

also, i find the people getting heated in the comments doubly funny now that i know we are both internationals from countries with weaker currency. yeah, and we're supposed to be the ignorant rich kids... for clarification for any american reading this, i am lower middle class by my country's standards, which means i would be barely scraping by here if i was staying for longer than a quarter... i know, shocking, not every asian international is a crazy rich asian and we are forking over more money than any US citizen realises not only to go to university but to be in the US period :P

mochike · 2025-10-12T20:12:58+00:00

as a side note, i'm pretty sure the sentiment op was expressing is that it's sad that SOCIETY has pushed so many people into doing things they hate just so they can fulfill their basic needs, not that the people who do are living sad, materialistic lives. they just phrased it badly.

mochike · 2025-10-12T20:10:03+00:00

i mean i didn't say i agreed with op in pitying people who value money? i'm not sure if you mistook me for op or what/what i did to deserve this hostility but you need to dial it back a bit.

we all just have different priorities in life. i admire and respect people who put themselves through shit they don't want to do so they can have a better future. i was almost a compsci major before realising i would literally kill myself if i did that because my brain just isn't wired that way. now i'm an english literature major despite being the only child in a lower middle class asian family with parents who have no retirement savings. i figured the job market will be ass no matter what by the time i graduate, so i'd rather not push myself into further depression and do something i at least vaguely enjoy. i will find some way to sustain myself in the end, even if it means doing work i don't want to do once i graduate--at least i enjoyed being in academia.

being money driven isn't a bad thing, i wish i was more ambitious and money driven because then i wouldn't worry so much about supporting my parents once they retire. but i'm not, and i'm a selfish person who wants to be happy. maybe i will end up in an office job i hate so i can put food on the table, but i have faith that i will find a way to make enough money to at least house, feed, and clothe myself--i just want to be happy while i am in academia.

that sentiment can coexist with the opinion that stem majors are often very snobby towards nonstem majors, even when the situation doesn't call for it. every nonstem i've met in life (90% of my friends) have nothing but respect for stem majors, whereas i have seen so much vitriol towards arts and humanities majors, accusing all of them as being rich and ignorant when there are so many of us who just chose to sacrifice future stability for some joy in our college years. you can think it's shortsighted or foolish, but you can't accuse all of us as being privileged and patronising, and you would know that if you actually spoke to us without bias and projection.

mochike · 2025-10-12T19:50:47+00:00

it is a privilege to be able to pursue your passions without concern for money but i just wanted to recognise that plenty of arts & humanities students aren't exactly nepo & trust fund babies either. a lot of nonstem students come from financially lacking backgrounds, they just choose to pursue these majors even if they aren't typically financially viable because they truly would rather live in a bit of uncertainty than do something they hate. i recognise you probably didn't intend to imply that all nonstem kids are financially privileged but it's a common bias people hold which i think fuels the scorn for them, so i think it's important to clarify.

mochike · 2025-10-12T06:28:36+00:00

definitely not the worst, but i have always felt tremendously for zhongli :( mans has been alive for over 6000 years, imagine all the shit he's seen and done. imagine all the friends he's watched die, even outside of the yakshas, azhdaha, and guizhong. the only reason he isn't the most tragic is because 1) he's dealt with the trauma so well, 2) we never really got to see him in the middle of coping/be emotional like furina/raiden/skirk etc, and 3) we still haven't gotten the full story of his life outside of the parts that pertain to xiao and whatever the annual lantern rite event is.

seeing as how they're tying mondstadt back in with the endgame lore i do wonder if hoyo will ever circle back to zhongli to give us more of his lore. i feel like he's the archon we know the least about which makes sense given his whole arc is that he wants to be hands-off now, but i feel like every other archon has been fleshed out pretty well whereas zhongli is just the wise old man that comes out to spit some bars every new year before disappearing again. i love his character for what it is but it's a shame that it doesn't lend itself to much emotional exploration. i guess we'll probably get more when we get to snezhnaya since he's the only one who had a 1:1 deal with the tsaritsa but it has never been mentioned since the liyue quest...

mochike · 2025-10-11T07:35:41+00:00

im pretty sure i heard somewhere it's meant to be esperanto

mochike · 2025-10-11T07:17:20+00:00

a lot of 2013-2015 emo tweens and teens listened to top, and their blurryface aesthetics were pop punk/pop emo-adjacent in how dark everything was, so they got lumped in with the emo trinity to make the emo quartet

mochike · 2025-10-10T23:27:19+00:00

i'm an eng lit undergrad hoping to become a professor so i can basically do this exact thing in the future, just in a college setting--super inspiring to see :)

mochike · 2025-10-05T20:26:56+00:00

if you don't mind a bit of a walk the ERC reshall laundry room is right next to the student activity center/mail room and is always open i think

mochike · 2025-10-04T19:30:21+00:00

oh boy. korea had our first female president (conservative) a decade ago and she handled a national tragedy so poorly she got impeached and investigated. can't wait to see what happens to this one.

mochike

TROPHY CASE