The Market

I live in a small apartment building directly beside the 'number one' train, which can bring me to the airport or to the capital, Seoul, depending on which direction I take it.  In my first week here I decided to explore the city on the other side of the tracks a bit and was wonderfully surprised when, in the process of crossing the tracks, the sidewalk I was on dipped down a large flight of stairs into a bustling marketplace!  The market is essentially a long alleyway, maybe a good 5-10 minute hike, with a half cylinder glass roof stretching its length and shops lining left and right.  These shops all have big metal pull up/down doors which are used to safeguard merchandise when vendors close up shop for the night.  All shops unpack their stores every morning so that their goods spill into the alleyway on wooden boxes, tables, and sometimes just blankets. You can find just about everything at this market: Produce, live seafood, butcher's shops, preserved and packaged goods, shoes, clothing, umbrellas, toys, restaurants, coffee wagons,  and there is even a pet store. 

But by far, the most awesome thing about the market, is that you can find many strange edibles.  I have found leafy greens and fruits I have never seen before, butterfly chrysalises, every part of the animal - including whole BBQ pigs heads -, 'mud fish', eels, lots of live crabs, barks, strange roots, dozens of types of Kim Chi (Spiced fermented cabbage), and most recently chunks of honeycomb with live bees and bee larva included!  I will try to make make a video of the place sometime... 

The market is always cheaper than the massive shopping centers, which deserve a post all to themselves some time.  Plus, at the market, although there is the occasional gagging stench of rotting fish, at least you don't have to put up with this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNPLVOk-nj8