Dr. Fish Cafe in Myeongdong Sarah Monday, June 16, 2014

Places in Seoul come and go as quick as the weather changes and sometimes it sucks when you fall in love with a place and am not able to find it again. Coming back this time, there were some memory etched eateries, shops and places I wanted to revisit, yet they have either closed, moved with no new location listed, or just MIA for no reason at all. It's only been two years, but I feel the pace of things in Korea, and for that matter, Asia, is so much quicker than that of North America.

Thus, I really felt a need to make a post about the infamous "Dr.Fish" Cafe in Seoul as it felt like my friends and I took a while before we finally discovered its location after going out of our way to hunt it down specifically. I love reading travel blogs and insights bloggers have to share as I'm one myself, but the only downfall is that blogs are not in real-time, as in it isn't written the day the reader reads it and wants to do or go to what is suggested. Thus, I must put a disclaimer that as of June 2014 this cafe is existing (moved from Gangnam,where it use to be located two years ago). 

Inside of "Dr.Fish" cafe (4th Flr)

So I never got to go to this cafe to get my dead skin on my feet eaten two years ago, but ironically I was able to get it done a few times during my SEA trip. However, my friends had never tried it before so we really wanted to go knowing how diverse and abundant the cafe culture here in Seoul is. Even though we had very precise directions from one blog about its hidden location in Gangnam, we traveled all the way there to only find out it was gone. Thankfully on another day, my Korean friend used Naver (the Korean equivalent to Google) to hunt down its present location and fingers cross, it still exists, but in Myeongdong now.

Directions

In terms of directions, I think the best I can give is to exit out of Eulgiro Ipgu station (green line) exit 5 where you will be coming out of the back end of Myeongdong. Then either ask for directions from people on the street or  figure out how to get directions to go to Hotel Sky Park Central via maps (I'm sure giving this as a landmark will be much more permanent then eateries and shops that close and open so often) which is about a 5-6 minute walk away. From the entrance of the hotel, look across the street and there should be a building with the a green tree symbol on one of the floors (the space/design looks very natural and rustic like). On the main floor where the entrance of the building is, there is a sign with these words "나무그늘" which literally translates to "the shade of a tree" cafe and it resides from the 4th to the 6th floor. Take the elevator up to the fourth floor and voila, you have arrived! The cost is only 3000W for 20 minutes, but you have to also purchase at least one drink on the menu in order to get this service done (4000-7000W). It's not bad at all for a cafe like this and as there was a promotion going on, we even got a free toast with the purchase of two drinks (honey bread mmmm!). 

Find this hotel entrance (the fish cafe is in a building across the street!)

Sign on the main street of the building-walk or take the elevator to the 4th floor

You make your purchase on the 4th flr than proceed to the 5th flr for the Dr. fish experience

The procedure

All in all it was worth the experience and the cafe is very comfortable while the fish tank is sanitized and highly hygienic. Even if you didn't want to try the fish experience, this is a great cafe to just relax and chill at.

If there are any questions, please comment below as I know how frustrating it can be not being able to find something! 

Shop like Home, Eat like Home Sarah Tuesday, March 27, 2012

I really felt like blogging today and though nothing special happened, I shall talk until something perhaps significant comes along.

I thought I had missed out on telling of the damage I did on Saturday. What started as a spontaneous buddy shopping day turned into a trio and soon a quartet of broken wallets. I have been deprived of a really good shopping day. Street shopping is fun and diverse, but I realize I have been craving store shopping. Myeondong had the best of both worlds, so I headed there with the intention of setting a budget and breaking it (I know tsk tsk). I was so happy to be in Forever 21 and immediately felt guilty upon leaving wondering why I had just shopped so much there when I could do so at home. Well, I justified it with the fact that I don't go to F21 as often as I like to since it's a far and inconvenient trip from where I live in Edmonton. Also, as it was started by a Korean couple, I thought I might as well support their location in their home country, and lastly, because I miss it so-that's enough of a justification to me. However, to my surprise, I found lots of sale items and F21 at home never has sales (well only crappy leftovers), and everything I bought was less than what it would cost on the street-especially stuff not labeled with a price on it (the seller usually jacks up the price if your a foreigner, therefore speak Korean and be assertive on getting a discount).One of my friends usually fills out a form for tax refunds when she spends quite a bit at one store. I always thought it was for custom purposes until she told me that if you keep your receipts and have a tax refund form filled out from that store, then when you leave the country, you are eligible for about 10% (depending on the store) of the tax you paid back (tax is 9% in Korea and usually included in the price tag already). It sounds fairly little and insignificant when the items are cheap, but being here for a semester can add up to a few bills back in your pocket.

Unfortunately, I found this out after I had paid and left F21. I guess this tip will be for future shopping trips. Otherwise, even though Myeondong was busy and crowded as expected for a Saturday, us girlies were satisfied with our store and street shopping and headed for dinner at Pizza Hut. Again, why are we eating at a place where we can eat back home? Well, because we wanted to try bulgogi pizza and this popular sweet potato crust. Pizza here is not cheap, its about the same as home or a little more. No surprises when you acknowledge that most western food places are considered higher end here. But again, our taste buds were happy with pizza selections you can only savour in Korea.

Well, nothing really significant came about in this post, except the fact that its okay to be doing non-Korean activities in Korea. Having these places gives you a piece of home and happiness. Sometimes, that's just all you need to make a day special.