On February 10th, just a few blocks from my hotel, an arsonist burned Namdaemun or “South Gate,” in central Seoul. It was one of the oldest original structures dating back 600 years, and had survived the Korea War as well as the various occupations of foreign countries. The Cultural Heritage Administration is stated that it will spend over US$20 million to rebuild the gate over the next three years.

In Seoul, people don’t navigate via street addresses.  Instead, people use landmarks to describe locations. For example, people often give taxi directions in terms of going down a main road and turning at the movie theater.  Namdaemun, then, was an important fixture for more than historic reasons. It also held a function, being used to explain the location of surrounding destinations such as the street markets, malls and office buildings that surround it.

Central Seoul has many palaces, walls and gates which are have reconstructed over many years, and now Namdaemun will join them. The historic sites have been built and rebuilt. Just north of Namdaemun, is Gwanghwamun, another gate dating back to the same period. The structure had gone through several reconstructions. It is also currently being disassembled and moved 15 meters and also rotated to realign it with the Gyeongbok Palace, its original position.

The idea of building and rebuilding cultural historic monuments is fascinating. We think of these structures to be permanent, however like all architecture and cities, they get built, altered, torn down, and rebuilt.

Last weekend, I caught up with Brian, an architect, for breakfast and our usual discussion of Japanese design and culture v. the US. Japan usual wins, and I end up with an urge to visit Tokyo. Afterward, we were both off to our respective offices on the ACE subway line. Brian was going uptown and I was heading downtown. We said good byes and walked down our different platforms, which led to the inevitable awkward sighting across the tracks. I’m never sure what the correct protocol is in the instances, as we already said good bye. If this were Seoul or Tokyo, I’d send an ironic SMS. No such luck. We nodded (but not quite waved) and simultaneously inserted our white earphone to erect our iPod bubbles.

As part of a public art project, vintage cartoonish bronze sculptures by Tom Otterness were installed throughout the 14th Street ACE station. I’m not often in this station these days, moving out of the area right before these sculptures moved in. These admittedly cute, yet slightly deviant, works are beloved by New Yorkers and tourists alike. They are constantly photographed via camera phones and more sophisticated equipment by passers-by. As I stared at this one particular piece “Life Underground,” all I could think about is how I really don’t care for them. And this particular Sunday, I didn’t care for them enough to take our my camera and take a quick snapshot.

I’ve found that the fans of these sculptures (which far out number me) run across education levels and where people live. When I share my opinion with them, I feel like I telling them I hate Santa, bunnies, and spring because the basic reaction is, “how you could not like sometime so cute and fun?” And they do have a point, because I do like some of work of Takashi Murakami. (Is it just because the artist is Japanese, making the work inherently cooler?)

I was going to continue and try to explain in length why they don’t do anything for me. However, the more interesting question is, why is there this (my?) need to constantly defend and formulate critical arguments for what amounts to personal taste?

Well, I am finally posting. Work and life got a little crazy, and something had to give. That something was side projects, like blogging. However, I’m back from a week in Seoul and I’m almost adjusted to this time zone. When I travel, people always seems to tell me to take lots of pictures, which I enviably never do. However, I did manage this time around. Here’s a map of an underground mall in Seoul. These malls and subway stations are sprawling and can cover a few city blocks. Like in Tokyo, directions to a location often tell you the specific exit, which are numbered, you need to take. Getting from one end of the station to another can take twenty minutes to walk on the street, which makes using the correct exit rather important.

On my free day, I took the Circle Line (formerly called Line 2) all the way around. I was going from City Hall to the Coex Mall at the Samseong station, which is not quite half way around. So I went there and returned going the same direction. (Counter clockwise if you’re curious.) Being non-rush hour, it was quite relaxing, and the people watching is always good. It was also much warmer than cold Korean winter air outside.

I decided to forgo the standard shot of a teenager watching television (DMB) or talking on their mobile in the subway. Flickr is full of photo displaying Koreans using the high bandwidth in the subway that we dream about back home. Thankfully, earbuds are always used. Conversations are at low volume, with one hand holding the phone and the other covering the mouth to limit the noise to others.  After a week of seeing it, I started doing it myself. I’m not sure New Yorkers would be so polite, when mobile phones finally work on the MTA. It’s striking how the culture of use evolved differently here.