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Field notes: a summer week in Seoul

Richard Lee<richard-y-lee@hotmail.com>·
// Field Notes// 2 min read

July in Seoul is a wet heat that arrives before you’re awake and stays past midnight. I've learned to move between air-conditioned islands: the subway car, timing the bus down to the second, and when I walk the streets a Mega Coffee in my hand.

A storm clearing over a Seongnam-daero road sign at sunset, the last of the clouds lit gold against a cooling blue sky.
the sky clearing out after a July storm, Seongnam

Three small things

  • The 24-hour everything. A country where you can get a decent meal, a haircut, and a phone repaired at 2am rearranges what you think a day is.
  • Walking as default. Density means the fifteen-minute city is just… the city. Most of what I need is a short walk and a shorter subway ride.
  • Rain that means it. Monsoon season doesn’t drizzle. You have better odds with russian roulette vs the weather forecast. You learn to always take the umbrella.
A row of drying umbrellas of every color lined up along a wet tile floor just inside a building entrance.
the umbrella rack by the door — everyone's, lined up to dry

I wonder, does Korea have fire marshalls?