A Connecticut Yankee in King Louis' Court: Phoracter-y

"Actually, I prefer my food more on the DEAD side of life..." This picture is particularly salient because it's not uncommon here to actually eat LIVE octopus. That's right, you put the whole thing into your mouth and swallow. I understand that it's sort of a battle, because if you don't swallow aggressively enough the octopus can choke you to death in any effort to, you know, NOT be swallowed.

I guess Koreans really love neologisms made from bizarre combinations of English words. For instance, there's a restaurant near me called "Food+Feeling=Fooding." I didn't take me long to observe that another viable solution to this lexical equation (lexiquation?) would yield "Fooling." Below, you can see another example of this linguistic inanity (linguinanity?).

I found this poster in a pharmacy window. I have no idea what it's advertising. Something for prostrate trouble?

I get a "Lost in Translation" moment whenever I see a sign like this. Which happens frequently. New York is so far away it just feels ABSURD for people here to fetishize "authentic" New York culture. Especially when it's anything but authentic.

This is a clothing store at Gangnam Station, which is sort of like the Grand Central Station of Seoul. If you can't read the name of the store, it's "my freetimes change my life. sometimes luxurious. sometimes pretty and sexual."

Would you care for the Crunch Shrimp or the Squid Ring? Both of these items can be found at Lotteria, a Korean fast-food chain (read my earlier post on the Lotte brand name). For an entertaining (and very cute) Lotteria commercial featuring penguins, click here.