Korea On Fleek 2023 - Seoul Saturday

When I studied abroad at Yonsei in 2002 Isaac toast just started and we'd eat it late night after drinking in Sinchon. Wikipedia says it was founded in 2003 but that ain't right. It also says theres over 600 locations in South Korea now and expanding internationally so good for them. Still good after all these years, this is the one in North Hongdae. Like Japan, nothing opens before like 11 am so if you want breakfast you have few options

AK Plaza in Hongdae has a floor of anime stuff including the very psychologically perplexing genre called Boys Love where its stories about boy's loving each other and it does get sexual but its also not sexual for the mostly female fandom, it's perplexing

Steven was delighted to find Capri Sun in a vending machine and said it was a childhood staple. Come on man, that's what we drank every day in school and Britian just stole it from us

Big Yoo family lunch on Jen's Dad's side of the family. We set at the end not being able to speak Korean

The many many courses kept flying at us fast and furiously, at one point the waitress said we need to eat faster. At one point the worst thing i've ever eaten in Korea was presented, this fermented fish. It was insanely effervescent when you put it in your mouth, it tasted like carbonated mildew and it was insanely chewy and had a bone in the middle and I had to chew it for like 2 minutes straight and the whole time trying not to bail. They said to Steven why don't you try another one and he obliged as our resident foreigner clown.  

Abalone. Korean mother of pearl is from Abalone shells but I read that you can get mother of pearl from other mollusks

After lunch we had a small window of time to do an idea Bob and I cooked up a few months ago. We had been talking about tattoos, bob surprisingly was thinking about some tattoos and I've always been like its so hard to choose a tattoo that I won't regret later. Then we were talking about getting name stamps made and the idea was born that we should get our name stamps tattooed in our mother country on Bob's first time in Korea since being born there.

What kind of narcissist gets their name tattooed on themselves? Well here goes. This is something i've been avoiding making known to the general public for all my life, even now. I'm adopted. From Korea. In 1981. I was part of the 100,000+ Korean children adopted by Americans in the 70s and 80s. I'm not close to being as militant about the Korean adoption thing as some people who call this child export or the adoption trade. Korean culture at the time, and still today, is patrilineal with the father passing down his bloodline and there is much discrimination if you don't fit into that. A child conceived out of wedlock does not get their father's name and is illegitimate and discriminated against and stigmatized and otherwise unwanted by society.

What's in a name? They connect us to our past, our origins. As a Korean adoptee there's a lot wrapped up in that. Our names were taken from us and we were given English names. I'm not blaming our parents, this was what happened back then, even most Asian friends I know all got english names. None the less we lost our names and along with that our culture, heritage, identity, our history. I became Jason Ho Raish, American boy that extremely did not look "American" in our 3 stop light western New York state town. It was swell in grade school having the part of my Korean name "Ho" kept as my english middle name, my classmates had a real good time with that. All my life i've just wanted to be "normal". I've not wanted to be pitied or looked at as fortunate or a freak or a filthy bastard. I wanted SO desperately to be white. I'd go to bed and hoped I would wake up a caucasian person. When I introduce myself as Jason Raish to other Asian people, especially Asian Americans, an eyebrow gets raised and they wonder, what kind of a last name is Raish? And they usually shrug assuming it's some rare Korean surname. But Koreans, they know its not a Korean last name and I have to choose to either explain why my surname is Raish or do what I usually do and avoid explaining it in an attempt to be a "normal" (Korean/Asian) person. I am normal to neither Koreans nor Americans. 

My brother Robert Raish is also adopted from Korea, not of the same blood, 3 years after me. He's been on his own journey and we've grown up together in that same 3 stop light town since the day he arrived in America. Standing on the soil from whence we came, we got a relic from our personal pasts tattooed on us forever. I'm claiming this name back and acknowledging at the same time i'm still Jason Raish. It's complicated and heavy and rarely am I reminded of it or think about it but I shouldn't forget about it. It's a crazy thing, I used to have a completely different name, a completely different life. It's crazy that I was viewed as an abomination and still am by many Koreans today. I know a name is just a bunch of letters and in the end I'm confident in who I am but it's also a symbol, and symbolizes so much. Now its tattooed on my body as a permanent reminder and as a stationary marker in time reminding me where i've come from and how far i've progressed and how far i've got to go. My name is Jason Raish. My name is Park Nam Ho. I am Korean. I am adopted. I need to go moisturize my tattoo. I've got healing to do.

in Korea only licensed medical practitioners, not unlicensed tattoo artists are legally allowed to give tattoos. Needing a medical license eliminates pretty much everyone. Tattoo parlors don't display a sign but somehow can promote on social media and be ok. Bob found this place called Hongdae Tattoo Korea that's tatted tons of celebs and k-pop stars, they speak english. It was an apt building and i was feeling sketched out but then once inside its like a normal tattoo parlor. They were very good and professional and maybe cost more than other other places but at a freelance illustrator I didn't want to debate another artists work and also don't mind paying more for something permanent. I don't want to get a budget tattoo.

immediately after getting tatted we had to rush to Noryangjin fish market to meet Jen's parents for dinner. We were like 45 min late but we had no choice this was the only time we could get these meaningful souvenirs. We were googling how to care for a tattoo on the way and it said don't sweat which is impossible in Korean summer cuz you just sweat being outside its so humid 

wasn't easy finding this place her parents were at 수산회관

lots of sashimi and shellfish (on theme we were all still stuffed)

thats crown daisy (edible chrysanthemum) ssukgat on top which we grow in our rooftop garden

after extracting all the crab they'll take it and give it the fried rice treatment

after Noryanjin Bob went home and we went to Itaewon to meet my Beijing roommate Nana and her Korean husband and their friend John. On our way home I diverted our Uber to stop near hongdae station so we could find a fastfood burger and what we did find was the Burgerry place.