Shopping culture in Korea

Hello hello~

I have been super busy lately as I started new part-time job and I got also my free days booked full. I kind of dug my own grave xD Finally I have a free day I don't have anything specific so I have time to write this post.

Because I'm hyped about my South-Korean trip I will continue my post series with introducing shopping culture in Korea. I will go to details about restaurants and cafe's in next post because otherwise this post would be reeeeeeeeeeally long. Note; these are all my own experiences.

Manners in cosmetic stores

Every country have different manners how to act in stores and how sales assistants acts towards you. I thought to mention korean cosmetic stores specifially as there might come the biggest surprise for you which might be even uncomfortable (especially for finns who like their own space lol). In cosmetic stores sales assistants usually approach you quickly, they ask if they can be of any help and even when you say 'you are looking' or 'I don't need help' they will in 90% of cases continue to follow you. They will be right next to you and follow you through the store. Most of them don't speak english (except maybe in Myeongdong stores) but they still follow you. If you touch a product they assume you are interested in it and they usually pick up the product for you to try and are almost ready to put the product to your shopping basket. So to avoid this, don't touch products you are not interested at all ^^;;; Well, you can obviously say you are not interested to sales assistant but then they will proceed to introduce some other product to you...
Note; in some stores sales assistants leave you alone because you're foreigner but in tourist spots they will surely approach you.

 By the way, in cosmetics stores they have these mini shopping baskets, they usually have some samples inside for you to keep for free. But if you are given a shopping basket or you take one yourself, sales assistants expect you to buy something from their store. So until you are sure you're going to buy something, don't take a shopping basket (I did this couple times and when I didn't buy anything I was given a mean look..)
 In some stores sales assistants who follow you offer to take your shopping basket and they will carry it for you. When you are ready to pay you just have to say you're done or if you don't speak korean and they don't speak english then gesture towards cashier table.

It's very common that cosmetic stores will give you free samples, especially if you buy alot. They also have campaigns that if you buy something let's say with 50,000won they will give you bag/notebook/something extra. Cosmetic stores also have 1+1 or 2+1 offers very often which basically means buy one get one free etc. They just mark it that way rather than with a sentence. And if you are interested in a product that has this offer, sales assistants will mention it to you buy saying one plus one / two plus one. They use this expression in english which is funny, they never say it in korean.

Cosmetic stores have usually one person outside trying to attract customers to visit their store. They mostly have free samples in their hands and if you take that, they expect you to buy something from their store. If you don't, they see you as a rude person (they will let you keep the sample anyway).

And just a side note; cosmetic stores allow you to take photos of products but they do not allow you to film videos (I think only few cosmetic chains don't mind so it's better to not take videos at all to not get yelled at).

Other

Often people are confused when they go to pay and there are some mannerism that are unique to Korea. But because you're a foreigner, it is usually forgiven if you make a mistake. When you pay by card or cash, give it either with two hands or with your right hand while your left hand is below you right hand's elbow (or your wrist). This is a gesture to show your politeness and respect towards the store/restaurant/any cashier. Sales assistant/cashier will do the same to you to show respect (they will bow to you also when you leave the store/restaurant/etc) and you should receive change/your card back with same gestures.
If you forget to do this gesture, don't worry they will not mind as you are foreigner and they will not expect you to know their mannerisms. But if you do, they will respect you even more.

Stores usually have displays outside which is strange to western people; we are used to that if you leave something outside unattended, it will be stolen quickly. But Korea has very low criminal rates and if you have something stolen from you in Korea, you are extremely extremely unlucky.
So, if you walk through the streets you will notice soon that like every second store have some displays outside.

Seoul has limited space, many people and tough competition from customers. That's why many stores are in different floors, it feels really packed in most neighborhoods. So when you're shopping keep your head up to check out what 2nd and 3rd floors in buildings offer. For example in Myeongdong ground level is full of cosmetic stores while 2nd and 3rd might host great restaurants, cafes and sometimes clothing and cd shops. Sometimes entrance to these shops that are in other floors are through ground level store, sometimes through small staircase in between ground level stores.

In Korea decorations tend to be grand scale. Especially in ground level stores. They have big decorations and even bigger billboards. Billboards often show if they have sales going so definetly keep that in mind if you are on a budget.

Popular stores to shop clothes, decorations, lifestyle stuff etc. are Åland (yup, Åland), Lotte department stores, Home Plus, Forever21, Top shop, Mixxo, Artbox, Butter and so on. There's especially many unique stores in Korea that don't belong to any chain where you can get many affordable items and in these you can bargain.
Popular cosmetic stores are for example Nature Republic, Innisfree, Missha, Etude House, Aritaum, Tonymoly and Holika Holika.

Some shops offer tax free over 50,000won purchase and they will usually automaticly fill you tax free form but you can also ask shops if they have tax free service. Interesting note; in Lotte department store Myeongdong there's small post office where you can send your purchase straight to your home so that you don't even have to carry it around. I think it's great service if you want to buy something but your luggage is already full. Oh, and sending post package from Korea is extremely cheap for western people (finns know the pain of sending even small stuff with overly expensive price).


I hope this was useful information :) Until next time~

Sightseeing and other events

Hi everyone :)

I'll start my post from last week's thursday, I went to watch korean movie Train to Busan with my friends. There was this movie festival in Helsinki where our biggest movie distributor company showed movies they don't normally take to their program. And there was Train to Busan which was box hit in Korea even though it's a zombie movie :,D I don't normally like horror at all but it was ok because it was more on the action side than scary horror.

On Saturday I went to Linda's birthday and had fun time there~ Linda had baked cheesecake for the first time and it was delicious! If I would try the same I would propably burn it xD

Then on Sunday and Monday I met with my korean friend who I know from one online app, he was visiting Finland for couple days before continuing his trip to Sweden. I enjoyed going around Helsinki even though it was a bit tiring because we walked alot lol. First we visited Suomenlinna (fortress of Finland). I haven't visited there for the longest time so it was nice for me too to see if it has changed or not. It actually had a bit, there were alot of construction work going on. I didn't remember that it was sunday so museums were all closed in the morning or either opening very late.. so a little disappointment but anyways we enjoyed going around and exploring.

After arriving back to mainland in Helsinki, we went to Senaatintori (Senate Square) and after my friend was done taking photos there we were so hungry we went to eat. It's a shame there was only either veeeeery expensive finnish restaurants or asian restaurants near... or mcdonalds lol. We decided to go to one japanese restaurant and ate kind of fried rice dish. I'm horrible host lmao I took an asian person to eat asian food in Finland when I should have introduced our food culture xD but we were so hungry xD

After eating big lunch at Momotoko we went to rest a little to Esplanade park. Coincidentally there happened to be food festival.. but we had just eaten lol so we just looked around and sat on a bench.

Then we were wondering where we should go next and decided to go to Sibelius monument. My friend wanted to visit there, I guess it's very popular among asians because almost every asian knows it. It's not so popular among finnish people because it's just ordinary park for us where just happens to be a big monument :P

We were starting to get a bit tired but still went to Temppeliaukio church xD After it we just sat down in one bar in Kamppi, just talked awhile and then I had to leave. My friend stayed in Kamppi.

Next day we met up again and we wanted to visit Seurasaari but it had just been closed last week :,( bad luck.. so we just walked around Hakaniemi and visited Hakaniemi old market (Hakaniemen kauppahalli). Then we just walked around Helsinki center until my friend had to go check-in to Silja Line for his trip to Stockholm. I said bye to him at the terminal. Bye the way, before going to terminal we had lunch at Kauppatori where my friend tasted finnish food but it was soooo expensive for like a plate of couple potatos and little piece of salmon. So if you have foreign friends coming to visit seriously, search restaurants in Helsinki beforehand xD I did a mistake of not searching and we ended up eating expensive lunch. (They have high prices in Kauppatori because there is so many tourists).

Anyway, I had busy monday because right after saying bye to my friend I had to hurry home because I had my korean language lessons in the evening. It was funny, after I said to my friend I study korean and have been trying to study by myself for 4 years, he started speaking more and more korean with me and now he sends me messages only in korean xD much stress though because I'm very slow writing in korean and he writes so faaaast and I'm like slow dooooown xD but he always waits patiently my answer if he asks me something because I usually have to check one or two words from translator.. because even though I know the word, I usually mess up writing it so I have to be sure I'm not writing it wrong... or the sentence might get totally different meaning xD At least now I get to train my korean skills :D

This weekend

Yesterday I met up with Annina and went to autumn market to Tikkurila. It was a big market event and we had nice time just walking around. We also discovered a new cafe; Kahvi Charlotta which was right opposite of dixi. They have one cafe in Kamppi apparently and they will be opening third to esplanade. I liked interior design of this cafe and they make coffee from fresh beans which was totally pleasant surprise~ And customer service was excellent, I'm totally recommending this place :) Also, their carrot cake was yummy :P

Recommending~

So what are the things I have been enjoying these couple weeks?
Well, one is a korean action drama that started last week: The K2. It tells a story of an ex-soldier Kim Jae Ha (played by Ji Chang Wook) who ends up being a bodyguard to one Assemblyman's wife and his illegitimate daughter. Je Ha couldn't care less of anything at first because of his dark past but he has his own reasons which eventually makes him agree to work for Assemblyan's wife. He gets codename K2 and that's why this drama's name is K2. 4 episodes have been aired and it has been very action packed with interesting characters. I'm totally hooked. I'm also recommending The K2's first OST song, it's addictive especially from the chorus:

Also cosmetics I have been liking:

Lancome Hydra Zen neurocalm. This was very moisturizing face cream and it has pleasant texture. I got this with discount but I know it's normally quite pricy. Anyway, I liked this because it spreads well even though it at first seem heavy (it really isn't). And it made my face feel so soft! Repurchasing it if it appears on sale sometime. You can get it almost from everywhere where they sell high-end brands.

The Face Shop x Kakao melting color lip creamer. This has become one of my utmost favorite lipsticks! It's very creamy and hydrating without being too much if you know what I mean. It has very pretty, light peach color which shade is 12. Plus packaging is very cute! You can get this for example in ibuybeauty.


Next post is up in about 2 weeks. This week I'm going to Helsinki zoo free event on tuesday and on friday to Linnanmäki amusement park light carnival (it officially starts on Saturday but I got invitation to private event :P ).