How to get into music shows recordings and fansigns in Korea

Triggered by lots of enquiries on how to get into these two places, I’m finally going to make a post that I can directly link people to once and for all!! This is way overdue because the last time I went to these two events was like forever. Nevertheless, better late than never right?

This content is kinda irrelevant to most of my blog that’s been focusing on travel, food and cafe, but nevertheless still a very Korean themed post that might be helpful to some people out there who want to add music shows or fansigns into their Korea itinerary!

I don’t strive to be THE accurate guide, and there are plenty of other guides out there that i’d suggest you cross-refer to for absolute accuracy.

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KOREAN MUSIC SHOWS
how to get into music shows and what to expect

NOTE: I am only going to talk about my experience with SM Entertainment. The reason I’m saying this is because other groups’ fans have different systems of letting fans into music shows, but SM has a group of fan staff that handle the procedures the same way across the artistes in SM.

• Basic Music Shows Info

Five main shows.

Wednesday: Show Champion | UNIQLO-AX, 20 Gucheonmeyon-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul | Gwangnaru Station (line 5), Exit 2

Thursday: Mnet M Countdown | CJ E&M Center, 1606 Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul | Digital Media City Station (line 6), Exit 2 (take bus 7711 from across the street and stop at 상암DMC, or cab… it’s not really walkable)

Friday: Music Bank | KBS, 18 Yeouido-dong, Youngdeunpo-gu, Seoul | National Assembly Station (line 9), Exit 4

Saturday: Music Core | MBC Dream Centre, Janghang-dong, Ilsan-donggu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do | Jeongbalsan Station (line 3), Exit 1

Sunday: Inkigayo | SBS Hall, 58-1 Deungchon-dong, Gangseo-gu, Seoul | Gayang Station (line 9), Exit 10

I’ve noticed for SNSD at least that Show Champion is the least regular for them. Music Core is the hardest to go to as it’s in freaking Gyeonggi. I’ve never tried to go for Music Core or Show Champion. Mnet M Countdown seems to be the easiest perhaps due to the weekday timing and standing pit system compared to others. Mubank and Inkigayo are equally accessible, with seating systems.

Most music shows take in about 150-300 fans, depending on circumstances.

• How to get a queue number for the music show?

There is this group of young people that work with SM and broadcasting stations called the ‘fan staff’. They are people acquainted with the insiders and have the authority to organize the fans going into music shows. We follow their system. They are the mafia bosses.

Look for SM Staff’s notice | The SM fan staff will put up a notice days prior to the recording. This timing can range. I’ve heard notices being put up 2 days earlier, and some just a few hours before the meeting time. It’s hard to know but just keep yourself updated on social media. It’s good to follow people who regularly go. I used to hear from Zenn that they would post on their fan cafes but it seemed to have stopped and she was caught by surprise several times. I use Twitter to see if anyone has seen the notice. I’m sorry I don’t have a more solid way for finding out, i’m sure other blogs may have though. Going in the morning/afternoon the day before is usually safe, but be prepared to wait if the sign’s not up yet.

Your next step is to find this notice. It’s very elusive in some cases like Music Bank where it was put on a tree across the road. Nevertheless, here is an example.

Mubank was on a tree, Mcountdown is on a heart-sy wall near the entrance of CJ E&M (Cold Stone area), Mucore was on the ground OTW to the broadcasting station (refer to first photo of this post). Just keep a sharp lookout and also look for fans crowding around. You can only attend one artiste or group’s recording so please don’t get it wrong LOL.

Get a virtual queue number | Take a selfie with the notice & send the selfie together with your name and contact number to the number stated on the notice. They will reply you with a queue number. Generally, below 100 is the most ideal. Below 50 is great. Above 100 may be risky but usually i’ve seen them take in fans up to 200-300. I’d still say risky because sometimes when incidents crop up and music show directors get angry at fans (for disobeying rules for example), they cut the number down to 100.

Roll Call Timing | The time you see on the notice above (AM 11:00) is when you have to turn up to take the roll call. This is for Music Bank and roll call was on the same day as recording. More often than not however, the roll call is the night before the recording so you could find the notice in the morning to get the queue number and return the same night for roll call. We all got really lazy after the first time and at the subsequent music show, just turned up an hour before the roll call at night, thus getting really lousy queue numbers haha.

Roll Call Location | For music bank it’s a little confusing as the gathering area is inside. You’ll have to enter the main cafeteria area first and exit again to see a vast area with red pillars and benches. For the other two music shows, gathering area is the same as the notice area.

DO NOT MISS THE ROLL CALL! They will slash your name and fans are eager to shout that you’re not present after the first couple of times the fan staff calls your name. Some fan staff are bad with pronouncing English names so it helps if you understand Korean numbers as they would call that out too. If you’re worried, just go up there and ask to see their board, they’re usually nice and would let you see if it’s your name. I noticed that some international fans offer to help call out the difficult names, in return for that.

• How does the SM staff queueing system actually work? What happens on the day of the recording?

Your current queue number that you’ve received is not your final one, meaning number 20 does not mean you’re 20 on the line.

Fan Categories | Fans are divided into 5 categories. The first 4 categories are for official fans who paid for membership when application was open. I’m not completely sure of the exact details of these 4 categories but i know it’s a permutation and combination of official fans who purchased online and offline albums. As an unofficial fan, you’re default D-5 in category. What this means is that all the D1-4 taking queue numbers after you will still go in before you. So you could be 150 and 50 D1-4s took numbers after you, and you will still be kicked if they only let in 200. Yeah. World’s not fair.

First roll call | Turn up for the roll call at stated timing on the notice. They call by order of number and eliminate those not present. And then they tell you what time to turn up the next day. BE PUNCTUAL.

Second roll call | When you appear again according to the timing they told you to come, they will do a second roll call. This is when they put you in line accordingly. The fan staff will then go down the line later on to write your new queue number after eliminating the people. During Mubank when the recording was in the afternoon, there was only one roll call that happened in the morning and they immediately wrote our new queue numbers. It can differ greatly based on the recording timings so play by ear and just turn up accordingly at the timings they tell you to. BE PUNCTUAL

Note that until they’ve written your categories, you can’t be sure than you can go in, even if your queue number is safely below 100 after eliminating absentees.

Third roll call (album check) | They will now check for official memberships and albums, and write your category. Make sure you have the latest album. You are default D-5 only with the latest album. You are D-nothing with no album goodbye go home A for effort F for research. :c You must have the latest album, the album they are promoting at that moment and the one you’re trying to attend the music show recordings for. Believe me when I say they are very anal when it comes to bring albums. One Korean brought the most recent SNSD’s album CD in the album case of an older album, and she was rejected flat out. She argued all she could but they wouldn’t until she bought another one. So don’t risk it. Don’t even take out anything from the album just in case LOL

Break | After writing your categories, they will usually dismiss everyone for a ‘break’ and tell you what time to return. It lasts usually about 1-2 hours and fans disperse to find cafes or places to chill at. Rush. Rush to a cafe. Rush to A Twosome place if you’re at Mnet. Rush to Cafe Citta area if you’re at Inkigayo. Rush to the cafeteria to find a seat if you’re at Mubank. RUSH. There will be an ocean of people and you don’t want to have to stand.

Final waiting time | Stand back in line at the stated timing. They will rearrange your queues into the categories. At this point you’re safe to be in the quota of people to go in if they didn’t dismiss you (from my experience everyone usually gets in), unless of last minute crop-ups. Now all you have to do is wait.  And talk to the people around you if you’re up for it.  The wait can be really long. My average would be about 5 hours from the time I turned up at the veune to the time I get into the music show. So at this point after you’re settled into your categories, you may have to wait about 2 hours or so. They may release you for another break, but it depends on delays.

waiting in the cold in February~

And then once they get the cue, they’ll let you in. D1 first. Followed by D2. Etc. Basically it’s normal to end up at the back although you took a nice queue number like 40 for example. For Inki and Mubank, you go in immediately and see the loves of your lives. For Mnet, i felt cheated because we went into another waiting area near the recording room. Hahaha. The final final waiting time.

And there you have it. As detailed as I can ever manage. Phew, that was taxing. Live music shows is an entirely different queue and I’ve never experienced it so i won’t talk about it at all.

• Important things to note for music shows

1. Have the artistes’ latest album that they’re promoting
2. Be punctual for all roll calls
3. Do not scream individual members’ names, you can only cheer and follow fanchants. This is important because directors have cut quotas because of annoying name-calling
4. Do not take photos. If directors get angry you could implicate the fandom from attending future shows
5. Prepare for a long wait! Bring things to do if necessary!

• Where to get albums in Seoul

There are no lack of stores to buy KPOP albums, you can refer to this site for a pretty comprehensive list of stores available to buy them from. I recommend getting from Hot Tracks. The ones at Gwanghwamun Station (Line 5, exit 2, connected underground) and Sinnohyeon Station (Line 9, exit 7, connected underground) are very convenient to access. AND they count towards Hanteo charts!

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FANSIGNS
how to get into fansigns and what to expect

It’s notoriously hard to get into fansigns of popular groups in Korea, and what i’m about to write is only going to help you find out how to get in, but does not guarantee being able to get in. You’ll see why.

• How to get into a fansign?

Find out who is organizing it | Find out the details of the fansign. The companies working together with SM to organize the fansigns will post the details on their website. These are all in Korean so it’s good to be updated on Twitter to search for announcements of fansigns and for translations of tweets regarding it. The organizing companies will post the dates of the fansign(s) they’re organizing, the location of the fansign, the members turning up, the number of fans allowed to attend the fansign, the number of fans allowed to watch the fansign etc…… and also where to buy the albums. The last point is important to take note of. You have to buy albums from their stated stores to get a chance at the fansign. Bringing me to my next point~

The lottery system | The organizing company uses a lottery system to determine who gets into the fansign. So for every album you buy at their stated store, they give you a slip of paper to fill in. So if you buy 50 albums, you get 50 slips of paper, which equates to 50 chances at the lottery. They have a limited time period (usually 2 days) for you to get the albums from them, that’s the only period window for you to have a chance at the fansign. Albums bought before or after that period are not part of the fansign event.

This is how you get into a fansign. You buy albums from the organizing party’s stated store. You get chances. You participate in the lottery. You hope for the best. That’s why I said it’s not guaranteed.

You will know the results of the lottery about a day or two later. It’s really fast. They will post details of the lottery on their website (which again is in Korean, so Twitter is a good way to get the link to the list of lottery ‘winners’).

• How many albums should I get?

The golden question. One i can’t answer myself. I have to say it depends. First of all, on the artiste(s) you’re supporting and the members turning up for the fansign. When I was trying for SM the Ballad fansign, we purposely chose the fansign that had only Taeyeon and Jonghyun. The other fansign had more idols from SM The Ballad including EXO, which would make our chances very slim. So we pooled all our album purchases into the TaeJong only fansign.

For that SMTB fansign, Zenn and I bought 15 albums each, and we both got in.

For the subsequent SNSD Mr Mr promotions, there were lots of fansigns. One of them had OT9, which we ruled out completely. There were two fansigns that happened at the same time, so the members split up. We tried for that day, choosing the fansign with Taeyeon in it. We bought 10 albums each and none of us got in. I heard about my friends who bought 30 albums each and they didn’t get in either. I’ve also heard about my friend who tried for IGAB promotios and pooled 15 albums each into both OT9 fansigns, but only got one of them.

So really all i can say is it depends. On your judgement, on your luck. Fansigns remain one of the hardest and unpredictable things in my opinion. It’s not necessarily expensive if you are able to sell off your albums (we sold off all of ours at the cost price), but that’s also a very hard and tedious task. I’m sorry if this post destroyed your hopes in getting a secure fansign opportunity this is partly why when a lot of people gush saying how lucky i was to get a fansign, some part of me bitterly reminisced the distance traveled to purchase those albums, the torture bringing boxes of albums back, the painstaking efforts selling them off, shipping them back, and all the stress received generally. Haha. It’s not all luck, it’s effort too. Music shows is like very little luck and lots of effort hahaha.

• When are fansigns usually held?

Usually fansigns happen about 2-3 weeks after the artiste/group’s first comeback promotion. Fansigns are a means for agencies to increase album sales, and about 3 weeks after comeback is a perfect time to start boosting sales after the initial rave has died down. Some fansigns are spread out over two weeks, some happen in the same week. If you’re in Korea for a group’s promotions, you can usually predict when a fansign will happen.

• What happens during the fansign?
  

I’ve only attended one fansign so my knowledge is limited but I will try. You will take a random number which will designate your sitting area. I got 60ish at that time which was in the 5th row, a little to the side. It wasn’t first row but it was still a great view!! ❤ When you enter, they give you a piece of post-it for you to write your name on it, and some also write message. I don’t think you’re allowed to ask them questions but i know lots of people do, secretly maybe?

They will line people up row by row to go up stage to meet the idols. As you are waiting in line, they will check your album and your post-it to make sure there isn’t anything weird. Then they will tell you not to run and walk calmly. Hahaha. Then you go up there and freaking meet your idol!!! Stay calm (or not) and remember the experience 5ever.

• Private vs Public fansign

If you’re a KPOP fan reading this, I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of fansigns. Those are the public locations. You can figure out if it’s a public fansign or not by checking the location. If the location is a shopping mall in the open space you can be sure that it’s public, and there’s no limit. You can watch from anywhere from any floor!

Sometimes some fansigns will have a section saying the number of people allowed to ‘watch’. These are like runner-ups. So if you don’t get selected for the fansign you could be selected to watch. Typically for 100 people attending the fansign, about another 100-150 can ‘watch’. I haven’t been to a fansign like this one so i’m not sure what it means by ‘watch’, they may have an area for people to linger around in.

You can guess it’s private if it’s held inside a hall for example, or a roof top. My fansign experience was at the rooftop of Hyundai dept store and it was a private event. Exactly 100 fans were present, no more no less.

• Important tips to note for fansigns

1. If you’re attending a private fansign, do not take photos! As a matter of fact, if they say don’t take photos, don’t. Especially not before you get the signatures, obviously, you’re going to get kicked out! They will also make you delete the photos. Also because of the nature of fansigns being small in general, it’s hard to get away taking photos with so many ushers watching on. It’s not a concert atmosphere haha. If you’re in a private fansign, just sit back relax and enjoy the view.
2. Bring the album they are promoting. Of course.
3. Make full use of that post-it. Write things like ‘give more hearts please!’ and stuff that will get you fan interactions. The idols may not do it but you should maximize your chances since a fansign is so hard to get T.T
4. Ask for a handshake. For sure. The only physical contact you’re probably allowed with your idol. A hug would probably be turned down by the manager. And if you’re Taeyeon’s fan, she shakes fans’ hands with both of her hands so that’s probably your only chance to feel her hands clutching yours. Ever. She has also given hand cream to a fan before for dry hands so yeah. DO IT. SHAKE HER HAND.
5. Prepare gifts and write letters. If you want to, this is the best time to get a gift or letter to an idol securely.
6. Look your idols in the eyes. Even if it freezes you up or makes you tremble. When else would you get this opportunity.

I can’t help you any more than that. I can’t tell you what to say because i didn’t even know what to say myself. I can’t advise what’s the best way to get the best interactions because idk i also freeze up and fail to carry out all my plans and scripts. Just be respectful even if you’re spazzing inside that’s all i can say LOL. Being excited is ok though, they’ll probably find you cute.

Finally, that’s all for a very long post!! I hope this post has proven useful for some people out there hoping to get into these two elusive events! It’s certainly the best way to meet your idols close-up without paying a single cent!!! Paying instead with effort of course. Loads of it.

The Past Week

Phew where do I even begin? See this is the problem of not posting day-by-day posts, i easily forget what exactly i did the past few days. Need to start getting back into the habit, i still want to have a blog i can look back years from now, with minute details of my experiences so I’ll try my best to recall! This post will be separated into headings to help me remember what happened on certain days!

So first of all, class has started of course! I was lucky enough to be chosen as first presenter for Digital Media Tech and lucky enough to have 2 groupmates drop out to leave only me and Sungmin to do the project together -___- and we only had 4 days to prepare lol so yeah. Nevertheless the presentation went great 🙂

7th March: Business School Orientation

Also we had our orientation for Business faculty and it was quite a chill event. Introducing faculty members, Sogang high school rules, and calling students one by one by university up on stage to introduce themselves and their country/university. When it was our turn all 8 of us (minus Ting Yu cuz he was busy) crowded the stage and talked about SMUgger and food in Singapore. When we were done the MC took the opportunity to ask us to perform something and get a gift in return, seeing how we had many members. Federick suggested we sing Home otl and he started singing in the mic LOL some of us sang along but the rest didn’t :< nevertheless we got a lot of cheers for the 8 of us on behalf of Singapore and were given two gifts yayyy. And we had a lot of unglam photos taken by our buddies. Sigh. Not posting them here.

The free meal!! And the nice name tag that they collected back afterwards #soganghighschool

After the orientation we went to eat jimeg w our korean buddies!! (chicken & beer) Finally learned the Korean drinking songs. The chicken wasn’t that good actually bleh but everyone else seemed to find it nice so i hush hush

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This is the jimeg that I ate with Zenn a few days after that jimeg with the Korean buddies. The one with Zenn was so much nicer omg it was delicious. I kinda forgot the shop name OTL i shld ask zenn again. i would definitely come back.

The Korean buddies told us Jeonju is a nice place for a hanok village stay and we agreed to go tgt although i was due to go Jeonju the next day alr haha. We also made plans to go hiking and fish market (live octopus and fresh seafood) this weekend! 😀

9th March: Jeonju

post here~

11th March: New Korean Friends & Baus House Dog Cafe

We went to this dog cafe called Baus House. The day before when I was eating jimeg with Zenn, she was asking me to go Myeongdong with her hahaha but i was soooo lazy. So on 12th March after waking up late and having nothing to do I asked the rest if they wanted to go to a dog cafe or smth! They all agreed so I asked Zenn along~

I headed out at lunch time to meet Sheryl and her Korean friend she wanted to introduce me to. We met and he brought two other friends along. They brought us to a Japanese eatery that’s apparently quite popular with the school kids around here and was always crowded!

Too much garlic though >< but it was delicious i missed curry so much!

Sheryl’s Korean friend (shall nickname him YW for easier quoting) was actually in SMU for exchange the previous sem so we were chatting a bit about SMU. The two other friends got really surprised that YW spoke good english and they commented about it in Korean. They got even more surprised when I translated what they just commented to Sheryl LOLLLL. “You know Korean?!?!” Haha and they proceeded to mix their speech with both English and Korean. I only replied in English though and I know it’s a bad habit like I’m scared to step out or smth but i shall try harder!!!

One of the friends was actualy going for a ‘sogeting’ which is Korea’s term for blind dating. Apparentl it’s common here in Korea to go blind dating because Koreans don’t really like to date within their social circle too much in case anything goes wrong. It was funny because they kept giving him advice that would make him screw up and saying things like she’s out of his league. I learned how to say that someone is out of someone else’s league in Korean that day OTL. I also picked up swear words and mean phrases like ” don’t bullshit me” lolllll they could come in handy really!

YW treated us for lunch and we headed over to a cafe to chill some more and the other friend treated us haha! Thanks guys, will treat next time 🙂

After the meeting Sheryl and I chatted for another hour before we headed out to meet the rest and went to Baus House Dog Cafe in Hapjeong! (because the rest hated cats)

Baus House separate post/review hereeee~

13th March: More… music shows?

Since Vanessa was here in Korea and Adeline & Kelly joined recently, we all headed down to CJ E&M again and met Michelle (the other mich) for our second try at SNSD’s comeback music shows! The pre-rec was kinda sucky that day but regardless it was quite fun as we chatted a lot more and kept teasing Mich about her auntie umbrella she carried around since it rained that day xD

Phew that was a very long recall! Will start to update more regularly from now onwards!! 🙂

Day 5: Music Bank @ KBS Building, Apgujeong and Gangnam

Ugh wordpress deleted this post so i’m annoyed :<

Anyway… The day of Music Bank! Zenn woke up perfectly on time today LOL

We had a quick breakfast and headed over to KBS Building for the roll call! It was confusing because they said red pillar but the whole building was full of red pillars! 😦 We took about 15 min finding the elusive pillar and finally found the fan staff gathering the fans. There are different groups of fan staff for the different kpop groups, ours was for SM The Ballad.

Our numbers for Mubank!

They told us to go back in and come back in an hour’s time, so we went in to get some coffee while Shaun took a nap LOL he lived pretty far away from here so he had to wake up early 😦

What I was wearing that day :< usuallly sufficient on a normal winter day but that day was super chilly and windy.

Waiting for the delayed broadcast! :<

Finally after some wait, they gave us lightsticks and let us in!! Yay! Hearing them live was really awesome despite Taeyeon being sick and sounding a little hoarse. They professionally finished the recording in one try after just one practice and that’s kinda sucky to us tho cuz we waited that long to hear them sing twice 😦 We behaved very well and didn’t make too much noise haha. It’s kinda a rule to follow the Koreans’ culture.. sometimes international fans behave badly and that annoys the crap out of them. During the briefing the staff were also saying please stay seated, no photos, no shouting etc esp to international fans lol.

Get well soon Taeyeon!

After the music show we went to a ramen shop opposite and IT TASTED SO GOOD FOR A PACKET INSTANT RAMEN COOKED WITH NICE STUFF

❤ Ramen! This shop is apparently popular because it opens 24/7 and A LOT of artists go here to eat after recording at KBS. Autographs everywhere!

The shop opposite KBS!

After the music show we decided to go Apgujeong and Gangnam! I was excited because i was always curious of Gangnam. I was a little bit disappointed though because it as very… normal lol. Oh yes heads up, SM Entertainment building is in Apgujeong so we decided to be tourists and take touristy photos at the building.

Come to think of it i haven’t taken many photos of myself. Time for more shameless selfies!

Kaypo-ing the backyard of SM Entertainment LOL. Judging the cars and wondering which belongs to who etc

As we headed out to Gangnam area, we saw FNC Entertainment by accident lol. i think they are in charge of CN Blue?? Idk.

This is how Gangnam looks like. like i said, i was a little disappointed. It’s just pretty much a city area similar to Tokyo haha. But prolly where my parents would LOVE to stay in haha.

We went home early on Day 5 to get a good rest as Zenn needs to be up early!

HOSTEL UPDATES!

When we went home we met this girl called Lindsey from Wisconsin! She is a damn cool person haha. She was damn excited that night because she was gonna go out to party for the first time. Invited us along but we declined as Zenn needed an early night’s rest! The bunch of them together with the hostel host were going to hit some bar. She is a really cool person, like idk what other vocab to use but ‘cool’ cuz she really is. She came here knowing no Korean and decided she’d just wing it. Lol. But she picks up Korean really fast! 😀 She’s eternally cheerful, energetic and so eager that you can’t help but smile when you talk to her.

Her last name is ‘Lepak’ so i was telling her what it means in Malay and she said ‘that describes me perfectly’. (Y)

Day 4: Ilsan and KBS

Day 4 began with our first separation where Zenn went to Miasageori and I went to Ilsan. The reason we did this is because two fansigns are happening in these two places, and in order to qualify for the lottery you have to buy albums from these places, and so we both decided to purchase on each other’s behalf so we will have a chance at both the lotteries!

It was my first time traveling Korea alone and I had acutally planned to travel Ilsan while at it, but okay a lot of things happened beyond my control LOL how do I even begin…

First off, while mapping my route to Ilsan, I followed the google maps on my laptop and walked to Hapjeong station. It was about the same distance from my hostel to Hapjeong and my hostel to Hongik Univ station, so it was cool. Except the route to Hapjeong station is very quiet and filled with older people while the route to Hongik Univ is filled with young people, shops and clubs. Haha. So after a walk I found myself in the ‘main city’. Feels like the main city anyways. I got so confused at first because of where the map was leading me, and you know in Korea the buses at one side of the road would be from the opposite direction? Um ok idk how to say this… damn should have taken a photo but i was busy being cold sorreh

Okay here’s a random road i got off google. In many places, the buses will stop on their right, the roadside, like the one shown above. But in some places the bus stops are located in the middle of the road. The bus heading in our direction as seen above, would have a bus stop situated at the other side of the road – it’s a special lane only buses will enter.

It’s confusing to explain LOL i’ll try to take a picture of it soon.

SO yes, because of this, I got so confused at what google was telling me and the buses leading to places and stuff and i was like FUUUUUUUUUU. I walked around Hapjeong for a good 20 min, crossing roads here and there to try to find the right bus stop. I finally found it and it was a bus stop at the side of the road. SEe that’s the thing, in Singapore you’ll have one bus stop at the side of the road and it would likely be the only bus stop on that side of that road in the immediate vicinity. BUT in Korea, you have bus stops in the middle of the road AND the side of the road AND it could be two each. Two in the middle, two in the side, all not far off from each other, and all hosting different buses. GDI I CREYED TODAY

Anyway as I was waiting for the bus, I thought it’s weird how the google maps from my laptop that i screenshot is so different from the current google maps on my phone. So I decided to sit down and find out the address properly, and I finally located it thanks to my friend Casilda who offered to help me search via foursquare, and now my route just changed drastically. GDI google maps!!!!

So with a huge sigh i headed down the subway and took the  train to Digital Media City station. Because the map didn’t state which exit to take, I took the most obvious exit that said ‘Digital Media City’ and it was a long walk out complete with travelators and stuff, and finally i headed out into open air, only to find an ulu area. I was confused and i checked the map and they showed me a straight route so I thought okay I’ll walk there then. But the more i walk the more I realized this ‘straight route’ is impossible because i’d have to cross a huge dam and no bridge was inside. There must be something google maps has against me UGH. So I walked all the way back to the station and sat down and figured out the exit. It was in the opposite side.

So I walked all the way back through the station (wasted my money tapping in too T_T) all the way through the elevators and further up to the open space subway where i finally caught a glimpse of the pretty Digital Media City but was too frustrated and cold at that moment to take a picture. I finally breathed fresh air a few minutes later and took a picture of the nearest building to commemmorate the moment!!

Note: This is an absolutely random open space with no particular scenery focus and just purely to commemorate my fresh air moment.

The route to the bus stop was fairly easy and I finally got on the bus. FINALLY! I like the buses here in Seoul. They have those that are like Singapore’s, and those that are like couches. The couches ones are SOOOO comfy! They charge different prices though, the first bus I sat to Ilsan (2000) cost 950 won (barely a dollar) and COMFY COACH RIDE. with free wifi. The bus I sat back from Ilsan to National Assembly Station was more ex, about 1300 won (I think because of the distance and places that the bus goes to idk).

Bad picture but i was trying to be discreet.

So this bus led directly to Ilsan which is a huge relief given I spent 2 hours being lost. I walked about 15 min to the location and FINALLY located the ulu Synnara Record store. Bought one album for myself and one for Zenn and so that won us one chance each for the lottery for the fansign. Zenn bought more albums on her side for both of us, so we have plenty of chances for that lottery hopefully we get picked *crosses fingers* if you’re wondering what we’ll do with so many excess albums, we’re selling them all to our friends back in Singapore~

After that tiring experience i exited the store and tried to use my camera to take pictures of that area of Ilsan but got stopped by security and till now i’m still not sure whats the reason because i positively understood only 20% of what he said. I just know he’s talking about photography and stuff. And he chose to stay and chat with me a few more minutes which is ????? i’m sorry you’re a great person but i can’t really understand you but i have to pretend to understand but anyway yes gotta go thanks for everything!!!!! *panics*

Taken with my phone~ it was surprisingy a fiesta kind of style. Would be nice to explore here a little more, but the distance is crazy.

Remember I said I wanted to explore Ilsan, particularly the lake and park area.. unfortunately by then it was rather late, losing daylight, and i was freezing because i wore leggings and sports shoes and had my ankles exposed (do not judge my dress code, i thought it would be comfy but apparently boots are more practical in winter). So I agreed with Zenn to meet up at National Assembly Station to try to get into Music Bank (recall that M Countdown was cancelled and we really wanted to watch them live before they stop promoting this week) so basically this was our final chance to ever see them perform live 😦

We headed down and Shaun met us there too! We admired the KBS building for a while and got confused cuz we couldn’t find the notice to take a selca with and stuff. So we headed to a coffee place to relax and stay warm and chat. It was a great chat and before long it was pretty late so it’s time to head out and find out if the notice’s up, if not we go back.

We saw some people running around with cameras and stools and Zenn said it’s because Ryeowook from Super Junior is having radio today and it’s viewable to public. She wanted to drop by and help her friend snap some pictures so we headed to the radio side of KBS and found this sight LOL:

OTL i jumped up the bench to snap a few pictures for the sake of it, couldn’t see Ryeowook anyway.

After that we went back to the music side of KBS to check one last time, saw nothing and decided to leave. JUST as we were about to leave, Zenn spotted the notice!! daebak. It was pasted on a tree across the road. The elusive notice.

Took selcas, sent to the number and got confirmation for queue numbers: 23, 24, 25. They asked us to come back at 11am tomorrow (THANK GOODNESS IF IT’S ANY EARLIER I’D CREY) We’ll see if we’re able to go in tomorrow!

HOSTEL UPDATES!

So, separate section for this because our hostel is just so interesting sometimes. Haha.

Today we chatted more with Alexandra. Sweet girl. She’s actually here for Sogang grad school exchange, so she’s probably much older than us. She’s always up till about the same time as us (4am) and always wakes up late like us HAHAHAHA i think we could travel with her.

As we were outside attempting to finish the food from the night before, this guy came in with his bags and stuff, just checking in casually at about 2am LOL. We chatted with him and found out he’s from Norway and just came back from North Korea. He shared his story of his travels there for a while, super interesting to hear! The hostel hosts were gone so he was kinda stuck on the couch without a room. Luckily the host walked in at about 3am and told him his room is on another floor haha.

That’s all for today~ thanks for reading!

Day 2 and 3: Myeongdong, “Moon Embraces the Sun” Musical, Digital Media City and Gwanghwamun

On Day 2, I received a Facebook message from Sam and she and Matthias just reached Seoul the day before! So we decided to meet at their place in Myeongdong because we needed to get EG sim card and they are only available in certain places in Seoul, Myeongdong being one of them.

So it’s Myeongdong again yay!

I like this place although it’s a rip-off to tourists, please do bargain when you purchase stuff, usually they’d allow cuts of 2000 won, any more is usually hard and depends on how good or convincing you are. For the sake of it, here are some terms:

깎아주세요 Gga-gga juseyo: “Please lower the price”
깎아주면안돼요? Gga-gga ju-myeon an-dwe-yo?: This is my own way of saying it, it’s a little more of a sad plea LOL “Is it not possible to lower the price? :(” and it gets the shopkeepers looking a little more flustered/somehow LOL.
저는 학생인데요… jeo-neun hak-saeng in-dae-yo: “I’m a student…” which is a way of saying you have no money. I tried this a few times and one time the shopkeeper replied “I’m also a student!” so i failed oh wells but it should work most times LOL.

We chatted with one shopkeeper and he cut the price for us nicely. He was asking us which country we liked better, Singapore or Seoul? And praised our country for being clean. It was awkward cuz it’s not that we couldn’t understand but how do we praise his country in return and even begin to answer if we like Spore or Seuol better?? I wouldn’t be able to answer these questions even in English.

Zenn was telling me to pull the ‘oppa’ card if the shopkeepers refuse, it COULD work but I never tried it! Oppa is a friendly way of a younger female person greeting an older male person. Oh yes on this note, Koreans typically ask for age pretty early in any conversation, in fact they hardly ever ask for my name before my age, cuz they wanna find out first how to talk to us. I’ve been lucky to meet Koreans younger than me so far so if I slip up on my formalities it’s okay hahaha. But when I meet older Koreans, especially elderly, I’m going to have to formalize my speech like by three levels OTL I’m REALLY bad at that…

Oh yes fun fact! 네 ‘Nae’ means ‘yes’ in Korean, and is a typical general response when talking to people to acknowledge what they said or answer their questions. For elderly though, we’re actually supposed to say 예 ‘Ye’ as it’s more polite, I had no freaking idea and  we have been saying nae to everyone including the elderly asking us stuff ._. sorry!!

The street food too!! Super amazing and cheap :’) mostly ranging from 1,500 – 3,000 won (less than $5)

 

 

Ah btw here’s some explanation on EG Sim card for foreigners that we obtained on Day 2: https://darmawanders.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/eg-sim-card-for-foreigners/

Anyway it was a short trip because we had to head to Seoul Arts Center for Seohyun’s muscial! Yay finally!

The musical was great, based off a drama i really loved “The Moon that Embraces the Sun” ahhhhhhh i loved that drama so much I had to attend the musical, specially since Seohyun was playing. I understood less than half of it but oh wells it was still great :’)

As we left, we were lucky enough to bump into Taeyeon and Yoona who were leaving from backstage after watching Seohyun’s musical :)))) Really lucky to have seen all three of them up close in just the 2nd day of Seoul!! ❤

(As promised, no spazzing here, spazzing remains in IGAT. Let’s just say i had no idea they attended the musical and it was an amazing surprise :’))

Fast forward to 3rd day!

3rd day was a lot more lazy. We again slept in till the afternoon and headed down after that to Digital Media City because we heard the notice was up for MCountdown! For those who are unsure what it is, basically Korea holds 5 weekly music shows for music artists to promote their latest albums. M Countdown is one of them. Zenn and I wanted to go for at least 1 because currently both Taeyeon and Jonghyun are promoting TOGETHER for SM the Ballad and it’ll be so awesome to watch them perform live. The best part is that it’s free lol.

So how it works is that as soon as the notice is up, you’d have to head down to CJ E&M Center at Digital Media Center (at least for M Countdown) and take a selca with the notice and send it to the number posted there. The notice would be at some random wall in the area LOL. They’ll reply you with your queue number, mine was 23 and Zenn 24. What this means is that we were 23 and 24 in line for the non official fans queue. Official fans are those who paid to register membership and so they get in first no matter what. So let’s say on the day itself 300 official fans turn up and 300 is the quota that day, then you will never get through. But still, 23 and 24 were good numbers so it was pretty hopeful we could get in. We would have to return at night for a ‘roll call’ where they will confirm your registration and slash out those that didn’t appear. They’ll then tell you what time to come the next day to catch your artist’s recording live. Still no guarantee tho cuz as i mentioned, official fans always get priority.

Regardless, it’s nice we don’t have to physically queue, just get down early when you know the notice is up, so you can get a good number, and turn up for the roll call. Next day is a designated time so you can relax and if you’re not meant to enter cuz of the official fans, getting earlier isn’t going to help anything!

After this, we headed down to Kwanghwamun to explore, meet Shaun (another Yonsei student  and also to get SM the Ballad album because we need it to enter music shows. Lol. Turns out it’s pointless though, because we found out later on there’s gonna be two fansigns going on and you have to purchase an album from the organizing party to qualify for the lottery/lucky draw! So we’d probably head down tmr and get those 🙂

Oh yes and SM the Ballad got cancelled .____. we were so disappointed to find out! They rarely ever cancel shows but I think it was a rare circumstance. So we won’t be going any music shows, but instead try to get a fansign.

We also met Shaun going to Yonsei!! He just arrived today so we had dinner with him~ nice to meet another Korean speaking Singaporean!! He said apparently Kwanghwamun was also a Running Man filming location but i didn’t take photo 😦 We walked around abit and ate somewhere with a really nice ahjumma but the food portion was so big lmao. When you see food prices a little pricey, e.g. 18000 won for one portion ($20ish), sometimes it’s not that the food is actually pricey, it could just be the portion was huge. We packed them back.

Good news is I seem to be catching on Korean a little faster now! After all the speaking with service staff I could catch on a bit faster when they speak, but my talking is still weak. Haha.

Two new Koreans from Jeju moved in today! They’re super cute and are EXO fans and we sat down together at 2am+ to watch Kim Yuna skate and own everyone. Koreans are SO proud of Kim Yuna it’s really cute ❤ she’s like their national treasure. The Koreans I watched with just kept sighing and proclaiming 멋있다 which means ‘She’s so cool’ haha. And she didn’t let them down yesterday – 1st place!!

That’s all for now! Today we’re separating to help each other get the albums for the two separate fansigns, so it’ll be interesting i think. We promised to get each other a 5000 won gift from the different sides of the world we’ll be in~ I’ll prolly explore Ilsan while I’m at it! 🙂 Shall plan my itinerary~