15 April 2023
Rainy roof garden
Shinsegae Centum City
First day of rain.
It took its time getting here and at first I was annoyed that it was not raining because I had struggled mentally to come to terms with not climbing up anything today. But eventually, rain it did, and it is still raining now. It should stop late tonight and then I will make up for it all with an extra long hike tomorrow. Well that is the plan anyway.
The further challenge, generally the rain day equals museum / castle / gallery day, but like all of Asia, these places are all closed on Monday. This left only the mall. Or to be specific, the largest department store in the world, Shinsegae Centum City.
I had actually been there before but I spent more time in it today. When I discovered there was a golf driving range on the roof I decided I really wanted to do that in the rain, but when I managed to get up to reception via a somewhat hidden lift it seemed to be members only and my mere presence caused an audible gasp from the 3 identical AI robot looking human receptionists as the lift door opened. So I blew them all kisses, gave them the finger, took a bow and headed back down.
I got up early to walk around before the rain arrived. First stop, down at the docks to check out the fish market. It is extensive.
There are actually little eating spots all the way along here, and some people enjoy fish guts compressed into blocks and shoved onto sticks for breakfast. It is this area that gets all the weekend tour package groups, many of whom may be Japanese as I think they come by ferry. Today however, very quiet.
The fleet is in. I am not sure why, the water was very calm.
Barbie fever is taking over the world.
This is the upmarket cafe street in Nanpo.
RIP movies?
An example of a film gallery along this street. Busan has the big international film festival, literally called BIFF.
I decided to climb up the Busan tower area and look for the rain that was not here yet. The view from up here is weak compared to the views from up the hills on my previous 2 evening walks.
The gardens around the tower are nice though.
Behold, the tower, it has an entrance fee and it not open yet.
Just another nice street in Nanpo, drops of rain were starting to fall, time to head underground and get the subway to the mega department store experience extravaganza.
There are 2 department stores connected underground. Shinsegae is the main event but their major competitor in Lotte has decided to build a Trevi plaza to lure customers away from the nearby attraction that advertises heavily as worlds largest.
I headed outside to see if it was raining properly yet. Still no. That is a Trump housing development. There are hundreds of these across Korea. A quick google reveals it is an ongoing partnership between South Korea's favourite USA president and Daewoo.
There it is, on the left, the worlds largest department store. Lotte on the right, pfft so puny.
You can go into the laser room and ruin your eyesight / camera sensor by looking directly into laser beams.
The Shinsegae seems to be a department store surrounded by malls. This made it hard for me to measure the exact square footage to ratify their claim of worlds largest.
Raining now though! I felt better about not being on top of a mountain.
Instead I could go ice skating. The store rink seems about as popular as all other department store ice skating rinks I have encountered on my travels, even though South Korea has some very famous short course speed skaters. Maybe the Zamboni is out of action because it gassed people like the one in Adelaide?
I headed up to the dinosaur themed roof garden, and stood around in the rain. I had the roof to myself.
Yep, really raining now.
Bonus roof garden shot.
And after I got suitably wet and subsequently turned away from the golf driving range, I descended down into basement level 3 and perused the food court offerings before choosing a gourmet sandwich from one of the ten or so competing bakeries.
I suspect it will still be raining later, underground subway tunnel walking night?