Seoul Folk Flea Market

Where we headed today little buddy?  Why, the Seoul Folk Flea Market of course!

The inimitable FatManSeoul did a tour of it recently and I’d been wanting to check it out ever since.  A flea market doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but Koreans tend to like new and shiny.  There are a few different flea markets in Seoul, but this is easily the biggest and most interesting, and by interesting I mean “over-stuffed with insane and bizarre junk.”

The amount of hand-me-down military gear (of the non-violent variety) isn’t too surprising, given the proximity of the DMZ.  Beyond that, it’s your two-story, one-stop-shop for used (often broken as far as I could tell) musical instruments, radios, stereos, shoes, knives, godawful statues, ties, vinyl albums, books, magazines, computers, Japanese porn, and Chinese sex toys.  What more could a boy want?

Let’s not forget taxidermical oddities!

The whole thing kind of spills onto the streets outside in a riot of misfit home appliances and decor.

I’m no expert, but I imagine some of the many antique cameras throughout the place might be worth a few dollars to a collector.  I make good price for you, ne?

An acupuncture doll?  I think so.

The classics never go out of style.  There were some real gems throughout the two or three vinyl stalls.  (Somewhere in Williamsburg, a dude in a John Deere cap weeps.)  The Korean albums were even more compelling.

There were quite a few stalls hawking 1960′s and 1970′s fashion magazines.  These would actually be something I’d be willing to lay down a few won for.  But I figured I’d be back.

And it wouldn’t be Korea if there weren’t plenty of dining options as well, nice and cheap and smelling very mashita.  When I took the shot above a Korean man and his wife and another couple called to me and asked me to take their picture as well:

“Kwenchan-ayo? It’s OK?  Kimchi!”  (The Korean version of “Say cheese!”)

The Seoul Flea Market is near Shinseoldong Station.  It’s a little hard to find, but if you look carefully you’ll start seeing signs for it in the subway station itself.  As FatMan mentions in his write-up, be prepared to see quite a few things you might not expect, i.e., things you wouldn’t want your kid or an older visiting relative to see, unless they work in the marital aid business.