On the first truly warm night of spring, a couple seems to weigh their options as they leisurely stroll through a bright and busy intersection in Shinchon.
As the spring rolls around, I find myself shooting a lot of couples again. I did a lot of that when I first came to Korea, since there are so many conspicuously conjoined couples on the streets in certain areas, especially Shinchon, near Yonsei and Ewha Womens' Universities.
There are a lot of young people who flock to the area who are not actually from these schools, but yet often make the pilgrimage to this Mecca of generally middle-to-upper class youth in their early 20's, who congregate in what is what is an entertainment district that fits student budgets and sensibilities.
Unlike the Chongno area, which is much centers much more around a late-20's and early-30's working crowd, or the much more vast and staunchly working-class party area of Yeongdeungpo, Shinchon makes up for food and fun that cater to a less refined and monied set of sensibilities by being the marker for the new trends in consumptive habits: the new theme cafe, "in" cuisine of the season, or next development in street amusements that will hopefully yield a stuffed animal for an eager young lady.
It is also a repository of trends that have come and gone in most other places, but where there is enough foot traffic and couples looking for something new to do to keep them afloat: the board game cafe, jjimdak chicken restaurant, or coffee shop where you can get a foot massage or cruise the Internet in "couple chairs."
