Day 18: Places NOT to Park your Car

There was always something about turning old houses into stores or restaurants that enticed me. Perhaps it was the old-fashionness of it, or the modernness of it, but the idea struck me as quite innovative. In that same line of thinking, I also find it inventive when I see cafes in Korea in the most unlikely locations, such as an old house or apartment. Yet more interesting than that is the above picture, located in Hongdae (arguably my favorite location in Korea): A garage turned into a mens clothing boutique. There is actually room for one to park one's car there, but the notion of turning a garage into anything other than perhaps a work-space or craft shop seems unheard of. Yet we should certainly not be surprised, because Hongdae is quite spacious and you can find a cafe or boutique around every corner, especially in what we could consider residential districts. Space in Korea is very hard to come by, and shops are constantly changing, especially in Hongdae; go there one weekend and the shops could be completely different than three weeks ago and three weeks in the future. As such, it only seems natural that such shops would spring up using the most unlikely places, not necessarily a mark of 'style' as much as 'convenience' or 'necessity'.