Day 4: Picture Perfect

I'm surprised I lasted this long without posting a picture of a cafe; expect many more pictures of cafes as many of them in Korea are amazing and lovely. This picture comes from a new cafe, "The Boiling Pot", a rame cafe. I took the picture to talk not about how much I love this cafe and how it's a regular cafe I go to, although I do love this cafe and will make it a regular cafe I visit. No, I use this picture to talk about Korea and 'fusion', something that one can find any which way one turns. It's hard to call a cafe 'fusion' these days as much of that seems self-evident. But this cafe has taken it to a new level. Firstly, the idea of a ramen cafe is new to me, and in all my years living in Korea this is the first time seeing one. He serves ramen, ice cream, coffee, wine, and other yummies, and no one is favored over the other. The decor, as you can see, is quite eclectic, not quite mainstream as Ikea, but something similar. The reason for this particular picture is not to highlight the furniture, though he has a variety of chairs, all different, and none of them matching. Nor is this picture used to talk about the openness of the cafe, with its high ceilings and large window doors that open out onto the patio deck. No, this picture is used to highlight the stuff that is actually on the bookshelf. In one section he has Korean graphic novels, in another he has Korean novels, followed by magazines, and finally various textbooks in English, including Child Development and Human Evolution. Finally, in the bottom right corner there is a picture of Bi (Rain, the Korean pop star) from Nylon magazine. The randomness of all that was on this bookshelf, including the novel "Confessions of a Shopoholic", blew my mind and reminded me that such randomness can be find all over Korea, obviously in a good way. This is Korea's new trend, be it intentional or not: random, unabated fusion. Be it food, fashion, or interior design, this is definitely one of my favorite attributes of the Korea I live in.