It is just like any kindergarten for kids. A place for playing and learning, a chance to build social skills and a guarantee of safety and well-being while their main caretakers are away. Except for the sound of dogs barking in unison.  Happy Puppy in Seoul’s Nonhyeon-dong is one of the many “dog kindergartens” that have popped up in Seoul in recent years. When this reporter visited, about 25 furry friends were there. “If they hadn’t come, they would have staye

Culture Oct. 18, 2019

Technology is making our lives easier. So why not make our pets’ lives easier too? Evolving technology and creative new ideas are bringing changes in pet parenting, with a dazzling array of smart products that make feeding your pets, playing with them and watching them from afar easier. Pet gadgets, some too gimmicky for a mainstream push, come mostly from small tech startups -- but big home appliance brands are going pet-friendly too, introducing new functions to existing products. I

Culture Oct. 18, 2019

An aging dog gets acupuncture treatment for its aching joints. A young puppy attends a “dog kindergarten” two to three days a week to nurture social skills. With nearly 1 in 5 Korean households owning pets and many treating them as full-fledged members of the family, a pampered pooch is no longer restricted to Hollywood celebrities. Korea’s fast evolving pet scene is churning out creative new products and services from smart pet trackers to nonalcoholic pet beers. Pet care

Culture Oct. 18, 2019

Gwacheon, just south of Seoul, is South Korea’s horse-racing capital. At the Racecourse Park Subway Station, the compound of the Korea Racing Authority, the country’s sole race administrator, boasts the nation’s largest thoroughbred flat tracks with a 450-meter home stretch and two grandstands accommodating over 70,000 people. Originally built for the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, it covers more than 1.1 million square meters, with two artificial sandy tracks, sable areas for

Culture Oct. 11, 2019

Oct. 9 is the birthday of Hangeul, the writing system for the Korean language. On this national holiday, South Koreans celebrate the beauty of the over 500-year-old alphabet, invented by King Sejong the Great (1397-1450). Originally made up of 28 letters and later reduced to 24 -- 14 consonants and 10 vowels -- Hangeul is so logical and phonetic that linguists worldwide regard it as one of the most remarkable writing systems in the world. It is also easy to learn. King Sejong once said, &ld

Culture Oct. 4, 2019

Pink is the most sought-after autumn color in South Korea right now. Do an Instagram search for #pinkmuhly and you’ll get an idea of what’s going on. There are over 300,000 posts, many showing couples, children and young women posing in picturesque gardens full of pink grass. Surreal displays of pink and purple inflorescences, floating above tall grass like soft clouds, have popped up in so many cities and towns that they are difficult to keep track of: Seoul, Busan, Jeju, Ulsan, Yeo

Travel Oct. 4, 2019

The air is crisp and the trees are getting ready to change color. Now is the time to be outdoors. With nearly 70 percent of its territory covered by mountains, South Korea is spoiled with choices for fall getaway destinations where the scenery is a magnificent display of vibrant colors. Autumn reds and oranges have already started to emerge at some high peaks in northern parts of the country. The fall foliage is expected to be most spectacular in late October to early November. Just be

Travel Oct. 4, 2019

In the eyes of Song In-soo, South Korea is a cruel place for schoolchildren. After official school hours are done, they sit for several more hours in “shadow schools.” At hagwon, as they are more commonly known, elementary school students learn middle school subjects. Middle school students may even be expected to complete the entire high school math curriculum before they start high school. “Parents come home from work in the evening, but their kids aren’t home from hagw

Social Affairs Sept. 27, 2019

INCHEON -- Hong Eun-hye carries on the tradition of her late mother and grandmother, crafting rice cakes, snacks and candies the North Korean way. Born in Hamhung, the reclusive state’s second-largest city, she grew up watching them prepare “finger sticks” -- stick-shaped donuts coated in sugar -- and bean candies -- tiny bean curd balls stir-fried and glazed in sugar -- to sell at local markets. “My mom and grandma used to make these to support my family,” Hong sai

Food Sept. 27, 2019

Restaurant Bukhyang (Songdo, Incheon) Bukhyung is a bright, inviting restaurant with a vintage vibe that sits among trendy eateries and cafes in Songdo’s multiplex shopping center Triple Street. However, its specialty -- North Korean home-style meals -- does not conform to South Korea’s fast-changing food trends. A joint venture between traditional liquor bar Wolhyang and spicy sausage stew franchise Nolboo, Bukhyang is the first real attempt here to market North Korean cuisine

Food Sept. 27, 2019

North Korea is a forbidden land for South Koreans. But there is a way to experience the contemporary culture of the reclusive communist state without actually crossing the border: Visiting restaurants here that specialize in North Korean cuisine. With over 32,000 North Korean refugees calling South Korea home now, such eateries, either targeting fellow homesick defectors or curious South Korean diners, are easy to find with a quick search on the internet. “Having been separated for nearly

Food Sept. 27, 2019

Seoul is keen on repurposing and reinventing city infrastructure, embracing adaptive reuse as an innovative way of unlocking the hidden potential in old buildings, warehouses and factories. According to real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield, this trend of transforming old industrial factories and warehouses into new, hip cultural spaces is still very much popular for developers and consumers alike in Seoul, and is spreading to other aged pockets of the city. Here are some of the inspir

Arts & Design Sept. 20, 2019

As banking goes mobile, retail banks are trying to figure out what to do with their increasingly empty branches. One idea is to give customers more reasons to stop by, like a cup of Paul Bassett coffee, a Krispy Kreme doughnut or a chance to browse through some new books. Woori Bank, one of South Korea’s three major retail banks along with Kookmin and Shinhan, was the first to sublet space in its branch to a retail business in 2016, opening up a corner of its branch in Seoul’s Ichon-

Culture Sept. 20, 2019

The approaching Chuseok holiday is a time of the year that Koreans press pause in their busy day-to-day life and appreciate traditional values of their family, communities and the nation as a whole. Many families visit palaces and famous historic sites during the holiday, usually after performing ancestral rites in the morning of Chuseok, which this year falls on Friday. One of the popular destinations is Namsangol Hanok Village in central Seoul, a traditional village that shows what life was du

Culture Sept. 11, 2019

Seoul’s new cultural hot spot, the Oil Bank Culture Park, has a fascinating history behind its unusual name. For more than four decades, the giant oil tanks that now function as exotic cultural venues stored 69 million liters of oil as part of resource-poor South Korea’s national fuel reserves. The site was off limits to the public. Its fashionable rebirth into an artsy space came about in 2017, long after its official closure in 2000, as the result of a public idea contest. Now

Travel Sept. 6, 2019