Building a Flux Capacitor?

The planned adventure of Saturday was checking out an electronics market in Seoul. The side adventure is that we drove there! Mike wanted to try out a route that he had traveled on previously with co-workers. 

It's strange to see speed limit signs that say 100. Of course that is in kilometers per hour not miles per hour.

It's even more strange to see that they show you exactly where the police enforcement cameras are. Even our GPS tells us when we are approaching one and has a dedicated dramatic sounding clip that plays after we pass one.

We can almost always see mountains in the distance no matter where we are. When we get closer I am always stunned to see the stark contrast of nature and modernity that makes up Korea.

Mike did an awesome job of driving there and back but we decided next time we'll take the train again; traffic was horrendous and added extra drive time. Lots of back-ups, heavy traffic, and even with the GPS it's a struggle to stay on path--over passes and under passes make things ten times more confusing! Mr. Pizza cyclists have no fear--they have hungry people waiting on them. :)

Our outing for the day was to go to Yongsan Electronics Market. It's an area that has over 3,000 stores - all electronics! I'm not sure what all goes into building a flux capacitor but I'd be willing to bet you could buy most of the supplies at this market. Here are a couple of maps to help give an idea of the sheer size and amount of stores:

This is part of a building we went in--it was too big to fit in the frame! And that is only one of several buildings.

We really have to wonder how much business each place gets. As you walk down an aisle every booth seemingly sells the same products and offers the same service and they are all lined up one right after another. For example, walking down an aisle there could be five camera stores on each side of you and they all sell the same products. I'm not sure how you choose which one to go to. 

Each section is just so massive--all thirty or so computer accessories are in one part, another thirty stores for computer parts on the next floor, etc. We saw an absurd amount of computers, monitors, mice, USB drives, phone cases, cameras, movies, games, computer 'innards', microphones, sound equipment, and tools. 

Though I took pictures I feel like it still doesn't quite do the experience justice. We walked for hours and hours through different buildings and areas and still didn't see everything. Here's some of our trip in pictures and videos.

Tip of the iceberg

Watch your step...I mean head!

Just a few of the hundreds of cameras we saw

Places are filled to capacity and then some!

The laptops are stocked like binders

I have no clue what any of this is for. Probably has to do with flux capacitating...

An example of all the tiny stores with an abundance of all things electronic.

I'm not sure I could ever get used to the sheer volume of, well, everything we tend to see here...people, stores, products, cars, rice, etc., but I think that that's a good thing. In the meantime it's fun to see and experience everything.