Remember the time our Nintendo Gamecube caught on fire? Well, we ordered a new AC adaptor online and decided to try again. We had a voltage convertor, so what could go wrong? I'm not sure why, but it caught on fire again. Melodie was near-tears. We didn't use a voltage convertor the first time and I was sure that was the problem, but apparantly not. Well, this weekend we decided to go to Yongsan, Korea's crazy electronics district.
When we stepped off the subway train we saw this:
Men in computer costumes dancing around to "I will follow him". Priceless!!!
When we stepped off the subway train we saw this:
Men in computer costumes dancing around to "I will follow him". Priceless!!!
Black Market DVDs line the streets, and they're only $3 a piece for movies still in the theatre! We bought 3.
Street CD-R's anyone?
Yongsan is like a maze, with different pockets of the district specializing in different things. Some areas sell camcorders, some buildings are just full of cell phones. We walked over the video games section of town and found exactly what we were looking for: a korean gamecube! The price was 65,000 won which sounded well worth it since it came with a controller. Mel was smart enough to ask whether or not our North American games would work with the system, and unfortunately we were told they wouldn't. Then the guy had an idea, picked up the phone and told us that if we waited 20 minutes he could have a chip installed that would allow the system to play all kinds of discs. Sweet! When we returned, we happily forked over our won for a Gamecube with a funny little switch on the back to adjust the disc compatibility.
Yongsan is like a maze, with different pockets of the district specializing in different things. Some areas sell camcorders, some buildings are just full of cell phones. We walked over the video games section of town and found exactly what we were looking for: a korean gamecube! The price was 65,000 won which sounded well worth it since it came with a controller. Mel was smart enough to ask whether or not our North American games would work with the system, and unfortunately we were told they wouldn't. Then the guy had an idea, picked up the phone and told us that if we waited 20 minutes he could have a chip installed that would allow the system to play all kinds of discs. Sweet! When we returned, we happily forked over our won for a Gamecube with a funny little switch on the back to adjust the disc compatibility.
I'd also decided that I wanted to invest in a Nintendo DS, which is like the new version of the Gameboy, but with a touch screen. I wound up buying one from a guy that passed me a catalogue of games and told me he'd burn 20 games onto one disc for 200,000 won. Since the games are about 50,000 a piece and hard to find in Korea (Nintendo isn't popular here) I took him up on his offer. He had over 800 games to choose from and after making my selections he burned the games and I walked away with a DS and more games than I know what to do with. I'll be surprised if I ever buy another game!
On the way home we stopped in a little tarp-covered hut on the side of the road and ate some chicken balls, with some complementary soup for 2,000 won. It was very tasty and you could tell it was made with a lot of love. What a deal!
We decided to rush home, giddy to play our new video games. Unfortunately while we were passing the DS back and forth on the subway we went in the wrong direction and wound up halfway to the airport in Incheon! Well, we got off, got re-directed, and finally found our way back. It was a long, fun, expensive day and I can't wait to waste the rest of my weekend play Mario. It's been a lonnnng time coming!
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