It's fascinating how familiarity can blind you to the obvious that only comes to light when you see the same thing through the perspective of someone seeing it for the first time. That was the case in Seoul last week when I visited and stayed at a high-end Gangnam hotel for a week with two of my colleagues from work. These folks were not unfamiliar with big cities. One of them lives in New York, and the other in Arlington, Virginia, often touted as one of the best cities to live in America. So, they were as cosmopolitan as anyone else you will typically find in the United States.

Nevertheless, they were absolutely overwhelmed by Gangnam. What's fascinating is what they were overwhelmed by. They were overwhelmed by two things mainly.

First was the sheer assault on the senses that the bling glitz of Gangnam inflicted on them ceaselessly as we made our way from the hotel to COEX, where our meeting took place. Granted, we mostly traveled by Seoul's subway, and the underground in Seoul tends to be one giant, connected shopping mall. Even with that, however, the sheer number of shops selling everything from food, clothing, makeup (How many Olive Young shops are there in Seoul anyways?) and everything else under the sun was overwhelming........

© The Korea Times