Loser Back Home: N Seoul Tower

There's this mountain in downtown Seoul called Namsan (literally South Mountain). Someone built a tower on top of it like 40 years ago. As is typical with these things, the tower was made into a tourist trap. I went to see it on Wednesday because hell, why not? The view from a tower on top of a mountain in the middle of Seoul is bound to be pretty good, right?

A view of the city from the mountain.

Someone made a dude out of pipe cleaners or something and they hung it up in the air and put a spotlight on it so it looks all creepy like this.

I don't know why and it would've cost 8,500 won to go in and maybe find out so I'll just live with the mystery.

As you queue for the elevator you'll see a comparison of the world's great towers that reveals N Seoul as the second shortest. At least the tower's willing to make an honest appraisal of its place in the world, a rare thing in Korea.

Climbing that elevator was hard work!

The windows tell you what other exciting places you're facing.

But you'll be distracted by what's in front of you: big, bright city in all directions.

The glare on the windows made it impossible to take any decent pictures of the city. I started taking pictures of tourists instead.

It got reflexive: I was a tourist taking pictures of tourists taking pictures.

Some kind of fancy caricature artist?

This is the men's restroom and it's worth the price of admission. Hundreds of people pass through the tower every night but there are only 3 urinals and no stalls. As you can see they are special, fancy urinals. It's like urinating into a bucket held by a servant while you gaze out over your kingdom. It's a public urination nightmare though. I used the first one on the left, so I did my business while standing on a platform under a spotlight. Nerve-wracking!