Drinking in South Korea

In South Korea a bottle of soju is about the same price as $1 USD. That's less than a normal bottle of water costs in the USA which is pretty messed up that bottles of water should cost more that like 25 cents which should cover the cost of the plastic bottles, shipping, etc. But anyways soju is extremely cheap which is great if you want to get your drink on and you are on a budget. If you didn't know, soju is a rice wine that I guess is basically the same thing as sake, but you only drink soju cold. Also if you can't drink it straight, which is hard for me sometimes, you can mix it with some pineapple or orange soda and its delicious. Soju cocktails are where its at!



Another interesting fact about drinking in South Korea is that there are no public drinking laws. So if you want to to be "that guy/girl" you can drink a beer or whatever on the subway, walking down the street, etc. Also most convenient stores have some tables and chairs where you can relax and enjoy your drink and maybe eat some snacks too. I think the drinking age here is 18/19, but in Korean age that would mean 20. I don't really don't know how to explain this, but in Korea you are 1 when you are born and depending on when your birthday falls you could be considered 2 years older than you would be considered in America. Ok I'm confused even trying to explain this..

So moving on, there is a big drinking culture here and you will often see business men passed out in the subway stations and occasionally on the streets. I don't see this too much where I live in Bundang (which is a suburb of Seoul but its still a city with tall buildings and whatnot) but if you get closer into Seoul you will see them all the time. Once I even saw this old man vomit on the subway doors. It was disgusting to say the least. I've heard that alcoholism is very widespread here which leads to domestic abuse and other problems. Also I hear when drinking with Koreans, you are encouraged to drink far beyond your limits so getting drunk is only half the battle. I have not experienced this yet and I am not a fan of getting totally wasted anyways. A little buzz is good enough for me. I do not enjoy getting sick and embarrassing myself.

Well I think I'm going to wrap this up, but I will leave you with this little gem :)


I took this photo on a Sunday around 4pm if that tells you anything..