STARBUCKS and CAFÉ BENE

Today we can see lots of café anywhere we go. Among the countless café there are two café that we can see a lot. The one is STARBUCKS and the other is CAFÉ BENE. All two cafés are popular for young people in Korea. They have different concept and pursue different direction but sometimes they looks similar.

STARBUCKS was born in 1971, Seattle in USA. It spreads to global the most. We can see this café anywhere in the world. Of course, there are many STARBUCKS cafés in Korea. It’s not exact, but probably there are 370 cafés in Korea. On the other hands CAFÉ BENE is Korean brand, and it was not long to be born compared with STARBUCKS.

As you can see, if you go two different café, their interiors are totally different, even though they all give us comfortable, cozy atmosphere. It’s my thought, STARBUCKS is modern consisting of black, dark brown that give warm feeling, and when Christmas season, you can see viridian, vermilion color. But CAFÉ BENE has more classical interior than STARBUCKS. Its interior consists of dark hardwood and bricks, and lighting is darker than STARBUCKS. And CAFÉ BENE’s interior is prettier than STARBUCKS. So most Korean women prefer to CAFÉ BENE’s atmosphere.

And the most important thing is menu. They all sell coffee mainly. But CAFÉ BENE sells also gelato and waffle. So you can choice more widely than STARBUCKS. Probably it is easy to consider Korean preference so that they put these two things in menu since it is Korean brand. But considering price of coffee CAFÉ BENE’s coffee is more expensive than STARBUCKS, The most expensive coffee is probably 6,000won in CAFÉ BENE.

Wherever you go, you can feel comfortable, cozy atmosphere since they give space to talk with your friends, eating, drinking. I would like that you shall go to café so that enjoy your relaxing time.

Singapore and Seoul

A few years ago I have been to Singapore for traveling with my family. At that time I was so young but I can feel many different things with Seoul although Singapore is also Asia nation. It’s really something similar but there are absolutely different between Seoul and Singapore.

Singapore is a small city states. So each city conducts as each capital. First when I see Singapore first I can feel it’s a very global city since tall building forest and various races. Although there are many tall building in Seoul, when I was young, it was different from Singapore. Building was mixed with nature scenery well. It looks gorgeous. If Seoul is gloomy grey, Singapore is brighter and lively. Also there are various races in Singapore so that I can feel more global. Various races town like China town, Arab Street and Little India is located in Singapore. At that time we couldn’t find other races in Seoul like Arabian or Indian. It was a something different experience to me as a child.

Because Singapore has been affected by Western, although citizen in there were Asian, manner was also similar with Western. For example it was forbidden chewing gum in public places unlikely Seoul.  

And Seoul and Singapore have different weather. Because Singapore is located in South Asia nearby the equator it is very hot all four seasons around. But Seoul is located in Northeast Asia so that weather is changing every four seasons, spring, summer, fall, and winter.

There are some different things between Seoul and Singapore. They are all beautiful to me. I would like to go to there again and confirm how to change from former days when I was traveling.

The other thinking about Design Seoul Project

Policy of Design Seoul was a big issue that the previous mayor of Seoul, Se Hoon Oh was leading. Most of Seoul Citizen criticized this policy and Se Hoon Oh. And finally Won Soon Park was appointed as a new mayor of Seoul about a week ago after Se Hoon had resigned himself. There were various problems in Design Seoul.

I would like to tell two reasons of why I object this policy. Firstly, the problem is that process of doing project is so fast. The matter should always follow after processing in a short time. It has been just five years since the Design Seoul Project take effect. But there are a lot of outputs relating Design Seoul. We can see changed Seoul everywhere. For better or not, government of Seoul break down and construct whatever even though there was not time to estimate or self-reflect. I think it is very danger plans can make strange Seoul.

And there are lots of things to spend tax instead Design Seoul. Actually this year, Seoul had unprecedented flood in Kang Nam since Se Hoon cut budget of flood protection instead of increasing budget of Design Seoul. Because of this Seoul citizen suffer and also Seoul should spend lots of money to recover demolished area.

I believe Won Soon Park would spend Seoul’s budget reasonable truly for Seoul’s citizen. As soon as Seoul would be better city than the past that Design Seoul takes effect.