Lotte World

You know how sometimes you come across those horrifying articles on the internet where they show you that most of commercial USA is owned by a few major corporations, like this one? In Korea, no one bothers with the "illusion of choice"—everything is quite obviously owned by a company called Lotte. Walk down the street and you'll pass Lotte Mart, Lotte Cinema, Lotte Department Store, Lotte Castle Apartments, and even Lotteria, a fast food joint. But wait, there's more! A quick Google search reveals that Lotte also dabbles in hotels, insurance, and oil. Still, I'm not here to comment on the conglomerate (I'm way under qualified). I'm here to tell you about my trip to Lotte World, the largest indoor amusement park in, well, the world.

Imagine a huge mall. You can see down to the bottom floor, up to and through the glass ceiling, and all around you is adorable, pastel, cheery, fun-focused fantasy land. Four floors (really, five) of cutesy rides, food kiosks, a ginormous stage, photo opportunities, and janitors on roller blades. It was awesome.

The lack of expiration date on my student ID meant I got in for 28,000₩ (about $28.00).  Even without the discount, the price was super cheap for an amusement park, and we were all thrilled to see that Lotte didn't try to make up the difference in its snack or souvenir prices.  I've been spoiled by the Roller Coaster Capital of the World, but rides like The French Revolution and Pharaoh's Fury managed to excite, and the free fall tower of death, aka the Gyro Drop, scared the living daylights out of all of us. And Emily really enjoyed Lotte World's spinning teacups, christened with the family friendly title "Drunken Baskets."

All and all there wasn't much different about Lotte World from my experiences at amusement parks in the States. The fact that it's inside is kinda nice, since we didn't have to wait in unbearable heat or frigid cold. And the park is open until eleven pm. We didn't stay that late, but we did adventure out to Magic Island, an artificial island on an artificial lake connected to the indoor section, which happens to have a logo and castle that, well, might upset Cinderella a little bit.

At the end of our day, we visited the park of Lotte World that I think US parks should try to steal from Korea.  Attached to the park was an informative, well organized, and interactive Korean Folk Museum. I was delighted to follow the arrows around different periods of Korea's extensive and fascinating history, without being bogged down in too many details or unidentifiable artifacts.  I can totally imagine my mom (hi, Mom!), who never gave in to trips to Six Flags, agreeing to a day a Lotte World if we promised to visit the history museum.  And honestly, the museum was cool, so that's a deal to me!

Above, Emily sports a couture backpack. Try carrying your books around in this baby!  To her right yet another adorable Korean child tickles the world which demonstrating an ironing technique.  Yes, ironing.  Shout out to my mémère! Finally, James and Emily have a go at 윷/Yut, a traditional Korean game. Every museum should be interactive.

Amusement parks are a one time thing for me, so I was happy to spend the entire day in various lines around one large, colorful room, with great company, crunching on candy, cracking jokes about our surroundings, crowding around a cell phone game, and of course, capturing many goofy selfies.