Goshiwon Exploration

I went out to Konkuk University station on the east side of Seoul to meet up with Jana and consider the possibility of staying at a goshiwon from the 19th to the 24th.  What's a goshiwon?  Well, it's a very cheap, very Korean place to rent a tiny room for a while, usually by college students looking for a quiet place to study for a month or so.  What do I mean by tiny?  The room is as long as the bed, which is tucked under the desk at the far end, and is as wide as the bed plus the chair at the desk.  A window about the size of a hardcover novel may or not be present.  They're a step up from the capsule hotels in Japan, but not by much.

Since they usually rent the rooms by the month, the rates were fairly high for just five days.  The first goshiwon wanted 20,000 won per night, though we talked the second place down to 15,000 won per night.  The manager wasn't there at the third place, but Jana called him and got an offer of 50,000 won for all five nights for a room without a window, or 70,000 won for a room with a window.  She suspected that his not knowing I was a foreigner had something to do with the lower price, but there was no way to know for sure.

The manager at the first place had commented, as Jana translated, that he usually didn't rent rooms to foreigners because they were too picky.  My first response was, "Well, maybe I'll show him!"  My second response, however, was, "Why?"  Sure, they're cheap and it would be a novel experience, but don't need to live in a windowless closet for a week and be the subject of curiosity and scrutiny as the only foreigner there, especially not to prove something to some stranger.  I'm sure I'm experiencing some American entitlement, but my finances are in good enough shape to afford a modest level of comfort, so I see no reason not to stay somewhere more comfortable.  A little bit of culture shock was probably involved as well.

Also, it doesn't really make sense to me to stay on the east side of Seoul when my new job and apartment will be in Bucheon, which is on the west side of Seoul.  Jana and Soee both live in the Konkuk University area, so they knew about a lot of these places.  They were really hoping that I'd find somewhere I like in the area, so I was sorry to disappoint them, but it ultimately didn't seem worthwhile.  I can visit Konkuk University any time I like, but it would be more useful to get familiar with the Bucheon area.  Besides, why haul my luggage from Incheon to Konkuk University to Bucheon when I can go from Incheon to Bucheon to somewhere else in Bucheon instead?

Jana and I are going to look around Bucheon tomorrow.  It would be nice if I found somewhere reasonably comfortable to stay for a decent price then; if not, there's plenty of hostels and guesthouses and such I can book online in Incheon or Bucheon, so I'm not worried about finding a place to stay.  It's finding a GOOD place to stay that's the trick!