Hello Kitty Café

Japanese popular culture has a place at a Korean café and the word "cute" does not begin to describe it. Cakes, chairs, paintings on the walls, figures, tables decorated with the white Japanese bobtail cat with a red bow give a pink, adorable and original ambience to the Hello Kitty Café.

What started out as a product -based on a fictional character- that targeted an audience of children and teenagers has grown into a global marketing phenomenon worth $5 billion a year, which has enchanted people of all ages.

Hello Kitty's popularity has prompted the creation of the Hello Kitty Café franchise in South Korea with locations in Seoul, Incheon, and Sinchon. The decoration of the café is so cohesive and faithful to Hello Kitty that as customers cross the threshold, they get the feeling they are stepping into a whole new universe.

Hello Kitty's popularity has prompted the creation of the Hello Kitty Café franchise in South Korea with locations in Seoul, Incheon, and Sinchon. The decoration of the café is so cohesive and faithful to Hello Kitty that as customers cross the threshold, they get the feeling they are stepping into a whole new universe.

Located in Seoul's Hondae area, the building stands out due to the pink colour of its walls and a giant pink bow decorates its front. The pink frenzy becomes more overpowering in its interior: the walls, the chairs, the counter, the sofas, the menu, sofas down to the very last detail.

Hello Kitty's images flood the establishment as well. Here you can find the cutest cakes decorated with the Japanese icon. The white cat with the pink ribbon is also imprinted on the walls, stamped on the bathrooms, garbage can, sofas, signs, and objects around the establishment.

Hello Kitty Café offers a large assortment of treats like cakes and waffles that you can eat while sipping on a wonderful coffee drink decorated with the Hello Kitty face on the top. Simply amazing! Indeed, this café is a whole new fantasy world that will fascinate Sanrio's fans and will prove to be a unique experience.

South Korea elects its first female president

Park Geun-hye was elected South Korea's first female president after narrowly beating her opponent Moon Jae-in in the National Election Commission held on December 19th last year. The elected president is daughter of army general Park Chung-hee who took power in South Korea in a coup d'état in 1961 and ruled the country as dictator for 18 years. She replaces President Lee Myung Bak, a member of her conservative party.

After her victory, Park addressed the nation and focused her speech on security as a major concern, in reference to North Korea's launch of a long-range rocket the week prior to the elections.

"The election was held during a rapidly changing situation on and around the Korean peninsula. North Korea's long-range missile launch showed how grave a security situation we face", she stated.

In her speech, Park pledged to work with regional partners for greater peace. However, she did not favour a return to a more peaceful persuasion policy, which Moon promoted.

She said: "I will definitely keep my promise to open a new era for the Korean peninsula through strong security and diplomacy on the basis of mutual trust. I will try to work for greater reconciliation, co-operation and peace in north-east Asia on correct perception of history".

Moreover, Park also addressed social issues which are closer to the everyday lives of the citizens like economic equity and prosperity. She promised to boost welfare benefits to South Koreans in an ailing economy and to reduce the power of big corporations.

"I will try to make the society share economic benefits without isolating anybody from the fruits of economic growth. That is the real meaning of a grand unity of the people, economic democratization and happiness of all the people," she added.

South Korean Beauty Industry

For long cosmetic surgery has common in South Korea, but it wasn't until recently that society has become more open about it and the practice has become exceedingly widespread. Nowadays, even young women go plastic surgery shopping, particularly those entering marriage and job markets.

Instead of going to the mall and buying shoes, young women go to Seoul's "beauty belt" - a group of hundreds of plastic surgery clinics gathered around a string of subway stations in the posh districts of southern Seoul- and get plastic surgery done.

South Korea has even upstaged Brazil as the plastic surgery capital of the world and now has the highest number of surgeries performed per capita. As cosmetic surgery is not covered by national health insurance, it is difficult to determine the exact size of the industry, but a survey last year by the Seoul city government found that 31.5% of residents 15 or older were willing to undergo surgery to improve their looks. This figure has increased dramatically compared with 2007 data which was 21.5%.

According to a 2009 survey by the market research firm Trend Monitor, one of every five women in Seoul between the ages of 19 and 49 said they had undergone plastic surgery. The number of plastic surgeons has almost doubled in the past decade to 1,500. As this lucrative field becomes more competitive, some clinics host "Cinderella events," offering patients free surgery in exchange for appearing in their ads.

Double eyelid surgery -to make the eyes look larger and rounder- is so common in Seoul that most women on the streets seem to have a double fold despite the fact that only one of every five Koreans is born with one.

In the past few years, extreme practices like double-jaw surgery –originally developed to repair facial deformities, which involves cutting and rearranging the upper and lower jaws- has become a popular procedure among South Korean women for whom mere nose jobs or paring down cheekbones does not suffice anymore.

This trend has been influenced by celebrities who strive to keep ahead of digital technology –like high-definition TV and close-ups- that make their imperfections obvious, so make use of another facet of technology –plastic surgery- to counteract it.